218 Ch. 6 • England and the Dutch Republic

Map 6.1 The English Civil War Major battles during the English Civil War,

as well as Cavalier and Roundhead strongholds.

kept civil, fiscal, and military authority relatively decentralized in regions

under its control. Parliament raised funds through heavy excise and property

taxes, and confiscated the property of some prominent families supporting

the king’s cause. A regional military structure developed, based on associa­

tions of counties pledging mutual assistance to the parliamentary cause.

Parliament drew considerable support from the most economically

advanced regions where commercialized agriculture had developed through

deforestation, the draining of marshland, and acts of enclosure, and where

cloth manufacturing had brought prosperity, particularly in the south and

east. Charles 1 retained the allegiance of most of northern and western Eng­

land, regions of more traditional agriculture and social hierarchy. In some

places, villages became sites for religious and political struggle. For example,

in regions where traditional festive rituals had survived the assault of Puri­

tans, who considered them frivolous, disruptive, and ungodly spectacles that

brought drinking, dancing, and sexual freedom, support was strong for the

king, whose supporters—wealthy country gentlemen—encouraged such

merriment.