Destruction In The English Civil Wars

'This day came their Mortar piece which struck the poor Cittizens into an Ague fite of trembling and gazing at the strangeness thereof, not having seen the like before.'. The inhabitant of the besieged town of Lichfield who recorded the above was not alone in witnessing the destructive impact of the English Civil Wars of the mid-seventeenth century. Towns, villages, churches and country houses up and down the land were affected. Indeed, destruction was so widespread that by the end of the Second Civil War at least 150 towns and 50 villages had suffered some damage, 200 country houses had been ruined, and more than 50,000 people had been made homeless. This book is the first detailed study of this aspect of the Civil Wars and makes available the results of many years of study and research of original documents and manuscripts in record offices and local history libraries throughout the country. Much of the material has never previously been published. The author conveys vividly, often through their own words, the feelings of those caught up in the traumatic events of the time, while also presenting a clear narrative and explanation of events. This new and valuable study will be welcomed not only by historians but also by all those with an interest in the effects of this particularly destructive period of English history upon the towns and countryside that surround us.

"The destruction caused by the English Civil Wars was widespread and devastating. Towns, villages, churches and homes were destroyed, and by the end of the second Civil War at least 150 towns and fifty villages had suffered some damage, 200 country houses were ruined, and more than 50,000 people had been made homeless. Stephen Porter's detailed study of this aspect of the impact of the Civil War is based upon research in archives and libraries across the country, and his conclusions have been accepted as an important contribution to our understanding of the subject. He describes the reasons for the destruction and the relations between soldiers and civilians, and vividly conveys the feelings of those caught up by the traumatic events of the wars."--Publisher description.

Edgehill; Oxford; Marston Moor; Lostwithiel; Newbury; Naseby.

This is a study of the city of Exeter during the Great Civil War of 1642-46; it offers a lively, immediate account of how one English city slid, inexorably, into the chaos of civil war. The book shows how Exeter's inhabitants first began to dissent from each other over religious issues, then became divided into two warring camps, and finally, after three years of bitter conflict, witnessed much of the ancient city being destroyed about their ears. The main text is accompanied by a generous collection of transcripts from original seventeenth-century documents. These have been specially selected to illuminate the war's effect on ordinary men and women, and to show how closely engaged they were with the national politico-religious debate. This book will be of interest to all serious students of the English Civil War, while at the same time being accessible to a non-specialist audience.

A brilliant appraisal of the Civil War and its long-term consequences, by an acclaimed historian. The political upheaval of the mid-seventeenth century has no parallel in English history. Other events have changed the occupancy and the powers of the throne, but the conflict of 1640-60 was more dramatic: the monarchy and the House of Lords were abolished, to be replaced by a republic and military rule. In this wonderfully readable account, Blair Worden explores the events of this period and their origins - the war between King and Parliament, the execution of Charles I, Cromwell's rule and the Restoration - while aiming to reveal something more elusive: the motivations of contemporaries on both sides and the concerns of later generations.

All but one of the essays were originally delivered as lectures at Eton College. Includes bibliographies.

Sir, God hath taken away your eldest son by a cannon shot. It brake his leg. We were necessitated to have it cut off, whereof he died.' In one of the most famous and moving letters of the Civil War, Oliver Cromwell told his brother-in-law that on 2 July 1644 Parliament had won an emphatic victory over a Royalist army commanded by King Charles I's nephew, Prince Rupert, on rolling moorland west of York. But that battle, Marston Moor, had also slain his own nephew, the recipient's firstborn. In this vividly narrated history of the deadly conflict that engulfed the nation during the 1640s, Peter Gaunt shows that, with the exception of World War I, the death-rate was higher than any other contest in which Britain has participated. Numerous towns and villages were garrisoned, attacked, damaged or wrecked. The landscape was profoundly altered. Yet amidst all the blood and killing, the fighting was also a catalyst for profound social change and innovation. Charting major battles, raids and engagements, the author uses rich contemporary accounts to explore the life-changing experience of war for those involved, whether musketeers at Cheriton, dragoons at Edgehill or Cromwell's disciplined Ironsides at Naseby (1645).