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Lyt når som helst, hvor som helst 

David Crowther

This my re-telling of the story of England. I aim to be honest, and rigorous - but always loving of my country's history. It is a regular, chronological podcast, starting from the end of Roman Britain. There are as many of the great events I can squeeze in, of course, but I also try to keep an eye on how people lived, their language, what was important to them, the forces that shaped their lives and destinies, that sort of thing. To listen free of adverts, support the podcast, access a library of 150+ hours of shedcasts of me warbling on, and get new shedcasts every month, why not become a member at https://thehistoryofengland.co.uk/become-a-member ? You know it makes sense...

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The History of England

Whether or not Cromwell knew about John Lambert's 'coup' of December 1653, by the end of the month England had a new constitution and a new Head of State - the Lord Protector. Cromwell was installed in Whitehall and Hampton court, new seals designed that drew on Cromwell's Welsh ancestry, and rthe Council of State started work.

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420 Lord Protector

I am very pleased that Dirk Hoffman-Becking, of the History of the Germans podcast, has put together this episode about a very favourite event - the capture and hostage of Richard the Lionheart. Why Henry VI did it - and how in the end, Richard had his revenge. Sort of.

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The Lionheart - Ransom and Revenge

Between 1654 and 1657, the the Tender of Union with Scotland and the Act of Settlement of Ireland were played out. They were very different in character. Over the following centuries, the former was largely consigned to a historical footnote. The second remains a source of anger and division.

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421 Completing the Settlements

This year we go to York and West Yorkshire, from 8th to 17th September. We'll stay in the Spa town of Harrogate, and in glorious York, Capital of the North with its Cathedral, the Minster, the medieval shopping street of the Shambles and loads of other sights too. We'll go to the Dales, and visit castles, sturdy limestone villages, fortified manor houses, grand stately homes. And the inspiration of artists and poets, Fountains Abbey. Plus there'll be breweries and folk music. Fun, laughter and history guaranteed. Go to the Podcast Tour page to find out more.

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Announcing the 2025 History of England Podcast Tour

Cromwell might have felt that the first 9 months went rather well, from his perspective - the Council of State was working well, getting things done, the settlement of the Commonwealth was proceeding and rebellions suppressed - and the first Protectorate parliament would surely be populated with serious, hard working men who would help heal and settle the nation. He was to find out that his nation was as yet far from settled or healed.

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422 Healing and Settling?

There was much about Cromwell that was Elizabethan. He was fiercely patriotic, he dreamed of building as trading nation, and laying low the Spanish Empire with a Protestant Alliance. The Western Design against the Spanish Caribbean was part of that plan. It's outcome was to be a crisis for me; and in the face of security threats from within and without, and the withdrawal of God's approval a bold experiment was needed - enter the Major Generals

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423 Designs and Major Generals

After a year of the rule of the major generals, there was no money to support their militia. Now, the obvious solution was to repeat and continue the decimation tax; but the Council of State felt that parliament must be consulted. The opponents of the miliary regime gathered their strength - this was their opportunity to mount a coup of their own.

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424 King Cromwell

Cromwell's court struck a balance between the status required of a head of state, and the Cromwell's own openbness and informality. It was a court full of music, as was the supposedly joyless puritan state. There was little of the London theatre, though popular performance at fairs went on as before - but Britain saw its first Opera and John Playford's Dancing Master was all the rage. And in 1657, the first openly Jewish place of worship opened in Creechurch Lane

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425 Republic: Court and Culture

In London, and towns like Oxford, the Protectorate saw the return of stability, economic change and a revived social scene - and the arrival of the Coffee house, and the penny university. Stability and old rythmns re-established themslves around the country, and royalists reacted in different ways. Some like the L'Estrange family in North Norfolk preserved the old ways and accepted the new, though rattled by the Decimation tax. Others found artistic responses - like Katherine Philips, Izaak Walton, and Margaret Cavendish

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426 Living with the Republic

This is my chronological retelling of the story of the English in regular chunks. It’s been going since Christmas Day 2010, so there’s enough to keep you off the streets for a while and hanging around the local shopping precinct. But look, you can dip in and you can dip out too. 

There's all the great trends, events, and drama you’d expect, all set in the context and attitudes of their time; and on that same vein, as often as possible, the series takes some time to set England’s history in the context of her neighbours and the shared culture of Europe. The great and the good are there, because that’s important, but we also walk the highways and byways of ordinary lives and hear their voices - religion, culture, making a living, society and how people lived, globalisation, law - all that stuff

You can listen from start to finish; but do did in and out if you wish. Here's a guide: 

 • We start with 31 episodes on one of our foundation stories, the Anglo Saxons.
 • Then there’s 37 episodes on the Normans and Angevins, 1066 to 1215, Hastings to Magna Carta basically. 
 • The Plantagenets are next up, to the usurpation of the throne by those dastardly or saintly Lancastrians – tick as appropriate
 • From episode 134 we have a real hooley – the Wars of the Roses. We did have fun with the squabbling chaos, death and destruction, very much like a normal family gathering at Christmas really, without the drowning in a VAT of malmesy wine thing hopefully, and we devoted 62 episodes to it all - 1399 to the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 basically.
 • From episode 196, we are then on to the Tudors, and that’s a monster, 137 episodes on the Tudors so if you are a Tudor lover fill up your boots. 
 • We then reach my personal favourite, the Stuart age at Episode 325, starting the British Revolutions at episode 369

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All About the History of England

The English Commonwealth took a very different approach to settling the threats which had faced it in 1649, and the future of the three kingdoms. In Ireland, the guiding principle was retribution; in Scotland some effort at least of collaboration. To a new threat the response was uncompromising - it was war.

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416 Acts of Settlement and War

Lyt når som helst, hvor som helst

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