The Vale of the Red Horse, Edgehill, Warwickshire, 23rd October, 1642. The bitter divisions that have grown unchecked in the kingdoms ruled by the Stuart dynasty are about to engulf England in a bloody civil war.

King Charles has raised his standard in Nottingham, resolved to march south to restore his authority and humble those who would usurp his righteous power, whilst parliament has raised an army to defend London and the liberties they have secured. When the two armies converge, 30,000 men will determine the fate of nations and to pursue their own ideals and enmities through brutal and bloody combat. Though some are professional soldiers, hardened by their experiences in the cruel religious wars of Europe, most have never handled a pike, musket or rapier. Half-brothers, Ralph and Francis Reeve are sons of a Suffolk farmer. Francis is a religious zealot who has abandoned his studies at Cambridge for the Parliamentary cause in which he sees the means of making of England a New Jerusalem, cleansed of sin and filth. He despises both his sinful brother and the father who seems to favour him. Caught in the act of cuckolding a London merchant, Ralph has forfeited both his apprenticeship and the indenture money paid by his beloved stepfather. To restore his honour, he joins a troop of Royalist horse and dreams of retrieving his indenture when he returns to London as part of the king's victorious army. But first the brothers must face each other in the Vale of the Red Horse, the horse whose rider is War, the Second Horseman... God's vindictive wrath!