The Aftermath of the First Civil War
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The Aftermath of War - A complicated time
Blink and you would miss the next twist and turn of the post war political machinations. Due almost certainly because of Cromwell's and Parliament's failure to plan for a post war peace, the Parliamentary alliance fractured in to many pieces. New factions, groups, rivalries emerged during the 1646-1649 period. All of these groups tried to impose their own ideas on how to run a post war regime. All tried to out do each other negotiating with other parties. Close allies would split, sworn enemies would unite only to split even before they had implemented their designs. From the prism of three hundred years each political strand is so mingled it looks like a plate of spaghetti. Although the future was far from clear, at this stage the regicide was the least likely scenario
What were the different political ideas, how did they take shape and who shaped them?
First of all what was the state of play in 1646?
The King - A Poor Poker Player
Despite the low regard that Charles 1 was personally held, he was a political fact of life. No settlement to the post-war English political system was possible without an understanding with the king. The problem was he was duplicitous, not in a cunning, artful way of playing one group off against another but one who accepted to be dealt a Royal Flush every hand and walk away with the winnings. This made negotiations very frustrating although many tried. For him, episcopacy and and prerogative were not up for negotiation. At each turn, when it might seem he might opt for another alternative, for him it was just another rung up the ladder to get back to where he was in 1640.
Parliament - A divided House
In 1646-1649, it seemed that the MP's hated themselves almost much as they despised the King. It is act of a brave or foolish historian to try and categorize the factions in parliament and overlay each with some uniform political strategy. The best you can do is divide them into a broadly pro-war faction that wanted to impose a settlement on the King that he would be forced to accept, and a pro-peace faction that wanted a mutually agreed settlement with the king restored to the throne.
Religion - One man's tolerance is another man's heresy
Irony does not come close to describing the Puritanical zealots who had railed against Archbishop Laud's intolerant episcopal church, now arguing that liberty of conscience was heresy. However, there was a cohesive strand of argument here. That being that without a formal police force you needed uniformity of purpose and doctrine to maintain social order. It was the same argument that the Royalists had employed. The only difference was that Laud was more concerned with the outwardly displayed beliefs in the form of rites and ceremony and not necessarily with inner beliefs. The Presbyterians thought that was too easy. God knew what was in your soul. You had to really believe it otherwise Hell was in your future.
John Milton offered an alternative through Salvation In other words, rather than impose a doctrine and persecute those who did not follow it; allow god fearing men to find salvation through god through their own experiences. There was no predestination. You could still get to heaven by choosing the right path. This was a good deal more inclusive that the most puritanical of Puritans but it did not stretch to Catholics or atheists.
This spread of new ideas was not helped (as far as the Puritans were concerned) by the proliferation of cheap pamphlets espousing one religious idea or another. Cromwell must have struggled with his conscience when he tried to re-introduce censorship, nevertheless the printing press genie was now out of the bottle.
Church and State tried to reconcile their ideas by calling a puritan synod at Westminster to decide what should replace episcopacy. The majority favored a Presbyterian hierarchy of ruling structures. A vocal minority favored Congregationalism or Independency; a kind of autonomous, voluntary grouping with no strictures from the top. This offered the possibility of liberty of conscience at least although many Independent would disagree to the extent of how much liberty was allowed. However what is important in the context of what would happen over the course of the next ten years was that Cromwell was committed to the notion.
So How did all this play out in the post war period?
Firstly, it was the Independents (Liberty of Conscience) like Cromwell, Oliver St John, Sir Henry Vane and the New Model Army who banded together to impose a settlement on the king. It was the Presbyterians who tended to want a negotiated settlement. The Presbyterians in Parliament were led by Denzil Holles. Many like him were jealous of the power of the New Model Army. The conservative Presbyterians were concerned about the social consciousness that they had inadvertently unleashed during the war with the King. They wanted to quickly revert to the old social order under a Presbyterian structure, not a radical one. They also wanted to reduce the burden of tax and this partly explains the motivation of people like Holles who wanted to disband the New Model Army that had radical inclinations as well as the large cost to maintain a standing army. The army however felt they needed a reward for successfully executing the war as well many who were still waiting for back pay and wanting indemnity against war crime.
At Saffron Walden the Army met near the town of Saffron Walden in Essex and at a meeting between officers and men in the parish church expressed their indignation at Parliament’s treatment and demanded that, before there was any demobilisation, the questions concerning arrears and indemnity should be settled.
At the same time that Parliament was negotiating with the Army they were also pursuing a settlement with the king. Negotiations began when he was in the hands of the Scots and was under house arrest in Newcastle. In July 1646 Parliament sent commissioners north to present their demands to the king. The Newcastle Proposals were, in essence, the same as those of the Treaty of Uxbridge, requiring Charles’s agreement to being reduced to a mere figurehead whilst at the same time allowing the imposition of a strict Presbyterian church discipline in England. The propositions also included the names of prominent Royalists who were to be exempt from indemnity.
Charles’s tactic was to drag out the negotiations for as long as possible, but, three principles emerged in his replies to the commissioners to which Charles would remain firm in subsequent negotiations: he would not, he said, abandon episcopacy, the Book of Common Prayer or the Church of England; he would not abandon his prerogatives; and he would not abandon his friends and supporters.
Not for the first time (or the last) the Scots switched sides. Although brought into the war by Vane, they abhorred liberty of conscience and switched allegiance to Holles. However, the Scots army had been an embarrassment and after the Scots handed over Charles, they sent them packing back to Scotland with their ambition of imposing their form of Presbyterianism a failure.
The Army, whilst respectful of Parliamentary authority, nevertheless pointed out that it was they who had actually fought and died to defeat the Royalists and give the victory to Parliament and that now Parliament should at least listen to their grievances. In June 1647 the Army published the Representation of the Army, which listed their grievances, and this was presented to Parliament. Meanwhile Parliament began to recruit and equip a new militia formed from the London Trained Bands and staffed by reliable Presbyterian officers which seemed by many as a threat to replace the New Model
Holles then tried to exact revenge on the New Model Army. After many Presbyterians had been removed from their roles and the soldiers petitioned Parliament for new rights, Holles declared them enemies of state. Cromwell and his allies Henry Ireton and Thomas Fairfax reacted and Holles was deposed and impeached. Then the Presbyterians reacted and invaded Parliament only to collapse a few months later. This back and for would continue until the regicide. The power of the land now seemed squarely to be in the hands of the Army and Independents.
The Presbyterians then lost the king and he was seized by the Independents (and army). This group were committed to imposing a settlement on the king yet offered terms that almost restored the political power to that which the king enjoyed before the war. An intolerant Presbyterian Church was a bad as a Episcopalian one but a devil you knew. The document was called the Heads of Proposals and all the army asked in return was liberty of conscience, parliamentary reform, a shorter period under which Parliament would control the army, reform of tithes etc. His advisor begged the king to accept but he spurned it believing he could get even better terms. Charles could only slaver over the implosion of the anti-Royalist forces and probably believed that if they destroyed themselves he could once again regain his position that he had enjoyed in earlier times
Out of group of Independents came the so called Levellers. Originally this was a hostile term but its leaders were developing arguments in new ways. Liberty of Conscience was now evolving secular overtones and expanding the debate towards expansion of the franchise and new restraints on Parliamentary power, let alone Sovereign Power. These ideas became part of the Putney Debates. However, Cromwell sensed that events and ideas were in danger of getting ahead of themselves and this avenue of democracy was effectively shut down.
Nevertheless, during the upheaval Charles escaped again the Isle of Wight and tried to negotiate again. This time he made an unconvincing overture to the Scots to implement a trial of Presbyterianism for three years in exchange for the suppression of Independents. Initially Parliament were unaware of this and were busy presenting the Four Bills, which were essentially a rehash of Newcastle Proposals and Treaty of Uxbridge. The king rejected the proposals and Parliament finally lost patience and the path was set for the next part of the Civil War
