A bloody succession crisis that tore England apart also gave rise to a dynasty that would rule for 300 years. In the first of two pieces about early civil wars, Stephen Roberts examines one of the country’s darkest periods.
During the English Civil War, Sheffield Castle – a Royalist stronghold – was besieged for ten days by Parliamentary forces who ultimately seized control of the fortifications. Traces of this conflict have now been uncovered during Wessex Archaeology’s ongoing excavations…
REVIEW BY GRAHAM GOODLAD It is now three years since Bristol University historian Ronald Hutton’s The Making of Oliver Cromwell appeared. That earlier volume took Britain’s first commoner head of state from his origins as a minor East Anglian landowner…
One of the newest episodes released by Time Team focuses on a test-pitting investigation in the back gardens of Modbury. Carly Hilts explores the Civil War story that was uncovered over the course of three days, as well as echoes of international connections.
A cipher belonging to an ally of Oliver Cromwell early in the English Civil War has gone on display for the first time. The document, dating from the 1640s and rediscovered only last year, is being featured as part of…
Graham Goodlad analyses the events that enabled Parliament to win control of northern England.
Graham Goodlad examines the relationship that broke the Royalist cause in the English Revolution.
Archaeologists excavating the site at Coleshill Manor, east of Birmingham, found evidence that a newly discovered fortified gatehouse there had at one point come under intense fire.
Archaeologists from Wessex Archaeology, working in advance of HS2 construction, have been excavating the site for the past three years.
REVIEW BY DAVID FLINTHAM At the outbreak of the English Civil War, Parliament organised much of its fighting strength geographically; in the case of East Anglia (eventually including Huntingdonshire and Lincolnshire) this was the Eastern Association, which would become arguably…
Tours take place at 2pm Wednesday to Sunday and are free for visitors with admission to Auckland Castle.
The execution of King Charles I in January 1649 and the subsequent abolition of the monarchy turned Britain into a republic, which it would remain until the Restoration of Charles II 11 years later. Yet it is a period of…
REVIEW BY DAVID FLINTHAM. Created in 1645, the New Model Army was a truly formidable fighting force: in the first six years of its existence, it crushed Royalist resistance in England, Ireland, and Scotland, and brought about the execution of…
The excavations featured in a recent episode of The Great British Dig.
Cornwall is a county with a long military history, and reminders of its past can be found scattered across the landscape, ranging from Iron Age hillforts to Cold War control centres. Surrounded by sea on three sides, Cornwall has been…
Oliver Cromwell was the pivotal figure of the English Revolution. He emerged from relative obscurity to become Parliament’s greatest commander of cavalry in the Civil War, the leader of the radical wing of the mainstream revolutionary movement, and, eventually, the…
Repair work will be carried out on the largest surviving remains of the walls of the castle, which was built on the orders of William the Conqueror between 1067 and 1071.
I headed for the battlefield monument to get my bearings – an obelisk erected in 1740 to mark the spot where Warwick the Kingmaker, the greatest figure of the Wars of the Roses, was supposedly cut down...
The ring may have commemorated James Stanley, 7th Earl of Derby and Lord of Man, who was executed by the Parliamentarians in 1651.
Tantra, Captain Boycott, and Parliamentarians in Coventry
Sheffield Castle is a rare archaeological treat put together by a university team working with local authorities and professional archaeologists. It is about a place that has topographical and historical meaning thanks to recent well-designed rescue excavations and sleuth-like digging…
Review of 'The English Civil War:
An Atlas and Concise History of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, 1639–51' and 'English Civil War: Operations Manual'.
New research has attempted to establish why a brutal massacre during the English Civil War has been largely forgotten by history. The site of a Royalist garrison in Nottinghamshire, Shelford Manor was besieged by Parliamentary forces on 3 November 1645.…