First English Civil War First English Civil War (1642–1646), the Second English Civil War (1648–1649), and the Third English Civil War (1649–1651). For the most part, accounts summarise the two sides that fought the English Civil Wars as the Royalist Cavaliers of Charles I of England versus the Parliamentarian Roundheads. However, as with many civil wars, loyalties shifted for various reasons, and both sides changed significantly during the conflicts. During this time, the Irish Confederate Wars (another civil war) continued in Ireland, starting with the Irish Rebellion of 1641 and ending with the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. Its incidents had little or no direct
Worcestershire in the English Civil War strong Parliamentarian contingent. The immediate cause of the war was a struggle between Parliament and the Crown to control of the country's armed forces, the Trained Bands, which were ordinarily under the control of the crown. A split between the county's aristocratic families, who helped organise Royalist control of the Trained Bands, and the city of Worcester, which attempted to gain control its own forces from the county from 1641, can also be seen. Nevertheless, the city of Worcester equivocated about whether to support the Parliamentary cause immediately before the outbreak of civil war in 1642, raising its own independent