John Lambert (General, 1619)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John Lambert

John Lambert (born September 7, 1619 in Gallon Hall near Kirkby Malham , †  March 28, 1684 on Drake's Island in Plymouth Sound ) was an English politician and soldier during the English Civil War and the Commonwealth .

Example

Lambert was born on September 7, 1619 in Gallon Hall, Kirkby Malham, to an old English family. He studied in the judicial district Inns of Court in London jurisprudence and married in 1639 Frances Lister , the daughter of Sir William Lister .

Military career

The Battle of Marston Moor after a painting by J. Barker

John Lambert was made captain of the cavalry in the army of Ferdinando Fairfax, 2nd Lord Fairfax of Cameron in September 1642 . Within a year he was promoted to colonel of a cavalry regiment, and in October 1643 he distinguished himself in the siege of Hull . In early 1644 he served well in the battles of Nantwich and Bradford . At the Battle of Marston Moor , Lambert's own regiment was cut off from his army when Lord Goring attacked , but he was able to work his way back with some troops and join Oliver Cromwell on the other side of the battlefield.

When the New Model Army was established in early 1645, Colonel Lambert was appointed to succeed Sir Thomas Fairfax as Commander in Chief of the Northern Forces and received the title of Commission General. He was soon replaced by Sydnam Poyntz and under this officer he served in the Yorkshire campaign of 1645 and was wounded off Pontefract . In 1646 he was transferred to a regiment in the New Model Army, served Sir Thomas in the west of England and negotiated with Cromwell and other agents to negotiate the surrender of royalist Oxford in the same year. It can be seen , writes Charles Harding Firth in the Dictionary of National Biography , that right from the start he was viewed as an officer with unusual abilities, and was selected in particular for semi-political assignments.

The besieged Pontefract Castle

During the clashes between the army and parliament, Lambert took the side of the army. He assisted Henry Ireton in writing a speech and organizing the protests by the army. Both men had legal experience. In early August 1647, Lambert was dispatched by Fairfax as a major general to take over the armed forces in the northern counties. Whitelocke praised his management in this matter . He stopped mutinies within his troops, maintained strict discipline and brought down the Moss troops who had established themselves in the area of ​​the moorland.

At the start of the Second English Civil War , Lambert was a young general of 29 years. This more than lived up to his status. He left the sieges of Pontefract Castle and Scarborough Castle to Colonel Edward Rossiter , and hurried to Cumberland to negotiate with the English royalists under the leadership of Sir Marmaduke Langdale . With his cavalry he had enemy contact at Carlisle and slowly fell back, making small attacks against the rearguard to delay the advance of the enemy and gain time for Bowes and Barnard Castle . Langdale did not follow him into the mountains, but used the time to recruit recruits and complete supplies and supplies for the Scots. Lambert, who emerged strengthened from Central England, appeared in early June and drove him back to Carlisle, but left his work unfinished. Around the same time the native horses of Durham and Northumberland were used on the battlefield by Sir Arthur Hesilrige , and with them, under Colonel Robert Lilburne, achieved a notable success on July 30th at the River Coquet .

King Charles I's death sentence

This turn of the battle, coupled with the presence of the Langdale forces in Cumberland, forced Hamilton to use the west coast route to his advantage, and his army began to move slowly, taking the passage between mountain and sea. This campaign is one of the most brilliant in English military history. While the Scottish Army under James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Hamilton , invaded England in the summer of 1648, Lambert was forced to withdraw; but Lambert began to pursue the invaders until Cromwell emerged from Wales and the Scottish army, after three days of fierce fighting, was crushed at the Battle of Preston, not far from Walton-le-Dale, near Preston , Lancashire . After the battle, Lambert's cavalry led the chase, in which the fleeing royalist soldiers were pursued until they were trapped at Uttoxeter and Hamilton surrendered to Lambert on August 25, 1648. Lambert led the march on Scotland with the army of Cromwell until he returned. From December 1648 to March 1649 he was involved in the siege of Pontefract Castle . Lambert was sent to London at the time of the Pride's Purge , trial and execution of Charles I.

When Cromwell was appointed Commander-in-Chief in Scotland in July 1650, Lambert succeeded him as Major General and Deputy Commander-in-Chief. He was wounded at Musselburgh but returned to the front to take part in Dunbar's impending victory . He himself fought off a surprise attack by the Covenanters at the Battle of Hieton in County Hamilton on December 1, 1650. In July 1651 he was sent to Fife to fall in the back and flank of the Scottish Army at Falkirk , cut off supplies and forced them to take a defensive action. This project, in the course of which he won an important victory in the Battle of Inverkeithing , was so successful because Lambert had correctly seen the steps of Charles II beforehand. Lambert helped plan the resulting Worcester campaign and carried it out brilliantly. In the crowning victory at the Battle of Worcester , he commanded the right wing of the English army, killing his horse under him. The MPs offered him lands in Scotland worth £ 1,000 a year.

Political career

John Lambert became Commissioner for Settlement Affairs in Scotland in October 1651 and was appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland after the death of Ireton in January 1652 . He made extensive preparations; Parliament restored the Irish administration and Lambert refused to take up his duties in the new circumstances. He then began to oppose the so-called rump parliament . In the council of officers led the party that called for a representative government, as opposed to Thomas Harrison , who advocated an oligarchy of God's fearful men. Both groups hated the remnant of the Long Parliament and urged Cromwell to disband it.

At the same time that Lambert was visited by parliamentary leaders to explain with him the possibility of how Cromwell could be relieved of his supreme command, on March 15, 1653, he refused to see him and spoke of him contemptuously as incomprehensible Lambert . On April 20, 1653, however, Lambert accompanied Cromwell when the latter dissolved the State Council and forcibly dispersed Parliament.

Lambert now advocated the establishment of a small executive council, which should be followed by an elected parliament, whose power should be limited by a written instrument of government. A ruling spirit on the Council of State and an idol in the Army, he was seen as a potential rival to Cromwell in Supreme Executive, and the royalists briefly hoped that he would support them. He was invited to participate in the nominated " Barebone's Parliament " of 1653 with Cromwell, Harrison and John Desborough . As the gathering became less popular, Cromwell moved towards Lambert. In November 1653, Lambert presided over a meeting of officers when the issue of the constitutional separation of powers was discussed and the proposal was made to divide the nominated parliament. On December 12, 1653, Parliament abdicated and placed its powers in the hands of Oliver Cromwell, and on December 13, Lambert received from the officers the approval for the formation of a government instrument within the framework of which he was to take the lead. He was one of seven officers nominated to sit on the State Council created by the government instrument.

Oliver Cromwell

In the foreign policy of the Protectorate in 1653 he called for an alliance with Spain and war with France and decidedly rejected Cromwell's plan to undertake an expedition to the West Indies . In the parliamentary debates of the instrument of government in 1654, Lambert proposed the office of hereditary lord protector , which was rejected by the majority, including the Cromwell family. That year and 1656, Lord Lambert, as he now called himself, sat as a Member of Parliament for the West Riding . He was one of the major general appointed in August 1655 who received supreme command of the militias in the ten districts into which England was proposed to be divided. At the same time he was responsible for the discipline and enforcement of the laws in the districts.

Lambert also had a significant influence on the council committee, which issued instructions for administrative major generals. He was also the organizer of the police system that the officers also controlled. Samuel Gardiner suspected that differences of opinion between Protektor and Lambert in connection with these instructions led to an estrangement between the two men. Although Lambert had previously proposed Cromwell assuming the royal office, he rejected Parliament's proposal in February 1657 to proclaim Cromwell King of England.

A hundred officers, led by Charles Fleetwood , and Lambert went to the Protector and asked him to stop the operation. Cromwell's arguments did not convince Lambert and there was complete alienation between the two - personal as well as political. When Lambert refused to take the oath of service to the Lord Protector, he was relieved of all his offices and duties and instead received an annual pension of £ 2,000  . He retired from public life to Wimbledon . But shortly before his death, Cromwell was reconciled with Lambert and Lambert and his wife visited Cromwell in Whitehall .

When Richard Cromwell was proclaimed Protector on September 3, 1658, his greatest difficulty was that he had no real power over the army. Lambert, though not having a military mandate, was the most popular of the old Cromwell generals of rank and name and it was widely believed that he would take power from Oliver Cromwell. Richard Cromwell's supporters tried to appease him, and the royalist leaders had high hopes and even suggested that Charles II marry Lambert's daughter. At first, Lambert half-heartedly supported Richard Cromwell and had no part in the intrigues that the officers at Fleetwood's house, Wallingford House, were building. He was a member of the Third Protectorate Parliament , which met in January 1659 and which sat until it was dissolved in April, when it was dispersed by Fleetwood and Desborough. After that he kept the command again. In May 1659, he led the delegation that turned to Lenthall to invite the return of the rump parliament that had brought about the withdrawal of Richard Cromwell. He was appointed a member of the Security Committee and the State Council.

When Parliament was denied the right to appoint officers by Fleetwood in an attempt to gain power over the army, Lambert was entrusted with this task in the Council of Seven Offices. Parliament clearly distrusted the soldiers and again aroused discontent in the army. In the absence of any authority, the royalists felt encouraged to attempt to restore the monarchy under Charles II. The most serious of all was that of Sir George Booth and Charles Stanley, 8th Earl of Derby, and was smashed by Lambert on August 19, 1659 near Chester . In a petition from his army, he advocated making Fleetwood lord general and himself major general. The Republican Party in Parliament took offense. The MPs detained Lambert and other officers and placed Fleetwood as chairman of the military council under the supervision of the Speaker of the Parliament. The next day Lambert made sure that the doors of the parliament were locked and that the members of parliament stayed outside. On October 26, a new security committee was convened, including Lambert. He was also appointed major general of all the armed forces in England and Scotland and Fleetwood general.

Tower of London

Lambert was sent with a large force to meet George Monck , who commanded the English forces in Scotland, to come to an agreement with him or to compel him to come to an outcome on his terms. Monck, on the other hand, marched south. Lambert's army began to disintegrate and Monck kept him in constant uncertainty until his entire army deserted and he returned to London largely alone. Monck invaded London undefeated. The expelled Presbyterians were called up again. Lambert was thrown into the Tower of London on March 3, 1660 , from which he escaped a month later. He tried to rekindle the civil war in the Commonwealth's favor by issuing a proclamation calling on all supporters of the good old cause to gather on the Edgehill battlefield . But he was caught again on April 22nd in Daventry by Colonel Richard Ingoldsby . Ingoldsby had signed Charles II's father's death warrant and hoped to get the pardon by handing the Lambert over to the new regime. Lambert came back to the Tower of London and was then taken to Castle Cornet on Cornet Rock near the island of Guernsey .

During the Restoration , Lambert was initially excluded from prosecution due to a note from both Houses of Parliament to the King. But as early as 1662 the Cavalier Parliament charged him with high treason . He was brought to England with Sir Henry Vane in April 1662 and sentenced in June 1662. On July 25th, Lord Hatton was presented with a document stating that, as Governor of Guernsey, he should take "the person of John Lambert, commonly known as Colonel John Lambert" into custody and "arrest and imprison him as a traitor until further instructions are given" . On the following November 18, the King gave Lord Haton the order "to give Colonel John Lambert the freedom and enjoyment to move freely within the island, provided that his person is handled".

Next life

In 1667 Lambert was brought to Drake's Island off Plymouth , where he died during the severe winter of 1683/1684. His grave no longer exists, but he was buried on March 28, 1684 at St. Andrews Church in Plymouth.

meaning

Lambert's role in the Civil War and the Commonwealth are largely forgotten these days. It has been reported that Lambert's nature had more in common with the royalist minds than with the Puritan. Conceited and ambitious, he believed that Cromwell could not hold his own without him, and when Cromwell died, he thought of taking his place. As a soldier he was more than just a fighting general and had many of the ingenious features of a great general. A skilled writer and orator and an accomplished negotiator, he enjoyed quiet domestic politics. He learned his love for gardening through Lord Fairfax, who was his master in the arts of war. He painted the flowers he grew and was accused by Mrs. Hutchinson of "making the flowers in his garden beautiful and annoying his wife and daughters". It is reported that before his death he converted to the Roman Catholic faith.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sunday, April 22nd, 1660. The Diary of Samuel Pepys (English)
personal data
SURNAME Lambert, John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English politician and soldier during the English Civil War and the Commonwealth
DATE OF BIRTH September 7, 1619
PLACE OF BIRTH Gallon Hall at Kirkby Malham
DATE OF DEATH March 28, 1684
Place of death Drake's Island , Plymouth Sound