When a large number of the people in Scotland rejected King Charles I's religious policy, they set in motion a train of events that resonated throughout England, Wales, and Ireland and challenged the rule of the king. Between 1637 and 1660 the British Isles were embroiled in a series of wars, rebellions, and revolutions that affected not only all the political and social institutions within them, but all of the people living there. Radical changes in the political relationships within the four nations sparked a series of wars that brought far-reaching political revolution. By spring 1649 the king had been executed, the monarchy abolished in England and Wales, and a republic established. The 1650s saw Scotland and Ireland incorporated into the republic as the wars finally ended. The republic had a brief life but by 1660 it was ended and the monarchy restored, the united nation established in 1653 was again broken into its component parts, and the old institutions seemingly returned to preeminence. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of the British and Irish Civil Wars 1637-1660 contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 700 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, and military technology, as well as descriptions of the battles of the war. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about this period in history.

A rare, well-preserved example of the specialised military mining techniques employed in siege warfare.

Shakespeare was not exaggerating when he defined being a soldier as one of the seven ages of man. Over the early modern period, many millions of young men from the four corners of the present United Kingdom went to war, often--and most bloodily--against each other. The almost continuous fighting on land and sea for the two and one-half centuries between Bosworth and Culloden decimated lives, but created the British state and forged the nation as the world's predominant power.In this innovative and moving book, Charles Carlton explores the glorious and terrible impact of war at the national and individual levels. Chapters alternate, providing a robust military and political narrative interlaced with accounts illuminating the personal experience of war, from recruitment to the end of battle in discharge or death. Carlton expertly charts the remarkable military developments over the period, as well as war's enduring corollaries--camaraderie, courage, fear, and grief--to give a powerful account of the profound effect of war on the British Isles and its peoples.