YORK'S MILITARY LEGACY

Fought near to or around York, Towton, Stamford Bridge, Marston Moor and Fulford were some of the most infamous and bloodiest battles on English soil. One of the oldest settlements in western Europe, York has changed and been changed by waves of settlers and conquerors and was easily reached as historically navigable from the great Humber Estuary and surrounded by Yorkshire fens. York has long been significant both politically and militarily, and with overland transportation difficult, this route inland from the coast to York provided deep penetration into the northern English countryside. The Romans built a great fortified city and military settlement from which they could foray to Scotland and the Picts. York's significance was emphasised when Constantine was made Emperor whilst residing there. The Vikings then swept into Northern England with Jorvic, reborn as their capital, York, much to their liking. Once subsumed into Anglo-Saxon Northumbria, York continued its strategic significance through late Saxon times, during the Norman Conquest, and into medieval England. Following vicious religious strife during the reigns of the later Tudors, civil war played out again under the Stuart kings and Parliamentary Commonwealth. The last direct conflict occurred when York was targeted for retaliatory Baedeker raids by German bombers during April 1942. The city's remarkable history and longevity and significance on the English and sometimes international stage has left a unique and unparalleled military history. Useful chronology, chapters include The Jacobite Rebellion, The Second World War and the Cold War, Service, Honours and Awards, The Walls and Other Defences and The Military Heritage among them. 128 page large softback, very well illustrated throughout, fact boxes and colour plates and maps.