Towards the second Civil War (May 1646 – January 1649)

At the beginning of 1646 London’s leaders joined with Scottish representatives in London in taking the Covenant, the Presbyterian agreement to protect Protestant worship. London’s Presbyterians then unsuccessfully petitioned Parliament to introduce laws enforcing strict discipline and repression of other doctrines. It was something that Parliament, which sought toleration and unity between different Protestant factions, nor London’s Independent religious groups, could accept.

In April 1646 the Independent minister Hugh Peter, a supporter of the New Model Army who tended towards republicanism, delivered a sermon to Parliament and London’s leaders:

Remember what we fought for, prayed for, adventured for [and] let not all be lost in the kiss of a royal hand, nor suffer your eyes to be put out with court-glitter and glory.

During 1645 to 1647 several committees consisting of Parliamentary sympathisers were put in charge of the most important aspects of London. The first of these was formed in October 1645 to draw up a petition on church governance and investigate particular religious ministers who had not taken the Covenant. It was succeeded the following March with a new committee that composed a letter from the City to the King that called for his return and a peace settlement. The committees became increasingly conservative and in October 1646 London’s leadership selected a Royalist, Sir John Gayre as Mayor.

There was constant quarrelling between Parliament and the City of London, with Parliament making demands for funds to pay for the army and obligations to the Scots. The army were discontented because they went unpaid while the City’s own militia regularly received their pay. Following victory at Oxford in the summer of 1646 and the surrender of the King, many in London were questioning the need to continue paying taxes to fund a standing army when fighting had finished. They also saw the radical elements of the army as an obstacle to a peaceful settlement with the King. However, the army could not be disbanded while the Scots occupied parts of England, so Londoners provided a loan of £200,000 to pay the Scots to leave, which they did by the end of December 1646.

In March 1647 the City of London requested the dispersion of the army, following which Parliament ordered a reduction of the New Model Army and restrictions on those who remained. Permission was given for London to also replace its militia committee and purge it of extremists and those who would not take the Covenant. By then the New Model Army had become a political movement aligned with the more radical views of the Levellers. In May the Commons reached agreement with Charles on some key issues and therefore decided to completely disband the New Model Army with just eight weeks of arrears of pay. It was too much for the army and in June they seized the King from his Parliamentary captors and transported him to Newmarket, then later to Hampton Court Palace.

Senior members of the army, knowns as the ‘grandees’, met at the house of Oliver Cromwell in London at the end of May and further meetings took place with Levellers and London religious Independents. They published in July their intended terms to be presented to the King as a constitutional settlement, known as The Heads of Proposals. It was drafted by Cromwell’s son-in-law, the Commissary-General Henry Ireton.

The views of the Levellers were far from universal, however, and most in the country simply wanted a treaty with the King and a return to normality. The radical New Model Army and religiously Independent MPs demanded the suspension of some Presbyterian MPs, known as the ‘Eleven Members’ who they claimed were plotting with the King to plunge the country into another war. At the end of July a Presbyterian mob stormed the chamber of the Commons, demanding the repeal of the Militia Order that had created the Parliamentary army, and forcing the House to pass a resolution inviting the King to come to London. The following day Independent MPs fled Westminster and sought safety with the army. The Eleven Members returned to Parliament.

The army refused to disband and began to move towards London with a demand, drafted by Cromwell and others, that Parliament put to Charles an ultimatum for the creation of a democratic parliament, parliamentary control of the army and navy, and freedom of worship. In July they camped at Hounslow Heath and at the beginning of August 1647 marched to occupy Westminster and the City, using the nave of St. Paul’s as a barracks and stables. The Eleven Members left Parliament, some moving abroad.

The City initially moved to defend itself against the army but soon realised it was futile. Demands were made of them to pay £50,000 towards the arrears of army pay. In September new militias were formed in the City and its suburbs, headed by radical and religiously Independent commissioners who had been side-lined since the start of the Civil War. Links were forged between these new local militias and the army through joint military operations. The pro-Royalist Mayor Sir John Gayre, a City sheriff, and three aldermen were sent to the Tower for inciting a new war, where they stayed for two months until there was reconciliation between Parliament and the City. The army ensured that John Warner, a political radical, was appointed to replace Gayre.