English Civil War

The New Model Army

Increasingly, the issue that faced Parliament was what to do with the king. The moderates did not want to bring the King to a final battle, fearing what it might mean. They wanted a negotiated settlement, not the death of their king.

The radicals wanted it all -- these were the Independents and Oliver Cromwell was emerging as their leader.

In 1644, Parliament passed Self-Denying Ordinance, intended to get soldiers out of Parliament, for the Roundhead army was largely officered by MPs. Cromwell was specifically exempted because everyone recognized he was the rebels' most effective general. All other MPs were to lay down their military commands and a new army was formed.

Parliament's army was now a national army, levied from all those areas under Roundhead control. It was a Puritan army, too, with Puritan preachers in every unit. Parliament had managed to get politics out of the army, but not religion.

History of Western Civilization

E.L. Skip Knox
Boise State University

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