STUART REID

With the exception of the key royal sites, such as Stirling and Edinburgh, few Scottish castles were located at strategic points, or were intended to house garrisons required to defend or subjugate towns. Instead they were primarily fortified dwelling houses, erected in an environment of weak Royal authority and endemic feuding between rival clans and groups, in both Highland and Lowland areas. Although some enceinte castles were developed during the 16th and 17th centuries, most defensive construction focused on the tower house, a distinctive vernacular style of Scottish fortification. This book examines the design, development, and purpose of these quintessentially Scottish buildings, and also covers larger sites such as Urquhart and Blackness.

Having already allied with his father, the Scots' acceptance of Charles II as king in 1649 caused deep suspicion in England. In July 1650, Oliver Cromwell led a powerful force across the Scottish border to remove the problem. For six weeks Cromwell waged a frustrating campaign against a Scots enemy that refused to meet him in battle. By the beginning of September Cromwell's army, poorly supplied, exhausted and ravaged by sickness, was apparently trapped at Dunbar by a powerful Scots army. On 3 September he won his greatest military victory just outside the town, but in this book Stuart Reid suggests that his triumph may in fact have begun as a breakout attempt.

'What a scene!' wrote Horace Walpole. 'An army in the night dragging itself up a precipice by stumps of trees to assault a town and attack an enemy strongly entrenched and double in numbers!' In one short sharp exchange of fire Major-General James Wolfe's men tumbled the Marquis de Montcalm's French army into bloody ruin. Sir John Fortescue famously described it as the 'most perfect volley ever fired on a battlefield'. In this book Stuart Reid details how one of the British Army's consummate professionals literally beat the King's enemies before breakfast and in so doing decided the fate of a continent.