‘Cromwell's Centurion: Philip Skippon & Cromwell': a talk by Ismini Pells

20-05-26 - 20-05-26,
7:30 PM - 9:00 PM

Admission: ££6.50 Adults, £5.00 Students/Museum Members

Location: Via Zoom

Despite his contemporary prominence, Sergeant-Major-General Philip Skippon is one of the Civil War’s lesser-known characters. He was a veteran of European Protestant armies during the period of the Thirty Years’ War, the long-serving commander of the London militia and had commanded the infantry in the earl of Essex’s parliamentarian army since shortly after the outbreak of the Civil War. This talk will look at his importance in this period, and also examine his relationship with Cromwell throughout.

Dr Ismini Pells is part of the Department for Continuing Education at the University of Oxford. Prior to that, she had worked at the Centre for English Local History at the University of Leicester, and is Project Manager of the Civil War Petitions project (www.civilwarpetitions.ac.uk); and as a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Exeter on a Wellcome Trust-funded project examining early modern medical practitioners, during which she researched the careers of practitioners in Civil War armies. She studied for her PhD at the University of Cambridge, where she completed a thesis in 2014 examining the career of Philip Skippon, commander of the infantry in the New Model Army. Ismini has published a monograph on Philip Skippon, Philip Skippon and the British Civil Wars: The "Christian Centurion" (Abingdon: Routledge, 2020) and an edited collection, New Approaches to the Military History of the English Civil War (Solihull: Helion, 2016). She has also published articles and contributed chapters to collections on various military and medical topics relating to the Civil Wars. She is a trustee of the Cromwell Association and sits on the Council of the Army Records Society, the Battlefields Panel of The Battlefields Trust and the Research and Collections Advisory Panel of the National Army Museum.

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:

Wednesday 20 May at 7.30pm – Dr Ismini Pells on ‘Cromwell's Centurion: Philip Skippon and Oliver Cromwell’

Wednesday 27 May at 7.30pm – Professor Richard Blakemore on 'Robert Blake and the English Empire in the 1650s'

Wednesday 3 June at 7.30pm – Simon Marsh on ‘Artillery in Battle during the First Civil War 1642–1646’

Wednesday 10 June at 7.30pm – Dr Patrick Little on ‘Cromwellian Court Culture’

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 students/Museum Members.

Book Now Back to events