THE BRITISH CIVIL WARS, 1637-53
The civil wars of the mid-seventeenth century are one the most politically contentious periods in
British history: so much so, that scholars cannot even agree on what to call them! Most people know
about the English Civil War – or should we say ‘wars’? – and think they were fought by the
Roundheads and the Cavaliers – although political allegiances were more complex than this
contemporary binary suggests. This course uses the term ‘British civil wars’ to describe a set of
interlocking conflicts that were fought in England, Ireland, and Scotland. These conflicts were hotly
debated by contemporaries, even as they were unfolding, and have been subjected to competing and
varied interpretations ever since. This course aims to introduce students to some of the most
important frameworks and methodologies that have shaped how scholars understand the wars.
In the middle of the twentieth century, there were two major approaches to what was then still known
as ‘the English civil war’: the so-called ‘Whig’ and ‘Marxist’ grand narratives. The former regarded the
wars as a critical period in the creation of England’s putatively unique ‘constitutional monarchy’; the
latter presented the wars as a crucial transition point between the feudal society of the medieval
period and the modern industrial age. One of the few points of agreement between these frameworks
was that a revolution had occurred in England in the mid-seventeenth century – even if the nature of
that revolution was understood in very different terms. During the last quarter of the 20th-century, a
loose grouping of ‘revisionist’ historians sought to dismantle both approaches. They argued that,
although England was socially, economically, and politically stable, the British ‘multiple monarchy’,
comprising England, Scotland, and Ireland, was not. It was resistance to the British king, Charles I, in
Scotland and Ireland that destabilized English politics. This interpretation, by emphasizing stability
and consensus, stripped the wars of much of their revolutionary importance. A new generation of
‘post-revisionist’ historians, whose careers began in the 1980s and 1990s, argued that this approach
ignored deep ideological and religious fault-lines in English society, while over-emphasising the
influence of Ireland and Scotland on events in England. By privileging certain types of sources, it was
argued, ‘revisionists’ represented ‘the last hurrah’ of the Whigs.
Post-revisionists, by deconstructing over-arching narratives, helped to pave the way towards the idea
that there is no single, unified ‘truth’ about the civil wars, but a multiplicity of perspectives. Scholars
interested in popular politics, gender, and print culture have borrowed from other disciplines, notably
the social sciences, and offered new ways of thinking about our sources. Although the civil wars as a
scholarly subject have been greatly enriched by these developments, one of the more ambiguous
consequences of this fragmentation has been the loss both of narrative coherence and a sense of
longer-term significance. One major complicating factor has been the advent of so-called ‘new British
history’, which asserted that the wars could not be understood exclusively in an English context. Yet
‘new British history’ remains bound by its ‘revisionist’ roots and has not led to new approaches to
Scottish and Irish sources. English historians have begun to argue that what made the English wars
‘revolutionary’ cannot be adequately explained by looking to the British context.
The large and complex historiography of the period will offer you the opportunity to examine closely
the major interpretative frameworks dominating early modern history over the past century and more.
By employing a variety of source materials and considering a range of approaches, the module will
help you gain a deeper understanding of the methodologies that underpin early modern historical
study.
Prior study or knowledge of English/British early modern history is recommended for this course. No
prior knowledge of Scottish or Irish history is required.
INDICATIVE COURSE OUTLINE
1. Introductory session
2. Revolution? Marxists and Whigs
3. The revisionists I: ‘unrevolutionary England’
4. The revisionists II: the ‘new ‘British history’
5. Why Scotland is Not England
6. Reading week
7. Post-revisionism: religion and ideology
8. New approaches I: print culture
9. New approaches II: popular engagement
10. New approaches III: war, state formation, and early modernity
11. Legacies
INTRODUCTORY READING
M. Braddick, God’s Fury, England’s Fire (2008)
B. Coward, The Stuart Age: England, 1603-1714 (2003).
C. Durston and J. Maltby, Religion in Revolutionary England (2006).
P. Gaunt, The British Wars, 1637-51 (1997).
D. Hirst, England in Conflict, 1603-1660 (1999)
A. Hughes, The Causes of the English Civil War (1998)
R. Hutton, Debates in Stuart History (2004).
A.I. Macinnes and J.H. Ohlmeyer, eds, The Stuart Kingdoms in the Seventeenth Century: Awkward
Neighbours (2002).
J.P. Kenyon and J.H. Ohlmeyer, eds, The Civil Wars: A Military History of
England, Scotland and Ireland, 1638-1660 (1998).
A.I. Macinnes, The British Revolution, 1629-1660 (2005)
R.C. Richardson, The Debate on the English Revolution (1977; 1988; 1998).
C. Russell, The Fall of the British Monarchies, 1637-1642 (1991).
D. Scott, Politics and War in the Three Stuart Kingdoms, 1637-49 (2004).
D.L. Smith, A History of the Modern British Isles, 1603-1707: The Double Crown (1998).
A. Woolrych, Britain in Revolution, 1625-60 (2002; 2004).