Rank and File Radicalism

On June 2^nd 1647, Charles was enjoying another day playing bowls with two of the Parliamentary Commissioners who watched over him.

A junior officer from the Army, Cornet Joyce, rode up to Holmby House with two troops of cavalry and demanded the King accompany him. When asked by what right he importuned the monarch, Joyce showed Charles his well-armed troop of horse. The King politely acquiesced. He was taken to Cambridge, where for the first time he came face to face with Cromwell, and then on to his hunting lodge at Newmarket, now closely patrolled by Army forces.

The King was still the King. Every party wanted to have him as their own. Parliament, the Army, and the remaining Royalists all wanted control of the body of the monarch. Without him, no one could get the deal they wanted and no-one yet wanted a settlement without a monarch.

Charles himself, ever the opportunist, enjoyed watching the widening gulf within the Parliamentary camp. Once again, he thought he could simply split the difference between his opponents and walk away in triumph. His clumsy game plan was to divide the army from Parliament and seek the best deal from either. He confided to one supporter that his hope was 'to draw either the Presbyterians or the Independents to side with me for extirpating one the other', and then he would 'be really King again.' He saw discontent with Parliament brewing and watched carefully the tensions within the Army. In the face of such splits, he refused any talk of settlements based on religious or political compromise.

Unfortunately for Charles, this wasn't 1640 anymore - the world had moved on. The Civil Wars had bred new ideas and hopes. In his closeted world of country mansions, Charles was living in a previous age. Outside, an increasing number of people, frustrated by the war and the King's refusal to settle, were toying with truly revolutionary ideas. And this included the troops of the New Model Army.