Women All on Fire: Women of the English Civil War

by Alison Plowden (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2000

  $3.42

  An account of the heroic women who played an active part in the war between King and Parliament in the 17th century. The Royalists include Queen Henrietta Maria, who fled abroad with some of the Crown jewels to raise money for the cause; and Mary Banks, wife of the King's Privy Councillor, who defended Corge Castle during an epic three-month siege, forcing the storming Roundheads to withdraw by heaving hot embers over the battlements. On the opposing side, there are the letters of Puritan Lady Brilliana Harley, revealing her constant fear as she guarded Brampton Bryan Castle in Herefordshire; the writing of Anne Fairfax, wife of Cromwell's northern General, who was taken prisoner after the battle of Adwalton Moor near Leeds; and a classic account of the war from a Puritan's view by Lucy Hutchinson, wife of the Governor of Nottingham. The book also offers first-hand accounts by the oyster wenches of Parliamentary London, who laboured beside the men digging trenches around the City, and women who helped prisoners to escape, such as Anne Murray, who provided clothes for the Duke of York, and Jane Lane and Juliana Coningsby who risked their lives for the King after his flight from Worcester.

• Used

  Paperback
  2004

  $4.15

  Using personal accounts from both Royalist and Parliamentarian supporters to reveal the untold story of the women of the English Civil War, Alison Plowden illustrates how the conflict affected the lives of women and how they coped with unfamiliar responsibilities. Some displayed a courage so far above their sex as to suprise and disconcert their men. The Royalists included Queen Henrietta, who went abroad to raise money for the cause, and Mary Bankes who held Corfe Castle for the king with her daughters, heaving stones and hot embers over the battlements at the attacking Roundheads. On the opposing side, Lady Brillia Harley guarded Brampton Bryan Castle in Herefordshire against the Royalists and Anne Fairfax, wife of Cromwell's northern general, who was taken prisoner by the Duke of Newcastle's troops after Adwalton Moor. This is a fascinating look at the little reported, yet valient actions, of the women caught up in this tumultuous age.