Causes of the British Civil Wars: Royalists versus Parliamentarians

You're Dead to Me

BBC

Comedy, History

4.7 • 10.9K Ratings

🗓️ 7 February 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Greg Jenner is joined in 17th-Century England by Dr Jonathan Healey and comedian Toussaint Douglass to learn about King Charles I and the causes of the British Civil Wars.

This year marks the 400th anniversary of Charles I coming to the throne on 27th March 1625. Less than two decades later, his antagonistic relationship with Parliament would ignite a civil war, one that would end with his capture, trial and execution, and the rule of Oliver Cromwell. The war is remembered as a fight between Cavaliers and Roundheads, but what did each side actually believe in, and what were the causes of this conflict? Tracing the breakdown of the relationship between the King and Parliament, this episode takes in clashes over taxation, religion and the limits of royal power, disastrous wars, unpopular advisers, and Charles’s attempts to rule without Parliament altogether. It also moves outside London, exploring popular uprisings against everything from the King’s taxes and contentious church reforms to the 17th-Century cost-of-living crisis.

If you’re a fan of royals behaving badly, political bust-ups, rebellion and revolution, you’ll love our episode on the causes of the British Civil Wars.

If you want to hear more from Toussaint Douglass, check out our episode on abolitionist Frederick Douglass. And for more Stuart history, listen to our episodes on King James I and VI and scandalous actress Nell Gwyn.

You’re Dead to Me is the comedy podcast that takes history seriously. Every episode, Greg Jenner brings together the best names in history and comedy to learn and laugh about the past.

Hosted by: Greg Jenner Research by: Matt Ryan Written by: Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow, Emma Nagouse, and Greg Jenner Produced by: Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow and Greg Jenner Audio Producer: Steve Hankey Production Coordinator: Ben Hollands Senior Producer: Emma Nagouse Executive Editor: James Cook

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Before you listen to this BBC podcast, I want to tell you why I love podcasting.
0:04.7	Hi, my name's Tommy Dixon, and I make podcasts for the BBC.
0:08.4	I'm a big fan of stories, always loved a good book.
0:11.4	But when I started commuting for my first job, I discovered podcasts.
0:15.4	I was blown away by how a creative idea and the right mixture of sounds could take you into
0:19.2	a whole new world full of incredible stories. You know, the type that make you go, wow. And that kind of inspired me to
0:25.2	give it a go myself, which to cut a long story short led to a BBC training scheme and a whole
0:30.0	new career giving other people that exact same feeling. So if you want to hear amazing stories
0:34.2	that make you go wow like I did, they're just a tap or click away on BBC Sounds.
0:40.8	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. You're about to listen to You're Dead to Me. episodes will be
0:46.9	released on Fridays wherever you get your podcasts, but if you are in the UK, you can listen to
0:51.8	the latest episodes 28 days earlier than anywhere else.
0:55.7	First, on BBC Sounds.
0:58.8	Hello and welcome to You're Dead to Me, the Radio 4 comedy podcast that takes history seriously.
1:04.0	My name is Greg Jenner. I'm a public historian, author and broadcaster.
1:07.6	And today we're getting political on the 400th anniversary of the coming of King Charles
1:11.9	I. So yes, we're travelling back to the 17th century to discover the causes of the British
1:16.5	civil wars. You might call them English civil war. We'll explain later. And to help us separate
1:20.8	the royalists from the radicals, we have two very special guests. In History Corner, he's
1:25.1	Associate Professor in Social History at Kellogg College,
1:27.6	University of Oxford, where his research focuses on the social history of early modern England.
1:32.7	You might have read his incredible book, The Blazing World, A New History of Revolutionary England.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.