The World Turned Upside Down - The British Civil Wars 1638-1651

Colchester in Essex was a hotbed of Puritanism in the seventeenth century. Unsurprisingly, the Essex town came out strongly for Parliament when civil war broke out in 1642. However, just six years later, the townsfolk would find themselves besieged – and systematically starved – by parliamentarian forces commanded by Thomas, Lord Fairfax. The siege, which ... Read more

Informing and informers were pervasive in successive governments’ attempts to maintain the security and stability of the English Republic between 1649 and 1660. Some members of the public felt that by informing on others they significantly and positively contributed to the security of the Interregnum Regimes. Indeed, many members of the public considered that informing ... Read more

In 1660, the Restoration of the Monarchy made the question of remembering and memorialising the English Revolution not only controversial, but also dangerous. In that year, the Act of Oblivion and Indemnity pardoned those other than the regicides who had rebelled against the crown during the Civil Wars and the Interregnum. The Act commanded the ... Read more

What was the landscape of rural England like, over which many of the battles of the Civil Wars were fought? How did these fields and woods shape the armies’ tactics and influence the outcomes of battles such as Naseby which would alter British, and even World, history? And how different is the remaining rural landscape ... Read more

Strategically located at the lowest bridging point of the River Trent, the market town of Newark in Nottinghamshire became the focus of one of the most sustained conflicts of the British Civil Wars. Staunchly Royalist, the town’s inhabitants were besieged by Parliamentary forces three times – in February 1643; again in February and March 1644; ... Read more

The experiences of the Montgomeryshire gentleman and lawyer, Edward Vaughan, provide a remarkable story of law, civil war and gentry life in mid seventeenth-century Wales. In this podcast Lloyd Bowen, Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Cardiff, uncovers a rich narrative of how local enmities were shaped by national events. Born in ... Read more

William Cavendish, Earl and later Duke of Newcastle, was the foremost of the King’s aristocratic Generals. By 1643 he’d raised the largest Royalist army of the First Civil War. He was granted greater powers than any other regional royalist commander, and was able to raise his own taxes and coin money. He also dubbed 12 ... Read more

Pantomime villains, box office gold and famous (or infamous) shadowy figures of fiction and non-fiction, pirates are familiar stereotypes in popular media. But these common images hide a critically important group of men (and occasionally women) who were socially, economically and politically significant in shaping the European maritime empires of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. ... Read more

The inseparable intimate relationship between politics, production and trade in the years preceding the Civil Wars has often been underplayed or even ignored. However, historians now increasingly recognise that the links between occupation and religious beliefs were fundamentally important in nurturing opposition to the King and his government in the years prior to the Civil ... Read more

Major-General Thomas Harrison (1616 – 1660) is one of the most complex figures to emerge during Interregnum. He was promoted through the ranks of the Parliamentary Army, starting as a trooper at the Battle of Powick Bridge, one of the first engagements of the war in September 1642. He rose to command the Army in Wales, and then in England in 1651 while Cromwell was in Scotland. Unsurprisingly as a ... Read more

After years of tension between a king and his people, in 1641 England reaches a semblance of peace. Armies have disbanded, legislation has passed to ensure Parliament will continue to sit, and the people are tentatively optimistic. Radical politicians congratulate themselves on a stunning political victory. Royal servants are coming to accept an altered future. ... Read more

The early Quaker movement was remarkable for its prolific use of print to spread its messages throughout Britain. Indeed, print was critically important in the successful proselytizing of the Quaker message across the country in these early days. It was through its pamphlets that Quaker thinking and arguments became so powerful so rapidly in revolutionary ... Read more

Recent research, particularly by members of the Civil War Petitions Project, has shown how the experiences of the wounded and widowed are central to understanding the conflict’s impact on British society. In this talk by the Project’s Principal Investigator, Professor Andrew Hopper, we glimpse the dramatic extent of the War’s destructive effects upon the people of Yorkshire. Large sums of money were raised for military welfare, indicating the consent and commitment of ... Read more

From the 1990s, the approaches of revisionist historians to the Civil Wars did much to recast the series of conflicts as ‘the Wars of the Three Kingdoms’. These historians stressed the importance of events in Scotland and Ireland in bringing about the eventual outbreak of Civil War in England. But the Civil Wars were not ... Read more

In this programme, Vanessa Emmett, a doctoral student in English Local History at Kellogg College at the University of Oxford, discusses the contribution of Oxford’s citizens to the Royalist war effort between 1642 and 1646. When King Charles I and his court arrived in Oxford to take up residence in November 1642, he was welcomed by ... Read more

Much has been written and discussed about the effects of the execution of Charles I on the future history of England. But its impact on Scotland has often received less attention. Yet, within a week of the death of Charles I, his son had been declared not just King of Scotland, but King of Britain ... Read more

The military histories of the British and Irish Civil Wars largely focus on the land-based conflict, while the critical strategic importance of the wars at sea is often ignored or downplayed. Yet this was the period when the foundations were laid of the modern navy which gave Britain global maritime supremacy for centuries to come. ... Read more

One of the most important and formative decades in the adolescent life of Charles Stuart, soon to become Charles the Second, between 1646 and 1660 was spent in exile. During this time, he experienced the loss of his father, publicly beheaded in his absence, military defeat and near-capture after the Battle of Worcester, friction with ... Read more

Early modern Europe, including England, was a violent and dangerous place to live. Just how dangerous has been revealed by research in archives across Europe by Professor Stuart Carroll of the University of York. He argues that violence increased sharply in the sixteenth century and remained high until the 1720s. Throughout this time, disagreements repeatedly ... Read more

Historians of the British and Irish Civil Wars have repeatedly asked to what extent was Charles I responsible for his own downfall and consequently, the failure of the monarchy? In this programme, Jacqueline Eales, Emerita Professor of Early Modern History at Canterbury Christ Church University, traces how the King’s intransigence repeatedly undermined potential supporters who ... Read more

On 6 December 1648, Pride’s Purge marked a watershed moment in the English Revolution. By arresting some MPs and preventing others from sitting, the New Model Army seized political power. Now the Army, rather than Parliament, would dictate the future settlement of England. The exclusion of the more moderate MPs ensured that a hard line ... Read more

The formation of the New Model Army placed a significant burden on every taxpayer in England at a time when wartime devastation, disruption of trade and a series of poor harvests was already causing hardship across Britain. According to the Army’s detractors, the country could simply not afford to pay a cost equivalent to over ... Read more

In the years leading up to the outbreak of Civil War, very few would have predicted that England would become a Republic. But in Parliament, one MP, Henry Marten (1602 – 1680) who was returned for Berkshire in the Short and Long Parliaments, became an early and outspoken champion for republicanism and subsequently for the ... Read more

Brilliana Harley was one of the heroines of the British and Irish civil wars. A deeply religious woman, in her husband’s absence, Brilliana successfully held off a royalist siege of her family home at Brampton Bryan in Herefordshire for three months during 1643. During these weeks she vividly described these events and even rejected a ... Read more

Dr Mark Dawson has conducted extensive research into food and drink in the early modern period. In this programme, he reveals that this period saw a fundamental and irreversible evolution of the foods widely consumed by families at all levels of society. Production and consumption of fruit and vegetables increased while soldiers began to eat ... Read more

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. England was seen by continental neighbours as a “failed state”; endemically unstable and rocked by devastating events from the Gunpowder Plot to the ... Read more

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. Today most historians consider that Cromwell was being sincere, some other remain sceptical. At the Cromwell Association’s Schools History Conference, leading academics, Professor Peter Gaunt of the University ... Read more

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?”. Some historians maintain that the King’s fate was only decided during the trial in Westminster Hall while others argue that his fate was sealed well before Charles was ... Read more

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?”. Was it because it possessed more resources as Professor Andrew Hopper of the University of Oxford argues or, as Professor Emirates Peter Gaunt suggest, Royalist military ... Read more

Historical fiction is often a lens through which the memory of the Civil Wars has been shaped. Therefore, this is an important, but often forgotten topic for academic investigation and analysis. In this programme, we explore the “delicate interplay between fiction and history” with Farah Mendlesohn, former Professor of English and Media at Anglia Ruskin ... Read more

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’. To achieve this goal a large force combining the army and the navy, set ... Read more

The tumultuous revolutionary decade between 1649 and 1660 is often portrayed through discussions of battles, political and religious conflicts and consequent death and disease. But in her recent book, which is now available in paperback, Republic, Professor Alice Hunt of the University of Southampton, shows that it was also a decade of exciting new ideas and innovations ... Read more

During 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. But why was Cornwall so staunch in its support of the monarchy, even after much of the rest of England ... Read more

In this ongoing series of specially commissioned programmes for the World Turned Upside Down, 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. As Professor Gaunt says in this programme the south-west of England ... Read more

In 1645, the military history of the civil wars was transformed by reorganisation of the Parliamentarian forces to form the New Model Army. The impact of this army on the course of the wars became apparent with their growing dominance in the field during the second half of that year. This well-trained and effectively-led force ... Read more

In this ongoing series of specially commissioned programmes for the World Turned Upside Down, 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. In this programme he explores the second battle of Newbury fought ... Read more

1644 proved to be a pivotal year in the military history of the civil wars. While at the end of 1643 Royalist forces were predominant over much of England and Wales. the situation was about to change dramatically.  Intervention by a Scottish army shifted the balance of power in favour of Parliament and in the ... Read more

A bonus programme by Professor Peter Gaunt, Professor of History at the University of Chester describes the first pitched battle of the British and Irish civil wars fought by the two field armies. Both sides were left shocked by the extent of the casualties in a battle that only lasted for about 2 1/2 hours ... Read more

In the second part of this landmark series – specially commissioned for The World Turned Upside Down –  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. The story starts with the raising of the ... Read more

John Bradshawe (1602 – 1659) is one of the most famous – or depending on your view “notorious” figures of the period. Some remember him as the traitorous judge who sentenced his monarch – King Charles I – to death after presiding over a “show trial”.  Others consider that Bradshawe was a skilled lawyer who ... Read more

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. During the years preceding the outbreak of war in England, it was events in Scotland ... Read more

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. The regime had to repay the loans from London financiers that had financed the conflict as well as tackle ... Read more

What was the experience of the ordinary soldier’s, life in the ranks of a civil war army? It was hard and frequently uncertain. Simply surviving was a challenge, particularly as England experienced prolonged periods of cold, wet weather throughout the mid-seventeenth century. In the third programme in this landmark series specially commissioned for The World Turned Upside ... Read more

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? Every Royalist and Parliamentarian leader and every officer in the filed faced ... Read more

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. In fact this was a protracted, bloody fight that disrupted, and at times, destroyed, the lives of hundreds of thousands of men, women and children ... Read more

While terms such as “slavery” and “liberty”, frequently occur in parliamentarian rhetoric, particularly when damning their enemies, ever-increasing numbers of West African people were actually being transported across the ocean to colonies in the Caribbean. According to distinguished parliamentary historian, Dr Stephen Roberts, it was during the Interregnum that the foundations of Britain’s leading role ... Read more

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. In this podcast, the authors of the book explore the lives of these men and women revealed in the household accounts of ... Read more

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. She concludes that overall changes in the social status of women were limited and ... Read more

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? In the decade between the Regicide and the Restoration, authorities and individuals who had fought on both sides of the recent bloody conflict struggled to ... Read more

The Saffron Walden debates 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. By the end of the year the pay of the New Model ... Read more