The English Civil War: Loyalty House

Not Just the Tudors

History Hit

History

4.8 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 16 May 2022

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Civil War was the most traumatic conflict in British history, pitting friends and family members against each other, tearing down the old order.

Award-winning historian Jessie Childs plunges the reader into the shock of the struggle through one of its most dramatic episodes: the siege of Basing House. To the parliamentarian Roundheads, the Hampshire mansion was a bastion of royalism, popery and excess. Its owner was both a Catholic and staunch supporter of Charles I. His motto Love Loyalty was etched into the windows. He refused all terms of surrender.

As royalist strongholds crumbled, Loyalty House, as it became known, stood firm. Over two years, the men, women and children inside were battered, bombarded, starved and gassed. Their resistance became legendary. Inigo Jones designed the fortifications and the women hurled bricks from the roof. But in October 1645, Oliver Cromwell rolled in the heavy guns and the defenders prepared for a last stand.

Drawing on exciting new sources, Childs uncovers the face of the war through a cast of unforgettable characters: the fanatical Puritan preacher who returns from Salem to take on the king; the plant-hunting apothecary who learns to kill as well as heal; the London merchant and colonist who clashes with Basing's aristocratic lord; and Cromwell himself who feels the hand of God on his sword. And we hear too the voices of dozens of ordinary men and women caught in the crossfire.

The Siege of Loyalty House is a thrilling tale of war and peace, terror and faith, friendship and betrayal - and of a world turned upside down.

Keep up to date with everything early modern, from Henry VIII to the Sistine Chapel with our Tudor Tuesday newsletter >

If you would like to learn more about history, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit >

To download, go to Android > or Apple store >

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	An age characterized by populism, climate change, a polarising media and morality crusades,
0:11.8	no not the 21st century, but the 17th.
0:16.4	And yet for some reason the British civil wars of the mid-17th century, which ended with
0:21.3	the execution of a king, have fallen behind the tutors in their grasp on the public imagination.
0:28.0	I think today's podcast will make you rethink that.
0:32.0	Today we're talking about one moment that gives away into the realities of the civil war.
0:37.5	Beating House near Beating Stoke was the grandest, largest non-royal house in England.
0:42.8	The family motto was love loyalty, and this mansion owned by the Marquis of Winchester,
0:48.8	whose loyalty was the king, was nicknamed loyalty house.
0:53.5	It was strategically and symbolically important to both the royalists and the parliamentarians,
0:59.7	and so its fate was to be besieged and blockaded.
1:03.6	But against all expectations, it didn't roll over.
1:08.9	The hell that was the battle over Beating House is the civil war in a nutshell.
1:14.8	Friend turned against friend, brother against brother, starvation, survival, awful warfare,
1:23.1	and extraordinary innovation, and the beginning of popular, caustic journalism.
1:28.7	This wonderful, terrible story has been unearthed by Jesse Charles.
1:34.6	Jesse is one of the finest historians working today.
1:38.4	Her first book, Henry VIII's Last Victim about the life of Henry Howard, Ernav Sorry, won
1:44.0	the Elizabeth Longford Prize for historical biography.
1:47.6	Her second book, God's Traders, Terror and Faith in Elizabethan England won the Penn
1:53.3	Hessel-Tutman Prize for history, and was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize for Nonfiction.
1:59.2	Her new book is The Siege of Loyalty House.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

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

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