New Model Army - Interregnum

Interregnum

Part of the New Model Army under George Monck occupied Scotland during the Interregnum. They were kept busy throughout the 1650s by minor Royalist uprisings in the Scottish Highlands and by endemic lawlessness by bandits known as moss-troopers.

In England the New Model was involved in numerous skirmishes with a range of opponents, but these were little more than policing actions. The largest rebellion of the Protectorate took place when the Sealed Knot instigated an insurrection in 1655. This revolt consisted of a series of coordinated uprisings, but only the Penruddock uprising ended in armed conflict, and that was put down by one company of cavalry.

The major foreign entanglement of this period was the Anglo-Spanish War. In 1654, the English Commonwealth declared war on Spain, and regiments of the New Model Army were sent to conquer the Spanish colony of Hispaniola in the Caribbean. They failed in the conflict and sustained heavy casualties from tropical disease. They took over the lightly defended island of Jamaica. The English troops performed better in the European theatre of the war in Flanders. During the Battle of the Dunes (1658), as part of Turenne's army, the red-coats of the New Model Army under the leadership of Sir William Lockhart, Cromwell's ambassador at Paris, surprised the French and Spanish armies by the strength of their assaults; they advanced against a strongly defended sandhill 50 metres (160 ft) high.

After Cromwell died, the Protectorate died a slow death, as did the New Model army. For a time in 1659, it appeared that factions of the New Model army forces loyal to different generals might wage war on each other. Regiments garrisoned in Scotland under the command of General Monck were marched to London to oversee the coronation of Charles II, without significant opposition from the regiments under other generals, particularly those led by Charles Fleetwood and John Lambert. With the exception of Monck's regiment, which became the Coldstream Guards, and the Regiment of Cuirassiers, which became the Royal Horse Guards, the New Model Army was disbanded after the Restoration of 1660.