Oliver Cromwell v. Charles I

Not Just the Tudors

History Hit

History

4.8 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 4 September 2025

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On 30 January 1649, the unthinkable happened: for the first time in history, a reigning monarch was tried and condemned by his own people. But how did a kingdom that once believed in the divine right of kings arrive at this unprecedented moment? In this second special explainer episode, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb guides us through the final and most dramatic years of the English Civil Wars. With contributions from leading historians drawn from the Not Just the Tudors archive, Suzannah traces the pivotal events that shattered the monarchy and gave rise to the emergence of parliamentary government.

MORE:

Prelude to the English Civil War

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0er6EmZ1cfwxTLAMwO2aO1

Oliver Cromwell: Massacres and Manoeuvres

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4n7d4Rm9YXzStJBSL2TVps

Presented by Professor Suzannah Lipscomb. Audio editor is Amy Haddow and the producer is Rob Weinberg. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.

All music courtesy of Epidemic Sounds.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Professor Susanna Lipscomb.
0:02.6	If you'd like not just the Tudors ad-free to get early access and bonus episodes, sign up to History Hit.
0:10.5	With a History Hit subscription, you can also watch hundreds of hours of original documentaries,
0:16.0	including my own recent two-part series, A World Torn Apart, the Dissolution of the Monastries, and enjoy a new
0:23.7	release every week. Sign up now by visiting historyhit.com forward slash subscribe.
0:35.0	Hello, I'm Professor Susanna Lipscomb, and welcome to Not Just the Tudors from History Hit,
0:41.0	the podcast in which we explore everything from Anne Boleyn to the Aztecs,
0:45.4	from Holbein to the Huguenots, from Shakespeare to Samarise,
0:50.0	relieved by regular doses of murder, espionage and witchcraft.
0:54.2	Not in other words, just the Tudors, but most definitely also the Tudors.
1:20.0	Thank you. January 30th, 1649.
1:23.4	Outside the banqueting house in Whitehall, London,
1:27.4	a crowd of thousands stands in stunned silence as a condemned man approaches a wooden scaffold.
1:31.3	He wears two shirts, not out of vanity, but to prevent the winter cold from making him shiver,
1:38.3	because it might be interpreted as fear.
1:42.3	This prisoner, though, is no ordinary condemned felon.
1:45.6	This is Charles.
1:48.1	By the grace of God, King of England, Scotland and Ireland.
1:54.3	And, in a matter of moments, the king would take his last breath
1:59.6	as the executioner raised his axe.
2:05.6	The king would take his last breath. How did England arrive at this unprecedented moment in its history?
2:31.4	How did a kingdom that had believed in the divine right of kings come to put their own monarch
	...

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