Roundhead

Cavalier

Statements

• Education should be free of charge for all childrenMany Puritans believed that education should be available to all children regardless of class and income.
• Anyone who celebrates Christmas should be thrown in prisonIn 1644 Oliver Cromwell famously passed a law forbidding the celebration of Christmas. He believed that celebrating Christmas was really just an excuse to get drunk, party and secretly indulge in Catholic ceremonies.
• It is completely acceptable to cut someone’s ears off if they disagree with you about religionRoyalist Archbishop William Laud had the ears of three Puritans cut off for criticising him in print.
• People of the Jewish faith should be allowed to worship free from persecutionThe Roundheads practiced (at least in theory) freedom of religion. This extended to people of the Jewish faith who had had an appalling history of persecution in England.
• It is socially acceptable for some women to write booksCivil War and Restoration England produced a number of extraordinary (mainly Royalist) female writers. The playwright Aphra Benn, the poet Katherine Phillips and the writer Margaret Cavendish are prominent examples.
• It is a taxpayer’s privilege to pay for the King’s expensive art collectionOne of the many causes of the English Civil War was Charles I’s expensive art collection bought with tax payers’ money.
• It is sinful to appoint godparents for your childrenGodparents were seen as a Catholic invention and discouraged in Puritan christenings.
• The King’s nephew’s pet dog might well be possessed by the devilThe Royalist General (and nephew to the King) Prince Rupert of the Rhine never went anywhere without a white hunting poodle named Boy. Rupert’s extraordinary success in the early stages of the war led to many Roundheads thinking that Rupert was a wizard and Boy was his supernatural familiar.
• Only God can tell a king of England what to doCharles I believed in the Divine Right of Kings which meant that since God had placed him on the throne to rule, he was answerable to God alone for his behaviour.
• Soldiers should be paid a standard wage to fight rather than earn their keep by looting nearby towns and villagesUnlike the Royalist army, Oliver Cromwell’s New Model Army paid its soldiers a standing wage (8 pence a day for infantrymen, 2 shillings a day for cavalry officers).
• A real man must be able to fight, ride a horse, write poetry and be good at scienceMany Royalists prided themselves on balancing traditionally manly pursuits with more academic disciplines such as writing, poetry, philosophy and science. Royalist soldier (and favourite of the King) William Cavendish encouraged writers and poets. Prince Rupert helped found The Royal Society.
• Trips to the theatre should be banned (but not opera; opera’s alright)Cromwell closed down many theatres and public houses on the grounds of immorality. He did make an exception for performances of opera. Opera was seen as morally uplifting.
• All religious statues, stained glass windows and fancily carved altars should be smashedStatues, stained glass windows and carved altars were thought to be Catholic and were offensive to Puritan Roundheads. Many churches were damaged during the Civil War including Newark’s St Mary Magdalene.
• A man is at his most fashionable when he has long hair, a feather in his wide brimmed hat and a pointy goatee beardThis was the stereotypical appearance of the Cavalier. The pointy beard was named a Van Dyck beard after the facial hair sported by the 17th Century painter (and favourite of the king) Anthony van Dyck. By contrast the Roundheads traditionally shunned fancy clothing, preferring plain garments and short hair.