All the King's Armies: A Military History of the English Civil War

by Stuart Reid

The most detailed military history of the English Civil War ever published, this book includes histories of all the key campaigns and battles, from Edgehill to Worcester. Reid offers a meticulously detailed reinterpretation of the war's most decisive battle, at Marston Moor.

Genres: History, English Civil War, Military History, 17th Century, Nonfiction

296 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 1999

Reviews

[Michael Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'll start with what's good about this book. The author clearly had access to and used primary, contemporary sources to write this book. It is VERY detailed. If you're researching the military aspects of the English Civil War and don't have access to those primary sources or aren't sure where to begin, this book is probably a great place to start.
That said, my primary issue with this book is that it's almost too detailed, which obscures any narrative underlying the details that would link events together and make this an interesting book. The author, in his introduction, states that he has chosen to focus purely on the military aspects and leave out the politics going on behind the scene. This hurts the ability of the book to have a narrative thread. I would also argue that it's difficult to understand military decisions without understanding the political decisions driving the strategy behind the tactics. The narrative does begin to improve around Marston Moor, but this is deep into the book.
My other issue with the book is minor, and primarily for non-British readers. If you aren't intimately familiar with British geography, this book is difficult to follow. There is one map of Britain at the beginning of the book with major cities/towns and battles highlighted. However, the author will routinely talk about movements in terms of the minor towns and villages around those cities. Since the book is divided by region, this issue could have been fixed by including a regional map at the start of each chapter that included greater detail. Instead, it's very difficult to follow what's going on.

[Matthew Welker · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the title says, it’s a military history of the English Civil War. It covers The 1st English Civil War, the 2nd, and the short war with Scotland that featured Dunbar & culminated in the defeat of Charles II at Worcestar.

So if looking for something focused on the military side of these engagements, this is worth reading. It’s pretty detailed and I liken it to the Campaigns of Napoleon book, but for the English Civil War.

Now I’ll admit I did skim through a lot of it as I recently finished reading two books on Cromwell where I got coverage on some of the engagements covered in this book, but I think I got the gist despite skimming.

The only reason I’m not giving it 5 stars is that it glosses over the 2nd English Civil War. There’s only one chapter for it and the main highlight covered from that is Preston, but doesn’t go into any of the sieges in detail such as Pembroke. The author even said the 2nd war was mostly just siege warfare so I guess didn’t feel the need to go into much detail, yet I would’ve liked more for this chapter. There also isn’t anything on Cromwell’s going to Ireland, but I suppose that’s not considered to be part of the English Civil War or maybe the author doesn’t consider it to be.

But anyway that’s my only real critique. Aside from that it’s a good book that does its job. I also liked the conclusion where Reid discussed how the description of the army formed by parliament gets kind of lost in the reeds. That what was formed in the 1st Civil War was the New Model & the armies that went to Ireland & Scotland, while maybe remnants of that not so much. That what had been formed out of the New Model was an English army. Just found that interesting.

Would recommend!

[Joseph Ficklen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Its a pretty good overview of the military events that happened in England during the Civil Wars, just as it says in the subtitle. Good maps, comes with orders of battle in the footnotes. It starts off describing every front to some detail, but after Marston Moor the scope of the narrative starts to narrow to just the Oxford Army and the New Model Army in the Midlands and the West Country. Wales goes almost unmentioned, Montrose’s campaigns in Scotland are glanced over, nothing of the events in Ireland are described. The Scottish Covenanters are only mentioned when they are invading England, and the only battle covered outside of England proper is Dunbar. But I think Stuart Reid was limiting himself to just the *English* part of the Civil Wars, and he has another book on the Civil Wars from the Scottish perspective, “Crown, Covenant, Cromwell”. But compared to the magnitude of the subject, it’s a fairly good introduction, though limited in scope, one I wish I had read sooner before other more specialized books.

[kris · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book does a good job of showing how the English civil war was fought. I wish book had more maps and that the kindle edition allowed zoom on maps.