Rebellion (The Weaponsmith Chronicles Book 3)

REBELLION
The Third Weaponsmith Chronicle

Autumn 1642. Four years earlier, Roger Hawken’s father Richard had called him back from Germany and command of Hawken’s Regiment, to take on the responsibility of running the family estate at Abbot’s Down, close to Amesbury in Wiltshire. With his father now dead, Roger is settled in charge, though his elder brother Henry is the actual owner of the Hawken lands.

The four years since have been eventful. Roger has been married and doubly bereaved. His killing of Charlie Westerhead at the storm of Hollenstedt, seven years before, set in train a feud with Charlie’s elder brother, Lord Francis Westerhead of Seend, near Devizes. This has led to Roger being charged for a second time with Charlie’s murder, and although the courts have thrown out the charges, the feud has not gone away.

Roger Hawken has had enough of war. He has seen enough of it to last any lifetime, but war comes again to him unbidden, as the country takes sides for the Civil Wars, the Great Rebellion. When King Charles raises his standard, Prince Rupert calls on Roger to pledge his sword to the Royalist cause. He makes his way to Shrewsbury to receive his commission, setting in train a sequence of events in which civil war and the Westerhead feud combine to bring about the near-destruction of the Hawken family.