The Old Service

This book provides the first extensive study of the men who served as regimental colonels in the armies of Charles I during the English Civil War of 1642-46. In following the king’s cause these colonels faced likely death in battle and many never survived to greet the restored monarchy. Their enduring and toughened loyalty to the Royalist cause lies at the centre of this book. Newman examines why this high profile group of Royalists took the risks they did and explores how their role in the Civil Wars is an important key to our understanding of the wider questions of Royalist ideology and allegiance. The impression of the Royalist military commander has too often been shaped by familiarity with a far from representative few. This study breaks new ground in subjecting to analysis more than six hundred Royalist colonels and offering a series of new perspectives on the nature of armed Royalism. It deals with the social pattern of regimental command as well as the religious dimensions of royalism. It examines the principles which underlay armed support for Charles I, and looks also at the reality behind the mythical figure of the Cavalier. There are new insights into familiar Civil War figures and fresh approaches to problems of historical interpretation There has been a curious imbalance in Civil War historiography with extensive work on Parliament and its armies and yet a relative paucity of in-depth analyses of Royalists. This book seeks to redress the balance and it will fill a notable gap in Civil War studies. The book constitutes invaluable reading for historians of the English Civil War and early modern political, ideological and military history.