Professor Mark Stoyle

Mark Stoyle is professor of history at Southampton University. His books include A Murderous Midsummer: The Western Rising of 1549

Great Reputations: Oliver Cromwell.

Roundheads and Cavaliers: where did the Civil War nicknames come from?

Members of the Sealed Knot stage a re-enactment of the battle of Nantwich, fought during the Civil Wars in 1644 (Photo by OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images)

Crown v Parliament: your guide to the Civil War of the 17th century.

A woodcut from Frances Rose-Troup’s book about the Prayer Book Rebellion, in which some 4,000 people from Devon and Cornwall died (Photo by Collection PJ / Alamy Stock Photo)

The Prayer Book Rebellion: Mark Stoyle on how the 1549 rising almost changed Tudor history.

Vintners in an ale house, 1642. From a broadsheet titled ‘Health to All’, artist unknown. (Photo by Historica Graphica Collection/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Did Oliver Cromwell ban Christmas? The Puritan assault on Christmas during the 1640s and 1650s