English Civil War

Cromwell's Soldier Admirals

During the Commonwealth years England's navy scored a series of notable victories against the Dutch and Spanish, but the heroes of the navy were army men, not sailors. Michael Baumber scrutinises the career of the greatest general-at-sea, Robert Blake, who put new heart into the Senior Service. 

'A Great and Deserved Name' - Commemorating Cromwell

In this edited version of a lecture given on 25 March 1999, to commemorate the anniversary of Cromwell's birth, John Morrill provides us with a series of snapshots, at different ages, of the troubled visionary who aspired to lead a new chosen people out of the bondage of Stuart tyranny.

The Trial of Charles I

Sean Kelsey reconsiders the events of January 1649 and argues the trial was skilfully appropriated by rump politicians in paving the way for the new Commonwealth.

Why was Charles I executed in 1649?

Barry Coward grapples with a question which has become more difficult to answer as a result of recent scholarship. He finds the answer lies in the New Model Army, in religious passion and in Charles himself.

The Wars of the Three Kingdoms

Jane Ohlmeyer argues that the English Civil War was just one of an interlocking set of conflicts that encompassed the British Isles in the mid-seventeenth century