The weeks after the Battle of Edgehill in October 1642 provided King Charles with perhaps his only chance of winning the Civil War outright. He failed to take it. By November, the Parliamentary army under Essex had managed to slip past the Royalist forces outside London to regain the city, while Charles had established his court at Oxford. Both sides now realised that there would be no speedy end to the English Civil War.
On a freezing January day in 1649, the executioner’s axe ended the reign and the life of King Charles I. It was the final melancholy episode in one of England’s saddest stories. Sent to his death by a Parliament weary of his duplicity, the King met his end with dignity and courage. Behind him he ...
On a bright summer morning 300 years ago, a battle took place in a field in southern Germany that stopped Louis XIV and his French army from taking over Europe.
300 years ago, a battle took place in these German fields - a battle that few remember today - but in which British troops played a vital role. It was a fight which would determine the fate of Europe.
