ABSTRACT
After successfully campaigning with King Charles in the autumn of 1644, George Goring received an independent command that winter, but he failed to make inroads into the Parliamentary-held counties of southeastern England. Moreover, Goring’s desire to receive orders directly from King Charles, and not from his immediate superior Prince Rupert, opened a rift between Goring and the prince. When Goring next turned westwards, he again failed to achieve any notable success. That March, King Charles sent his eldest son, Charles, Prince of Wales, into the West Country with a council of advisers to exercise civilian authority within the region. Was General Goring answerable to the Prince’s Council? Were the other western commanders answerable to Goring? The bitter internecine struggles which ensued over these questions of precedence proved highly detrimental to the king’s cause, as spring brought Parliament’s New Model Army into the field. On a more personal level, Goring made an enemy of Sir Edward Hyde of the Prince’s Council. Hyde, later Earl of Clarendon, was to memorialize his struggles and demonize Goring in The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars.
