About the series
Background information
Discover all the key events, people and places of the Civil War: the background information.
Year-by-year
Follow each of the main moments in the Civil War on the timeline.
The English Civil War was a truly profound political event in seventeenth century Europe. During this period, the Stuart kingdoms of Scotland, England and Ireland, and the Principality of Wales were ripped apart by religious and political unrest.
But the conflict of the 1640s wasn't a purely British phenomenon, it was part of a wider struggle for supremacy between Catholics and Protestants in Europe.
The Civil War site - based on the OU series presented by Tristram Hunt - offers detailed analysis of the personalities, events and battles of the Civil War era. It also considers the century of tremors which precipitated the upheaval, and explores the aftershocks which continue to affect British and Irish politics to the present day.








