Page 83 - History of War - Issue 25-16

CROMWELL’S REBEL ARMY
THE COLDSTREAM GUARDS
Despite being one of the most prestigious regiments that protect the royal family,
the Coldstream Guards are ironically revolutionary in origin
When Oliver Cromwell died in 1658, he was
succeeded by his ineffectual son, Richard. This
created a power vacuum, with some in the army
wanting to restore parliamentary power and others
seeking to restore the monarchy. The commander
of the army in Scotland, George Monck, wished to
preserve the stability of England and so marched
his force across the Anglo-Scottish border at the
Coldstream River and occupied London in February
1660. Monck then entered into secret negotiations
with Charles II while parliament was re-elected.
The new assembly was overwhelmingly pro-
Royalist and Charles was restored in May 1660.
The New Model Army was ordered to disband in
conjunction with the Indemnity and Oblivion Act,
which sought to reverse the effects of the Civil
Wars, and the king’s new army would be created
from scratch.
“The Coldstream Guards is the oldest regiment
with continuous service in the British army”
The Coldstream Guards
were originally formed in
1650 by Oliver Cromwell
to defend the Republican
Commonwealth of England
Monck’s regiment was allowed to be the last
New Model outit to disband, however, in January
1661, it was required to suppress an insurrection
in London and the order for disbandment was
repealed. On 14 February 1661, the regiment
took part in a symbolic ceremony. On Tower Hill,
the soldiers publicly put down their weapons as a
unit of the New Model Army, before immediately
being ordered to pick them up again as soldiers of
Charles II’s army. For a regiment that was created
by Oliver Cromwell in 1650, this was quite a shift in
identity. From 1670, the unit became known as the
Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards, in honour
of the march that restored the monarchy. Today,
the Coldstream Guards is the oldest regiment with
continuous service in the British army and, along
with the Blues and Royals, is the only unit that can
directly trace its lineage to the New Model Army.
83