Sir William Waller - Election to Parliament and early military career, The New Model Army and later career

English soldier, born in Knole, Kent, SE England, UK. A member of the Long Parliament, he fought in the West Country (1643), Oxford and Newbury (1644), and Taunton (1645). He suggested reforms on which the New Model Army was to be based, but resigned command in 1645. By 1647 he was levying troops against the army, and was imprisoned for Royalist sympathies (1648–51). In 1659 he plotted for a royalist rising and was again imprisoned. He became a member of the Convention Parliament (1660), but was unrewarded at the Restoration.

William Waller
1597- September 19, 1668
Place of birth	Dover
Allegiance	Parliament
Rank	Major-General

Sir William Waller (c.

Election to Parliament and early military career

Little is known of Waller's life up to 1640, when he became member of parliament for Andover. At the beginning of 1643 Waller was promoted to major-general and placed in charge of operations in the region of Gloucester and Bristol.

He was then called upon to oppose the advance of Sir Ralph Hopton and the Royalist western army, and though more or less defeated in the hard-fought battle of Lansdowne (near Bath) he was able to encircle Hopton in Devizes. However, Hopton and a relieving force from Oxford inflicted a crushing defeat upon Waller's army at the Battle of Roundway Down (13 July 1643). Hopton was Waller's intimate personal friend, and some correspondence passed between the opposing generals, a quotation from which (Gardiner, Civil War, i. Waller wrote:

That great God who is the searcher of my heart knows with what a sad sense I go upon this service, and with what a perfect hatred I detest this war without an enemy;

The destruction of his army at Roundway scarcely affected Waller's military reputation, many reproaching Essex, the commander-in-chief, for allowing the Oxford royalists to turn against Waller. But from this point Waller's career is one of gradual disillusionment.

Waller himself, a general of the highest skill — "the best shifter and chooser of ground" on either side - was, like Turenne, at his best at the head of a small and highly-disciplined regular army. Though successful in stopping Hopton's second advance at Cheriton in March 1644, he was defeated by Charles I in the war of manoeuvre which ended with the action of Cropredy Bridge (June 1644), and at the Second Battle of Newbury in October his tactical success at the village of Speen led to nothing.

The New Model Army and later career

By this time the confusion in all the armed forces of the parliament had reached such a height that reforms were at last taken in hand. The original suggestion of the celebrated "New Model Army" came from Waller, who wrote to the Committee of Both Kingdoms (2 July 1644) to the effect that "an army compounded of these men will never go through with your service, and till you have an army merely your own that you may command, it is in a manner impossible to do anything of importance."

Simultaneously with the New Model came the Self-denying Ordinance, which required all members of parliament to lay down their military commands. Waller did so gladly - the more as he had already requested to be relieved - and his active military career came to an end. They had combined with his Presbyterianism to make him intolerant of all that he conceived to be licence in church, state or army, and after he ceased to exercise command himself he was constantly engaged, in and out of parliament, in opposing the Independents and the army politicians, and supporting the cause of his own religious system, and later that of the Presbyterian-Royalist opposition to the Commonwealth and Protectorate régime.

Postwar career and death

In the latter year Waller worked actively in promoting the final negotiations for the restoration of Charles II and reappeared in the House of Commons.