uth Wales, with the exception of the castles of Pembroke and
Montgomery, acknowledged his authority; and the royal standard was still
unfurled in several

[Footnote 1: See Rushworth, v. 928-932; vi. 228; Guthrie, 162-183; Baillie,
ii. 64, 65, 92-95; Clarendon, ii. 606, 618; Wishart, 67, 110; Journals,
vii. 566; Spalding, ii. 237.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1645. March 25.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1645. April 4.]

towns in the midland comities.[1] But his army, under the nominal command
of the prince of Wales, and the real command of Prince Rupert, was
frittered away in a multitude of petty garrisons, and languished in a state
of the most alarming insubordination. The generals, divided into factions,
presumed to disobey the royal orders, and refused to serve under an
adversary or a rival; the officers indulged in every kind of debauchery;
the privates lived at free quarters; and the royal forces made themselves
more terrible to their friends by their licentiousness than to their
enemies by their valour.[2] Their excesses provoked new associations in the
counties of Wilts, Dorset, Devon, Somerset, and Worcester, known by the
denomination of Clubmen, whose primary object was the protection of private
property, and the infliction of summary vengeance on the depredators
belonging to either army. These associations were encouraged and organized
by the neighbouring gentlemen; arms of every description were collected for
their use; and they were known to assemble in numbers of four, six,
and even ten thousand men. Confidence in their own strength, and the
suggestions of their leaders, taught them to extend their views; they
invited the adjoining counties to follow their example, and talked of
putting an end by force to the unnatural war which depopulated the country.
But though they professed to observe the strictest neutrality between the
contending parties, their meetings excited a well-founded jealousy

[Footnote 1: Rushworth, vi. 18-22.]

[Footnote 2: Clarendon, ii. 604, 633, 636, 642, 661, 668. "Good men are so
scandalized at the horrid impiety of our armies, that they will not believe
that God can bless any cause in such hands."--Lord Culpeper to Lord Digby.
Clarendon Papers, ii. 189. Carte's Ormond, iii. 396, 399.]

on the part of the parliamentary leaders; who, the moment it could be done
without danger, pronounced such associations illegal, and ordered them to
be suppressed by military force.[1]

On the other side, the army