Links and Sources

Links to reference materials, books and websites useful for BCW regimental research.

• Officers and Regiments of the Royalist Army (5 vols), Stuart Reid, Partizan Press, 1985. ISBN: 0-946525-12-9 etc. An invaluable compilation of Royalist officers and their regiments from the Indigent Officers List of 1663 supported by other sources. Usually gives a few lines of history on each regiment and lists officers, has interesting introductory pages and an excellent index.
• The Cavalier Army List (3 vols) Stuart Reid, Partizan Press, 2013. ISBN 978-1-85818-651-1. A much revised updated version of 'Officers and Regiments', re-organised and benefitting from additional sources.
• Royalist Officers in England and Wales 1642-60: A Biographical Dictionary. Peter Newman, Garland Reference Library of Social Science, 1981. ISBN 978-0824095031. Biographies of over 1600 Royalist field officers, an impressive work with a very impressive price tag.
• The Royalist Army in Northern England 1642-45 (2 vols) Peter R Newman, PhD Thesis, The University of York, 1978. Officer Lists and extensive biographical details of the Northern Royalists. Available online via EThOS
• The Royalist War Effort in the North Midlands 1642-1646 Martyn Bennett, PhD Thesis, Loughborough University, 1986. Details the Royalist forces of Leicestershire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Staffordshire and Lincolnshire. Available Online via EThOS
• The Armies of Sir Ralph Hopton, The Royalist Armies of the West 1642-46 Laurence Spring, Helion & Co, 2020. ISBN 978-1-913336-51-6. Account of the armies, regimental and officer Lists, equipment and flags of the King's Army of the West.

• The Cromwell Association Online Directory of Parliamentarian Army Officers Edited by Stephen K Roberts. Compiled by Tim Wales and hosted by British History Online. A new online resource that should prove immensely useful, listing over 4000 Parliamentarian officers of the First Civil War with brief biographical and military service details.
• Old Robin's Foot Stuart Peachey & Alan Turton, Partizan Press, 1987. ISBN 0 946525 30. Officer Lists, equipment and flags of the Earl of Essex's infantry regiments of the First Civil War. Second Edition (with a number of revisions, improved typesetting and new illustrations) Old Robin's Foot The Army of the Earl of Essex 1642-1645 Stuart Peachey & Alan Turton, Partizan Press, 2017. ISBN 978-1-85818-732-7.
• Chief Strength Of The Army. Essex's Horse (1642-1645) Alan Turton, Partizan Press. Details of the cavalry troops of Essex's army of the First Civil War.
• Waller's Army. The Regiments of Sir William Waller's Southern Association. Laurence Spring, The Pike and Shot Society, 2007. ISBN 978-1-902768-34-2. Officer lists and histories of the Southern Association regiments of the First Civil War, and other regiments attached temporarily to Waller's forces, including Trained Bands. Also has several colour plates illustrating cavalry cornets.
• The Regiments of the Eastern Association (2 vols) Laurence Spring, Stuart Press, 1998. ISBN 1 8504 120 1. Officer lists and brief histories of the Eastern Association forces in the First Civil War, as well as sketches of their cavalry cornets. Recently republished as one volume The Army of the Eastern Association Officers and Regiments Pike and Shot Society, 2016. ISBN 978-1-902768-50-7
• War in the West Part I. The Fall of the West (8 vols), Stuart Peachey & Alan Turton, Stuart Press, 1994. ISBN 1 85804 033 7. Highly detailed examination of the regiments and campaigns of the West Country Parliamentarians up to October 1643. Officer lists are reconstructed from the often fragmentary surviving sources.
• The Parliamentarian and Royalist war effort in Lancashire 1642-1651, PhD Thesis, James Malcolm Gratton, The University of Manchester, 1998. As well as an account of the Civil Wars in Lancashire, provides appendices with officer lists for Royalist and Parliamentarian regiments of the county. Available online via EThOS
• More Like Lions Than Men Sir William Brereton and the Cheshire Army of Parliament 1642-46, Andrew Abram, Helion & Co 2020. ISBN 978-1-913118-82-2. Account of the war in Cheshire; regimental and officer Lists, equipment and flags of Brereton's Cheshire army.

• A Regimental History of the Covenanting Armies 1639-1651 Edward M. Furgol, John Donald Publishers, 1990. ISBN 0 85976 194 0. Comprehensive and detailed histories of all the Scots Covenanter regiments and less formal units of the Civil Wars, usually giving a brief list of field officers and ministers.
• Scots Armies of the 17th Century 1. The Army of the Covenant 1639-51 Stuart Reid, Partizan Press, 1988. ISBN 094652550 1. Contains officer lists and brief histories of the Covenanter regiments up to the end of the First Civil War.
• Scots Armies of the 17th Century 2. Scots Colours Stuart Reid, Partizan Press, 1988. ISBN 094652550 1. Continues with officer lists and brief histories of the Covenanter regiments up to 1651 and assigns and illustrates Covenanter flags.

• Scots Armies of the 17th Century 3. The Royalist Armies 1639-46 Stuart Reid, Partizan Press, 1988. ISBN 094652550 1. Officer lists of the Scots Royalist forces and much discussion of their employment in action.

• Scots Armies in the Great Rebellion 1638-1658 Stuart Reid, Partizan Press, 2015. ISBN 978-1-85818-693-1. All three previously listed Scots Armies of the 17th Century volumes combined into one volume with improved typesetting and extra illustrations.

• The Regimental History of Cromwell's Army Charles Firth and Godfrey Davies, Oxford, 1940. ISBN 0198212178. The Grandfathers of Civil War Regimental History dealt with the New Model Army, Commonwealth and Protectorate regiments, giving extensive histories of each regiment and biographies of the main actors. Although additional details have since emerged, 80 years later this remains a tour de force and still the first publication to consult on the New Model.
• Reconstructing the New Model Army. Volume 1: Regimental Lists April 1645 to May 1649 Malcolm Wanklyn, Helion & Co, 2015. ISBN 978-1-910777-10-7. Painstakingly well detailed and referenced Officer Lists of the New Model Army's first four years, also includes officer lists for the new regiments raised up to 1649 and Essex's army in early 1645.
• Reconstructing the New Model Army. Volume 2: Regimental Lists April 1649 to May 1663 Malcolm Wanklyn, Helion & Co, 2016. ISBN 978-1-910777-88-6. A companion volume covering the New Model Army through to its disbanding.

• An English Army for Ireland Ian Ryder, Partizan Press. Officer Lists for the English forces serving in Ireland and their Irish Protestant allies during the First Civil War. Also details the units sent to reinforce the English Royalists.

• Edgehill 1642: The Campaign and the Battle Peter Young, Windrush, 1967. ISBN 0900075341. Classic battle account by Brigadier Young, founder of the Sealed Knot and successor to Firth and Davies as father of Civil War Regimental History. Contains histories of the Royalist and Parliamentarian regiments at Edgehill and reprints several useful contemporary tracts. A little dated now but still a great read.
• Cheriton 1644: The Campaign and the Battle John Adair, Roundwood Press, 1973. Extensive detail on Hopton's and Waller's armies and their campaigns. Subsequent arguments about the exact battle site do not detract from the analysis of the armies.
• Cropredy Bridge, 1644: The Campaign and the Battle Margaret Toynbee and Peter Young, Roundwood Press, 1970. Another classic, this time focussing on Waller's encounter with the King's Oxford Army.
• Marston Moor 1644: The Campaign and the Battle Peter Young, Windrush Press, 1970. The decisive battle of the Civil Wars examined, with regimental details of the Marquis of Newcastle's, Prince Rupert's, the Earl of Leven's, Earl of Manchester's and Lord Fairfax's armies of 1644. Several discoveries have emerged since publication but this is still a valuable tome.
• Naseby 1645: The Campaign and the Battle Peter Young, Century, 1985. ISBN 0712604898. Another major account with much regimental detail on the New Model and the Oxford Army, but not quite up to Young's earlier standards. Again several alternative interpretations have been proposed and further discoveries made since publication.
• The Battle of Benburb 1646 Clive Hollick, Mercier Press, 2011. ISBN 978 1 85635 670 1. Owen Roe O' Neill's Irish Catholic Confederates' victory over Monro's Scots Covenanters and Ulster Protestants. Gives histories of the regiments involved in the campaign, particularly useful for O'Neill's army.
• Ireland 1649-52 Cromwell's Protestant Crusade Michael McNally, Illustrated by Graham Turner, Campaign 213, Osprey Publishing, 2009. ISBN 978 1 84603 368 1. Well-illustrated introduction to Cromwell's Irish campaign.

• All The King's Armies A Military History of the English Civil War 1642-1651. Stuart Reid, Spellmount Ltd, 1998. ISBN 1-86227-028-7. An excellent military history of the wars in England and Scotland, with extensive details of regimental composition of the field armies at the main engagements.
• Confederate Catholics at War Padraig Lenihan, Cork University Press, 2001. ISBN 1 85918 244 5. In the absence of systematic studies of the Irish regiments, Lenihan's book focusing on the Confederate war effort provides a good framework regarding their forces and many interesting snippets of regimental detail.

• Chronology of the English Civil War Sean Cresswell, Partizan Press, 2020. ISBN 978-1-85818-787-7. BCW user cressylad (Sean Cresswell) has just published a new chronology of sieges, battles and skirmishes in England and Wales during the English Civil Wars. This is super-detailed going well past terribly obscure into ultra obscure so should be very useful for tying down the innumerable minor sieges and skirmishes. Sean's happy to correspond, his email is [email protected] .

• The Otley Papers
• Cromwell's letters from Ireland 1649-50
• Papers relating to the Army of the Solemn League and Covenant 1643 to 1647. Charles Sanford-Terry. Scottish Historical Society, Edinburgh 1917

Here's my own compilation of ECW battles, sieges and skirmishes as an Excel spreadsheet, please note it's neither complete nor 100% trustworthy! Current version is 6th December 2015 here ECW Battles Spreadsheet. Please feel free to copy and adapt the file as you wish. If you can make any corrections and additions I'd be glad to see them so please get in touch.