[Sword of State 03] • Sword of State · the Wielding

The year is 1659.

Lord General George Monck has set up on camp on the River Tweed on the border of Scotland and England with his loyal army.

He has plans to retire, to spend the rest of his years on his estates in Essex and Potheridge with his wife, Anne, and son, Kit.

But the changing political climate in London forces him to march his army south to the capital and Monck isn’t one to defy duty.

In the Rump of the Long Parliament, the case is being made for an end to the Commonwealth and for the Restoration of the Monarchy.

Some want Charles, the son of the previous King, to return from his exile in France whilst others would even have Monck, with his Plantagenet blood, as their King.

When the Monarchy is restored, there is never a quiet moment for Monck.

From commanding the English naval forces against the Dutch to leading the team trying to contain the Great Plague, Monck becomes Charles II’s right hand man, equally adept at the difficult game of politics and the ways of the military both on land and at sea.

Meanwhile, Anne is keen for the advancement of their son.

He could become a courtier or the King’s page-boy and so she urges Monck not to retire.

But illness has always been strife in Monck’s life and it seems to keep coming back…

When his wife, Anne, tells him that he needs to slow down, will he listen?

Or will his sense of duty to his country get in the way?

In The Wielding , the third and final book in the Sword of the State trilogy, award-winning author Richard Woodman recreates the true story of George Monck, a giant of the 17th Century. Monck is all but forgotten today, yet his legacy is nothing less than the British monarchy and a famous regiment – the Coldstream Guards.

Captain Richard Martin Woodman LVO is an English novelist and naval historian who retired in 1997 from a 37 year nautical career, mainly working for Trinity House, to write full-time. His main work is 14 volumes about the career of Nathaniel Drinkwater, and shorter series about James Dunbar and William Kite, but he also written a range of factual books about 18th century and WW2 history.

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