Faction, connection and politics in the Civil Wars: Pembrokeshire, 1640-1649

Bowen, Lloyd ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3458-4740 2023. Faction, connection and politics in the Civil Wars: Pembrokeshire, 1640-1649. The English Historical Review 138 (590-1) , pp. 92-131. 10.1093/ehr/cead081

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Abstract

This article considers the roles of faction and connections between centre and periphery as structuring elements of local politics during the civil wars of the mid-seventeenth century. It explores these issues through an examination of Pembrokeshire in south-west Wales. Using a considerable amount of previously unexamined printed and manuscript material, it argues that established but largely ignored factional alignments informed a good deal of the political manoeuvring in the county during and after the first civil war, and that these connected to and were complicated by evolving associations with rival political coalitions at Westminster. The article pays close attention to the connections between figures among the Pembrokeshire gentry and MPs and power-brokers in Westminster. It argues that establishing fruitful links with the political centre was vital to the success of an Independent group in the county following the war’s cessation and, conversely, the isolation and ultimate defeat of the Presbyterian party. The article throws new light on the origins of John Poyer’s 1648 rebellion, which initiated the ‘Second Civil War’. It rejects the established narrative which characterises Poyer’s revolt as borne from apolitical self-interest, arguing instead that it was the final act in a factional struggle that was at least a decade old. The piece contends that gentry faction has largely been written out of recent civil war history, but that scholars should be more attentive to its potential for influencing (although not conditioning) political and ideological alignments in the provinces.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	History, Archaeology and Religion
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain
Uncontrolled Keywords:	"British civil wars"; "John Poyer"; "Pembrokeshire"; "Wales"; "Politics"; "Localism"
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
ISSN:	0013-8266
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	12 May 2023
Date of Acceptance:	8 September 2020
Last Modified:	31 Oct 2023 15:22
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/159430

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