Quarrel with the King: The Story of an English Family on the
High Road to Civil War : Quarrel with the King tells the story
of the first four earls of Pembroke, their wives, children,
estates, tenants, and allies, following their high and glamorous
trajectory from the 1520s through 1650 - the most turbulent and
dramatic years of English history - across three generations of
change, ambition, resistance, and war. The Pembrokes were at the
heart of it all: the richest family in England, with old blood
and new drive, led as much by a succession of extraordinary
women as by their husbands and sons. It is also the story of a
power struggle, over a long century, between the family and the
growing strength of the English Crown. For decades, questions of
loyalty simmered: Was government about agreement and respect, or
authority and compulsion? What status did traditional rights
have in a changing world? Did a national emergency mean those
rights could be ignored or overturned? These were the issues
that in 1642 would