Here for the first time is a vivid, fully illustrated account of this most dramatic of Civil War battles, described by Cromwell as a 'crowning mercy'. It represented the crowning achievement of Cromwell's military career, and was a mercy in bringing to an end (bar a few ineffective plots and uprisings) the fighting of the Civil War. Using original sources and quoting extensively from the accounts of those who took part, the author explains the role of the local gentry in the war and the attitudes of the ordinary people caught up in extraordinary events. For the first time, there is also extensive discussion of the fate of the thousands of Scottish prisoners who faced transportation to the New World or the fens of East Anglia. Extensive appendices reproduce contemporary documents, making the book a valuable resource for further study. As a local study and as a dissection of a key event in the English Civil War, Malcolm Atkin's authoritative accounts will be essential reading for all those interested in the period.

The civil war that is tearing England asunder in the year 1643 has not yet touched Dorcas Slythe, a secretly rebellious young Puritan woman living in the countryside south of London. She aches to escape the safe, pious tyranny of her father—and the opportunity appears with the arrival of Toby Lazender, dashing scion of a powerful royalist family, who awakens her to her passionate destiny. Her adventure truly begins with the discovery of an intricately wrought gold seal—one of four that, when joined, will reveal a great secret. Suddenly grave danger lies before her—not from Cromwell's advancing armies, but from relentless enemies who covet the great treasure to which she now holds the key.

Contains a biography of Oliver Cromwell.

The entirety of the British Civil War has never been covered in a single volume--until now. While it is usually seen as an English conflict, Royle paints the picture on a large canvas to show that it engulfed the entirety of Great Britain. While the war began as the result of the Scots' unwillingness to accept Charles I's prayer book, their obstinacy inspired the Irish Catholics to rise against their English and Scot oppressors with the result that fourteen years internecine fighting was to be the norm for these islands. This is grand narrative military history at its best and a monumental achievement.