Taking sides: how the Civil War turned friends into enemies

Welcome to the History Extra podcast, fascinating historical conversations from the makers of BBC History magazine. As 17th century Britain edged ever closer to civil war, Two friends, Bullstrode Whitlock and Ned Hyde, found their relationship under increasing strain. Writer Minou Dinshaw charts how these two companions found themselves on opposite sides of a political and ideological divide, in his new book, Friends and Youth, and I spoke to him to find out more. Thank you so much for joining me to discuss your book Friends in Youth.

Before we go any further, could you start us off by introducing us to your two protagonists for the book? The friends of my title are, on the one hand, the slightly older Bullstrode Whitlock and on the other, Edward nicknamed Ned Hyde. They are from a very similar generation background. They were at the ends of court studying law at the same time where they became friends. They shared a wide social literary circle of acquaintances.

They were professionally and personally linked very closely in the years leading up to the English Civil War. And their friendship for some time continued in a very important manner with its impact on the war and its diplomacy despite the Civil War itself, and that is the story that I want to tell, the story of this one very pivotal, at times eerily well positioned friendship. And Hyde and Whitlock are two names that I think most people are not going to be familiar with, even if they know a little bit about this period, the Civil War period. What drew you to those two characters?

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