Edgehill and Beyond: The People's War in the South Midlands 1642-1645 (Banbury Historical Society

by Philip E. Tennant

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Summary

The real history of the English people, it has been said, is local history - an observation nowhere more challenging than when applied to the English Civil War.
The south Midlands, a strategic crossroads and frontier zone between royalist north and parliamentarian south, was at the very heart of the struggle from the outset, yet there has been surprisingly little investigation into the impact of the war on this region. Studies by historians have usually concentrated on the political and military issues rather than the fortunes of ordinary people implicated in the conflict.
Edgehill and Beyond adopts a different perspective. While not neglecting the major campaigns, it aims to discover the extent to which the local community was disrupted by almost continuous military occupation and violence between 1642 and 1645. Detailed examinations are included of south Warwickshire and north Oxfordshire, using the relatively little-known parish accounts among the Commonwealth Exchequer Papers and other contemporary sources, many never before published.
New light is also thrown on the supposedly well-known campaigns of Edgehill, the relief of Gloucester, the siege of Banbury, and the battles of Cropredy and Naseby. Many other actions, nationally insignificant but traumatic for the district, are highlighted, including the plunder of Shakespeare's friends and relatives at Stratford and the destruction of some of England's finest houses. The experiences of hundreds of individuals are also recorded, often for the first time, testifying to the all-embracing nature of the conflict in which these ordinary people were unavoidably caught up.

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