side which, about the same time, were fighting out the constitutional
quarrel in England were essentially different from all those of the
continent, though their formal organization was similar to that of the
Swedes. The military expression of a national conscience had appeared
rarely indeed in the Thirty Years' War, which was a means of livelihood
for, rather than an assertion of principle by, those who engaged in it.
In England, on the other hand, there were no mercenaries, and the whole
character of the operations was settled by the burning desire of a true
"nation in arms" to decide at once, by the arbitrament of battle, the
vital points at issue. A German critic (Fritz Hoenig) has indicated
Worcester as the prototype of Sedan; at any rate, battles of this kind
invariably resulted in failure when entrusted to a "standing" army of
the 18th century. But the national armies disappeared at the end of the
struggle; after the Restoration, English political aims became, so far
as military activity was concerned, similar in scope and execution to
those of the continent; and the example of Cromwell and the "New Model,"
which might have revolutionized military Europe, passed away without
having any marked influence on the armies of other nations.