The New Model Army in England, Ireland and Scotland, 1645-1653

This is an account of one of the most formidable fighting forces ever assembled. Taking his evidence from contemporary sources, Ian Gentles describes the formation of the New Model Army under Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell, the course of its decisive victories over the royalist forces of Charles 1 and its ferociously successful campaigns against the Scots and the Irish. The author gives a vivid account of the course of the major battles and of the innovative tactics employed by Fairfax and Cromwell. As importantly, he also examines the motivations and aspirations of the soldiers and their officers. For this was no ordinary army, but one convinced that it was acting under divine guidance, not merely to win a war, but to change the very nature of English society. In 1649, with the execution of the king and the abolition of the House of Lords, it must have appeared as if they had done so. Yet the question of how far the New Model was a revolutionary army and how far a body of men whose religious passion was manipulated for the pragmatic, personal or even conservative aims of its leaders is one that has occupied the minds of historians for three centuries. Ian Gentles provides a convincing resolution of this debate, raising new evidence to support his argument.