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

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