6th September 1642.

Prince Rupert of the Rhine

Prince Rupert trained through the hard experiences of the Thirty Years War had been quick to rally to side of his Uncle King Charles. Put in charge of the cavalry he was soon to start work trying to give his uncle any advantage possible. When he reached Leicester a town known to support Parliament at the head of enough troops to demand a loan to the King of £2,000 of which they paid £500. Typically, Charles on receiving complaint from Leicester disavowed his nephew (8th September) and ordered the forced payment paid back. Whilst the King was ready to fight Parliament he was not yet ready to face the fact that he would have to compel who he could to fund this war. Interesting enough, Leicester would be the site of one of the Kings final conquests when Rupert stormed the town in May 1645.

 

 

370 Yeats Ago Today....

King Charles sent another representative to offer terms of treaty to Parliament. This time Viscount Falkland  who was a member of the Commons. The new offer was that both he and Parliament would withdraw the charges of treachery from followers of either side. On doing this the King would then take down his Standard and thus allowing both sides to then discuss there differences. This was but the public terms, Faukland also had private terms in that the King was prepared to consent to a thorough reformation of religion as well as anything else that Parliament could reasonably desire. Later negotiations point towards what Charles thought was reasonable and what Parliament did were rather different. Parliaments answer though could only lead to surrender by the King or war. Parliament it declared, would only lay down it's weapons if the King first withdrew his protection from all persons who had been or could in future be voted to be delinquents. This would give Parliament the power to remove anyone who ever supported the King in any matters.In short Parliament would become the ultimate power whilst the King would be a figurehead at best. The main effect of such a reply was to strengthen the resolve of the Kings followers. Where before many of his followers would welcome peace at almost any terms, the threat of loss of life and estates (from their family's) was all too much to contemplate. The only choice now was war and a war that would have to be fought to the bitter end. Parliament in trying to make negotiation impossible had made peace without total victory extremely unlikely. Not only was war inevitable but so was a long and protracted war.

370 Days Ago Today............2nd September

Parliament in an attempt to show the gravity of the situation passed an Ordinance against Stage Plays and Public Sports. his received mixed reactions with the more Puritan element agreeing the most. Whilst we may look on this with a comic view at the time it was seen by many as a sign of the impossibility of bringing the conflict to a quick and peaceful end. Just what was soon to be labelled War Party had intended. Peace at this point would have been very much in the Kings favour as Parliament was  starting to want far more concessions than those it was demanding when the King left London, both for itself and for Religious settlement, both of which it would not be able to try to gain at this point in time.

370 Years Ago Today........

John Colepeper 1st Baron Colepeper

 

25th August 1642. Only three days after raising his Standard and declaring war on Parliament the King sent Sir John Colepeper (also spelt Culpepper) to Parliament with an offer to negotiate a peace. This was typical of Charles ever wavering and changing of mind. The Lords allowed the presentation of the proposal only forcing Colepepper and Southampton to deliver the request at the bar rather than from heir seats. The Commons on the other hand came close to expelling them from their places within Parliament but cooler heads prevailed though on presentation they were told that Parliament would not be able to treat until the King lowered his Standard and retracted his declaration against it's members where he had called them traitors. This was the first of many failed negotiations for peace and i was quite possible the King had no intention of accepting anything but total control. But knew that when Parliament refused to treat (as he was almost sure to know they would) he would gain sympathy and greater support as indeed happened.

370 Years Ago Today........

OK another one of those history things I like to run, I even had to rush the painted figure project to get this party started. This will feature significant happenings in the English Civil War but for the most part will be just short comments often with a pic or two. I will try and include context where I can as some events may be a bit left of centre.

22nd August 1642. The King raised his Royal Standard a Nottingham Castle as a declaration of raising an army for his personal use. This is seen as the declaration of War against Parliament even though other acts of hostelry had gone before.

The turn out was far below that of which he had been promised and so started the typical offers of help from loyal followers that so often failed to live up to what was promised. This would not be so bad if Charles did not always assume these offers would deliver at least what they promised if not more.



Plaque in the grounds of Nottingham Castle.

The King left Nottingham looking for more recruits after the troops trickled rather than poured in. A bad omen was the blowing down of the Kings Standard in a storm a few days after it had been raised.

Nottingham was to become a garrison town of Parliament when Sir John Hutchinson placed troops there and so it stayed throughout the whole Civil War as Nottingham had little strategic value.