The Beastly Battles of Old England; The Misguided Manoeuvres of the British at War

An entertaining trawl through the darker side of English military history Throughout history the English have been a warlike bunch. Often they fight among themselves--there have been a good few civil wars--and when not slaughtering each other, they practiced on their neighbors--the Scots, the Irish, the French. When that got too easy, they set off around the world to find other people to fight. This was usually done with a hubris that invited some ludicrous pratfall. Here, Nigel Cawthorne takes readers on a darkly humorous journey through some of his country's ill-advised military actions. From the war over a severed ear to a general seeking out his rival's mistresses to even the score, it is a miscellany of insufferable arrogance, reckless gallantry, stunning stupidity, massive misjudgements, and general beastliness.

Nigel Cawthorne, a former teacher, is the author of such history titles as A Brief History of Robin Hood, A History of Pirates, and Witches: A History of Persecution.