This is a study of the city of Exeter during the Great Civil War of 1642-46; it offers a lively, immediate account of how one English city slid, inexorably, into the chaos of civil war. The book shows how Exeter's inhabitants first began to dissent from each other over religious issues, then became divided into two warring camps, and finally, after three years of bitter conflict, witnessed much of the ancient city being destroyed about their ears. The main text is accompanied by a generous collection of transcripts from original seventeenth-century documents. These have been specially selected to illuminate the war's effect on ordinary men and women, and to show how closely engaged they were with the national politico-religious debate. This book will be of interest to all serious students of the English Civil War, while at the same time being accessible to a non-specialist audience.