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Barry Coward on John Lambert, Parliamentary Soldier And David Farr. John Lambert, Parliamentary Soldier and Cromwellian Major-General, 1619-1684. Woodbridge and Suffolk: Boydell Press, 2003. x + 268 pp. $85.00, cloth, ISBN 978-1-84383-004-7. Reviewed by Barry Coward Published on H-Albion (September, 2004) One of the biggest gaps in the historiography family and kinship circle and to show how "kin‐ of the political and military history of Britain in ship had clearly been a key determinant in Lam‐ the mid-seventeenth century is the lack of good bert's career" (p. 227). He has done this by impres‐ scholarly studies of many of the key fgures of the sive research on sources not used by Dawson. Cromwellian Protectorate of the 1650s apart from Farr makes excellent use of what must have been Oliver Cromwell. Charles Fleetwood and John long hours of study in archives, squeezing infor‐ Desborough, for example, remain fairly shadowy mation out of difficult, mainly legal, records. The figures in comparison with Cromwell, as does result is that Farr brings to light a great deal John Lambert, who was without doubt the second about Lambert's family history. When Lambert most important man in the regime until 1657. A was born in 1619, his father, Josiah, was in seri‐ biography of Lambert was published in 1938 writ‐ ous fnancial difficulties that threatened to imper‐ ten by W. H. Dawson, but even when it frst ap‐ il the Lambert's standing as a solid Yorkshire gen‐ peared Cromwell's Understudy was never consid‐ try family. In painstaking detail Farr shows not ered to be a completely satisfactory study of the only how this crisis worsened and deepened in man, and the advance of historical research on the 1620s and early 1630s, but also how Josiah the mid-seventeenth century since then has ren‐ cleverly reacted to it. In order to protect his fami‐ dered it more inadequate than ever. Consequently ly he established close connections of dependency David Farr's book is very welcome. Like the 1996 with other Yorkshire gentry families, principally Cambridge University doctoral thesis from which the Fairfaxes, Listers, and Belasyses, which out‐ it originated, it is not as fully rounded a portrait of lived his death in 1632. In 1638 his son John Lam‐ Lambert's political career as one would like, but it bert married Frances, the daughter of John Lister, certainly sheds much new light on the man. and Farr is at his most persuasive when he argues Farr's major contribution to our understand‐ that these personal and kinship networks were ing of Lambert is to uncover the details of his enormously influential in shaping the public ca‐ reer of John Lambert. The best chapters of this H-Net Reviews book are those that demonstrate that connection. and Roger Boyle Lord Broghill clearly hated each Chapter 1 explains how Lambert's dependence, in other), and was thus sidelined in the politics of his early life, on godly families like the Fairfaxes the Oliver Cromwellian Protectorate in its last and Listers contributed greatly to his decision to years. It also meant that during and after the take the parliamentarian side when England slid Richard Cromwellian Protectorate he had little into civil war in the early 1640s. In later chapters, option but to align himself closely with radical el‐ Farr shows that Lambert never severed his ties ements in the army, which helped his enemies de‐ with those families with whom he was associated pict him (unfairly) as a dangerous threat to social in the early part of his life, but who became royal‐ and political order and to strengthen the drift of ists in the English Civil War. The theme of chapter events towards both the collapse of the English 8 (set in the 1650s) shows how Lambert, who by Republic and his own fate as a long term political then had become a major fgure in the English re‐ prisoner. public, "worked to protect the fortunes of his de‐ Farr's re-assessment of Lambert the soldier is feated Catholic and Cavalier kin" like the Belasy‐ as novel as the new light he throws on Lambert ses, a continuing association, along with Quaker the politician. This book is a good antidote to ac‐ contacts, that Farr argues helps to account for counts of this period that exaggerate Oliver Lambert's "general ecumenical outlook" in reli‐ Cromwell's military contribution to the success of gion (p. 154). In chapter 11, long-established ties English parliamentarian armies in England and with kin and friends are also convincingly posi‐ Scotland in the 1640s and 1650s. Farr's book is es‐ tioned as an important part of the story of Lam‐ pecially valuable in this respect through its ac‐ bert's sad life after the Restoration. "Without their counts of Lambert's military contribution to the aid," writes Farr, "Lambert's twenty-four years in English defeat of the Scots both in the Second Civil prison would have been even more unbearable" War in northern England in 1648 and in the post- (p. 226). Dunbar military campaigns of 1650-51. Farr also puts ties of clientage and patronage Farr's book is without doubt the best account at the heart of his analysis of the fuctuations of to date of the personal, political, and military ca‐ Lambert's political career in the 1650s. Chapter 5 reer of John Lambert. But it is not beyond criti‐ details how Lambert, who by now had acquired cism. To be fair to the author, he makes it explicit‐ enough wealth to buy a great house and garden at ly clear that his book is not meant to be "defini‐ Wimbledon, established (interestingly with his tive" (p. 6). But given the book's title, readers will wife Frances playing a key role) a patronage net‐ be justified in expecting a fuller, more rounded work of agents, like Adam Baynes, whom he had assessment of Lambert's political career. The best met during his military career and who were de‐ accounts of this are the sections devoted to Lam‐ pendent on him. In subsequent chapters, Farr bert's role in the politicization of the New Model shows how this gave Lambert some independence Army in 1647 and in the collapse of the in the Cromwellian Protectorate, since, unlike Cromwellian Protectorate and English Republic in many other influential fgures in that regime, he 1659-60. However, the sections on Lambert's role was able to remain aloof from close ties of depen‐ in the aftermath of the dissolution of the Rump dence on Oliver Cromwell. But Farr is clear that it Parliament and the making of the Instrument of was also a source of Lambert's eventual "political Government in 1653 are very skimpy and disap‐ failure," since Lambert's clientage and kinship pointing, and much the same can be said about network was too narrow (p. 213). Unlike Oliver Lambert's role in political affairs between 1653 Cromwell, Lambert formed few connections with and 1657. Readers relatively unfamiliar with the powerful civilian interests in the Protectorate (he 2 H-Net Reviews period might fnd some parts of the book puz‐ zling, since Farr too often refers to crucial events without adequate background information that is essential to understanding his account of them. The James Nayler episode is a case in point. It is first referred to on page 140, but no explanation is offered until page 178, and even then readers are not told basic information, such as the nature of Nayler's "crime." The book is also marred by some ill-supported or debatable assertions. Farr's at‐ tempt to prove that it was Lambert's decisions, and not those of Oliver Cromwell, that were deci‐ sive in bringing about the Scottish army's defeat at Dunbar in 1650 comes into the frst category. His statement (on the frst page of the book) that "Lambert ... stopped him [Oliver Cromwell] from becoming King in 1657" is an example of the sec‐ ond; it receives no support in the body of the book. Finally, there are many examples of errors that perhaps derive from over-hasty or sloppy transformation of this book from a doctoral the‐ sis. There is space for just two examples. The frst is the unexplained, unfootnoted reference to "Smith" on page 140 (presumably a reference to a work by Dr. David Smith), and the second is the repetition of the same text about Lambert's pur‐ chase of Wimbledon House (pp. 154-155, 198-199). If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the network, at https://networks.h-net.org/h-albion Citation: Barry Coward. Review of Farr, David. John Lambert, Parliamentary Soldier and Cromwellian Major-General, 1619-1684. H-Albion, H-Net Reviews. September, 2004. URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=9753 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 3.
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