The English Civil Wars had many causes but the personality of Charles I must be counted as one of the major reasons. Few people could have predicted that the civil war that started in 1642 would have ended with the public execution of Charles. No king had ever been executed in England and the execution of Charles was not greeted with joy.
The status of the monarchy had started to decline under the reign of James I. He was known as the "wisest fool in Christendom". James was a firm believer in the "divine right of kings". This was a belief that God had made someone a king and as God could not be wrong; neither could anyone appointed by him to rule a nation. James expected Parliament to do as he wanted; he did not expect it to argue with any of his decisions. However, Parliament had one major advantage over James - they had money and he was continually short of it. Parliament and James clashed over custom duties. This was one source of James' income but Parliament told him that he could not collect it without their permission. In 1611, James suspended Parliament and it did not meet for another 10 years. James used his friends to run the country and they were rewarded with titles. This caused great offence to those Members of Parliament who believed that they had the right to run the country. In 1621, James re-called Parliament to discuss the future marriage of his son, Charles, to a Spanish princess. Parliament was outraged. If such a marriage occurred, would the children from it be brought up as Catholics? Spain was still not considered a friendly nation to England and many still remembered 1588 and the Spanish Armada. The marriage never took place but the damaged relationship between king and Parliament was never mended by the time James died in 1625.
Charles had a very different personality compared to James. Charles was arrogant, conceited and was also a strong believer in the divine rights of kings. He had witnessed the damaged relationship between his father and Parliament, and considered that Parliament was entirely at fault. He found it difficult to believe that a king could be wrong. His conceit and arrogance were eventually to lead to his execution. From 1625 to 1629, Charles argued with parliament over most issues, but money and religion were the most common causes of arguments. Although only parliament could pass laws and grant money for war, Charles chose to rule without parliament if they refused to do what he wanted. In 1629, Charles copied his father. He refused to let Parliament meet. Members of Parliament arrived at Westminster to find that the doors had been locked with large chains and padlocks. They were locked out for eleven years - a period they called the Eleven Years Tyranny.
Another major influence in the outbreak of the Civil War was religion. The religious quarrels began right at the start of Charles' reign, when Charles married Henrietta Maria, a French Catholic. Although Charles didn't choose to marry her - his father, James, set up the marriage - the public, especially the Puritans, didn't like having a Catholic as Queen. A few extremists even saw this as a sign that Charles was secretly Catholic! Another factor in the outbreak of civil war was foreign affairs. On the continent, the 30 Years War was going on, where Catholic rulers attempted to wipe out the Protestants in their countries. This fuelled people's fears that something similar might happen in England. After the King dissolved Parliament, he made William Laud the Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1633. While Laud was Archbishop, he made many changes to the Church. Most of these changes involved beatifying the Church and bringing back robes for priests, statues and stained-glass windows. All these things reminded the English of Catholicism.
In 1636, Archbishop Laud decided to introduce the English Prayer Book (which stated how services should be run) into Scotland. There was nationwide rioting in Scotland, because no one wanted to follow the new Prayer Book. Scotland was a Presbyterian (Puritan) country, and they thought that the English Prayer Book was far too Catholic to use in Scotland. The Scots were not prepared to tolerate this and riots broke out in Edinburgh and spread across Scotland. This eventually led in 1639 to many Scots, called the Covenanters, threatening to invade England. Charles sent an army to Scotland to put down the riots. It failed to do this and the English force was defeated by the Scottish one. At this point, Charles had to call Parliament to ask for taxes to pay for the war. Parliament first put Laud on trial, and found him guilty. By 1642, relations between Parliament and Charles had become very bad. Charles had to do as Parliament wished as they had the ability to raise the money that Charles needed. However, as a firm believer in the "divine right of kings", such a relationship was unacceptable to Charles. He went to Parliament with 300 soldiers to arrest his five biggest critics. Someone close to the king had already tipped off Parliament that these men were about to be arrested and they had already fled to the safety of the city of London where they could easily hide from the king. However, Charles had shown his true side. Members of Parliament represented the people. Here was Charles attempting to arrest five Members of Parliament simply because they dared to criticise him. If Charles was prepared to arrest five Members of Parliament, how many others were not safe? Even Charles realised that things had broken down between him and Parliament. Only six days after trying to arrest the five Members of Parliament, Charles left London to head for Oxford to raise an army to fight Parliament for control of England. A civil war could not be avoided.
The Civil War started on 22 August 1642, when Charles I raised his standard at Nottingham. North Wales was, as a whole, regarded as Royalist territory and the nobility and gentry, with few exceptions like the majority of the Welsh counties, declared for the King. Though the part North Wales played in the conflict was not greatly conspicuous, it was of considerable local interest and consequence. When Charles was mustering his forces in York in that year, he received an address from the gentry, ministers and freeholders of the county of Flint full of intense and fervid expressions of loyalty and allegiance. The county also paid an assessment of £750 towards the support of the Royalist Army.
Roger Mostyn of Mostyn Hall, who was then about eighteen years of age,
was one of the first of the local gentry to take up arms for the cause of the
king. Within a fortnight, under His Majesty's Commission, he raised a rough and
ready force, mostly comprised of agricultural workers, miners and labourers,
which he equipped and maintained at his own expense. After he had taken
Hawarden Castle he entered with his troops into Chester, then besieged by the
Parliamentary forces. He was appointed Governor of Flint Castle and at his own cost,
he ordered the repair of timeworn and
neglected Flint Castle, putting it in a defensible state and garrisoned with
troops. In those days Flint was little more than a rural village despite being
the county town. It is chiefly because of the protection to shipping afforded by
the castle that Flint is important during the Civil War. During the Civil War
the castle would have been used as a storage place for the pikes, muskets and
headpieces required by the troops. It was to serve as a useful base for harrying
the besiegers of Chester and for helping blockade runners to get into the city
by water with badly needed supplies of food and equipment but the
Parliamentarians had their own ships on the River Dee trying to stop the
traffic. At the outset of war it was probable that
a nominal garrison of volunteers would be posted in the castle to see that the
gates were guarded. The centre of local attention was Chester.
Flint Castle, like other castles in Wales, changed hands several times during
the turmoil of the Civil War and was alternately in possession of the
Parliamentary Forces and the Royalists.
On 10th November 1643 a formidable Parliamentary Army of 2,000 men under Sir Thomas Myddelton
and Sir William Brereton took Hawarden Castle and while Brereton was at Hawarden
another force of 600 horse and foot marched down the road to Mold and having
possessed this town, pressed on forward to Holywell and Flint. They could not
have reached Flint before 11th November, and as they were in retreat on the
18th, the so called siege of the castle must have been of short duration as the
surrender is reported to have been on 12th November 1643. The castle was under
the control of Captain Griffith. It was on 18th November 1643, when Sir Thomas Myddelton
(also known as Middleton, who was the owner of Chirk Castle) who held the castle
for the Parliamentary forces, retreated when about 2,500 Irish Royalists
troops landed at Mostyn in Flintshire on 16 November 1643. The royalist
forces comprised four
regiments of foot and one of horse under the command of Major-General Sir
Michael Erneley sent over from Ireland by the Duke of Ormonde. The troops were
directed to north Wales in order to counter Brereton's invasion. Faced with
Erneley's veterans of the Irish service, Brereton and Myddelton abandoned north
Wales and withdrew to consolidate their forces in Cheshire and Lancashire,
leaving only a garrison at Hawarden Castle, which surrendered early in December.
Erneley's troops quickly re-established Royalist control of north Wales, then
advanced to occupy Chester, where they were joined by further regiments from
Ireland during the following weeks. Flint Castle was probably then taken under
the control of Colonel Davies of Gwysaney for the Royalists. Thomas Davies was
Colonel General in Flintshire and Denbighshire under Lord Capel from 1643
Roger Mostyn and his men were involved
in the Battle of Edgehill in 1642 and then in the defence of Chester from 1642 to 1645. As the siege increased in intensity
the local knowledge which Roger Mostyn possessed proved of inestimable value as
his men were able to keep open the lines of communication whereby royalists in
North Wales conveyed supplies of coal and victuals to the beleaguered city.
His depleted troop, from fighting and desertions, was disbanded in the summer of
1645 and he went to live at one the family properties near Llandudno. He
returned to Chester with a new troop in the winter of 1645 but he left Chester
in December 1645 and crossed to Dublin, where he managed to recruit another
contingent of fighting-men for the Royalists but they arrived too late to help
Chester. Chester was taken after a terrible siege by the Parliamentary Forces on
3rd February 1646. Like many Royalists, he suffered severely for his
loyalty and by
family tradition it is believed he had spent over £60,000 of his personal fortune in the campaigns.
Many of the family treasures from Mostyn Hall were sold and for several years
he lived quietly at Plas Ucha, a large farmhouse on the estate. The gentry among
the North Wales Royalists were heavily fined by the new Parliament for their
support of Charles I. Roger Mostyn, described as 'The Governor, Flint Castle'
was fined £825 and his neighbour Robert Pennant fined £40.6.8. 'For taking up
arms for the King'. However, with their great resources of land and properties
and commercial interests, and three marriages, the family fortune was
eventually regained and after the Restoration, the valiant Colonel Roger Mostyn
was rewarded by Charles II in 1660 when he was created a baronet for his
services, and became the
Deputy Lieutenant and High Sheriff for Flintshire. Sir Roger died at Mostyn on 4th October 1690.
The First Civil War ended on 24th June 1646 when Articles of capitulation were
signed at Oxford. The Second Civil War took place between 1647 when the King
escapes from Hampton Court to the Isle of Wight and 1649 when King Charles was
beheaded. The Third Civil War took place between February 1649 when King Charles
II was proclaimed in Edinburgh and crowned at Scone, until October 1651 when King Charles escaped to
France.
Flint Castle must have been retaken by the
Parliamentarians because it was recaptured by Royalist Troops under the command of Sir William
Vaughan in September 1645 where they were later joined by some of the garrison from Beeston
Castle after its capitulation on 18th November but the castle was besieged on 1st June 1646 and
surrendered to Major General Thomas Mytton on 29th August 1646.
The fact that Flint's siege was protracted suggests that it was not pressed
vigorously at the expense of sacrificed lives. Time was on Mytton's die.
Hawarden had surrendered in April leaving Flint more vulnerable. Colonel
Mostyn's cavalry had evidently been employed in skirmishing, for Flint held
Parliamentary prisoners of war. Two days after the siege began, forty-six
of Mostyn's cavalrymen broke away from the castle riding off to their homes
rather than face the privations which lay ahead. The remaining gallant defenders defiantly
withstood the siege until all their provisions, including their horses were
consumed when they were allowed to march out with full military honours and to
return to their homes and occupations and instructed to make a declaration of
peace with the new authorities within six months. During the fighting both the town, which was then little more than a rural village, and the castle
suffered a heavy bombardment by the Parliamentary batteries and the castle was
also assailed by ships of war from the River Dee. Fierce and bloody fighting
raged in the streets and the town left stunned and shattered. The county, like
the whole of the country, soon faced the horrors of war, with raids for sheep
and cattle carried out by both sides to feed the hungry troops and records show
that fire-raising, murder and pillage sometimes marked the trail of the
contending armies. All able-bodied men between sixteen and sixty were liable for
military service in the war-wracked country. For a time the castle was garrisoned for Parliament with one tower used as a
prison with Captain Thelwall appointed Governor. On 22nd December 1646 Parliament voted that Flint Castle should be
dismantled and soon the stubborn old walls shuddered and fell in a thunder of
gunpowder. In 1647, the garrison was removed, and along with other North
Wales castles, it was slighted as ordered. Exactly what demolition was then
undertaken is not clear, but debris of this date was found during archaeological
excavations of the ditch near the south-west tower. In 1652, Flint was described
as almost buried in its own ruins.
The
town had suffered grievously in the bitter misfortunes of the hostilities. The
Parish Church had been spoiled and desecrated and the streets were silent and
seemingly deserted. The interior of the Parish Church was extensively damaged by
the Parliamentary Forces during the Civil War, when it was recorded that, 'Sir
William Brereton went to Flint with his men, and did pull down the organ of the
church (for musket balls) and the many monuments and all the Coats of Arms and hatchments and did
deface the windows'. A visitor to Flint in 1800, wrote an article in 'The
Gentlemen's Magazine', in which he stated, 'Flint Church is of considerable
antiquity. The interior is plain and contains little that claims the attention
of the traveller. There are some remains of painted glass, but too mutilated to
be described'. It is evident that the old Church, which had once been a
sanctuary of some splendour and beauty, and rich in furnishings and relics of
times past, had been profoundly and severely vandalised in the Civil War. The Civil War did not finally end until 1651.
John Taylor, the Water Poet, wrote in the summer of 1652, 'They have no saddler, taylor, weaver,
baker, butcher, brewer or button-maker. They have not so much as the signe of
an ale-house, so that I was doubtful of a lodging'. He says the town was devoid
of industry or accommodation, scarred and stunned by the misfortunes which had
befallen it. But life gradually
returned and it seemed that phoenix-like the old town rose again from the
destruction of nine grim and ruinous years of strife. For after the
Restoration, the people of Flint petitioned Charles II and complained that as a
reprisal for their loyalty to his father Charles I, the Assizes had been taken
away from the town by Oliver Cromwell and they beseeched for them to be restored.
Their petition was granted and subsequently the Great Sessions again met in
Flint on their Circuit.