Prince Rupert of the Rhine was an intrinsic part of the civil wars that devastated the three kingdoms of Stuart Britain. A nephew of King Charles I, Rupert was both the archetypical royalist hero and parliamentarian villain. In his lifetime, he accumulated at least nine derogatory pseudonyms – from ‘Duke of Plunderland’ to ‘The Diabolical […]
The women Prince Rupert loved
The two women Prince Rupert loved are thought of — if they’re thought of at all — as his mistresses. But, says Mark Turnbull, they were much more than the bed partners of Rupert the Devil. As the Prince’s biographer, he believes: “Knowing them is knowing him.” Think of the women linked to Prince Rupert […]
The Wanton Road by JC Harvey
When widowed, grieving war hero Jack Fiskardo arrives in London in 1639, a veteran not just of conflict but also of tragedy, his only wish is to make a different life for himself and his sons. But in an England on the verge of civil war, a soldier’s past cannot be so easily forgotten. As […]
Historia interview: AD Bergin
AD Bergin’s debut novel The Wicked of the Earth is set against the background of Newcastle’s 1650 witch trials. He talks to novelist and fellow North-Easterner Carolyn Kirby about the reasons behind witch hunts, the impact of the Interregnum on industry and society, and being a Northern author. CK: Congratulations, Andrew! The Wicked of the […]
Running with the regicides: Why I decided to venture into the Restoration
Why does a historical fiction author choose a particular time to write about? And what happens when your characters insist on staying in your head when a series ends? SG MacLean, whose The Winter List is just out in paperback, writes about how she was drawn back into the world of Damian Seeker one last […]
Fiction and the English Civil Wars
Jemahl Evans, author of the Blandford Candy series of novels about a man known as the last Roundhead, surveys 300 years of fiction about the English Civil Wars. The popularity of the English Civil Wars and the wider 17th century as a period for historical fiction novelists has ebbed and flowed over the last 300 […]
Henrietta Maria by Leanda de Lisle
Henrietta Maria, Charles I’s queen, is the most reviled consort in British history. Condemned as the ‘Popish brat of France’ and a ‘notorious whore’, she remains in popular memory the woman who turned the king Catholic — and so causing a civil war — and a cruel and bigoted mother. Leanda de Lisle unpicks these […]
Charles I’s Private Life by Mark Turnbull
The execution of King Charles I is one of the well-known facts of British history, and an often-quoted snippet from our past. He lost the civil war and his head. But there is more to Charles than the civil war and his death. To fully appreciate the momentous events that marked the twenty-four years of […]