John Barratt: 9 books

The opening years of the fifteenth century saw one of the most bitterly contested political and military convulsions in the history of the British Isles, a conflict that is too-often overlooked by military historians. Henry IV, who had overthrown and probably murdered his predecessor Richard...

Sieges determined the course of the English Civil Wars, yet they receive scant attention. In contrast, the major set-piece battles are repeatedly analyzed and reassessed. As a result our understanding of the conflict, and of its outcome, is incomplete. John Barratt, in this lucid and perceptive...

On July 2, 1644, 18,000 Royalists led by Prince Rupert, the nephew of King Charles I, fought 27,000 Parliamentarians in an attempt to relieve the Royalist force besieged at York. They failed. The defeat was catastrophic and the North was lost to Parliamentarian troops. John Barratt looks afresh at...

The defeat of the Spanish Armada is one of the turning points in English history, and it was perhaps the defining episode in the long reigns of Elizabeth I of England and Philip II of Spain. The running battle along the Channel between the nimble English ships and the lumbering Spanish galleons has...

Between 1642 and 1646 two armies fought for control of Southwest England in one of the decisive confrontations of the English Civil Wars. In this short, turbulent period Royalists loyal to King Charles I clashed with the forces of Parliament in a series of hard-fought campaigns that crisscrossed the...

The 200 years that separate the navy of Drake's day from that of Nelson were critical for the development of Britain's sea power, and the decade of the Commonwealth, of Cromwell's rule, is one of the turning points in the story. In the aftermath of a disastrous civil war and the execution of Charles...

The effects of civil war are suffered most horrifically by the ordinary men, women, and children involuntarily caught up in it. Such was the fate of the citizens of Chester, who for almost 4 years found themselves at the center of the battle between King and Parliament. Chester's inhabitants withstood...

The Battle of the Boyne in 1690 was the culmination of the ferocious struggle between two kings, James II and William III. This book makes use of research and sources, including eyewitness accounts, to analyse the opposing forces, their strategy, tactics and conduct of the war and the reasons for its eventual outcome.

This is a history of the crucial battle of Newbury in 1643, fought during the English Civil War.