All Episodes
The World Turned Upside Down - The British Civil Wars 1638-1651 — 131 episodes
Colchester 1648 – Eleven weeks of brutal and bloody siege
Everyday informing in revolutionary England
Remembering the English Revolution – Impact and consequences
How did the landscape shape Civil War battle Naseby 1645?
Royalist Experiences of the Sieges of Newark-on-Trent
Law, civil war and gentry – The trials of Edward Vaghan revealed
William Cavendish Duke of Newcastle – The foremost Royalist General?
Piracy an Empire – Divorcing fact from fiction
Nurturing civil war – Politics, religion and the textile industry
Thomas Harrison (1616-1660) – Fifth monarchist and unrepentant regicide
Blood in the winter – descent into civil war
The Quakers and the power of print
Military welfare in Yorkshire revealed
The wars of the five peoples – Ethnicity during the civil wars
Life in the Royalist Capital – the Oxford Experience
Understanding the conquest and occupation of Scotland
Making the Protectorate the strongest naval power of the age – Robert Blake (1598-1657)
Charles II – The years in exile
Duels, violence and conflict
Controversy – Was Charles I responsible for his own downfall?
Pride’s Purge – Radically shifting the balance of power
Paying for the New Model Army
Fiery spirits – Protestors on the edge of civil war
Brilliana Harley – A woman of faith and substance
How did the civil wars alter the British diet?
Devil-Land – England under siege
Although most modern historians consider Cromwell’s religious faith and beliefs to be sincere, several contemporaries considered him to be a religious hypocrite, so which viewpoint is correct?
At what point did the execution of the king become inevitable, during his trial in January 1649 or much earlier than that?
Did parliament win the main civil war of 1642-46 through the possession of better resources or did the royalists lose it because of military blunders?
Creating Memory – Historical Fiction and the English Civil Wars
Oliver Cromwell’s western design
Britain’s astonishing revolutionary decade
Bastion of Royalism – Cornwall in the civil wars
The Battle of Langport, Somerset July 1645
1645-1646 Parliamentary victories and the end of the war
The second Battle of Newbury – 27th October 1644
1644 – The pivotal year
The battle of Edgehill – 23rd October 1642
The first year of civil war
Sentencing a King to death – judge John Bradshawe
Outbreak of civil war in England – The importance of Ireland and Scotland
Seizing property of Royalists
The daily life of a soldier
Creating a fighting army
The realities of ‘a womb big with miseries’
Parliament and the slave trade – The Interregnum years
A family at war – Lord and Lady Brooke of Warwick
Women in the english civil wars
Remembering the Civil Wars – The fraught story of commemoration
Split – The New Model Army versus Parliament – The Saffron Walden debates
Women and Cromwell’s Navy – The hidden story
Cromwell’s Navy – The civil wars at sea
The European context – The British Civil Wars and the 30 years war
Royalist conspiracy – the story of the Sealed Knot
She-Intelligencers – Women and espionage in the British Civil Wars
“A war of trenches, ramparts, palisades, bombardments and blockades”- Fortress warfare
The surprising story of peacemaking during the English civil wars
Oliver Cromwell’s House of Lords
Oliver Cromwell’s Protectorate – A genuine revolution or a drift back to traditional government?
The General who made the Restoration possible – General Monck
Controversy – Oliver Cromwell in Ireland (1649-1650)
Living through civil war sieges in Newark – the civilian experience
Witch-hunting in revolutionary England
The Civil War Memorials Project – Battlefields Trust
The last days of the Republic – The return of the King – Part 2
The last days of the Republic – The fall of Richard Cromwell – Part 1
The importance of radicalism in the 1640s
New understandings of Charles I kingship
Killing the New Model Army – The fate of Cromwell’s old soldiers 1660-1685
Creating new civil war resources for schools – Best practice
Ruling without Parliament – Charles I
Multitudes of hands – The power of petitioning in seventeenth-century England
Prince Rupert’s burning love of England, discovered in Birmingham’s flames
The making of Oliver Cromwell – His early years
Were the Commonwealth and the Protectorate doomed from the start?
The bloodiest battle – Marston Moor (2nd July 1644)
Yorkshire in the Civil Wars – A bloody strategic battleground
Uncovering a ‘forgotten’ massacre at Shelford House
Raids, skirmishes and sieges – How the Civil War was fought
‘The Christian Centurion’ – Sergeant-Major-General Philip Skippon
‘Black Tom’ – Sir Thomas Fairfax, Creator and Commander of the New Model Army
Taken for a Soldier – Conscript or Volunteer?
1647 – A year of tumultuous and unstable ‘peace’
‘Yet One Warning More, to Thee O England’ – Quakers and the Restoration, 1660-1689
‘Light Risen Out of Darkness’ – The Civil Wars and Early Quakers, 1646-1660
1641 Depositions Project – Lessons for todays divided world
The Irish Rebellion 1641 – Sorting the facts from the fake news
John Poyer – Starting the second civil war in Wales
The Civil War encapsulated in a single siege
Beyond England’s Borders – Wales Besieged (1642-1648)
Fleeing the Irish Rebellion 1641 – Refugees’ experiences
How Scottish Presbyterians became so powerful in England
How Scots opposition irreparably damaged the King’s authority
Understanding the Importance of Scotland, Ireland and Wales
Historians’ evolving views of John Pym
John Pym (1584-1643) – Pivotal Parliamentary figure and opponent of the King
Was Cromwell’s inability to work with Parliament the greatest irony of the English Revolution?
Did Oliver Cromwell’s death make the Restoration inevitable?
Was Oliver Cromwell the defender of liberty or a tyrant?
1660 – The year the world changed, war ended and the King returned
1642 – The story of the year when the English Civil War began
Did Oliver Cromwell ban Christmas?
Edward Sexby (1618-1658) – A comrade-in-arms
Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) – In the chair
Henry Ireton (1611-1651) – Soldier and political thinker
Thomas Rainborowe (1610-1648) – Romantic radical hero
John Wildman (c1621-1693) – Remarkable and original
The Putney Debates – A founding moment of British democracy
The Interregnum and the unsuccessful quest for religious conformity
Origins of the Civil Wars – The role of religion
Divided by religion – Post-reformation Britain
Religion and the Civil Wars – Introductory overview
Trial of Charles I – What were the real objectives?
Upside Down World – Exciting new free access programme for schools
Rediscovering the stories of the wounded – The Battle of Naseby, 1645
Two Hours that Changed the World – The Battle of Naseby, 1645
Forgotten voices – The ordinary people of the Civil Wars
Changing Sides – Turn Coats
Growing Up – Children’s Experiences
Revealing the forgotten voices of ordinary people – The Civil War Petitions Project
Mental trauma – These distracted times
Why was Charles I executed?
Why did Royalists lose the Civil War?
How far was Charles I responsible for causing the Civil War?
History of Parliament
Causes, Conflicts, Consequences – The Historians Debate
Consequences – Political upheaval & constitutional change 1649-1660
Conflicts – Fighting the British Civil Wars 1642-1649
Causes – Why did war break out in 1642?
Step-by-step Guide – Understanding the Civil Wars
Trailer – Introducing The World Turned Upside Down