On 23 September 1642 Prince Rupert's cavalry triumphed outside Worcester in the first major clash on the English Civil War. Almost precisely nine years later, on 3 September 1651, that war was won by Oliver Cromwell's famous Ironsides outside the same city and in part upon the same ground. Stuart Reid provides a detailed yet readable new military history – the first to be published for over twenty years – of the three conflicts between 1642 and 1651 known as the English Ci...

With the exception of the key royal sites, such as Stirling and Edinburgh, few Scottish castles were located at strategic points, or were intended to house garrisons required to defend or subjugate towns.Instead they were primarily fortified dwelling houses, erected in an environment of weak Royal authority and endemic feuding between rival clans and groups, in both Highland and Lowland areas. Although some enceinte castles were developed during the 16th and 17th c...

The commissioned officer ranks in the British Army from 1740-1815 were almost entirely composed of the affluent and educated - the sons of the landed gentry, the wealthy, and other professional people. This title looks at the enlistment, training, daily life and combat experiences of the typical British officer in the crucial periods of the North American conflicts, the American Revolution, and the Napoleonic Wars. It compliments the author's previous treatments in Warrior 19 British Redco...

Contrary to popular belief, the capture of India was not accomplished by the British Army, but by the private armies of the East India Company, which grew in size to become larger than that of any European sovereign state.This is the history of its army, examining the many conflicts they fought, their equipment and training, with its regiments of horse, foot and guns, which rivalled those of most European powers. The development of their uniforms, which combined tr...

In August 1745 Charles Edward Stuart, the 'Young Pretender', landed in Scotland and sparked the Second Jacobite Rising.The Jacobite forces seized Perth, then Edinburgh, where they proclaimed the Young Pretender's father King James VIII; they trounced their Hanoverian opponents at Prestonpans and crossed into England, getting as far south as Derby before withdrawing into Scotland. Far from universally popular north of the border, the Jacobite army bested another Han...

In 2006 the title 'Highlanders' finally disappeared from the British Army's list of infantry regiments after nearly 270 years.Throughout this period Scottish Highland units distinguished themselves in battle, but it was in the 19th-century heyday of the British Empire that they acquired an elite reputation and their colourful uniforms evolved to their full complexity.This book traces and explains the identity and appearance of the individual regiments throu...

The Seven Years' War in Germany was characterised by an increasing use of 'light' troops in conjunction with regular infantry and cavalry as part of an ongoing evolution in military tactics.This book draws attention to these tactical developments and also provides an analysis of the allied army that fought alongside Frederick the Great in Germany. Composed of troops from the electorate of Hanover and contingents from Hessen-Kassel, Brunswick and Prussia, this force...

A deep dive into the clash between the Earl of Mar's Jacobite forces and the Duke of Argyll's Hanoverian troops on November thirteen, 1715.Sheriffmuir 1715 is the military history of a doomed Jacobite rising in Scotland, which enjoyed far more public support and arguably far more chance of success than Bonnie Prince Charlie's attempt thirty years later. Unlike the 'forty-five, the uprising which culminated in the brutal battle of Sheriffmuir was very much ...

The first campaign medal awarded to British soldiers is reckoned to be that given to those men who fought at Waterloo in 1815, but a decade and a half earlier a group of regiments were awarded a unique badge – a figure of a Sphinx - to mark their service in Egypt in 1801. It was a fitting distinction, for the successful campaign was a remarkable one, fought far from home by a British army which had so far not distinguished itself in battle against Revolutionary France, and one moreover whi...

The fighting in Europe during the Seven Years War hung in the balance. After initial successes the Austro-French forces had been driven back across the Rhine. With the opposing sides reinforcing their armies, the campaign of 1759 was going to prove decisive.Britain and her German allies met the French at Minden in Germany. Due to a misunderstanding of orders the British infantry actually attacked and dispersed the French cavalry. That action is still commemorated on 1 August each year with...

Contrary to popular belief, the capture of India was not accomplished by the British Army, but by the private armies of the East India Company, which grew in size to become larger than that of any European sovereign state.This is the history of its army, examining the many conflicts they fought, their equipment and training, with its regiments of horse, foot and guns, which rivalled those of most European powers. The development of their uniforms, which combined tr...

Crown, Covenant and Cromwell is a groundbreaking military history of the Great Civil War or rather the last Anglo-Scottish War as it was fought in Scotland and by Scottish armies in England between 1639 and 1651. While the politics of the time are necessarily touched upon, it is above all the story of those armies and the men who marched in them under generals such as Alexander Leslie, the illiterate soldier of fortune who became Earl of Leven, James Graham, Marquis of Montrose and of cour...