
Pax Britannica: A History of the British Empire
Pax Britannica is a narrative history podcast covering the empire upon which the sun never set. Shortlisted for the 2023 Independent Podcast Awards, Pax Britannica follows the events which created an empire that dominated the globe. Hosted by Dr Samuel Hume, a historian of British Imperial history, Pax Britannica aims to explain the rise and eventual fall of the largest empire in history. After all, how peaceful was the 'British Peace'?
Latest episodes

May 31, 2020 • 32min
01.42 - Parabellum
In the aftermath of Stone's murder, another Englishman faces a grisly fate at the hands of Narragansett allies. Massachusetts demands justice... from the Pequots?Vote in the British Podcast Awards: https://www.britishpodcastawards.com/voteCheck out Black Wallstreet, 1921: https://www.blackwallstreet-1921.com/Check out the podcast website: https://www.paxbritannica.infoFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/PodBritannica/Twitter: https://twitter.com/BritannicaPaxFor this episode, I found the following publications particularly useful:
Virginia Dejohn Anderson, 'New England in the Seventeenth Century', in The Oxford History of the British Empire: Volume I: The Origins of Empire
Virginia Dejohn Anderson, New England's Generation: The Great Migration and the Formation of Society and Culture in the Seventeenth Century
Richard Middleton, Colonial America
Lipman, Andrew, 'Murder on the Saltwater Frontier', Early American Studies
Winthrop, John, A History of New England
Karr, Ronald Dale, "Why should you be so furious?": The Violence of the Pequot War', Journal of American History
Katz, Steven T., 'The Pequot War Reconsidered', The New England Quarterly
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May 24, 2020 • 30min
01.41 - Murder on the Saltwater Frontier
Communities from Massachusetts Bay establish the first settlements of the colony of Connecticut, and a drunken pirate goes too far.Check out the podcast website: https://www.paxbritannica.infoFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/PodBritannica/Twitter: https://twitter.com/BritannicaPaxFor this episode, I found the following publications particularly useful:
Virginia Dejohn Anderson, 'New England in the Seventeenth Century', in The Oxford History of the British Empire: Volume I: The Origins of Empire
Virginia Dejohn Anderson, New England's Generation: The Great Migration and the Formation of Society and Culture in the Seventeenth Century
Richard Middleton, Colonial America
Lipman, Andrew, 'Murder on the Saltwater Frontier', Early American Studies
Winthrop, John, A History of New England
Karr, Ronald Dale, "Why should you be so furious?": The Violence of the Pequot War', Journal of American History
Katz, Steven T., 'The Pequot War Reconsidered', The New England Quarterly
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May 3, 2020 • 37min
01.40 - Providence Gained
As disagreements over religion and politics build in Massachusetts Bay, exiled groups of people establish new colonies in New England. Puritans back in London launch the settlement of a key strategic island.Check out the podcast website: https://www.paxbritannica.infoFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/PodBritannica/Twitter: https://twitter.com/BritannicaPaxFor this episode, I found the following publications particularly useful:
Virginia Dejohn Anderson, 'New England in the Seventeenth Century', in The Oxford History of the British Empire: Volume I: The Origins of Empire
Virginia Dejohn Anderson, New England's Generation: The Great Migration and the Formation of Society and Culture in the Seventeenth Century
Richard Middleton, Colonial America
Paul Lay, Providence Lost: The Rise and Fall of Cromwell's Protectorate
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Apr 19, 2020 • 31min
01.39 - City on a Hill
Why did the Hotter Sort of Protestant fear for the Church of England? We look at why they emigrated to New England in their thousands, and how the colony expanded once they got there.Check out the podcast website: https://www.paxbritannica.infoFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/PodBritannica/Twitter: https://twitter.com/BritannicaPaxFor this episode, I found the following publications particularly useful:
Conrad Russell, The Causes of the English Civil War
Mark Kishlansky, Monarchy Transformed
Harris, T. Rebellion
Milton, A. (2015). ‘Arminians, Laudians, Anglicans, and Revisionists’, Huntington Library Quarterly
Virginia Dejohn Anderson, 'New England in the Seventeenth Century', in The Oxford History of the British Empire: Volume I: The Origins of Empire
Virginia Dejohn Anderson, New England's Generation: The Great Migration and the Formation of Society and Culture in the Seventeenth Century
Richard Middleton, Colonial America
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Apr 12, 2020 • 46min
Bonus - The First Intersex in Colonial America
In 1629, in colonial Virginia, there came before the courts one Thomas Hall. Or was it Thomasine Hall? That was the question. This was the first recorded intersex person in America – that is, apart from Native American traditions, of course (which we DO cover in this episode). The colonists didn’t know what to do. Today, we’re taking a look at perceptions of intersex in early colonial America, and all of the centuries of tradition that went into them, from ancient Greece up to the present.To read Hall’s case for yourself, see The Minutes of the Council and General Court of Colonial Virginia.Listen to the History of Sex here: https://historyofsexpod.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Apr 4, 2020 • 28min
01.38 - Personal Rule
Whig, Marxist, Revisionist, Post-Revisionist. We look at these major fields of historigraphy, as we cover the first half of Charles' Personal Rule.Check out the podcast website: https://www.paxbritannica.infoFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/PodBritannica/Twitter: https://twitter.com/BritannicaPaxFor this episode, I found the following publications particularly useful:
Conrad Russell, The Causes of the English Civil War
Mark Kishlansky, Monarchy Transformed
David Cressy. 'The Blindness of Charles I', Huntington Library Quarterly,
Harris, T. ‘Revisiting the Causes of the English Civil War’, Huntington Library Quarterly,
Harris, T. Rebellion.
John Morrill, 'What was the English Revolution?', History Today.
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Mar 29, 2020 • 30min
01.37 - The Graces
With the outbreak of war with Spain, Ireland once again became a serious concern for London. The Spanish could find easy allies among their co-religionists, and the kingdom was lightly defended. The solution? Offer a serious of political and financial concessions to Catholic Anglo-Irish and Gaelic Irish, in return for their assistance in the war.Check out the podcast website: https://www.paxbritannica.infoFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/PodBritannica/Twitter: https://twitter.com/BritannicaPaxFor this episode, I found the following publications particularly useful:
Jane H. Ohlmeyer, ''Civilizinge of those Rude Partes': Colonization within Britain and Ireland, 1580s-1640s', in The Oxford History of the British Empire: Volume I: The Origins of Empire
Nicholas Canny, Making Ireland British, 1580-1650
Conrad Russell, The Causes of the English Civil War
Mark Kishlansky, Monarchy Transformed
Tadhg Ó hAnnracháin, 'Counter Reformation: The Catholic Church, 1550-1641', in The Cambridge History of Ireland
Colm Lennon, 'Protestant Reformations, 1550-1641', in The Cambridge History of Ireland
For a full bibliography, see the website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mar 8, 2020 • 33min
01.36 - Root and Branch
Back in the reign of James VI/I, the plantations of Ireland came under official review. Middlesex, looking to cut costs and raise funds, looked across the Irish Sea to the growing colonial project of the Plantations of Ireland. Why were these costing so much money, why were they not bringing in profit, and why were they still so Irish?!Check out the podcast website: https://www.paxbritannica.infoFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/PodBritannica/Twitter: https://twitter.com/BritannicaPaxFor this episode, I found the following publications particularly useful:- Jane H. Ohlmeyer, ''Civilizinge of those Rude Partes': Colonization within Britain and Ireland, 1580s-1640s', in The Oxford History of the British Empire: Volume I: The Origins of Empire- Nicholas Canny, Making Ireland British, 1580-1650 For a full bibliography, see the website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Feb 16, 2020 • 41min
Bonus - Early Modern English Witchcraft with Professor Darren Oldridge
Prof. Oldridge joins me to talk about witchcraft and religion in early Stuart England,The recommended books, available from all good retailers, are:
Strange Histories (2017)
The Supernatural in Tudor and Stuart England (2016)
The Witchcraft Reader (2019)
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Jan 20, 2020 • 39min
01.35 - The Sword of the Magistrate
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.infoFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/PodBritannica/Twitter: https://twitter.com/BritannicaPaxThis 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices