Throughout the period of the British Civil Wars, both sides often struggled with threats of insurrection in their armed forces as the troops often suffered long arrears of pay. In October 1653, the crews of three warships stationed at Chatham docks, in Kent, refused to go on board until they had been paid. Two weeks later, a similar mutiny took place at Harwich, in Essex, and on 26th October a group of 400 sailors marched on Whitehall to protest against the situation. Faced with an insurrection so close to their seat of power, Cromwell himself, along with George Monck, came to confront the mutineers in person, and the following day they were quashed by a force of combined cavalry and infantry.
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