The king's adherents were the wicked and the malignant: their adversaries were the godly and the well-affected.

And as the force of the cities was more united than that of the country, and at once gave shelter and protection to the parliamentary party, who could easily suppress the royalists in their neighborhood, almost the whole kingdom, at the commencement of the war, seemed to be in the hands of the parliament.[**] * Walker p 336.
** Warwick, p.

318.
What alone gave the king some compensation for all the advantages possessed by his adversaries was, the nature and qualities of his adherents.

More bravery and activity were hoped for from the generous spirit of the nobles and gentry, than from the base disposition of the multitude.

And as the men of estates, at their own expense, levied and armed their tenants, besides an attachment to their masters, greater force and courage were to be expected in these rustic troops, than in the vicious and enervated populace of cities.
The neighboring states of Europe, being engaged in violent wars, little interested themselves in these civil commotions; and this island enjoyed the singular advantage (for such it surely was) of fighting out its own quarrels without the interposition of foreigners.