English Civil War

[JimmyB27]

I'm actually writing a fantasy novel, but I'm after books on the English civil war for worldbuilding purposes, so I thought I might get a better response here.

Does anybody know of any good books set in or around the English civil war?
I've had bad experiences with history books before, I usually find them too dry and very hard going. I'm looking, ideally, for something fairly easy to read, written in an engaging style. Not interested in dates or anything like that, just a general 'what it was really like', if that makes sense.

[SJAB]

Well, I am going to actually recommend;

first a "history book".

The English Civil War - A people's history

http://www.amazon.co.uk/English-Civil-War-Peoples-History/dp/000715061X/sr=1-1/qid=1161769136/ref=pd_bowtega_1/026-8377016-2904462?ie=UTF8&s=books (http://www.amazon.co.uk/English-Civil-War-Peoples-History/dp/000715061X/sr=1-1/qid=1161769136/ref=pd_bowtega_1/026-8377016-2904462?ie=UTF8&s=books)

Second a classic novel;

Children of the New Forest

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Children-Forest-Wordsworth-Childrens-Classics/dp/1853261106/sr=1-1/qid=1161769263/ref=sr_1_1/026-8377016-2904462?ie=UTF8&s=books (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Children-Forest-Wordsworth-Childrens-Classics/dp/1853261106/sr=1-1/qid=1161769263/ref=sr_1_1/026-8377016-2904462?ie=UTF8&s=books)

But to be honest if you are using the time period as a template for your work, you do need to do some heavy research, no short cuts, least I haven't found any yet.

[pdr]

The English civil war in easy doses.

Look in the Resources sticky at the top of this board which mod Jen kindly put together. Look under the Links for Victorian research in the first post and you will see a link called Diary Junction. Go there and find the diaries of the 17thC. There are quite a few and well worth a read to see how people lived.

Try the BBC website: www.bbc.co.uk. It opens on the home page. Scan down the left until you find Other BBC Sites and History will be there. Click on it. On the History page click on British History and you will find lots of readable stuff on the Civil War.

Britain's Channel Four has a great history site too: http://www.channel4.com/history/
Look in the top right hand corner at Time Guides and click on Stuart England.

The articles you read on both websites have long bibliographies full of excellent references to other sites and books.
Happy researching.

[Popeyesays]

I'm actually writing a fantasy novel, but I'm after books on the English civil war for worldbuilding purposes, so I thought I might get a better response here.

Does anybody know of any good books set in or around the English civil war?
I've had bad experiences with history books before, I usually find them too dry and very hard going. I'm looking, ideally, for something fairly easy to read, written in an engaging style. Not interested in dates or anything like that, just a general 'what it was really like', if that makes sense.

There is a lot of stuff around that period in European history as well. The Thirty Years War in particular. The wars against the Hugenot, the entire period is rife with religious warfare.

An interesting aside: Did you know the last campaign of the ECS was fought in North America? Yup, the authorities of the English colony of Virginia were staunch Royalists.

Regards,
Scott

[Evaine]

How about contacting the Sealed Knot, or the English Civil War Society, both large historical re-enactment groups? They can give you huge amounts of information on what it was like to live in the 17thC, what foods were available, clothing styles, and so on.

In fiction, I'd recommend The Rider on the White Horse, by Rosemary Sutcliff, about General Fairfax (on the Parliamentarian side).

Otherwise, there are lots of good standard history books around - I'm sure Antonia Fraser did one on Seventeenth Century women, and she's always worth reading.

For a quick overview, how about the Horrible Histories series for kids? The Sickly Stuarts, or something similar. History with all the gory bits left in.

[BardSkye]

Horrible Histories? First I've heard of that one. Isn't it awfully lucky I'm on my way to meet my dad in a book store in half an hour or so anyway?

Seriously. If I can't find them at my favourite bookstore this evening I'll be back to ask more about them. They actually sound like something I would really enjoy.

[JimmyB27]

Thanks all for the replies!

The English Civil War - A people's history

http://www.amazon.co.uk/English-Civil-War-Peoples-History/dp/000715061X/sr=1-1/qid=1161769136/ref=pd_bowtega_1/026-8377016-2904462?ie=UTF8&s=books


By chance this was half price in Waterstones, so I bought it last night - haven't started it yet.

How about contacting the Sealed Knot

Had this advice from another writing board too, will check them out.

[BardSkye]

The bookstore had "The Wicked History of the World" in stock. I bought it, read it and will now have to find all the others. Thanks for the heads-up!

[robeiae]

As far as histories of the English Civil Wars go (note the 's' on the end), I suggest Christopher Hill (http://www.amazon.com/Century-Revolution-1603-1714-Library-History/dp/0393300161/sr=1-2/qid=1161924808/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/102-1626693-2450565?ie=UTF8&s=books). He has a number of books on the period that approach it from slightly different angles.

For accounts of the period from closer in, try with Behemoth (http://www.amazon.com/Behemoth-Long-Parliament-Thomas-Hobbes/dp/0226345440/sr=1-6/qid=1161924929/ref=sr_1_6/102-1626693-2450565?ie=UTF8&s=books), by Thomas Hobbes (though it's a tad heavy...:D ).

[pdr]

that Christopher Hill use history for political ends. He's strongly Left Wing Socialist and is hard to read at times because of his polemics.

There are many readable books about the Civil War. (By the way where did the two Civil Wars come from? I understood that the two phases of the Civil War were just that - two phases - and regarded as two parts of the same strife by most historians.)

Antonia Fraser's 'Cromwell' is a good read. And C.V. Wedgewood's three books on the the Civil War are still held as core works to read: 'The King's Peace 1637-41', 'The King's War 1641-1647' and 'The Trial of Charles I'


Just try to read a balance of books and not a majority of those pro-King ones. Sadly it all came down to character and Charles 1st was as stupid as his Grandmother, who also ended up on the block. If he had had an ounce of wit he could have avoided the whole religious problem. Elizabeth 1st did! The Tudors had the brains. The Stuarts had none and were fools into the bargain.

[pdr]

Two good 17thC research sites.

http://www.thesealedknot.org.uk/knowbase/articles.asp

This is the Sealed Knott re-enactment society's knowledge base. Very good mix of stuff.

http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk/links.htm

This is an excellent site. Go into Links and you'll find so much. I enjoy the link to a site where you can play soldiers and learn how the soldiers moved, but there are links to ballads and newspapers, scholarly essays, details of ships and naval battles and much more.

[robeiae]

that Christopher Hill use history for political ends. He's strongly Left Wing Socialist and is hard to read at times because of his polemics.There are many excellent historians who are unabashedly Marxist in orientation. Hill's orientation is fairly obvious and, imo, easily accounted for. As a source for historical fiction, I would suggest that Hill's works offer many opportunities, since they are full of furtive events. In particular, there are the Levellers and their relationship with Cromwell and company. Very good stuff.

(By the way where did the two Civil Wars come from? I understood that the two phases of the Civil War were just that - two phases - and regarded as two parts of the same strife by most historians.)I see that Wikipedia has reduced the period to the English Civil War, as well. Bad history--there was not one continuous war with two defined sides and it is incorrect to imply that such was the case by using the term "English Civil War." The middle period of the seventeenth century in England was a tumultuous time in which various armed conflicts took place that can be reasonably labeled as civil wars. And many other events occured related to these conflicts in different ways. Again, to suppose that a war between factions was fought and that war resolved a central question of control, in and of itself, is wrong.

[pdr]

Hill is a bit passe as far as details of the Levellers et al. Some of his views have passed into the mainstream and are common currency. Typical of history isn't it that the rebel becomes the mainstream?

Apparently it's now correct to talk of the British Civil Wars which are the Irish War, the Bishops' or Scottish War, and the English War. I think this is a better way of looking at what happened as the strife in England was not isolated but had its roots back in 1536 and Henry V111's new non-catholic church, as well as the European Reformation, the 17thC religious wars in Europe, the lack of a written British Constitution, Parliament's role in government and the Irish and Scottish parts of Britain. Along with that we do have to look at the Stuart Kings and why they made such a mess when Elizabeth didn't. It's probably true to say that there wouldn't have been any war at all if James and then Charles had been more intelligent and less pig headed!

[Higgins]

Hill is a bit passe as far as details of the Levellers et al. Some of his views have passed into the mainstream and are common currency. Typical of history isn't it that the rebel becomes the mainstream?

Apparently it's now correct to talk of the British Civil Wars which are the Irish War, the Bishops' or Scottish War, and the English War. I think this is a better way of looking at what happened as the strife in England was not isolated but had its roots back in 1536 and Henry V111's new non-catholic church, as well as the European Reformation, the 17thC religious wars in Europe, the lack of a written British Constitution, Parliament's role in government and the Irish and Scottish parts of Britain. Along with that we do have to look at the Stuart Kings and why they made such a mess when Elizabeth didn't. It's probably true to say that there wouldn't have been any war at all if James and then Charles had been more intelligent and less pig headed!

Hill may have been writing for a long time, but he is a great writer with a marvelous, if perhaps overly hopeful, grasp of the world of the 17th century. One Carolingian Historian I talked to long ago (though not in the 9th century) said that a lecture by Hill on Naylor's entry into Bristol was one of the most moving things he had ever experienced.