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How did the same obscure family produce two of the greatest English statesman: Thomas & Oliver Cromwell?

Within a century, the Cromwell family produced two of the most powerful, impactful and controversial commoners in British history. Thomas served the Tudors, helping to forge Henry VIII’s autocratic state and the Church of England; Oliver led a revolution that executed a king, abolished the monarchy and established a republic, before founding a ruling dynasty. Each rose from obscurity to the very centre of power. From a Putney brewhouse to the throne and back again, their rise was improbable, their fall dramatic. Both changed Britain forever.

Miranda Malins brings these two giants blazingly to life alongside the remarkable cast of family members who shaped them – the ambitious wives and mothers, the loyal siblings, the scheming allies and the forgotten children whose stories illuminate everything we thought we knew about Thomas and Oliver, and about early modern Britain itself.

Family mattered above all else to the Cromwells. To understand them, we must understand that family. This is their story.

Miranda Malins is a historian specialising in Oliver Cromwell, his family and the Civil War and Commonwealth period. She studied at Cambridge University, leaving with a PhD, and is a long-standing trustee of the Cromwell Association. She writes for many publications, is a regular judge of the Historical Writers’ Association Crown Awards and co-hosts the podcast 1666 and All That. Miranda is the author of two acclaimed historical novels about the Cromwell family, The Puritan Princess (2020) and The Rebel Daughter (2022). The House of Cromwell is her first work of non-fiction.

This talk will be recorded and put on a private channel after the ‘live talk’ for ticket holders to view at their leisure if they miss the live talk or wish to view them again.

This talk is part of a four part lecture series; for season tickets please click here:

We are delighted to welcome over four successive Wednesdays:

‘Time for the Protector: Oliver Cromwell’s Watch’

A talk by Stuart Orme on Wednesday 4 November at 7.30pm

‘‘The dimensions of this mercy are above my thoughts‘: Cromwell & the Battle of Worcester’

A talk by Professor Peter Gaunt on Wednesday 11 November at 7.30pm

‘Ranters Ranting during the English Revolution’

A talk by Dr Joel Halcomb on Wednesday 18 November at 7.30pm

‘The House of Cromwell: the Family that made Britain’

A talk by Dr Miranda Malins on Wednesday 25 November at 7.30pm

Click on the titles for more information and individual bookings.

PLEASE NOTE: These talks will be held online via Zoom. Joining details will be sent 48 hours before the talk.

Admission: £24 Adults (for 4 talks), £18 for students/Museum Members (for 4 talks); for individual talks £6.50 Adults, £5.00 students/Museum Members.