The sequence of civil wars that ripped England apart in the seventeenth century was one of the most devastating conflicts in its history. It destroyed families and towns, ravaged the population and led many, both supporters of Charles I and his opponents, to believe that England’s people were being punished by a vengeful God. This masterly new history illuminates what it was like to live through a time of terrifying violence, religious fervour and radical politics. Michael Braddick describes how pamphleteers, armies, iconoclasts, witch-hunters, Levellers, protestors and petitioners were all mobilized in the chaos, as they fought over new ways to imagine their world.
Chapter 2. From the Bowels of the Whore of Babel
Chapter 3. Self-Government at the King's Command
Chapter 4. Drawing Swords in the King’s Service
Chapter 5. We Dream Now of a Golden Age
Chapter 6. Barbarous Catholics and Puritan Populists
Chapter 10. Military Escalation, Loyalty and Honour
Chapter 11. The War of the Three Kingdoms
Chapter 13. A Man Not Famous But Notorious
Chapter 14. Naseby and the End of the War
Chapter 15. Winners and Losers
Chapter 16. Remaking the Local Community
Chapter 18. Military Defeat and Political Survival
Chapter 19. The Army, the People and the Scots
Chapter 20. To Preserve That Which God Hath Manifestly Declared Against
Chapter 21. The Occasioner, Author, and Continuer of the Said Unnatural, Cruel and Bloody Wars
Bibliography of Secondary Works