S8 Ep697: 5. The New Model Army and the Death of a King Guest Author: Jonathan Healey Parliament reorganized its forces into the New Model Army, led by Thomas Fairfax and the committed Puritan Oliver Cromwell. After defeating the King at Naseby and suppressing a se
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John Batchelor
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🗓️ 5 April 2026
⏱️ 12 minutes
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Summary
5. The New Model Army and the Death of a King Guest Author: Jonathan Healey Parliament reorganized its forces into the New Model Army, led by Thomas Fairfax and the committed Puritan Oliver Cromwell. After defeating the King at Naseby and suppressing a second civil war involving the Scots, radical elements in the army, like Henry Ireton, pushed for drastic measures. Ireton argued that the "safety of the people is the supreme law," leading to the unprecedented public trial of Charles I for murder. In January 1649, despite the shock of most of Europe, the King was executed in London, an act performed in the name of popular sovereignty. (5)
1650 NOZZE DI CARLO
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor. |
| 0:09.8 | Here's John Bachelor. |
| 0:12.1 | Continuing with Associate Professor of Social History at Oxford University, Jonathan Healy, |
| 0:17.8 | his new book, The Blazing World, is a new history of Revolutionary England, |
| 0:22.4 | 1603 to 1689. It is now 1646. Charles I, the region of England and Ireland, this is everything |
| 0:32.4 | we understand, the power of the king, surrenders to the Scots called the Covenanters because he's being pursued |
| 0:39.9 | by the New Model Army led by Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell. Jonathan, we go immediately |
| 0:46.9 | to the personalities of these leaders of the New Model Army, because that will be determinative |
| 0:53.7 | of this regicide upon us. |
| 0:57.0 | What is the new model army and what is Fairfax to it? What is Cromwell to it at this point? Thank you. |
| 1:03.0 | Well, the New Model Army was the attempt by Parliament to reorganize their forces because they had found themselves in a sort of winning position in |
| 1:13.6 | the civil war that had taken place and then they'd blown it, they'd made a mess of it, |
| 1:19.6 | and they'd decided that part of the problem was that the commanders, particularly the earls |
| 1:24.6 | of Essex and the Earl of Manchester, were not sufficiently committed to full victory. |
| 1:30.3 | They wanted to sort of, you know, win the battles against the King and then go back to the negotiating table, |
| 1:34.3 | whereas actually what needed to be done was the King needed to be beaten completely in the battlefield. |
| 1:40.3 | And Essex and Manchester were seen as being too wet, if you like. |
| 1:56.8 | So Parliament basically had them fired and put in their place commanders who were felt to be more effective and more committed and more dynamic. |
| 2:02.2 | And they settled upon a sort of minor Yorkshire gentleman called Sir Thomas Fairfax, |
| 2:09.1 | who was, you know, perfectly solid general, politically fairly kind of, you know, non-committed, |
| 2:21.1 | and therefore able to sort of unify various factions. And, you know, various other people of whom the most important was the eventual commander of the horse, |
| 2:26.0 | so the cavalry, Oliver Cromwell. Now, Cromwell is a very interesting character, is sort of, you know, middling kind of farmer from the east of England and a very committed |
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