Sir William Waller

Sir William Waller (born c. 1598, Knole, Kent, Eng.—died Sept. 19, 1668, London) was a leading Parliamentary commander in southern England during the first three years of the Civil War (1642–51).

Waller fought for Bohemia in the early campaigns of the Thirty Years’ War (1618–48) and was knighted in 1622. Elected to the Long Parliament in 1640, he became a colonel in the Parliamentary army upon the outbreak of the Civil War. In September 1642 he captured Portsmouth and, soon after, several other towns of southeastern England, thereby earning the nickname “William the Conqueror.” Promoted to the rank of general, he seized Hereford, Herefordshire, in April 1643. Nevertheless, on July 13 Sir Ralph Hopton severely defeated him at Roundway Down, Wiltshire. Waller prevented the Royalists from invading Sussex in January 1644 and stopped Hopton’s advance on London in March, but he was defeated by King Charles I near Banbury, Oxfordshire, in June. The setbacks suffered by Waller and other talented commanders led to demands for a reorganization of the Parliamentarian forces. Waller was evidently the first to suggest the creation of a professional army. This New Model Army was formed in February 1645, and two months later Waller resigned his commission.

Waller was a leader of the Presbyterians in Parliament during their unsuccessful struggle (1645–48) with the army, which was dominated by Independents (radical Puritans). For opposing Oliver Cromwell’s Commonwealth regime, he was imprisoned several times between 1649 and 1659. Although elected to the Convention Parliament of 1660, Waller never took his seat and subsequently received no political encouragement from King Charles II.