From Tyranny to Revolution: England 1625-49: Part 1

Learning Outcomes

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

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

Knowledge and Understanding

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

• The events of the period known as the ‘Personal Rule’ (1629-40)
• The processes by which England itself slid inexorably into Civil War between 1640 and 1642
• The events of the first four years of Charles’s reign (1625-29)
• The family background and personal connections of King Charles I
• The causes and effects of the so-called “Bishops’ Wars” between England and Scotland (1637-40)

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
• Structure a coherent written argument based on an engagement with the primary and secondary literature that relates to this particular period
• Engage critically with the many books and articles on this period that have been written by other historians
• 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 which it has ever seen. But what was the Great Civil War all 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 explores all of these questions. The first part of the course covers the period 1625-1642 and begins with a general introduction to Charles I and his family, including his ill-fated brother, Prince Henry, and his sister Princess Elizabeth, the so-called ‘Queen of English Hearts'. Students will then go on to examine the complicated relationship which existed between Charles I and his wife, Queen Henrietta Maria; the equally complicated relationship which existed between Charles I and his chief favourite, the Duke of Buckingham; the murder of Buckingham's astrologer Dr Lambe (who was popularly believed to be a witch): the events of the Personal Rule; Puritanism and domestic opposition: the collapse of the royal regime; and the Irish rebellion and massacres of 1641.

Topics to be covered in the first semester of the module include:

• Introduction: Charles I, Henrietta Maria and Buckingham, 1625-28.
• The dissolution of 1629: Motives and reactions.
• ‘Halcyon Days': Charles I and the Personal Rule.
• ‘Secret Sedition': Puritanism and opposition.
• ‘A British Problem'?: Trouble with the Scots.
• War in the North: The collapse of the royal regime.
• ‘Annus Mirabilis?': The Long Parliament, 1640-41.
• ‘A Feast of Blood'?: The Irish rising of 1641.

Teaching methods include

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

Learning activities include

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

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.