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Lecture

William Tyler
Brother Versus Brother: The English Civil War

Monday 29.11.2021

Summary

William Tyler gives an overview of the English Civil War fought between 1642 and 1651 across the four nations of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. He discusses the sheer scale of the casualties and the unique nature this war had of brother fighting brother, father fighting son, wife fighting husband, and friend fighting friend.

William Tyler

An image of William Tyler

William Tyler has spent his entire professional life in adult education, beginning at Kingsgate College in 1969. He has lectured widely for many public bodies, including the University of Cambridge and the WEA, in addition to speaking to many clubs and societies. In 2009, William was awarded the MBE for services to adult education, and he has previously been a scholar in residence at the London Jewish Cultural Centre.

I said at the beginning, yes a lot of historians call it British Civil War, but still a lot of us call it the English Civil War. You could have a quite lengthy debate. Technically it’s the British Civil War, but it is in essence the English Civil War.

Well the Welsh are involved in the wars but only in a minor extent. Most of the Welsh were pro, were royalists in the north, south of Chester, and in the south as well. And if you travel on the motor way in the south towards Cardiff you pass Raglan Castle which was blown up by parliament so that it could never be used again. It’s a fantastic, a very interesting site to visit. Oh my.