English Civil War - who were the soldiers?

Question

Who were the soldiers in the English Civil War? i.e. were they forced into joining the army? Were they mostly fathers and sons from a family?
I have been trying to find out how soldiers joined the war in a variety of key words but I haven't found what I'm looking for.
Thanks for your help.

I've found this in a book:
"fathers and sons were forced to leave the comfort of their homes for the dangers of battlefield"
If you could expand on the quote, that would be great. Also, if you could say something about training.

Answer 1

The soldiers were forced to be the war. Who they supported depended on where they lived and which party got to them first bascially. They were the boys of a family.
There are four types of soldiers - Musketeers, pikeman (most common) cavalry and artillery...
hope it helps

Answer 2

English Civil War Soldiers

Answer 3

There was a difference between the two sides and their sources of soldiers.

The Royalist party comprised many landowners with large numbers of tenants and agricultural workers. All the evidence is that these workers were simply pressed by their landlords or employers, to fight on the side of the king. Therefore, the bulk of the Royalist army was untrained, unwilling and not very well disciplined. But there was a strong belief at the time that the king's party would prevail and therefore fighting on his side would be safe and working families would not suffer when the war was over.

The Parliamentary party did not include so many rich landowners and a high proportion of the army were volunteers with strong religious beliefs, similar to those of the Pilgrim Fathers who settled America a few years earlier. At the start of the civil war, these bands of volunteers were not well trained or equipped, and somewhat also lacking in discipline. After all they were farm workers, merchants, artisans and tradesmen: not soldiers. But they had a much greater motivation to fight and win because their actions would be considered treason if Parliament lost, and their families would suffer for generations to come. Therefore, they fought with greater vigour.

From January 1645, the Parliamentary forces were reformed and a volunteer professional (paid and trained) army was formed under the name New Model Army. These corps had uniforms, standard weapons and equipment, rations and lodgings, and a rigorous training programme. Some infantry regiments did have to be filled by impressment but still soldiers were paid and worked to a book of regulations that promised decent treatment and conditions.

From this point onward, the Royalists could not match the Parliamentary army and resorted to employing foreign mercenaries. The impressment of farm workers had to stop because food production was being affected and by late 1646, the two armies were (a) the professional volunteers for Parliament, and (b) largely foreign mercenaries for the Royalist party. Shortly afterwards, the first stage of the civil war came to an end with the "escape" of the king to the Isle of Man. His defiance of Parliament led to the Second Civil War, which ended in his capture, trial and eventual execution in January 1649.

So the armies were not feudal hoards. True feudalism had died out in England by about 1371. Some civil war soldiers followed their employers; others followed their consciences - on both sides. By the end of the Third Civil War (basically against the Scots) in 1652, the English army of Parliament comprised professionally trained and paid regiments, and it has remained that way ever since.

The Wiki page below is not clear on soldiers' backgrounds but explains much of the timetable and activites surrounding the two armies.

Answer 4

The regular army of the day was crap. Apart from the few men in the 'Trained Bands' who were more or less police and anti-riot squads in London, most of the others were riff raff who could not get a job and were mostly unfit for anything, they were just a token army. After a brief interval of trying to make use of these people both sides gave it up and just went after the magazines of arms that had been reluctantly provided by the counties as part of their obligations to the Crown. After that both sides relied on volunteers. So far as I am aware, there was no conscription like today, men joined because they felt strongly about the claims of the King or the Parliamentarians. Don't forget, the parliamentarians wanted Democracy and the end of the absolute right of the Monarch to do just what the hell he liked. Because they won, we have the rights that we have now, although the British govt. of recent years has steadily eroded those rights that our ancestors fought for. We have a Bill of Rights, but today it means nothing, unlike in America where they fight hard to keep it inviolate.

Answer 5

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
English Civil War - who were the soldiers?
Who were the soldiers in the English Civil War? i.e. were they forced into joining the army? Were they mostly fathers and sons from a family?
I have been trying to find out how soldiers joined the war in a variety of key words but I haven't found what I'm looking for.
Thanks for your...

Answer 6

Elvis Costello wrote 'Oliver's Army' based on the New Model Army created by Parliament and led by Oliver Cromwell. Whilst it was not a conscript army it was a Standing Army, the 1st one in English history. There was no conscription in the English Civil War by either side, but peer pressure forced people to choose Round heads or The Royalists. There are instances of father's, sons and brothers fighting and killing on opposite sides.

Answer 7

Look up Round-heads (because of the helmets) New Model Army, & Royalists & Cavaliers for some additional help.

With regards the quote "fathers and sons were forced to leave the comfort of their homes for the dangers of battlefield"
its self-explanatory, it refers to the men regardless of rank and station, having to leave behind their homes & families to go off to war, as the military in those days were made up only of men, then its logical that they would be fathers or sons, but not necessarily from the same family.
From one family a son would go to the military and from another family a father might go off to war.

Answer 8

Understanding the English Civil War is dead easy.

The king, HM King Chas One, stormed into the House of Commons with an armed escort. He demanded that certain members of the House be handed over. Mister Speaker told the king and his chavs to buzz off and had the door slammed behind the king as himself departed, heading for ye olde Red Lyon Publik-House in Parliament Street for a beer or several with a few of his Cavalier pals.

Oliver Cromwell a member of the House of Commons and one of those as was wanted by ye king and such, took horse back home and while on that journey, considered the problem of how to deal with his majesties army of drunken Cavaliers and their supporters.

Oliver Cromwell organised the New Model Army, which was quickly named the Noddle Army by the Cavaliers [ye chavs].

Look, the rest is history, right?

"Be'old, the 'ead of a traitor"....ye chop!

Answer 9

England was still pretty feudal during the time, so many of the line soldiers were simply fulfilling an obligation to their landowners. Officers were another story, they aligned for personal and family advantage.

From Wiki:
The militia was indeed raw and untrained. Some of the Essex men "fell flat on their faces on the sound of a cannon." In the north of England Harrison complained to Cromwell of the "badness" of his men, and the lord general sympathized, having "had much such stuff" sent him to make good the losses in trained men. Even he for a moment lost touch with the spirit of the people. His recruits were unwilling drafts for foreign service, but in England the new levies were trusted to defend their homes, and the militia was soon triumphantly to justify its existence on the day of Worcester.[7]

Answer 10

During the civil war people were inducted into the Army because they were the vassals of the Lord of the manor. They went were he went.
Criminals were given the opportunity of prison or army service.