Now much of the history I was taught at Samuel Pepys Secondary Modern revolved around the doings of Kings and Queens.
And if I think back it was more Kings, with just a handful of Queens, who pretty much just got walk on parts.
So, the period when we did with out a King, became a Republic, and called ourselves a Commonwealth were left out, of the great sweep of English history.
All of which means I shall be listening to the Interregnum, today on the wireless, in which "Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the period between the execution of Charles I in 1649 and the unexpected restoration of his son Charles II in 1660, known as The Interregnum.
It was marked in England by an elusive pursuit of stability, with serious consequences in Scotland and notorious ones in Ireland.
When Parliament executed Charles it had also killed Scotland and Ireland’s king, without their consent; Scotland immediately declared Charles II king of Britain, and Ireland too favoured Charles.
In the interests of political and financial security, Parliament's forces, led by Oliver Cromwell, soon invaded Ireland and then turned to defeating Scotland. However, the improvised power structures in England did not last and Oliver Cromwell's death in 1658 was followed by the threat of anarchy.
In England, Charles II had some success in overturning the changes of the 1650s but there were lasting consequences for Scotland and the notorious changes in Ireland were entrenched.
With Clare Jackson, Senior Tutor at Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge, Micheál Ó Siochrú, Professor in Modern History at Trinity College Dublin, and, Laura Stewart, Professor in Early Modern History at the University of York
Producer: Simon Tillotson"
Picture; Oliver Cromwell c. 1649 by Robert Walker. National Portrait Gallery, London, and The New Model Army, from Pictorial History, 1955
*The Interregnum, In Our Time, Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000wcxn,
No comments:
Post a Comment