1st. English Civil War

January 1642, a few days after his failure to capture five members of the House of Commons, fearing for his own personal safety and for that of his family and retinue, Charles I left the London area. Further negotiations by frequent correspondence between Charles I and the Long Parliament through to early summer proved fruitless. As the summer progressed, cities and towns declared their sympathies for one faction or the other: for example, the garrison of Portsmouth under the command of Sir George Goring declared for the King,but when Charles I tried to acquire arms for his cause from Kingston upon Hull, the depository for the weapons used in the previous Scottish campaigns, Sir John Hotham, the military governor appointed by Parliament in January, initially refused to let Charles I enter Hull, and when Charles I returned with more men, drove them off. Charles I issued a warrant for Sir John Hotham to be arrested as a traitor but was powerless to enforce it. Throughout the summer months, tensions rose and there was brawling in a number of places, with the first death of the conflict taking place in Manchester. At the outset of the conflict, much of the country remained neutral, though the Navy and most English cities favoured Parliament, while the King found considerable support in rural communities. Historians estimate that between
them, both sides had only about 15,000 men. However, the war quickly spread and eventually involved every level of society, areas attempted to remain neutral, some formed bands of Clubmen to protect their localities against the worst excesses of the armies of both sides, but most found it impossible to withstand both the King and Parliament
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