God's Fury, England's Fire: A New History of the English Civil Wars

The sequence of civil wars that ripped England apart in the seventeenth century was the single most traumatic event in this country between the medieval Black Death and the two world wars. Indeed, it is likely that a greater percentage of the population were killed in the civil wars than in the First World War.

This sense of overwhelming trauma gives this major new history its title: God�s Fury, England�s Fire. The name of a pamphlet written after the king�s surrender, it sums up the widespread feeling within England that the seemingly endless nightmare that had destroyed families, towns and livelihoods was ordained by a vengeful God � that the people of England had sinned and were now being punished. As with all civil wars, however, �God�s fury� could support or destroy either side in the conflict. Was God angry at Charles I for failing to support the true, protestant, religion and refusing to work...