The New Model Army

Book excerpt: The New Model Army was one of the most formidable fighting forces ever assembled. Taking his evidence from contemporary sources, Ian Gentles describes its formation under Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell, their innovative tactics, the course of its decisive victories over the forces of Charles I, and its ferociously successful campaigns against the Scots and the Irish. As importantly, he examines the motivations and aspirations of the soldiers and their officers. The question of how far the New Model was a revolutionary army and how far a body of men whose religious passion was manipulated for the pragmatic, personal, or even conservative aims of its leaders is one that has occupied the minds of historians for three centuries. Ian Gentles provides a convincing resolution of this debate, raising new evidence to support his argument.