On 30th January, Charles I went to the scaffold, the first king to be publicly tried and executed by his people. He died with enormous dignity - and was duly proclaimed a martyr. With the king gone, a new state was proclaimed in his place - based on the sovereignty of the people, and ruled by a House of Commons that representated it, with the executive Council of State. As the Commonwealth's servants, John Milton and Marchamont Nedham worked to proclaim it's legitimacy, enemies both internal and external circled. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information ..read more

I am about to start a new series for Shedcast members, called Birth of Britain. It takes British history from the year dot to somewhere around 600. So I am starting the series off with an interview with friend and archaeologist Dr Richard Grove, to give us a bit of an overview. This episode is an extract from that interview. I thought that (a) you would find it interesting and that (b) it might persuade you might sign up to be a member at The History of England Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information ..read more

Once the decision was taken to put Charles on trial, the Commissiobners agonised about the detail at Westminster; the trial must be seen to be fair. But few can have doubted its outcome. The theatre of the trial was almost a gladatorial contest between representatives of the two sides, in the form of President Bradshaw, and King Charles Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information ..read more

The New Model, Levellers and Radical MPs reacted with steely determination to the adoption of the Newport treaty. It was probably Ireton that inspired Pride's Purge. Ireton it was also that drove the development of the constitutional proposal that followed, forged in the Whitehall Debates - the Agreement of the People. That would have to wait though, because more immediate questions were at hand. What now to do with this incorrigible king? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information ..read more

Sam Hume of Paxbritannica Podcast and I have teamed up for a festival of fun, a jamboree of questions about the English Revolution, im anticipation of a significant event. Simply place your questions by 14th July on the special online form Sam created at https://bit.ly/RevQA. Sam and I will discuss, debate and possiblu disagree and on 28th July we will produce the results in an all-singing, all-dancing podcast. What could be funner? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information ..read more

In July. Hamilton launched his army of Scots across the border, in confident expectation that his 14,000 would be swelled by enthusiastic English royalists. England would know it's fate at Preston, when the opposimg commanders, Hamilton and Cromwell, threw the dice. While parliament would receive two proposals for a lasting peace; the Remonstranbce of the Army, penned by Ireton, Radical MPs and Levellers; and the Newport Treaty from their commissioners and the king. Which way would the bones fall? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information ..read more

If the people of England had gone to war to build a better world, by January 1648 they were seriously unimpressed with what Utopia looked like. The issues that distressed the people were legion - taxes, religion, sequestration, omne daft ideas about equality, county committees - even Christmas! And when news of the King's Engagement with the Scots got out, well, some people saw that as an opportunity to restore the right order of things. Which would surely only come well the World was turned rightside up again, and the King Came Into His Own once more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/priva ..read more

In November 1647 at Corkbush field near Ware, Fairfax faced a dangerous threat to army unity - the work of the Leveller Agitators had incited some regiments to mutiny, in support of the Agreeent of the People. Meanwhile Charles had fled Hampton Court; he would find his new home even less to his liking. Until he had a strictly private discussion with the Scots... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information ..read more

In July, England had the prospect of king, Fairfax and Army triumphantly entering London with a new, open and tolerant constitution and a bright future. But Charles had killed that. So, in the face of the hostility of parliament, and fortified by their Solemn Engagement, the New Model Army decided to take England's future into their own hands. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information ..read more

With the king under their control, the determination of Fairfax's Army made Presbyterian parliamentarians buckle. And when Ireton presented the carefully worked Heads of Proposals to the Officers and Agitators at the Army General Council at Reading, it seemed that at last a peace agreement was within grasp. Once agreed, Fairfax and the Army could march into London with King Charles at its head, and a new world could begin. All that was needed was the king to agree to the best peace proposals he will ever receive, so good surely it'll be in the bag. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for mo ..read more