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Royalist Finances in the English Civil War: The Case of Lichfield Garrison, 1643–5

Abstract Military histories of the first civil war in England have tended to concentrate on battles to the exclusion of the role of garrison warfare, even though the typical action of the war was not a set-piece battle but an assault on a fortified strongpoint. This article seeks to redress that imbalance, by examining one medium-sized royalist garrison, that of Lichfield Close. The survival of two sets of garrison accounts allows an examination of the finances of the garrison as part of a wider investigation of the Royalist war effort in the north midlands. The accepted trajectory of the Royalist war effort across the first civil war, from order to chaos, from regular systems of taxation to plunder, from co-operation with local communities to antagonism and hostility, are questioned. Royalist military administration is shown to have been more resilient and adaptable than hitherto believed. Lichfield garrison survived on lunder and raiding for most of 1643 before regular and reliable systems of local taxation were established at the end of that year, and those structures were still functioning remarkably efficiently at the end of 1645, long after many historians have already consigned Royalism to collapse and defeat.