ABSTRACT
Rudyard Kipling, ‘Edgehill Fight’ ‘My Dear and loving husband, my king love’, Susan Rodway began a letter of 1644 to Robert, a private in the London Trained Bands, who was away fighting at the Siege of Basing House. She was desperately worried about the lack of news from her husband, particularly as her neighbours had received letters from theirs. Susan was concerned for her child: ‘My little Willie has been sick this fortnight.’ She missed her man terribly: ‘You do not consider that I am a lone woman’, she reproved him, ‘I thought you would never leave me this long together.’ But above all Susan Rodway was terrified her husband would be killed, and she be left a widow, ending her letter ‘So I rest ever praying for your safe return.’1
