A social and military history of the Civil War that split the country 350 years ago. In a field in Nottingham in the summer of 1642, King Charles I watched his standard being raised in a high wind and driving rain. For six years thereafter England was rent by civil war. Families and friends were bitterly divided as men left home to fight for King or Parliament. Castles and towns were besieged and attacked, houses were plundered, churches and cathedrals desecrated. Some 200,000 lives were lost, many from the plague. The book recreates scenes of war and is enlivened by revealing character sketches - of the slight, sad, obstinate King, his ruthless nephew Prince Rupert and the forceful Oliver Cromwell, as well as a large cast of less familiar characters. This book commemorates the 350th anniversary of the Civil War. Other books by Chistopher Hibbert include George IV, The Rise and Fall of the House of Medici, Rome: The Biography of a City, The English: A Social History and Redcoats and Rebels: The War for America 1770-81.