Fought between 1642 and 1651, these wars were primarily disputes between Crown and Parliament about how the British Isles should be governed. But they also had religious and social dimensions, and witnessed the creation of the first national standing army.
In 1857, Indian soldiers rose up against their British commanders. The reasons behind the rebellion stretch back to the origins of British involvement in Indian affairs.
We explore the papers of Sir Edward Walker, Secretary of War to King Charles I, who was at the heart of the Royalist effort during the British Civil Wars.
In 1950, the Cold War significantly heated up, with the outbreak of the Korean War. The three year long struggle left millions dead, and its legacy still has explosive global impact today.
Sir Thomas Fairfax led his troops to victory over King Charles I at the Battle of Naseby on 14 June 1645. His triumph won the First English Civil War (1642-46) for Parliament and ensured that monarchs would never again be supreme in British politics.
The 1916 Somme offensive was one of the bloodiest battles of the First World War. But it provided the Army with a tough lesson in how to fight a large-scale modern war.