The Coming of War

Abstract

T HE English Civil War broke out untidily and haphazardly. No-one had wanted it and the nation as a whole faced up to it slowly and reluctantly, seeking to preserve itself from the bloodshed, miseries and burdens that fighting was bound to bring. The initial military campaign between September and December 1642 cut a swathe of plunder across the midlands; it left some confusion and disorder in its wake yet it was a passing wind. This essay is concerned with provincial reactions to the war in the period between that campaign and the breakdown of the Treaty of Oxford negotiations in April 1643. It is focused on the local struggles that spluttered through the first autumn and winter of the war before becoming entrenched in the following summer, struggles that brought the war home to Englishmen living in every corner of the land. 1

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