
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

Feb 26, 2024 • 28min
03.20 - The Pirate Prince
Prince Rupert fights his naval war with the English Republic, to devastating personal cost. We also cover the Navigation Act, and why England's neighbours might not like it.Have your say in the Airwave survey! https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PAXBRITANNICAJoin the Mailing List!Join the Patreon House of Lords for ad-free episodes!
Carla Gardina Pestana, The English Atlantic in the Age of Revolution, 2007.
Carla Gardina Pestana, The English Conquest of Jamaica: Oliver Cromwell’s Bid for Empire, 2017.
Nicholas Rodger, The Command of the Ocean: a Naval History of Britain, Volume 2, 1649-1815, 2004.
Charles Spencer, Prince Rupert: The Last Cavalier, 2007.
Ian Roy, 'Prince Rupert', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
Christian J. Koot, ‘A “Dangerous Principle”: Free Trade Discourses in Barbados and the English Leeward Islands, 1650—1689’, Early American Studies, 5.1 (2007), 132–63.
Thomas Leng, ‘Commercial Conflict and Regulation in the Discourse of Trade in Seventeenth-Century England’, The Historical Journal, 48.4 (2005), 933–54
Jonathan Barth, The Currency of Empire, Money and Power in Seventeenth-Century English America (Cornell University Press, 2021).
Go to AirwaveMedia.com to find other great history shows. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Feb 21, 2024 • 9min
Listen Now: Even the Royals
Admit it: you’re obsessed with royal families – watching them, gossiping about them, wanting to be them. It’s the stuff of fantasy. But for real life royals, the crown jewels can be more like shiny handcuffs. There are expectations and rules – and if you break them, the consequences are big, and very public. And there are royal families and wild royal tales from around the world and throughout history that you have never heard before.Even the Royals is a new podcast from Wondery that takes you inside the cloistered world of royal families, past and present, where wealth and status often come at the expense of your freedom – and maybe even your life. In these stories, very human emotions, like jealousy, love, disgust, have the power to reshape the world.This is just a preview of Even the Royals. You can listen to the full episode wherever you get your podcasts, or at Wondery.fm/royals_paxbritannica. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Feb 19, 2024 • 29min
03.19 - A Refuge of Lies
Virginia and Barbados, royalist colonies which had rejected the authority of the new republican Commonwealth of England, find heavily-armed warships off their coasts.Join the Mailing List!Join the Patreon House of Lords for ad-free episodes!
Carla Gardina Pestana, The English Atlantic in the Age of Revolution, 2007.
Carla Gardina Pestana, The English Conquest of Jamaica: Oliver Cromwell’s Bid for Empire, 2017.
Nicholas Rodger, The Command of the Ocean: a Naval History of Britain, Volume 2, 1649-1815, 2004.
Charles Spencer, Prince Rupert: The Last Cavalier, 2007.
Go to AirwaveMedia.com to find other great history shows. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Feb 12, 2024 • 26min
03.18 - Revenge as a Guide
The Commonwealth of England dispatches the States' Navy against its enemies - Prince Rupert and his fleet is at the top of that list.Join the Mailing List!Join the Patreon House of Lords for ad-free episodes!
Carla Gardina Pestana, The English Atlantic in the Age of Revolution, 2007.
Carla Gardina Pestana, The English Conquest of Jamaica: Oliver Cromwell’s Bid for Empire, 2017.
Nicholas Rodger, The Command of the Ocean: a Naval History of Britain, Volume 2, 1649-1815, 2004.
Charles Spencer, Prince Rupert: The Last Cavalier, 2007.
Go to AirwaveMedia.com to find other great history shows. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Feb 5, 2024 • 28min
03.17 - The Colonies are Revolting!
The Regicide of Charles I prompts Royalist reactions in the English colonies. Virginia, Bermuda, Barbados, Antigua, Newfoundland, and Maryland all proclaimed Charles II as their king. Some of these were forced by popular uprisings, others were political coups, and one was a Deputy Governor taking advantage of his boss being away. The Commonwealth, though distracted by the wars with England and Scotland, was not about to let this rebellion stand.Join the Mailing List!Join the Patreon House of Lords for ad-free episodes!
Sarah Barber, ‘Settlement, Transplantation and Expulsion: A Comparative Study of the Placement of Peoples’, in British Interventions in Early Modern Ireland, ed. by Ciaran Brady and Jane Ohlmeyer (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005).
Carla Gardina Pestana, 'Atlantic Mobilities and the Defiance of the Early Quakers', Journal of Early Modern History, 2023.
Carla Gardina Pestana, The English Atlantic in the Age of Revolution, 2007.
Carla Gardina Pestana, The English Conquest of Jamaica: Oliver Cromwell’s Bid for Empire, 2017.
Hilary Beckles, A History of Barbados: From Amerindian Settlement to Caribbean Single Market, 2006.
The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
Go to AirwaveMedia.com to find other great history shows. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jan 29, 2024 • 34min
03.16 - To Hell or Barbados
Transportation, to Europe or to England's colonies, was the fate for thousands of Irish soldiers, clergy, and civilians.Join the Mailing List!Join the Patreon House of Lords for ad-free episodes!
Sarah Barber, ‘Settlement, Transplantation and Expulsion: A Comparative Study of the Placement of Peoples’, in British Interventions in Early Modern Ireland, ed. by Ciaran Brady and Jane Ohlmeyer (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005).
Heidi J. Coburn, 'Cromwellian Transplantations of the Irish to the Colonies', in Martyn Bennett, Raymond Gillespie, and Scott Spurlock (eds), Cromwell and Ireland: New Perspectives (Liverpool, 2020)
John Cunningham, ‘Politics, 1641-1660’, Cambridge History of Ireland
Elaine Murphy, Micheál Ó Siochrú, Jason Peacey, John Morril, eds. The Letters, Writings, and Speeches of Oliver Crmwell: Volume II, 2022.
David Edwards, ‘Political Change and Social Transformation, 1603-1641’, Cambridge History of Ireland
Micheál Ó Siochrú, (ed.) Kingdoms in Crisis: Ireland in the 1640s, 2000
Micheál Ó Siochrú, Confederate Ireland, 1642-1649, 1999
Micheál Ó Siochrú, God’s Executioner: Oliver Cromwell and the Conquest of Ireland.
Micheál Ó Siochrú, 'Atrocity, Codes of Conduct and the Irish in the British Civil Wars 1641-1653', Past & Present , 195 (May, 2007), pp. 55-86
Micheál Ó Siochrú and David Brown, 'The Down Survey and the Cromwellian Land Settlement', in Jane Ohlmeyer (ed), The Cambridge History of Ireland: Volume II.
Pádraig Lenihan, Consolidating Conquest: Ireland 1603-1727 (England: Pearson, 2008).
Pádraig Lenihan, Confederate Catholics at War, 1641-49, 2001
Pádraig Lenihan, 'Siege Massacres in Ireland: Drogheda in Context', in Martyn Bennett, Raymond Gillespie, and Scott Spurlock (eds), Cromwell and Ireland: New Perspectives
Patrick J. Corish, ‘The Cromwellian Regime, 1650–60’, in A New History of Ireland: Early Modern Ireland 1534-1691, ed. by T. W. Moody, F. X. Martin, and F. J. Byrne (Oxford University Press, 2009)
Carla Gardina Pestana, 'Atlantic Mobilities and the Defiance of the Early Quakers', Journal of Early Modern History, 2023.
James Scott Wheeler, 'Ormond and Cromwell: The Struggle for Ireland', in Martyn Bennett, Raymond Gillespie, and Scott Spurlock (eds), Cromwell and Ireland: New Perspectives
Martyn Bennett, ‘God’s Wall of Brass: Cromwell’s Generals in Ireland, 1649-1650’ in Martyn Bennett, Raymond Gillespie, and Scott Spurlock (eds), Cromwell and Ireland: New Perspectives
Derek Hirst, ‘Security and Reform in England’s Other Nations, 1649-1658’, in Michael J. Braddick. The Oxford Handbook of the English Revolution.
Jenny Shaw, Everyday Life in the Early English Caribbean: Irish, Africans, and the Construction of Difference (Athens, United States: University of Georgia Press, 2013)
R. Scott Spurlock, ‘Cromwell and Catholics: Towards a Reassessment of Lay Catholic Experience in Interregnum Ireland’, in Constructing the Past: Writing Irish History, 1600-1800, ed. by Mark Williams and Stephen Paul Forrest, Irish Historical Monographs (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2010).
Jennifer Wells, ‘Proceedings at the High Court of Justice at Dublin and Cork 1652-1654, part 2’, Archivium Hibernicum, 67, 76-274.
Go to AirwaveMedia.com to find other great history shows. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jan 14, 2024 • 24min
03.15 - Protestants, Ascendant
Irish land is awarded to English Adventurers and Cromwellian soldiers, and Protestant dominance is secured.Join the Mailing List!Join the Patreon House of Lords for ad-free episodes!
Sarah Barber, ‘Settlement, Transplantation and Expulsion: A Comparative Study of the Placement of Peoples’, in British Interventions in Early Modern Ireland, ed. by Ciaran Brady and Jane Ohlmeyer (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005).
Heidi J. Coburn, 'Cromwellian Transplantations of the Irish to the Colonies', in Martyn Bennett, Raymond Gillespie, and Scott Spurlock (eds), Cromwell and Ireland: New Perspectives (Liverpool, 2020)
John Cunningham, ‘Politics, 1641-1660’, Cambridge History of Ireland
Elaine Murphy, Micheál Ó Siochrú, Jason Peacey, John Morril, eds. The Letters, Writings, and Speeches of Oliver Crmwell: Volume II, 2022.
David Edwards, ‘Political Change and Social Transformation, 1603-1641’, Cambridge History of Ireland
Micheál Ó Siochrú, (ed.) Kingdoms in Crisis: Ireland in the 1640s, 2000
Micheál Ó Siochrú, Confederate Ireland, 1642-1649, 1999
Micheál Ó Siochrú, God’s Executioner: Oliver Cromwell and the Conquest of Ireland.
Micheál Ó Siochrú, 'Atrocity, Codes of Conduct and the Irish in the British Civil Wars 1641-1653', Past & Present , 195 (May, 2007), pp. 55-86
Micheál Ó Siochrú and David Brown, 'The Down Survey and the Cromwellian Land Settlement', in Jane Ohlmeyer (ed), The Cambridge History of Ireland: Volume II.
Pádraig Lenihan, Consolidating Conquest: Ireland 1603-1727 (England: Pearson, 2008).
Pádraig Lenihan, Confederate Catholics at War, 1641-49, 2001
Pádraig Lenihan, 'Siege Massacres in Ireland: Drogheda in Context', in Martyn Bennett, Raymond Gillespie, and Scott Spurlock (eds), Cromwell and Ireland: New Perspectives
Patrick J. Corish, ‘The Cromwellian Regime, 1650–60’, in A New History of Ireland: Early Modern Ireland 1534-1691, ed. by T. W. Moody, F. X. Martin, and F. J. Byrne (Oxford University Press, 2009)
James Scott Wheeler, 'Ormond and Cromwell: The Struggle for Ireland', in Martyn Bennett, Raymond Gillespie, and Scott Spurlock (eds), Cromwell and Ireland: New Perspectives
Martyn Bennett, ‘God’s Wall of Brass: Cromwell’s Generals in Ireland, 1649-1650’ in Martyn Bennett, Raymond Gillespie, and Scott Spurlock (eds), Cromwell and Ireland: New Perspectives
Derek Hirst, ‘Security and Reform in England’s Other Nations, 1649-1658’, in Michael J. Braddick. The Oxford Handbook of the English Revolution.
Jenny Shaw, Everyday Life in the Early English Caribbean: Irish, Africans, and the Construction of Difference (Athens, United States: University of Georgia Press, 2013)
R. Scott Spurlock, ‘Cromwell and Catholics: Towards a Reassessment of Lay Catholic Experience in Interregnum Ireland’, in Constructing the Past: Writing Irish History, 1600-1800, ed. by Mark Williams and Stephen Paul Forrest, Irish Historical Monographs (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2010).
Jennifer Wells, ‘Proceedings at the High Court of Justice at Dublin and Cork 1652-1654, part 2’, Archivium Hibernicum, 67, 76-274.
Go to AirwaveMedia.com to find other great history shows. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dec 24, 2023 • 44min
03.14 - To Hell or Connacht
The Commonwealth, hungry for land, confiscates massive amounts of property from Irish Catholics. Most are ordered to move elsewhere in Ireland, to the Province of Connacht or County Clare. To refuse risked death.Join the Mailing List!Join the Patreon House of Lords for ad-free episodes!
Sarah Barber, ‘Settlement, Transplantation and Expulsion: A Comparative Study of the Placement of Peoples’, in British Interventions in Early Modern Ireland, ed. by Ciaran Brady and Jane Ohlmeyer (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005).
Heidi J. Coburn, 'Cromwellian Transplantations of the Irish to the Colonies', in Martyn Bennett, Raymond Gillespie, and Scott Spurlock (eds), Cromwell and Ireland: New Perspectives (Liverpool, 2020)
John Cunningham, ‘Politics, 1641-1660’, Cambridge History of Ireland
Elaine Murphy, Micheál Ó Siochrú, Jason Peacey, John Morril, eds. The Letters, Writings, and Speeches of Oliver Crmwell: Volume II, 2022.
David Edwards, ‘Political Change and Social Transformation, 1603-1641’, Cambridge History of Ireland
Micheál Ó Siochrú, (ed.) Kingdoms in Crisis: Ireland in the 1640s, 2000
Micheál Ó Siochrú, Confederate Ireland, 1642-1649, 1999
Micheál Ó Siochrú, God’s Executioner: Oliver Cromwell and the Conquest of Ireland.
Micheál Ó Siochrú, 'Atrocity, Codes of Conduct and the Irish in the British Civil Wars 1641-1653', Past & Present , 195 (May, 2007), pp. 55-86
Pádraig Lenihan, Consolidating Conquest: Ireland 1603-1727 (England: Pearson, 2008).
Pádraig Lenihan, Confederate Catholics at War, 1641-49, 2001
Pádraig Lenihan, 'Siege Massacres in Ireland: Drogheda in Context', in Martyn Bennett, Raymond Gillespie, and Scott Spurlock (eds), Cromwell and Ireland: New Perspectives
James Scott Wheeler, 'Ormond and Cromwell: The Struggle for Ireland', in Martyn Bennett, Raymond Gillespie, and Scott Spurlock (eds), Cromwell and Ireland: New Perspectives
Martyn Bennett, ‘God’s Wall of Brass: Cromwell’s Generals in Ireland, 1649-1650’ in Martyn Bennett, Raymond Gillespie, and Scott Spurlock (eds), Cromwell and Ireland: New Perspectives
Derek Hirst, ‘Security and Reform in England’s Other Nations, 1649-1658’, in Michael J. Braddick. The Oxford Handbook of the English Revolution.
Jenny Shaw, Everyday Life in the Early English Caribbean: Irish, Africans, and the Construction of Difference (Athens, United States: University of Georgia Press, 2013)
R. Scott Spurlock, ‘Cromwell and Catholics: Towards a Reassessment of Lay Catholic Experience in Interregnum Ireland’, in Constructing the Past: Writing Irish History, 1600-1800, ed. by Mark Williams and Stephen Paul Forrest, Irish Historical Monographs (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2010).
Jennifer Wells, ‘Proceedings at the High Court of Justice at Dublin and Cork 1652-1654, part 2’, Archivium Hibernicum, 67, 76-274.
Go to AirwaveMedia.com to find other great history shows. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dec 17, 2023 • 27min
03.13 - The Tory War
After the defeat of the Royalist coalition, the last military resistance to the Commonwealth in Ireland are irregular Tories - isolated, cut off from the chain of command, thousands of veteran Irish fights live off the land, establish bases in bogs and hills, and hit the English occupation forces wherever they can. The Commonwealth goes to extreme lengths to crush them.Join the Mailing List!Join the Patreon House of Lords for ad-free episodes!
Sarah Barber, ‘Settlement, Transplantation and Expulsion: A Comparative Study of the Placement of Peoples’, in British Interventions in Early Modern Ireland, ed. by Ciaran Brady and Jane Ohlmeyer (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005).
John Cunningham, ‘Politics, 1641-1660’, Cambridge History of Ireland
Elaine Murphy, Micheál Ó Siochrú, Jason Peacey, John Morril, eds. The Letters, Writings, and Speeches of Oliver Crmwell: Volume II, 2022.
David Edwards, ‘Political Change and Social Transformation, 1603-1641’, Cambridge History of Ireland
Micheál Ó Siochrú, (ed.) Kingdoms in Crisis: Ireland in the 1640s, 2000
Micheál Ó Siochrú, Confederate Ireland, 1642-1649, 1999
Micheál Ó Siochrú, God’s Executioner: Oliver Cromwell and the Conquest of Ireland.
Micheál Ó Siochrú, 'Atrocity, Codes of Conduct and the Irish in the British Civil Wars 1641-1653', Past & Present , 195 (May, 2007), pp. 55-86
Pádraig Lenihan, Consolidating Conquest: Ireland 1603-1727 (England: Pearson, 2008).
Pádraig Lenihan, Confederate Catholics at War, 1641-49, 2001
Pádraig Lenihan, 'Siege Massacres in Ireland: Drogheda in Context', in Martyn Bennett, Raymond Gillespie, and Scott Spurlock (eds), Cromwell and Ireland: New Perspectives
Wheeler, James Scott, 'Ormond and Cromwell: The Struggle for Ireland', in Martyn Bennett, Raymond Gillespie, and Scott Spurlock (eds), Cromwell and Ireland: New Perspectives
Martyn Bennett, ‘God’s Wall of Brass: Cromwell’s Generals in Ireland, 1649-1650’ in Martyn Bennett, Raymond Gillespie, and Scott Spurlock (eds), Cromwell and Ireland: New Perspectives
Derek Hirst, ‘Security and Reform in England’s Other Nations, 1649-1658’, in Michael J. Braddick. The Oxford Handbook of the English Revolution.
R. Scott Spurlock, ‘Cromwell and Catholics: Towards a Reassessment of Lay Catholic Experience in Interregnum Ireland’, in Constructing the Past: Writing Irish History, 1600-1800, ed. by Mark Williams and Stephen Paul Forrest, Irish Historical Monographs (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2010).
Wells, Jennifer, ‘Proceedings at the High Court of Justice at Dublin and Cork 1652-1654, part 2’, Archivium Hibernicum, 67, 76-274.
Go to AirwaveMedia.com to find other great history shows. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nov 27, 2023 • 22min
03.12 - Peace At Last?
The last embers of resistance to the Commonwealth are snuffed out in England and Scotland.For this episode, I found the following publications particularly useful:
Charles Spencer, To Catch a King.
Philip Baker, 'The Regicide', in Michael J. Braddick. The Oxford Handbook of the English Revolution
Ian Gentles, The English Revolution and the Wars in the Three Kingdoms, 1638-1652.
Alexia Grosjean, Steve Murdoch, Alexander Leslie and the Scottish generals of the Thirty Years' War, 1618-1648
Steve Murdoch (ed), Scotland and the Thirty Years' War
Stuart Reid, Crown, Covenant, and Cromwell: The Civil Wars in Scotland, 1639-1651.
Nick Lipscombe, The English Civil War: An Atlas and Concise History of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, 1639-51.
Edward Cowan, Montrose: For Covenant and King.
Barry Robertson, Royalists at War in Scotland and Ireland, 1638-1650.
This podcast is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to inquire about advertising on this podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices