ber of Parliament for Appleby, Westmoreland—and also,
as some historians believe, with Lords Philip Wharton
and William Fiennes, Viscount Saye and Sele—he drew
up a manifesto, titled “The Heads of the Proposals [Of-
fered by the Army],” which laid out parliamentary and
military reforms. When members of the army resisted
the reforms, Ireton issued a paper called the “Represen-
tation of the Army,” in which he declared, “We are not a
mere mercenary army, hired to serve any arbitrary power
of a state, but called forth and conjured by the several
declarations of Parliament to the defence of our own
and the people’s just rights and liberties.” Further dis-
sent over these reforms forced Lambert to restore order,
especially in the northern part of the country.
When the second stage of the Civil War began in
1648, Lambert was named as the commander of all Par-
liamentary forces in northern England. At first he was
able to march quickly against Scottish forces who were
siding with King Charles I, but he was eventually forced
to withdraw in the face of overwhelming numbers, al-
though he harried and delayed their advance. With the
arrival of Oliver cromWell and his army, Lambert
routed the Scots at Preston, Lancashire (August 1648).
Following Charles’s execution on 30 January 1649, his
son became Charles II, and the Scots took up the new
king’s fight. Lambert besieged and eventually took Pon-
tefract Castle, Yorkshire (December 1648–March 1649),
the last Royalist stronghold in northern England, and he
remained in northern England while Cromwell struck
at Royalist forces in Ireland. When Cromwell returned,
they marched together into Scotland and were victorious
at the Battle of Dunbar (3 September 1650). Historians
believe it was Lambert’s cavalry charge that won a clear
and convincing victory.
Cromwell fought the Scots at Stirling but, being
pinned down, sent Lambert into Fife to force them into
a two-front campaign. This march led to the battle of
Inverkeithling (20 July 1651) in eastern Scotland, in
which Lambert again won a compelling triumph. This
victory forced Charles II to march into northern En-
gland, with Lambert pursuing him every step of the
way. Finally, the last important battle of the English
Civil War took place at Worcester on 3 September 1651.
Historian George Bruce writes: “Charles II [command-
ing the Royalist forces] attacked Cromwell’s wing, and
was repulsed and driven into Worcester, where he was
met by the other wing of the Parliamentary army under
Fleetwood. The Royalists were routed and dispersed,
losing 3,000 killed and a large number of prisoners, in-
cluding Lords Derby, Lauderdale, and Kenmure, and
five generals. Charles himself escaped with difficulty
to France.” Cromwell later described the battle as “a
crowning mercy.”
Following the death of Henry Ireton in January
1652, Lambert was named to succeed him as lord dep-
uty in Ireland, but at the last moment General Charles
fleetWood, one of the heroes of Worcester, was named
in his place. Lambert remained close to Cromwell, and
his dissatisfaction with Parliament has led some histori-
ans to suggest that he was behind Cromwell’s decision
to dissolve the Rump Parliament (also known as the
Purged Parliament) in 1653. Lambert was responsible
for drafting the documents that became the Instrument
of Government under which Cromwell was named as
lord protector of England following its adoption on 15
December 1653. A new parliament, the Protectorate
Parliament, was summoned, but when this body refused
to pass any of Cromwell’s measures, he disbanded it in
January 1655, maybe on Lambert’s advice.
With Cromwell as the head of England, Lambert
proposed his idea of a military government, which his-
torians call the “Rule of the Major Generals.” Under this
rule, the country and Wales would be divided into 12
military districts, each controlled by a military governor,
of which Lambert was one. For two years this system
governed England until Cromwell summoned the sec-
ond Protectorate Parliament in September 1656 and,
under widespread criticism of the plan, abolished it in
January 1657.
When Cromwell died on 3 September 1658, his
son Richard Cromwell succeeded him as lord protec-
tor, and a third Protectorate Parliament was summoned.
Lambert, who was elected to this body representing
Pontrefact, backed Richard Cromwell against a group of
his opponents known as the Grandees. Because of resis-
tance to his policies, Cromwell resigned as lord protector
in May 1659 and restored the Rump Parliament. The
power of the Grandees was broken, and Lambert was
named as commander of the army, which went into bat-
tle against a Royalist uprising led by Sir George Booth
in Chesire; in August 1659, he defeated the rebels and
captured Booth.
The end of Lambert’s career came quickly. In Sep-
tember 1659, Sir Arthur Haselrig, a former Member
of Parliament who had been a supporter of Oliver
Cromwell and served in the English Civil War, accusedlAmbeRt, John