January 1649, Whitehall. A king steps onto the scaffold. Moments later, Charles I is dead... tried and executed by his own subjects. For the first time in its history, England is without a monarch.
What follows is one of the most radical experiments in British history. The House of Lords is abolished. The monarchy is swept away. England, Scotland, and Ireland are declared a republic, a commonwealth built on revolutionary ideals. But was it truly a revolution? And why did this bold new republic collapse within a decade?
For this Not Just The Tudors...Late, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb hosts a panel of leading historians - Dr Jonathan Healey, Dr Miranda Malins, and Prof. Ronald Hutton - to explore the often overlooked interregnum of the 1650s. Together, they dig into the realities behind the rhetoric: the role of Oliver Cromwell, the tensions between army and parliament, and the limits of radical change in a deeply divided nation.
Was England’s republic doomed from the start, or was it a missed opportunity? And did this failed experiment plant the seeds for later revolutions?
Join us as we revisit a turbulent decade of ambition, ideology, and contradiction... and ask why England’s revolution didn’t last.
Up Next in More From Suzannah Lipscomb
-
The Ashmolean Up Close: Witches in Pi...
The third film in our series exploring the remarkable collections of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.
In this episode, Prof. Suzannah Lipscomb investigates the shifting image of witches in the early modern imagination. In conversation with curator An Van Camp, we trace how witches were portrayed...
-
The Ashmolean Up Close: Demons of Mes...
The second film in our series exploring the remarkable collections of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. In this episode, Prof. Suzannah Lipscomb journeys into the world of Ancient Mesopotamian protectors. Guided by curator Dr Nancy Highcock, we uncover a fascinating array of objects, from fearsome ...
-
The Ashmolean Up Close: Memento Mori
The fourth film in our series exploring the remarkable collections of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.
In this episode, Prof. Suzannah Lipscomb meets curator Matthew Winterbottom to explore the morbid side of life in Early Modern Europe... through Memento Mori.
This was a period awash with obje...
6 Comments