Previous studies on the Civil War in Lancashire have tended to concentrate on social and economic issues with emphasis on the gentry. No attempt has been made to examine the war in the county in a wider context. Here the integration of political, socio-economic, administrative, and military elements, that is war effort, is analysed over the period 1642-1651. Unusually the thesis treats the war effort of both sides, thereby aiming to illuminate the reasons for the conflict's eventual outcome. A wide range of sources is utilised with an emphasis on the extensive collection SP 28 in the Public Record Office and a database of over 770 Civil War officers. Recent scholarship-has suggested that the cohesive nature of Parliament's approach to the war left it well placed to employ local resources as part of a wider war effort. In contrast, it has been thought that the weight Royalists placed on personal service due to Charles I denuded the localities of resources and fatally undermined their capability to make a meaningful, sustained contribution to the king's cause. Lancashire's experience endorses the general thrust of these arguments, yet modification is needed. Parliament's policy of encouraging co-operation between centre and county was only occasionally apparent, largely during times of extreme danger. At other periods the attempts to introduce administrative and financial innovation and maximise the county's involvement were delayed by popular intransigence, the moderate county committee's reluctance to endanger county security and Royalist resistance. After Parliament's initial triumph in 1646 popular resistance grew over the continuance of war-inspired financial impositions and the depredations of unpaid soldiery. The war of 1648 represented a temporary hiatus in the process by which the ruling traditional elite, largely identified with Presbyterianism, was eradicated by centralisation and the rise of local radicals. For the Lancashire Royalists the loss in October 1642 of some 1,100 men to the main army was a handicap. Just as serious was incompetent leadership, the failure to establish meaningful association, and financial weakness. The scale and significance of further departures, mainly of Roman Catholics, has been largely ignored. The early collapse of independent Lancashire Royalism was crucial in that subsequent military activity was pursued by a few irreconcilables and hard-nosed professional soldiers, insensitive to local Royalists. The Lancashire Royalists made a great contribution to the national war effort but the consequence was the woeful feebleness of Royalism in the county itself. Parliament's victory in Lancashire was based upon support from the centre, superior manpower and logistics, substantial sequestration receipts administered by a mix of army officers and plebian officials and a measure of organisational modernisation. The patent weakness of the Lancashire Royalists, for whom the support of Roman Catholics was a mixed blessing, enabled Parliament, despite a multiplicity of problems, to emerge victorious.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:495638 |
| Date | January 1998 |
| Creators | Gratton, James Malcolm |
| Publisher | University of Manchester |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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