by Smith, Skye
2. How can I which characters are historic and which are fictional?
3. What was a Pistoleer?
4. Were Warwick House and Holland House real places?
5. Why did Queen Henrietta flee to the Netherlands?
6. Prince Rupert is a royal hero so why is he portrayed as evil?
7. Why was Kingston upon Hull so important to Charles?
8. Was Dover Castle really captured by a dozen lads climbing the cliff?
9. Whose side were the universities on?
10. Was Prince Rupert's treasure taken from a ship in Skegness?
11. Was Robert Blake at Babylon Hill?
12. Why was the battle of Edgehill so important?
13. Was the Earl of Essex incompetent?
14. Why was the Earl of Lindsey in the front line rather than keeping the company of the king?
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1. Where can I read about the non-fiction events and characters?
First try "bcw-project.org", the robust and well organized British Civil War website.
If you can't find it at BCW then do a keyword search on Google. If a relevant BCW or Wikipedia article is listed, then other articles in the list will also be relevant. If not, then add more keywords and search again.
For maps and descriptions of the Battle of Edgehill, see "battleofedgehill.org".
2. How can I tell which characters are historic and which are fictional?
As a rule of thumb, if the character is a Parliamentarian, has a title, or a military rank of captain or above, then they are historic and so are their families. If the character is a member of the Wellenhay clan, or goes unnamed, they are fictional.
3. What was a Pistoleer? (for more info see the Appendix of Book One)
Pistoleers were mounted infantry. They rode lighter, cheaper horses, wore only enough armour to protect chest and back, and were more likely to carry a multipurpose axe than a cavalry sabre. Their main weapons were pistols, not lances, although many also carried a carbine ... a short musket. They evolved in the protestant Dutch army because that army was short on cavalry.
During a large battle they were often kept back as a strategic reserve, but before the battle they would be used as couriers, scouts, and skirmishers. The weakness of The Pistoleers was that normal pistols were single shot, and reloading them on a moving horse was slow work. For this reason pistoleers carried more than one gun, and one of them would be a Dragon. A Dragon was a blunderbuss pistol ... a scatter gun, the sawed off shotgun of the era. During the British Civil war companies of Pistoleers were called 'flying squads'.
4. Were Warwick House and Holland House real places?
Yes. One was a great estate belonging to the Earl of Warwick which stretched north from Holborn, a satellite town of London. The other was a great estate near to the rural village of Kensington belonging to Warwicks younger brother the Earl of Holland. Both were used by the reform party as meeting places and offices.
5. Why did Queen Henrietta flee to the Netherlands?
Even though the Dutch Republicans hated Charles, the queen went to the Netherlands to get help for him, rather than to her family's palace in Paris. The reason for choosing the Netherlands over France is not known, but it is likely that was where the most diplomacy was required. If the Dutch Republicans sided with the English Parliament, then England would likely become a republic. Charles needed the Dutch to help him, and not parliament.
The queen pawned the Crown Jewels to raise funds. Through her diplomatic efforts she secured political and financial help of the King of Demark and the Prince of Orange, a fully equipped army of over 3,000 veterens, and transport for that army by the Dutch navy. This was quite a diplomatic coup for her, but then, she was very well connected.
Her brother was the King of France who was allied to the Netherlands against the Hapsburg Empire and at peace with England. Her sister-in-law (Charlie's sister) was Queen Elisabeth of Bohemia, who was living in exile in The Hague with her three princes ... Charles, Rupert, and Maurice. The Devil Prince (Rupert) had just been released from imprisonment by the Emperor at Charlie's request. Henrietta's daughter Mary was betrothed to the William of Orange, the son of Prince Fredrick of Orange who was the Statholder (Warlord) of the Netherlands Republics.
6. Prince Rupert is a royal hero so why is he portrayed as evil?
After the restoration of Charles Too, the Stuart regime went to great lengths to put their own spin on the history of the civil wars and the main players. This was the same regime that exhumed the bodies of dead republicans so the bodies could be beheaded, and the same regime that sent assassins to other kingdoms to kill the republican leaders who had fled England. This positive spin went unquestioned until after the Great War of 1914. Prince Rupert was successful in battle more because he was vicious than because he was capable. In mid life he was a vicious pirate working for the Spanish.
7. Why was Kingston upon Hull so important to Charles?
If the queen was to land an army to support Charles, then she needed to land it as close as possible to Nottingham. The Humber is a navigable almost all the way to Nottingham, and Hull controlled the Humber. In Hull were stored many of the weapons used by the English in the Bishop's Wars against Scotland.
8. Was Dover Castle really captured by a dozen lads climbing the cliff?
Yes. The description in this novel strays from fact only to add in the fictional characters and some action.
9. Whose side were the universities on?
Both Cambridge and Oxford universities were/are fantastically wealthy due to the land given to them over the centuries by the nobility. The salaries of the masters were paid by the student sons of the nobility. It was in their financial interest to side with the king.
10. Was Prince Rupert's treasure taken from a ship in Skegness?
Yes. The capture of Ruperts men and treasure at Skegness is according to historical record except for the addition of the fictional characters and their adventures.
11. Was Robert Blake at Babylon Hill?
There are huge gaps in the history of Robert Blake. At the time of Babylon Hill he was supposedly very active in parliament's militia in the Southwest. Since the biggest militia action was around Yeovil he could have been at Babylon Hill, but there is no proof.
12. Why was the battle of Edgehill so important?
The Battle of Edgehill was the first all-out battle between the Stuart regime and the English Parliament and it occurred two years after such battles between the Stuart regime and the Scottish Parliament. It lasted for three days, but there was a full battle only on the first day at a time when the king's army still outnumbered, outgunned, and out cavalry'ed the rebels.
At the end of the battle both sides claimed that the other side had won. The battle would have been decisively won ... including the capture of the king, if General Devereaux (the Earl of Essex) had pressed the advantage his infantry had won him. Instead he allowed the king and his army to escape to continue their march towards London, and thus the English suffered four more years of ravishment at the hands of the king's army.
13. Was the Earl of Essex incompetent?
Some say yes, few so no. Compared to Alexander Leslie, yes he was. Essex was doing a balancing act of trying to defeat the king without slaughtering his army. The king's army was comprised of the sons of the nobility, so a slaughter would have alienated the nobility from the Reform Party cause.
The king's generals did not have the same balancing problem. In their eyes the parliamentary army were a bunch of treasonous rebels, so they were quite willing to slaughter them.
14. Why was the Earl of Lindsey in the front line rather than keeping the company of the king?
Lindsey thought he was the Captain General of the entire army, so when the king put his nephew Prince Rupert in charge of the mounted brigades, Lindsey resigned.
THE END of Edgehill
Be sure to watch for more adventures of The Pistoleer coming soon.
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The Pistoleer - Edgehill by Skye Smith Copyright 2013-14
