Many types of cavalryman are established in the imagination of the British public, but the Ironside retains his place as symbolic of the one occasion when the army took an active role in British politics. One reason is that he represents a unique period when ordinary people displaced the established order to take political control into their own hands. In the 19th century a rash of historical publications, paintings and statues with a civil war theme reflected the political divisions of Victorian society and Royalist and Parliamentarian causes were argued over again, reflecting the subtext of contemporary political struggles. This book attempts to take a wider view of the Ironside as a warrior who evolved from the experiments of the 16th and early 17th centuries to combine firepower with the armoured cavalryman. It reflects his wider service in the Royalist as well as the Parliamentarian armies and beyond the civil wars.

Author Biography

John Tincey was born in 1955 and educated in London. He graduated from Leicester University in 1977 with a degree in history and is currently employed by one of the major clearing banks. He specialises in all aspects of military history of the late 16th and 17th centuries and frequently contributes to historical and military magazines, as well as lecturing on the development of the art of war. His published works include a story of the London Militia during the English Civil War and a facsimile reprint of one of the original drill books in his collection. Graham Turner is a leading historical artist, specialising in the medieval period. He has illustrated numerous titles for Osprey, covering a wide variety of subjects from the dress of the 10th-century armies of the Caliphates, through the action of bloody medieval battles, to the daily life of the British Redcoat of the late 18th century. The son of the illustrator Michael Turner, Graham lives and works in Buckinghamshire, UK.