Cromwell and the army

The battle of Marston Moor was fought, just outside York, on 2nd July 1644. Cromwell called it 'a great victory'. Although it was not a huge turning point in the Civil War, Marston Moor was Cromwell's first experience of holding a major command in a full scale battle. It was the repeated charges of Cromwell's cavalry that turned apparent parliamentary defeat into victory. It gave Cromwell a tremendous national reputation among his contemporaries.

This extract shows how Cromwell's troops viewed the encounter:

The signal being given, we marched on to the charge, in which you might have seen the bravest sight in the whole world; such disciplined armies marching to a charge came down the hill in the bravest order and in the greatest resolution that ever was seen: I mean the left wing of our horse, led on by Lieutenant-General Cromwell, which was to charge their right wing, led by Rupert, in which were all his gallant men, they being resolved that if they could scatter Cromwell, all was their own.
All the Earl of Manchester's foot, being three brigades, began the charge with their bodies against the Marquis of Newcastle's foot and Rupert's bravest foot. In a moment we were past the ditch upon the moor, on equal ground with the enemy, our men going on a running march. Our front divisions of horse charged their front. Cromwell's division of three hundred horse in which himself was in person, charged the first division of Rupert's own regiment and, in which himself was in person - the rest charged other divisions, but with such admirable valour as it was to the astonishment of all the old soldiers of the army.
Cromwell's own division had a handful of it, for they were charged by Rupert's bravest men both in front and flanks. They stood at the sword point a pretty while hacking one another. But at last it pleased God He brake through them, and scattered them before Him like dust. At the same instant the rest of our horse of that wing had wholly broken all Rupert's horse on the right wing, and was in the chase of them beyond their left wing. Our foot of the right hand, being only the Earl of Manchester's foot went by our side, dispersing the enemy's foot almost as fast as they charged them, still going on by our side, cutting them down that we carried the whole field before us. The fight was hot indeed and once I could have run, but love and pride in General Cromwell kept me to the point. We love him with all our heart.

Scoutmaster Watson's account of the battle 'A More Exact Relation of the Battell neer York' Thomason Tract E100(12)

The extract above shows what Cromwell's troops thought about their General. Cromwell himself chose his troops for their attitudes and beliefs, rather than for their position in society. He wrote from Cambridge in September 1643:

A few honest men are better than numbers …… I had rather have a plain russet-coated captain that knows what he fights for, and loves what he knows, than that which you call a gentleman, and is nothing else. I honour a gentleman that is so indeed.

He never wavered in this belief. On 4th July 1654, he wrote from Whitehall:

If I were to choose any servant, the meanest Officer for the Army or the Commonwealth, I would choose a godly man that hath principles.

Training and discipline made the New Model Army the most feared fighting force in Europe. Cromwell expected certain standards of behaviour from his soldiers.

These are to declare, that if any Officer or Soldier under my command shall take or demand any money: or shall violently take any horses, goods or victual, without order; or shall abuse the people in any sort - he shall be tried by a Council of War; and the said person so offending shall be punished according to the Articles of War made for the government of the Army in the Kingdom of England, which punishment is death.

20th September 1648

About the battle of Worcester 1651:

"For me it is a crown or a coffin" - Charles II
"It is, for aught I know, a crowning mercy" - Oliver Cromwell

Indictment of Charles I

the said Charles Stuart hath been the...author...of the said unnatural, cruel and bloody wars and therein guilty of all the treasons, murders, rapines, burnings, spoils, desolations, damages and mischiefs to this nation, acted and committed in the said wars