The Cromwell Association is delighted to announce this year’s essay prize, aimed at all students between the ages of 16 to 19 years.

We would like you to write a response to the question:

‘To what extent did radical religious groups (such as the Fifth Monarchists, Baptists, Quakers, and Ranters) undermine the stability of political settlements in England during the 1650s?’

Essays should be no more than 2000 words and should be submitted, in Word format ONLY, to [email protected] by Friday 24th July 2026.

Please submit alongside the essay cover which can be downloaded here (.docx).

Previous winners and their essays can be found below.

Guidance for Writing the Essay

• Reference to primary sources that support your key arguments.
• Reference to academic sources (and not just textbooks).
• Use of key terms (e.g., ‘healing and settling’ and ‘millenarianism’).
• Avoid being overly descriptive; consider the various ways in which these groups undermined political stability (for example, by helping to create political instability).

Professor Peter Gaunt, former President of the Cromwell Association, will decide the final winner, and the result will be announced soon after.

The prize winner will receive a personal cheque for £250 and his/her school will be invited to become a member of the Cromwell Association Schools website.

In addition, the winning essay will be published on our website and also in Cromwelliana, our academic publication.

About Frederic Borch III

Frederic Borch III, winner of the Cromwell prize in 1975 for his essay, ‘Cromwell: Dictator or Constitutionalist?’ and a life member of the Cromwell Association, is the Regimental Historian and Archivist for the US Army’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps.

The annual Cromwell Association essay competition was established in 2017, due to the generosity of Frederick Borch III. Fred Borch is the Regimental Historian and Archivist for the U.S. Army’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps. In 1974, he was a Visiting Student at the University of East Anglia, and while in a seminar on the English Civil War taught by Professor Robert Ashton, Fred wrote an essay, “Cromwell: Dictator or Constitutionalist?” That essay subsequently won the Cromwell Association’s Cromwell Prize in 1975. Fred has been a life member of the Association for more than 30 years, and in 2017 he approached us with the very generous offer to fund a revived essay competition for 16 to18 year old students. It has been very successful and every year, Fred loves to read the winning essay and usually writes a congratulatory email to the winner.

Previous winners of The Frederic L Borch III Annual Essay competition

Year	Essay title	Winner’s Essay (pdf)
2025	To what extent does the personal rule by Charles I, from 1629-1640, deserve the description ‘the eleven years tyranny’?	Arwen Singh
2024	Was the abolition of monarchy the inevitable outcome of King Charles I’s trial?	Lucy Graham
2023	To what extent was the outbreak of Civil War in England in 1642 caused by disputes over religion?	Hattie Fillmore
2022	To what extent was Oliver Cromwell responsible for Parliament’s victory in the First Civil War?	Priyanka Menon
2021	Should the English Civil War properly be seen as just one of the wars of the three kingdoms of the mid-seventeenth century, all stemming from the so-called “British Problem”?	Katie Stamp
2020	Given that in 2002, Cromwell was voted the third greatest Briton of all time, how do you explain the contempt shown him by some of his contemporaries?	William Finlator
2019	“That which you have by force, I count as nothing.” Was the English Revolution anything more than a military coup d’état?	Christopher Conway
2018	Does Cromwell’s legacy have any relevance in the 21st Century?	Ben Rhydderch