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‘Fitted for Desperation’: Honour and Treachery in Parliament’s Yorkshire Command, 1642–1643
Author(s) -
Hopper Andrew James
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
history
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.12
H-Index - 15
eISSN - 1468-229X
pISSN - 0018-2648
DOI - 10.1111/1468-229x.00183
Subject(s) - allegiance , parliament , honour , royalist , gentry , spanish civil war , law , history , virtue , politics , classics , sociology , political science , ancient history
In the course of 1643 no fewer than five of Yorkshire’s MPs, who had supported parliament at the outbreak of civil war, defected to the king, and as many as another seventeen of the county’s leading gentry and army officers either did so or were strongly suspected of doing so. The MPs were Sir John Hotham, his son John Hotham, Sir Hugh Cholmley, Sir Henry Anderson and Michael Wharton. Although the drift towards royalist allegiance was by no means restricted to Yorkshire, this article will focus on that county as it provides an outstanding yet hitherto neglected example. From an early stage this split within the parliamentarian command was clearly evident in religious differences and rival conceptions of honour and civic virtue. The motivations of those who changed their allegiance were primarily rooted in concern for the safety of their estates and fears of social and religious radicalism. Had these defectors combined their efforts, parliament would probably have lost the war.