From Tyranny to Revolution: England, 1625-49 Part 2

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• The political and military events of the Great Civil War (1642-46)
• The causes and effects of Charles I’s execution
• The long-term impact of the Civil War
• The recent historiography of the period
• The political and religious events of the post-war period (1646-49)
• The ways in which that conflict affected the lives of ordinary men and women

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Identify and solve historical problems
• Display effective time-management in planning and completing all sorts of intellectual tasks
• Communicate effectively in group-discussions
• Gather information, work out how useful that information is and synthesise it into clear and well-written reports

Cognitive Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Express your opinions, knowledge and understanding in seminar discussions with your tutor and your fellow-students
• Engage critically with the many books and articles on this period that have been written by other historians
• Structure a coherent written argument based on an engagement with the primary and secondary literature that relates to this particular period
• Analyse the relevance of a wide range of primary sources, appreciate the particular contexts in which those sources were produced and comment succinctly on their significance in a ‘gobbets’ exercise

During the early 1640s, this country was racked by the most widespread and destructive conflict that it has ever seen. The Great Civil War resulted in the overthrow of the monarchy, the abolition of the House of Lords and the establishment of a revolutionary tradition in England that continues to persist to this very day. But what was this momentous conflict about? What were its causes? What were its effects? And what were conditions like for the ordinary men and women who had to live through it? This course attempts to answer these questions. In the first semester, a detailed study will be made of the events that preceded the war during the so-called “Eleven Years’ Tyranny” of King Charles I. In the second semester, students will turn to examine the events of the war itself.

Topics to be covered in the second semester of the course include:

Introduction: The outbreak of the Civil War.

Cavalier or Roundhead?: The choice of sides.

The course of the conflict: Edgehill to Naseby.

‘Plague, fire and famine’: The war’s effects.

‘Gone to the wars’: From civilians into soldiers.

‘Wenches in trenches’: Women at war.

‘Strangers within the gates’: ‘Foreigners’ in Civil War England.

‘Pulling down Babylon’: Puritanism and revolution.

‘An enduring monument’?: Folklore, memories and myths.

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching methods include

• Short presentations by the course tutor.
• Longer presentations by students taking the course.
• Close reading of original seventeenth-century texts.

Learning activities include

• Seminar discussion.
• Student presentations.
• Independent study and research

Resources & Reading list

Textbooks

P. Gaunt (2003). The English Civil War.

R. Ollard (1976). This War without an Enemy: A History of the English Civil Wars.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External