In The Midst Of The Kingdom : The Royalist War Effort In The North Midlands, 1642-1646

This book is the first study to reassess the nature of the royalist cause in the North midland counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire Rutland and Staffordshire during the first civil war (1642-1646). Previous accounts of the war in the region have been heavily dependent on parliamentarian accounts, which were not written in order to create a thorough narrative of the war, but to demonise the royalists and their cause. The resultant image created by the hostile accounts was a war of confusing, rapine and disorder. Examination of a wider range of information showed that by contrast the royalists had a regional command structure which exploited thoroughly at times the resources of the region to fund their war effort. However, there were several problems within that war effort. Command was subject to internal rivalries and the interference of the king. Moreover the higher levels of command in the royalist cause created problems for the royalist commander Lord Loughborough, as his region was divided between different commanders at several points in the war. These conflicts are explored in this book. AUTHOR: Professor Martyn Bennett was born in Bridlington, educated at the Joseph Rowntree School outside York, and has lived in Loughborough for over forty years. He has worked on the civil war in Britain and Ireland for over thirty years. He has published over a dozen books and numerous articles on the war and has most recently published a study of Cromwell's military achievements which has analysed the nature of his genius. Martyn is the Professor of Early Modern History at Nottingham Trent University and a broadcaster who presents a documentary series about the history of Nottinghamshire for Notts TV: Rediscovering Notts. 8 b/w illustrations, 9 b/w maps