I want to thank Netgalley and the author for gifting me the ebook. Very informative and completely fascinating! Thank you for gifting me the ebook!.

Subtitled “The last Anglo Scottish War 1650-52” this is Grainger’s update of his original book published in 1997. He admits that that this is a period that has not been strongly researched since or had knowledge substantially updated - so once more his book fills an important gap in the historical library for this time of mass disruption to the people and economy of Scotland and when the nation was seriously at risk of losing its independence and being absorbed into English governance and control.
In 1649 after years of civil war Charles I of both England and Scotland was executed by the English state. His son and heir Charles II intended to have the monarchy restored in both countries. He first arrived in Scotland and negotiated his way to a coronation there (under terms). He would then invade England at the head of a substantially Scottish army hoping to receive royalist support to defeat the Parliamentarian army and take control of England. But this ill thought out and unlikely campaign came to a relatively rapid end after military defeat outside Worcester (fully described in this book) and Charles went back into exile. Meanwhile over these few years the Parliamentarian army invaded in and started to take control of Scotland. Grainger details this campaign.
The politics of this time in Scotland were both highly divisive and complicated, with a strong religious dimension overlying regional and personal political animosities. Grainger gives a concise review of the people and internal politics and the new parliamentarian systems being put into place. Cromwell was both a Parliamentarian political and military leader so his role in Scotland has to be considered in both those lights. Invasion with a Parliamentarian army presented certain risks not just in that country, but a loss of too large a party of the Parliamentarian forces could allow Royalist victory in England that could lead to the overthrow of the new Commonwealth.
Grainger at the same time as detailing the campaign and phases of invasion allows the wider perspective to be seen and introduces the military leaders on both (all?) sides. Cromwell could not afford to lose large number of his own troops, that meant that open battles would be unwise. This required piecemeal attempts on military and urban centres until the Scots army could be lured into a high risk battle and overwhelmed. In the meantime the impact of his army would effectively destroy the economy of increasing areas of southern Scotland but largely without being able to establish secure control. But he did manage the critical battle that left much of the manhood of Scotland of military age in these areas annihilated, a substantial and telling achievement.
When Charles II - with his eyes on the English Crown moved south with a Scottish army - other Parliamentarian generals were able to remain and conquer wider areas further to the north and consolidate control in the southern part of the country. This left Cromwell free to move back to England to eventually confront and destroy the Royalist army. There the latter proved to have a massive impact on the Scots involved, with the killings, fatal injuries and imprisonments and forced exile into bonded labour. Very few men ever returned to Scotland. With no capacity to raise a replacement Scottish army and therefore no serious central Scottish power to negotiate a treaty with it thus became possible to draft legislation to annexe Scotland into England. In the meantime the Parliamentarian generals continued to expand further into Scotland and negotiate settlement with the individual burghs and major landholders. This situation would not be reversed until the Royal restoration in 1660.
Grainger presents all this in a straightforward fashion, providing the background and specifics in a good balance that makes the process understandable even to a reader with no detailed knowledge of the period and its politics. So this is a good solid read. It should be said that in his conclusion that he states it is important that people understand the critical historical times of their country – not least now as they will be considering the sundering of the two countries again in not too distant a future. Knowledge is important.

A thorough examination of the war between England, led by Cromwell, and Scotland in 1650-52. The Scots had Charles II crowned but had various factions that didn’t agree and once Charles led the Scottish army into England and therefore were seen as an invading foreign army, it all ended in disaster. Cromwell is clearly an impressive leader and strategist. The book details all the battle stuff, and interestingly what happened to the prisoners, so many were shipped off to the colonies that Scotland’s population would’ve taken ages to recover. The authors comments in his conclusion on Scottish independence felt intrusive to me but I take his point that history matters.