Soldiers and strangers : an ethnic history of the English Civil War / Mark Stoyle.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Stoyle, Mark

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Nationalism--England--History--17th century.

Nationalism.

History.

Great Britain--History--Civil War, 1642-1649.

Great Britain.

England.

Physical Description:

x, 297 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New Haven [Conn.] ; London : Yale University Press, [2005]

Summary:

The Civil War fought between Charles I and his Parliament is one of the most momentous conflicts in English history. This book provides a wholly new perspective on the struggle by revealing the extent to which it possessed an 'ethnic' dimension.

Stoyle reveals the acute fear of foreign invasion that gripped England during 1641 and 1642, following rebellions in Wales and Cornwall, incursions of powerful 'Celtic' armies in support of the king and the arrival of foreign professional officers to serve in the rival armies. The advent of armed strangers placed the insular English on the brink of what they perceived as a national emergency. Stoyle sets the creation of the New Model Army within this context, arguing that its appearance represented the culmination of a campaign by Oliver Cromwell and others to forge a purely 'English' military instrument, one purged of the foreign soldiers who had been so prominent in earlier Parliamentarian armies.

This self-consciously 'English army' eventually succeeded in wresting back control of the kingdom by defeating the king's forces, reconquering Cornwall and Wales and expelling all foreign soldiers from the realm.

Contents:

Introduction. England's Alarum: Before the Civil War 1

Part I The Influx, 1642-1644

1 Loyal Britons: The Welsh Dimension of the English Civil War 11

2 A Storm in the West: The Cornish Dimension of the English Civil War 33

3 Irish Invaders: Irish and 'English-Irish' Troops in England, 1642-1644 53

4 Scottish Invaders: The Scots in England, 1642-1644 73

5 Outlanders: Foreign Soldiers-of-Fortune in England, 1642-1644 91

Part II England's Recovery, 1644-1647

6 England's Antidote: The Creation of the New Model Army 113

7 Saving the Nation: The Parliamentarian Re-conquest of England, 1644-1645 133

8 Winning the Welsh: The Parliamentraian Re-conquest of Wales 153

9 Converting the Cornish: The Parliamentarian Re-conquest of Cornwall 173

10 England's Releasement: The Clearing of the Kingdom 193

Table: Royalist Troop Shipments from Ireland, 1643-1646 209

Appendix Outlanders' Engaged in the English Civil War, 1642-1646 213.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [271]-283) and index.

ISBN:

0300107005

OCLC:

60371026