2. A Catholic Fighting For a Protestant King
By the time he returned to England in 1640, Sir Arthur Aston was a grizzled and highly experienced professional soldier during the war. He commanded a regiment for King Charles I in the Second Bishops’ War against the Scots, but his Catholicism became an issue. Catholics back then were legally prohibited from a variety of public positions, and expressly barred from serving as army officers. The outcry forced Aston to resign, but as consolation for his efforts, Charles knighted him.
When the English Civil War erupted in 1642 between the king and his royalist supporters, pitted against the forces of Parliament, Aston, now Sir Arthur, sought to join Charles’ forces, but was initially rejected because of his Catholicism. As the royalist cause deteriorated, however, desperation and the intercession of Prince Rupert, the king’s nephew and main military commander, finally convinced Charles I to commission him into the royalist army.