There once was a Kirke from Derbyshire…

A new book (soon to be released) from John Childs, building off of his earlier work on the Williamite Wars in Ireland.

Childs, John. General Percy Kirke and the Later Stuart Army. London: Continuum Publishers, 2014. For those of you keeping score, Bloomsbury acquired the Continuum imprint in 2011.
General Percy Kirke (c. 1647-91) is remembered in Somerset as a cruel, vicious thug who deluged the region in blood after the Battle of Sedgemoor in 1685. He is equally notorious in Northern Ireland. Appointed to command the expedition to raise the Siege of Londonderry in 1689, his assumed treachery nearly resulted in the city’s fall and he was made to look ridiculous when the blockade was eventually lifted by a few sailors in a rowing boat. Yet Kirke was closely involved in some of the most important events in British and Irish history. He served as the last governor of the colony of Tangier; played a central role in facilitating the Glorious Revolution of 1688; and fought in the majority of the principal actions and campaigns undertaken by the newly-formed standing armies in England, Ireland and Scotland, especially the Battle of the Boyne and the first Siege of Limerick in 1689.
With the aid of his own earlier work in the field, additional primary sources and a recently-rediscovered letter book, John Childs looks beyond the fictionalisation of Kirke, most notably by R. D. Blackmore in Lorna Doone, to investigate the historical reality of his career, character, professional competence, politics and religion. As well as offering fresh, detailed narratives of such episodes as Monmouth’s Rebellion, the conspiracies in 1688 and the Siege of Londonderry, this pioneering biography also presents insights into contemporary military personnel, patronage, cliques and procedures.
Historians start salivating when they read things like “a recently-rediscovered letter book.”
Feel free to finish the limerick in the comments.

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One response to “There once was a Kirke from Derbyshire…”

  1. Wienand Drenth says :

    He also was would-be Viceroy of the Dominion of New England in 1685, but this post was given to Andros instead.

    There once was a Kirke from Deryshire
    he drank, swore and fought for desire
    But his omens were right
    (though he continued to fight)
    and he got his biography, not a cheap flyer!

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