What makes the book unique is that the author was a woman. Lucy Hutchinson was the widow of Col. John Hutchinson, a strongly Puritan soldier who became one of the great mainstays of the Parliamentary cause. The Governor of Nottingham Castle, after the war Hutchinson became MP for Nottingham and was one of the Regicides - those who signed the death warrant of King Charles I. He fell out with Oliver Cromwell when the latter was proclaimed Lord Protector. At the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, Hutchinson was condemned to death as a Regicide, and despite a plea for his life by his loyal wife Lucy, he was executed. His widow wrote her husband''s Memoirs to restore his reputation, and they swiftly became the best-known account of the war from the Roundhead side.This volume also contains Lucy''s own autobiography - itself a valuable insight into the life of a well-educated and articulate 17th century radical woman; and an account of the siege of Lathom House in Lancashire, held for the King against the New Model Army of Sir Thomas Fairfax by another redoubtable Civil War woman - albeit one fighting for the Royalist cause- the Countess of Derby.
