All the King’s Men

All the King’s Men traces the development of the British soldier from the restoration of Charles II in 1660 to the defeat of Napoleon in 1815. It explains how a small, distrusted standing army became an instrument capable of campaigning across Europe, North America, India and the Iberian Peninsula while Britain built a maritime, commercial and imperial system around it.

The book follows soldier-kings, politicians and commanders including William III, Marlborough, Wolfe, Moore and Wellington, but it keeps the ordinary redcoat at the centre. Recruitment, pay, food, housing, disease, punishment and regimental identity are examined beside battles from Blenheim and Plassey to Quebec and Waterloo. David argues that discipline and endurance, as much as generalship, sustained a century and a half of military success.