Guest Blog: Ally Sherrick
Author of Rebel Heart
Friend or foe – the many sides of the English Civil Wars
There’s a scene early on in Rebel Heart, my latest historical adventure, where my main protagonist, Royalist nobleman’s daughter, Merriweather Pryce, is asked by the villain – though she doesn’t know he’s one yet – which side she is on – for the King or Parliament?
The question of sides
Though I didn’t consciously set out to write it this way, I can see now that the question of sides is a key theme in Rebel Heart.
The story is set during a time of bitter conflict in our history known as the English – or British – Civil Wars when King Charles and his Royalist ‘cavaliers’ fought pitched and bloody battles against Parliament’s army of Roundheads or ‘rebels’.
The results were personally cataclysmic, leaving thousands of soldiers and ordinary civilians dead or wounded.
They were also politically seismic too, resulting in the trial and execution of the King and the creation of a short-lived republic, laying the foundations for what was to become our modern parliamentary democracy.
More than one way of taking sides
But in that upside-down world, there was more than one way of taking sides as Merri quickly learns when, after her family home of Compton Blaize comes under siege by Oliver Cromwell’s Roundhead army, she bravely, but perhaps also recklessly, disguises herself as a boy and sets off to get help.
Though a Royalist, Merri finds herself forced by circumstances into joining a band of ‘rebels’ under the command of one Captain Jack Flint, a Parliamentary ‘intelligencer’ or spy. And of course, spies were great, though deliberate side-switchers too, embedding themselves in the enemy’s camp to obtain vital information which would help their own side gain the advantage – though if caught, they would pay the ultimate price.
Changing sides
The times proved a test of people’s allegiances and consciences in other ways too.
Not everyone who fought in the wars was a conviction soldier, as Merriweather discovers when she befriends Ned Woodruff, the rebel band’s horse-boy. He is on a mission of his own, desperate to find his older brother, Daniel, ‘pressed’ or forced into service by Parliament. As Ned explains to her, he had no intention of becoming a soldier either. But through bad-luck, he has been forced to join Flint’s troop, threatened with being accused as a deserter if he tries to escape – also punishable by death.
Then there were the turncoats – a phrase which comes from the practice of a soldier turning their coat inside out to hide the badge or pin showing which side they fought for so they could change sides if the battle wasn’t going their way. Merri has an unwelcome reunion with one of them in the shape of Samuel Jeames, a former stable-hand at Compton Blaize, who has run away and joined the rebels, and who she is petrified will see through her disguise.
Last but not least, there were, as there so often are in all wars, the opportunists and self-servers – people like Corporal Abenazar Shine, the character who asks Merriweather which side she’s on and through his later actions, makes it clear that the only side he is on is his own.
Right and wrong on both sides
Perhaps most important of all is the fact that, as she journeys through this dangerous world, encountering both enemies and friends, Merri comes to learn that on each side there is both right and wrong; good and bad. But also that, as she remarks to the villainous Shine in a final showdown near the end of the book, we should never ‘give up trying to do the right thing and not do all we can to make up for the bad.’
Classroom Activity
To explore this theme of sides in the classroom, why not encourage students to research examples of the real people who lived and fought during the Civil Wars – a soldier or intelligencer like Captain Flint, a brave female defender like Merri and her stepmother, Lady Ellinor or an ordinary family who would prefer not to take sides but are forced to – perhaps even one against the other. Choose one of them and argue their point of view in a letter or diary entry. The following excellent website might be helpful for this: https://www.worldturnedupsidedown.co.uk/
Alternatively, or in addition, pairs of students could adopt and explore different beliefs and points of view and see if they can shift the other person’s through the power of argument. Then switch characters to gain an insight into things from the other person’s perspective.
Thank you to Ally for visiting our blog this week to tell us more about her new book Rebel Heart, which is available to purchase from Amazon or Bookshop.
For more historical middle grade books, try the author’s previous books including Vita and the Gladiators, The Queen’s Fool, The Buried Crown and Black Powder.
Readers will find Ally’s books on the following booklists:
- Children’s Booklist About the Romans
- Y5 Recommended Reading List
- Anglo-Saxon Topic Booklist
- Crime and Punishment Topic Booklist
- Children’s Booklist About the Tudors
- World War 2 Children’s Booklist
- Children’s Books About History
Check out our reading for pleasure and curriculum booklists to find more books for children in KS2 or our NEW Year 7 Recommended Reads.
Where next?
> Visit our Reading for Pleasure Hub
> Browse our Topic Booklists
> View our printable year group booklists.
> See our Books of the Month.