Philip Skippon and the British Civil Wars; the “Christian Centurion”

Philip Skippon and the British Civil Wars

Philip Skippon was the third-most senior general in parliament’s New Model Army during the British Civil Wars. A veteran of European Protestant armies during the period of the Thirty Years’ War and long- serving commander of the London Trained Bands, no other high-ranking parliamentarian enjoyed such a long military career as Skippon. He was an author of religious books, an MP and a senior political figure in the republican and Cromwellian regimes. This is the first book to examine Skippon’s career, which is used to shed new light on historical debates surrounding the Civil Wars and understand how military events of this period impacted upon broader political, social and cultural themes.

Ismini Pells obtained her PhD from the University of Cambridge. Following this, she was a research associate at the University of Exeter, researching Civil War medical practitioners. She is currently a postdoc- toral research fellow at the University of Leicester, working on a project researching military welfare during the Civil Wars. Warfare, Society and Culture Series Editors: David J. B. Trim and Andrew Wiest

This series focuses on works which integrate analysis of military oper- ations and combat into wider social and cultural analysis, and which examine warfare as more than a European phenomenon. It covers the period from the early modern era and its military revolution to the end of the twentieth century.

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12 Worship, Civil War and Community, 1638–1660 Chris R. Langley

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14 Philip Skippon and the British Civil Wars The “Christian Centurion” Ismini Pells

For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge. com/Warfare-Society-and-Culture/book-series/WSC Philip Skippon and the British Civil Wars The “Christian Centurion”

Ismini Pells First published 2020 by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2020 Taylor & Francis The right of Ismini Pells to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Pells, Ismini, author. Title: Philip Skippon and the British Civil Wars : the “Christian centurion” / Ismini Pells. Other titles: “Christian centurion” Description: New York, NY : Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group, 2020. | Series: Warfare, society and culture ; vol. 14 | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2020004042 (print) | LCCN 2020004043 (ebook) | ISBN 9780367460105 (hardback) | ISBN 9781003026457 (ebook) | ISBN 9781000054859 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781000054866 (mobi) | ISBN 9781000054873 (epub) Subjects: LCSH: Skippon, Philip, -1660. | Great Britain— History—Civil War, 1642-1649. | Great Britain—History, Military—1603-1714. | England and Wales. Army. New Model Army. | Generals—Great Britain—Biography. | Great Britain— History—Civil War, 1642-1649—Biography. Classification: LCC DA405 .P45 2020 (print) | LCC DA405 (ebook) | DDC 942.06/24092 [B]—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020004042 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020004043 ISBN: 978-0-367-46010-5 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-02645-7 (ebk) Typeset in Sabon by codeMantra For Tom

Contents

List of Figures ix Acknowledgements xi List of Abbreviations xiii

Introduction1

1 The English Gentry, Self-Fashioning and the Pursuit of Military Service 12

2 Military Culture and Professionalism in the English Regiments in Foreign Service 30

3 Civic Militarism, Religious Idealism and Politics in the City of London 67

4 The Art Militaire of the Civil Wars in Its European Context 106

5 The Experience of Warfare and Martial Culture amongst “Ordinary” Soldiers during the Civil Wars 146

6 Military Victory and Alliances under Strain 170

7 Reconciliation, Reform and the Rump Parliament 203

8 Military and Civilian Government from the Cromwellian Protectorate to the Restoration 230

Conclusion: The “Christian Centurion” Reassessed 269

Index 279

Figures

1.1 The Skippon family tree 13 1.2 Memorial of Maria/Mary Skippon in Acton Church from a watercolour attributed to Daniel Lysons, 1762–1834 (Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, B1977.14.20242) 14 2.1 The siege of Frankenthal by the Spaniards, 1621, Frans Hogenberg (workshop of), 1621 (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam) 33 2.2 The siege of Breda by Spinola, 1625, Frans Hogenberg (workshop of), 1625–1627 (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam) 34 2.3 Den Bosch [’s-Hertogenbosch] besieged and taken by Frederik Hendrik, 1629, anonymous, 1629 (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam) 37 2.4 Siege of Maastricht, 1632, Claes Jansz. Visscher (II), 1633 (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam) 38 2.5 The siege of Breda, artist unknown, 1637 (Courtesy of the Stadsarchief Breda) 39 2.6 Skippon as the VI of spades in a Restoration pack of playing cards. (©The Trustees of the British Museum. All rights reserved.) 52 3.1 Philip Skippon, captain-leader/captain-general of the Honourable Artillery Company (© Honourable Artillery Company, Archives) 68 3.2 The Honourable Artillery Company’s coat of Arms, from The Ancient Vellum Book (© Honourable Artillery Company, Archives) 86 4.1 Diagram of the fort at Hoxton, part of the London Civil War defences. Image by author 107 4.2 Map of the first battle of Newbury, 20 September 1643. Image by author 115 4.3 Map of the battle near Lostwithiel, 21 August 1644. Image by author 122 x Figures 4.4 Map of the battle near Castle Dore, 31 August 1644. Image by author 123 4.5 Map of the second battle of Newbury, 27 October 1644. Image by author 127 4.6 Map of the battle of Naseby, 14 June 1645. Image by author 131 4.7 Map of the siege of Oxford, May–June 1646. Image by author 134 5.1 Cornet attributed to Skippon’s cavalry troop (© The British Library Board, Additional MS 5247 fol. 31v) 149 6.1 Philip Skippon, Sergeant-Major-General of the New Model Army (Fairclough Collection, University of Leicester Special Collections) 172 8.1 Image of SROB/613/773, title page from printed bible (Breeches Edition) of 1610, annotated by Philip Skippon, reproduced by kind permission of Suffolk Record Office, Bury St Edmunds 257 Acknowledgements

Like all the best things that seemed like a good idea at the time, the original concept for this book emerged from a conversation in a bar. The bar in question was the sutling room of the Honourable Artillery Company (HAC). Skippon commanded the Artillery Company (as it was then known) from 1639 to 1645 and from 1655 to 1660, and I am extremely grateful for the support I have received towards my research into Skippon from the Company. I am indebted to the Court of Assistants, especially the Museum and Treasures Committee, for their generous contribution towards my university fees during my PhD studies, from which this book has evolved. The HAC archivist, Justine Taylor, and Dr Kirsty Bennett of the HAC’s Cardew-Rendle Biographical Directory Project have both given me much encouragement along the way. I am also indebted to Dr David Trim for responding enthusiastically to my proposal for this book and for the assistance that he and Max Novick at Routledge have given me in guiding this project to completion. My thanks too for the improvements upon earlier drafts suggested by the anonymous reviewers. Whilst writing this book, I have accumulated a great number of debts of assistance from many people. Dr David Smith guided me through my doctoral research with unremitting patience and good humour, whilst I am extremely grateful for the invaluable advice and assistance I have received from Professor John Morrill, Professor Jonathan Barry and Professor Andrew Hopper during the transformation of that research into the present book. Many scholars have kindly shared aspects of their research relating to Skippon with me, and they have been acknowledged at the appropriate places throughout the notes accompanying the text. However, I would particularly like to record my gratitude to Tim Wales for imparting his seemingly bottomless knowledge of the seventeenth century and to Professor Ian Gentles for reading through and comment- ing on the manuscript of this book. I have been fortunate to receive funds towards research expenses from the Faculty of History at the University of Cambridge and from the School of History, Politics and International Relations at the University of Leicester, which has enabled me to visit overseas archives. My thanks xii Acknowledgements are also due to John Gibson and Dr Eric Gruber von Arni for their ex- traordinarily kind donations of books. I have benefitted from the assistance of the staff at numerous archives and libraries, including the Bodleian Library, British Library, the London Metropolitan Archives, the Nationaal Archief in The Hague, the National Archives, Norfolk Record Office, Society of Antiquaries, Statens Archiver in Copenhagen and the Suffolk Record Office at Bury St Edmunds. I would like to men- tion my particular thanks to Gerhard Nestler at the Stadtarchiv Fran- kenthal, Ton Reichgelt and Elise van der Heijden at the Archief Eemland in Amersfoort, and all the staff at the Stadsarchief Breda. It would be impossible to thank individually all my friends, who have provided much-welcomed distractions over the course of my writing this book, but they know who they are. Amongst my family, I must thank my dad Ian for leading me – if more by accident than by design – to the location of Skippon’s Bible. Finally, my most heartfelt thanks are for my husband Tom Broadhurst, who has now visited more Skippon-related sites than he probably cares to think about and, thanks to my own ob- session with the subject, now knows more about the seventeenth century than he ever thought was normal. By way of minor compensation, this book is dedicated to him. Abbreviations

APC Dasent, J. R., ed., Acts of the Privy Council of England (London: 1890) BL British Library CSPD Calendar of State Papers Domestic CSPI Calendar of the State Papers, Ireland CSPV Calendar of State Papers, Venice HMC Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts JHC Journals of the House of Commons JHL Journals of the House of Lords LMA London Metropolitan Archives ODNB Oxford Dictionary of National Biography TNA The National Archives

In quotations, the original spelling, punctuation and emphasis (unless otherwise stated) have been maintained. Except in quotations, the spelling of forenames and place-names has been modernised, and the spelling of surnames followed the most common form. All dates are given in Old Style, except that the year is taken to begin on 1 January.

Introduction

The morning of 2 September 1644 was probably Parliament’s darkest day since the outbreak of civil war in England two years previously. At eleven o’clock, their main field army mustered at their quarters in Castle Dore, an old fortress on the western banks of the River Fowey, and handed over all their arms and ammunition, along with their entire train of artillery, in a humiliating surrender to the king’s forces.1 The secretary to the royalist council of war, Sir Edward Walker, saluted the “great and glorious Victory being gotten without Blood”, whilst a trooper in the king’s mounted lifeguards, Richard Symonds, revelled in this “happy day for his Majesty and his whole army”.2 Fowey was perhaps the greatest royalist victory of the British Civil Wars. The parliamentarian army under the command of the earl of Essex had become trapped in Cornwall by an encircling coalition of royalist forces led by Sir Richard Grenville to the west, and Charles I himself with his nephew Prince Maurice to the east. Essex had taken up a defensive position at Lostwithiel but as the king’s grip tightened, he withdrew towards Fowey. Faced with a hopeless situation and fearing his personal capture and humiliation, the earl took evasive action. While the king slept out in the field with his army, Essex and several of his senior officers escaped by fishing boat to Plymouth, leaving his subordinates to negotiate terms with the king’s men. On the day of surrender, the royalist army looked on as their adversaries relinquished more than 5,000 and possibly as many as 10,000 arms, about 36–50 cannon and between 100 and 300 barrels of powder, along with the proportionate amount of match and bullets.3 All those of the rank of corporal and above were permitted to keep their swords and pistols, whilst, in recognition of the valour with which they had fought, the army was given the honour of marching out of Fowey with their colours flying and their trumpets and drums sounding.4 Yet this can have been of little consolation to the defeated and demoralised troops. The area around the small town of Fowey, situated on the southern Cornish coast at the estuary of the river from which the settlement takes its name, is a charming place but on the day in question, the sight could not have been more miserable. Even for an English summer, the weather 2 Introduction in 1644 had been appalling.5 The rain lashed down as the parliamentarian army marched out from the town, from which they had been given safe conduct to Lostwithiel and from thence to Poole and Wareham.6 When the vanquished troops passed their victors, a few of the officers dared look their foe in the eye but most of the men were “So durty and dejected as was rare to see”.7 Buoyed by this scene, some of the royalist soldiers hurled insults and before long, pandemonium had broken out. The king’s men broke rank and fell upon the exiting army until each regiment was “presst all of a heape like sheep” and the plunder of the parliamentarian troops began.8 During the course of the confusion, one parliamentarian officer was despoiled of his scarlet coat, a case of pistols and a rapier but he managed to break free of the mêlée and rode towards the king. Without mincing his words, the man “very roundly told him of the violation of the Articles by his Souldiers”.9 He informed his monarch that “it was against his honour and justice that his articles should not be performed” and “desired his majesty to give order to restrain them”.10 Shamed into action, Charles ordered his officers to bring their men back into line and called upon his marshal to discipline the ringleaders.11 The king, perhaps stunned by the directness of the approach, did not imme- diately recognise the protestor and was forced to ask who he was: “He replyed that his name was Skippon”.12 Sergeant-Major-General Philip Skippon was the commander of the infantry in the earl of Essex’s army and it was he who had been left with the unenviable task of overseeing the surrender outside Fowey. He was an experienced soldier, who had spent many years fighting in the armies of Protestant powers on the Continent. He had returned to England in 1638 with the reputation of a good officer and strong critic of the Caroline Church of England. In the military manoeuvrings surrounding the outbreak of the Civil Wars, it was not only parliament that had attempted to secure Skippon’s services. Charles had summoned Skippon to join him at York in July 1642 – a summons which Skippon duly ignored. Allegedly, the king repeated the offer at Fowey but Skippon replied that “he was fully resolved of those principles to which he stood to be for God & his glory, in which by God’s assistance he would live & die”.13 The de- feat in Cornwall was undoubtedly an unmitigated disaster but Skippon himself seems to have come out well from the affair. The London press, endeavouring to make the best of a bad situation, reported how in the days leading up to the surrender “Major General Skippon fought like a Lyon” and had succeeded in getting “better conditions from the Enemie, then was expected”.14 Even the royalist officer Sir Richard Bulstrode commented that Skippon “carried his Loss with a very good Grace”.15 The military disappointments of 1644, amongst which the campaign in Cornwall featured prominently, prompted parliament to completely overhaul the entire war effort. Essex’s army and several of parliament’s various regional armies were amalgamated into a national army under Introduction 3 central control from London: the New Model Army. The aristocratic generals who had come under fire for their lacklustre leadership were removed, and command of the new army was given to Sir Thomas Fairfax, a young Yorkshireman who had won plaudits for his military exploits for parliament in the north of England. Skippon’s conduct ensured that he survived the merger and he held his old rank of sergeant-major-general in command of the infantry in the New Model. Together, Fairfax and Skippon selected their subordinate officers and it was Skippon himself who oversaw the amalgamation of the former armies and the training of the new recruits. In less than six months, this army had won a crushing victory over the royalists at Naseby and a little over a year later brought the conflict which became known as the “First Civil War” to a trium- phant conclusion. The New Model Army has gone down in history as a proficient, well-organised and disciplined force that enjoyed a spectacu- lar success rate on the battlefield. As G. Goold Walker argued, “Histo- rians are apt to give the entire credit for the ‘New Model’ to Cromwell”, but it was Skippon who trained and led the infantry of this army, which has been considered “the most efficient force that England had produced for centuries and the direct ancestor of the Regular Army of today”.16 In spite of his achievements, Skippon is a figure who has been largely neglected by historical scholarship. His career has not been academically scrutinised in any detail and he has not been the subject of a dedicated monograph. This is astounding given the plethora of secondary Civil War literature available and the continued attention devoted to the leaders of the New Model Army.17 As long ago as 1938, C. E. Lucas Phillips bemoaned this oversight but his own short literary portrait of Skippon in Cromwell’s Captains goes some way to explaining it.18 Lucas Phillips observed that

Skippon is one of those to whom history, overshadowed by the figure of Cromwell, has never done full justice. Yet since he stormed no constitutional redoubts, nor led any great party, his special interest for us must remain that he personifies admirably the best type of soldier who fought in those wars, with their merits and their faults.19

Although “outside military matters he was a simpleton”, Skippon

was of a type found in the best British armies throughout the centuries - not over-endowed with brains, but stout of heart, loyal of spirit, direct speech, generous to a fault, God-fearing, the first into action and the last out of it.20

Since 1938, the fleeting references to Skippon in the secondary literature are similarly universally positive, he being variously described as a “brave old Puritan soldier”, a “simple man, brave, soldierly, and passionate about 4 Introduction religion” and “a much loved parliamentary commander”.21 Indeed, the same qualities occur time and again: professionalism, popularity, piety and political apathy. The origins of these epithets are to be found in Skippon’s own w ritings. During the course of the Civil Wars, Skippon published three books on religious and moral conduct for the soldiers under his c ommand.22 In these works, Skippon cultivated a persona of the “Christian Centurion”. Using biblical examples of military men, he highlighted the virtues pertaining to the Christian Centurion: faith, humility, compassion and devotion.23 These provide an insight into the characteristics that S kippon was attempting to adopt and thus the Christian Centurion persona has clearly formed the basis of much of his subsequent reputation. Reputation was very important to the concept of gentility, as a source of political power and security for the loans needed to support the lifestyle befit- ting a gentleman’s status.24 In 1622, the author Henry Peacham warned young gentlemen that without a reputation, “we are dead long before we are buryed”. 25 Skippon certainly recognised the importance of cultivating a reputation, telling his soldiers that “If we have a good name. It procureth great contentment, And is more worth then great riches”.26 He advised them to be “an example of diligence, faithfulnesse and resolution; it wins imployment, favour, trust and honour” and urged them to avoid bad company that might tarnish their reputation, such as servants who persist in being refractory and “Hasty, hair-brained, humourists”.27 In “countenance, carriage, and speeches”, one must strive “to shew a grave, quiet sober, cheerfull, wel-ordered disposition”, speaking “As he would be heard”, without loudness, harshness and passion; aspiring to “truth and plainnesse”; and avoiding “Vaine, light, loud and unseemly laughter, which is a sure and open signe of forgetfulnesse unstaidnesse, misgov- ernment and folly”.28 Even when he thinks that no one is watching, a man must avoid the “shaking of his head, winking with the eyes, biting of the lip, wrying the mouth, gaping, putting out the tongue, gnashing his teeth, staring in the face, hanging the head downe, laying it on the shoulder, shrugging his shoulder, acting with his hands, motions of the feet, or any other unseemly posture”.29 Here, perhaps, we begin to understand Skippon’s absence from the historical record. Laudable though the humble and dutiful characteristics of the Christian Centurion may be, if Skippon’s character was anything close to his recommendations above, he quite frankly comes across as something of a bore; Puritanism personified. Up against the dynamic and contrary Cromwell, stout, hon- est Skippon simply pales into oblivion. However, even a cursory investigation into Skippon’s career reveals a man much more politically astute than either his own words or those of modern historians would have us believe. Alongside his military career, Skippon held a wealth of local and national political appointments. Introduction 5 He sat as an MP, member of the council of state during both the republican Commonwealth period and the Cromwellian Protectorate, and even as a member of Cromwell’s “Upper House”, being styled “Lord Skippon”. He may have made few political pronouncements but, as is so often the case, his actions in these offices spoke for themselves. It is well known that historians must guard against any self-vindication or self-celebration present in primary publications but have we become hoodwinked by the persona of the Christian Centurion?30 Even in the seventeenth century James Harrington and Thomas Hobbes argued that protestations of godliness masked worldly motives.31 The inclination of modern biographers is “to believe in an essential self, a core beneath all roles, all fashioning and formulation”.32 Yet, whilst there is some value in attempting to get behind Skippon’s Christian Centurion persona, his choice of self-image and representation is in itself telling about his character and this too must be considered seriously. By labelling himself the Christian Centurion, Skippon clearly wanted the world to know that he considered his faith to be his most important defining characteristic. As a result, any study of Skippon must make an examination of his religious ideology and the relationship between this and his political thought and career. In the seventeenth century, when the ups and downs of public and private life were interpreted as signs of divine providence that were to be reflected upon in order to direct everyday actions, religion inevitably became intertwined with the everyday life that politics sought to govern. Indeed, so much so that John Morrill, who once famously argued that the British Civil Wars were the last of the European Wars of Religion, has since admitted that “[R]eligion is so interpenetrated into every aspect of early modern thought, that to say that it is the religious aspects of their thought that matters in making and shaping the conflict is a tautology”.33 Recent historiography has emphasised the need for historians to pay close attention to the ways in which contemporary discourse distinguished, linked and drew together religious and political matters in order to understand how people thought through problems. On occasion this might lead them to subordinate political stability to religious zeal and at other times put political priorities first.34 By adopting this approach, I will be able to emphasise Skippon’s religious outlook without denying his political and social as- pirations. In short, it will enable me to get closer to Skippon’s world in his own terms, rather than my own.35 Examining how Skippon combined and separated his religion and politics will enable me to ponder not only what he was supposed to believe but also what he actually believed and what he did with that belief.36 This “social history of ideas”, the connection between principles and action-plans, enables a historian to get closer to determining the motivations that turn principles into social action.37 In Skippon’s case, his social action encompassed a military, as well as political, career, 6 Introduction allowing an investigation of the reciprocal relationship between ideology and experiences of war. Skippon’s Christian Centurion persona suggests that he took pride in his military occupation and saw this too as integral to his identity. War and military matters occupied Skippon for most of his adult life, and, indeed, war impinged on people’s mental preoccupa- tions and coloured their perceptions of religious and political matters.38 During the seventeenth century, war was, as Charles Carlton argued, “not a mere succession of occurrences, but an institution, a regular and settled mode of action, for which provision was made through the or- dering of social life”.39 Therefore, military history cannot be separated from the general history of a period, as military developments affected social, cultural and political structures and thought.40 Throughout this book, Skippon will emerge from the shadows of historical obscurity and shake off the stereotype of the brave, simple and politically apathetic professional soldier to materialise as contemporaries saw him: as a key character to the parliamentarian alliance, whose control of London in particular was a determining factor in the outcome of the Civil Wars. However, this book is not simply a biography of a hitherto neglected figure. Instead I will use Skippon’s life and career as a focus to shed new light on several historiographical themes and re- evaluate important aspects of Civil War scholarship and how those aspects fit into broader themes of early modern history. Skippon probably began his military career around 1615 by join- ing the English regiments serving in the Netherlands in support of the Dutch Republic’s war of independence from Spain. Chapter 1, through examining Skippon’s early life in Norfolk until the beginning of his European military career, will clarify how the social, economic, cultural and religious situation of gentry families in this period prompted many young men to undertake military service on the Continent. It will use Skippon as an example to elucidate exactly how military service was used by contemporaries to cultivate a reputation that highlighted virtues associated with gentility. As well as serving in the Netherlands, Skippon was seconded to Sir Horace Vere’s expedition to recover the Palatinate for James I’s son-in-law in 1620–23 and possibly also to the English forces led by Sir Charles Morgan in 1627–29 in support of Christian IV of Denmark’s campaigns in the Thirty Years’ War. The second chapter will use this period of Skippon’s career on the European military stage from 1615 to 1638 to explore the concept of martial honour to which Skippon aspired and the military culture of the English gentry who vol- unteered for the Protestant armies on the Continent. In particular, it will reflect on the relationship between martial honour and the principles and practices of “professional” warfare in early seventeenth-century military culture. As Barbara Donagan argued, the actions and capabil- ities of armies in the Civil Wars were shaped by the pre-existing mental and moral formation of soldiers, which was part of a wider European Introduction 7 military culture.41 Therefore, by examining Skippon’s Continental military career in detail, it will be possible in the subsequent chapters to place his Civil War experiences in a European context. Following his return to England, Skippon was appointed captain-leader of the Artillery Company in London. The Artillery Company provided the training and personnel for the officer corps of the London Trained Bands, the capital’s citizen militia. This aspect of Skippon’s career thus provides a convenient link back to the place of domestic military culture within a European context and the opportunity to tackle ques- tions regarding the standard of military practice in England prior to the Civil Wars. Chapter 3, covering 1639–42, thus explores general attitudes towards military training in England in the years leading up to the outbreak of hostilities through Skippon’s relationship with the Artillery Company. It will demonstrate how the strength of Skippon’s support for religious reform was shared by many prominent members in the Company and the contribution this made towards the process of taking sides once hostilities commenced. Moreover, this chapter will investigate how the attitudes and behaviour of the wider political nation helped to structure elite behaviour. Chapter 4 moves on to examine the extent of the influence of pre-Civil War experience on military conduct from the official outbreak of civil war in England in August 1642 until the end of the so-called “First Civil War” in 1646. When parliament had requisitioned the London Trained Bands for their cause in January 1642, Skippon had been appointed commander-in-chief of this force and then the success of his leadership of the Trained Bands at the battle of Turnham Green on 13 November 1642 precipitated his appointment as sergeant-major-general of the earl of Essex’s army. He maintained the position of sergeant-major-general at the formation of the New Model Army in February 1645. In this chapter, Skippon’s strategic and tactical decision-making will come u nder close scrutiny and it will elucidate his personal contribution to the military en- counters in which he participated during 1642–46. It will assess how far Skippon’s methods were influenced by his earlier experiences of fighting on the Continent and question how far he applied or adapted European practices. However, military historians have been criticised for focussing on generals at the expense of those under their command.42 This does not mean historians should not study elites but just that they should not privilege them because to do so would give an incomplete picture of the past.43 As Diane Purkiss put it, the Civil Wars were wars “with p atient footsoldiers as well as dashing commanders” and we need to know about those who lived under the rule of the leaders, otherwise their rule “hardly matters”.44 Chapter 5 will therefore investigate S kippon’s relationship with his soldiers in the period 1642–46 to engage with the experiences of “ordinary” people in the Civil Wars and consider how 8 Introduction far their confessional ideologies and martial-cultural values may have intersected with those of their commander. It will pay as much attention to the London Trained Bands, with whom Skippon maintained a close relationship after his appointment to Essex’s army, as the “national” armies of the earl of Essex and New Model Army. The regional armies in the Civil Wars have received comparatively less attention, especially in comparison to the New Model Army.45 The New Model was not formed until 1645, whilst the London Trained Bands were amongst the first to rebel against the king and played a significant role in the fighting until 1644.46 Skippon’s contribution to the creation of the New Model Army in 1645 has already been noted but what will be emphasised in C hapter 6 is that his appointment to command in this army was far from b eing an apolitical choice. This chapter, perhaps more than any other, will re- veal a talented political operator and a committed adherent of outright military victory over the king. It will also show how once this had been achieved and cracks began to appear in the parliamentarian alliance throughout 1647, Skippon championed the rights of the soldiery and ultimately took their side when parliament attempted to disband the army without due consideration for their pay arrears and legal protec- tion against royalist prosecution. By now increasingly decrepit from the numerous wounds acquired throughout his military service, Skippon was re-appointed to his old command in the London Trained Bands following the outbreak of the “Second Civil War” in 1648. At this time, Skippon relied upon men with whom he had previously worked with in the Artillery Company, revealing a line of continuity between pre-war ideology and subsequent political partisanship. However, this chapter will also highlight frictions between former allies and internal tensions faced by contemporaries. Not least amongst the contradictions that must be confronted is the fact that in spite of his pivotal role in bringing the king to justice, Skippon refused to play any part in Charles I’s trial and execution in January 1649. Chapters 7 and 8 cover the period of the Commonwealth and Protec- torate. They explore the effects of revolution and regicide on ideology and the impact this had on the subsequent search for a lasting political settlement. Skippon not only accepted the Commonwealth regime but also became closely involved with it, guaranteeing its security in London and continuing to sit as an MP as well as serving on four of the five republican councils of state elected each year. Chapter 7, focussing on 1649–53, will ascertain how far existing ideology enabled contemporaries to reconcile themselves to the Rump Parliament’s reform programmes and how far this brought them into conflict with former comrades-in-arms. Finally, Chapter 8 concerns the Cromwellian Protectorate and, in particular, the role of the military in civilian government and government by a single person. During this period, Skippon continued his political and military Introduction 9 involvement in London, being appointed major-general for the City in 1655 during the “Rule of the Major-Generals”. He was also appointed captain-general of the Artillery Company at its revival in the same year, after the Company had fallen into abeyance following the Civil Wars. Despite his support for the Protectoral government, Skippon maintained his command of the Trained Bands under the restored Commonwealth following the abdication of Richard Cromwell in 1659, until his political eclipse and timely death at the Restoration in 1660.

Notes 1 Articles of agreement between the royalist and parliamentarian forces at Fowey, 2 September 1644, Sloane MS 1983B, fol. 14, BL. 2 Edward Walker, Historical Discourses, Upon Several Occasions (London: 1705), 79; Richard Symonds, Richard Symonds’s Diary of the Marches of the Royal Army, ed. Charles Long and Ian Roy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 67. 3 Walker, Historical Discourses, 79; Richard Bulstrode, Memoirs and Reflections upon the Reign and Government of King Charles I and King Charles II (London: 1721), 110; Bulstrode Whitelocke, Memorials of the English Affairs from the Beginning of the Reign of Charles the First to the Happy Restoration of King Charles the Second (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1853), I: 303. 4 Articles of agreement between the royalist and parliamentarian forces at Fowey, 2 September 1644, Sloane MS 1983B, fol. 14, BL. 5 Diane Purkiss, The English Civil War: A People’s History (London: Harper Perennial, 2006), 362. 6 Symonds, Diary, 66; Articles of agreement between the royalist and parliamentarian forces at Fowey, 2 September 1644, Sloane MS 1983B, fol. 14, BL. 7 Symonds, Diary, 67. 8 Symonds, 67; Walker, Historical Discourses, 79. 9 Robert Codrington, The Life and Death of the Illustrious Robert, Earl of Essex, &c. (London: 1646), 47. 10 Whitelocke, Memorials of the English Affairs, I: 303. 11 Whitelocke, I: 303; Codrington, Earl of Essex, 47. 12 Codrington, 47. 13 A Perfect Diurnall of Some Passages in Parliament 59 (9–16 September 1644), 468. 14 England and Wales Army, The Copie of a Letter from the Lord Generall His Quarters (London: 1644), [3]; Whitelocke, Memorials, I: 302. 15 Bulstrode, Memoirs and Reflections, 111. 16 G. Goold Walker, The Honourable Artillery Company, 1537–1947 (London: Honourable Artillery Company, 1986), 57. 17 See, for example, Andrew Hopper, ‘Black Tom’: Sir Thomas Fairfax and the English Revolution (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2007); Patrick Little, ed., Oliver Cromwell: New Perspectives (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009); David Farr, John Lambert, Parliamentary Soldier and Cromwellian Major-General, 1619–1684 (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 2003); David Farr, Henry Ireton and the English Revo- lution (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 2006); David Farr, Major-General 10 Introduction Thomas Harrison: Millenarianism, Fifth Monarchism and the English Revolution 1616–1660 (Farnham: Ashgate, 2014). 18 C. E. Lucas Phillips, Cromwell’s Captains (London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1938), 159. 19 Lucas Phillips, 86. 20 Lucas Phillips, 85 and 94. 21 Austin Woolrych, Battles of the Civil War (London: Phoenix Press, 2000), 17; Purkiss, English Civil War, 193; Barbara Donagan, War in England 1642–1649 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 39. 22 Philip Skippon, A Salve for Every Sore (London: 1643); Philip Skippon, True Treasure (London: 1644); Philip Skippon, The Christian Centurians Observations, Advices, and Resolutions (London: 1645). Skippon also published a second edition of A Salve for Every Sore under the title A Pearle of Price in a Collection of Promises Out of the Whole Book of God in 1649. 23 Skippon, Christian Centurians Observations, 193 –97. 24 Craig Muldrew, The Economy of Obligation (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 1998), 153 and 156. 25 Henry Peacham, The Compleat Gentleman (London: 1622), 185–86. 26 Skippon, Salve for Every Sore, 307. 27 Skippon, Christian Centurians Observations, 149; Skippon, True Treasure, 62 and 66. 28 Skippon, True Treasure, 63–64, 86, 89 and 96; Skippon, Christian Centuri- ans Observations, 179. 29 Skippon, True Treasure, 96 –97. 30 Henk Dragsta, Shelia Ottway and Helen Wilcox, “Introduction,” in Betraying Our Selves: Forms of Self-Representation in Early Modern English Texts, ed. Henk Dragsta, Shelia Ottway and Helen Wilcox (Basingstoke: Macmil- lan, 2000), 10. 31 Blair Worden, The English Civil Wars 1640–1660 (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2009), 162. 32 Kevin Sharpe and Stephen Zwicker, “Introducing Lives,” in Writing Lives: Biography and Textuality, Identity and Representation in Early Modern England, ed. Kevin Sharpe and Stephen Zwicker (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 10. 33 John Morrill, “The Religious Context of the English Civil War,” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 34 (1984): 178; Glenn B urgess, “Introduction: Religion and the Historiography of the English Civil War,” in England’s Wars of Religion, Revisited, ed. Charles Prior and Glenn B urgess (Farnham: Ashgate, 2011), 16. 34 Burgess, 23–24. 35 George Yule, “The Puritan Piety of Members of the Long Parliament,” Studies in Church History 8 (1972): 193–94. 36 John Morgan, Godly Learning: Puritan Attitudes towards Reason, Learning, and Education, 1560–1640 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), 1. 37 Morgan, 6. 38 Martyn Bennett, The Civil Wars in Britain and Ireland, 1638–1651 (Oxford: Wiley, 1997), xii. 39 Charles Carlton, “The Face of Battle in the English Civil Wars,” in War and Government in Britain, 1598–1650, ed. Mark Fissel (Manchester: Man- chester University Press, 1991), 227. 40 Felix Gilbert, “Machiavelli: The Renaissance of the Art of War,” in Makers of Modern Strategy from Machiavelli to the Nuclear Age, ed. Peter Paret (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986), 12. Introduction 11 41 Donagan, War in England, 10–11; Barbara Donagan, “The Web of Honour: Soldiers, Christians and Gentlemen in the English Civil War,” The Historical Journal 44, no. 2 (2001): 367. 42 Charles Carlton, Going to the Wars: The Experience of the British Civil Wars 1638–51 (London: Routledge, 1992), 180. 43 Martyn Bennett, The Civil Wars Experienced (London: Routledge, 2000), 12–13. 44 Diane Purkiss, “Breaking the Silence,” in Purkiss, English Civil War, 15 (Interview at the end of the book with its own pagination). 45 Donagan, War in England, 5. 46 Robert Manning, Swordsmen: The Martial Ethos in the Three Kingdoms (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 149.