Second English Civil War The Second English Civil War ( 1648 – 1649 ) was the second of three wars known as the English Civil War ( or " Wars " ) which refers to the series of armed conflicts and political machinations which took place between Parliamentarians and Royalist s from 1642 until 1651 and also include the First English Civil War ( 1642 – 1646 ) and the Third English Civil War ( 1649 – 1651 ) . Prelude . The end of the First Civil War , in 1646 , left a partial power vacuum in which any combination of the three English factions , Royalists , Independents of the New Model Army ( henceforward called the Army ) , and Presbyterians of the English Parliament , as well as the Scottish Parliament allied with the Scottish Presbyterians ( the Kirk ) , could prove strong enough to dominate the rest . Armed political Royalism was at an end , but despite being a prisoner , King Charles I was considered by himself and his opponents ( almost to the last ) as necessary to ensure the success of whichever group could come to terms with him . Thus he passed successively into the hands of the Scots , the Parliament and the Army . The King attempted to reverse the verdict of arms by coquetting with each in turn . On 3 June 1647 Cornet George Joyce of Thomas Fairfax ' s horse seized the King for the Army , after which the English Presbyterians and the Scots began to prepare for a fresh civil war , this time against Independency , as embodied in the Army . After making use of the Army ' s sword , its opponents attempted to disband it , to send it on foreign service and to cut off its arrears of pay . The result was that the Army leadership was exasperated beyond control , and , remembering not merely their grievances but also the principle for which the Army had fought , it soon became the most powerful political force in the realm . From 1646 to 1648 the breach between Army and Parliament widened day by day until finally the Presbyterian party , combined with the Scots and the remaining Royalists , felt itself strong enough to begin a Second Civil War . Revolt against Parliament in South Wales . In February 1648 Colonel John Poyer , the Parliamentary Governor of Pembroke Castle , refused to hand over his command to one of Fairfax ' s officers , and he was soon joined by some hundreds of officers and men , who mutinied , ostensibly for arrears of pay , but really with political objectives . At the end of March , encouraged by minor successes , Poyer openly declared for the King . Disbanded soldiers continued to join him in April , all South Wales revolted , and eventually he was joined by Major - General Rowland Laugharne , his district commander , and Colonel Rice Powell . In April also news came that the Scots were arming and that Berwick and Carlisle had been seized by the English Royalists . Oliver Cromwell was at once sent off at the head of a strong detachment to deal with Laugharne and Poyer . But before he arrived Laugharne had been severely defeated on 8 May by Colonel Thomas Horton at the Battle of St . Fagans . The English Presbyterians found it difficult to reconcile their principles with their allies when it appeared that the prisoners taken at St Fagans bore " We long to see our King " on their hats ; very soon in fact the English war became almost purely a Royalist revolt , and the war in the north an attempt to enforce a mixture of Royalism and Presbyterianism on Englishmen by means of a Scottish army . The former were disturbers of the peace and no more . Nearly all the Royalists who had fought in the First Civil War had given their parole not to bear arms against the Parliament , and many honourable Royalists , foremost amongst them the old Lord Astley , who had fought the last battle for the King in 1646 , refused to break their word by taking any part in the second war . Those who did so , and by implication those who abetted them in doing so , were likely to be treated with the utmost brutality if captured , for the Army was in a less placable mood in 1648 than in 1645 , and had already determined to " call Charles Stuart , that man of blood , to an account for the blood he had shed " . Revolt against Parliament in Kent . A precursor to Kent ' s Second Civil War had come on Wednesday , 22 December 1647 , when Canterbury ' s town crier had proclaimed the county committee ' s order for the suppression of Christmas Day and its treatment as any other working day . However , a large crowd gathered on Christmas to demand a church service , decorate doorways with holly bushes , and keep the shops shut . This crowd - under the slogan ' For God , King Charles , and Kent ' - then descended into violence and riot , with a soldier being assaulted , the mayor ' s house attacked , and the city under the rioters ' control for several weeks until forced to surrender in early January . On 21 May 1648 , Kent rose in revolt in the King ' s name , and a few days later a most serious blow to the Independents was struck by the defection of the Navy , from command of which they had removed Vice - Admiral William Batten , as being a Presbyterian . Though a former Lord High Admiral , the Earl of Warwick , also a Presbyterian , was brought back to the service , it was not long before the Navy made a purely Royalist declaration and placed itself under the command of the Prince of Wales . But Fairfax had a clearer view and a clearer purpose than the distracted Parliament . He moved quickly into Kent , and on the evening of 1 June , stormed Maidstone by open force , after which the local levies dispersed to their homes , and the more determined Royalists , after a futile attempt to induce the City of London to declare for them , fled into Essex . The Downs . Before leaving for Essex , Fairfax delegated command of the Parliamentarian forces to Colonel Nathaniel Rich to deal with the remnants of the Kentish revolt in the east of the county , where the naval vessels in the Downs had gone over to the Royalists and Royalist forces had taken control of the three previously Parliamentarian " castles of the Downs " ( Walmer , Deal , and Sandown ) and were trying to take control of Dover Castle . Rich arrived at Dover on 5 June 1648 and prevented the attempt , before moving to the Downs . It took almost a month to retake Walmer ( 15 June - 12 July ) , before moving on to Deal and Sandown castles . Even then , due to the small size of Rich ' s force , he was unable to surround both Sandown and Deal at once and the two garrisons were able to send help to each other . At Deal he was also under bombardment from the Royalist warships , which had arrived on 15 July but been prevented from landing reinforcements . On 16th , thirty Flemish ships arrived with about 1500 mercenaries and - though the ships soon left when the Royalists ran out of money to pay them - this incited sufficient Kentish fear of foreign invasion to allow Sir Michael Livesey to raise a large enough force to come to Colonel Rich ' s aid . On 28 July , the Royalist warships returned and , after 3 weeks of failed attempts to land a relief force at Deal , on the night of 13 August , managed to land 800 soldiers and sailors under cover of darkness . This force might have been able to surprise the besieging Parliamentarian force from behind had it not been for a Royalist deserter who alerted the besiegers in time to defeat the Royalists , with less than a hundred of them managing to get back to the ships ( though 300 managed to flee to Sandown Castle ) . Another attempt at landing soon afterwards also failed and , when on 23 August news was fired into Deal Castle on an arrow of Cromwell ' s victory at Preston , most Royalist hope was lost and 2 days later Deal ' s garrison surrendered , followed by Sandown on 5 September . This finally ended the Kentish rebellion . Rich was made Captain of Deal Castle , a position he held until 1653 and in which he spent around £500 on repairs . Revolt elsewhere . In Cornwall , Northamptonshire , North Wales , and Lincolnshire the revolt collapsed as easily as that in Kent . Only in South Wales , Essex , and the north of England was there serious fighting . In the first of these districts , South Wales , Cromwell rapidly reduced all the fortresses except Pembroke . Here Laugharne , Poyer , and Powel held out with the desperate courage of deserters . In the north , Pontefract Castle was surprised by the Royalists , and shortly afterwards Scarborough Castle declared for the King as well . Fairfax , after his success at Maidstone and the pacification of Kent , turned northward to reduce Essex , where , under their ardent , experienced , and popular leader Sir Charles Lucas , the Royalists were in arms in great numbers . Fairfax soon drove Lucas into Colchester , but the first attack on the town was repulsed and he had to settle down to a long and wearisome siege . A Surrey rising is remembered only for the death of the young and gallant Lord Francis Villiers , younger brother of George Villiers , 2nd Duke of Buckingham , in a skirmish at Kingston ( July 7 , 1648 ) . The rising collapsed almost as soon as it had gathered force , and its leaders , the Duke of Buckingham and Henry Rich , the Earl of Holland , escaped , after another attempt to induce London to declare for them , to St Albans and St Neots , where Holland was taken prisoner . Buckingham escaped overseas . Lambert in the north . Major - General John Lambert , a brilliant young Parliamentarian commander of twenty - nine , was more than equal to the situation . He left the sieges of Pontefract Castle and Scarborough Castle to Colonel Edward Rossiter , and hurried into Cumberland to deal with the English Royalists under Sir Marmaduke Langdale . With his cavalry , Lambert got into touch with the enemy about Carlisle and slowly fell back to Bowes and Barnard Castle . Lambert fought small rearguard actions to annoy the enemy and gain time . Langdale did not follow him into the mountains . Instead , he occupied himself in gathering recruits , supplies of material , and food for the advancing Scots . Lambert , reinforced from the Midlands , reappeared early in June and drove Langdale back to Carlisle with his work half finished . About the same time , the local horse of Durham and Northumberland were put into the field for the Parliamentarians by Sir Arthur Hesilrige , governor of Newcastle . On 30 June , under the direct command of Colonel Robert Lilburne , these mounted forces won a considerable success at the River Coquet . This reverse , coupled with the existence of Langdale ' s Royalist force on the Cumberland side , practically compelled Hamilton to choose the west coast route for his advance . His Scottish Engager army began slowly to move down the long couloir between the mountains and the sea . The Campaign of Preston which followed is one of the most brilliant in English history . Campaign of Preston . On 8 July 1648 , when the Scottish Engager army crossed the Border in support of the English Royalist , the military situation was well defined . For the Parliamentarians , Cromwell besieged Pembroke in South Wales , Fairfax besieged Colchester in Essex , and Colonel Rossiter besieged Pontefract and Scarborough in the north . On 11 July , Pembroke fell and Colchester followed on 28 August . Elsewhere the rebellion , which had been put down by rapidity of action rather than sheer weight of numbers , smouldered , and Charles , the Prince of Wales , with the fleet cruised along the Essex coast . Cromwell and Lambert , however , understood each other perfectly , while the Scottish commanders quarrelled with each other and with Langdale . As the English uprisings were close to collapse , it was on the adventures of the Engager Scottish army that the interest of the war centred . It was by no means the veteran army of the Earl of Leven , which had long been disbanded . For the most part it consisted of raw levies and , as the Kirk party had refused to sanction The Engagement ( an agreement between Charles I and the Scots Parliament for the Scots to intervene in England on behalf of Charles ) , David Leslie and thousands of experienced officers and men declined to serve . The leadership of James Hamilton , the Duke of Hamilton proved to be a poor substitute for that of Leslie . Hamilton ' s army , too , was so ill provided that as soon as England was invaded it began to plunder the countryside for the bare means of sustenance . On 8 July 1648 , the Scots , with Langdale as advanced guard , were about Carlisle , and reinforcements from Ulster were expected daily . Lambert ' s horse were at Penrith , Hexham and Newcastle , too weak to fight and having only skillful leading and rapidity of movement to enable them to gain time . Appleby Castle surrendered to the Scots on 31 July , whereat Lambert , who was still hanging on to the flank of the Scottish advance , fell back from Barnard Castle to Richmond so as to close Wensleydale against any attempt of the invaders to march on Pontefract . All the restless energy of Langdale ' s horse was unable to dislodge Lambert from the passes or to find out what was behind that impenetrable cavalry screen . The crisis was now at hand . Cromwell had received the surrender of Pembroke Castle on 11 July , and had marched off , with his men unpaid , ragged and shoeless , at full speed through the Midlands . Rains and storms delayed his march , but he knew that the Duke of Hamilton in the broken ground of Westmorland was still worse off . Shoes from Northampton and stockings from Coventry met him , at Nottingham , and , gathering up the local levies as he went , he made for Doncaster , where he arrived on 8 August , having gained six days in advance of the time he had allowed himself for the march . He then called up artillery from Hull , exchanged his local levies for the regulars who were besieging Pontefract , and set off to meet Lambert . On 12 August he was at Wetherby , Lambert with horse and foot at Otley , Langdale at Skipton and Gargrave , Hamilton at Lancaster , and Sir George Monro with the Scots from Ulster and the Carlisle Royalists ( organized as a separate command owing to friction between Monro and the generals of the main army ) at Hornby . On 13 August , while Cromwell was marching to join Lambert at Otley , the Scottish leaders were still disputing whether they should make for Pontefract or continue through Lancashire so as to join Lord Byron and the Cheshire Royalists . Battle of Preston . On 14 August 1648 Cromwell and Lambert were at Skipton , on 15 August at Gisburn , and on 16 August they marched down the valley of the Ribble towards Preston with full knowledge of the enemy ' s dispositions and full determination to attack him . They had with them horse and foot not only of the Army , but also of the militia of Yorkshire , Durham , Northumberland and Lancashire , and withal were heavily outnumbered , having only 8 , 600 men against perhaps 20 , 000 of Hamilton ' s command . But the latter were scattered for convenience of supply along the road from Lancaster , through Preston , towards Wigan , Langdale ' s corps having thus become the left flank guard instead of the advanced guard . Langdale called in his advanced parties , perhaps with a view to resuming the duties of advanced guard , on the night of 13 August , and collected them near Longridge . It is not clear whether he reported Cromwell ' s advance , but , if he did , Hamilton ignored the report , for on 17 August Monro was half a day ' s march to the north , Langdale east of Preston , and the main army strung out on the Wigan road , Major - General William Baillie with a body of foot , the rear of the column , being still in Preston . Hamilton , yielding to the importunity of his lieutenant - general , James Livingston , 1st Earl of Callendar , sent Baillie across the Ribble to follow the main body just as Langdale , with 3 , 000 foot and 500 horse only , met the first shock of Cromwell ' s attack on Preston Moor . Hamilton , like Charles at Edgehill , passively shared in , without directing , the Battle of Preston , and , though Langdale ' s men fought magnificently , they were after four hours ' struggle driven to the Ribble . Baillie attempted to cover the Ribble and Darwen bridges on the Wigan road , but Cromwell had forced his way across both before nightfall . Pursuit was at once undertaken , and not relaxed until Hamilton had been driven through Wigan and Winwick to Uttoxeter and Ashbourne . There , pressed furiously in rear by Cromwell ' s horse and held up in front by the militia of the midlands , the remnant of the Scottish army laid down its arms on 25 August . Various attempts were made to raise the Royalist standard in Wales and elsewhere , but Preston was the death - blow . On 28 August , starving and hopeless of relief , the Colchester Royalists surrendered to Lord Fairfax . Execution of Charles I . The victors in the Second Civil War were not merciful to those who had brought war into the land again . On the evening of the surrender of Colchester , Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle were shot . Laugharne , Poyer and Powel were sentenced to death , but Poyer alone was executed on 25 April 1649 , being the victim selected by lot . Of five prominent Royalist peers who had fallen into the hands of Parliament , three , the Duke of Hamilton , the Earl of Holland , and Lord Capel , one of the Colchester prisoners and a man of high character , were beheaded at Westminster on 9 March . Above all , after long hesitations , even after renewal of negotiations , the Army and the Independents conducted " Pride ' s Purge " of the House removing their ill - wishers , and created a court for the trial and sentence of King Charles I . At the end of the trial the 59 Commissioners ( judges ) found Charles I guilty of high treason , as a " tyrant , traitor , murderer and public enemy " . He was beheaded on a scaffold in front of the Banqueting House of the Palace of Whitehall on 30 January 1649 . ( After the Restoration in 1660 , the regicides who were still alive and not living in exile were either executed or sentenced to life imprisonment . ) Pontefract Castle . Pontefract Castle was noted by Oliver Cromwell as " [ . . . ] one of the strongest inland garrisons in the kingdom " . Even in ruins , the castle held out in the north for the Royalists . Upon the execution of Charles I , the garrison recognised Charles II as King and refused to surrender . It was the last Royalist stronghold to surrender . On 24 March 1649 , almost two months after Charles was beheaded , the garrison finally capitulated . Parliament had the remains of the castle demolished the same year .