Madingley and William Dowsing

An engraving by Kip of Madingley Hall in 1705. Credit: University of Cambridge

I enjoyed this blog post by Adrian Barlow about Madingley Hall, Cambridgeshire, during the English Civil War.

The Hynde family who built the Hall were committed Royalists, as were the Stewkeleys of Hinton Ampner, who inherited the estate, though their allegiance to the King would eventually bring them to the attention of a notorious iconoclast ...

'St Martin's Sconce' confirmed in Worcester

Photo: Worcestershire Historic Environment and Archaeology Service / Arial-Cam

Excavations on a development site close to Worcester city centre have confirmed English Civil War remains first suggested in earlier evaluations.

'St Martin's Sconce' was a bastion constructed as part of the city's defences, and saw action in both the siege of 1646 and the battle of 1651 ...

Diary of Nehemiah Wallington online

An extract from the diary of Nehemiah Wallington, showing his account of the
confession of Rebecca West as a witch at Chelmsford, Essex

A University of Manchester project has made a diary written by Nehemiah Wallington available online for the first time.

Wallington was a Puritan wood turner born in 1598 in Eastcheap, in the City of London. He wrote a prolific number of journals and other books, though only seven survive, one of which contains a shocking account of Matthew Hopkins' East Anglia witch-hunts ...

Re-imagining the Hortus Palatinus

The Hortus Palatinus, with Heidelberg Castle in the background, by Jacques Fouquier, c.1614-16

The Hortus Palantinus - the 'Garden of the Palatinate' - was once described as the 'eighth wonder of the word'. Designed by French engineer Salomon de Caus, it was commissioned by Frederick of Bohemia in 1614 as a gift for his new wife, Elizabeth Stuart - sister of Charles I of England - for their new home in Heidelberg.

Yet Germany's 'greatest Renaissance garden' was doomed never to be completed. The Thirty Years War came and wrecked its striking multi-level terraces, the married couple fleeing to the safety of the Hague.

Re-imaging the Hortus is not the forensic exercise it might have been, however, thanks to the survival of De Caus' original plans, indicative paintings and a helpful digital resource ...

Stuart art website

The Five Eldest Children of Charles I, Van Dyck, 1637

Laurence Shafe's art history website features a nice set of early Stuart portraits helpfully themed to aid researchers. The two pages on Van Dyck at the royal court are particularly interesting, showing the development of the painter's work during both periods of his life in England ...

Royal College of Physicians exhibition

The Royal College of Physicians, London

An exhibition detailing the exploits of fellows of the Royal College of Physicians during the Civil War is currently running in London ...

John Stubbs talks about Reprobates

John Stubbs talks about his book Reprobates: The Cavaliers of the English Civil War in a short BBC clip - click here to watch (from 00.45).

The work has been widely praised, though the title is slightly misleading, focusing as it does on the formative lives of the 'Cavalier poets' rather than their exploits during the war itself ...

Inverkeithing dig to establish location of 1651 battle

Memorial cairn for Sir Hector Maclean, killed at the Battle of Inverkeithing in 1651
(Paul McIlroy) / CC BY-SA 2.0

A dig at a site though to be that of the Battle of Inverkeithing (1651) hopes to uncover more about the last major battle of the Civil War on Scottish soil ...

Naseby vistor centre wins approval

The Naseby Battlefield Memorial

A permanent education centre near to the site of the Battle of Naseby has come a step closer, after plans to build a visitor centre were approved ...

Queen's House Conference 2012

Queen's House, Greenwich (1614-17). Photo: © Bill Bertram 2006, CC-BY-2.5

This year's Queen's House Conference is entitled 'Inigo Jones, the Queen's House and languages of Stuart culture'.

The building has had many uses over the centuries, and is slated to play a role in the 2012 Olympic Games ...

Story of a statue

Le Sueur's bronze equestrian statue of Charles I (1633) in Trafalgar Square, London

Ignored by passing traffic and lion-clambering tourists, Hubert Le Sueur's Charles I bronze stares blankly down Whitehall to his place of execution.

The French sculptor's 1633 piece has been in the same position since 1676, surviving well over 300 years of tinkering transport planners, pesky pigeons and plinth pimping.

Remarkable, as but for the actions of one man it would have never have survived the Interregnum ...

Church to sell off Rose Castle?

Rose Castle, Raughton Head (Alexander P Kapp) / CC BY-SA 2.0

A proposed sell-off of Rose Castle by Church Commissioners has been deferred, giving a local steering group two years to buy the fortified house in Cumbria.

In 1648 the Grade 1-listed castle survived an attack by Cromwell's troops. Now it faces a new challenge if it is to be saved for the nation ...

Hopton Castle re-opens

Hopton Castle - hold cursor down and pan to view surrounding area. View larger Map
Hopton Castle has finally re-opened after maintenance and conservation work - the culmination of a 16-year project to restore the site the infamous English Civil War siege ...

A trip to Ripple Field

Old Nan's Hill, Ripple, where Waller and his men arrayed before the battle

A recent trip to the Forest of Dean afforded the opportunity to visit a number of Civil War landmarks.

Following Prince Maurice's stalking of Waller near to the Welsh border my trip took me through the villages of Little Dean and Highnam before arriving at the village of Ripple in Gloucestershire - the site of the Prince's  first telling blow against his nemesis ...

400th anniversary of William Dobson

Detail from Dobson's (middle) self-portrait with Nicholas Lanier and Sir Charles
Cotterell, c.1644-5. 

Further evidence that BBC4 is increasing the quality of depth of its schedule was provided by the recent broadcast of The Lost Genius of British Art: William Dobson. English Civil War historians will be well aware of Dobson's role in cultivating the Cavalier image during his time at the Oxford court, but presenter Waldemar Januszczak goes further, claiming him as English painting's first great genius. The programme celebrates the 400th anniversary of the painter's birth, which is also being marked in a display at the National Portrait Gallery and a new website.

But have all Dobson's works been accounted for? ...

Rarely seen Charles I painting in government collection

An Interior with King Charles I, Queen Henrietta Maria, Jeffery Hudson,
William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke and his brother Philip Herbert,
later 4th Earl of Pembroke, Henry van Steenwijck, c,1630-35, (GAC)

The current series of exhibitions at the Whitechapel Gallery in London marks the first time the Government Art Collection (GAC) has been exhibited the public in its 113-year history.

Although not earmarked at the time of writing for public viewing, a painting of Charles I surely ranks as his most informal adult depiction ...

Brandon Hill dig questions origin of fort

Sondage across English Civil War ditch showing steep sides and flat base
Photo: © Bristol City Museum & Art Gallery

A recent dig on Brandon Hill in Bristol, thought for a long time to be part of the English Civil War defences from one of the sieges there, has yielded unexpected results ...

An imagined life

Unknown artist, c1640. NPG

A new National Portrait Gallery display, Imagined Lives: portraits of unknown people, brings together a collection of works where the subjects have been misidentified.

One unusual deathbed portrait (above) was thought to be James Scott, Duke of Monmouth and Buccleuch, though this has since been discredited. The painting was produced around 1640, and to augment the display writer John Banville fills in the gaps by imagining the young man's childhood, education and ultimate fate serving in the New Model Army ...

York skeletons confirmed as English Civil War dead

Google map of the excavation site on the junction of Fawcett Street/Kent Street, York, prior to re-development. View larger map
113 skeletons found in York have been proven to be from the English Civil War siege of 1644.

Scientists from BBC History Cold Case conducted a series of tests on the bones, which were found at the junction of Fishergate and Kent Street after a routine rescue excavation in 2007-8 ...

Rawdons @ Royal Gunpowder Mills, Waltham Abbey

Rawdons Regiment of Foote @ Waltham Abbey

The fearsome pikeman of Sir Marmaduke Rawdons Regiment of Foote!

The series of photos below were taken at the Royal Gunpowder Mills, Waltham Abbey, last summer ...