YoungLisa
She Wolf
- Joined
- Nov 8, 2008
- Posts
- 2,974
Juliana stood at the table as her uncle Thomas Elston read from the Holy Bible a ritual carried out every evening. After the reading came the prayers in which the family thanked God for his bounty and for keeping them free from sin. Only after this did dinner commence, a frugal dinner based on bread and salted beef. Today was the eighteenth anniversary of Juliana’s birth but there was no celebration, not in her family. Her mother had died in childbirth and her father in an accident on the farm where he worked when she was only three years old. His brother, her Uncle Thomas and his wife Mabel had taken the young girl into their home and taken responsibility for her upbringing. Raising her in a Puritan household where birthdays and Christmas were not celebrated. Rumours abounded that King Charles Stewart’s Catholic wife Henrietta was striving to bring Catholic ideals back to the country while the King and Parliament were squaring up for conflict that threatened civil war. Juliana knew her uncle would fight for the Parliamentary cause even though he was not trained in the ways of war. For Juliana every day was a carbon copy of the day before working the land, milking cows, weaving wool, making clothes. The only exception was the Lord’s Day when the family would gather in Church to hear the Word of God.
As tension increased the owner of the land just outside Bristol worked by the family, Lord Winchest, was told by the King’s men to increase the rent charged on the land. When Elston was unable to pay the King sent his soldiers to arrest him and seize his property. Resisting arrest Thomas Elston and his men drove the land owner’s men away while they waited for news of events in London.
There the King entered the Commons seeking to arrest Arthur Haslerig, John Pym, John Hampden, Denzil Holles and William Strode sparking the Civil War. Thomas Elston joined the Parliamentary forces almost when the first bugle was blown but like many he was no match for the King’s soldiers who were far better trained than were those of Lord Winchest. Juliana learned her uncle was being held in Bath where after a mock trial he would probably be sentenced to death unless a ransom payment was made. Somehow she had to get him free.
As tension increased the owner of the land just outside Bristol worked by the family, Lord Winchest, was told by the King’s men to increase the rent charged on the land. When Elston was unable to pay the King sent his soldiers to arrest him and seize his property. Resisting arrest Thomas Elston and his men drove the land owner’s men away while they waited for news of events in London.
There the King entered the Commons seeking to arrest Arthur Haslerig, John Pym, John Hampden, Denzil Holles and William Strode sparking the Civil War. Thomas Elston joined the Parliamentary forces almost when the first bugle was blown but like many he was no match for the King’s soldiers who were far better trained than were those of Lord Winchest. Juliana learned her uncle was being held in Bath where after a mock trial he would probably be sentenced to death unless a ransom payment was made. Somehow she had to get him free.