CROWN, COVENANT AND CROMWELL is an important new military history of the Great Civil War or rather the last Anglo-Scottish War as it was fought in Scotland and by Scottish armies in England between 1639 and 1651. While the politics of the time are necessarily touched upon, determining just how a battle was won or lost is often just as important as unravelling the underlying reasons why it came to be fought in the first place or the consequences that followed. Here, Stuart Reid, one of Scotland's leading military historians, brings the campaigns and battles of those far-off unhappy times to life in a fast-paced and authoritative narrative as never before. In doing so he exposes the very human story of those armies and the men who marched in them. Due attention is paid to the actions of the generals in whose name many battles were won or lost including Alexander Leslie, the illiterate soldier of fortune who became Earl of Leven, James Graham, Marquis of Montrose and of course Oliver Cromwell, the fenland farmer and Lord Protector of England. However, Reid also examines the extraordinary stories ? from the heroic and tragic, to the cowardly and the absurd ? of many of the ordinary men taking part in the fighting. This book sheds welcome new light on what to many are very obscure corners of the Civil Wars and will be essential reading for students of the period. AUTHOR: Stuart Reid was born in Aberdeen in 1954 into a family with a tradition of service in the Army stretching back through the battle of Mons to Culloden and beyond. He is the author of several books, mainly on Scottish related military history including LIKE HUNGRY WOLVES which is widely regarded as the definitive study of the battle of Culloden and THE SECRET WAR FOR TEXAS which was awarded the Summerfield G. Roberts Medal.
