The Army had mounted another coup, and its Committee of Safety now sought to carve out yet another form of the Republic in the face of the Rump's defiance - and the deep weariness of most of the ordinary people of England and Wales. But all eye
The transfer of power between the first Protector and the second was smooth and uneventful; in December 1658 it appeared that England was, and would remain, a republic. But when parliament reconvened, it quickly became clear that the fissures r
Miranda Malins is an historian, author, novelist and a member of the Cromwell Association. She takes a look back at Cromwell, his life, times, achievements and failures, and the myths and opinions which have grown up around him. Hosted on Acast
In 1658, the year started with hopeful clarity. There was a new constitution om a firmer footing, and a new parliament was about to sit. There was little sign any more of royalist rebellion, the Commonwealth name was feared and respected abroad
Thomas Hobbes has been described as 'one of the true founders of modernity in Western culture'. His most famous work Leviathan was inspired by the issues raised by the Revolution, published in 1651 as he came home - and used to support the Prot
In London, and towns like Oxford, the Protectorate saw the return of stability, economic change and a revived social scene - and the arrival of the Coffee house, and the penny university. Stability and old rythmns re-established themslves aroun
Cromwell's court struck a balance between the status required of a head of state, and the Cromwell's own openbness and informality. It was a court full of music, as was the supposedly joyless puritan state. There was little of the London theatr
After a year of the rule of the major generals, there was no money to support their militia. Now, the obvious solution was to repeat and continue the decimation tax; but the Council of State felt that parliament must be consulted. The opponents
There was much about Cromwell that was Elizabethan. He was fiercely patriotic, he dreamed of building as trading nation, and laying low the Spanish Empire with a Protestant Alliance. The Western Design against the Spanish Caribbean was part of
Cromwell might have felt that the first 9 months went rather well, from his perspective - the Council of State was working well, getting things done, the settlement of the Commonwealth was proceeding and rebellions suppressed - and the first Pr
This year we go to York and West Yorkshire, from 8th to 17th September. We'll stay in the Spa town of Harrogate, and in glorious York, Capital of the North with its Cathedral, the Minster, the medieval shopping street of the Shambles and loads
Between 1654 and 1657, the the Tender of Union with Scotland and the Act of Settlement of Ireland were played out. They were very different in character. Over the following centuries, the former was largely consigned to a historical footnote. T
I am very pleased that Dirk Hoffman-Becking, of the History of the Germans podcast, has put together this episode about a very favourite event - the capture and hostage of Richard the Lionheart. Why Henry VI did it - and how in the end, Richard
Whether or not Cromwell knew about John Lambert's 'coup' of December 1653, by the end of the month England had a new constitution and a new Head of State - the Lord Protector. Cromwell was installed in Whitehall and Hampton court, new seals des
Contemporary poets found it difficult to deal with Cromwell, both before and after his death. Margaret Oakes talks about how the approach they took, and what they chose to reflect of the man and his career Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy
"Never man was highlier extolled, and never man baselier reported of and vilified” write Richard Baxter - a contemporary of Oliver Cromwell, who was not a fan. In this he was closer to the truth than Samuel Johnson, who wearily wrote in the 18t
Nelson was a military genius and fierce patriot, idolised by his men and the British public - and held up to ridicule too, for his affair with Emma and his treatment of Fanny. In his book for children, 'Nelson, Hero of the Seas', historian, aut
In 1649 the English parliament proudly declared that freedom had been restored and that King and Lords had been rejected. But in other ways, the new Commonwealth failed to bring about a new world. True there were difficult problems to resolve w
In 1646, Charles secretly left Oxford, not sure whether to appeal to the English in London, or the Scots at Newark. It was the start of a long process of three years, which would see torturous negotiations - and the rise of extraordinary ideas
In his haste to expel the Rump which had failed so badly, Cromwell and the Army officers came up with a temporary expedient. The Nominated assembly would be chosen from the most sober, Godly and intelligent of society, they would do the job of
The promised land looked for so longingly by so many seemed in 1653 to be stubbornly remote. Legal reform blocked, religious programmes cancelled, an apparently corrupt parliament, high taxes, and still no fresh elections - rulers seemingly int
John Milton and Marchamont Nedham were unlikely bedfellows; and yet they became friends, worked closely together and in their very different ways sought to promote the English Republic to the country and outside world. Anthony Bromley talks abo
The English Commonwealth took a very different approach to settling the threats which had faced it in 1649, and the future of the three kingdoms. In Ireland, the guiding principle was retribution; in Scotland some effort at least of collaborati
So, while the army was away, August 1649 to September 1651 what had the Rump parliament been doing to build the promised new world of Liberty? We find out that social reform takes a back seat to moral reform - the Garland of the Sea - and picki
The deal struck between the Covenanters and Charles brought an invasion from the Commonwealth that faced annihalation at Dunbar in September 1650. Exactly a year later, the end game of Charles' attempt to detroy the Republic came to a head outs