ABSTRACT
The political, constitutional and religious context of mid-seventeenth-century Britain, as well as the nature of war and military experience in the early modern period, played a major role in the relative military effectiveness of the six regional commanders in the north of England and southern Scotland during the Civil Wars. These contextual dynamics affected not only the motivation to take up arms, but also the will to continue the struggle through hardship, deprivation and defeat. Events in Yorkshire between January and August 1642 directly precipitated open rebellion as well as influenced the motivation of locals to take up arms against the legitimate sovereign, therefore, it is useful to briefly examine the nature of those occurrences. A brief narrative of the early events in Yorkshire also establishes the contextual framework for understanding the campaign history of that region in the First Civil War. Additionally, pre-Civil War military experience and attitudes shaped both the character and the fighting qualities of each of the forces that eventually participated – parliamentary, royalist, Covenanter and Engager. The nature of war in the period as well as the skills and professionalism derived from pre-war military training, literature and experience, must also be considered. The context within which the six regional commanders operated partially accounted for their ultimate success or failure. As Hew Strachan, the noted military historian points out, the ‘development of war cannot be understood … simply as a continuum, independent, self-generating, unaffected by external phenomenon’. 1 Context is a moderator that ultimately attenuates martial synergy and thus forms a key component in the analytical model of effective military leadership.
