Charles Cordell at Worcester

 

Enjoy DESECRATION, an English Civil War historical fiction short story by Charles Cordell, ahead of his author talk at The Commandery - Worcester on Sunday.

DESECRATION is set during the Storming of Winchester and the iconoclastic desecration of Europe's greatest cathedral in December 1642. This Divided Kingdom short story eBook is only £0.99 on Amazon until midnight on Sunday 30 August 2026.

On Sunday, Charles Cordell will talk about why historical fiction set during the 17th Century can feel so relevant today in an award-winning venue that was the royalist headquarters for the last battle of the British Civil Wars. This will be an official Worcester 375 event.

#DividedKingdomBooks #WorcesterEvents #CivilWar375

Tore Gudmarsson

 Tore Gudmarsson is a Halland novel character created by Albert Olsson, and the main character in the novel trilogy Sand (1940)^[1], Gränsland (1942)^[2] and Tore Gudmarsson (1945)^[3]. Tore Gudmarsson is a tax farmer in the village of Haverdal on the coast just northwest of Halmstad in the 1600s, during the time when Halland changed from Danish to Swedish supremacy. ^[4][5]

Alatriste statue

 ! Alicante Today - New Statue In The Centre Of Cartagena In Honour Of Fictional Character Capitán Alatriste

The Keys of Hell and Death Charles Cordell

 

I really enjoyed this second book in the Divided Kingdom series. Set during the Lansdown Roundway and Bristol episodes it tells the tale of characters caught up in the events such as Morgan Pascoe a pikeman in Grenvilles which I liked.

God's Vindictive Wrath Charles Cordell

 

Been enjoying this novel. Starts at Edgehill and progresses after that. Follows about 10 characters from different sides and it seees the battle and aftermath from their perspective. Very gritty and very well researched. I was impressed. Looking forward to the next one in the series.

Memoirs of a Cavalier ; or a Military Journal of the Wars in Germany, and the Wars i- Full Audiobook

 Memoirs of a Cavalier - Wikipedia

Divided Kingdom series Charles Cordell

 Just ordered these from the Library. Looking forward to reading them. Bumph for the first one reads

The Vale of the Red Horse, Edgehill, Warwickshire, October, 1642. Bitter divisions that have grown unchecked in the kingdoms of the Stuart dynasty are about to engulf England in a bloody civil war. 30,000 men have gathered to determine the fate of nations and to pursue their own ideals and enmities through brutal and bloody combat. Many have never handled a weapon or strayed far from their native shire.

Among them are Anthony Sedley the Birmingham iron worker and Leveller, Robbie Needham, an embittered lead miner from Derbyshire who picks up a pike for his king, George Merrick, the young Oxford graduate whose prospects have been blighted by court corruption, Hywel Lloyd, a proud Welsh hill farmer, and William Bennet the struggling merchant who has staked everything to raise a company for the parliamentary cause.

Then there are the half-brothers, Ralph and Francis Reeve, sons of a Suffolk farmer. Pious Francis has abandoned his studies at Cambridge to make England a New Jerusalem, cleansed of sin and filth. He despises his carefree brother and the father who seems to favour him. Caught cuckolding a London merchant, Ralph has forfeited his apprenticeship and indenture money. He dreams of restoring his honour and his fortune when he returns to London with the king's victorious army. But first the brothers must face each other in the Vale of the Red Horse, the horse whose rider is War... God's vindictive wrath!

The second novel of the visceral Divided Kingdom series sees the action turn westwards to Bristol, where a Royalist army is determined to wrest the city from the forces of Parliament.Once again, the story revolves around the vicious enmity of the Reeve brothers: carefree and dissolute Ralph and embittered and fanatical Francis. Also caught up in the conflict are Moussa Dansocko, an African slave accused of sorcery, Kendall Tremain, Cornish fisherman and tinner, Abel Cowans, a former naval gunner from Newcastle and others, all with their own diverse reasons for siding with one cause or the other in England's bloody civil war.

The Three Musketeers - by Alexandre Dumas - Full Audiobook

 Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL4LIrwmOe8

Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IA90iKJCczc

Fiction series of camp-followers in the 30 Years War

Die Trossfrau: Historischer Roman (Dreißigjähriger Krieg-Reihe)

Die Geschichte von Die Trossfrau von Carmen Mayer ist ein historischer Roman, der die Ereignisse des Dreißigjährigen Krieges erzählt. Magdalena, die in ihrem Dorf nahe der österreichisch-böhmischen Grenze lebt, wird aus Angst und Misstrauen von ihrem Vater aus dem Haus geworfen. Sie wird mit nach Krems genommen, wo sie zwischen den katholischen und protestantischen Fronten des Krieges gerät. Mit Mühsal und Härte gelingt es ihr, ihren Lebensunterhalt zu verdienen und schließlich eine Heirat eingehen. Ihr Leben wird jedoch von der Begegnung mit einer Hexe geprägt, die sie in Gefahr bringt. Die Romantruppe von Magdalena ist eine Mischung aus Freunden und Feinden, die sie auf ihrem Weg durch den Krieg finden.

The Trossfrau: Historical Novel (Thirty Years' War Series)

The story of The Trossfrau by Carmen Mayer is a historical novel that recounts the events of the Thirty Years' War. Magdalena, who lives in her village near the Austrian-Bohemian border, is thrown out of the house by her father out of fear and distrust. She is taken to Krems, where she gets caught between the Catholic and Protestant fronts of the war. With toil and hardship, she manages to earn her living and eventually enters into a marriage. However, her life is marked by the encounter with a witch who puts her in danger. Magdalena's novel troupe is a mixture of friends and enemies she finds on her journey through the war.

Die Dreißigjähriger Krieg-Reihe (3 book series) Paperback edition

Memoirs of a Cavalier audiobook etc.

 Some fiction that you might like in audio and online.

Memoirs of a Cavalier (1720) is a work of historical fiction by Daniel Defoe, set during the Thirty Years' War and the English Civil Wars. The full title, which bore no date, was:^[1]

Memoirs of a Cavalier; or A Military Journal of the Wars in Germany, and the Wars in England. From the Years 1632 to 1648. Written threescore years ago, by an English gentleman, who served first in the army of Gustavus Adolphus, the Glorious King of Sweden, till his death, and after that in the Royal Army of King Charles the First, from the beginning of the Rebellion to the end of the War.^[2]

New historical fiction

 London 1508 - Henry VII is dying. Courtiers are circling, waiting, and quietly forming a new court around the soon to be Henry VIII. One of these is Thomas Wolsey, chaplain to the old king and clearly destined for a great career in both church and state. In Great Yarmouth, Wolsey's old friend Peter Larke is also dangerously close to death. Peter's sons are priests and their paths clearly marked. But then there's Joan. Unmarried and soon to be alone, her uncle John insists her only option is to become a nun. Her spirit seems broken and lost but Wolsey, a priest sworn to celebacy, suggests a shocking solution...Wolsey's Wife by N J Turton

Vauban - Le Piège malouin

 French comic series. Here

Vauban, grand architecte militaire de Louis XIV, est chargé de fortifier et de défendre Saint-Malo. Il doit aussi déjouer les complots qui le menacent. 

Le Piège malouin est le premier volume d'un diptyque autour de Vauban. La BD est scénarisée par Jean-François MINIAC et dessinée par Andrea Rossetto.

Johann Grimmelshausen Abenteuerlicher Simplizissimus - Teil 1

 Teil 2 Sorry there are no subtitles for thia ao it is for German readers. It is a famous book that was written about the 30YW. I read it once. If you want to read it go here.

Simplicius Simplicissimus (German: Der abenteuerliche Simplicissimus Teutsch) is a picaresque novel of the lower Baroque style, written in five books by German author Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen published in 1668, with the sequel Continuatio appearing in 1669. Inspired by the events and horrors of the Thirty Years' War which devastated Germany from 1618 to 1648, it is regarded as the first adventure novel in the German language and the first German novel masterpiece.

The full subtitle is "The account of the life of an odd vagrant named Melchior Sternfels von Fuchshaim: namely where and in what manner he came into this world, what he saw, learned, experienced, and endured therein; also why he again left it of his own free will."

The Recruiting Officer by George FARQUHAR (1677 - 1707)

 The Recruiting Officer - Wikipedia Opened in 1706 based on the author's own experiences of being a recruiter so it is spot on. 

00:00:00 - 01 - Act 1 00:26:39 - 02 - Act 2 00:51:05 - 03 - Act 3 01:20:31 - 04 - Act 4 01:46:43 - 05 - Act 5

Captain Alatriste

 Got this from the library. So far so good. 

The Children of The New Forest Episode 1 (1977 British Series)

 Episode 2     Ep 3     Episode 4   Final

During the English Civil War in the 1640s, Colonel Beverley, a Royalist, squire of Arnwood and High Keeper of the New Forest, leaves to join the King's army. He dies at the Battle of Naseby, leaving his two sons and two daughters in the care of their Aunt Judith. A troop of Parliamentary soldiers and their Leveller preacher, Abel Corbould, come to Arnwood. The four Beverley children are smuggled out of Arnwood, taken to Jacob Armitage, a royalist forester's home in the forest and hidden there. The children encounter various adventures, become involved with the family of Parliament's new Intendant of the New Forest, Heatherstone, and eventually join a conspiracy to help King Charles, who has escaped from captivity.

Lorna Doone (2000) - Opening

 This famous story is up in parts on Youtube. Wiki on the series. Rotten Tomatoes reviews

In the shadow of the Monmouth Rebellion, the rural plains of Exmoor are host to their own battles. Exmoor is the domain of the Doones, a lawless and ruthless family of fallen nobles who rule the area savagely, thieving and killing whoever stands in the way. It's here that the peasant farmer John Ridd (Richard Coyle) attempts to live a simple, honest life, until he falls in love with the beautiful Lorna (Amelia Warner), not realizing she's a Doone.

Jefferys and Kirke are depicted as is James II

Charles Cordell - author of English Civil War fiction

 CHARLES CORDELL - author - English Civil War fiction

Author of the Divided Kingdom series. Get a free e-Book of the the above novella. 

Captain Alatriste

 Been looking on ebay for the novels that the film is based on. Quite reasonable. Anyone read them? Wiki

. Postscript - my library has them so I have ordered the first story.  

By Diego Velázquez - Museo del Prado, Madrid,

La rendición de Breda (1634–1635) was inspired by Velázquez's first visit to Italy, in which he accompanied Ambrosio Spinola, who had conquered the Dutch city of Breda a few years prior. This masterwork depicts a transfer of the key to the city from the Dutch to the Spanish army during the Siege of Breda. According to the third novel, Alatriste is in the group on the right, behind the horse.

1685 fiction

 

A tale of loyalty, sacrifice, jealousy and betrayal set against the backdrop of the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685.

Nathaniel Carver and Thomas Edgecott are lifelong friends having been born within days of each other in the Dorset seaport of Lyme Regis in 1664. Nat works with his father John in the family smithy, Thomas is a shoemaker. William Pearce, a weaver from Taunton is old enough to be their father and gamekeeper Samuel White is older still, having fought with Oliver Cromwell at Marston Moor some twenty years before Nat and Thomas were born.

Nat, Thomas, John, William, Samuel and thousands of other ordinary West Country men are thrown together by the arrival of James, Duke of Monmouth, on the south coast in 1685, intent on wrestling the crown of England from his uncle, James II. The ill-fated rebellion will last for little more than three weeks but it will change all their lives forever.

This is their story.