Parliamentarian

It was on Easter Monday in the year of our lord sixteen forty-three they came, Royalist horse under the command of Prince Rupert. They came charging down the main street of Birmingham slashing at anyone with their swords and firing their pistols. They broke into houses and smashed them up and they broke open wooden chests and stole the contents. They took everything from linen to clothes and shoes, even sheets from the beds! What they couldn’t carry they spoiled; they smashed furniture and slashed our mattresses and threw it all onto the street to be trodden by horses. All money and plate they took, they threatened men and women with blades and pistols and even searched their pockets for money. After that they took to setting fire to everything that was left. The mill we used for making sword blades was pulled down completely, but we will re-build it and we’ll set to making swords for parliament once again. I will never forget how their soldiers revelled in the shame of our women. I for one will never support the King not now.