ABSTRACT
The raising of the King’s standard at Nottingham was the formal opening of the Civil War. From the outset of the war, financial difficulties pressed heavily on both parties; but in this respect the advantage was at first with the Royalists. The advantage which Parliament enjoyed from command of the sea became most apparent when the fortune of war was most adverse. Marston Moor was the greatest battle of the war, and also its turning-point. It damaged the prestige of Rupert, and destroyed the hopes that had been built on the northern army. Washington wrote to Congress in 1776 in much the same strain; and just as Congress was at length persuaded to form a “continental army,” to serve till the end of the war, so Parliament passed an ordinance raising a new force of 13,000 men for permanent service.
