"A General Plague of Madness"
Carnegie Publishing Ltd (Verlag)
978-1-85936-191-7 (ISBN)
Lord Derby, Lancashire's highest-ranked nobleman and its principal royalist, once offered the opinion that the English civil wars had been a 'general plague of madness'. Complex and bedevilling, the earl defied anyone to tell the complete story of 'so foolish, so wicked, so lasting a war'. Yet attempting to chronicle and to explain the events is both fascinating and hugely important. Nationally and at the county level the impact and significance of the wars can hardly be over-stated: the conflict involved our ancestors fighting one another, on and off, for a period of nine years; almost every part of Lancashire witnessed warfare of some kind at one time or another, and several towns in particular saw bloody sieges and at least one episode characterised as a massacre.Nationally the wars resulted in the execution of the king; in 1651 the Earl of Derby himself was executed in Bolton in large measure because he had taken a leading part in the so-called massacre in that town in 1644.
In the early months of the civil wars many could barely distinguish what it was that divided people in 'this war without an enemy', as the royalist William Waller famously wrote; yet by the end of it parliament had abolished monarchy itself and created the only republic in over a millennium of England's history. Over the ensuing centuries this period has been described variously as a rebellion, as a series of civil wars, even as a revolution.Lancashire's role in these momentous events was quite distinctive, and relative to the size of its population particularly important. Lancashire lay right at the centre of the wars, for the conflict did not just encompass England but Ireland and Scotland too, and Lancashire's position on the coast facing Catholic, Royalist Ireland was seen as critical from the very first months. And being on the main route south from Scotland meant that the county witnessed a good deal of marching and marauding armies from the north.
In this, the first full history of the Lancashire civil wars for almost a century, Stephen Bull makes extensive use of new discoveries to narrate and explain the exciting, terrible events which our ancestors witnessed in the cause either of king or parliament. From Furness to Liverpool, and from the Wyre estuary to Manchester and Warrington...civil war actions, battles, sieges and skirmishes took place in virtually every corner of Lancashire.
Introduction1Measurements and spellings51Lancashire in the seventeenth century: people, county, military7The hundreds of old Lancashire7Religion and society17The county as 'Armye'252'The fittest subject for a King's quarrel': the causes of civil war35God's war?: Catholic and Protestant42'A horid, cursed, and barbarous Rebellion': the Irish question55Gentlemen and townsmen59The willing and the unwilling643To arms, and the siege of Manchester, 164268Militias and magazines69The parliamentarian stand at Manchester71The siege of Manchester, September 1642774'All barbarous crueltie': the struggle for Lancashire, 1642-4387Campaigns in east Lancashire, October 164288Chowbent, November 164293Sir Gilbert Hoghton and Blackburn95War in the balance, spring 1643100Preston falls to parliament, February 1643101Tragedy at Hoghton Tower103A 'verrey hot skirmish' as Bolton holds out104Lancaster and the Fylde107The Santa Anna108The burning and capture of Lancaster, March 1643113Preston and Lancaster change hands115A second royalist attack on Bolton, March 1643120Parliamentarians attack Wigan, March 1643122Warrington and the battle of Stockton Heath, April 16431245The war turns for Parliament127The battle of Read Bridge, Whalley, April 1643127South Lancashire and the Fylde, April-May 1643132Royalist retreat and Warrington attacked, May 1643135The battle of Adwalton Moor, June 1643137Hornby, Thurland and the battle of Lindale Close138Autumn and winter 1643: parliamentarian adventures outside the county1446Lady Derby and the first siege of Lathom House, 1644149The location and layout of Lathom House153Desultory siege and negotiations, spring 1644157Problems facing the besiegers164Lady Derby takes the initiative1687'Prince Robber' in Lancashire, 1644173Through Stockport and into Lancashire175The sack and 'massacre of Bolton, May 1644176The storming of Liverpool, June 1644182Rupert aims to relieve the siege of York, June 16441898'A fatal blow': the aftermath of Marston Moor191The royalists in Lancashire, summer 1644195The battle for control of Lancashire, late summer, 1644197The battle of Ormskirk, August 16442039The end of the first civil war, 1645209Liverpool falls to parliament209Greenhalgh castle216The end at Lathom and Lancashire troops at Chester217Final royalist defeat in Lancashire, December 1645226Reform of the Lancashire committee22910War without conclusion and the 'Province' of Lancashire238Presbyterianism in Lancashire24411The second civil war, 1648250An 'Engagement' between king and Scottish royalists252The Engager army prepares to invade, summer 1648259'Bloody Preston', 17 August, 1648267The royalists retreat southwards278The battle of Winwick, 19 August 1648281The long road to Uttoxeter283Preston's legacy: regicide28612The search for peace and the third civil war, 1649-1651288An accommodation with Lord Derby?291Political, military and religious reform293Charles Stuart and the third civil war298A Scottish royalist army in Lancashire again301A skirmish at Warrington bridge303Lord Derby campaigning again in Lancashire306The battle of Wigan Lane, August 1651311The earl of Derby captured and tried for treason31613Aftermath322The true cost of civil war323The Commonwealth and Protectorate, 1651-1660331The civil wars in perspective341Notes and references354Appendices368Further reading388Index400
| Erscheint lt. Verlag | 30.10.2009 |
|---|---|
| Zusatzinfo | 80 illustrations |
| Verlagsort | Lancaster |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 156 x 234 mm |
| Themenwelt | Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Neuzeit (bis 1918) |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte | |
| Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Militärgeschichte | |
| ISBN-10 | 1-85936-191-9 / 1859361919 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1-85936-191-7 / 9781859361917 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
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