In the autumn of 1642, King Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland declared war on his

own Parliament, resulting in a civil war that turned his and his subjects' worlds upside

down. Thousands of men took up arms on either side, and within a few years those on the

Parliamentarian side were restructured into a radical new type of army, known as the new

model army, which soon proved itself devastatingly effective. Today we're going to focus on the

new model army, on its formation, its composition, operation, leadership and power. How was it,

as today's guests are suggested, an agent of revolution? This is no simple military

history, there is no singular narrative of the army. It was led by commanders with different

outlooks, and not only did it help to engineer a regicide, paradoxically it was also instrumental

in restoring a king. To try and understand a little of this complexity, it gives me great

pleasure to welcome Ian Gentles, distinguished professor in history at Tindale University

Toronto. Professor Gentles is widely regarded as the expert on the English Revolution, and

he has written many books and articles on the subject, including his newest work, a remarkable

feat of research, the new model army, agents of revolution, published by Yale University Press

this year.

Professor Gentles, thank you so much for joining me today. It is a wonderful thing to me to be

able to talk to you about this amazing piece of research, and of course there's so much more

in this book than we can possibly cover in the podcast, but let's try. So let's start with the basics,

for those who are needing a little refreshing, could you just introduce what the new model army was,

why it was founded, and why it was founded three years into the Civil War?

Yes, that's right, it was the Civil War broke out in 1642 in September of 1642, and it went

unexpectedly badly for Parliament, and by the summer of 1643 it looked as though the king would

...