Abstract
Abstract There was no sharply defined beginning to the English Civil War. The king sought to give it one by ceremonially raising his standard at Nottingham on 22 August 1642 and summoning his subjects to aid him in suppressing the rebellion headed by the Earl of Essex, but even as a symbolic gesture this was to fall flat. There had already been clashes of arms in various parts of the country for some weeks past, and it would be many weeks more before Charles’s military commanders felt capable of offering battle. Very many of his subjects clung to a hope that open war might yet be averted by a negotiated settlement, or expected that if it came to the worst the quarrel might be decided by a single battle. Many thought first about the interests of their own communities and set about negotiating local pacts of neutrality, hoping thereby to keep any war there might be outside the bounds of their particular counties or cities.
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