A Military History of the English Civil War examines how the civil war was won, who fought for whom, and why it ended. With a straightforward style and clear chronology that enables readers to make their own judgements and pursue their own interests further, this original history provides a thorough critique of the reasons that have been cited for Parliament's victory and the King's defeat in 1645/46. It discusses the strategic options of the Parliamentary and Royalist commanders and councils of war and analyses the decisions they made, arguing that the King’s faulty command structure was more responsible for his defeat than Sir Thomas Fairfax's strategic flair. It also argues that the way that resources were used, rather than the resources themselves, explain why the war ended when it did.

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).

The English Civil War remains the most prolonged and traumatic example of internal violence in the history of the state. The Royalist War Effort, 1642-1646 shows the build up to the outbreak of the war, detailing how the war was fought, and how, ultimately, it was won and lost. In his new introduction to this second edition, Ronald Hutton places his vivid account of the Royalist war effort into modern historical context, bringing the reader up-to-date with recent developments in the study of the English civil war. He analyses the influences which affected his own interpretation of events, ensuring that The Royalist War Effort, 1642-1646 remains the most informative and compelling account of the Royalist experience in the English civil war.

"Fought on 18 September 1644 in mid-Wales, Montgomery was the largest engagement in the Principality during the First English Civil War of 1642 to 1646. In terms of numbers engaged, in its outcome and impact, it was also a particularly significant regional battle of the war. Notwithstanding its importance, historians have largely overlooked Montgomery. Consequently, it is rarely mentioned in studies of the mid-17th century British Civil Wars. Moreover, where attention has been accorded to the battle and the preceding campaign, both have often been sketched over or misinterpreted. To fully explain the course and context of events, The Battle of Montgomery, 1644: The English Civil War in the Welsh Borderlands therefore presents the most detailed reconstruction and interpretation of this important battle published to date"--Publisher's description.

Cavalier Capital, the first detailed account of Oxford's role as "Royalist capital" to appear for almost three-quarters of a century, examines all aspects of Oxford's experience in the English Civil War. As well as the effects on the town and university, special emphasis is placed on the various aspects of the Royalist occupation, including its role as a major manufacturing center of munitions and armory. The King's court and the operation of Royalist government and administration are examined, as are the organization and life of the soldiers of the garrison. Leading personalities are described, as well as the military campaigns which were focused on Oxford during the war. The final siege leading to the fall of Oxford is also described. The book makes full use of both contemporary and modern accounts, and research, and is copiously illustrated with contemporary and modern illustrations.

In the process many traditional ideas are challenged and others defended. Its revisionist approach is aimed at bringing scholarship in the operational aspects of the Civil War to the level it has attained in other aspects of seventeenth-century studies."--Jacket.

When the English Civil War broke out, London’s economy was diverse and dynamic, closely connected through commercial networks with the rest of England and with Europe, Asia and North America. As such it was uniquely vulnerable to hostile acts by supporters of the king, both those at large in the country and those within the capital. Yet despite numerous difficulties, the capital remained the economic powerhouse of the nation and was arguably the single most important element in Parliament’s eventual victory. For London’s wealth enabled Parliament to take up arms in 1642 and sustained it through the difficult first year and a half of the war, without which Parliament’s ultimate victory would not have been possible. In this book the various sectors of London’s economy are examined and compared, as the war progressed. It also looks closely at the impact of war on the major pillars of the London economy, namely London’s role in external and internal trade, and manufacturing in London. The impact of the increasing burden of taxation on the capital is another key area that is studied and which yields surprising conclusions. The Civil War caused a major economic crisis in the capital, not only because of the interrelationship between its economy and that of the rest of England, but also because of its function as the hub of the social and economic networks of the kingdom and of the rest of the world. The crisis was managed, however, and one of the strengths of this study is its revelation of the means by which the city’s government sought to understand and ameliorate the unique economic circumstances which afflicted it.

'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.

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.

This Handbook brings together leading historians of the events surrounding the English revolution, exploring how the events of the revolution grew out of, and resonated, in the politics and interactions of the each of the Three Kingdoms--England, Scotland, and Ireland. It captures a shared British and Irish history, comparing the significance of events and outcomes across the Three Kingdoms. In doing so, the Handbook offers a broader context for the history of the Scottish Covenanters, the Irish Rising of 1641, and the government of Confederate Ireland, as well as the British and Irish perspective on the English civil wars, the English revolution, the Regicide, and Cromwellian period. The Oxford Handbook of the English Revolution explores the significance of these events on a much broader front than conventional studies. The events are approached not simply as political, economic, and social crises, but as challenges to the predominant forms of religious and political thought, social relations, and standard forms of cultural expression. The contributors provide up-to-date analysis of the political happenings, considering the structures of social and political life that shaped and were re-shaped by the crisis. The Handbook goes on to explore the long-term legacies of the crisis in the Three Kingdoms and their impact in a wider European context.