Episode 2.111: Conclusion
Wherein the podcast, like the English Republic, disappears from history.
Jun 11, 2022•33 min
Early Stuart England
A narrative history of England (1603-1642)
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Episodes
Episode 2.110: The Return of the King
Spring 1660 After a long exile, the rightful King returns, to restore the line of his ancestors.
Jun 04, 2022•36 min
Episode 2.109: A Free Parliament
January 1660 A broad movement for a free parliament unites royalists, Presbyterians, the apprentices of London, and the only coherent army left in England.
May 28, 2022•35 min
Episode 2.108: The Second Restoration of the Rump
December 1659 Assailed on multiple fronts, the Committee of Safety simply dissolves. Without any other immediate options, England (for the third time) turns to the Rump.
May 21, 2022•31 min
Episode 2.107: As Hot as They Can Suffer It
1659 As the Committee of Safety struggles to establish itself as England's new government, London falls under the sway of different ruler - coffee.
May 14, 2022•33 min
Episode: 2.106 - Dangerous to the Commonwealth
1659 Army officers and the Rump squabble over the remains of the increasingly irrelevant Commonwealth state
May 07, 2022•32 min
Episode 2.105: Booth's Uprising
Summer 1659 The new regime at Westminster is briefly united by the most dangerous royalist insurgency parliament has yet faced.
Apr 30, 2022•37 min
Episode 2.104: The Rump Resurrected
1659 Having run out of ideas, England once again turns to the men of the Rump parliament, who Oliver Cromwell had banished from Westminster six years earlier.
Apr 23, 2022•32 min
Episode 2.103: The Young Gentleman
Fall 1658 With the death of Oliver Cromwell, the Protectorate seeks stability under a new, untested Lord Protector.
Apr 16, 2022•32 min
Episode 2.102: The Northern Theatre
1658 Just when Cromwell completes his dream of securing Dunkirk, England is drawn into a new war in Scandinavia.
Apr 09, 2022•37 min
Episode 2.101: The Other House
January 1658 Oliver Cromwell (who is the Lord Protector, definitely not the King) seeks to control the House of Commons through the new "Other House" (which is definitely not the House of Lords).
Apr 02, 2022•30 min
Episode 2.100: Normalcy Amid Revolution
1657 Outside of London and Westminster, the people of England adapt to a new normal.
Mar 26, 2022•35 min
Episode 2.99: The Non-Alliance Revisited
1657 Thirty years after the Duke of Buckingham's French alliance failed in spectacular fashion, Oliver Cromwell and the Protectorate once again outdo their Stuart predecessors.
Mar 19, 2022•31 min
Episode 2.98: A Crown Rejected
1657 Rival Cromwellian factions in parliament (who had disagreed on just about everything so far) once again split on a final question - whether to make the Lord Protector a King.
Mar 12, 2022•30 min
Episode 2.97: Shake All Foundations
1657 The Second Protectorate Parliament gathers, but rather than heeding Cromwell's call to confirm the existing constitution, the men at Westminster re-open fundamental questions of religion and money.
Mar 05, 2022•29 min
Episode 2.96: A Wicked Spirit Risen Amongst Friends
1656 A new radical religious group (the Quakers) suffers an internal power struggle, which threatens to de-stabilize the new parliament gathering at Westminster.
Feb 26, 2022•31 min
Episode 2.95: The Colour of Your Detestable Practices
1656 It's election season for the Second Protectorate Parliament, and English voters use the opportunity to contemplate the meaning of republicanism, and how to reconcile liberty in Britain with slavery in the New World.
Feb 19, 2022•38 min
Episode 2.94: Spanish Gold
1656 England once again makes the capture of a Spanish treasure fleet the centre-piece of their war strategy. Only this time, it works!
Feb 12, 2022•31 min
Episode 2.93: The Sceptical Chymist
1656 While Oliver Cromwell and his friends re-make the English state, a collection of eccentric academics and amateur enthusiasts re-make the field of natural philosophy.
Feb 05, 2022•35 min
Episode: 2.92 - The Hope of Israel
1656 The Lord Protector, an Amsterdam Rabbi, and a merchant in the underground Jewish community of London seek to reverse a 350 year old ban on Jews in England.
Jan 29, 2022•35 min
Episode 2.91: The Younger Cromwell
1655 Oliver Cromwell sends his son Henry to Ireland, for an apprenticeship in ruling a nation.
Jan 22, 2022•36 min
Episode 2.90: The Major-Generals
1655 Stymied by traditional institutions like parliament, the Protectorate turns to the army to extend its rule into the provinces.
Jan 15, 2022•34 min
Episode 2.89: The Western Design Part 2
1655 The New Model Army finds waging war on the other side of the world, and with little local intelligence, is harder than it looks.
Jan 08, 2022•37 min
Episode 2.88: The Western Design Part 1
1654-5 The Protectorate state draws up plans for the most ambitious amphibious campaign in English history, and the first step in conquering a global empire.
Jan 01, 2022•34 min
Episode 2.87: The Sealed Knot
Spring 1655 An underground network of royalists seek to take advantage of instability within the Protectorate regime, but find that they are hampered by internal divisions of their own.
Dec 25, 2021•35 min
Episode 2.86: The Protectorate Parliament
Fall 1654 Lord Protector Cromwell opens his first parliament, and soon discovers what James or Charles could have told him - that managing the men at Westminster is no easy task.
Dec 18, 2021•35 min
Episode 2.85: Opinions Derogatory to God
Now Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell is forced to finally make some concrete decisions about England's spiritual life. Perhaps unsurprisingly, his choices are as much political as religious.
Dec 11, 2021•36 min
Episode 2.84: The Imperial Turn
1654 Having seized control of the state, Cromwell immediately ends the war with the Dutch, and adopts a much more conventional foreign policy.
Dec 04, 2021•39 min
Episode 2.83: The Instrument of Government
December 1653 John Lambert, after orchestrating the demise of the latest attempt at a political settlement (the Nominated Assembly), produces his own solution - a written constitution.
Nov 27, 2021•37 min
Episode 2.82: The Nominated Assembly
1653 With the Rump hastily dissolved, England turns to an ad hoc assembly to craft a new political order.
Nov 20, 2021•36 min
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