Pax Britannica: A History of the British Empire

Latest Episodes:

01.35 - The Sword of the Magistrate Jan 20, 2020

Show notes

By the end of his reign, James is unwilling to entertain the more ludicrous accusations of witchcraft, and Charles continues this approach. Puritanism, the new bogeyman of the Anglican church, appears the most vocal supporter of the trials, and so the established clergy approach the topic warily. And the magistrates and judiciary have seen the last twenty years of legal precedent, of cases thrown out and judges publicly shamed, and have no interest in risking their careers.

Check out the podcast website: https://www.paxbritannica.info

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This episode primarily makes use of the following sources:

Gaskill, Malcolm, ‘Witchcraft Trials in England’, in Levack, Brian (ed.) The Oxford Handbook
Holmes, R., Witchcraft in British History (1974)
MacFarlane, A., Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England (London, 1970)
Levack, B., 'State-Building and Witch Hunting', in Darren Oldridge (ed.), The Witchcraft Reader (London, 2002)
Poole, R., (ed.), The Lancashire Witches: Histories and Stories (2002)

A full bibliography can be found on the website.

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01.34 - War and Peace Jan 12, 2020

Show notes

Charles comes to terms with his French and Spanish enemies, and we examine what has been going on outside of Europe. The East India Company survives significant threats, while the Pilgrims gain new neighbours. Virginia continues its war with the locals, while Europeans in the West Indies commit a genocide.

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Check out the podcast website: https://www.paxbritannica.info

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PodBritannica/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BritannicaPax

In this episode I made particular use of the following publications. See the website for a full bibliography:

Dalrymple, William, (2019) The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company
Virginia Dejohn Anderson, (1998) 'New England in the Seventeenth Century', The Oxford History of the British Empire: Volume I
Beckles, H. M. (1998). ‘The “Hub of Empire”: The Caribbean and Britain in the Seventeenth Century’, The Oxford History of the British Empire: Volume I
Lawson, Philip, (1993). The East India Company : a history
Stern, P. J. (2011). The Company-State: Corporate Sovereignty and the Early Modern Foundations of the British Empire in India

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Bonus - New England Revisited Dec 29, 2019

Show notes

Allen Ayers from the Political History of the United States podcast comes on to talk all about New England in the 1620s.

Listen to the Political History of the United States HERE: https://uspoliticalpodcast.com/

Follow Allen here: https://twitter.com/USHistpodcast

Check out the podcast website: https://www.paxbritannica.info

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Bonus - The Life of Barnet Burns, Pākehā Māori Dec 22, 2019

Show notes

Thomas from the History of Aotearoa New Zealand Podcast tells the tale of Barnet Burns, a sailor turned trader turned Pākehā Māori.

Listen to The History of Aotearoa New Zealand here:https://historyaotearoa.com/

Follow it here: https://twitter.com/HistoryAotearoa

Check out the podcast website: https://www.paxbritannica.info

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PodBritannica/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BritannicaPax

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Bonus - Buckingham and Berry Dec 15, 2019

Show notes

I chat with David from The Siècle about the two assassinations we've just covered: the Duke of Buckingham, and the Duc de Berry. They were both killed for political reasons, but the reaction to their deaths could not have been more different, while their assassins, John Felton and Louis Pierre Louvel, were either celebrated or forgotten.

Listen to The Siècle here: http://thesiecle.com/

Check out the podcast website: https://www.paxbritannica.info

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01.33 - Constitutional Crisis Dec 08, 2019

Show notes

Parliament is back, and they are not happy. The Petition of Right isn't worth the paper its written on, and King Charles had flagrantly disregarded the spirit of it. He was displaying worrying tendencies - promoting Arminians and crypto-Catholics, and violating the fundamental rights of his subjects to raise money. The death of the Duke of Buckingham, rather than marking a sea change in unpopular government policy, instead cements it.

Check out the podcast website: https://www.paxbritannica.info

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PodBritannica/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BritannicaPax

In this episode I made particular use of the following publications:

The Oxford History of the British Empire: Volume I: The Origins of Empire.
David Smith, The Stuart Parliaments, 1603-1689
Kishlasnky, M, A Monarchy Transformed: 1603-1714
The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Historical Collections of Private Passages of State: Volume 1, 1618-29.

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Bonus - The Industrial Revolutions Nov 17, 2019

Show notes

Dave Broker from the Industrial Revolutions podcast presents this guest episode on the engine, pun intended, of Britain's imperial might.

Listen to the show here: https://industrialrevolutionspod.com/

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01.32 - The Martyr Assassin Nov 10, 2019

Show notes

John Felton, the man who rammed a dagger into the heart of the second most powerful individual in the British Isles, claimed he did so out of patriotism and piety. That's probably the truth, but it wasn't the whole truth. Felton had serious personal grievances with the Duke of Buckingham, and had spent months trying to get his justice.

We also look at the early years of the future Archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud, and his brushes with the Puritans and with Arminianism. He will play a central role in future Caroline religious policy and the outbreak of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms.

Check out the podcast website: https://www.paxbritannica.info

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PodBritannica/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BritannicaPax

In this episode I made particular use of the following publications:

The Oxford History of the British Empire: Volume I: The Origins of Empire.
David Smith, The Stuart Parliaments, 1603-1689
Kishlasnky, M, A Monarchy Transformed: 1603-1714
The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

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01.31 - The Duke of Hazard Nov 03, 2019

Show notes

Charles, yet again, calls a parliament in search of taxation, but the Commons are willing to negotiate. In return for an acknowledgement that Charles had acted illegally, they will grant him subsidies. The ever-present thorn that is the Duke of Buckingham hasn't gone away, and the king still protects him from political attack. But impeachment isn't the only way to remove an evil counsellor...

Check out the podcast website: https://www.paxbritannica.info

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PodBritannica/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BritannicaPax

In this episode I made particular use of the following publications:

The Oxford History of the British Empire: Volume I: The Origins of Empire.
David Smith, The Stuart Parliaments, 1603-1689
Kishlasnky, M, A Monarchy Transformed: 1603-1714
The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

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01.30 - The Siege of Saint-Martin Oct 27, 2019

Show notes

With Buckingham protected from impeachment, but at the cost of taxation, Charles finds another way to raise the money needed to prosecute a war. Buckingham, eager to prove himself, leads a new expedition in person; to try and save the Huguenots that his ships had attacked. The Siege of Saint-Martin was the lynchpin, not only of Buckingham's recovered reputation, but of Charles' money troubles, Stuart foreign policy, and the course of the Thirty Years War.

No prizes for guessing how it will go.

Check out the podcast website: https://www.paxbritannica.info

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PodBritannica/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BritannicaPax

In this episode I made particular use of the following publications: