英國史第八集：The British Wars（1603——1649）

[00:00.00]Welcome to Movie English! [00:09.85] [00:11.94]England and Scotland, two realms divided until now. [00:16.85] [00:17.02]In 1603, they had come together in one person, [00:21.25] [00:21.42]James VI of Scotland, and First of England. [00:24.77] [00:24.94]He wanted to be known as the king of Great Britain. [00:28.82] [00:28.98]But what was this new thing in the world, this Great Britain? [00:33.05] [00:33.22]In the first years of the 17th century, only the map makers could tell you. [00:38.50] [00:39.50]One of them, a busy ex-tailor called John Speed, [00:43.17] [00:43.34]published his atlas of 67 maps called "The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain", [00:49.57] [00:49.74]and covering every inch of Scotland, Wales, Ireland and England. [00:54.05] [00:54.22]What lay behind Speed's atlas was an optimistic vision [00:58.89] [00:59.06]of happy, harmonious Britannia coming together under a king [01:03.21] [01:03.38]who was determined to bring unity after centuries of war and hatred. [01:08.41] [01:08.58]And in the Vale of the Red Horse in Warwickshire, [01:13.05] [01:13.22]John Speed had a glimpse of what this British heaven on earth might look like. [01:18.29] [01:19.46]Meadowing pastures with the green mantle so embroidered with flowers [01:24.29] [01:24.46]that from Edgehill we might behold another Eden. [01:28.34] [01:31.42]On October 23rd, 1642, another man, King Charles I, [01:37.01] [01:37.18]surveyed the same landscape from the same ridge. [01:41.14] [01:41.30]The meadows were now full, not with cows and harebells, [01:45.05] [01:45.22]but cannon, pikes and musketeers. [01:48.33] [01:48.50]By nightfall, there would be 3,000 British corpses lying in the freezing mud. [01:54.29] [01:54.46]Here at Edgehill, Eden had become Golgotha. [01:58.45] [02:06.90]Over the next long years, [02:09.29] [02:09.46]the nations that both James and Charles yearned to bring together [02:13.29] [02:13.46]would tear each other apart in murderous civil wars. [02:17.05] [02:17.22]Hundreds of thousands of lives would be lost in battles, sieges, epidemics and famine. [02:23.45] [02:25.58]A raw body count fails to measure the full enormity of a disaster [02:30.13] [02:30.30]which reached into virtually every part of Britain, [02:33.10] [02:33.26]from Cornwall to County Connaught, from York to the Hebrides. [02:37.69] [02:37.86]It tore apart communities of the parish and the county, [02:41.57] [02:41.74]which all through the turmoil of the Reformation had managed to agree [02:45.86] [02:46.02]on how the country should be governed and who should do the governing. [02:50.37] [02:50.54]Men who had broken bread together now tried to break each other's heads. [02:54.85] [02:55.02]Men who had judged together now judged each other. [02:59.01] [03:01.02]At the end of it all, there would be a united Britain as the Stuarts had hoped, [03:06.05] [03:06.22]but it would not be a united kingdom, it would be a united republic. [03:11.85] [03:50.54]The civil wars were not just an unfortunate accident [03:54.25] [03:54.42]or an occasion to dress up as Cavaliers and Roundheads. [03:57.89] [03:58.06]They were that most un-British event, a war of ideas, [04:01.61] [04:01.78]ideas that mattered deeply to contemporaries [04:04.42] [04:04.58]because at the heart of them was an argument about liberty and obedience. [04:08.81] [04:08.98]That argument became lethal at Edgehill, [04:12.25] [04:12.42]and it would echo for generations down through British history, [04:15.89] [04:16.06]and as a matter of fact, that argument has never really gone away. [04:20.57] [04:22.06]To the survivors, looking back, the issue was simple. [04:26.34] [04:27.78]Whether the king should govern as a god by his will [04:31.77] [04:31.94]and the people governed by force as beasts, [04:34.85] [04:35.02]or whether the people should be governed by their own consent. [04:40.25] [04:40.42]Yes, that's the voice of a republican in exile, Edmund Ludlow, [04:45.25] [04:45.42]but that same voice, that same memory, would be heard through the centuries [04:49.85] [04:50.02]and in revolutions far beyond our shores - [04:52.66] [04:52.82]in America in 1776, in France in 1789. [04:57.41] [04:59.74]It goes against the grain, doesn't it? A bit embarrassing, not to say painful, [05:04.29] [05:04.46]to be thought of as the fountainhead of revolutions. It's not very British. [05:08.81] [05:08.98]All that shouting, all that Bible waving, all that killing. [05:13.41] [05:13.58]So was it all an aberration, then? [05:16.14] [05:16.30]Well, no, actually. [05:18.81] [05:21.38]These wars were the crucible of our modern history, for out of the fires of these wars [05:27.13] [05:27.30]came eventually a genuinely parliamentary monarchy. [05:30.77] [05:30.94]Of course, no one understood that at the time, [05:34.33] [05:34.50]no one was reading from a script which commanded, "Go forth and be democratic." [05:39.37] [05:42.98]So when the 24-year-old Charles became king, [05:46.05] [05:46.22]no one in their right mind could possibly have imagined [05:49.57] [05:49.74]a war between parliament and the Crown. [05:52.70] [05:52.86]No succession in over two centuries had been as settled or as unthreatened. [05:58.53] [06:03.34]Charles may have been smaller than life, long faced, painfully formal, [06:08.57] [06:08.74]private to the point of being secretive, a stickler for decorum, [06:12.57] [06:12.74]as cool, as still and as pallid as marble, [06:15.89] [06:16.06]but to many this was rather a welcome contrast with his father, James, [06:20.93] [06:21.10]who'd been loud-mouthed, pedantic and uncouth. [06:24.53] [06:27.66]From the beginning, for those paying attention, [06:30.41] [06:30.58]there was something ominously distant about this small man on a big horse, [06:35.05] [06:35.22]too lofty to bother with a coronation procession. [06:38.49] [06:38.66]A man who believed that kings were little gods on earth. [06:42.73] [06:44.14]Charles saw himself as the father of the nation, and like any 17th-century father, [06:49.17] [06:49.34]he thought he was responsible for the well-being of his family, [06:53.49] [06:53.66]but in return he expected to be strictly obeyed. [06:57.29] [06:57.86]Of course, like James before him, [06:59.97] [07:00.14]he would listen to the people through their representatives in parliament, [07:03.97] [07:04.14]but only when he chose and on matters he saw fit to be discussed. [07:09.17] [07:14.02]But the House of Commons was filled with historians and lawyers, [07:18.49] [07:18.66]and for them parliament was not simply a matter of royal convenience. [07:23.25] [07:23.42]Ever heard of Magna Carta? [07:25.73] [07:27.74]For these men, parliamentary history, the history they were reading and writing, [07:32.53] [07:32.70]was an ongoing epic of liberty, and they were the keepers of the flame. [07:38.37] [07:39.70]The countdown to the civil wars started now, though nobody heard it. [07:44.90] [07:45.06]It was a countdown that could have been stopped time and again, [07:49.02] [07:49.18]but the ticking grew louder and louder. [07:51.61] [07:51.78]By 1642 it would be deafening. [07:54.58] [07:54.74]And what triggered that countdown? Money. [07:57.97] [08:01.06]One of the first things this young king did was declare war on Spain, [08:05.34] [08:05.46]and nothing was more ruinously expensive than foreign war. [08:09.74] [08:09.90]There was the added complication that in England, [08:12.65] [08:12.82]even little gods on earth had to go cap in hand to parliament for the money to fight. [08:18.77] [08:18.94]For Charles, the issue was personal. [08:22.17] [08:22.34]Wars of religion were tearing Europe apart. [08:25.37] [08:25.54]Protestants and Catholics were killing each other from Sweden to Hungary [08:29.66] [08:29.82]with unspeakable cruelty. [08:32.09] [08:32.26]They'd forced his own sister, the Queen of Bohemia, into exile. [08:37.01] [08:38.46]In his quiet way, Charles burned to be a Christian warrior. [08:43.33] [08:44.70]There was also the matter of his older brother, Henry. [08:47.73] [08:47.90]A champion of the joust, celebrated by the poets as a Protestant hero, [08:52.29] [08:52.46]Henry was supposed to have been king, but he had died when Charles was a boy, [08:57.21] [08:57.38]and his armour had passed on to him. [08:59.89] [09:06.02]It was too big. [09:08.05] [09:10.14]All his life, Charles would try to fit the steel, [09:13.53] [09:13.70]try to become the gartered Charlemagne beneath the British oak. [09:18.25] [09:19.78]And this war against Spain would be his big chance. [09:23.49] [09:23.66]Surely parliament would cough up money for the great Protestant crusade? [09:27.94] [09:28.94]Oh, yes, was the answer, but -and it was a big but - with all due respect, [09:34.81] [09:34.98]we don't much care for your choice of commander, the Duke of Buckingham. [09:39.10] [09:39.26]So while we're happy to fork over subsidies, we think we'll make it a short-term contract. [09:45.09] [09:45.26]Renewable, to be sure, if he turns out all right. [09:49.77] [09:49.94]But parliament knew perfectly well it wouldn't. [09:53.49] [09:53.66]From the start, parliament had Buckingham's number. [09:56.69] [09:56.86]To them, he was an upstart nobody, a peacock with a pretty face [10:01.17] [10:01.34]who'd been promoted outrageously above the great earls of the land. [10:05.62] [10:07.54]He'd been James' favourite - [10:09.53] [10:09.70]well, actually more than a favourite if the court scandal was to be believed - [10:13.90] [10:14.06]and now he'd wormed his way into Charles's favour too. [10:17.45] [10:17.62]The pair of them had travelled together incognito to Spain [10:21.41] [10:21.58]in a bid to woo the Spanish Infanta for Charles. [10:24.97] [10:25.14]They'd returned from their escapade empty-handed. [10:28.25] [10:31.14]But to the young, insecure Charles, glamorous, worldly Buckingham had become his idol. [10:36.01] [10:36.18]To the rest of the court however, Buckingham was a parasite, a pest, a viper. [10:41.57] [10:41.74]Why, in God's name, give him a blank cheque? [10:45.29] [10:50.50]It was obvious what would happen to the money and it did. [10:54.13] [10:54.30]Buckingham blew a cool ?40,000 in a raid on France [10:59.17] [10:59.34]so botched it seemed the act of a saboteur, not a supremo. [11:03.81] [11:03.98]So if Charles wanted a penny more, his darling had to go. [11:09.37] [11:11.26]Presume to talk to the king about his choice of trusted generals and ministers? [11:16.81] [11:16.98]Presume to tell the king? Presume to lay down the law? [11:20.97] [11:21.14]Why, that was an end of kingship itself. [11:24.21] [11:27.10]So in 1626, Charles did what he assumed kings worth the name were entitled to do. [11:33.65] [11:33.82]He would dismiss parliament and collect the money himself through a forced loan. [11:39.02] [11:39.18]It was the politest bullying. Charles was always polite. [11:43.53] [11:52.82]The gloves were off. [11:54.85] [11:55.02]Loan refusers were threatened, prosecuted. [11:58.17] [11:58.34]Two of them, Sir Francis Barrington and Sir Edmund Hampden died, [12:02.62] [12:02.78]either in prison or shortly afterwards. [12:05.01] [12:06.46]Many did pay up, but their compliance spoke of fear as much as loyalty. [12:11.58] [12:15.94]There had always been professional grumblers when it came to tax, [12:19.69] [12:19.86]but these country gentlemen were speaking a new and dangerous language. [12:24.21] [12:24.38]No tax could be lawful without the consent of parliament, they said. [12:29.13] [12:30.22]The money ran out again in 1628, [12:32.97] [12:33.14]and Charles was forced to call another parliament. [12:36.33] [12:39.62]Speaker after speaker rose to the rostrum in defence of the liberties of England. [12:45.41] [12:45.58]They drafted a formal list of their grievances in a Petition of Right, [12:50.25] [12:50.42]which Charles graciously conceded as the price for saving his beloved Buckingham. [12:56.25] [12:56.42]Any slight chance of Charles honouring it, and it was slight enough to begin with, [13:02.53] [13:02.70]went out of the window when later, in 1628, [13:05.97] [13:06.14]Buckingham was assassinated to national cheering. [13:11.21] [13:18.34]Convulsed with grief and hardened by rage, Charles shut parliament down. [13:24.29] [13:29.34]As the doors were being closed, one MP, Sir John Eliot, stood up and roared [13:34.57] [13:34.74]that anyone imposing a tax without parliament's consent [13:38.17] [13:38.34]would be a capital enemy to this kingdom and commonwealth. [13:42.54] [13:44.30]Charles disagreed, Eliot was the traitor, [13:47.53] [13:47.70]so off to the Tower of London he went, where he died in 1632. [13:52.98] [13:55.90]But for Charles, the rainstorm of words had now mercifully stopped. [14:00.97] [14:01.14]In their place beamed sunlight from the heavens. [14:05.26] [14:05.42]Triumphantly too, the war with Spain was now over. [14:08.97] [14:09.14]So no more begging for money, no more of that aggravation. [14:13.49] [14:13.66]So in 1630, as far as Charles was concerned, [14:17.09] [14:17.26]peace had broken out in Britannia. [14:20.49] [14:21.62]His father James had always preached peace, [14:24.42] [14:24.58]and James was much on Charles's mind. [14:27.69] [14:31.42]Charles decided his father's memory deserved something special, [14:35.57] [14:35.74]and courtesy of the Flemish Catholic painter, Peter Paul Rubens, he would get it. [14:40.41] [14:40.58]Not one, but three huge painted tributes. [14:44.33] [14:44.50]A go-for-broke manifesto for the Stuart dynasty. [14:48.49] [14:51.50](CHORAL MUSIC) [14:54.49] [14:58.38]They would be placed high on the ceiling of the building he had inherited from James, [15:04.09] [15:04.26]Inigo Jones's masterpiece, the Banqueting House in Whitehall. [15:08.65] [15:13.38]In 1636, they were triumphantly hoist aloft for all the world to see. [15:19.73] [15:19.90]There are three visions here of James' benevolent rule. [15:23.78] [15:23.94]In one panel, James is depicted as the bringer of peace and prosperity. [15:29.38] [15:29.54]In the central panel, Rubens gives us James being carried to Heaven as a god. [15:35.65] [15:39.42]In the third, he is Solomon being offered the two crowns of England and Scotland. [15:45.57] [15:47.22]The Banqueting House in Whitehall simply takes your breath away [15:50.69] [15:50.86]by the sheer cheek with which it ignores the English Channel. [15:54.69] [15:54.86]It's a piece of Italy transplanted into Britain. [15:57.61] [15:57.78]Classical columns, tall windows, the ultimate architectural light box, [16:02.73] [16:02.90]designed to flood the Stuart monarchy with brilliance. [16:06.81] [16:08.14]It was also meant to pin any unbelievers to the floor [16:11.89] [16:12.06]through the heavyweight power of its muscled allegories, [16:15.33] [16:15.50]singing the virtues of the godlike king. [16:18.06] [16:18.22]So when you walked in here and you remembered [16:21.10] [16:21.26]that when the Stuarts had described kings as 'little gods on earth', [16:25.09] [16:25.26]you realised they were not kidding. [16:27.37] [16:31.62]The Banqueting House was Charles's absolutist dreamland. [16:36.41] [16:36.58]It was here that Charles could act out the grandest of his fantasies, [16:40.89] [16:41.06]that his three kingdoms, England, Scotland and Ireland, were finally yoked together [16:45.81] [16:45.98]in harmony under the ruler who was firm but just. [16:50.33] [16:52.86]What better way to give this new British court a European makeover, [16:57.53] [16:57.70]to turn it into a byword for baroque gorgeousness? [17:01.66] [17:01.82]There would be a stunning new royal art collection gathered from all over Europe, [17:06.49] [17:06.66]of a quality to make popes and emperors moan with envy - [17:10.86] [17:11.02]Mantegnas, Titians, Rembrandts. [17:13.93] [17:14.10]Charles's unprepossessing French Queen, Henrietta Maria, [17:18.06] [17:18.22]with her sallow skin and discoloured teeth, was airbrushed into stardom [17:23.34] [17:23.42]by the glossiest glamourist of them all, Anthony Van Dyke. [17:27.57] [17:32.50]And beyond the palace, the king was satisfied to see his will being done, [17:37.25] [17:37.42]people he disapproved of being made to desist. [17:41.38] [17:42.90]I like not this. [17:45.41] [17:50.30]Out in the shires, his taxes were being collected, [17:53.49] [17:53.66]his justice was being carried out, and the skies had not fallen in. [17:57.73] [17:57.90]Who missed the talkers, the parliament now? Surely nobody. [18:02.05] [18:02.66]Sooner or later, Charles was going to have to come down to earth, [18:06.17] [18:06.34]and when he did he'd notice that his earthly kingdom [18:09.93] [18:10.10]was ruled not by images but by words. [18:13.25] [18:13.42]Now, unlike the invitingly soft scenery of Rubens's fantasy kingdom, [18:18.25] [18:18.42]words were hard things, black and white things. [18:21.77] [18:21.94]And in the hands of wordsmiths, lawyers, preachers, printers, [18:25.57] [18:25.74]they had a razor-sharp edge [18:28.33] [18:28.42]that would cut right through all that Stuart mush about British union [18:32.77] [18:32.86]and bring the playground of the gods crashing to the ground. [18:37.37] [18:39.34]The nay-sayers had not gone away, and they had not shut up. [18:43.41] [18:43.58]The men who had declared taxes without parliamentary consent to be illegal in 1625, [18:49.65] [18:49.82]still thought this in 1635. [18:52.73] [18:52.90]Yes, they reluctantly forked up, but it didn't stop them smouldering with rage. [18:58.42] [18:59.54]Typical was a Buckinghamshire landowner called John Hampden. [19:03.17] [19:03.34]John Hampden was not some abrasive, unworldly hothead. [19:08.29] [19:08.46]He was a very well respected and important member of the county community. [19:12.81] [19:16.66]Hampden had been deeply moved by the plight of Sir John Eliot in prison. [19:21.33] [19:21.50]He'd visited him and looked after his teenage boys. [19:25.78] [19:25.94]Now he would inherit the mantle of tax resister, this time against ship money, [19:30.73] [19:30.90]the tax that paid for the upkeep of the navy. [19:34.37] [19:34.54]Why should counties with no coastlines pay this? [19:37.53] [19:37.70]It was iniquitous. [19:39.89] [19:40.06]It may only have been a few shillings, and in the end Hampden lost his case, [19:44.57] [19:44.74]but he won the argument. The embers were hot again. [19:48.65] [19:49.66]And alongside the lawyers in parliament, [19:51.89] [19:52.06]Charles now faced another group of intransigent critics [19:55.97] [19:56.14]who had something even more unanswerable than Magna Carta - [19:59.29] [19:59.46]Holy Scripture - and they of course were the Puritans. [20:02.45] [20:05.06]For the hotter kind of Protestants, the Puritans, [20:07.57] [20:07.74]the Stuart obsession with harmony and unity was at best meaningless claptrap, [20:13.73] [20:13.90]and at worst it was a plot to delude the gullible into bending the knee to Rome again. [20:20.21] [20:20.38]For them, the reality was conflict, [20:23.73] [20:23.90]the unbridgeable division between the saved and the damned. [20:27.89] [20:28.06]There was an endless battle between the saints and the legions of the Devil. [20:33.09] [20:33.26]The fires had already been lit in Europe, for the Reformation was a war, [20:38.38] [20:38.54]and that war had not yet been won. [20:41.93] [20:45.46]The Puritans looked around them, but all they could see from this king [20:49.77] [20:49.94]was a betrayal of the godly Reformation. [20:52.41] [20:52.58]Peace with Catholic Spain abroad, and at home, even worse, [20:56.25] [20:56.42]a church ruled by bishops who were little better than Papists - [21:00.21] [21:00.38]bishops who berated the Puritans for having taken the Reformation too far. [21:04.61] [21:07.70]In the face of this cosmic battle, to stay still, to keep silent, was a sin and a crime. [21:14.85] [21:17.54]For the Puritans, Charles I ought to have been a custom-built king, [21:21.85] [21:22.02]austere, decorous and chaste. [21:24.93] [21:25.10]The fact was, his religion still seemed to need Protestant mumbo-jumbo, [21:29.85] [21:30.02]all those signs and mysteries. [21:32.17] [21:32.34]Even this would have been palatable had he not wanted to foist it on everyone else, [21:37.78] [21:37.94]to force everyone to kneel at its shrine. [21:41.61] [21:43.38]The Puritans declared war against any creeping signs of Romanism in the Church - [21:49.17] [21:49.34]paintings and statues, crucifixes and altar rails. [21:54.25] [21:56.66]And it escaped nobody's notice that Charles was married to a Catholic. [22:01.45] [22:05.54]These men were very much in a minority. [22:08.45] [22:08.62]But of course, being the elect, they expected to be in a minority - the party of redemption. [22:14.41] [22:14.58]In fact, they glorified in the slightness of their numbers, [22:18.05] [22:18.22]the self-purifying troop of Gideon's Army. [22:22.10] [22:25.62]Men like the London wood-turner, Nehemiah Wallington, would be in the front line, [22:31.49] [22:31.66]a storm trooper of the Reformation, ready to fight every waking hour. [22:36.61] [22:38.42]You may see now how Antichrist doth plot against the poor church of God. [22:43.57] [22:43.74]But so long as we put our trust in the Lord, let us once again take note [22:48.37] [22:48.54]of his great deliverances from those great and devilish bloodsucking Papists. [22:54.06] [22:55.18]Of course, Charles was not going to lose any sleep [22:58.25] [22:58.42]over the Nehemiah Wallingtons of this world. [23:00.93] [23:01.10]But Puritanism was not just the faith of merchants and artisans. [23:05.25] [23:08.30]There were plenty among the gentry and the nobility too, [23:11.57] [23:11.74]who believed just as passionately in the word of scripture, [23:15.25] [23:15.42]and for all of them it was an article of faith that nobody, neither pope nor king, [23:20.65] [23:20.82]would ever be allowed to flout the word of God. [23:24.05] [23:28.26]And Charles would never be allowed to forget it. [23:31.49] [23:36.94]Yes, finally, they were a minority. [23:40.01] [23:42.50]But it was one of Charles's most costly errors to let so many [23:47.25] [23:47.42]in the Protestant middle of the country come to regard him [23:51.13] [23:51.30]as a greater threat to their church than the Puritan militants. [23:55.01] [23:55.18]And for this fatal error, Charles had one man to thank, William Laud, [23:59.81] [23:59.98]whom he made Archbishop of Canterbury in 1633. [24:03.97] [24:04.14]Poor Laud. Is there anything good to be said for Laud and the principles he stood for? [24:10.13] [24:10.30]He's gone down as one of the most arrogant and destructive men in our history. [24:14.93] [24:15.10]But put yourself in his vestments and it looks different. [24:19.09] [24:19.26]Far from being an elitist, Laud thought it was the Puritans who were the authoritarians. [24:24.49] [24:24.66]Thou shalt smite them and utterly destroy them, [24:28.29] [24:28.46]Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them, [24:33.09] [24:33.26]It was the Puritans, with their obsession with reading and preaching, their gloomy fatalism, [24:39.37] [24:39.54]their endless battle cries, who deprived the ordinary people [24:43.21] [24:43.38]of what they needed from the Church - colour, spectacle, [24:47.37] [24:47.54]the Saviour's cross upon the altar, [24:50.81] [24:50.98]the comforts of ritual, sacrament and ceremony, [24:54.61] [24:54.78]a fence to keep dogs off the communion tray, and most of all, [24:58.82] [24:58.98]the consoling possibility that sinful souls might at the end be received into Christ. [25:05.82] [25:05.98]What was so very wrong with that? [25:09.41] [25:09.58]Well, what was wrong was that Laud was not presenting his programme as an option. [25:14.37] [25:14.54]He was presenting it as an order. [25:17.01] [25:17.18]Believe this, worship like this, pray like this, or take the consequences. [25:22.25] [25:27.50]Anyone who defied him found himself before a special tribunal. [25:32.21] [25:32.38]Dissidents like Prynne, Burton and Bastwick became Laud's highest-profile victims. [25:38.09] [25:41.22]They had their ears cut off. [25:44.18] [25:49.38]Laud's iron fist went unopposed for the time being. [25:53.89] [26:00.98]By the mid-1630s, Charles could see no obstacle [26:05.21] [26:05.38]to consummating the great Stuart plan of harmony across the three kingdoms, [26:10.77] [26:10.94]whether they wanted it or not. [26:13.21] [26:13.38]England was under control, [26:15.41] [26:15.58]and thanks to the brutal tactics of his Lord Deputy in Ireland, [26:19.13] [26:19.30]Charles's other right-hand hard man, Thomas Wentworth, so too was Ireland. [26:24.33] [26:33.02]That just left Scotland. [26:35.01] [26:36.18]And in particular its obstinate, cantankerous Presbyterian Kirk. [26:41.01] [26:42.02]It had a galling, and to Charles, completely unacceptable, [26:45.33] [26:45.50]contempt for the authority of bishops. [26:48.65] [26:48.82]Charles was determined to break this. [26:51.41] [26:51.58]Then the whole realm could pray and worship as one. [26:56.01] [26:56.54]But the obsession with union which so consumed both James and Charles [27:01.82] [27:01.98]would in the end turn out to guarantee nothing but hatred and division. [27:07.97] [27:12.02]Charles, born in Dunfermline, was himself Scottish. [27:16.45] [27:16.62]So surely there could be no problem with this? [27:19.61] [27:19.78]Well, yes, there could. [27:21.77] [27:21.94]It had taken Charles eight whole years [27:24.21] [27:24.38]to even bother travelling to Edinburgh for his Scottish coronation. [27:28.34] [27:28.50]He'd become Scotland's very first absentee king, and there would be a price to pay. [27:34.89] [27:48.58]Charles was completely incapable of appreciating [27:52.49] [27:52.66]Calvinism's call for a great moral purification. [27:55.93] [27:56.10]As far as he was concerned, Scotland and England were not all that different. [28:00.61] [28:00.78]If one kingdom had been bent to his royal will by a show of well-intentioned firmness, [28:06.25] [28:06.42]so would the other one. [28:08.41] [28:08.58]But of course, the Scottish Reformation had been nothing like England's. [28:12.54] [28:12.70]South of the border, changes had happened in the church at a slow and fitful pace. [28:18.09] [28:18.26]In Scotland, Calvinism had struck in great electrifying bursts of charismatic conversion, [28:24.94] [28:25.10]backed up by preachers, teachers and ministers, [28:27.93] [28:28.10]and only forced into reluctant and periodic retreat by James I, [28:33.46] [28:33.62]who unlike his son, had known when to stop. [28:37.09] [28:41.10]So when Charles announced the introduction into Scotland of the new prayer book, [28:46.69] [28:46.86]he would discover just how little he understood of the kingdom of his birth. [28:52.01] [28:54.02]The royal council had very obligingly let it be known [28:57.73] [28:57.90]that the prayer book had to be introduced, at the latest, by Easter 1637. [29:03.45] [29:03.62]Then there was a printing delay. [29:06.18] [29:06.34]This gave ample time for the Calvinist preachers and lords [29:09.77] [29:09.94]to organise exactly what they were going to do. [29:12.93] [29:13.10]Archbishop Laud, the king, the council, the bishops, everyone fell straight into the trap. [29:20.01] [29:20.18]Whoever thought a little thing like this would start a revolution? [29:24.73] [29:27.30]The British wars began here, in St Giles's Cathedral, Edinburgh, [29:32.09] [29:32.26]on the morning of July 23rd, 1637, [29:35.53] [29:35.70]and the first missiles that were launched were not cannonballs, they were footstools. [29:41.17] [29:43.98]They were launched straight down the nave, [29:46.45] [29:46.62]and their targets were the dean and bishop of the cathedral. [29:50.01] [29:50.18]The right reverends had just started to read from a royally authorised new prayer book, [29:56.41] [29:56.58]and it was this attempt to read from the liturgy [29:59.38] [29:59.54]which had triggered a deafening outburst of shouting and wailing, [30:03.93] [30:04.10]especially from the many women gathered in the church. [30:07.45] [30:09.66]The prayer book riots, though, were just the fuse. [30:12.77] [30:12.94]What those who lit it wanted was to blow up the bishops [30:16.33] [30:16.50]and the whole royal church establishment in Scotland. [30:19.65] [30:23.34]On February 28th, 1638, a national covenant was signed in a four-hour ceremony [30:30.05] [30:30.22]along with sermons and psalms exhorting the godly to be the new Israel. [30:36.82] [30:38.70]The next day, the covenant was brought here to the open churchyard at Greyfriars, [30:43.69] [30:43.86]where hordes of ordinary Scots added their signature. [30:47.21] [30:47.38]Copies were made and distributed the length and breadth of Scotland. [30:52.37] [30:52.54]For countless thousands of Scots, signing the covenant was just an extension [30:56.85] [30:57.02]of the vows they took in Kirk, banding them with God. [31:00.65] [31:00.82]But very rapidly, the document assumed the status of a kind of patriotic scripture, [31:06.29] [31:06.46]determining who and who was not a real Christian, who and who was not truly a Scot. [31:12.77] [31:15.66]For Charles, there was no question of negotiating. [31:18.93] [31:19.10]They were all rebels, they must all be punished. [31:22.93] [31:23.62]There was just one snag - [31:25.29] [31:25.46]it wasn't Charles who had the formidable army, but the Scots, [31:29.34] [31:29.50]veterans of the wars of religion in Europe. [31:32.65] [31:32.82]Facing his first really crucial test, Charles, the British Charlemagne, [31:38.45] [31:38.62]found he couldn't raise money and he couldn't raise men. [31:42.17] [31:43.18]It took one bruising skirmish for Charles to see the folly of further fighting. [31:48.89] [31:49.06]A truce was hastily signed. [31:51.97] [31:53.82]But he wouldn't back off. [31:56.21] [31:58.58]By now, Charles was desperate enough for men and money [32:02.21] [32:02.38]to do what he must have hoped he'd never have to do again: Call a parliament. [32:07.09] [32:07.26]After eleven years of gathering dust, [32:09.65] [32:09.82]the House of Commons would once again be full of passionate argument and legal fury. [32:15.57] [32:19.02]If Charles thought that eleven years meant the old quarrels had been forgotten, [32:23.81] [32:23.98]he was ignoring a force new to British politics - the news. [32:28.18] [32:28.34]For the great political dramas of the last 20 years [32:31.77] [32:31.94]had been hotly consumed by a reading public addicted to newspapers, [32:36.41] [32:36.58]pamphlets, woodcuts and the so-called sixpenny separates, [32:40.70] [32:40.86]recording all the debates and controversies and dispatched around the shires. [32:45.69] [32:48.46]The 1640 parliament took up exactly where it had left off in 1629, [32:53.69] [32:53.86]when Charles had closed it down. [32:56.21] [32:58.34]It must have come as an unpleasant surprise [33:01.45] [33:01.62]when this new parliament, instead of laying imagined grievances aside, [33:06.21] [33:06.38]immediately began to resurrect them. [33:08.61] [33:08.98]This parliament lasted only three short weeks [33:12.37] [33:12.54]before, once again, Charles suspended it. [33:15.45] [33:19.86]But his list of options was getting shorter by the day, and they were all bad. [33:25.30] [33:26.30]He wasn't going to cave in to the Scots and he wasn't going to re-open parliament. [33:31.29] [33:31.46]But there was a third way, courtesy of his Lord Deputy in Ireland, Thomas Wentworth. [33:37.37] [33:38.38]Why not use an Irish Catholic army to crush the Presbyterian Scots? [33:43.77] [33:43.94]Grateful for his advice, Charles made Wentworth Earl of Strafford, but hesitated. [33:50.09] [33:50.26]Charles knew that Protestant England was hardly likely to approve [33:54.14] [33:54.30]of a Catholic army attacking their brother Scots. [33:57.73] [33:59.86]What followed in 1640 was a breakdown of deference of frightening magnitude. [34:06.54] [34:07.90]Officers were being attacked by their own men. [34:11.57] [34:11.74]The latest round of fighting with the Scots was a disaster. [34:15.49] [34:15.66]Newcastle, with its priceless coal, was captured. [34:18.97] [34:19.14]To get it back, to get the Scots out of England, Charles needed cash fast. [34:24.17] [34:27.54]He had no choice now, he would have to re-open parliament. [34:31.53] [34:34.34]There'd never be a better opportunity for John Pym [34:37.89] [34:38.06]and his fellow parliamentary leaders to rein in the king. [34:41.89] [34:45.06]Pym had discovered, whether he understood the word or not, the elixir of revolution. [34:50.93] [34:51.10]Yesterday's truism - obey the king - is tomorrow's bad joke. [34:56.30] [34:56.46]Yesterday's unthinkable - abolish all bishops - seems to be tomorrow's necessity. [35:02.45] [35:05.06]All around London were enormous seething crowds, [35:08.65] [35:08.82]practically laying siege to Westminster. [35:11.49] [35:11.66]John Pym's demands were simple and blunt: [35:15.25] [35:15.42]No taxes ever without parliament's say-so, parliaments to be elected every three years, [35:22.29] [35:22.46]and most decisively of all, looking right into Charles's eyes, [35:26.61] [35:26.78]no parliament, especially not this one, could be dissolved without its own consent. [35:32.89] [35:33.06]When Charles, through gritted teeth, conceded, [35:36.05] [35:36.22]it was the destruction of the absolute monarchy. [35:39.25] [35:39.42]Or was it? [35:41.21] [35:41.38]The king still had one card he could play - [35:44.21] [35:44.38]that Catholic army that Wentworth, the Earl of Strafford, had raised in Ireland. [35:49.33] [35:52.06]Pym now knew he would have to annihilate Strafford [35:56.13] [35:56.30]if he was to defend parliament from this threat. [35:59.77] [35:59.94]So in the spring of 1641, Strafford was impeached. [36:03.45] [36:03.62]Sick and grey-haired, he proved frustratingly impossible to convict of treason, [36:09.29] [36:09.46]so Pym resorted to an Act of Attainder instead. [36:13.21] [36:13.38]This merely required a burden of suspicion. [36:17.13] [36:17.30]When Strafford had spoken of an Irish army reducing the kingdom, [36:21.34] [36:21.50]hadn't he meant England, argued Pym. [36:24.14] [36:24.30]But there was one problem: The Act of Attainder needed the signature of the king. [36:29.89] [36:33.54]Poor Charles. Memories of Buckingham must have flooded back into his mind. [36:38.85] [36:39.02]For a king obsessed by loyalty, how could he abandon Strafford, his most faithful ally? [36:45.09] [36:45.26]It was Strafford himself who spared Charles the agony of indecision. [36:49.38] [36:49.54]He knew that only his own death could save the king [36:53.33] [36:53.50]and the country from further upheaval. [36:56.46] [36:56.62]In a final letter written to Charles, Strafford begged the king to do what had to be done. [37:02.89] [37:03.06]May it please your sacred majesty, [37:05.70] [37:05.86]I understand that the minds of men are more and more incensed against me, [37:10.61] [37:10.78]and to set your majesty's conscience at liberty, [37:13.74] [37:13.90]I do most humbly beseech Your Majesty, for preventing of evils [37:17.89] [37:18.06]that may happen by your refusal, to pass the bill. [37:21.61] [37:21.78]Weeping, Charles signed the warrant. [37:25.29] [37:25.46]Strafford was led out onto Tower Green, [37:27.97] [37:28.14]surrounded by jeering crowds, and beheaded. [37:31.69] [37:40.42]Charles never forgave himself for this act of betrayal. [37:44.30] [37:44.46]But it had never occurred to Strafford that his death [37:47.93] [37:48.10]would actually make things worse for Charles rather than better. [37:51.49] [37:51.66]And what happened next was the worst that could happen. [37:55.13] [37:55.30]Ireland erupted. [37:57.73] [37:57.90]With Strafford executed, Irish Catholics felt unprotected against Protestant reprisals. [38:03.97] [38:04.14]In a pre-emptive strike, they attacked first. [38:07.29] [38:17.14]Late in 1641, news of Irish killings began filtering through England, [38:22.97] [38:23.14]graphically illustrated by a campaign of atrocity prints. [38:27.61] [38:27.78]Now, bad things did happen, but the usual fantasy pictures of impaled babies [38:32.73] [38:32.90]tripped the wire of Anglo-Protestant paranoia. [38:36.69] [38:40.10]Even worse, it was rumoured that the Catholic rebels claimed [38:44.45] [38:44.54]to be acting on behalf of the king. [38:46.45] [38:46.62]The Puritan press hit the streets screaming, "We're next". [38:50.05] [38:51.06]Charles was painfully aware how costly his dream of a united Britain had become. [38:56.58] [38:56.74]First, the Presbyterian Scots had brought down his personal rule, [39:00.73] [39:00.90]now the mass panic triggered by the Catholic Irish [39:03.97] [39:04.14]threatened to finish off his power altogether. [39:06.97] [39:10.26]With events spiralling out of control, Pym saw this was [39:13.53] [39:13.70]the moment to try and strip the king of virtually all his authority. [39:17.66] [39:17.82]Charles's response was to try to arrest him. [39:20.62] [39:20.78]But Pym and four other parliamentary leaders had been tipped off [39:24.29] [39:24.46]that the king was marching on parliament with an armed guard. [39:27.97] [39:28.14]They waited till the last moment and slipped out of the back. [39:31.49] [39:31.66]Charles was left empty-handed. [39:34.81] [39:37.22]It was an unmitigated fiasco. [39:40.21] [39:40.38]The gamble had only been worthwhile so long as Charles was sure of total success. [39:45.93] [39:46.10]Exposed now, just as Pym had wanted, as a naked, abject failure, [39:51.85] [39:52.02]Charles appeared to be something worse than a despot - a blundering despot. [39:57.05] [39:59.94]Both sides were moving fast beyond any point of reconciliation. [40:04.77] [40:04.94]Pym made it clear that parliament now needed to protect itself [40:08.65] [40:08.82]and England from the king. [40:10.81] [40:10.98]It set about raising an army. [40:13.73] [40:13.90]In July 1642, Bulstrode Whitelocke thought out loud about the abyss facing the country. [40:20.34] [40:21.78]It is strange to note how insensibly we have slipped into this [40:25.98] [40:26.14]beginning of a civil war by one unexpected accident after another, [40:30.85] [40:31.02]as waves of the sea would have brought us this far and which we scarce know how. [40:36.77] [40:36.94]What the issue shall be, no man alive can tell. [40:40.65] [40:40.82]Probably few of us here may live to see the end of it. [40:45.81] [40:47.30]What's truly amazing and touching about the spring and summer of 1642 [40:51.73] [40:51.90]is the abundance of evidence we have about the agonies of allegiance: [40:56.05] [40:56.22]The real soul searching that people went through [40:58.97] [40:59.14]when they were pondering the most painful and weightiest decision of their lives - [41:03.13] [41:03.30]which side to join themselves to, and how earnestly and how honestly [41:07.89] [41:08.06]they tried to justify that decision to their families, [41:11.33] [41:11.50]their friends and not least, to themselves. [41:14.97] [41:15.98]Cruellest of all, it tore fathers away from sons. [41:20.21] [41:20.38]The sad history of one Buckinghamshire family says it all. [41:24.42] [41:25.54]The Verneys had been the very model of a loving, companionable gentry family, [41:30.98] [41:31.14]but they were torn apart in this crisis. [41:33.89] [41:34.06]Ralph had sat next to his father during the great parliaments of 1640, [41:39.18] [41:39.34]but now he not only expressed support for the parliamentary cause [41:43.69] [41:43.86]but actually swore the oath required of all members after the militia ordinance. [41:49.06] [41:49.22]Now, oaths were very serious things in the 17th century, [41:53.61] [41:53.78]and taking this one split Ralph not only from his father, [41:57.21] [41:57.38]but from his hothead younger Royalist brother Edmund, [42:00.65] [42:00.82]who failed to see why Ralph should not be honouring not only his father but the king. [42:07.21] [42:07.38]And yet, and yet, the Verneys did remain a family. [42:11.97] [42:12.86]Ralph had made his vow to parliament, [42:15.37] [42:15.54]but his father felt under obligation to Charles. [42:18.37] [42:18.54]It was a bond of personal loyalty which held, [42:21.57] [42:21.74]despite Edmund having little enthusiasm for what the king had done. [42:26.13] [42:27.66]I do not like the quarrel and do heartily wish that the king would yield [42:32.45] [42:32.62]and consent to what they desire, so that my conscience is only concerned [42:36.93] [42:37.10]in honour and gratitude to follow my master. [42:40.81] [42:41.82]I have eaten his bread and served him near 30 years [42:46.65] [42:46.82]and will not do so base a thing as to forsake him. [42:51.17] [42:54.06]In the third week of August, 1642, Charles raised his standard. [42:59.34] [42:59.50]The Rubicon had been crossed. [43:02.06] [43:02.22]The honour of holding Charles's personal flag in the battle fell to Sir Edmund Verney. [43:07.29] [43:07.46]He swore only death would prise it from his hands. [43:10.93] [43:21.78]By the time the Royalist army arrived at Edgehill, [43:24.93] [43:25.10]its prospects had been transformed. [43:27.09] [43:27.26]It was now about 20,000 strong, [43:29.61] [43:29.78]about 14,000 of whom took up position on the ridge in the afternoon of October 22nd. [43:36.62] [43:36.78]At the top of the hill were the king and his two sons, [43:40.25] [43:40.42]Charles, the Prince of Wales, and the nine-year-old James, Duke of York, [43:43.89] [43:44.06]along with Prince Rupert and his toy poodle, Boy. [43:47.33] [43:48.62]It was here that Charles I planted his flag. [43:52.69] [44:00.02]In mid-afternoon, the commander of the parliamentary army, the Earl of Essex, [44:04.73] [44:04.90]began to cannonade the Royalist infantry. [44:07.81] [44:07.98]Balls thudded and hissed in the grass, taking a life here, a limb there. [44:12.93] [44:14.22]Then Prince Rupert led his cavalry forward down the hill. [44:18.18] [44:18.34]For the men in the parliament lines, watching a distant trot turn into a canter [44:23.46] [44:23.62]and then a charge, and seeing their own muskets have no effect [44:27.41] [44:27.58]on the suddenly terrifyingly hurtling horsemen, the moment of truth had arrived. [44:33.29] [44:40.10]War slammed into them. [44:42.21] [44:42.38]Big dark horses, bright, deadly steel. They panicked and broke, [44:47.01] [44:47.18]Rupert's horsemen following fleeing troopers all the way to the baggage train. [44:51.77] [44:51.94]Rupert must have thought this was going to be easy. [44:55.93] [44:56.10]But by now the parliamentary infantry had crawled forward, [44:59.17] [44:59.34]the two great phalanxes of pikemen heaving and pushing at each other [45:03.49] [45:03.66]amidst the musket fire until they dropped of exhaustion. [45:07.65] [45:09.90]Somewhere amidst the smoke, fire and steel was Sir Edmund Verney. [45:14.77] [45:14.94]The royal standard clenched in his hand made him an obvious target. [45:19.06] [45:19.22]They never even found his corpse. [45:21.69] [45:21.86]# There lies a knight slain under his shield, with a down... # [45:30.05] [45:36.14]In the following months, the war broke down into grim, grinding local conflicts. [45:41.05] [45:41.22]Parliament held on to London, [45:43.13] [45:43.30]the king tried to nail down bases of strength in the north and south-west. [45:48.09] [45:49.18]The south-western campaign was especially savage. [45:53.01] [45:53.18]Towns like Exeter and Taunton changed hands. [45:56.25] [45:56.42]Local families were divided between brothers and cousins. [45:59.57] [45:59.74]Old friends became new enemies. [46:02.65] [46:02.82]Two such opponents, men in every other respect virtually indistinguishable, [46:07.33] [46:07.50]were William Waller, a parliamentary general, and Ralph Hopton, a Royalist. [46:12.57] [46:12.74]In a lull in the fighting, Hopton wrote to Waller asking for a meeting. [46:17.45] [46:17.62]Waller felt he had to turn him down, [46:19.61] [46:19.78]but wrote back in terms which spoke of the deep sorrow he felt at their broken friendship. [46:25.09] [46:25.26]It's the classic lament of this terrible civil war. [46:29.05] [46:30.06]To my noble friend, Sir Ralph. [46:32.62] [46:32.78]Sir, my affections to you are so unchangeable [46:37.73] [46:37.90]that hostility itself cannot violate my friendship to your person. [46:42.49] [46:42.66]But I must be true to the cause wherein I serve. [46:46.54] [46:46.70]That great God which is the searcher of my heart [46:50.41] [46:50.58]knows with what a sad scene I go upon this service, [46:54.57] [46:54.74]and with what a perfect hatred I detest this war without an enemy. [46:59.17] [46:59.34]But I look upon it as an opus domini, enough to silence all passion in me. [47:05.01] [47:05.18]We are both upon the stage and must act parts that are assigned us in this tragedy. [47:11.33] [47:11.50]Let us do it in a way of honour [47:14.33] [47:14.50]and without personal animosities, whatsoever the issue be. [47:18.81] [47:20.38]I shall never relinquish the dear title [47:23.13] [47:23.30]of your most affectionated friend and faithful servant, William Waller. [47:28.50] [47:29.66]The scythe of mortality, always busy, never fussy, [47:33.89] [47:34.06]swept up all kinds and conditions of men - officers and rank and file, [47:38.73] [47:38.90]musketeers and troopers, camp whores and sutlers, [47:43.65] [47:43.82]young apprentices who put on a helmet for the very first time, [47:47.97] [47:48.14]and hardened old mercenaries who'd grown rusty along with their cuirasses, [47:52.69] [47:52.86]soldiers who had no idea where to get a pair of boots or anything to fill their bellies, [47:57.85] [47:58.02]and peasants who simply had absolutely nothing left to give them, [48:01.73] [48:01.90]drummer boys and buglers, captains and cooks. [48:06.77] [48:09.22]By the autumn of 1643, parliament was utterly demoralised. [48:14.42] [48:14.58]Bristol had fallen to the Royalists, [48:16.85] [48:17.02]the king had established a court and a military government in Oxford. [48:21.09] [48:21.26]Many parliamentarians, weary of the poverty and slaughter, [48:24.65] [48:24.82]were making noises about peace. [48:27.46] [48:27.62]Bulstrode Whitelocke wrote: [48:29.73] [48:29.90]Women are weary of their being robbed of children, [48:33.37] [48:33.54]of their chastity and their parents. [48:36.21] [48:36.38]Is it not time for us to be weary of these discords [48:39.77] [48:39.94]and to use our utmost endeavours to put an end to them? [48:44.81] [48:48.14]This was not what John Pym wanted to hear. [48:50.89] [48:51.90]Even as he was dying, tortured by cancer of the bowel, [48:55.69] [48:55.86]to squash a peace movement, he pulled off a last coup which would transform the war. [49:01.65] [49:05.54]On September 25th, 1643, an alliance was struck between parliament and the Scots: [49:11.98] [49:12.14]The Solemn League and Covenant. [49:14.65] [49:14.82]In 1637, Scotland had begun the resistance against Charles I. [49:20.05] [49:20.22]Seven years later, the Covenant would all but finish him off. [49:24.73] [49:27.86]At Marston Moor, outside York, on a wet afternoon in July 1644, [49:33.14] [49:33.30]the full force of the Anglo-Scots alliance hammered the Royalist army. [49:38.17] [49:38.34]It was the bloodiest battle of the war, the cream of Charles's army was annihilated. [49:43.97] [49:44.14]Among the victors was the MP for Cambridge, [49:47.21] [49:47.38]a cavalry officer with iron in his soul. [49:50.37] [49:57.02]His name was Oliver Cromwell, and he was, he thought, doing the Lord's work. [50:02.69] [50:02.86]Cromwell was himself an East Anglian country gentleman, [50:06.49] [50:06.66]but he knew that gentility was no use in this war, only effective fighting men. [50:12.57] [50:12.74]After Edgehill, he had told John Hampden: [50:15.77] [50:15.94]I had rather have a plain russet-coated captain [50:18.74] [50:18.90]that knows what he fights for and loves what he knows [50:21.97] [50:22.14]than that which you call a gentleman and is nothing else. [50:26.13] [50:27.22]In the winter of 1644-45, [50:30.02] [50:30.18]Cromwell and a Yorkshire general, Sir Thomas Fairfax, [50:33.21] [50:33.38]set about to make a new kind of army, [50:36.34] [50:36.50]prepared to accept discipline in return for decent supplies of food, boots and shelter. [50:41.81] [50:41.98]And it would be an army that knew what it was fighting for. [50:46.29] [50:47.46]I fight for the preservation of our parliament, [50:50.42] [50:50.58]in the being whereof, under God, consists the glory and welfare of this kingdom. [50:56.21] [51:04.74]At Naseby, in June 1645, [51:07.93] [51:08.10]the two wings of the New Model Army closed in on a Royalist force about half their size. [51:14.25] [51:14.90]At the end of the fighting, nothing was left of the royal army [51:18.45] [51:18.54]except the dead left strewn across the fields. [51:22.21] [51:27.94]The last Royalist strongholds were taken one by one: Bristol, Carlisle. [51:33.33] [51:33.50]At Basing, in Hampshire, one of the most vicious sieges in a war full of them [51:38.05] [51:38.22]came to a long drawn out bloody conclusion. [51:41.53] [51:44.42]The war was over and parliament had won. [51:47.25] [51:47.42]So finally, God had spoken. [51:50.14] [51:54.30]Surely even Charles could see that? [51:57.10] [51:57.26]Surely that would end the bloodshed and the country could return to reasonableness? [52:03.21] [52:06.22]And there were many in parliament aching for just this - [52:09.89] [52:10.06]a settlement that would allow Charles to keep his throne, [52:13.53] [52:13.70]some kind of return to what had been on the table back in 1642. [52:18.29] [52:25.54]Surely, after all the blunders and bloodshed, the botched coups and the futile slaughters, [52:31.21] [52:31.38]he would do the right thing, he would share power? [52:35.13] [52:35.30]But Charles was constitutionally incapable of being a constitutional king. [52:40.97] [52:41.14]He gagged at the idea of being reduced to a subaltern monarch, taking, not giving, orders. [52:47.05] [52:47.22]The war might be over, for now, but for Charles the plotting was not. [52:52.01] [52:52.18]For the next two years, in a bid to reverse his defeat, [52:55.89] [52:56.06]Charles tried to play off parliament against the army, the army against parliament, [53:00.37] [53:00.54]and the Scots against both. [53:03.01] [53:06.30]Oliver Cromwell finally realised that as long as Charles was around, [53:09.93] [53:10.10]he was always going to be a rallying point for the discontented, [53:14.06] [53:14.22]and there were bound to be a lot of them. [53:16.73] [53:16.90]But Cromwell was also enraged by Charles's presumption at defying the verdict of God, [53:22.45] [53:22.62]so clearly revealed at the battles of Marston Moor and Naseby. [53:26.77] [53:26.94]It was evident then that Charles had to go. [53:30.13] [53:30.30]Whether or not he had to die, that was another matter. [53:34.13] [53:36.62]A second civil war flared up, [53:39.09] [53:39.26]once more requiring from Cromwell all his military ruthlessness. [53:44.01] [53:44.18]With his annihilation of the Royalist Scottish army in 1648 at Preston, [53:48.81] [53:48.98]Charles's final hope had gone. [53:51.70] [53:54.58]Any thought of conciliation with the king was now purest folly. [53:59.37] [54:02.10]Those MPs who persisted in the idea that Charles could be reasoned with [54:06.97] [54:07.14]now had a furious and vengeful army to answer to. [54:10.97] [54:11.14]When Colonel Thomas Pride used his troops to weed out [54:14.85] [54:15.02]any MP suspected of going soft on Charles, [54:18.45] [54:18.62]the country realised there was a new power in the land. [54:22.58] [54:24.90]This was the soldiers' show now. [54:26.93] [54:27.10]Britain belonged to them, and they belonged to God. [54:30.37] [54:30.54]They had no desire to go back to a country of princes, lords and gentlemen. [54:34.53] [54:34.70]They wanted Jerusalem now. [54:37.37] [54:47.06]And they wanted the biggest sinner of them all, the man of blood, [54:50.85] [54:51.02]Charles Stuart, to feel the fire of God's wrath. [54:54.77] [54:57.14]The final question could be addressed - what should happen to Charles? [55:01.53] [55:08.82]Cromwell agonised, prayed and wept, [55:11.65] [55:11.82]beseeched the Lord of Hosts to give him an answer. [55:15.21] [55:15.38]In the end, politics, not prayer, decided it. [55:18.97] [55:19.14]The king would have to die if the country was ever to heal. [55:23.13] [55:23.30]But not done away with in some dark corner. [55:26.26] [55:26.42]No, Charles was going to be tried in the open, then beheaded in public. [55:31.25] [55:31.74]Cut his head off with the crown on it. [55:35.21] [55:35.38]This would be THE great turning point in British history. [55:39.50] [55:39.66]The trial would kill one kind of Britain and give birth to another, [55:44.05] [55:44.22]a republic, a kingless state of God. [55:47.81] [55:48.26]So for both Charles and Oliver Cromwell, the final act would become a theatre, [55:53.70] [55:53.86]a classroom, a debating chamber. [55:56.50] [55:56.66]Charles will play the classic Stuart part, that of holy martyr, [56:00.54] [56:00.70]as his grandmother, Mary, Queen of Scots, had done. [56:03.58] [56:03.74]Imposing, dignified, tragic. [56:06.05] [56:06.78]But he knew as well as Oliver Cromwell did that the outcome was never in doubt. [56:11.65] [56:11.82]The king would die. The only question was as what? [56:15.65] [56:15.82]Martyr or traitor? What had he learned? [56:19.21] [56:19.38]In the end, the answer was... nothing. [56:22.69] [56:27.02]On January 30th, 1649, he was led out through the Banqueting House [56:32.33] [56:32.50]onto the scaffold erected right outside in Whitehall. [56:36.17] [56:36.34]The windows were all boarded up, so Rubens's great anthem [56:40.89] [56:41.06]to the god-like omnipotence of kings was invisible in the gloom, [56:46.01] [56:46.10]the light gone out of it. [56:48.69] [56:52.26]But Charles didn't need the pictures, he had the script off by heart. [56:56.77] [56:58.10]A subject and a sovereign are clean different things. [57:03.33] [57:20.18]So the last words out of Charles I's mouth were the truth. [57:25.46] [57:25.62]With nothing left to lose for himself and everything to gain for his son, [57:30.13] [57:30.30]he was not about to confuse anyone [57:33.02] [57:33.18]about the nature of the kingdom that God had ordained. [57:36.81] [57:36.98]It was the same kingdom that Rubens had painted on that ceiling - [57:41.26] [57:41.42]the anointed sovereign answerable only to the Almighty, [57:44.81] [57:44.98]laying down laws for the benefit of his subjects. [57:49.33] [57:49.58]He offered justice and he expected obedience. [57:53.65] [57:53.74]That was it. Take it or leave it. [57:56.17] [57:56.34]It had always been about that really, [57:58.93] [57:59.10]and all the pious hopes of turning Charles into a parliamentary monarch [58:03.49] [58:03.66]were just so many castles in the air. [58:06.81] [58:09.66]The End! [59:05.81]

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