OLIVER CROMWELL - HERO OR VILLAIN? PART FOUR
OLIVER CROMWELL – HERO OR VILLAIN? PART FOUR
Oliver now returned to London and took up his duties as an MP, leaving his cavalry troop in the charge of his captain-lieutenant, who happened also to be a cousin. The results of Edgehill had unnerved a section of Parliament who sought to propose terms for a settlement (which the King felt confident enough to turn down) and Oliver voted against a proposal to offer indemnity to those who had taken up arms in the royalist cause. He was elected to various committees to raise money to pay and equip the armies and was instrumental in the setting up of the Eastern Association and the Midlands Association, bodies which were to raise troops to prosecute the war. At this stage there was no national army as such, one that could be deployed anywhere, instead armies tended to be local and men who joined were reluctant to move too far from their own locality where they knew the countryside and its inhabitants. Promoted to colonel by Parliament in January 1643 Oliver returned to Huntingdon and began to recruit more men to expand his troop into a regiment. As with his first foray at enlisting a troop he was assiduous in the type of man he would accept. While other commanders resorted to flogging miscreants Oliver had his own system of discipline. Swearing, long the privilege of a soldier, was punished by a fine of one shilling (5p today) which was half a day’s pay for a cavalryman; drunkenness led to confinement in the stocks and calling a fellow soldier a ‘roundhead’ meant dismissal from the service. The cynic might say that that offered an easy way to avoid military service, but such were the men who served under Colonel Cromwell that the sanction was rarely imposed.
By April Cromwell’s regiment of horse had grown to ten troops each of 100 men and their first action was at Grantham on 13 May 1643 when he charged and drove away a larger body of royalist cavalry, killing a hundred of them with a loss of two of his own, thus blocking the King’s penetration of Eastern England. On 24 July he laid siege to Burghley House, held by a royalist garrison, and when artillery had blown a hole in the wall of the house the garrison were invited to surrender, which they refused. A few volleys from Parliamentarian musketeers, in support of Cromwell’s cavalry, persuaded the royalists to change their minds and surrender. According to the customs of war at the time a refusal to surrender when a wall was breached entitled the besiegers, should they then take the position, to slaughter the entire garrison, but Oliver demurred and several hundred royalists were marched away as prisoners. Oliver’s refusal to allow a legal massacre is significant when one considers what he was accused of doing in Ireland six years later. Four days later Oliver’s regiment played a major part in the relief of Gainsborough and steadily his reputation as a competent and safe commander grew. Recruiting to his regiment continued, and by April 1644 his regiment had grown to fourteen troops, a total of 1,400 men, or about twice the size of other regiments of cavalry, officered by men personally chosen by Oliver, many of them relatives including the other Oliver, his son. Both politically and militarily active, Oliver still pursued what he thought was the proper way to worship God. He personally loved music, but he thought the church was not the place for it, and priests were told to remove organs from places of worship, and if they did not Oliver’s soldiers did it for them, frequently smashing the instruments on the way.
Although men were in plentiful supply money was not. Parliament had laid down that a cavalry soldier was to be paid two shillings (10p) per day, out of which he had to clothe himself and his horse, while an infantryman got 7d (3p). Captains of troops got one pound and nineteen shillings (£1.95)[*] and while these rates of pay were very reasonable – generous even in the case of the officers – it was nearly always late in arriving, or did not arrive at all. Oliver was constantly writing to Parliament or begging friends and relatives and using his own limited funds to keep his regiment in being. While Parliament had much more reliable sources of funds than did the King, the rapid expansion of the armies far outstripped the capacity of the treasury and the competence of the administration to support them. It was not only the commanders of the Parliamentary armies that recognised the growing stature of Oliver Cromwell, but other MPs too, and in July he was appointed Governor of the Isle of Ely which gave him not only military command of his home area but now civil control as well.
It was in the autumn of 1643 that Oliver first met the man who was to play a major part in the development of Parliamentary and English arms. Sir Thomas Fairfax, ‘Black Tom’, twelve years younger than Oliver, was a highly experienced soldier who had seen service in France and the Low Countries and had served the King in the two Bishops’ Wars. A Yorkshireman of independent nature he had opted for Parliament and was General of Horse under his father who commanded the Northern Parliamentary Army. The two met outside Newark where the Royalist governor was trying to relieve the garrison of Bolingbroke Castle. The Eastern Association Army, under the command of the Earl of Manchester, was cooperating with the Northern Army and between them they drove off the royalist forces, with Oliver’s cavalry charging first, during which his horse was killed under him. Seizing a loose horse Oliver remounted and continued the charge, which was followed up by Fairfax unleashing his cavalry, which decided the action. It was probably a recommendation from Fairfax that prompted Parliament to promote Oliver on 22 January 1644 to Lieutenant General of Horse and Foot and appoint him as second in command to Manchester. From an obscure regimental commander Oliver was now in the forefront of military affairs.
As a general Oliver’s pay from Parliament now went up to £5 a day, and as this was a period when multiple commands were acceptable, as a regimental and also troop commander he received another £2. 1s 8d (£2.10) a day, providing a very reasonable salary, of which he sent £5 per week to his seventy-nine years old mother. Although it was a comfortable sum and although Parliamentary finances were steadily improving, much of Oliver’s emoluments were still being spent on subsidising the cost of keeping his troops in the field. Up to now while displaying considerable ability as an organiser of troops and a leader of men, and with his personal bravery exhibited on numerous occasions, Oliver had yet to take part in a major battle, one that would actually make a difference to the course of the war. That would shortly change.
Most of the North was held by Parliament, but York under a stout hearted governor held out, with Prince Rupert on his way to reinforce him and disperse the siege. The combined Parliamentarian forces, the Army of the North, commanded by Ferdinando Fairfax, father of Sir Thomas, the Eastern Association under Manchester and a Scottish army, the Scots now having thrown in their lot with Parliament, were trying to prevent Rupert from joining forces with the garrison of York. In this they failed, but Rupert, charismatic leader and competent general though he was, had also the headstrong enthusiasm of youth and rather unwisely decided that, rather than reinforce York and let Parliament attack him, he would take the fight to them.
On pure numbers the Battle of Marston Moor was an unequal struggle, with around 18,000 royalists facing 28,000 Parliamentarians, but the latter were under the joint command of Manchester, Fairfax senior and Leven, which in military terms is rarely a good idea, while the royalists had one commander, Prince Rupert. It was almost dark when the two antagonists formed up, both with the infantry in the centre and the cavalry on either flank. Parliament held the advantage of the high ground, with Cromwell commanding the cavalry on the left, and Thomas Fairfax that on the right. It was Oliver’s ‘Ironsides’, cavalry trained and led by him, that won a resounding victory for Parliament. Ploughboys and shopkeepers, far from natural horsemen though they may have been, they were far better disciplined than the royalist cavalry and acted as a body rather than as beautifully mounted and gorgeously caparisoned individuals. It was particularly noticed that having delivered a charge they would halt and regroup, rather than dashing off over the skyline in pursuit of loot which had been the practice of most cavalry of the period. The battle was over by 2100 hours and Marston Moor spelled the death of Royalist ambitions in the North. Rupert and what was left of his army had little choice but to dash for the South to rejoin the king.
Oliver had been lightly wounded in the battle, but his training methods had now been thoroughly vindicated, as had his frequently stated view that sieges and fortresses should be avoided and the way to win was to attack and keep attacking. In this he was at odds with some of his contemporaries who still thought that some form of compromise with the King was possible, and were therefore reluctant to utterly destroy the royalist military machine and those who led it. Oliver, on the other hand, was only concerned with winning the war and advocated waging it to the utmost. He increasingly saw himself as God’s chosen instrument, although his religious prejudices were moderating somewhat. While he was not yet ready to employ Catholics he did say in rebuttal to those who favoured one protestant or puritan sect over another, that the state cared not for a man’s opinions, provided he did serve it well. He was increasingly frustrated by his immediate commander, the Earl of Manchester, whom he thought overly cautious and unwilling to strike home or to follow up a military success – ‘if we beat the King 99 times, yet he is still King, but if he beat us but once we shall all be hanged’ said Manchester. ‘Then why, my lord, did we take up arms?’ replied Oliver.
[*] As a newly commissioned second lieutenant in 1962 my pay was £1 and ten shillings (£.50) per day plus 6d (2 ½ p) per day overseas allowance.