{"id":2854,"date":"2018-04-01T17:19:59","date_gmt":"2018-04-01T17:19:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.olivercromwell.org\/wordpress\/?page_id=2854"},"modified":"2026-03-07T19:40:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T19:40:21","slug":"cromwell-association-2026-annual-essay-prize","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.olivercromwell.org\/wordpress\/cromwell-association-2026-annual-essay-prize\/","title":{"rendered":"The Frederic L Borch III Annual Essay Prize 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div id=\"attachment_2852\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2852\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2852\" src=\"https:\/\/www.olivercromwell.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/parliament.jpg\" alt=\"Cromwell's statue outside Parliament, London\" width=\"150\" height=\"215\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.olivercromwell.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/parliament.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.olivercromwell.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/parliament-105x150.jpg 105w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-2852\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cromwell&#8217;s statue outside the Houses of Parliament, London<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\nThe Cromwell Association is delighted to announce this year\u2019s essay prize, aimed at all students between the ages of 16 to 19 years.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nWe would like you to write a response to the question:\n<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n\u2018To 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?\u2019\n<\/blockquote>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<p>\nEssays should be no more than <strong>2000 words<\/strong> and should be submitted, in Word format <strong>ONLY<\/strong>, to \n<strong><a href=\"mailto:essay25@olivercromwell.org?Subject=Essay Competition 2026\">essay25@olivercromwell.org<\/a><\/strong> by <strong>Friday 24th July 2026<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Please submit alongside the <strong>essay cover<\/strong> which can be downloaded <a href=\"https:\/\/www.olivercromwell.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/cover%20sheet.docx\" download=\"Essay Cover Sheet\">here<\/a> (.docx).\n<\/p>\n<p>Previous winners and their essays can be found <a href=\"#winners\">below<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Guidance for Writing the Essay<\/h2>\n\n<ul>\n  <li>Reference to primary sources that support your key arguments.<\/li>\n  <li>Reference to academic sources (and not just textbooks).<\/li>\n  <li>Use of key terms (e.g., \u2018healing and settling\u2019 and \u2018millenarianism\u2019).<\/li>\n  <li>Avoid being overly descriptive; consider the various ways in which these groups undermined political stability (for example, by helping to create political instability).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p>\nProfessor Peter Gaunt, former President of the Cromwell Association, will decide the final winner, and the result will be announced soon after.\n<\/p>\n\n<p>\nThe prize winner will receive a personal cheque for <strong style=\"color: red;\">\u00a3250<\/strong> and his\/her school will be invited to become a member of the Cromwell Association Schools website.\n<\/p>\n\n<p>\nIn addition, the winning essay will be published on our website and also in <em>Cromwelliana<\/em>, our academic publication.\n<\/p>\n\n<h2>About Frederic Borch III<\/h2>\n<p>Frederic Borch III, winner of the Cromwell prize in 1975 for his essay, \n\u2018Cromwell: Dictator or Constitutionalist?\u2019 and a life member of the Cromwell Association, \nis the Regimental Historian and Archivist for the US Army\u2019s Judge Advocate General\u2019s Corps.<\/p>\n<p>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&#8217;s Judge Advocate General&#8217;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, &#8220;Cromwell: Dictator or Constitutionalist?&#8221; That essay subsequently won the Cromwell Association&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<h3  id=\"winners\">Previous winners of The Frederic L Borch III Annual Essay competition<\/h3>\n<table>\n  <tr>\n    <th>Year<\/th>\n    <th>Essay title<\/th>\n    <th>Winner&#8217;s Essay (pdf)<\/th>\n  <\/tr>\n<tr>\n    <td>2025<\/td>\n    <td>To what extent does the personal rule by Charles I, from 1629-1640, deserve the description \u2018the eleven years tyranny&#8217;?<\/td>   \n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.olivercromwell.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Arwen Singh Essay.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Arwen Singh<\/a><\/td>\n  <\/tr>\n<tr>\n    <td>2024<\/td>\n    <td>Was the abolition of monarchy the inevitable outcome of King Charles I\u2019s trial?<\/td>   \n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.olivercromwell.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/2024.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lucy Graham<\/a><\/td>\n  <\/tr>\n  <tr>\n    <td>2023<\/td>\n    <td>To what extent was the outbreak of Civil War in England in 1642 caused by disputes over religion?<\/td>   \n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.olivercromwell.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/2023.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Hattie Fillmore<\/a><\/td>\n  <\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>2022<\/td>\n    <td>To what extent was Oliver Cromwell responsible for Parliament&#8217;s victory in the First Civil War?<\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.olivercromwell.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/2022.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Priyanka Menon<\/a>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n  <tr>\n    <td>2021<\/td>\n    <td>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 \u201cBritish Problem\u201d?<\/td>\n    <td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.olivercromwell.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/2021.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Katie Stamp<\/a><\/td>\n  <\/tr>\n<tr>\n    <td>2020<\/td>\n    <td>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?<\/td>\n    <td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.olivercromwell.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/2020.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">William Finlator<\/a><\/td>\n  <\/tr>\n<tr>\n    <td>2019<\/td>\n    <td>\u201cThat which you have by force, I count as nothing.\u201d Was the English Revolution anything more than a military coup d\u2019\u00e9tat?<\/td>\n    <td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.olivercromwell.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/2019.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Christopher Conway<\/a><\/td>\n  <\/tr>\n<tr>\n    <td>2018<\/td>\n    <td>Does Cromwell\u2019s legacy have any relevance in the 21st Century?<\/td>\n    <td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.olivercromwell.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/2018.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ben Rhydderch<\/a><\/td>\n  <\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Cromwell Association is delighted to announce this year\u2019s 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: \u2018To what extent did radical religious groups (such as the Fifth Monarchists, Baptists, Quakers, and Ranters) undermine the stability of political [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2854","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.olivercromwell.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.olivercromwell.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.olivercromwell.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.olivercromwell.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.olivercromwell.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2854"}],"version-history":[{"count":86,"href":"https:\/\/www.olivercromwell.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6867,"href":"https:\/\/www.olivercromwell.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2854\/revisions\/6867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.olivercromwell.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.olivercromwell.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.olivercromwell.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}