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Historical person
1619–1682
Prince Rupert of the Rhine was born in Prague in 1619, the son of Frederick V, Elector Palatine, and Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of James VI and I. His family’s loss of the Bohemian crown forced them into exile, and Rupert entered military life while still young. He gained experience during the Thirty Years’ War before joining his uncle Charles I in England in 1642, where his aggressive cavalry tactics made him the most celebrated and controversial Royalist commander of the First English Civil War.
Rupert fought in major campaigns including Edgehill, Marston Moor and Naseby, later commanding Royalist naval forces during the civil-war aftermath. After the Restoration he served Charles II as a senior admiral, fought in the Anglo-Dutch wars and pursued scientific and technical interests associated with the early Royal Society. Charles Spencer’s Prince Rupert: The Last Cavalier treats Rupert as a biographical subject, following the military, political and personal phases of his long career.
Series
The Bleeding Land novels follow the Rivers family as the English Civil War divides England and turns political allegiance into a private catastrophe. Sir Francis Rivers and his children are pulled towards opposing causes after Charles I raises his standard in 1642, while the women at Sheer House…
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The Civil War Chronicles follow Captain Innocent Stryker, a veteran of continental warfare who returns to England as conflict between Charles I and Parliament becomes open war. Stryker serves the Royalists through loyalty to his companions rather than unquestioning faith in the cause. His company is repeatedly used…
All books in this series
The Morland Dynasty is a thirty-six-book family saga tracing the fictional Morlands of Yorkshire from 1434 to the approach of the Second World War. Beginning with the marriage of Robert Morland and Eleanor, a ward of the Beaufort family, the sequence follows successive generations as Morland Place grows…
All books in this series
Non Fiction
Biographies, histories and other non-fiction are listed separately from the historical novels above.
