English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of conflicts between Parliamentarians and Royalists about the governance of England, Ireland and Wales, that culminated in the execution of Charles I.
In this playlist, you’ll find videos on the events, causes and significance of the English Civil War, as well as dramatized primary sources. This playlist is particularly helpful for Part 2 of AQA’s Power and the People module and the c. 1485- c.1800 topic of OCR’s Power: Monarchy and Democracy.
Additional Resources
The National Archives
The National Archives website hosts an interactive learning resource with activities for students. For more on women and the civil war, see their lesson pack with teacher notes and primary sources.
The British Library
The British Library hosts a ‘Civil War News Stories’ activity. Students are tasked to ‘Be a British Library Researcher and create a newspaper exhibition’ by viewing digitised newspapers and analysing them, using provided questions as prompts. The British Library website also has an interactive timeline of primary sources.
BCW Project
The British Civil Wars, Commonwealth & Protectorate 1638-1660 website is packed with useful information, including timelines, biographies and a breakdown of each battle.
BBC Website
The BBC Teach website features a video on the civil wars, aimed at KS3, as part of its ‘Hunting for History’ Series.
KS3 History Games
KS3 History Games has a section on the English Civil War.
UK Parliament
The Living Heritage pages of the UK Parliament website have detailed information about the English Civil War, including timelines and digitised copies of sources from their archives.
Historic UK
The Historic UK website has a handy list of Civil War battles, with key information about each of them.
National Army Museum
The National Army Museum has a highly accessible web article outlining the main events of the Civil War. It features timelines and images of documents and objects from their collections.
