Republic: Britain's Revolutionary Decade 1649 - 1660

Professor Alice Hunt is coming to Portsmouth Guildhall on Tuesday 12 January to talk about Britain's republican experiment from 1649 to 1660. It's part of the Portsmouth Historical Association's 2026/27 series of lectures, and she'll be speaking in the Park Building, Room 1.09 on King Henry I Street.

The talk focuses on those eleven years when England went without a monarch, a short-lived but distinctive period that Hunt argues changed the course of British history. She makes the case that the era did more than just fill a gap between kings: it transformed the relationship between England, Scotland and Ireland, reset the compact between the monarch and the people, and re-fashioned the story the British told — and continue to tell — about themselves. If you've ever wondered what actually happened during the Interregnum, this is a good place to start.

Hunt is a professor at the University of Southampton, so she's coming from just down the road. The talk starts at 7pm and finishes no later than 8.30pm, so it's a self-contained evening rather than a long haul. There's no booking needed, which makes it easy to decide on the day: you just pay on arrival.

Entry is £4 per lecture, or £20 for the full series of talks from October to May, and students and HA members pay nothing. The venue is the Park Building, Room 1.09, King Henry I St, Portsmouth PO1 2BZ, with the talk running from 7pm to 8.30pm.