The History of England

In May 1665, worrying reports of plague cases crop up inside the walls of London; by June the summer heat was oppressive and it became clear - the plague had returned. Charles and his court left to terrorise Oxford while Londoners died; in plague-stricken Eyam, the villagers cut themselves off to protect their neighbours Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It is possible that Charles and his Privy Council didn't necessarily want war - certainly Clarendon did not; but they were prepared to rattle the sabre and man the brink to try and force trade consessions which some unprovoked acts of agression.But they allowed themselves to be diplomatically isolated, and Johan de Witt was not scared - he had the world's most powerful navy, pots of money, and a French alliance. And so the Second Anglo Dutch war was joined. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gavin Whitehead of the Art of Crime Podcast tells us the story of the art historian, soviet spy and traitor - Anthony Blunt Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 1661 fresh elections brought together another Long Parliament. This, the Cavalier parliament, would sit, off and on, for 18 years. It was not inspired by a spirit of compromise. The programme they introduced tried very hard to squish the horrid innovations of the revolutionary period back into the bottle, and search for the uniformity and 'natural' order of things that seemed to have been lost. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The new version of the History of England Members’ App (Coming December 7th 2025) has everything in one place:Why use the History of England App?The app is a podcatcher dedicated to the History of England has everything in one place:Members shedcasts are split into series making it easier to find what interests you in the big library of episodesYou can play each series easily start to finish without needing to create a queue or search for them on the feed (though you can create queues and download lists too!)you have access to the advert-free History of EnglandYou will find all History of England series and shedcasts in one placeThis update makes it:Quick and easy to install the link to your mobile device’s homepageImproved management – send episodes to a queue, or to a download manager for offline listeningImproved playback tools – choose speed, fast forward, scrub forward & back, pause Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.