By using contemporary sources this book not only looks at the armies of Sir Ralph Hopton from 1642 to 1646, but also the raising and equipping his men and the campaigns they served in.

Under the influence of "revisionist" writings the history of the English Civil War has splintered. This is not to say that there was once consensus on how the revolution should be characterized or interpreted, but revisionism has now carved out different aspects of historical experience--such as economic, social, political, religious, and cultural--that once tended to be bound together. This book does not attempt to turn back the clock, nor to recreate what was undoubtedly in part a false coherence. But it does in fact suggest ways in which some of the starker discontinuities should be challenged. The editors maintain that reconnections should be made regarding the causes, course, and impact of the Civil War, and the pieces in this book aim to do so without without losing sight of the complexity of the issues at hand. Moreover, these articles afford some of the most stimulating writing on this topic to appear in the last twenty-five years.

'The English Civil War is a joy to behold, a thing of beauty... this will be the civil war atlas against which all others will judged and the battle maps in particular will quickly become the benchmark for all future civil war maps.' -- Professor Martyn Bennett, Department of History, Languages and Global Studies, Nottingham Trent University The English Civil Wars (1638–51) comprised the deadliest conflict ever fought on British soil, in which brother took up arms against brother, father fought against son, and towns, cities and villages fortified themselves in the cause of Royalists or Parliamentarians. Although much historical attention has focused on the events in England and the key battles of Edgehill, Marston Moor and Naseby, this was a conflict that engulfed the entirety of the Three Kingdoms and led to a trial and execution that profoundly shaped the British monarchy and Parliament. This beautifully presented atlas tells the whole story of Britain's revolutionary civil war, from the earliest skirmishes of the Bishops' Wars in 1639–40 through to 1651, when Charles II's defeat at Worcester crushed the Royalist cause, leading to a decade of Stuart exile. Each map is supported by a detailed text, providing a complete explanation of the complex and fluctuating conflict that ultimately meant that the Crown would always be answerable to Parliament.

Between 1642 and 1646 two armies fought for control of Southwest England in one of the decisive confrontations of the English Civil Wars. In this short, turbulent period Royalists loyal to King Charles I clashed with the forces of Parliament in a series of hard-fought campaigns that crisscrossed the West Country landscape. Rearguard actions, sieges, skirmishes, retreats and pitched battles punctuated the course of the conflict, yet no previous book has retold the story of the Southwestern campaigns in detail. John Barratt's account of this bloody and disruptive phase in the West Country's history offers a graphic description of the engagements themselves and takes the reader on a tour of the battlefields.