🎴 Historiography FlashCards: War and Radicalism 1642–1646

Question 1

📜 Battle of Powick Bridge (23 Sept 1642)

Answer 1

Traditional: First Royalist triumph; Rupert’s cavalry legend begins. (Woolrych)
Revisionist: Minor skirmish, mythologized after the fact. (Gaunt)
Key Line: “Spark more than bonfire.”

Question 2

📜 Battle of Edgehill (23 Oct 1642)

Answer 2

Traditional: Lost opportunity to capture London. (Royle)
Revisionist: Chaos inevitable; no realistic victory possible. (Kishlansky)
Key Line: “Neither side knew how to win yet.”

Question 3

📜 Turnham Green (13 Nov 1642)

Answer 3

Traditional: Strategic halt of Royalist advance. (Adamson)
Revisionist: Psychological check, not military defeat. (Coward)
Key Line: “London saved by spirit more than swords.”

Question 4

📜 Battle of Adwalton Moor (30 June 1643)

Answer 4

Traditional: Northern Royalist strength cemented. (Gentles)
Revisionist: Temporary victory sowing future overreach. (Braddick)
Key Line: “A northern bloom doomed to wilt.”

Question 5

📜 Surrender of Bristol (13 July 1643)

Answer 5

Traditional: Major Royalist gain, second city secured. (Kenyon)
Revisionist: Strategic overstretch begins here. (Morrill)
Key Line: “Winning Bristol, losing the war.”

Question 6

📜 First Battle of Newbury (20 Sept 1643)

Answer 6

Traditional: Royalist failure to seize initiative. (Young)
Revisionist: Early signs of Parliamentary growing professionalism. (Woolrych)
Key Line: “A stalemate that whispered revolution.”

Question 7

📜 Cessation Treaty with Ireland (Sept 1643)

Answer 7

Traditional: Smart pause for Royalists. (Firth)
Revisionist: Catastrophic loss of Protestant trust. (Hutton)
Key Line: “Bought time, sold legitimacy.”

Question 8

📜 Battle of Cheriton (29 Mar 1644)

Answer 8

Traditional: Stopped Royalist advance on London. (Gaunt)
Revisionist: One blow among many in Royalist slow bleed. (Royle)
Key Line: “A broken sword before the final battle.”

Question 9

📜 Battle of Marston Moor (2 July 1644)

Answer 9

Traditional: Decisive destruction of Northern Royalists. (Morrill)
Revisionist: Huge, but not alone decisive; collapse came gradually. (Braddick)
Key Line: “The North lost in a single day’s thunder.”

Question 10

📜 Second Battle of Newbury (27 Oct 1644)

Answer 10

Traditional: Strategic Royalist defeat. (Woolrych)
Revisionist: Catalyst for New Model Army reforms. (Gentles)
Key Line: “A field lost; a new army born.”

Question 11

📜 Creation of the New Model Army (15 Feb 1645)

Answer 11

Traditional: Revolutionary professionalization. (Hill)
Revisionist: Logical evolution, not radical break. (Morrill)
Key Line: “War made ideological flesh.”

Question 12

📜 Battle of Naseby (14 June 1645)

Answer 12

Traditional: Death blow to Charles’s cause. (Gardiner)
Revisionist: Political collapse mattered more than one battle. (Kishlansky)
Key Line: “A king’s dreams shattered on the Naseby fields.”

Question 13

📜 Battle of Langport (10 July 1645)

Answer 13

Traditional: End of West Country Royalism. (Gaunt)
Revisionist: Less pivotal than Naseby; part of endgame.
Key Line: “The last embers snuffed out.”

Question 14

📜 Sieges of 1646 (Spring)

Answer 14

Traditional: Parliamentary military mastery. (Royle)
Revisionist: Result of Royalist internal collapse. (Underdown)
Key Line: “The fortresses crumbled before the throne.”

Question 15

📜 Charles’s Surrender to the Scots (5 May 1646)

Answer 15

Traditional: Ultimate political miscalculation. (Gardiner)
Revisionist: Tactical move to exploit Scottish interests. (Hutton)
Key Line: “A captive king plots anew.”

Question 16

📜 Surrender of Oxford (24 June 1646)

Answer 16

Traditional: End of the First Civil War. (Morrill)
Revisionist: Beginning of the revolutionary struggle.
Key Line: “A city’s fall, a kingdom’s transformation.”