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England and Scotland,
two realms divided until now.
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In 1603, they had come together
in one person,
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James VI of Scotland, and First of England.
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He wanted to be known
as the king of Great Britain.
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But what was this new thing
in the world, this Great Britain?
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In the first years of the 17th century,
only the map makers could tell you.
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One of them,
a busy ex-tailor called John Speed,
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published his atlas of 67 maps called
"The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain",
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and covering every inch
of Scotland, Wales, Ireland and England.
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What lay behind Speed's atlas
was an optimistic vision
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of happy, harmonious Britannia
coming together under a king
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who was determined to bring unity
after centuries of war and hatred.
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And in the Vale of the Red Horse
in Warwickshire,
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John Speed had a glimpse of what
this British heaven on earth might look like.
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Meadowing pastures with the
green mantle so embroidered with flowers
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that from Edgehill
we might behold another Eden.
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On October 23rd, 1642,
another man, King Charles I,
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surveyed the same landscape
from the same ridge.
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The meadows were now full,
not with cows and harebells,
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but cannon, pikes and musketeers.
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By nightfall, there would be 3,000
British corpses lying in the freezing mud.
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Here at Edgehill,
Eden had become Golgotha.
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Over the next long years,
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the nations that both James and Charles
yearned to bring together
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would tear each other apart
in murderous civil wars.
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Hundreds of thousands of lives would be lost
in battles, sieges, epidemics and famine.
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A raw body count fails to measure
the full enormity of a disaster
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which reached
into virtually every part of Britain,
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from Cornwall to County Connaught,
from York to the Hebrides.
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It tore apart communities
of the parish and the county,
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which all through the turmoil
of the Reformation had managed to agree
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on how the country should be governed
and who should do the governing.
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Men who had broken bread together
now tried to break each other's heads.
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Men who had judged together
now judged each other.
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At the end of it all, there would be
a united Britain as the Stuarts had hoped,
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but it would not be a united kingdom,
it would be a united republic.
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The civil wars were not
just an unfortunate accident
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or an occasion to dress up
as Cavaliers and Roundheads.
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They were that most un-British event,
a war of ideas,
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ideas that mattered deeply to contemporaries
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because at the heart of them was an
argument about liberty and obedience.
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That argument became lethal at Edgehill,
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and it would echo for generations
down through British history,
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and as a matter of fact,
that argument has never really gone away.
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To the survivors,
looking back, the issue was simple.
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Whether the king
should govern as a god by his will
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and the people governed
by force as beasts,
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or whether the people
should be governed by their own consent.
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Yes, that's the voice
of a republican in exile, Edmund Ludlow,
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but that same voice, that same memory,
would be heard through the centuries
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and in revolutions far beyond our shores -
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in America in 1776, in France in 1789.
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It goes against the grain, doesn't it?
A bit embarrassing, not to say painful,
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to be thought of as the fountainhead
of revolutions. It's not very British.
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All that shouting,
all that Bible waving, all that killing.
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So was it all an aberration, then?
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Well, no, actually.
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These wars were the crucible of our modern
history, for out of the fires of these wars
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came eventually a genuinely
parliamentary monarchy.
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Of course, no one
understood that at the time,
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no one was reading from a script which
commanded, "Go forth and be democratic."
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So when the 24-year-old
Charles became king,
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no one in their right mind
could possibly have imagined
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a war between parliament and the Crown.
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No succession in over two centuries
had been as settled or as unthreatened.
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Charles may have been smaller
than life, long faced, painfully formal,
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private to the point of being secretive,
a stickler for decorum,
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as cool, as still and as pallid as marble,
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but to many this was rather
a welcome contrast with his father, James,
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who'd been loud-mouthed,
pedantic and uncouth.
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From the beginning,
for those paying attention,
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there was something ominously distant
about this small man on a big horse,
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too lofty to bother
with a coronation procession.
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A man who believed
that kings were little gods on earth.
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Charles saw himself as the father of the
nation, and like any 17th-century father,
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he thought he was responsible
for the well-being of his family,
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but in return he expected
to be strictly obeyed.
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Of course, like James before him,
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he would listen to the people
through their representatives in parliament,
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but only when he chose
and on matters he saw fit to be discussed.
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But the House of Commons
was filled with historians and lawyers,
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and for them parliament was not
simply a matter of royal convenience.
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Ever heard of Magna Carta?
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For these men, parliamentary history,
the history they were reading and writing,
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was an ongoing epic of liberty,
and they were the keepers of the flame.
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The countdown to the civil wars
started now, though nobody heard it.
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It was a countdown that could have
been stopped time and again,
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but the ticking grew louder and louder.
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By 1642 it would be deafening.
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And what triggered that countdown? Money.
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One of the first things this young king
did was declare war on Spain,
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and nothing was more ruinously expensive
than foreign war.
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There was the added
complication that in England,
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even little gods on earth had to go cap
in hand to parliament for the money to fight.
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For Charles, the issue was personal.
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Wars of religion were tearing Europe apart.
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Protestants and Catholics were killing
each other from Sweden to Hungary
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with unspeakable cruelty.
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They'd forced his own sister,
the Queen of Bohemia, into exile.
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In his quiet way,
Charles burned to be a Christian warrior.
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There was also the matter
of his older brother, Henry.
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A champion of the joust,
celebrated by the poets as a Protestant hero,
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Henry was supposed to have been king,
but he had died when Charles was a boy,
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and his armour had passed on to him.
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It was too big.
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All his life, Charles would try to fit the steel,
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try to become the gartered
Charlemagne beneath the British oak.
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And this war against Spain
would be his big chance.
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Surely parliament would cough up money
for the great Protestant crusade?
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Oh, yes, was the answer, but -and it was
a big but - with all due respect,
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we don't much care for your choice
of commander, the Duke of Buckingham.
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So while we're happy to fork over subsidies,
we think we'll make it a short-term contract.
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Renewable, to be sure,
if he turns out all right.
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But parliament knew
perfectly well it wouldn't.
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From the start,
parliament had Buckingham's number.
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To them, he was an upstart nobody,
a peacock with a pretty face
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who'd been promoted outrageously
above the great earls of the land.
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He'd been James' favourite -
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well, actually more than a favourite
if the court scandal was to be believed -
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and now he'd wormed
his way into Charles's favour too.
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The pair of them had travelled
together incognito to Spain
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in a bid to woo
the Spanish Infanta for Charles.
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They'd returned
from their escapade empty-handed.
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But to the young, insecure Charles, glamorous,
worldly Buckingham had become his idol.
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To the rest of the court however,
Buckingham was a parasite, a pest, a viper.
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Why, in God's name,
give him a blank cheque?
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It was obvious what would
happen to the money and it did.
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Buckingham blew a cool �240,000
in a raid on France
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so botched it seemed
the act of a saboteur, not a supremo.
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So if Charles wanted
a penny more, his darling had to go.
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Presume to talk to the king about
his choice of trusted generals and ministers?
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Presume to tell the king?
Presume to lay down the law?
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Why, that was an end of kingship itself.
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So in 1626, Charles did what he assumed
kings worth the name were entitled to do.
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He would dismiss parliament and collect
the money himself through a forced loan.
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It was the politest bullying.
Charles was always polite.
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The gloves were off.
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Loan refusers were threatened, prosecuted.
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Two of them, Sir Francis Barrington
and Sir Edmund Hampden died,
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either in prison or shortly afterwards.
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Many did pay up, but their compliance
spoke of fear as much as loyalty.
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There had always been
professional grumblers when it came to tax,
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but these country gentlemen were
speaking a new and dangerous language.
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No tax could be lawful without
the consent of parliament, they said.
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The money ran out again in 1628,
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and Charles was forced
to call another parliament.
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Speaker after speaker rose to the rostrum
in defence of the liberties of England.
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They drafted a formal list
of their grievances in a Petition of Right,
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which Charles graciously conceded as
the price for saving his beloved Buckingham.
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Any slight chance of Charles honouring it,
and it was slight enough to begin with,
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went out of the window when later, in 1628,
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Buckingham was assassinated
to national cheering.
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Convulsed with grief and hardened by rage,
Charles shut parliament down.
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As the doors were being closed,
one MP, Sir John Eliot, stood up and roared
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that anyone imposing a tax
without parliament's consent
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would be a capital enemy
to this kingdom and commonwealth.
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Charles disagreed, Eliot was the traitor,
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so off to the Tower of London he went,
where he died in 1632.
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But for Charles, the rainstorm of words
had now mercifully stopped.
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In their place beamed
sunlight from the heavens.
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Triumphantly too,
the war with Spain was now over.
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So no more begging for money,
no more of that aggravation.
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So in 1630,
as far as Charles was concerned,
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peace had broken out in Britannia.
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His father James
had always preached peace,
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and James was much on Charles's mind.
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Charles decided his father's memory
deserved something special,
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00:14:35,742 --> 00:14:40,418
and courtesy of the Flemish Catholic painter,
Peter Paul Rubens, he would get it.
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Not one, but three huge painted tributes.
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A go-for-broke manifesto
for the Stuart dynasty.
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(CHORAL MUSIC)
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They would be placed high on the ceiling
of the building he had inherited from James,
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Inigo Jones's masterpiece,
the Banqueting House in Whitehall.
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In 1636, they were triumphantly
hoist aloft for all the world to see.
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There are three visions here
of James' benevolent rule.
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In one panel, James is depicted
as the bringer of peace and prosperity.
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In the central panel, Rubens gives us
James being carried to Heaven as a god.
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In the third, he is Solomon being offered
the two crowns of England and Scotland.
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The Banqueting House in Whitehall
simply takes your breath away
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by the sheer cheek
with which it ignores the English Channel.
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It's a piece of Italy transplanted into Britain.
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Classical columns, tall windows,
the ultimate architectural light box,
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designed to flood
the Stuart monarchy with brilliance.
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It was also meant to pin
any unbelievers to the floor
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through the heavyweight power
of its muscled allegories,
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singing the virtues of the godlike king.
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So when you walked
in here and you remembered
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that when the Stuarts had described
kings as 'little gods on earth',
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you realised they were not kidding.
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The Banqueting House
was Charles's absolutist dreamland.
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00:16:36,582 --> 00:16:40,894
It was here that Charles
could act out the grandest of his fantasies,
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that his three kingdoms, England, Scotland
and Ireland, were finally yoked together
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in harmony under the ruler
who was firm but just.
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What better way to give
this new British court a European makeover,
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to turn it into a byword
for baroque gorgeousness?
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00:17:01,822 --> 00:17:06,498
There would be a stunning new royal art
collection gathered from all over Europe,
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00:17:06,662 --> 00:17:10,860
of a quality to make popes
and emperors moan with envy -
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Mantegnas, Titians, Rembrandts.
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Charles's unprepossessing
French Queen, Henrietta Maria,
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with her sallow skin and discoloured teeth,
was airbrushed into stardom
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by the glossiest glamourist
of them all, Anthony Van Dyke.
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And beyond the palace, the king
was satisfied to see his will being done,
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people he disapproved of
being made to desist.
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I like not this.
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Out in the shires,
his taxes were being collected,
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his justice was being carried out,
and the skies had not fallen in.
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Who missed the talkers,
the parliament now? Surely nobody.
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Sooner or later, Charles
was going to have to come down to earth,
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and when he did he'd notice
that his earthly kingdom
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was ruled not by images but by words.
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Now, unlike the invitingly soft scenery
of Rubens's fantasy kingdom,
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words were hard things,
black and white things.
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And in the hands of wordsmiths,
lawyers, preachers, printers,
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00:18:25,742 --> 00:18:28,336
they had a razor-sharp edge
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00:18:28,422 --> 00:18:32,779
that would cut right through
all that Stuart mush about British union
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00:18:32,862 --> 00:18:37,378
and bring the playground of the gods
crashing to the ground.
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00:18:39,342 --> 00:18:43,415
The nay-sayers had not gone away,
and they had not shut up.
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00:18:43,582 --> 00:18:49,657
The men who had declared taxes without
parliamentary consent to be illegal in 1625,
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00:18:49,822 --> 00:18:52,734
still thought this in 1635.
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Yes, they reluctantly forked up,
but it didn't stop them smouldering with rage.
221
00:18:59,542 --> 00:19:03,171
Typical was a Buckinghamshire
landowner called John Hampden.
222
00:19:03,342 --> 00:19:08,291
John Hampden was not some abrasive,
unworldly hothead.
223
00:19:08,462 --> 00:19:12,819
He was a very well respected and important
member of the county community.
224
00:19:16,662 --> 00:19:21,338
Hampden had been deeply moved
by the plight of Sir John Eliot in prison.
225
00:19:21,502 --> 00:19:25,780
He'd visited him
and looked after his teenage boys.
226
00:19:25,942 --> 00:19:30,732
Now he would inherit the mantle of
tax resister, this time against ship money,
227
00:19:30,902 --> 00:19:34,372
the tax that paid for the upkeep of the navy.
228
00:19:34,542 --> 00:19:37,534
Why should counties
with no coastlines pay this?
229
00:19:37,702 --> 00:19:39,897
It was iniquitous.
230
00:19:40,062 --> 00:19:44,578
It may only have been a few shillings,
and in the end Hampden lost his case,
231
00:19:44,742 --> 00:19:48,655
but he won the argument.
The embers were hot again.
232
00:19:49,662 --> 00:19:51,892
And alongside the lawyers in parliament,
233
00:19:52,062 --> 00:19:55,975
Charles now faced
another group of intransigent critics
234
00:19:56,142 --> 00:19:59,293
who had something even more
unanswerable than Magna Carta -
235
00:19:59,462 --> 00:20:02,454
Holy Scripture -
and they of course were the Puritans.
236
00:20:05,062 --> 00:20:07,576
For the hotter kind
of Protestants, the Puritans,
237
00:20:07,742 --> 00:20:13,738
the Stuart obsession with harmony
and unity was at best meaningless claptrap,
238
00:20:13,902 --> 00:20:20,216
and at worst it was a plot to delude the
gullible into bending the knee to Rome again.
239
00:20:20,382 --> 00:20:23,738
For them, the reality was conflict,
240
00:20:23,902 --> 00:20:27,895
the unbridgeable division
between the saved and the damned.
241
00:20:28,062 --> 00:20:33,090
There was an endless battle between
the saints and the legions of the Devil.
242
00:20:33,262 --> 00:20:38,382
The fires had already been lit
in Europe, for the Reformation was a war,
243
00:20:38,542 --> 00:20:41,932
and that war had not yet been won.
244
00:20:45,462 --> 00:20:49,774
The Puritans looked around them,
but all they could see from this king
245
00:20:49,942 --> 00:20:52,410
was a betrayal of the godly Reformation.
246
00:20:52,582 --> 00:20:56,257
Peace with Catholic Spain abroad,
and at home, even worse,
247
00:20:56,422 --> 00:21:00,210
a church ruled by bishops
who were little better than Papists -
248
00:21:00,382 --> 00:21:04,614
bishops who berated the Puritans
for having taken the Reformation too far.
249
00:21:07,702 --> 00:21:14,858
In the face of this cosmic battle, to stay still,
to keep silent, was a sin and a crime.
250
00:21:17,542 --> 00:21:21,854
For the Puritans, Charles I
ought to have been a custom-built king,
251
00:21:22,022 --> 00:21:24,934
austere, decorous and chaste.
252
00:21:25,102 --> 00:21:29,857
The fact was, his religion still
seemed to need Protestant mumbo-jumbo,
253
00:21:30,022 --> 00:21:32,172
all those signs and mysteries.
254
00:21:32,342 --> 00:21:37,780
Even this would have been palatable had
he not wanted to foist it on everyone else,
255
00:21:37,942 --> 00:21:41,617
to force everyone to kneel at its shrine.
256
00:21:43,382 --> 00:21:49,173
The Puritans declared war against any
creeping signs of Romanism in the Church -
257
00:21:49,342 --> 00:21:54,257
paintings and statues,
crucifixes and altar rails.
258
00:21:56,662 --> 00:22:01,452
And it escaped nobody's notice
that Charles was married to a Catholic.
259
00:22:05,542 --> 00:22:08,454
These men were very much in a minority.
260
00:22:08,622 --> 00:22:14,413
But of course, being the elect, they expected
to be in a minority - the party of redemption.
261
00:22:14,582 --> 00:22:18,052
In fact, they glorified
in the slightness of their numbers,
262
00:22:18,222 --> 00:22:22,101
the self-purifying troop of Gideon's Army.
263
00:22:25,622 --> 00:22:31,492
Men like the London wood-turner, Nehemiah
Wallington, would be in the front line,
264
00:22:31,662 --> 00:22:36,611
a storm trooper of the Reformation,
ready to fight every waking hour.
265
00:22:38,422 --> 00:22:43,576
You may see now how Antichrist doth plot
against the poor church of God.
266
00:22:43,742 --> 00:22:48,372
But so long as we put our trust in the Lord,
let us once again take note
267
00:22:48,542 --> 00:22:54,060
of his great deliverances from those
great and devilish bloodsucking Papists.
268
00:22:55,182 --> 00:22:58,254
Of course,
Charles was not going to lose any sleep
269
00:22:58,422 --> 00:23:00,936
over the Nehemiah Wallingtons of this world.
270
00:23:01,102 --> 00:23:05,254
But Puritanism was not just the faith
of merchants and artisans.
271
00:23:08,302 --> 00:23:11,578
There were plenty among
the gentry and the nobility too,
272
00:23:11,742 --> 00:23:15,257
who believed just as passionately
in the word of scripture,
273
00:23:15,422 --> 00:23:20,655
and for all of them it was an article of faith
that nobody, neither pope nor king,
274
00:23:20,822 --> 00:23:24,053
would ever be allowed
to flout the word of God.
275
00:23:28,262 --> 00:23:31,493
And Charles would never
be allowed to forget it.
276
00:23:36,942 --> 00:23:40,014
Yes, finally, they were a minority.
277
00:23:42,502 --> 00:23:47,257
But it was one of Charles's
most costly errors to let so many
278
00:23:47,422 --> 00:23:51,131
in the Protestant middle
of the country come to regard him
279
00:23:51,302 --> 00:23:55,011
as a greater threat to their church
than the Puritan militants.
280
00:23:55,182 --> 00:23:59,812
And for this fatal error, Charles
had one man to thank, William Laud,
281
00:23:59,982 --> 00:24:03,975
whom he made
Archbishop of Canterbury in 1633.
282
00:24:04,142 --> 00:24:10,138
Poor Laud. Is there anything good to be
said for Laud and the principles he stood for?
283
00:24:10,302 --> 00:24:14,932
He's gone down as one of the most
arrogant and destructive men in our history.
284
00:24:15,102 --> 00:24:19,095
But put yourself in his vestments
and it looks different.
285
00:24:19,262 --> 00:24:24,495
Far from being an elitist, Laud thought it was
the Puritans who were the authoritarians.
286
00:24:24,662 --> 00:24:28,291
Thou shalt smite them
and utterly destroy them,
287
00:24:28,462 --> 00:24:33,092
Thou shalt make no covenant with them,
nor show mercy unto them,
288
00:24:33,262 --> 00:24:39,371
It was the Puritans, with their obsession with
reading and preaching, their gloomy fatalism,
289
00:24:39,542 --> 00:24:43,217
their endless battle cries,
who deprived the ordinary people
290
00:24:43,382 --> 00:24:47,375
of what they needed from
the Church - colour, spectacle,
291
00:24:47,542 --> 00:24:50,818
the Saviour's cross upon the altar,
292
00:24:50,982 --> 00:24:54,611
the comforts of ritual,
sacrament and ceremony,
293
00:24:54,782 --> 00:24:58,821
a fence to keep dogs off the
communion tray, and most of all,
294
00:24:58,982 --> 00:25:05,820
the consoling possibility that sinful souls
might at the end be received into Christ.
295
00:25:05,982 --> 00:25:09,418
What was so very wrong with that?
296
00:25:09,582 --> 00:25:14,372
Well, what was wrong was that Laud was
not presenting his programme as an option.
297
00:25:14,542 --> 00:25:17,010
He was presenting it as an order.
298
00:25:17,182 --> 00:25:22,256
Believe this, worship like this,
pray like this, or take the consequences.
299
00:25:27,502 --> 00:25:32,212
Anyone who defied him
found himself before a special tribunal.
300
00:25:32,382 --> 00:25:38,093
Dissidents like Prynne, Burton and Bastwick
became Laud's highest-profile victims.
301
00:25:41,222 --> 00:25:44,180
They had their ears cut off.
302
00:25:49,382 --> 00:25:53,898
Laud's iron fist
went unopposed for the time being.
303
00:26:00,982 --> 00:26:05,214
By the mid-1630s,
Charles could see no obstacle
304
00:26:05,382 --> 00:26:10,775
to consummating the great Stuart plan
of harmony across the three kingdoms,
305
00:26:10,942 --> 00:26:13,217
whether they wanted it or not.
306
00:26:13,382 --> 00:26:15,418
England was under control,
307
00:26:15,582 --> 00:26:19,131
and thanks to the brutal tactics
of his Lord Deputy in Ireland,
308
00:26:19,302 --> 00:26:24,330
Charles's other right-hand hard man,
Thomas Wentworth, so too was Ireland.
309
00:26:33,022 --> 00:26:35,013
That just left Scotland.
310
00:26:36,182 --> 00:26:41,017
And in particular its obstinate,
cantankerous Presbyterian Kirk.
311
00:26:42,022 --> 00:26:45,332
It had a galling, and to Charles,
completely unacceptable,
312
00:26:45,502 --> 00:26:48,653
contempt for the authority of bishops.
313
00:26:48,822 --> 00:26:51,416
Charles was determined to break this.
314
00:26:51,582 --> 00:26:56,019
Then the whole realm
could pray and worship as one.
315
00:26:56,542 --> 00:27:01,821
But the obsession with union
which so consumed both James and Charles
316
00:27:01,982 --> 00:27:07,978
would in the end turn out to guarantee
nothing but hatred and division.
317
00:27:12,022 --> 00:27:16,459
Charles, born in Dunfermline,
was himself Scottish.
318
00:27:16,622 --> 00:27:19,614
So surely there could be
no problem with this?
319
00:27:19,782 --> 00:27:21,773
Well, yes, there could.
320
00:27:21,942 --> 00:27:24,217
It had taken Charles eight whole years
321
00:27:24,382 --> 00:27:28,341
to even bother travelling
to Edinburgh for his Scottish coronation.
322
00:27:28,502 --> 00:27:34,896
He'd become Scotland's very first absentee
king, and there would be a price to pay.
323
00:27:48,582 --> 00:27:52,495
Charles was completely
incapable of appreciating
324
00:27:52,662 --> 00:27:55,938
Calvinism's call for a great moral purification.
325
00:27:56,102 --> 00:28:00,618
As far as he was concerned, Scotland
and England were not all that different.
326
00:28:00,782 --> 00:28:06,254
If one kingdom had been bent to his royal
will by a show of well-intentioned firmness,
327
00:28:06,422 --> 00:28:08,413
so would the other one.
328
00:28:08,582 --> 00:28:12,541
But of course, the Scottish Reformation
had been nothing like England's.
329
00:28:12,702 --> 00:28:18,095
South of the border, changes had happened
in the church at a slow and fitful pace.
330
00:28:18,262 --> 00:28:24,940
In Scotland, Calvinism had struck in great
electrifying bursts of charismatic conversion,
331
00:28:25,102 --> 00:28:27,935
backed up by preachers,
teachers and ministers,
332
00:28:28,102 --> 00:28:33,460
and only forced into
reluctant and periodic retreat by James I,
333
00:28:33,622 --> 00:28:37,092
who unlike his son,
had known when to stop.
334
00:28:41,102 --> 00:28:46,699
So when Charles announced the introduction
into Scotland of the new prayer book,
335
00:28:46,862 --> 00:28:52,016
he would discover just how little
he understood of the kingdom of his birth.
336
00:28:54,022 --> 00:28:57,731
The royal council had
very obligingly let it be known
337
00:28:57,902 --> 00:29:03,454
that the prayer book had to be introduced,
at the latest, by Easter 1637.
338
00:29:03,622 --> 00:29:06,182
Then there was a printing delay.
339
00:29:06,342 --> 00:29:09,778
This gave ample time
for the Calvinist preachers and lords
340
00:29:09,942 --> 00:29:12,934
to organise exactly
what they were going to do.
341
00:29:13,102 --> 00:29:20,019
Archbishop Laud, the king, the council, the
bishops, everyone fell straight into the trap.
342
00:29:20,182 --> 00:29:24,733
Whoever thought a little thing
like this would start a revolution?
343
00:29:27,302 --> 00:29:32,092
The British wars began here,
in St Giles's Cathedral, Edinburgh,
344
00:29:32,262 --> 00:29:35,538
on the morning of July 23rd, 1637,
345
00:29:35,702 --> 00:29:41,174
and the first missiles that were launched
were not cannonballs, they were footstools.
346
00:29:43,982 --> 00:29:46,450
They were launched
straight down the nave,
347
00:29:46,622 --> 00:29:50,012
and their targets were the dean
and bishop of the cathedral.
348
00:29:50,182 --> 00:29:56,417
The right reverends had just started to read
from a royally authorised new prayer book,
349
00:29:56,582 --> 00:29:59,380
and it was this attempt
to read from the liturgy
350
00:29:59,542 --> 00:30:03,933
which had triggered a deafening
outburst of shouting and wailing,
351
00:30:04,102 --> 00:30:07,458
especially from the many women
gathered in the church.
352
00:30:09,662 --> 00:30:12,779
The prayer book riots,
though, were just the fuse.
353
00:30:12,942 --> 00:30:16,332
What those who lit it wanted
was to blow up the bishops
354
00:30:16,502 --> 00:30:19,653
and the whole royal church
establishment in Scotland.
355
00:30:23,342 --> 00:30:30,054
On February 28th, 1638, a national covenant
was signed in a four-hour ceremony
356
00:30:30,222 --> 00:30:36,821
along with sermons and psalms
exhorting the godly to be the new Israel.
357
00:30:38,702 --> 00:30:43,696
The next day, the covenant was brought
here to the open churchyard at Greyfriars,
358
00:30:43,862 --> 00:30:47,218
where hordes of ordinary Scots
added their signature.
359
00:30:47,382 --> 00:30:52,376
Copies were made and distributed
the length and breadth of Scotland.
360
00:30:52,542 --> 00:30:56,854
For countless thousands of Scots,
signing the covenant was just an extension
361
00:30:57,022 --> 00:31:00,651
of the vows they took in Kirk,
banding them with God.
362
00:31:00,822 --> 00:31:06,294
But very rapidly, the document assumed
the status of a kind of patriotic scripture,
363
00:31:06,462 --> 00:31:12,776
determining who and who was not a real
Christian, who and who was not truly a Scot.
364
00:31:15,662 --> 00:31:18,938
For Charles, there was
no question of negotiating.
365
00:31:19,102 --> 00:31:22,936
They were all rebels,
they must all be punished.
366
00:31:23,622 --> 00:31:25,294
There was just one snag -
367
00:31:25,462 --> 00:31:29,341
it wasn't Charles
who had the formidable army, but the Scots,
368
00:31:29,502 --> 00:31:32,653
veterans of the wars of religion in Europe.
369
00:31:32,822 --> 00:31:38,454
Facing his first really crucial test,
Charles, the British Charlemagne,
370
00:31:38,622 --> 00:31:42,171
found he couldn't raise money
and he couldn't raise men.
371
00:31:43,182 --> 00:31:48,893
It took one bruising skirmish for Charles
to see the folly of further fighting.
372
00:31:49,062 --> 00:31:51,974
A truce was hastily signed.
373
00:31:53,822 --> 00:31:56,211
But he wouldn't back off.
374
00:31:58,582 --> 00:32:02,211
By now, Charles was desperate
enough for men and money
375
00:32:02,382 --> 00:32:07,092
to do what he must have hoped he'd never
have to do again: Call a parliament.
376
00:32:07,262 --> 00:32:09,651
After eleven years of gathering dust,
377
00:32:09,822 --> 00:32:15,579
the House of Commons would once again
be full of passionate argument and legal fury.
378
00:32:19,022 --> 00:32:23,812
If Charles thought that eleven years meant
the old quarrels had been forgotten,
379
00:32:23,982 --> 00:32:28,180
he was ignoring a force new
to British politics - the news.
380
00:32:28,342 --> 00:32:31,778
For the great political dramas
of the last 20 years
381
00:32:31,942 --> 00:32:36,413
had been hotly consumed
by a reading public addicted to newspapers,
382
00:32:36,582 --> 00:32:40,700
pamphlets, woodcuts
and the so-called sixpenny separates,
383
00:32:40,862 --> 00:32:45,697
recording all the debates and controversies
and dispatched around the shires.
384
00:32:48,462 --> 00:32:53,695
The 1640 parliament took up
exactly where it had left off in 1629,
385
00:32:53,862 --> 00:32:56,217
when Charles had closed it down.
386
00:32:58,342 --> 00:33:01,459
It must have come
as an unpleasant surprise
387
00:33:01,622 --> 00:33:06,218
when this new parliament, instead
of laying imagined grievances aside,
388
00:33:06,382 --> 00:33:08,612
immediately began to resurrect them.
389
00:33:08,982 --> 00:33:12,372
This parliament
lasted only three short weeks
390
00:33:12,542 --> 00:33:15,454
before, once again, Charles suspended it.
391
00:33:19,862 --> 00:33:25,300
But his list of options was getting shorter
by the day, and they were all bad.
392
00:33:26,302 --> 00:33:31,296
He wasn't going to cave in to the Scots
and he wasn't going to re-open parliament.
393
00:33:31,462 --> 00:33:37,378
But there was a third way, courtesy of his
Lord Deputy in Ireland, Thomas Wentworth.
394
00:33:38,382 --> 00:33:43,775
Why not use an Irish Catholic army
to crush the Presbyterian Scots?
395
00:33:43,942 --> 00:33:50,097
Grateful for his advice, Charles made
Wentworth Earl of Strafford, but hesitated.
396
00:33:50,262 --> 00:33:54,141
Charles knew that Protestant England
was hardly likely to approve
397
00:33:54,302 --> 00:33:57,738
of a Catholic army
attacking their brother Scots.
398
00:33:59,862 --> 00:34:06,540
What followed in 1640 was a breakdown
of deference of frightening magnitude.
399
00:34:07,902 --> 00:34:11,577
Officers were being attacked
by their own men.
400
00:34:11,742 --> 00:34:15,496
The latest round of fighting
with the Scots was a disaster.
401
00:34:15,662 --> 00:34:18,972
Newcastle, with its priceless coal,
was captured.
402
00:34:19,142 --> 00:34:24,170
To get it back, to get the Scots
out of England, Charles needed cash fast.
403
00:34:27,542 --> 00:34:31,535
He had no choice now,
he would have to re-open parliament.
404
00:34:34,342 --> 00:34:37,891
There'd never be
a better opportunity for John Pym
405
00:34:38,062 --> 00:34:41,896
and his fellow parliamentary leaders
to rein in the king.
406
00:34:45,062 --> 00:34:50,932
Pym had discovered, whether he understood
the word or not, the elixir of revolution.
407
00:34:51,102 --> 00:34:56,301
Yesterday's truism - obey the king -
is tomorrow's bad joke.
408
00:34:56,462 --> 00:35:02,458
Yesterday's unthinkable - abolish all bishops -
seems to be tomorrow's necessity.
409
00:35:05,062 --> 00:35:08,657
All around London
were enormous seething crowds,
410
00:35:08,822 --> 00:35:11,495
practically laying siege to Westminster.
411
00:35:11,662 --> 00:35:15,257
John Pym's demands
were simple and blunt:
412
00:35:15,422 --> 00:35:22,294
No taxes ever without parliament's say-so,
parliaments to be elected every three years,
413
00:35:22,462 --> 00:35:26,614
and most decisively of all,
looking right into Charles's eyes,
414
00:35:26,782 --> 00:35:32,891
no parliament, especially not this one,
could be dissolved without its own consent.
415
00:35:33,062 --> 00:35:36,054
When Charles,
through gritted teeth, conceded,
416
00:35:36,222 --> 00:35:39,259
it was the destruction
of the absolute monarchy.
417
00:35:39,422 --> 00:35:41,219
Or was it?
418
00:35:41,382 --> 00:35:44,215
The king still had one card he could play -
419
00:35:44,382 --> 00:35:49,331
that Catholic army that Wentworth,
the Earl of Strafford, had raised in Ireland.
420
00:35:52,062 --> 00:35:56,135
Pym now knew
he would have to annihilate Strafford
421
00:35:56,302 --> 00:35:59,772
if he was to defend parliament
from this threat.
422
00:35:59,942 --> 00:36:03,457
So in the spring of 1641,
Strafford was impeached.
423
00:36:03,622 --> 00:36:09,299
Sick and grey-haired, he proved
frustratingly impossible to convict of treason,
424
00:36:09,462 --> 00:36:13,216
so Pym resorted
to an Act of Attainder instead.
425
00:36:13,382 --> 00:36:17,136
This merely required a burden of suspicion.
426
00:36:17,302 --> 00:36:21,341
When Strafford had spoken
of an Irish army reducing the kingdom,
427
00:36:21,502 --> 00:36:24,141
hadn't he meant England, argued Pym.
428
00:36:24,302 --> 00:36:29,899
But there was one problem: The Act of
Attainder needed the signature of the king.
429
00:36:33,542 --> 00:36:38,855
Poor Charles. Memories of Buckingham
must have flooded back into his mind.
430
00:36:39,022 --> 00:36:45,097
For a king obsessed by loyalty, how could
he abandon Strafford, his most faithful ally?
431
00:36:45,262 --> 00:36:49,380
It was Strafford himself
who spared Charles the agony of indecision.
432
00:36:49,542 --> 00:36:53,330
He knew that only
his own death could save the king
433
00:36:53,502 --> 00:36:56,460
and the country from further upheaval.
434
00:36:56,622 --> 00:37:02,891
In a final letter written to Charles, Strafford
begged the king to do what had to be done.
435
00:37:03,062 --> 00:37:05,701
May it please your sacred majesty,
436
00:37:05,862 --> 00:37:10,617
I understand that the minds of men
are more and more incensed against me,
437
00:37:10,782 --> 00:37:13,740
and to set your majesty's
conscience at liberty,
438
00:37:13,902 --> 00:37:17,895
I do most humbly beseech
Your Majesty, for preventing of evils
439
00:37:18,062 --> 00:37:21,611
that may happen by your refusal,
to pass the bill.
440
00:37:21,782 --> 00:37:25,297
Weeping, Charles signed the warrant.
441
00:37:25,462 --> 00:37:27,976
Strafford was led out onto Tower Green,
442
00:37:28,142 --> 00:37:31,691
surrounded by jeering crowds,
and beheaded.
443
00:37:40,422 --> 00:37:44,301
Charles never forgave himself
for this act of betrayal.
444
00:37:44,462 --> 00:37:47,932
But it had never occurred
to Strafford that his death
445
00:37:48,102 --> 00:37:51,492
would actually make things worse
for Charles rather than better.
446
00:37:51,662 --> 00:37:55,132
And what happened next
was the worst that could happen.
447
00:37:55,302 --> 00:37:57,736
Ireland erupted.
448
00:37:57,902 --> 00:38:03,977
With Strafford executed, Irish Catholics
felt unprotected against Protestant reprisals.
449
00:38:04,142 --> 00:38:07,293
In a pre-emptive strike, they attacked first.
450
00:38:17,142 --> 00:38:22,978
Late in 1641, news of Irish killings
began filtering through England,
451
00:38:23,142 --> 00:38:27,613
graphically illustrated
by a campaign of atrocity prints.
452
00:38:27,782 --> 00:38:32,731
Now, bad things did happen, but the
usual fantasy pictures of impaled babies
453
00:38:32,902 --> 00:38:36,690
tripped the wire
of Anglo-Protestant paranoia.
454
00:38:40,102 --> 00:38:44,459
Even worse, it was rumoured
that the Catholic rebels claimed
455
00:38:44,542 --> 00:38:46,453
to be acting on behalf of the king.
456
00:38:46,622 --> 00:38:50,058
The Puritan press
hit the streets screaming, "We're next".
457
00:38:51,062 --> 00:38:56,580
Charles was painfully aware how costly
his dream of a united Britain had become.
458
00:38:56,742 --> 00:39:00,735
First, the Presbyterian Scots
had brought down his personal rule,
459
00:39:00,902 --> 00:39:03,974
now the mass panic
triggered by the Catholic Irish
460
00:39:04,142 --> 00:39:06,975
threatened to finish off his power altogether.
461
00:39:10,262 --> 00:39:13,538
With events spiralling out of control,
Pym saw this was
462
00:39:13,702 --> 00:39:17,661
the moment to try and strip the king
of virtually all his authority.
463
00:39:17,822 --> 00:39:20,620
Charles's response was to try to arrest him.
464
00:39:20,782 --> 00:39:24,297
But Pym and four other
parliamentary leaders had been tipped off
465
00:39:24,462 --> 00:39:27,977
that the king was marching
on parliament with an armed guard.
466
00:39:28,142 --> 00:39:31,498
They waited till the last moment
and slipped out of the back.
467
00:39:31,662 --> 00:39:34,813
Charles was left empty-handed.
468
00:39:37,222 --> 00:39:40,214
It was an unmitigated fiasco.
469
00:39:40,382 --> 00:39:45,934
The gamble had only been worthwhile
so long as Charles was sure of total success.
470
00:39:46,102 --> 00:39:51,859
Exposed now, just as Pym had wanted,
as a naked, abject failure,
471
00:39:52,022 --> 00:39:57,050
Charles appeared to be something worse
than a despot - a blundering despot.
472
00:39:59,942 --> 00:40:04,777
Both sides were moving fast
beyond any point of reconciliation.
473
00:40:04,942 --> 00:40:08,651
Pym made it clear that parliament
now needed to protect itself
474
00:40:08,822 --> 00:40:10,813
and England from the king.
475
00:40:10,982 --> 00:40:13,735
It set about raising an army.
476
00:40:13,902 --> 00:40:20,341
In July 1642, Bulstrode Whitelocke thought
out loud about the abyss facing the country.
477
00:40:21,782 --> 00:40:25,980
It is strange to note
how insensibly we have slipped into this
478
00:40:26,142 --> 00:40:30,852
beginning of a civil war
by one unexpected accident after another,
479
00:40:31,022 --> 00:40:36,779
as waves of the sea would have brought
us this far and which we scarce know how.
480
00:40:36,942 --> 00:40:40,651
What the issue shall be,
no man alive can tell.
481
00:40:40,822 --> 00:40:45,816
Probably few of us here
may live to see the end of it.
482
00:40:47,302 --> 00:40:51,739
What's truly amazing and touching
about the spring and summer of 1642
483
00:40:51,902 --> 00:40:56,054
is the abundance of evidence
we have about the agonies of allegiance:
484
00:40:56,222 --> 00:40:58,975
The real soul searching
that people went through
485
00:40:59,142 --> 00:41:03,135
when they were pondering the most painful
and weightiest decision of their lives -
486
00:41:03,302 --> 00:41:07,898
which side to join themselves to,
and how earnestly and how honestly
487
00:41:08,062 --> 00:41:11,338
they tried to justify
that decision to their families,
488
00:41:11,502 --> 00:41:14,972
their friends and not least, to themselves.
489
00:41:15,982 --> 00:41:20,214
Cruellest of all,
it tore fathers away from sons.
490
00:41:20,382 --> 00:41:24,421
The sad history of one
Buckinghamshire family says it all.
491
00:41:25,542 --> 00:41:30,980
The Verneys had been the very model
of a loving, companionable gentry family,
492
00:41:31,142 --> 00:41:33,895
but they were torn apart in this crisis.
493
00:41:34,062 --> 00:41:39,182
Ralph had sat next to his father
during the great parliaments of 1640,
494
00:41:39,342 --> 00:41:43,699
but now he not only expressed
support for the parliamentary cause
495
00:41:43,862 --> 00:41:49,061
but actually swore the oath required
of all members after the militia ordinance.
496
00:41:49,222 --> 00:41:53,613
Now, oaths were very serious things
in the 17th century,
497
00:41:53,782 --> 00:41:57,218
and taking this one
split Ralph not only from his father,
498
00:41:57,382 --> 00:42:00,658
but from his hothead
younger Royalist brother Edmund,
499
00:42:00,822 --> 00:42:07,216
who failed to see why Ralph should not
be honouring not only his father but the king.
500
00:42:07,382 --> 00:42:11,978
And yet, and yet,
the Verneys did remain a family.
501
00:42:12,862 --> 00:42:15,376
Ralph had made his vow to parliament,
502
00:42:15,542 --> 00:42:18,375
but his father felt under obligation to Charles.
503
00:42:18,542 --> 00:42:21,579
It was a bond of personal loyalty which held,
504
00:42:21,742 --> 00:42:26,133
despite Edmund having
little enthusiasm for what the king had done.
505
00:42:27,662 --> 00:42:32,452
I do not like the quarrel and do
heartily wish that the king would yield
506
00:42:32,622 --> 00:42:36,934
and consent to what they desire,
so that my conscience is only concerned
507
00:42:37,102 --> 00:42:40,811
in honour and gratitude
to follow my master.
508
00:42:41,822 --> 00:42:46,657
I have eaten his bread
and served him near 30 years
509
00:42:46,822 --> 00:42:51,179
and will not do so base
a thing as to forsake him.
510
00:42:54,062 --> 00:42:59,341
In the third week of August, 1642,
Charles raised his standard.
511
00:42:59,502 --> 00:43:02,062
The Rubicon had been crossed.
512
00:43:02,222 --> 00:43:07,296
The honour of holding Charles's personal
flag in the battle fell to Sir Edmund Verney.
513
00:43:07,462 --> 00:43:10,932
He swore only death
would prise it from his hands.
514
00:43:21,782 --> 00:43:24,933
By the time
the Royalist army arrived at Edgehill,
515
00:43:25,102 --> 00:43:27,093
its prospects had been transformed.
516
00:43:27,262 --> 00:43:29,617
It was now about 20,000 strong,
517
00:43:29,782 --> 00:43:36,620
about 14,000 of whom took up position on
the ridge in the afternoon of October 22nd.
518
00:43:36,782 --> 00:43:40,252
At the top of the hill
were the king and his two sons,
519
00:43:40,422 --> 00:43:43,892
Charles, the Prince of Wales,
and the nine-year-old James, Duke of York,
520
00:43:44,062 --> 00:43:47,338
along with Prince Rupert
and his toy poodle, Boy.
521
00:43:48,622 --> 00:43:52,695
It was here that Charles I planted his flag.
522
00:44:00,022 --> 00:44:04,732
In mid-afternoon, the commander
of the parliamentary army, the Earl of Essex,
523
00:44:04,902 --> 00:44:07,814
began to cannonade the Royalist infantry.
524
00:44:07,982 --> 00:44:12,931
Balls thudded and hissed in the grass,
taking a life here, a limb there.
525
00:44:14,222 --> 00:44:18,181
Then Prince Rupert
led his cavalry forward down the hill.
526
00:44:18,342 --> 00:44:23,462
For the men in the parliament lines,
watching a distant trot turn into a canter
527
00:44:23,622 --> 00:44:27,410
and then a charge,
and seeing their own muskets have no effect
528
00:44:27,582 --> 00:44:33,293
on the suddenly terrifyingly hurtling
horsemen, the moment of truth had arrived.
529
00:44:40,102 --> 00:44:42,218
War slammed into them.
530
00:44:42,382 --> 00:44:47,012
Big dark horses, bright, deadly steel.
They panicked and broke,
531
00:44:47,182 --> 00:44:51,778
Rupert's horsemen following fleeing
troopers all the way to the baggage train.
532
00:44:51,942 --> 00:44:55,935
Rupert must have thought
this was going to be easy.
533
00:44:56,102 --> 00:44:59,174
But by now the parliamentary infantry
had crawled forward,
534
00:44:59,342 --> 00:45:03,494
the two great phalanxes of pikemen
heaving and pushing at each other
535
00:45:03,662 --> 00:45:07,655
amidst the musket fire
until they dropped of exhaustion.
536
00:45:09,902 --> 00:45:14,771
Somewhere amidst the smoke,
fire and steel was Sir Edmund Verney.
537
00:45:14,942 --> 00:45:19,060
The royal standard clenched
in his hand made him an obvious target.
538
00:45:19,222 --> 00:45:21,690
They never even found his corpse.
539
00:45:21,862 --> 00:45:30,054
under his shield, with a down...
540
00:45:36,142 --> 00:45:41,057
In the following months, the war
broke down into grim, grinding local conflicts.
541
00:45:41,222 --> 00:45:43,133
Parliament held on to London,
542
00:45:43,302 --> 00:45:48,092
the king tried to nail down bases
of strength in the north and south-west.
543
00:45:49,182 --> 00:45:53,016
The south-western
campaign was especially savage.
544
00:45:53,182 --> 00:45:56,254
Towns like Exeter
and Taunton changed hands.
545
00:45:56,422 --> 00:45:59,573
Local families were divided
between brothers and cousins.
546
00:45:59,742 --> 00:46:02,654
Old friends became new enemies.
547
00:46:02,822 --> 00:46:07,338
Two such opponents, men in every
other respect virtually indistinguishable,
548
00:46:07,502 --> 00:46:12,576
were William Waller, a parliamentary
general, and Ralph Hopton, a Royalist.
549
00:46:12,742 --> 00:46:17,452
In a lull in the fighting,
Hopton wrote to Waller asking for a meeting.
550
00:46:17,622 --> 00:46:19,613
Waller felt he had to turn him down,
551
00:46:19,782 --> 00:46:25,095
but wrote back in terms which spoke of the
deep sorrow he felt at their broken friendship.
552
00:46:25,262 --> 00:46:29,050
It's the classic lament of this terrible civil war.
553
00:46:30,062 --> 00:46:32,622
To my noble friend, Sir Ralph.
554
00:46:32,782 --> 00:46:37,731
Sir, my affections to you
are so unchangeable
555
00:46:37,902 --> 00:46:42,498
that hostility itself cannot
violate my friendship to your person.
556
00:46:42,662 --> 00:46:46,541
But I must be true
to the cause wherein I serve.
557
00:46:46,702 --> 00:46:50,411
That great God which
is the searcher of my heart
558
00:46:50,582 --> 00:46:54,575
knows with what a sad scene
I go upon this service,
559
00:46:54,742 --> 00:46:59,179
and with what a perfect hatred
I detest this war without an enemy.
560
00:46:59,342 --> 00:47:05,019
But I look upon it as an opus domini,
enough to silence all passion in me.
561
00:47:05,182 --> 00:47:11,337
We are both upon the stage and must act
parts that are assigned us in this tragedy.
562
00:47:11,502 --> 00:47:14,335
Let us do it in a way of honour
563
00:47:14,502 --> 00:47:18,814
and without personal animosities,
whatsoever the issue be.
564
00:47:20,382 --> 00:47:23,135
I shall never relinquish the dear title
565
00:47:23,302 --> 00:47:28,501
of your most affectionated friend
and faithful servant, William Waller.
566
00:47:29,662 --> 00:47:33,894
The scythe of mortality,
always busy, never fussy,
567
00:47:34,062 --> 00:47:38,738
swept up all kinds and conditions
of men - officers and rank and file,
568
00:47:38,902 --> 00:47:43,657
musketeers and troopers,
camp whores and sutlers,
569
00:47:43,822 --> 00:47:47,974
young apprentices who put on
a helmet for the very first time,
570
00:47:48,142 --> 00:47:52,693
and hardened old mercenaries
who'd grown rusty along with their cuirasses,
571
00:47:52,862 --> 00:47:57,856
soldiers who had no idea where to get
a pair of boots or anything to fill their bellies,
572
00:47:58,022 --> 00:48:01,731
and peasants who simply
had absolutely nothing left to give them,
573
00:48:01,902 --> 00:48:06,771
drummer boys and buglers,
captains and cooks.
574
00:48:09,222 --> 00:48:14,421
By the autumn of 1643,
parliament was utterly demoralised.
575
00:48:14,582 --> 00:48:16,857
Bristol had fallen to the Royalists,
576
00:48:17,022 --> 00:48:21,095
the king had established a court
and a military government in Oxford.
577
00:48:21,262 --> 00:48:24,652
Many parliamentarians,
weary of the poverty and slaughter,
578
00:48:24,822 --> 00:48:27,461
were making noises about peace.
579
00:48:27,622 --> 00:48:29,738
Bulstrode Whitelocke wrote:
580
00:48:29,902 --> 00:48:33,372
Women are weary
of their being robbed of children,
581
00:48:33,542 --> 00:48:36,215
of their chastity and their parents.
582
00:48:36,382 --> 00:48:39,772
Is it not time for us
to be weary of these discords
583
00:48:39,942 --> 00:48:44,811
and to use our utmost endeavours
to put an end to them?
584
00:48:48,142 --> 00:48:50,895
This was not what John Pym
wanted to hear.
585
00:48:51,902 --> 00:48:55,690
Even as he was dying,
tortured by cancer of the bowel,
586
00:48:55,862 --> 00:49:01,653
to squash a peace movement, he pulled off
a last coup which would transform the war.
587
00:49:05,542 --> 00:49:11,981
On September 25th, 1643, an alliance was
struck between parliament and the Scots:
588
00:49:12,142 --> 00:49:14,656
The Solemn League and Covenant.
589
00:49:14,822 --> 00:49:20,055
In 1637, Scotland had begun
the resistance against Charles I.
590
00:49:20,222 --> 00:49:24,738
Seven years later,
the Covenant would all but finish him off.
591
00:49:27,862 --> 00:49:33,141
At Marston Moor, outside York,
on a wet afternoon in July 1644,
592
00:49:33,302 --> 00:49:38,171
the full force of the Anglo-Scots
alliance hammered the Royalist army.
593
00:49:38,342 --> 00:49:43,974
It was the bloodiest battle of the war,
the cream of Charles's army was annihilated.
594
00:49:44,142 --> 00:49:47,214
Among the victors
was the MP for Cambridge,
595
00:49:47,382 --> 00:49:50,374
a cavalry officer with iron in his soul.
596
00:49:57,022 --> 00:50:02,699
His name was Oliver Cromwell, and he was,
he thought, doing the Lord's work.
597
00:50:02,862 --> 00:50:06,491
Cromwell was himself
an East Anglian country gentleman,
598
00:50:06,662 --> 00:50:12,578
but he knew that gentility was no use
in this war, only effective fighting men.
599
00:50:12,742 --> 00:50:15,779
After Edgehill, he had told John Hampden:
600
00:50:15,942 --> 00:50:18,740
I had rather have
a plain russet-coated captain
601
00:50:18,902 --> 00:50:21,974
that knows what he fights for
and loves what he knows
602
00:50:22,142 --> 00:50:26,135
than that which you call
a gentleman and is nothing else.
603
00:50:27,222 --> 00:50:30,020
In the winter of 1644-45,
604
00:50:30,182 --> 00:50:33,219
Cromwell and a Yorkshire general,
Sir Thomas Fairfax,
605
00:50:33,382 --> 00:50:36,340
set about to make a new kind of army,
606
00:50:36,502 --> 00:50:41,815
prepared to accept discipline in return for
decent supplies of food, boots and shelter.
607
00:50:41,982 --> 00:50:46,294
And it would be an army
that knew what it was fighting for.
608
00:50:47,462 --> 00:50:50,420
I fight for the preservation
of our parliament,
609
00:50:50,582 --> 00:50:56,214
in the being whereof, under God, consists
the glory and welfare of this kingdom.
610
00:51:04,742 --> 00:51:07,939
At Naseby, in June 1645,
611
00:51:08,102 --> 00:51:14,257
the two wings of the New Model Army closed
in on a Royalist force about half their size.
612
00:51:14,902 --> 00:51:18,451
At the end of the fighting,
nothing was left of the royal army
613
00:51:18,542 --> 00:51:22,217
except the dead
left strewn across the fields.
614
00:51:27,942 --> 00:51:33,335
The last Royalist strongholds
were taken one by one: Bristol, Carlisle.
615
00:51:33,502 --> 00:51:38,053
At Basing, in Hampshire, one of the most
vicious sieges in a war full of them
616
00:51:38,222 --> 00:51:41,532
came to a long drawn out bloody conclusion.
617
00:51:44,422 --> 00:51:47,255
The war was over and parliament had won.
618
00:51:47,422 --> 00:51:50,141
So finally, God had spoken.
619
00:51:54,302 --> 00:51:57,100
Surely even Charles could see that?
620
00:51:57,262 --> 00:52:03,212
Surely that would end the bloodshed and
the country could return to reasonableness?
621
00:52:06,222 --> 00:52:09,897
And there were many
in parliament aching for just this -
622
00:52:10,062 --> 00:52:13,532
a settlement that would
allow Charles to keep his throne,
623
00:52:13,702 --> 00:52:18,298
some kind of return
to what had been on the table back in 1642.
624
00:52:25,542 --> 00:52:31,219
Surely, after all the blunders and bloodshed,
the botched coups and the futile slaughters,
625
00:52:31,382 --> 00:52:35,136
he would do the right thing,
he would share power?
626
00:52:35,302 --> 00:52:40,979
But Charles was constitutionally incapable
of being a constitutional king.
627
00:52:41,142 --> 00:52:47,058
He gagged at the idea of being reduced to a
subaltern monarch, taking, not giving, orders.
628
00:52:47,222 --> 00:52:52,012
The war might be over, for now,
but for Charles the plotting was not.
629
00:52:52,182 --> 00:52:55,891
For the next two years,
in a bid to reverse his defeat,
630
00:52:56,062 --> 00:53:00,374
Charles tried to play off parliament against
the army, the army against parliament,
631
00:53:00,542 --> 00:53:03,010
and the Scots against both.
632
00:53:06,302 --> 00:53:09,931
Oliver Cromwell finally realised
that as long as Charles was around,
633
00:53:10,102 --> 00:53:14,061
he was always going to be
a rallying point for the discontented,
634
00:53:14,222 --> 00:53:16,736
and there were bound to be a lot of them.
635
00:53:16,902 --> 00:53:22,454
But Cromwell was also enraged by Charles's
presumption at defying the verdict of God,
636
00:53:22,622 --> 00:53:26,774
so clearly revealed at the battles
of Marston Moor and Naseby.
637
00:53:26,942 --> 00:53:30,139
It was evident then that Charles had to go.
638
00:53:30,302 --> 00:53:34,136
Whether or not he had to die,
that was another matter.
639
00:53:36,622 --> 00:53:39,090
A second civil war flared up,
640
00:53:39,262 --> 00:53:44,017
once more requiring from Cromwell
all his military ruthlessness.
641
00:53:44,182 --> 00:53:48,812
With his annihilation of the Royalist
Scottish army in 1648 at Preston,
642
00:53:48,982 --> 00:53:51,701
Charles's final hope had gone.
643
00:53:54,582 --> 00:53:59,372
Any thought of conciliation
with the king was now purest folly.
644
00:54:02,102 --> 00:54:06,971
Those MPs who persisted in the idea
that Charles could be reasoned with
645
00:54:07,142 --> 00:54:10,976
now had a furious
and vengeful army to answer to.
646
00:54:11,142 --> 00:54:14,851
When Colonel Thomas Pride
used his troops to weed out
647
00:54:15,022 --> 00:54:18,458
any MP suspected of going soft on Charles,
648
00:54:18,622 --> 00:54:22,581
the country realised
there was a new power in the land.
649
00:54:24,902 --> 00:54:26,938
This was the soldiers' show now.
650
00:54:27,102 --> 00:54:30,378
Britain belonged to them,
and they belonged to God.
651
00:54:30,542 --> 00:54:34,535
They had no desire to go back to a country
of princes, lords and gentlemen.
652
00:54:34,702 --> 00:54:37,375
They wanted Jerusalem now.
653
00:54:47,062 --> 00:54:50,850
And they wanted the biggest sinner
of them all, the man of blood,
654
00:54:51,022 --> 00:54:54,776
Charles Stuart, to feel the fire of God's wrath.
655
00:54:57,142 --> 00:55:01,533
The final question could be addressed -
what should happen to Charles?
656
00:55:08,822 --> 00:55:11,655
Cromwell agonised, prayed and wept,
657
00:55:11,822 --> 00:55:15,212
beseeched the Lord of Hosts
to give him an answer.
658
00:55:15,382 --> 00:55:18,977
In the end, politics, not prayer, decided it.
659
00:55:19,142 --> 00:55:23,135
The king would have to die
if the country was ever to heal.
660
00:55:23,302 --> 00:55:26,260
But not done away with in some dark corner.
661
00:55:26,422 --> 00:55:31,257
No, Charles was going to be tried
in the open, then beheaded in public.
662
00:55:31,742 --> 00:55:35,212
Cut his head off with the crown on it.
663
00:55:35,382 --> 00:55:39,500
This would be THE great turning point
in British history.
664
00:55:39,662 --> 00:55:44,053
The trial would kill one kind of Britain
and give birth to another,
665
00:55:44,222 --> 00:55:47,817
a republic, a kingless state of God.
666
00:55:48,262 --> 00:55:53,700
So for both Charles and Oliver Cromwell,
the final act would become a theatre,
667
00:55:53,862 --> 00:55:56,501
a classroom, a debating chamber.
668
00:55:56,662 --> 00:56:00,541
Charles will play the classic Stuart part,
that of holy martyr,
669
00:56:00,702 --> 00:56:03,580
as his grandmother,
Mary, Queen of Scots, had done.
670
00:56:03,742 --> 00:56:06,051
Imposing, dignified, tragic.
671
00:56:06,782 --> 00:56:11,651
But he knew as well as Oliver Cromwell
did that the outcome was never in doubt.
672
00:56:11,822 --> 00:56:15,656
The king would die.
The only question was as what?
673
00:56:15,822 --> 00:56:19,212
Martyr or traitor? What had he learned?
674
00:56:19,382 --> 00:56:22,692
In the end, the answer was... nothing.
675
00:56:27,022 --> 00:56:32,335
On January 30th, 1649, he was
led out through the Banqueting House
676
00:56:32,502 --> 00:56:36,177
onto the scaffold
erected right outside in Whitehall.
677
00:56:36,342 --> 00:56:40,893
The windows were all boarded up,
so Rubens's great anthem
678
00:56:41,062 --> 00:56:46,011
to the god-like omnipotence of kings
was invisible in the gloom,
679
00:56:46,102 --> 00:56:48,696
the light gone out of it.
680
00:56:52,262 --> 00:56:56,778
But Charles didn't need the pictures,
he had the script off by heart.
681
00:56:58,102 --> 00:57:03,335
A subject and a sovereign
are clean different things.
682
00:57:20,182 --> 00:57:25,461
So the last words
out of Charles I's mouth were the truth.
683
00:57:25,622 --> 00:57:30,138
With nothing left to lose for himself
and everything to gain for his son,
684
00:57:30,302 --> 00:57:33,021
he was not about to confuse anyone
685
00:57:33,182 --> 00:57:36,811
about the nature of the kingdom
that God had ordained.
686
00:57:36,982 --> 00:57:41,260
It was the same kingdom
that Rubens had painted on that ceiling -
687
00:57:41,422 --> 00:57:44,812
the anointed sovereign
answerable only to the Almighty,
688
00:57:44,982 --> 00:57:49,339
laying down laws
for the benefit of his subjects.
689
00:57:49,582 --> 00:57:53,655
He offered justice
and he expected obedience.
690
00:57:53,742 --> 00:57:56,176
That was it. Take it or leave it.
691
00:57:56,342 --> 00:57:58,936
It had always been about that really,
692
00:57:59,102 --> 00:58:03,493
and all the pious hopes of turning
Charles into a parliamentary monarch
693
00:58:03,662 --> 00:58:06,813
were just so many castles in the air.