333. The Republic of Britain: Life under Cromwell

[@Martin-sp4zf]

I'm from Ireland. One of the worst curses that could be used here was "The curse of Cromwell on you!"/"Mallacht Chrombhéil ort!" His memory was still hated up to the 1950s. However his attack on the town of Drogheda, though ruthless, involved the slaughter mostly of his enemies from England, who had fled to that town. The brave defence of the town of Clonmel impressed Cromwell so much that he agreed to allow the native defenders march to the coast and thereafter to France following their surrender. PS "Cromwell" is in fact a gaelic name ie "Crom-bhéal" meaning "Turned-down mouth" referring to a "Turned-down Mustache" probably.

[@CL-we8tn]

Or grouch... Lol

[@Desert-Father]

Please try and defend "To hell or to Connaught" now. Revisionist nonsense

[@IanCross-xj2gj]

Cromwell ordered his troops to kill the garrison of Drogheda. Confirmed in his letter to Parliament.

[@Happyheretic2308]

Or Sourpuss.

[@HarryBartok-e6x]

The garrison at Drogheda was commanded by an English royalist called Sir Arthur Aston. He made the mistake of not surrendering. That invited mass slaughter.

[@Clarkeianto]

The two boys one girl dynamic is amazing in this episode . Thank you so much for the upload

[@SCOTTISHSOULFOOD1]

Couldn't get out of my mind that the author sounded like Elizabeth 1st from Blackadder

[@kindermord]

Jesus Christ I couldn’t place it earlier. Well spotted.

[@Wee_Langside]

Christmas was banned in Scotland from 1640, before Cromwell did, until 1958 (nineteen fifty eight). When i was a child elderly relations talked about going to school on Christmas Day

[@willdobson7351]

'Instance of the fingerpost' would have made a good tv film/series. I really enjoyed that book.

[@bewareofchild2462]

Great episode, thank you. Peter Coyote was a Digger too, about 320 years later.

[@thetapeloops9522]

RIP Emmett Grogan

[@marxussy]

Great episode!

[@IanCross-xj2gj]

2:14 The 1650s is a period of political turmoil in English history. Cromwell and his Puritan allies couldn't establish a workable government. This ultimately led to the Restoration in 1660.

[@ted356]

I’m a new subscriber to the channel. Tom, Dom and their guests are incredibly entertainig. 😊

[@IanCross-xj2gj]

18:22 Charles II English invasion in August 1651. This was a Scottish "foreign" army that gained little English support. Defeated at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September.

[@rubenjames7345]

Brilliant, as usual.

[@IanCross-xj2gj]

34:17 Cromwell in Ireland. This was in response to the Irish rebellion in 1641. Cromwell in 1649, goes to Ireland and deals ruthlessly with the Royalist/Catholic forces. Henry Ireton takes over command in Ireland in 1650.

[@otsoko66]

and do not forget that the 'Irish Rebellion' of 1641 was essentially a series of massacres / mass murders of Irish protestants (and no, I don't mean English or Scottish folks living in Ireland - the plantations came later, I mean Irish protestants.) The massacres were one of the reasons that entire sections of the US were largely settled by Irish protestants (that's why Appalachian music has so much Irish influence -- but all of the Irish immigrants to the Appalachians were protestants.)

[@richardbourke9412]

@@otsoko66 the plantation of ulster (and other, less successful plantations) happened before the rebellion of 1641. there was further settlement later however.

[@2balastair]

Is it true that the horrible madsacres committed by Cromwell in Ireland, although in no way excused by but were at least in some situations, preceded by massacres committed by his opponents?

[@richardbourke9412]

yes. Appromimately 4000 protestant settlers in Ulster were killed in the catholic uprising of 1641.

[@stickemuppunkitsthefunlovi4733]

Came here to try and find out what happend to the nobility during the time of the republic.

[@peterrobinson8588]

A large part of the nobility had supported the Parliament side in the war.

[@IanCross-xj2gj]

1646 end of first civil war. Royalists are heavily fined by Paliament. 16:00 in the podcast.

[@origen6758]

Honestly a cromwellian hereditary republic would look a lot like the United Provinces with the stadtholder

[@IanCross-xj2gj]

Cromwell and his Puritan allies could not find a governing system that worked.

[@wendyknight9574]

Pride’s Purge - is THAT where Johnson got his idea…

[@fastpublish]

A group called Ye Slayde spread a secret Christmas song around England in 1654. Not a lot of people know that.

[@CL-we8tn]

Ooo I'm in!

[@fastpublish]

Imagine Cromwell was German and had gone through England the way he went through Ireland. Would everyone be as understanding of his difficult position?

[@janetbaker1945]

What were the names of the two books mentioned, please?

[@stickemuppunkitsthefunlovi4733]

1984 and a brave new world.

[@frances081097]

Restless Republic was the history book mentioned (Anna Keay) The historical novel mentioned earlier was An Instance of The Fingerpost by Ian Pears

[@BlandBrowser]

Had to go find Billy Braggs song.

[@jonfallis305]

funny how the irish remember cromwell but forget what they did to the anglo irish 100 years ago

[@loretagema9085]

Too many 'he' and 'she' without naming the characters. Eventually you get lost, especially if you are relatively new to English history. I used to work as an interpreter and sometimes I had to interpret a speaker who wouldn't identify the subject, as if everybody was supposed to know what he was talking about. The lady historian's manner of speaking reminded me of that!

[@davidjob6881]

Sunak is not a Muslim....he is a Hindu

[@colinwhaley244]

Have you not over done this. There's a lot of revisionism in relation to Ireland. Cromwell did not outdo the 30 years war and did you miss out the small point of parts of Ireland holding out for the King or Irelands part in the civil war? Did Parliament go there without cause? Very Manchster Guardian.

[@AnthonyBrown12324]

As Lenin grasped ; in 1917 most people want peace and bread .

[@malgorzatajakubowska-chaab3613]

The only sad thing that I've heard here today is that Tom Holand is a loyal reader of The Guardian!

[@billythedog-309]

Poor, poor you.

[@IanCross-xj2gj]

Tom is a Daily Mirror reader 😮

[@HarryBartok-e6x]

Agreed. Most of its writers have a screw loose these days. I read it in the 1980s.

[@joebombero1]

Yes, I caught that also.

[@RelivingHistory1]

Very sad. But it's nice that they keep politics aside (from what I've watched)

[@jamesjenner8159]

The Republic of England should be the proper title! 'Britain' did not exist as a politicl entity until Scotland was forced into 'Union' in 1707. England is not Britain but but a nation in the British Isles along with three others who have separate histories, identities and languages. Cymru am byth!

[@uafchris]

England and Scotland were officially unified together as one country from 1657 until the restoration.

[@williamhaines7876]

I would suggest doing some research into the settlement and maybe you will be surprised at Scotlands willingness to unite with England

[@KeithWilliamMacHendry]

@@williamhaines7876 So there was a plebiscite was there? Or just a vote for the ruling elite? If there had been a referendum then the union would have been halted. Scotland was brought into union for empire, not altruism or any of the other nonsense spouted by the British state & its minions. They didn't as so often lied about bail Scotland out, they offered money lost by the elites in the Darien scheme as an effective bribe to accept union & access to empire. They took it & subsequently Scotland played a disproportionately large role in empire, for all the good it did for the ordinary citizens of this whole island & beyond.

[@michaellynn8081]

Scotland was certainly not forced into 'Union' or anything else in 1707 . That is a myth which the Scots have enjoyed whinging about ever since. You will find that actually the Scottish nobles and Scottish power brokers involved were more than happy and willing to sign the documents , join the union and even happier still to take the large sums of money they pocketed in the process ( sound particularly 'patriotic' to you by the way...?) . To put it bluntly , at the time Scotland needed us and the union much more than we needed them and the union. They are the facts. Do the research. England forever !

[@Desert-Father]

It was theocratic military junta not a republic. It was governed by a fundamentalist military purged legislature that governed subject to the de facto veto of a fanatical military council and then a military dictator for life in Cromwell. If Brits saw this happen in any other country they would label it as such.

[@stumccabe]

Fascinating subject, but the sound quality is so bad that I cannot bear to listen to the whole episode -it's just too much of an effort.

[@keithkaosHarv]

Is it that bad? It’s not as if you are listening to an orchestra.

[@bobtaylor170]

It is poor. I'm listening to this with a phone, but then, I listen to everything with a phone. This is easily in the lower half of sound quality.

[@arfermo853]

Better than the muslim hand we have now

[@RelivingHistory1]

Enoch Powell was right