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In the years leading up to the outbreak of Civil War, very few would have predicted that England would become a Republic.
Books, Talks
Brilliana Harley (1598 - 1643) was one of the heroines of the British and Irish Civil Wars.
Features, Talks, Women
Among foreign observers, seventeenth-century England was known as “Devil-Land”; a diabolical country of fallen angels, torn apart by Rebellion, religious extremism and royal collapse. It was a place troubled by continual crisis.
Books, Europe, Interviews
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During his lifetime, many of Oliver Cromwell’s contemporaries – supports as well as critics – questioned the sincerity of his often-stated belief that he was doing God’s work.
Education, Key Questions, Oliver Cromwell, Teachers
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One of the most frequently debated questions of the British and Irish Civil Wars has been, “At what point did the execution of Charles I become inevitable?”.
Education, Key Questions, Oliver Cromwell, Teachers
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The first session of the Cromwell Association Annual School’s History Conference addresses a critically important and frequently debated question: “Did Parliament win the Civil War of 1642 – 1646?”.
Education, Key Questions, Oliver Cromwell, Teachers
Historical fiction is often a lens through which the memory of the Civil Wars has been shaped.
Education, Literature
In 1654, the Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell and a small circle of his closest supporters, secretly conceived a bold – but some would say, foolhardy – plan to conquer Spain’s colonies in the Caribbean. This became known as ‘the Western Design’.
1655, Interviews, Oliver Cromwell
The tumultuous revolutionary decade between 1649 and 1660 is often portrayed through discussions of battles, political and religious conflicts and consequent death and disease.
Books, Interviews
Throughout the First Civil War, Cornwall remained a key royalist stronghold until a series of defeats culminated in the surrender of Cornish forces to Fairfax’s New Model Army in the spring and summer of 1646.
Interviews
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In this ongoing series, Peter Gaunt, Professor of History at the University of Chester and author of the acclaimed The English Civil War: A Military History, discusses some of the pivotal battles fought during the conflict.
1645, Military History, Talks
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In 1645, the military history of the civil wars was transformed by reorganisation of the Parliamentarian forces to form the New Model Army.
1645, 1646, Battles, Military History, Series
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Peter Gaunt, Professor of History at the University of Chester and author of the acclaimed The English Civil War: A Military History, discusses some of the pivotal battles fought during the conflict.
1644, Battles, Military History, Series
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1644 proved to be a pivotal year in the military history of the civil wars.
1644, Military History, Talks
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A bonus program by Professor Peter Gaunt, Professor of history at the University of Chester describes the first pitched battle of the British and Irish civil war fought by the two failed armies.
1642, Military History, Series
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In the second part of this landmark series exploring the military history of the British and Irish Civil wars, distinguished historian Peter Gaunt, Professor of History at the University of Chester begins to trace the chronology of the conflict.
1642, 1643, Battles, Features, Military History, Series, Talks
John Bradshawe (1602 – 1659) is one of the most famous - or depending on your view “notorious” figures of the period.
Charles I, Interviews
There has been a significant shift in understanding the origins of the Civil War which began in England in 1642 as historians have increasingly recognised that events in Scotland and Ireland had a profound impact in England and vice versa.
1642, Causes of Civil War, Talks
Parliament’s Sequestration (or confiscation) of royalist assets – land, property and money – was one of the most divisive outcomes of the civil wars. For the bankrupt victors, this was a critically important source of income.
Interviews
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What was the experience of the ordinary soldier's, life in the ranks of a civil war army?
Battles, Military History, Series, Talks
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How do you recruit, train and organise an army? How can it be housed, fed and equipped with arms and munitions during a protracted war? How can you maintain moral and discipline? How can you care for the wounded and bury the dead?
Military History, Series, Talks
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For decades the civil wars were presented as a “gentlemanly” conflict where both sides “played” by the rules of “civilised” warfare. But now we know the reality was very different.
Key Questions, Military History, Series
Ever-increasing numbers of West African people were actually being transported across the ocean to colonies in the Caribbean.
Features, Talks
New research now published by the Royal Historical Society reveals for the first time how Lord and Lady Brooke and their household made Warwick Castle a strategic stronghold for Parliament and withstood a Royalist siege.
Civil War Petitions Project, Features, Women
To mark Women's History Month we invited distinguished historian Jackie Eales, Emeritus Professor of Early Modern History at Canterbury Christ Church University, to explore the role of women in the civil wars - a topic largely ignored in earlier studies of the period.
Talks, Women
Following the execution of Charles I on 30th January 1649, the Republic’s government faced a dilemma: How should recent events be remembered and how, if at all, should they be commemorated?
Interviews
In June 1646 as the First Civil War ended, there was an ever-widening gulf between the New Model Army and Parliament which would eventually split the two pillars of what later became Britain’s only experiment with a republican constitution.
1647, Education, Interviews
While the attention paid to the naval history of the British and Irish Civil Wars has increased in recent years, the parts played by women has been generally ignored.
Military History
The histories of the British and Irish Civil Wars of the mid-Seventeenth Century are usually written from the perspective of the conflict fought on land while the strategic importance of the war at sea which contributed so much to Parliament’s eventual victory, is often ignored or only mentioned in passing.
Battles, Oliver Cromwell, Talks
As civil war raged in Britain, the heart of Europe was being torn apart by a bitter conflict which lasted from 1618 to 1648. These three decades became a byword for the horrors of war unsurpassed until the world wars of the 20th century.
Interviews
The Sealed Knot was the most important, and certainly the most famous, royalist organization to emerge in England during the Protectorate.
Interviews, Military History, Scotland
For the first time the role played by women in the espionage networks of both sides in the Civil Wars is being recovered through the pioneering research conducted by Nadine Akkerman, Professor of Early Modern Literature and Culture at Leiden University in the Netherlands.
Interviews, Restoration, Scotland
The British civil wars were largely played out around numerous fortified strongpoints at locally important strategic sites throughout the three Kingdoms.
Battles, Interviews, Military History, Scotland
It is surprising to learn that the carnage of the civil wars took place against an often unrecognised background of near-constant peace negotiations and that popular agitation for an end to the conflict was frequently expressed potions with thousands of signatures and public demonstrations calling for an end to the conflict.
English Civil Wars, Talks
On 19th March 1649 the House of Lords was abolished by an Act of Parliament, which declared that “…the House of Lords is useless and dangerous to the people of England.”
Education, Oliver Cromwell, Talks
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We invited leading academics to address some of the most important questions – often controversial – asked about the causes, conflicts and consequences of the British Civil Wars.
Education, Key Questions, Series, Talks
General George Monck is best known for the key role that he played in the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660 when his actions undoubtedly changed the course of British history.
1660, Oliver Cromwell, Restoration
In just 40 weeks Oliver Cromwell ruthlessly subdued Ireland in a bloody and ruthless campaign which still casts a shadow over the remembrance of one of the most famous - or infamous - figures in British history.
Ireland, Oliver Cromwell
Besieged not once but three times, by parliamentarian and Scots armies, Newark was fought over for years and earned the reputation for being a "brave towne and garrison".
Battles, Military History, Talks
While witch-hunting and witch trials here in England never reached the levels reported in Europe, they were at their highest against the background of the turmoil of the 1640s.
Interviews
Memorials of conflicts that have occurred since the nineteenth century are commonplace around the country.
Battles, Interviews
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The second programme in our two-part series asking why England’s only experiment with Republicanism spectacularly disintegrated within a few months of the death of Oliver Cromwell, the first Lord Protector.
1659, 1660, Interviews, Oliver Cromwell, Restoration
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This programme is the first of a two-part series telling the story of the turbulence and upheaval that followed the death of Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell.
1659, 1660, Interviews, Oliver Cromwell
In this second talk Professor Ted Vallance introduces recent research into the extent and impact of radical groups in Britain in the 1640s, as well as asking why radicalism began to fade away in the 1650s.
Education, Teachers
Over the last decade, extensive research conducted by academic historians in universities in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland has significantly expanded our knowledge of the origins, conducts and consequences of the British and Irish Civil Wars.
Education, Teachers
Much has been written about the New Model Army, which, when combined with images of Oliver Cromwell, has come to represent civil wars in popular books, films and TV programmes.
1660, Interviews, Military History
The British and Irish Civil War offer multiple opportunities across the curriculum and each of the key stages (KS).
Education, Talks, Teachers
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On the 10th March 1629, Charles I dissolved his third parliament beginning years of Personal Rule which were described by his opponents as “11 years of tyranny”.
Charles I, Key Questions, Series, Talks
In seventeenth-century England, petitioning was one of the few opportunities for people at every level of society to make their voices heard by those in power.
Civil War Petitions Project, Interviews
On Easter Monday 1643 Prince Rupert led a force which assaulted the town of Birmingham as he moved along the road to meet up with Queen Henrietta Maria who was on her way to meet Charles I in Oxford.
1643, Interviews
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The Greek philosopher, Aristotle, said: “Give me a child until he is seven and I will show you the man”. How far is this true of the life of Oliver Cromwell who rose to become one of the most revered, and by some reviled, figures in British history?
Causes of Civil War, Charles I, Interviews, Oliver Cromwell
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Could the Commonwealth and the subsequent Protectorate have survived after the death of Oliver Cromwell on 3rd September 1658, or was it doomed to failure from the beginning?
Interviews, Ireland, Key Questions, Series, Teachers
By 1644, the Civil War was entering its third year and the intervention of a Scots Army of 20,000 men dramatically now changed the balance of power in Parliament’s favour.
Battles, Interviews, Military History, Oliver Cromwell
This programme shines a light on the significant role played by Yorkshire in Parliament’s victory during the Civil Wars.
Civil War Petitions Project, Interviews, Military History
Distinguished Civil War historian David J. Appleby has uncovered the story of this massacre and subsequent cover-up.
Battles, Civil War Petitions Project, Interviews, Military History
While accounts frequently focus on the large set-piece battles, much, if not most of the conflict was fought by regional or local forces in raids, skirmishes and sieges of strongpoints.
Battles, Civil War Petitions Project, Interviews, Military History
Sergeant-Major General Phillip Skippon was described as “… the type of man found in the best British armies throughout the centuries”.
Battles, Military History, Talks
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Ask who was the Parliamentary general who created the New Model Army was and the most likely answer will be “Oliver Cromwell”. But in fact, it was Sir Thomas Fairfax.
Battles, Interviews, Military History
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Napoleon Bonaparte famously said “Soldiers generally win battles, generals get credit for them”. This is certainly true of many of the histories of the British Civil Wars.
Battles, Interviews, Military History, Series
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1647 was the first year of peace after Parliament’s victory in the First Civil War.
1647, Series, Talks
Between 1660 and 1689, Quakerism in England underwent substantial trials and transformations.
1660, Religion, Restoration, Talks
Quakerism emerged in England in the social and religious tumult of the Civil Wars.
Features, Religion, Talks
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The landmark 1641 Depositions Project at Trinity College Dublin, has digitised and analysed more than 8,000 witness statements made during the Rebellion which swept through Ireland.
Interviews, Ireland
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Events in Scotland and Ireland directly contributed to political crisis which would explode into Civil War in England and Wales.
1641, Interviews, Ireland
This is the incredible but true story of John Poyer of Pembroke.
Books, Interviews, Oliver Cromwell, Second Civil War, Wales
Between 1643 and 1645, Basing House in Hampshire – which once rivalled Hampton Court in size and opulence – was besieged by Parliament’s forces.
Battles, Books, Education, Interviews, Teachers
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The British Civil Wars are often referred to as the Wars of the Three Kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland, which ignores the Welsh experience.
Interviews, Series, Wales
On the 23rd of October 1641 – about a year before the outbreak of civil wars in England and Wales – a bloody Rebellion swept across Ireland.
1641, Interviews, Ireland
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In January 1644, the Scottish army was sent into England to directly intervene in the Civil War in Parliament’s favour. The Scots became aligned with the Presbyterians at Westminster, where they generated the political ideas which shaped much of the war effort.
Ireland, Religion, Scotland, Series, Talks
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From 1637 popular opposition to Charles I in Scotland ignited a crisis which first spread to Ireland in 1641 and then to England and Wales in 1642.
Ireland, Religion, Scotland, Series, Talks
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Historians now recognise that the civil wars of the mid-seventeenth century must be viewed in a British and Irish context and not exclusively from an English perspective.
Ireland, Religion, Scotland, Series, Talks
To unravel this historiography Contributing Editor, Professor Andrew Hopper, sat down with Dr Stephen Roberts, the distinguished Emeritus Editor of The History of Parliament.
Academic, Interviews
John Pym, who was born in 1584 and died in December 1643, was one of the most important Parliamentary figures in the years leading up to the outbreak of the Civil Wars.
1640, 1641, 1642, Charles I, Interviews
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Oliver Cromwell’s actions, decisions and response to the world in which he had to operate had consequences which shaped the history of Britain and the world beyond.
Key Questions, Oliver Cromwell, Talks, Teachers
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Oliver Cromwell’s actions, decisions and response to the world in which he had to operate had consequences which shaped the history of Britain and the world beyond.
1658, Education, Key Questions, Oliver Cromwell, Restoration, Series, Teachers
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There is no more iconic or controversial figure in Britain during the first half of the 17th Century than Oliver Cromwell.
Education, Key Questions, Oliver Cromwell, Series, Teachers
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By New Year’s Day 1660, the Republican experiment in Britain was almost at an end and the country appeared to be drifting towards anarchy.
1660, Restoration, Series, Talks
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1642 was a tempestuous year beginning on 4th January with the unsuccessful attempt by the King to arrest Five Members of Parliament.
1642, Causes of Civil War, Series, Talks
Many controversies swirl around the legacy of Oliver Cromwell and over the centuries it has become increasingly difficult to separate fact from fiction.
Interviews, Key Questions, Oliver Cromwell
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Edward Sexby, a comrade-in-arms of Oliver Cromwell who became his implacable enemy.
1647, Education, Key Questions, Oliver Cromwell, Series
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Oliver Cromwell, who chaired most of the Putney Debates, took a different approach to that of his son in law, Henry Ireton, who confronted the radicals head-on and tried to undermines their arguments.
1647, Education, Key Questions, Oliver Cromwell, Series
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Henry Ireton was the eloquent spokesperson for the Grandees of the New Model Army who sided with his father-in-law Oliver Cromwell.
1647, Education, Key Questions, Oliver Cromwell, Series
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Thomas Rainborowe was the romantic rallying point of the radicals during the debates.
1647, Education, Key Questions, Oliver Cromwell, Series
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John Wildman was one of most active members of the group of radical Levellers who argued for democratic, republican government in the Putney Debates of 1647. He was one of the most enigmatic and fasinating figure whose life spanned two revolutions and a bewildering range of political alliances.
1647, Education, Key Questions, Oliver Cromwell, Series
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By the summer of 1647, Parliament had won the First Civil War. At the battles of Naseby and Langport, the New Model Army had crushed the Royalist field armies and the King himself was now their prisoner. But all was not well on the parliamentary side.
1647, Education, Key Questions, Oliver Cromwell, Series
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A concise introduction to the causes and consequences of the religious divisions which contributed to the outbreak of the Civil Wars.
Interviews, Key Questions, Religion, Teachers
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The Tudor Reformation of the 16th Century left England, Scotland and Ireland bitterly divided.
Interviews, Key Questions, Religion, Teachers
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Religious divisions inflamed by King Chares I were an important cause of the wars and were exacerbated by significant differences between the Three Kingdoms.
Interviews, Key Questions, Religion, Teachers
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After the Regicide, religious fragmentation particularly within the army, made Britain difficult to govern and ultimately contributed to the downfall of the republic.
Interviews, Key Questions, Religion, Teachers
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The proceedings played out in front of thousands of spectators within Westminster Hall and in print were read by many more. The Rump Parliament intended the trial to serve propaganda purposes. However, this aim was subverted by the king’s surprisingly fluent defence in which he recast himself as a defender of the people’s liberty in the face of a new, arbitrary power.
1649, Charles I, Key Questions, Series, Talks
The British Civil Wars provides an exciting opportunity to engage learners of all ages and as Denise Greany, Learning Officer at National Civil War Centre explains, it brings compelling stories with a diverse and colourful cast of characters to the classroom
Education, National Civil War Centre, Teachers, Video
The battle of Naseby finally destroyed the field army of the King and in two hours changed the history not only of Britain, but every modern democracy.
1645, Battles, Civil War Petitions Project, Interviews, Military Medicine
Discover the momentous event that occurred at Naseby, which was to shape history - not only of Britain but every modern democracy.
1645, Charles I, English Civil Wars, Interviews, Military History, Oliver Cromwell
It is often said that there was nothing 'civil' about the British Civil Wars. This was not the story of dashing Cavaliers and God-fearing Roundheads fighting battles in fields far from the civilian population.
Civil War Petitions Project, English Civil Wars, Interviews
“Turncoat!” The word creates immediate images of traitors, renegades and defectors… here is a person who places self-interest above the well-being or safety of comrades-in-arms, and so switches sides irrespective of the resulting harm it does to the Cause.
English Civil Wars, Interviews, Royalists
Discover the stories of ordinary people preserved in more than 4000 petitions. Professor Andrew Hopper introduces this window in to what the conflict meant for them.
Civil War Petitions Project, English Civil Wars, Interviews
The Civil Wars changed the lives of families all across the British Isles, and inevitably children became involved not only as passive bystanders, but also as child soldiers.
English Civil Wars, Interviews
In this interview, Dr. Ismini Pells reveals that PTSD in veterans is not a new problem. She discusses the psychological impact that can be seen in the men who fought in the Civil Wars.
Civil War Petitions Project, English Civil Wars, Features, Interviews, Mental Health, Military Medicine
