Choosing Sides

How did people choose which side to support?

Royalists

Hello, I’m a Royalist and I support King Charles I. The Parliamentarians call us ‘Cavaliers’, a derogatory (disrespectful) term coming from the Spanish word for armed horseman.

They see us Royalists as wealthy men who have fancy clothes and long hair flowing in ringlets and they think we lack morals and are prone to violence

Parliamentarians

Hello, I’m a Parliamentarian and I’m on the side of Parliament.

The Royalists call us ‘Roundheads’, a derogatory (disrespectful) nickname given to us because many supporters of Parliament are Puritans who wear their hair short.

Turncoats: Choosing and changing sides

In this short video, historian Professor Andrew Hopper explains how people chose which side to support and why some people changed sides.

Activities

Drag-and-drop: Roundhead or Cavalier?

Test your knowledge and drag the statements into the correct columns.

Printable versionDownload

Create your own rousing speech

Can you convince people to support your cause by writing your own persuasive speech?

Object encounter

Can you identify this 17th century object using the clues provided?

Source-based activities

All source-based activities are in a downloadable PDF format.

Activity 1: Lord Newark’s speech to the Nottinghamshire militia, 1642

Activity 2:Lucy Hutchinson’s memoirs

Revise this topic