At the height of the English Civil War, having failed in his siege of Lathom House, Roundhead Colonel Alexander Rigby marched his forces into Bolton early on the morning of Tuesday 28 May 1644, narrowly beating the advance guard of Prince Rupert''s forces to the town. Colonel Tillier, commander of the advance guard, summoned up the Prince''s full army, and Bolton swiftly became the scene of one of the bloodiest massacres of the conflict. Massacre: The Storming of Bolton chronicles, in rich detail, the events leading up to the storming of Bolton and the catastrophic consequences for a number of its combatants. Setting the scene, author David Casserly describes the beginning of the Civil War and the struggle for dominance and support within the Lancashire hundreds, before recording the derivative effects of the Bolton Massacre on the remainder of the conflict. James Stanley, Earl of Derby, as the leading royalist in the county, swiftly becomes the main protagonist and Casserly expertly highlights how his incompetence and military ineptitude contributed to the ultimate fall of Lancashire to the Parliamentarian forces. The loyalty, tactics and decisions of Royalist and Roundhead alike are soundly challenged by Casserly, with the ultimate price paid by a number of men recorded with fitting dignity or disdain, depending on the circumstance. Massacre: The Storming of Bolton is a comprehensive account of the part Lancashire and its main protagonists played in a period that tore England apart.
