Good Old Cause
Encyclopedia
The Good Old Cause was the retrospective name given by the soldiers of the New Model Army
for the complex of reasons for which they fought, on behalf of the Parliament of England
.
Their struggle was against King Charles I
and the Royalist
s during the English Civil War
; and they continued to support the English Commonwealth between 1649 and 1660. Oliver Cromwell
spoke, in a letter to Sir William Spring
in 1643, of the archetypal "plain, russet-coated captain that knows what he fights for, and loves what he knows" as being the ideal of republican soldiery. Many of those who supported the Good Old Cause were also Independent
s who advocated local congregational control
of religious and church matters.
, went back to the Army's own declarations during the wars, to republican pamphlets like those produced by John Lilburne
, Marchamont Needham
and John Milton
. In the disappointment of the moment, they imagined that there had been a moment of revolutionary purity when all these writers had agreed on something intrinsically republican and good — this entity, shifting as the sands depending upon the writer, was often labelled the "Good Old Cause".
After the death of Oliver Cromwell
the phrase came into use gradually, passing to and fro in documents and speeches. By April 1659 and for months afterwards it was frequently heard on general discourse and every second or third pamphlet in the booksellers' shops had "The Good Old Cause" on its title-page or running through its text.
The phrase was open to interpretation, but in 1659 to its exponents it meant the pure Republican constitution which had been founded on the Regicide
and which lasted till Cromwell's dissolution of the Rump Parliament
on the 20th April, 1653. It proclaimed that Cromwell's interim dictatorship and Protectorate had been an interruption of the natural course of things, dexterously leaving it an open question whether that interruption had been necessary or justifiable, but calling on all men, now that Cromwell was dead and his effectiveness gone with him, to regard his rule as exceptional and extraordinary, and to revert to the old Commonwealth.
In April 1660 General John Lambert
tried to raise an army against the restoration of The Crown
in favour of the Commonwealth by issuing a proclamation calling on all supporters of the "Good Old Cause" to rally on the battlefield of Edgehill
, but he was arrested before arriving at the old battlefield and gathering enough forces to threaten General George Monck, the power behind the restoration movement. In October the same year Daniel Axtell
, the officer who had commanded the guard during the Trial of Charles I
, went to his execution unrepentant declaring that "If I had a thousand lives, I could lay them all down for the [Good Old] Cause"
by linking their cause to the cause of the English Civil War radicals. This memory was sustained by the publication of various tracts about the civil war across the 18th Century — Edmund Ludlow's
Memoirs in 1701 by John Toland
for instance that sought to radicalise the memory of the English Civil War.
Work on the republican imagination includes Jonathan Scott on Algernon Sydney
and seventeenth-century republicanism, Nigel Smith on the radical John Streater
, and Blair Worden
on the memory of the Civil Wars.
New Model Army
The New Model Army of England was formed in 1645 by the Parliamentarians in the English Civil War, and was disbanded in 1660 after the Restoration...
for the complex of reasons for which they fought, on behalf of the Parliament of England
Parliament of England
The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England. In 1066, William of Normandy introduced a feudal system, by which he sought the advice of a council of tenants-in-chief and ecclesiastics before making laws...
.
Their struggle was against King Charles I
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
and the Royalist
Cavalier
Cavalier was the name used by Parliamentarians for a Royalist supporter of King Charles I and son Charles II during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration...
s during the English Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
; and they continued to support the English Commonwealth between 1649 and 1660. Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
spoke, in a letter to Sir William Spring
Sir William Spring, 1st Baronet
Sir William Spring, 1st Baronet was a British politician and a member of the wealthy and prominent Spring family of Pakenham, Suffolk.-Life:...
in 1643, of the archetypal "plain, russet-coated captain that knows what he fights for, and loves what he knows" as being the ideal of republican soldiery. Many of those who supported the Good Old Cause were also Independent
Independent (religion)
In English church history, Independents advocated local congregational control of religious and church matters, without any wider geographical hierarchy, either ecclesiastical or political...
s who advocated local congregational control
Congregationalist polity
Congregationalist polity, often known as congregationalism, is a system of church governance in which every local church congregation is independent, ecclesiastically sovereign, or "autonomous"...
of religious and church matters.
1659–1660
Those who disagreed with expedient political compromises made during the period of the CommonwealthCommonwealth of England
The Commonwealth of England was the republic which ruled first England, and then Ireland and Scotland from 1649 to 1660. Between 1653–1659 it was known as the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland...
, went back to the Army's own declarations during the wars, to republican pamphlets like those produced by John Lilburne
John Lilburne
John Lilburne , also known as Freeborn John, was an English political Leveller before, during and after English Civil Wars 1642-1650. He coined the term "freeborn rights", defining them as rights with which every human being is born, as opposed to rights bestowed by government or human law...
, Marchamont Needham
Marchamont Needham
Marchamont Needham was a journalist, publisher and pamphleteer during the English Civil War, who wrote official news and propaganda for both sides of the conflict....
and John Milton
John Milton
John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...
. In the disappointment of the moment, they imagined that there had been a moment of revolutionary purity when all these writers had agreed on something intrinsically republican and good — this entity, shifting as the sands depending upon the writer, was often labelled the "Good Old Cause".
After the death of Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
the phrase came into use gradually, passing to and fro in documents and speeches. By April 1659 and for months afterwards it was frequently heard on general discourse and every second or third pamphlet in the booksellers' shops had "The Good Old Cause" on its title-page or running through its text.
The phrase was open to interpretation, but in 1659 to its exponents it meant the pure Republican constitution which had been founded on the Regicide
Regicide
The broad definition of regicide is the deliberate killing of a monarch, or the person responsible for the killing of a monarch. In a narrower sense, in the British tradition, it refers to the judicial execution of a king after a trial...
and which lasted till Cromwell's dissolution of the Rump Parliament
Rump Parliament
The Rump Parliament is the name of the English Parliament after Colonel Pride purged the Long Parliament on 6 December 1648 of those members hostile to the Grandees' intention to try King Charles I for high treason....
on the 20th April, 1653. It proclaimed that Cromwell's interim dictatorship and Protectorate had been an interruption of the natural course of things, dexterously leaving it an open question whether that interruption had been necessary or justifiable, but calling on all men, now that Cromwell was dead and his effectiveness gone with him, to regard his rule as exceptional and extraordinary, and to revert to the old Commonwealth.
In April 1660 General John Lambert
John Lambert (general)
John Lambert was an English Parliamentary general and politician. He fought during the English Civil War and then in Oliver Cromwell's Scottish campaign , becoming thereafter active in civilian politics until his dismissal by Cromwell in 1657...
tried to raise an army against the restoration of The Crown
The Crown
The Crown is a corporation sole that in the Commonwealth realms and any provincial or state sub-divisions thereof represents the legal embodiment of governance, whether executive, legislative, or judicial...
in favour of the Commonwealth by issuing a proclamation calling on all supporters of the "Good Old Cause" to rally on the battlefield of Edgehill
Battle of Edgehill
The Battle of Edgehill was the first pitched battle of the First English Civil War. It was fought near Edge Hill and Kineton in southern Warwickshire on Sunday, 23 October 1642....
, but he was arrested before arriving at the old battlefield and gathering enough forces to threaten General George Monck, the power behind the restoration movement. In October the same year Daniel Axtell
Daniel Axtell
Colonel Daniel Axtell was Captain of the Parliamentary Guard at the trial of King Charles I at Westminster Hall in 1649. Shortly after the Restoration he was hanged, drawn and quartered as a regicide....
, the officer who had commanded the guard during the Trial of Charles I
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
, went to his execution unrepentant declaring that "If I had a thousand lives, I could lay them all down for the [Good Old] Cause"
Later influence
The "Good Old Cause" became, in the hands of radicals in the 18th and 19th centuries, one of the main supports to agitation within EnglandEngland
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
by linking their cause to the cause of the English Civil War radicals. This memory was sustained by the publication of various tracts about the civil war across the 18th Century — Edmund Ludlow's
Edmund Ludlow
Edmund Ludlow was an English parliamentarian, best known for his involvement in the execution of Charles I, and for his Memoirs, which were published posthumously in a rewritten form and which have become a major source for historians of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. After service in the English...
Memoirs in 1701 by John Toland
John Toland
John Toland was a rationalist philosopher and freethinker, and occasional satirist, who wrote numerous books and pamphlets on political philosophy and philosophy of religion, which are early expressions of the philosophy of the Age of Enlightenment...
for instance that sought to radicalise the memory of the English Civil War.
Work on the republican imagination includes Jonathan Scott on Algernon Sydney
Algernon Sydney
Algernon Sidney or Sydney was an English politician, republican political theorist, colonel, and opponent of King Charles II of England, who became involved in a plot against the King and was executed for treason.-Early life:Sidney's father was Robert Sidney, 2nd Earl of Leicester, a direct...
and seventeenth-century republicanism, Nigel Smith on the radical John Streater
John Streater
John Streater was an English soldier, political writer and printer. An opponent of Oliver Cromwell, Streater was a "key republican critic of the regime" He was a leading example of the “commonwealthmen”, one division among the English republicans of the period, along with James Harrington, Edmund...
, and Blair Worden
Blair Worden
Blair Worden is a British historian, among the leading authorities on the period of the English Civil War and on relations between literature and history more generally in the early modern period. He matriculated as an undergraduate at Pembroke College, Oxford, in 1963. After spending a year as a...
on the memory of the Civil Wars.
Further reading
- To the Parliament, the Army, and all the Well-affected in the Nation, who have been faithful to the Good Old Cause (1659).
- Woolrych, A. H.Austin Herbert WoolrychAustin Herbert Woolrych was an English historian, a specialist in the period of the English Civil War.-Life:...
; The Good Old Cause and the Fall of the Protectorate Cambridge Historical Journal, Vol. 13, No. 2 (1957), pp. 133–61. - Ballad: The Downfall Of The Good Old Cause anti-commonwealth song written between 1678 and 1694
- Ronald H. Fritze, William B. Robison Historical dictionary of Stuart England, 1603-1689, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1996, ISBN 0313283915, 9780313283918 p. 121 definition of Commonwealthmen who espoused the Good Old Cause (described on pp. 211,212).