#roundheads

[illustratus]

Cromwell reading a letter found in Charles's Cabinet, after the Battle of Naseby (detail) by Charles Landseer

[vox-anglosphere]

Regicide - 30 January 1649

[retrocgads]

UK 1987

[peacockstalemusicalstorytelling]

19 track musical album telling the story of the English Civil Wars through nursery rhymes.

[sometimeslondon]

Oliver Cromwell statue outside the Palace of Westminster

[historybizarre]

The ECW Q&A: did Cromwell ban mince pies?

Over on Twitter we asked if there were any questions people would like answered about history, politics, and society during the English Civil Wars. Meaghan Brown (@EpistolaryBrown) asked about the oft-repeated line about Oliver Cromwell banning mince pies as part of the Puritan ‘war on Christmas’ in the 1640s and ’50s.

While there was an effort during the 1640s by Parliament to clamp down on the celebration of Christmas and other saints’ and holy days as part of a general de-Romanisation of the calendar, it wasn’t personally directed by Cromwell and he didn’t play a particularly large role in the various pieces of legislation which restricted the celebration of Christmas. We know that, as a Puritan, it is likely that he was sympathetic towards and supported such measures, and as Lord Protector from December 1653 until September 1658 he supported their enforcement.

But does that mean he banned mince pies?

[lizziestudieshistory]

My masters group chat has descended into reenacting the British Civil Wars rather than doing any work - I'm not sorry about this! In case you were wondering... LONG LIVE THE KING!

[jurijurijurious]

“Be a king”

-- “Charles II: The Power and the Passion” BBC 2003

Back in the day, before social media ruled and I was in my late teens/early twenties, I used to obsessively watch the same few programs and films over and over. This was one of them. I watched the first episode again recently for the first time in years, and I literally still know near every line...

I’m not even that big on the Stuart reigns from the perspective of reading history, but I just loved this show for some reason; Rufus Sewell is a mesmerising, laid-back lead, and he’s in good company (Ian McDiarmid, Shirley Henderson, Helen McCrory, Diana Rigg!). The musical score is also excellent. The shaky camera motions with its fidgety in-and-out zoom, which seems to try to make you into an intimate spectator, is a bit much sometimes but meh, we can live with it.

The opening scene, captured above, is memorable if not a little silly, and there’s a suggestion that it’s a nightmare rather than reality - and I believe Charles II wasn’t even in the country when his father was beheaded? - but either way, what better way to start an historical drama than a son being splattered in his father’s blood? Go hard or go home.