Description

Admin History:

The English Civil War is now sometimes referred to as the Wars of the Three Kingdoms; appropriately enough as war and revolution convulsed England, Scotland and Ireland between 1642 and 1660. Hull's part in the conflicts was pivotal. In the words of the anonymous author of Hull's Managing of the Kingdoms Cause (L CWT/46) published in 1644, "Hull was the Scene whereon the Prologue [to the drama of the Wars] was acted".

At their heart the Wars were a conflict between King Charles I and his supporters - referred to by their enemies as Cavaliers - and Parliament and its supporters. Some people tried to stay neutral, but were seldom able to for long. A Nottinghamshire landowner who happened to hold the title of Earl of Kingston-upon-Hull declared himself neutral; but soon had to opt to support the King, was captured by Parliamentary forces, and was blown apart by a Royalist cannon ball fired at the ship bringing him to Hull as a prisoner. Loyalties were often complicated.

The Wars had many causes. Parliament was far from representative as the term is understood today, but it spoke for wealthy merchants and the gentry who ran the English counties and boroughs. Many of these men would have described themselves as 'Godly' - Protestants (sometimes called Puritans) whose religious beliefs were out of step with the Church of England as envisaged by the King, having more in common with the Calvinist religious beliefs of the Low Countries. This would have been particularly true of Hull with its links to the Netherlands and the Baltic.

King Charles' religious beliefs were very different. He himself believed that he was King of England by the Grace of God and that his Church of England therefore had to be as ceremonious and obedient to him as his Court was. His religious policies came to be at odds with many of the religious beliefs of his subjects, and they associated the King's changes, such as the introduction of altars in churches and vestments for priests, with practices akin to those of the Roman Catholic Church from which England had separated under Henry VIII. As Charles' wife was a French Roman Catholic, he himself was suspected of supporting Catholicism, politically unacceptable to all but a tiny minority of English people for a century or more.

The King had inherited from his father a mountain of debts, an unsuccessful foreign policy and a difficult relationship with Parliament. He decided to try and rule without it, which meant that he was unable to take advantage of the taxes only Parliament was able to vote him. In order to govern he had to resort to a succession of arcane and arbitrary expedients, notable Ship Money, a medieval levy which the King extended from coastal counties to the whole country in 1635. Collection of ship money was opposed by many of the gentry, including Sir John Hotham, later Governor of Hull.

Therefore when the King tried to impose his new religious policies on his Scottish subjects by force, he had no money with which to do so. After two unsuccessful attempts (known as The Bishops' Wars), during which Hull was stocked as a supply base, Charles had to summon Parliament which met in November 1640.

The King had a poor hand and he played it quite badly. He found himself forced to sanction the dismissal and execution of his two most unpopular ministers. Radical voices in both Houses of Parliament demanded increasingly extreme curbs on his sovereignty which he opposed. Two of the most outspoken MPs were the members for Hull, Sir Henry Vane and Peregrine Pelham.

Both sides published propaganda supporting their positions, such as the Royalist His Majesties answer to the XIX propositions of both Houses of Parliament of 1642 (L CWT/30). After over a year of rancorous disputes, in which attitudes hardened on both sides, in January 1642 Charles I himself led a group of armed men into the House of Commons to try to arrest five of his most extreme enemies. They had already left. Parliament was outraged, and a furious and humiliated King left London for the North.

One of Charles I's priorities was to seize control of Hull and the armaments stored there. From his base at York he announced his intention of coming to Hull. A forward party of courtiers, including the King's younger son and nephew arrived in Hull on 22 April and were admitted and entertained without issue. However when Charles himself arrived at Beverley Gate on 23 April, the Governor of Hull Sir John Hotham was there to meet him. Hotham had been appointed Governor by Parliament and not the King. He politely but firmly refused to admit the King. Charles adjourned to Beverley, followed by the royal party from within the town.

For Charles the unthinkable had happened. He had been refused admittance to one of his own towns in his own Kingdom. He blamed Hotham, who had told him "That he could not admit His Majestie without breach of Trust to His Parliament..." (L CWT/10). This is probably a fair assessment of Hotham's motivation; Sir John regarded himself as a man of honour who had promised Parliament to hold Hull against the King. But to Charles, Hotham was a traitor. The King must also have known, judging by his propaganda efforts (L CWT/10), that a line had been crossed; Hotham might have been first in his overt defiance, but the danger was he would not be the last.

In July 1642 Charles again attempted to seize Hull, but this time in force. According to the author of Horrible Newes from Hull (L CWT/10) "the King is gone to Hull, attended with the Prince [the future Charles II then aged 12], with about 400 horsemen and 700 footmen musketieres, but the Inhabitants of Hull having intelligence of their intended purpose, forthwith raised 1000 men well armed..." Despite flooding the surrounding area by breaching the sea defences, the Royalist forces could not prevent the town being supplied by sea. The garrison of Hull, still commanded by Sir John Hotham was supplemented by additional forces sent by Parliament and Charles' army withdrew on 27 July. Less than a month later, at Nottingham, he raised his standard, signalling the official start of his war against his rebellious subjects.

Hull was strategically important, and both sides wanted to secure it for themselves. Garrisoned by Parliamentary forces, it is likely that the inhabitants of the town were more supportive of the King's enemies because of the presence of the troops and their own experience of the First Siege by the King's forces. Parliament took every precaution to ensure Hull stayed loyal. In June 1643, Sir John Hotham, whose own loyalties had come under suspicion because of the behaviour of his son, was deposed as Governor of Hull, arrested and sent to London for trial and execution. It is likely that the growing extremism of the Parliamentary position and the rise to leadership of the Yorkshire Parliamentarians of his personal enemies the Fairfax family had led to Hotham reconsidering his own position. Hull History Centre holds letters and other papers relating to the trial of Sir John Hotham and his son Captain John Hotham (U DDHO/1).

The difficult Parliamentary position in Yorkshire in the summer of 1643 was another reason for Hotham's fall. Following the defeat of Parliament's forces under Lord Fairfax at Adwalton Moor on 30 June, he led a fighting retreat across the county to Hull, the last major town held against the King. Fairfax strengthened the fortifications of the town, demolishing the Charterhouse to improve his field of fire for example. On 2 September the Royalist Army of the Earl of Newcastle, the victor of Adwalton Moor, had arrived outside the town to begin the Second Siege in just over a year.

Despite greater numbers on both sides however, the second siege was just as inconclusive as the first. Both sides built fortifications and fired at each other with cannon. Fairfax opened the sluices and flooded the surrounding area. Newcastle cut off the fresh water supply but according to A True Relation from Hull of the present state and condition it is in... (L CWT/45; purportedly an eye-witness account smuggled out of the town and published in London on 19 September 1643) there was "no great want of provision". The main reason for this was that Parliament still controlled the sea and supplied Hull by ship, and the Hull garrison was so well-manned it was able to reinforce Colonel Oliver Cromwell, the future Lord Protector then commanding in Lincolnshire across the Humber.

On 11 October Fairfax ordered a sortie from Hull. Led by Sir John Meldrum and Colonels Rainsborough and Lambert troops overran the Royalist position, but while the victory was important it was not the main factor in ending the siege. On the same day Cromwell had beaten the Royalist forces at Winceby in Lincolnshire. When news reached Hull, Newcastle lifted the siege and retired to York to consolidate his forces.

King Charles' position steadily worsened. A succession of defeats including Marston Moor (1644) and Naseby (1645), and a failed attempt to recover his position with Scottish support eventually led to his deposition and execution, and the declaration of a republic, the Commonwealth in 1649. Conflict between Parliament and the military resulted in the establishment of the Protectorate under Oliver Cromwell in 1653, but on his death in 1658 the Commonwealth was re-established. Further conflict between Parliament and the army resulted in a growing consensus for the restoration of the monarchy, and in 1660, King Charles II, who as a twelve year old boy and led troops in the First Siege of Hull, was restored to the throne.

After the lifting of the Second Siege, Hull saw little military action. However it retained its strategic importance and continued to be garrisoned by the victorious Parliament, although the town had to pay for it. The war had resulted in dislocation of trade as well as physical damage to the town, and the resulting economic hardship led to the citizens petitioning Parliament to be exempted from taxes. However Parliament was unsympathetic: "In a time of public calamity, particular suffering could not be attended to" and the plea was rejected.

Hull, always a town with Protestant sympathies, was more firmly aligned with the Godly. Hull's parish churches, Holy Trinity and St Mary's, passed into the control of Puritan ministers including John Shawe (L.252.03, John Shawe, six individual sermons). A group of concerned citizens petitioned the Mayor against the prevailing habits of the "swinish sin of drunkenness…swearing, Sabbath breaking, and…too much levity…" During the Commonwealth the Governor of Hull was Colonel Robert Overton, a Puritan and republican so extreme he was regarded as dangerous by Cromwell and spent the Protectorate in prison.

On 17 May 1660 Charles II was proclaimed King by the Mayor of Hull in the market place. In a loyal address sent to the new king, Hull assured him that the resistance to his father in 1642 had been forced on them by Hotham. The town may have been formerly guilty of "rudeness and inhumanity" but they felt "an extreme of joy" at his return.

By their own admission the people of Hull had played a crucial role in the start of the Civil War, but were glad to return to the "obedience to which their affections naturally tended."

Description:

Includes printed items held in bound volumes