Oxford at War: The City During the English Civil Wars
17 April 2027
10:00am-5:00pm
Rewley House 1 Wellington Square, Oxford, OX1 2JA
Event status:
Applications being accepted
Dates:
17 April 2027
Study Format:
In-person day/weekend
Fees:
£90.00
In-person lecture-style day event
Our team of expert speakers will uncover the ways in which the experiences of civil war and its aftermath affected life in seventeenth-century Oxford. We will explore how the city and university adapted to becoming the cavalier capital and the seat of royalist government. We will discuss how the royalist military government interacted with the city corporation and the university authorities, as well as the sacrifices imposed upon Oxonians to support the royalist cause. We will ask what was everyday life like for the citizens, students and soldiers of the garrison?
Our study day will also consider Oxford’s role as a printing centre for the royalist cause, and how rival parliamentarian pamphlets and newsbooks tended to depict Oxford in their wartime propaganda. We will also examine the consequences of the city’s surrender in June 1646. How did the victorious parliamentarians treat the city’s inhabitants and how were the corporation and university transformed during the Interregnum?
Please note: this event will close to enrolments at 23:59 on 14 April 2027.
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Programme details
9.45am
Registration at Rewley House reception
10am
Civil-Military Relations in the Cavalier Capital, 1642-1646
Vanessa Emmett
11.15am
Tea/coffee break
11.45am
The Vice-Chancellor’s Court and Everyday Life, 1640-1660
Jonathan Sheldon
1pm
Lunch break
2pm
Oxford in the Newsbooks
Professor Lloyd Bowen
3.15pm
Walkabout tour of Civil-War Oxford
Professor Andrew Hopper, Dr Vivienne Larminie and Vanessa Emmett
4.15pm
Tea/coffee break
4.45pm
Oxford and the Interregnum, 1646–1660
Dr Vivienne Larminie
6pm
End of day
Recommended reading
Barratt, J., Cavalier Capital: Oxford in the English Civil War, 1642–1646 (Helion and Company, 2015).
Free podcast: Emmett, V., ‘Life in the Royalist Capital – The Oxford Experience’ https://www.worldturnedupsidedown.co.uk/podcast/life-in-the-royalist-capital-the-oxford-experience/ (2026).
Free booklet PDF by Bennison, O., ‘War within the Walls, Christ Church, Oxford and the Civil War’, available at: https://www.worldturnedupsidedown.co.uk/christ-church-oxford-and-the-civil-war-war-within-the-walls/ (2026).
Dr Lloyd Bowen
Lloyd is Reader in Early Modern History at Cardiff University. His research has focused particularly on early modern Wales, gentry culture in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and the nature of Civil War royalism.
Prof Andrew Hopper
Andrew Hopper has been Professor of Local and Social History in the Department for Continuing Education at the University of Oxford since 2021. Previously Andrew taught History at the Universities of East Anglia, Birmingham and Leicester. He is the author of Black Tom: Sir Thomas Fairfax and the English Revolution (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2007), and Turncoats and Renegadoes: Changing Sides during the English Civil Wars (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012). He is the Principal Investigator of the AHRC-funded Civil War Petitions Project and is currently working on his third monograph Widowhood and Bereavement during and after the English Civil Wars for Oxford University Press. Andrew is patron of the Naseby Battlefield Project and chairman of the editorial board of Midland History. He was appointed a Fellow of the Society for Army Historical Research in 2024.
Dr Vivienne Larminie
Vivienne Larminie, assistant editor of the House of Commons 1640-1660, was responsible primarily for MPs sitting for south central England, including Oxfordshire. A long-time resident of Oxford, she has been involved in various aspects of local history and has given talks to numerous local groups. Formerly a college lecturer and an in-house research editor at the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, she is currently honorary editor of the Huguenot Society of Great Britain and Ireland and secretary of the Oxford branch of the Historical Association.
Fees
| Description | Costs |
|---|---|
| Event Fee (includes tea/coffee) | £90.00 |
| Baguette lunch | £7.90 |
| Hot lunch (2-course) | £22.40 |
Payment
Please see the terms and conditions for our open-access courses.
Funding
If you are in receipt of a UK state benefit, or are a care-leaver in the UK, you may be eligible for a reduction of 50% of tuition fees. Please see the below link for full details:
Please use the ‘Book’ button on this page. Alternatively, please contact us to obtain an application form.
