War wicks hire

A county occupying almost the very heart of England, and the centre and highest point of the great district of midland table-land. At the time of the Roman invasion the county was inhabited partly by the Cornavii, and partly by the Wigantes, or Wiccii. Under the Romans it formed part of the province of Flavia Cæsariensis. Under the Saxons, the county was included in the kingdom of Mercia, whose rulers occasionally resided at Warwick, Tamworth, and Kings bury. After the Conquest, the powerful families, the New burghs, Beau champs, and Nevilles, who held the earldom of Warwick, involved the county in all the great civil wars recorded in English history. In the troubles in Henry III.’s reign, Kenilworth stood a long siege by the royal forces; in the wars of the Roses, the city of Coventry warmly embraced the Lancastrian, and the town of Warwick the Yorkist cause; and in the war between Charles I. and his Parliament, War wicks hire was torn by the contending factions, who made special head in the neighborhood of Birmingham. Charles slept at Aston Hall, near that town, on his march through War wicks hire in 1642, and two days afterwards the first great battle of the civil war was fought on the borders of the county at Edge Hill. Swords and other weapons, used in the battle, are still occasionally plowed up. Maxstoke Castle (inhabited) is externally a remarkably perfect specimen of the fortified residences of the period of the 14th century.