Why did the parliamentarians not the royalists win the first civil war?
This essay is directed at not only showing why the parliamentarians won the first civil war but why the royalists lost. Many points shall be examined such as finance, leadership, foreign support, motives for fighting, and regions of control through out Britain and the New Model Army.
There were two sides in the civil war; royalists who supported the king, who also known as cavaliers and parliamentarians who supported parliament, were known as roundheads because of their shaved heads.
Parliament were fighting not against the king but to rid him of evil advisors, but once the war started the country became divided between anti-king and pro-king clans. As the country was divided towns, villages, and even family's got turned against each other. At the start of the war there was an overwhelming want for peace so great that some towns signed treaties called inter-county neutrality pacts.
English: Oliver Cromwell dissolving the Long Parli...
Oliver Cromwell, by Samuel Cooper (died 1672). See...
English: Miniature of Elizabeth Cromwell (née Eli...This meant that both sides had to agree to disband all of their troops for a designated area. One of these was signed in Cheshire in 1641.
Some historians thought of the civil war to have been a class war as the Royalist were mainly members of landed aristocracy (nobles) and there followers, where as parliamentarians were genrally from lower down the social scale, like the gentry, craftsmen, and urban workers. However in general the two sides cut across everything as sides picked often reflected from local squabbles, tensions and jealousies that formed long before the war. But in the end nearly every one was dragged into this vicious war.
The side joined was based more on which army arrived in an area first than on what people really thought. Those who were able to make there own decisions found that...