English Civil War, Cavaliers, Charles I, Military history 

Winners write history, and the fact that the Royalists lost the English CIvil War has meant that their commanders are far less celebrated than their victorious Parliamentary counterparts. Civil War historian John Barratt rights this injustice in this book with a detailed examination of the KIng s high command. Apart from Charles himself and his dashing nephew Prince Rupert, he looks at a host of less well-known figures who, he argues, were equally able and charismatic and came close to winning the King s war. They include the crusty Earl of Forth, ther Scottish soldier whol gave way to the thrusting young Rupert; faithful old Jacob Astley who, before Edgehill, the war s first battle, coined the famous prayer: Lord, thou knowest how busy I must be this day, and if I forget thee, do not thou forget me! Astley was also in at the war s last battle - Stow, - when he perched on a drum and told his Roundhead captors prophetically: Well, boys, you have had your fun and can now go play - unless you fall out among yourselves . Barratt s cast of colourful Cavalier characters also includes Rupert s younger brother, Prince Maurice, who besieged the later Parliamentary Admiral, Robert Blake, at Lyme Regis. Lord Hopton, Charles loyal - and often successful - commander in the west; the corrupt, cruel, drunken, dissolute but - when sober - talented Lord Goring; the poet s ancestor Lord Byron; Richard and Bevil Grenville; the Marquis of Newcastle, who spent his vast fortune in the Royalist cause and, after losing at Marston Moor, quit England for an impoverished exile because he could not bear the laughter of the court and - perhaps the most brilliant military mind on the Royalist side, the romantic and gallant Marquis of Montrose who, after his spectacular series of victories in Scotland, was executed in Edinburgh by his vengeful enemies. Both a racy read and an authoritative history, this book will enlighten even those who thought they knew all there was to know about the CIvil War.