Parliament in the Civil Wars: exploring the archives

Join The National Archives and History of Parliament Trust for a look at Britain’s most tumultuous years.

The Long Parliament, summoned in November 1640 by King Charles I, lasted until March 1660 when an act was passed for its dissolution. These years are some of the most dramatic in British history as tensions between king and parliament steadily increased before Civil War broke out in England in 1642, leading to the execution of Charles I in 1649 by the House of Commons.

Parliament declared itself sovereign and Britain became a republic. It was governed by the Commonwealth and Protectorate parliaments until Oliver Cromwell’s death in 1658. The subsequent loss of faith in his son’s ability to maintain the political order ultimately led to collapse of the Commonwealth and Protectorate, ushering in the return of the Stuarts and the end of the republic.

The talk will be followed by a drop-in display of original documents, including the journal of the trial of the King, and informal Q&A, with collection specialists from The National Archives and historians from the History of Parliament Trust discussing some of the key figures and events from the 1640s and 1650s.

Find out more about their work and their use of original records to produce the History of Parliament, House of Commons 1640-1660 volumes, which include biographies of every MP who sat in the Long and Protectorate Parliaments, including Oliver Cromwell, Thomas Fairfax and Henry Vane.

This is a joint event delivered by the National Archives and the History of Parliament Trust. The History of Parliament is a research project creating a comprehensive account of parliamentary politics in England, then Britain, from their origins in the thirteenth century. Their latest work, The House of Commons 1640-1660, edited by Dr Stephen Roberts, was published in 2023.