Savage: Armed Strength for Peace
The hero, Robert Savage, a tall, handsome printer’s apprentice and pikeman, serves on the side of Parliament in the Gentlemen of Arms trained band, a London regiment during the English Civil War. Savage performs deeds of derring-do at the behest of his master and then his sergeant, as he rises through the ranks. An archetype of moderation, bravery, and right-thinking, he is the very model of the stalwart Englishman. In the first chapter, his nemesis, the despicable Colonel Lunsford appears. He will reappear in many guises as Savage’s antithesis throughout the conflict. There is a plot that involves spies, rich, beautiful women, typical moral dilemmas, and suchlike.
The story follows the ins-and-outs of Savage’s fictional participation in the very real early battles of the civil war, viz., the battles of Powick Bridge, Southam, Edgehill, and Brentford. For those with a consuming interest in the military detail of the early English civil war period, its training, formations, techniques, marches, and language, this book will prove interesting. There is an historical note that provides sources such an audience will find useful.
