William Waller
Sir William Waller (around 1597 - September 19, 1668 ) was an English officer during the English Civil War .
Life
Early life
He was educated at Magdalen Hall in Oxford and served in the Venetian Army and in the Thirty Years' War . After participating in the campaign of the Earl of Oxford in the Palatinate , he was beaten on June 20, 1622 to Knight Bachelor ("Sir").
Election to parliament and early military career
Little is known about Waller's life up to 1640. At that time, he became a Member of Parliament for the Andover constituency . As a strict Presbyterian and a member of the opposition in parliament, he immediately became a supporter of the parliamentary troops when the civil war broke out in 1642.
He was also immediately given a command as a colonel in the Army and brought the siege of Portsmouth to a victorious end in September 1642. During the year he commanded the forces that took Farnham , Winchester and other strategic points in the south-west of England.
In early 1643 he was promoted to major general and commanded military operations in the Gloucester and Bristol area . He crowned this first campaign in the southwestern theater of war with victories at Highnam and the capture of Hereford .
He was then tasked with stopping the advance of Sir Ralph Hopton and the western royal army. Although he was actually defeated at the Battle of Lansdowne (near Bath ), he managed to encircle Hopton in the village of Devizes . With the help of reinforcements from Oxford, Hopton then succeeded in decisively defeating Waller's army in the Battle of Roundway Down (July 13, 1643).
In spite of these military confrontations, Hopton and Waller were good friends, and during the fighting both exchanged lively letters. However, this was not uncommon among the nobles of the time.
The breaking up of his army at Roundway hardly damaged Waller's military reputation. However, the Earl of Essex was criticized as commander in chief for allowing the royal troops from Oxford to attack Waller. The residents of London , who nicknamed him William the Conqueror, even raised troops in London and south-east England to provide Waller with a new army.
From this point on, Waller's career was increasingly marked by disappointments. His new forces consisted mostly of local soldiers who, while showing interest in their home counties, rejected long marches and military service in distant areas. You could only rely on them when they were in danger. At other times, such as the first siege of Basing House , they mutinied in the face of the enemy, deserted, and marched home. Her courage in critical situations such as the surprise attack at Alton in December 1643 and the reconquest of Arundel in January 1644 could not hide this.
Waller, on the other hand, was a gifted general who could best demonstrate his merits as the commander of a small, disciplined regular army. Those undisciplined, unpaid soldiers would have needed a leader like Cromwell . This lack of leadership was the only shortcoming in his military talent.
Under these circumstances it was not surprising that the military situation continued to deteriorate for him. Although he was able to stop Hopton's second advance at Cheriton in March 1644 , he was finally defeated by King Charles I in June 1644 in the Battle of Cropredy Bridge . His tactical success in the town of Speen in the subsequent Second Battle of Newbury in October changed nothing. His last campaign took him west to terrorize Taunton . Cromwell supported him as lieutenant general .
The New Model Army and later career
At that time there was confusion in the entire parliamentary army, so it had to be reformed from the ground up. The first proposal to set up a " New Model Army " actually came from William Waller, who wrote to the " Committee of the Two Kingdoms " on July 2, 1644 on this matter . At the same time as the New Model Army, the order came for members of parliament to resign from their military command. Waller was pleased to be able to comply with this instruction, as he had previously asked for his release. This ended his military career.
The events of 1643 and 1644, together with his strict Presbyterianism, had turned him into a bitter person who was intolerant of stricter regulations in the state, army and church. He criticized military policy in and outside parliament and promoted his own religious system. He later assisted the Presbyterian royalists in their conflict with the Commonwealth and the Protectorate . He was arrested several times between 1648 and 1659.
Post War and Death
In later years Waller participated in the negotiations for the reinstatement of Charles II as King of England and was re-elected to the House of Commons . He only sat in the “ Convention Parliament ” for a short time and then withdrew from politics. He died on September 19, 1668.
literature
- Wood's Athenae Oxonienses, Bliss edition, iii. 812;
- Recollections from General Sir William Waller (reprinted in "The Poetry of Anna Matilda", 1788),
- Vindication of the Character, & c. (1797).
Book by William Waller:
- Divine Meditations upon Several Occasions: with a Daily Directory ... To which is prefixed, a short account of Sir William Waller and his times, chiefly extracted from a MS
written by himself (reprint of the editions of 1680 and 1793 in 1839)
- Roundhead General: the Campaigns of Sir William Waller by John Adair ISBN 0-7509-1312-6
swell
- This article contains translated text from the 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica , which is considered the public domain.
- Ordinance to appoint Sir William Waller Serjeant Major General of the Forces in Gloucester and other adjacent Counties, and for paying his Army. ', Acts and Ordinances of the Interregnum, 1642-1660 (1911), pp. 79-80. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=55779 . Accessed April 13, 2007.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ William Arthur Shaw: The Knights of England. Volume 2, Sherratt and Hughes, London 1906, p. 179.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Waller, William |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Waller, Sir William (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English soldier, MP in the House of Commons |
| DATE OF BIRTH | around 1597 |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 19, 1668 |