The Tavern Knight (Historical Novel). Rafael Sabatini

Set in England during the time of Cromwell, The Tavern Knight follows a manly knight on his mission of vengeance. Crispin Galliard is a very skilled and famous soldier with a rough reputation, known in the army as the Tavern Knight because of his drunken and rowdy behavior. He carries a grudge against some people who ruined his life and stole his innocence, and he patiently awaits for an opportunity to extract his revenge. When he meets Kenneth, a young man with some useful ties, he starts making a plot to finally get a shot at vengeance after helping Charles II escape the forces of Oliver Cromwell.