Product Description

One late summer's day in 1642 two rival armies faced each other across the rolling Warwickshire countryside at Edgehill. There, Royalists faithful to King Charles I engaged in a battle with the supporters of the Parliament. Ahead lay even more desperate battles like Marston Moor and Naseby. The fighting was also to rage through Scotland and Ireland, notably at the siege of Drogheda and the decisive battle of Dunbar. The tumultuous Civil War was a pivotal one in British history. From his shrewd analyses of the multifarious characters who played their parts in the wars to his brilliantly concise descriptions of battles, Trevor Royle has produced a vivid and dramatic narrative of those turbulent years. His book also reveals how the new ideas and dispensations that followed from the wars - Cromwell's Protectorate, the Restoration of Charles II and the 'Glorious Revolution' of 1689 - made it possible for England, Ireland and Scotland to progress towards their own more distant future as democratic societies.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #500231 in Books
• Published on: 2004-03-04
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 888 pages

Review
We learn in school about the English Civil Wars that divided the country into Roundheads and Cavaliers, the King's men versus the common people. According to the Marxist model, it was the English Revolution with the rising middle class testing its power against the landed gentry. On the religious reading it saw Protestant wage war on Catholic. Yet none of these versions of events quite does justice to the detail of a period of civil turmoil and unrest that saw England divided not just along religious, social and economic lines, but into local factions that alienated villages, towns and families. Scotland and Ireland played a key part too, and their role is placed centre stage in this gripping narrative account of a critical period in the making of modern Britain.

Independent
'Brisk, well-written . . . an authoritative account of the battles'

Independent on Sunday
'Superb narrative history . . . Royle is a master storyteller . . . Magnificent'

Customer Reviews

Not just an English Civil War
The mid 17th century is a well researched and well documented time in history. This of course is mainly due to several interesting things happening during this period.

If you're Irish (as I am) you are taught in school that during the English civil war Cromwell came over to Ireland and killed as many people as he could (just because they were Catholic and Irish) - we were taught very little else about this period.

I haven't read anything by Trevor Royle before, but after this I will certainly look him up again. When I saw this book in my local bookshop I thought that it was a devious marketing ploy to get people in Ireland and Scotland to buy this book about the English Civil War. This war truely involved all three countries and Royle expertly combines the this theme with his narrative.

Cromwell is treated sympathetically, while the Charles I is treated as a stubborn monarch unable to come to terms with the fact that he did not have a divine right to rule all his subjects as he saw fit.

The writing style is very easy for the amateur historian/reader to read. Some of the quotations from writers of the time are obviously difficult, but Royle adds useful explanations where necessary.

Though the book is about three kingdoms, Ireland features less than the other two. From an Irish viewpoint, there could be more about the Confederation of Kilkenny, the Plantations, Owen Roe O'Neill, etc - but overall no complaints about balance.

Irish, Scots, and English will all enjoy this book (Welsh too!). My only criticisim is that while the book is about the period 1638-1660, it does not end in 1660. Rather it continues up until 1690 and even describes the opening shots of the American War of Independence.

For me, the book should have stopped with the restoration of Charles II. Royle is such a superb writer and researcher that another book covering the period 1661-1715 would have been better. The post 1660 material in the current book is dealt with rapidly and less satisfactorily than what went before. I have deducted a star for this.

A n excellent all round account
I cannot recommend this book highly enough, particularly to those who, like me, have found getting to grips with the military and religious complexities of the Civil War difficult. The author manages to pull together the various campaigns into a coherent whole whithout losing the detail of character and incident that makes the Civil War years such a fascinating period. He does so without the appearence of taking sides and brings across the human costs of a war which became increasingly brutal as frustration and hatred set in.

Tim McGrath
I was pleasantly surprised to discover this was not just another reworking of so many other books on this significant period of our history. Too often these books fall into the zone of insinuating it was an insular war and fail to acknowledge the scars left upon our neighbours which now make up the United Kingdom.
I particularly liked the opening into the early life of Charles as a boy through to his kingship, with emphasis on his belief, and of course his faith in that belief which brought matters with Parliament to a head leading to King Charles raising his banner and his subsequent execution, and thus the most significant turning point in British history.

I found it at times to be breathtaking and utterly compelling. I would thoroughly recommend this book to anyone wanting to know the whys and wherefores without becoming bogged down in academic studies.