Civil War: The History of England, Volume III by Peter Ackroyd Macmillan, 2014, 502 pages, $34.99 Peter Ackroyd’s no-frills History of England series has the knack of bringing some of the great figures and issues of history down to size. In Volume III, Civil War, he makes the Stuart kings and their opponents seem like Canberra politicians as they muddle through the foundation days of the Westminster system. The seventeenth century was when it fell into place: Parliament in charge of the country, with a monarch notionally on top giving it extra stability and authority and a safety valve if…