At the crescendo of the Second Barons' War were the battles of Lewes and Evesham. It was an era of high drama and intrigue, as tensions between crown and aristocracy had boiled over and a civil war erupted that would shape the future of English government. In this detailed study, Richard Brooks unravels the remarkable events of the battles of Lewes and Evesham, revealing the unusually tactical nature of the fighting, in sharp contrast to most medieval conflicts which were habitually settled by burning and ravaging. At Lewes, Simon de Montfort, the powerful renegade leader of the Baronial faction, won a vital victory, smashing the Royalist forces and capturing Henry III and Prince Edward. Edward escaped, however, to lead the Royalist armies to a crushing victory just a year later at Evesham. Using full colour illustrations, bird's-eye views and detailed maps to generate an arresting visual perspective of the fighting, this book tells the full story of the battles of Lewes and Evesham, the only pitched battles to be fought by English armies in the mid-13th century.

Author Biography

Richard Brooks is a freelance military historian with a particular interest in the intersection of naval and military history, and the use of hitherto untapped sources to develop fresh insights into past campaigns. Richard has published numerous books, beginning with a biography of Fred T. Jane, the founder of Jane's Fighting Ships. His other works have covered naval brigades, the Royal Marines and battlefields of Britain and Ireland; previous books for Osprey include Solferino 1859 (2009), Walcheren 1944 (2011) and The Knight Who Saved England (2014). He was also Consultant Editor for The Times History of War (HarperCollins, 2000). 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.