The Commons would have the power of the sword; the King would not part with it; and nothing remained but to try the chances of war.  Charles still had a strong party in the country.  His august office, his dignified manners, his solemn protestations that he would for the time to come respect the liberties of his subjects, pity for fallen greatness, fear of violent innovation, secured to him many adherents.  He had with him the Church, the Universities, a majority of the nobles and of the old landed gentry.  The austerity of the Puritan manners drove most of the gay and dissolute youth of that age to the royal standard.  Many good, brave, and moderate men, who disliked his former conduct, and who entertained doubts touching his present sincerity, espoused his cause unwillingly and with many painful misgivings, because, though they dreaded his tyranny much, they dreaded democratic violence more.

On the other side was the great body of the middle orders of England, the merchants, the shopkeepers, the yeomanry, headed by a very large and formidable minority of the peerage and of the landed gentry.  The Earl of Essex, a man of respectable abilities, and of some military experience, was appointed to the command of the parliamentary army.

Hampden spared neither his fortune nor his person in the cause.  He subscribed two thousand pounds to the public service.  He took a colonel’s commission in the army, and went into Buckinghamshire to raise a regiment of infantry.  His neighbours eagerly enlisted under his command.  His men were known by their green uniform, and by their standard, which bore on one side the watchword of the Parliament, “God with us,” and on the other the device of Hampden, “Vestigia nulla retrorsum.”  This motto well described the line of conduct which he pursued.  No member of his party had been so temperate, while there remained a hope that legal and peaceable measures might save the country.  No member of his party showed so much energy and vigour when it became necessary to appeal to arms.  He made himself thoroughly master of his military duty, and “performed it,” to use the words of Clarendon, “upon all occasions most punctually.”  The regiment which he had raised and trained was considered as one of the best in the service of the Parliament.  He exposed his person in every action with an intrepidity which made him conspicuous even among thousands of brave men.  “He was,” says Clarendon, “of a personal courage equal to his best parts; so that he was an enemy not to be wished wherever he might have been made a friend, and as much to be apprehended where he was so, as any man could deserve to be.”  Though his military career was short, and his military situation subordinate, he fully proved that he possessed the talents of a great general, as well as those of a great statesman.