Veronica Wedgwood

The brilliant English historian, C.V. Wedgwood worked for many years on her most ambitious undertaking -- the tremendous story of the Great Rebellion which cost Charles I his life and turned England into a republic. While Miss Wedgwood gives careful consideration to the familiar religious, political, and economic elements in the struggle, her intention is not so much to analyze the causes of the Civil War as to reveal how the men and women of the time thought and felt, and why, in their own estimations, they acted as they did. - Jacket flap.

Stresses the career and artistic style of the Dutch painter of the Counter Reformation and includes numerous color reproductions.

The life of the well-known English poet and educator set against the social life and historic events of the seventeenth century.

King Charles I was his own worst enemy. Self-righteous, arrogant, and unscrupulous, he had a penchant for making bad decisions. His troubles began the moment he ascended the throne in 1625 upon the death of his father James I. Charles simultaneously alienated both his subjects and his Parliament, prompting a series of events that ultimately lead to civil war, his own death and the abolition of the English monarchy. The tide of the Civil War ebbed and flowed for the next six years, culminating in the defeat at the Battle of Preston of Charles' army in August 1648 by Parliamentary forces under the command of Oliver Cromwell. The King was charged with high treason against the realm of England. At his trial, Charles refused to enter a plea. Notwithstanding the absence of a plea, the court rendered a verdict of guilty and a sentence of death declaring: "That the king, for the crimes contained in the charge, should be carried back to the place from whence he came, and thence to the place of execution, where his head should be severed from his body." Three days later, the king was led to the scaffold erected at Whitehall, London.

A wonderfully bold and wide-ranging narrative of the world's defining events from the beginning of civilization to the early Renaissance. "Her style is a marvel of clarity. And, in sheer readability she is a match for any historian living or dead." --J. H. Plumb, The Sunday Times.