The Violent Rise And Fall Of House Stuart | A Bloody Reign All Episodes | Real Royalty

i'm alice loxton and i present documentaries over on history hit tv if you're passionate about all things royal history sign up to history hit tv it's like netflix but just for history you've got hours of ad-free documentaries about all aspects of the past you can get a huge discount for history hit tv make sure you check out the details in the video description and use the code real royalty all one word when you sign up now on with the show [Music] the stuarts are bloody rain it's an evocation of the extraordinary era when these four stewart kings lived through turbulent times catholic versus protestant parliament against king [Music] the english civil war europe torn apart by religious conflict the plague the great fire of london and finally a catholic king fled his country and his throne [Music] as we reveal their fates we'll trace the story of another family the winds who lived here at gwydia they were there for the great events of the era and their fortunes rose and fell with that of the stewards james the first inherited a throne through his mother mary queen of scots this would bring the two kingdoms together but at such a bloody cost i admire james first i like his intellect and his inquiring mind he was somebody who was very curious about life a man who was trying to make sense of the world i think it's very important for james that he felt himself committed to promoting unity of his peoples the peoples of england island and scotland unity of europe and the union of christianity itself that might even reunite protestants and catholics charles the first the reluctant king pushed into being the heir because his brother the magnificently suitable prince henry had died charles struggled to be the king that everyone longed for through history we think charles the first lost his head having lost the civil war but we forget the years when he was seen as the luckiest monarchy in europe he was a highly sophisticated king he really put british visual culture on the map both in terms of what he commissioned in the form of rubens and van dijk but also what he collected charles ii the restoration would bring unity and glamour back to the country the people were worn out by the austerity of cromwell and the parliamentarian era and ecstatically welcomed the new king [Applause] in the reign of charles ii you have the birth of modern times clever people who were literally rebuilding england and then the fire in london which enabled london to be rebuilt it must have been so exciting by the time you got to about 1700 to look around and find yourself in this spanking new city james ii the catholic king of a protestant country was disaster waiting to happen i think history is very tough on james ii he was a very brave headstrong figure a very good soldier very good admiral but unfortunately being so pig-headedly roman catholic was the undoing of him [Music] i [Music] in the autumn of 1605 a letter arrived here at gwydia castle for the owner sir john wynn it contained an urgent message it implored sir john not to travel to london for the opening of parliament that november wynn had been planning to do just that king james the first all his ministers and the lords would be attending john nguyen didn't know it at the time but he just received a tip-off about the most notorious attempted terror attack in british history the gunpowder plot a small group of religious fanatics wanted to blur parliament kill the king and return protestant england to the catholic faith the plot failed but to this day the fifth of november is celebrated across the country with bonfires and fireworks but there was far more to king james the first rule then gunpowder treason and plot james was the first of a new dynasty to rule england the stewards and he came to the throne at a dangerous time britain was divided as never before between nations between religions between rulers and the world rebellion was in the air [Music] queen elizabeth the first had died on the 24th of march 1603. she had ruled england for over 44 years but she left no air so she will be the last of the two demonics succeeding her would be king james vi of scotland the son of a woman elizabeth had put to death mary queen of scots however despite this difficult family history james the first succession to the english throne had been agreed by both parties via secret correspondence in the years before elizabeth's death james had held the scottish throne since he was just 13 months old but now he would sit on the thrones of england and ireland as well in what was known as the union of the crowns [Music] we are here at the charterhouse in smithfield london this magnificent complex began life as a home to carthusian monks in the 14th century but its days as a monastery were brought to a violent end during the reign of henry viii it became one of the great aristocratic houses during the tudor period and when king james vi of scotland soon-to-be king james the first of england headed down from edinburgh to london in 1603 he held his first ever court right here [Music] james have been invited to do so by thomas howard howard would be rewarded with the title of lord chamberlain in the new king's government charterhouse is now a palace of the howard family suffolk resident there is related to the man who had tried to depose elizabeth in favor of james's mother mary queen of scots so the howards are people he knows are loyal to him and it seems to him that he's going to make him lord chamberlain the head of his household the man in charge of the everyday management of the court that he's a crucial figure and he should be given priority when it comes to meetings in london and where he's seen to be [Music] james had been greeted by huge crowds of enthusiastic supporters as he made his way down from scotland but things turned sour almost as soon as he reached london and held his first court here at the charter house the original monastery built on this site was constructed on land that had been used to bury the countless dead from the great plague of the 14th century of course the threat of another outbreak always remained and it just so happens that the dreaded disease returned with a vengeance almost as soon as james arrived it hampered his plans for coronation and for many of his citizens it was a bad omen about his reign [Music] plague had been something they'd all live with in these houses forever i mean they were well used to outbreaks of the plague not just in london but local outbreaks as well those that don't like james think it's a judgment from god those who do like james think it's an unfortunate recurrence of the play there's apprehension because he's a foreigner because the english on the whole don't like the scots and because they're worried about a scottish takeover and james has to balance that very carefully because if he he doesn't want to become a purely english king neglecting his original kingdom to the north but neither does he want the scots to take over and he does initially particularly a very good balancing act james knew he had to be especially careful of usurpers his father lord darnley had been murdered and his mother mary queen of scots had been executed he'd faced attempts on his life while ruling in scotland and this didn't change in england almost immediately two plots were being made to remove him from power the main plot the bi-plot seraltavale one of queen elizabeth's favorites was even involved in the conspiracy but it was a gunpowder plot of 1605 that would come the closest to eliminating king james the first the winds here at gridir are supporters of the new king james and are advancing in courtly life john wynn head of the family is about to return to whitehall [Music] attending parliament would be injurious to my health richard what meaning do you impute to that come on boy he is your physician the city heirs will be fettered of course and all manner of thieves and cutthroats will dog my journey with plenty more to be found in parliament besides but ever before was it thus and no letter then from my dear friend the doctor some new peril lies behind this innovation the one that strikes a parliament even the king right should we warn his majesty there's always a problem with plots as with a gunpowder plot that in order to succeed you have to have enough people to carry through the aftermath of the assassination of the king but the more people you tell more likely you'll tell the wrong people and they'll leak it and that's what seems to have happened here it is one of the great what if moments in history the 13 conspirators hired a seller directly below the chamber in which james was due to appear under the supervision of their munitions expert guy fawkes they filled the cellar with dozens of bowels of gunpowder more than enough to do the job but too many people were being warned to stay away and this aroused suspicions one was the catholic priest who warned his old friend john wynn another was the writer of an anonymous letter which eventually made its way to the king and his privy council and it will be thomas howard the owner of the charter house and now the new lord chamberlain who would head down to the sellers of parliament in order to investigate the entire cellars were searched and guy fawkes and his bowels of gunpowder were discovered after days of terrible torture forks confessed the other conspirators were killed or captured the plot had failed the demise of the would-be terrorists triggered national rejoicing but the plot exposed the divisions in james's new kingdom how would he handle these challenges and how would the wind family thrive in this dangerous new world the gun powered a plot of 1605 had been foiled the last moment parliament had been saved from destruction and king james the first continued to rule over scotland ireland and england but this would be a challenging rain to say the least james had been raised a protestant and a catholic conspiracy had been made against his life to further worsen matters not all of his new subjects were very pleased with the idea of a scottish king nor were the scots thrilled by their monarch's departure for london james sought to maintain peace amid these divisions he did tighten anti-catholic measures after the gunpowder plot but otherwise he broadly tolerated religious difference provided it didn't threaten his rule and there was another slight issue to deal with a lack of money a constant shortage of funds had plagued his time moving in edinburgh and james hopes his new kingdom would solve all his financial woes this wouldn't quite be the case given how extravagant a court james liked to maintain so new money-making ventures were needed and this need would benefit the wind family of north wales is this all of them it is i'm certain there were more the lettuce patent have been issued that you do still have that list i sent you owen father is made baronette majesty has bestowed upon us a great honor an honor we must pay for 300 pounds a year for three years can purchase many books there exist some things more important than swelling your library brother i cannot conceive of them the title will be the families forever it will be our dear brother john's and his sons and his sons after that we younger brothers are better off investing in books it is a sign of royal favor it is a sign that the king has run out of money now have you that list i sent your name the winds of good ear are perhaps the very first to get the baronet which is a new hereditary knighthood at the james institutes you see that's a very good way both of giving people a higher honor than just being an ordinary knight and of course it's a money raise because you pay for the privilege of being made about a net so german was one of the first baronets and the reason was that he was perceived to be the senior knight of wales really there were two of wales uh one from the south side was straddling and one from the north sir john wynn and i think it was self-evident when they put the lists together that his extraordinary dominance in all public affairs in north wales meant that he was going to be on the list he's very much of the period in that he's canny acquisitive he's very intelligent and very well educated um but he's carving out an empire for himself um at a time when other people are doing similar so there are a lot of heads being trodden on to get where he is and that means there's a lot of jealousy a lot of envy from his contemporaries particularly his neighbors [Music] this was a win-win situation for the winds and the stewards john gained greater power and status and king james got money for the treasury by giving away titles to his most loyal subjects at an excellent price king james needed to raise funds directly from the wealthier families in the country because he was often in conflict with parliament both in scotland and england he had been set on unifying his two nations the kingdoms were on the same island after all and now they had the same ruler james believed that god had made it so for a reason the english and scottish parliaments were fiercely opposed to the idea of great britain however for debates about prejudice scots feared they'd be ignored by the english while the english feared the scots would undercut wages and steal jobs mutual animosity ensured the scheme never proceeded on the margins there are people who really can't take james they can't take a scotsman they can't take a protestant so there are a group of plotters who engage themselves with the idea of getting rid of him and replacing him by his cousin arabella stewart who is also descended from henry the eighth elder sister there was also the problem of competing visions james believed in the divine right of kings he illustrated his views in two of his published works the true law of free monarchy and basilica dorman which is greek for royal gift james believed he was chosen by god to rule therefore the law was an extension of his power and parliament was subordinate many in parliament viewed the relationship differently they believed a king ruled through partnership and cooperation with lawmakers this fundamental disagreement doomed the relationship and for much of his reign james attempted to rule without parliament hence the need for extra sources of money i think one of the tragedies for the stewards we look back on the executions the exiles and the general disastrous relationship with parliament through a lot of the century or so that they were in control in this country and one thing that is absolutely true is that they never had enough money and parliament wasn't prepared to give enough or to tax enough in their own way james brings in surcharges on customs which are called impositions which don't have parliamentary authority and therefore are controversial with some and the result of that is the kings can manage on their own income in peace time the problem is what will they do if they get into wars then you do need parliamentary supply you can't possibly fund wars otherwise and that's where the problems are going to arise [Music] james was struck by the greatest tragedy that could befall a man who believed in the divine right of kings the death of his first born son and heir james has two children who survive infancy henry who had all the hallmarks of being a great all-rounder great sportsman great promoter of the arts but also someone who is clearly quite radical in his protestantism and is strongly supportive of the protestant cause internationally henry dies in a rather unwise exercise of athleticism by swimming in the thames and getting typhoid from the water whereas his younger brother charles who'd had ricketts as a child was bandy lagged small had a stutter wasn't intellectually the match of his older brother he lives on and is to be the heir and i always suspect that when james and perhaps anne looked at charles they always looked with regret why are you the survivor why has our golden boy died the country was devastated to learn about his sudden death and the period of mourning ensued his younger brother charles who'd adore his elder brother and tried to emulate him would now be the successor to james back at gwydia castle sir john nguyen would suffer a similar tragic loss not long after the death of the heir to the throne prince henry devastating news arise from luca in italy about the passing of the wind's eldest son john [Music] dispatched from tuscany by his companions they had that decency at least dated this 23rd of august 1614 requests to the parish first of course as his proper the family to my brother owen 10 pounds for the purchase of books with temperance to your usual habits that should see you through a week perhaps thank you father thank your good brother to richard my velvet coat father i need not take it put it on ah it's interesting that of course james the first loses his eldest son prince henry um and sir john wynn loses his eldest son sir john jr so that they're both in the same sort of position in that sense where the second sons have to take over so it's interesting that sir richard takes over that courtly role and ends up serving charles who is himself the number two [Music] the wind family and the stewards grew ever closer as richard nguyen was appointed groom of the bedchamber to charles the new heir to the throne and would join him on a wild and highly secretive voyage to spain but for now both families were in deep mourning richard i must make ready i'm required at court stay a day or two for mother's sake i serve the young prince i hear he is a fine marksman now tolerably so and a better rider than most he stammers yet and speaks too soft but his efforts i am certain gladden his father stay safe in london brother it becomes you well at this point king james seemed beset on all sides and he increasingly relied only upon his closest advisors but this also led to huge resentments over the years of the chief among them his infamous and controversial favorites there's long been speculation over james's sexuality because although the king was married to anne of denmark he had seven children by her he was always drawn to handsome men often with near disastrous consequences the favorite of his childhood years in scotland the duke of lenox had been forced out by jealous lords robert carr another who was close to james during the early years of his reign in england until the court scandal engulfed him a handsome foolish youth ended his career james then transferred his affections to another young courtier a man named george villiers he would use the king's favor to sideline rival factions enrich his family and become the most powerful nobleman in the country the wind family weren't the only ones climbing up the social ladder during james's reign villas was obviously fantastically physically attractive this is written about by ambassadors at the time they were absolutely struck down by his physical beauty and it was something that he was very aware of and of course you know james the first uh fell in love with him he was born into a decent but not massive gentry family and then he puts him up to every stage baron vi count er marquis duke i mean there hasn't been a non-royal duke for a couple of hundred years there's always the jealousy of the over mighty courtier but in this one man buckingham his rise through the aristocracy the way that the favor from the royal crown cascaded through his wider family it must have been incredibly difficult for the older aristocracy to look at this man arrive from almost nothing and become by some distance the most powerful man in the kingdom [Music] george williams will be raised to the title of duke of buckingham he would be at the king's side for the rest of his reign and he will play a crucial part in the events that would push england into war we're here at the queen's house in greenwich a magnificent building designed by the greatest architect of his era indigo jones it began construction in 1616 under the orders of king james the first and was intended as a gift for his wife and of denmark whom he'd married in 1589 but anne would never see her finished queen's house she fell ill soon after construction began and died in 1619. anne's a mysterious figure emblematic of the challenging religious era in which she reigned she had been raged at lutheran in denmark but it's possible that she may have secretly converted to catholicism at some point in her life she infamously refused an anglican communion at a coronation in england if ann did convert well even the queen had to keep it a very tightly guarded secret the lure of the old faith seems to have been present for the wind family at guido castle as well but being a catholic was a very dangerous endeavor father will you not sit father i am not yet so infirm eager though you may be for your inheritance some wine of course the prince still pins hope on the spanish match he has a portrait of the infanta he much admires enough of the prince's fancy one of the king he too remains set i wrote of this in my letter you lack your brother's memorable expression and the diary six hundred thousand utterly dilky the pleasing and the useful ah the money spent on your schooling were not all wasted then we know very little about their personal beliefs religiously because this is such a dangerous time you're not going to wear that i think it's we have to read between the lines i think it's pretty clear that um his wife lady sidney nguyen um she certainly came from an old old faith family the gerards of lancashire i think it's pretty clear reading between the lines that she remained catholic but it was a secret she was a crypto catholic she used to be allowed mass for herself and for her household the infanta should the contract be made she will not be queen a paper stallone england could suffer but not a spaniard do many in court favor the match until the tide shifts and then marvel at how forgetful of his past a man can be yes father do not turn papist richard that was your dear late brother's mistake you keep that faction at a clear remove do you understand me i think one of the extraordinary things about the house of stewart is that the whole tragedy of catholic versus protestant is contained within this royal house it was never resolved the question of whether england should become a catholic or a protestant country you'd think if you were a modern person particularly if you weren't religious but you just liked the idea of the church of england and its inclusiveness and its beautiful music and its ceremonies that this would have been the perfect compromise between the protestant religion and the catholic faith in fact it was even more divisive and out of that arose the terrible bloody english civil wars you can become a known catholic you become a requisite and it'll kill your estate the fines are so horrendously large that you can bleed out the estate and that'll be the end of that so if on principle you want to do that fine a lot of people did it but most people actually just towed the line and they they went to church and and they did their abuses and um privately they might have thought otherwise i think there was a lot of or might flippantly call sort of cafeteria catholicism going on particularly with people like sir john nguyen [Music] king james the first was well aware of the delicate religious situation in the country many of his subjects in england and scotland would be furious at any return to the catholic religion in the royal family but still despite this james attempted a union with catholic spain by 1619 the king had lost his wife and his firstborn southern heir and he would not get any respite in foreign affairs war had broken out on the continent [Applause] the 30 years war started in 1618 what began as a quarrel among the divided states of the holy roman empire drew in all the major powers of the day and with eight million casualties it became the bloodiest religious conflict in european history it was also the greatest foreign policy failure of king james the first reign i think for the british living across the sea from the 30 years war it must have been a very frightening spectator sport especially with the propaganda coming back from both sides it resonated very much over here that this sort of absolute catastrophe could happen here through religious bigotry i think it was uh something that the english looked at askance and thought we just cannot have that here james was a peacemaker he had ended the long anglo-spanish war soon after inheriting the throne and he had grand hopes of securing a lasting peace in europe to do this he began the negotiations to marry his heir charles to the catholic inventor of spain maria anna the protracted talks were unpopular with the english protestants james however was more tolerant of religious differences than many and he persisted he believed finding england and catholic spain together would help secure peace in europe the 30 years war confounded all those hopes it was a conflict the king could not ignore because he had a personal stake in it his daughter elizabeth she was married to the protestant frederick v of the electoral palatinate a pivotal figure in the early years of the war england is requiring that the spanish drive their cousins the austrians out of the lands of james's daughter and her husband in in the palatinate and that used to ask him too much rome is asking too much and that rome is expecting the children of the marriage to be brought up as catholics and james and charles can't deliver that so both sides were willing to make a deal but only on their own terms and the gap between them was simply too great [Music] after the catastrophic defeat of elizabeth and frederick's forces at the battle of white mountain outside prague in november 1620 james had to intervene but war was expensive and money had long been a problem for the english crown james would call parliament but the meeting was fractious and the mps were more interested investigating abuses by james's government than giving him the cash he wanted james soon dissolved the meeting as he had done so often before he now had no choice but to rely on his diplomatic efforts the spanish match for his son was the only chance he saw of diffusing the conflict and helping his daughter negotiation with madrid began again but at the same slow pace as before frustrated by these constant delays james's favorite the duke of buckingham and his son prince charles made an extraordinary decision [Music] it is my ill fortune to be one of those who is shortly to follow the prince into spain passed out the journey will be dangerous and expensive but as subject and servant i must needs obey [Music] prince charles and the duke of buckingham were heading to spain incognito as the john wins southern air richard was going with them in february 1623 this group left england in disguise for potentially powerless journey across europe the goal was to break the deadlock in the marriage negotiations with charles winning the hand of the spanish infanter in person it was romantic foolishly daring and it was doomed [Music] in the spring of 1623 richard wynn the heir to the winner state was traveling to spain along with prince charles the heir to the throne and the duke of buckingham richard wrote back home to guidier but he did not care for spain at all rich's letter is full of fascinating insights but there's one i really wanted to read to you the group encounters a spanish jesuit priest who is preaching to the crowd the priest description of england vividly illustrates the religious challenges of the era henry viii king of england until whose time the subjects there were obedient children to their mother church of rome having many famous martyrs that suffered for the cause as the thomas beckett and sir thomas more and diverse others this king i say was the first who to satisfy his own lust and to bring his adulterous conception to his own heart's desire did forgetting god and religion alter the course of the ever-held obedience to the church of rome by dissolving their abbies and putting to death i know not how many hundreds for which act his soul lies chained in the bottomless pit of hell in everlasting torments this is not all they're heretical opinions but the damnableist and worst of all is which is my last point this is my body they dare have the impudence to deny our savior's own words saying it is but a sign and not the body and blood itself [Music] prince charles wasn't likely to have much success on this spanish surgeon the spanish trip was an extraordinary fiasco really and marvelously amateurish and silly it was like a sort of adolescent shape in some ways to think that this would be anything other than a diplomatic disaster which of course it was uh was was pretty naive but off they went um prince charles and duke buckingham and of course sir richard wynn so richard had a very low opinion of spain he said there's no land worth speaking of and the worst counties of north wales are better than what he saw in castile and aragon he's quite dismissive of it but they have all sorts of adventures and of course the one thing they don't come back with is is any sensible deal on the inventor's hand they managed to sort of wreck the plans of this great dynastic union between england and spain but it's very interesting that sirishad is a witness to that and not only a witness but he produces this account of the royal trip to spain and very amusing it is [Music] the spanish infantry didn't really take to charles the future king he wasn't a catholic he was an infidel who turned his back on the church of rome this wasn't going to be as straightforward as his father james is married to the lutheran princess and of denmark when the disguised royal procession finally arrived in madrid their host presented them with impossible demands the duke of buckingham got into terrible quarrels with a spanish equivalent and so prince charles had to negotiate for himself hardly fitting for a future king the whole business of adopting disguises as traveling gentlemen and calling yourself mr smith and all this sort of thing is it's entirely silly it's very adolescent and you know going boating and dressing up and getting drunk and i mean you can imagine how that went down with with a strict protocol of the court of madrid i mean ridiculous really to think that that anything other than disaster would come out of that it soon became clear that the spanish had been stringing charles all along just enough to keep england out of the 30 years war charles was virtually cast out after bursting in on the young infanta in her own private garden the men returned home humiliated [Music] the heat between those hills was such we thought ourselves in stoves yet at their heights we walked on snow and colder it was than england in the midst of lank as shot and herring they feed you not over there at issue was not the quantity affair but its nature castile and aragon together are not worth the meanest county in wales with father's blessing i shall see it published did he speak of my return at all he is as much relieved of your safe arrival as the nation is of the princes though perhaps with rather less dancing through the streets i cannot imagine father ever danced a jig in his life i'm not well certainly but come tell me of it all tell me of spain and the prince's great adventure you despair of the english court brother it is as nothing to the severity of the spanish the prince had convinced himself he was in love but all chance of speaking with the enfanter was denied him [Music] the public however were delighted by their failure eager to caught this and embittered by their time in spain charles and buckingham switch sides they pushed the reluctant james towards war with spain parliament was summoned once again this time its anti-spanish father was equaled by many at court despite this combined pressure james still refused to go to war but his ability to control events was diminishing james was dying courtier's look to the future to prince charles who would soon be king by his side in his endeavors was sir richard who would be promoted to first gentleman of the bed chamber the winds had lost their first born son and heir at the same time as the stewards the royal family they were about to lose their patriarch at the same time as well sir john wynn was also succumbing to the ravages of old age 27th of march 1625 dear father the king died this day at noon he had been sick a fortnight with tertian fever the stag that was dead yet lives the young king was proclaimed this evening he has promised he shall deal with me nobly and i do believe a great office will be mine i hope this letter finds you well and recovered of your recent sickness know that i endeavor each day to be worthy of your example your dear and loyal son richard [Music] [Music] [Music] in 1625 james dies he's been ailing for quite a long time he's been chronically unwell because of the way in which he sort of wastes away and because of the way in which buckingham is so hated by the political elite of course rumor spread very quickly that james had been poisoned and in fact buckingham had in defiance of the royal doctors arranged for politicians to be applied to him which it was easy for those that wanted to believe there was foul play to believe was foul play and to a degree that historians have only recently begun to re-evaluate the story that buckingham had murdered james and that charles had condoned it those haunted charles right down to his own death 24 years later and certainly were very prevalent in the months before the outbreak of civil war historians debate james's legacy to some he's an intelligent a flawed man who brought peace in the time of extremism to others he was stubborn extravagant and his belief in the divine right of kings sow the seeds for his son's own clashes with parliament and the bitter english civil war that was to come in the next episode we see how charles the first followed in his father's footsteps with his profound belief in the divine right of kings and a misplaced trust in the duke of buckingham charles the shunning of parliament an autocratic style of rule fueled enormous political and religious tensions in his kingdoms a civil war would break out across the british isles and in the end the house of stewart would fall and the commonwealth headed by a commoner called oliver cromwell would rise in its place the fall of the monarchy would be a nightmare for the wind family of north wales they would have to fight to survive in this new puritanical era england wales scotland and ireland would never be the same again [Music] charles the first succeeded james the first who had inherited the throne from his mother mary queen of scots which had brought the two kingdoms together but at such a bloody cost charles struggled to be the king that everyone longed for in the very beginning of charles's reign the charles plunges england into two simultaneous wars to fight both of the super power simultaneously crazy and the result of course is that all the campaigns are failures he did believe in the divine right of kings he believed he was placed there by god through history we think charles the first lost his head having lost a civil war but we forget the years when he was seen as the luckiest monarchy in europe he was highly sophisticated he really put british visual culture on the map both in terms of what he commissioned the form of rubens and van dijk but also what he collected charles ii the restoration would bring unity and glamour back to the country the people were worn out by the austerity of cromwell and the parliamentarian era an ecstatically welcomed the new king james ii the catholic king of a protestant country was disaster waiting to happen in this series we're looking at the reign of the stewart kings through the lives of the wind family who lived here at guido castle in north wales the winds rather prospered during the stuart era sir john the head of the family had been knighted during the reign of king james the first and was later elevated to the position of baronet but it was during the reign of king charles the first that the connection between the two families grew closest [Music] [Music] charles the first became king of england scotland and ireland in 1625 succeeding his father king james the second stuart monarch like his father charles believed in the divine right of kings and shunned parliament as irrelevant as a result he had a tempestuous reign and eventually led to the outbreak of a civil war so richard nguyen was a comfort on to the new king charles the first and he was appointed groom of the bed chamber and gentleman of the privy chamber sir richard nguyen and king charles were long acquainted richard had even joined his future king on a pretty disastrous trip to spain in 1623. charles had hoped to negotiate his marriage to the spanish infanta maria anna daughter of king philip iii but he was forced to return home humiliated charles's abject failure in spain was an absolute delight to many back home they did not want their future king marrying a catholic this was supposed to be a protestant country now however charles still ended up marrying a catholic despite all of their protests as he'd made his way to spain on that fateful journey in 1623 he'd been to paris and there he met henrietta maria daughter of the king of france henry iv so that hopeless journey aboard trying to get the spanish infanta had not been in vain charles and henrietta maria would be married in canterbury in 1625 [Music] henrietta mariah got married on the understanding with pope urban that she would try and do her best to bring england back to the true faith of roman catholicism and also the sort of understanding that she would do her best to influence the royal family itself the children that she would produce the real problem was she was very zealously catholic so she flaunted her catholicism even to the extent that she refused to take part in the coronation because she would not have the proceedings overseen by a protestant it was something that was anathema to her it's very puzzling if you're a modern person to find the answer to why it should have been such a source of contention that charles the first ever monarch to be brought up as a member of the church of england shouldn't have been married to a roman catholic she was french so you have really strong religious prejudices on the side of queen henrietta mariah and of a lot of people in political power in england and it was it would have needed somebody to back down and it wasn't going to be the politicians [Music] in the year of the coronation of marriage 1625 sir richard wynn is supposed to have planted out these 12 saplings that he brought back from spain in 1623 which are the famous cedars here at buddha there are three that survive these are the earliest statement of royalism which is going to be a feature uh throughout the 17th century of of the relationship between the winds and and the house of stewart this is the queen's house in greenwich the building was designed by the great architect inigo jones and it was intended as a gift from king james the first to his wife anne of denmark however she died during its construction and the building was put on hold construction recommends on the queen's house when king charles decided it would make a wonderful gift for his new wife henrietta maria a second level was even added by indigo jones and henrietta became one of inigo's key benefactors just like her husband henrietta maria was a devoted patron of the arts fortunately for the queen she had sir richard wynn as a treasurer to help fund her artistic endeavors so richard would sign off her payments and often paid with funds from his own estate so richard winn was now a firmly established figure in the royal house of stuart treasurer to the queen consort groom of the breadchamber to the king this meant he had the right to touch the king a rare honour of course this also meant he preparing the new king for his many portraits one of the king's very favorite artists was the exceedingly popular anthony van dyke have you sat for many portraits yourself richard one or two sire no never for as skilled a man as master van dyke the better sought to know faster let us try that one there is majesty in art if there be a lesson i took from spain it is that my court should outshine all others just as england should outshine all nations accepting whales of course except in wales it's difficult to understate the impact that this genius of portraiture had he was like an impresario crying action and for the first time people genuinely began to move in pictures there was a feeling of illusion and realism in a way that daniel mightiness had slightly prepared the english for but van dyke swept the board with i mean one of the first things that he did and charles the first of course was highly aware of the possibilities of an artist like van dyke he collected the works of titian he was familiar and through osmosis of of contact with the works of the high renaissance he knew that there were ways of portraying him and his court in a way that was different from the past [Music] no no it will not do take it away forgive me sir did you fashion the caller richard no sir purchase it for my wardrobe no sir never make defense or apology before you be accused advice fit for statesmen courtiers and husbands we shall try another physically speaking he was not pre-possessing he had a slightly gnomish face very pronounced slightly goggly eyes he was also very small he was five foot four he had bow legs and he had rickets when he was young and so he needed an artist to transform this rather unpre-possessing human form into something magnificent and i genuinely feel that when you look at those portraits of charles the first van dyke has elevated him with a subtle manipulation of the brush into an almost christ-like figure van dyke brought with him this this box of tricks from the high renaissance and he dumped them down in london and with all the tools all the insights all the technical brilliance and proficiency all the sort of poetic mood that he was able to imbue his sitters with he transformed the way we looked despite a whirlwind start to his reign charles faced the same difficulties as his father king james the first a strange relationship with parliament and an urgent need to raise funds through unpopular taxes would force his reign into extreme tensions with a 30 years war raging on the continent it wouldn't be long before the country plunged into its own civil war and blood would flow [Music] so richard wynn the owner of gwitter castle here in north wales inherited his property and his titles from his father sir john wynn richard's brother owen was a bookish type interested in a variety of subjects including the mysterious business of alchemy owen preferred to stay here at the family home of gwydio while richard was busy in the call to the new king charles the first [Music] king charles's reign had started at a frantic pace he married henrietta maria daughter of the king of france just a couple of months after gaining the throne and was already planning a war with spain after those failed attempts to marry the spanish infanter but charles inherited the same problems as his father a poor relationship with parliament and a misplaced trust in a particular figure at court the duke of buckingham he'd been a favorite of king james and retained a considerable amount of influence over king charles as well there was a sort of intense friendship which i think started on both sides from a mutual regard of how powerful the other one was you know buckingham because of his royal favor which he certainly didn't want to lose with a change of ruler and charles because he wanted to be loved by his father and what better way of being loved than to show favor for his favorite there was a sort of element of intelligence on both parts that diplomatically they should make the most of each other because it was going to further their own interest but after james's death buckingham maintained this extraordinary hold over the throne for the remaining three years of buckingham's life from the very beginning charles and parliament don't get on distrust bills very very quickly not least because charles is pouring money into failed military campaigns led by buckingham and parliament doesn't see why it should continue to give money he starts raising money under his prerogative in ways which are truly controversial it is one of the major issues which generates the distrust of charles that he's going to be in the background of factors for a civil war a few years later despite a lack of finances charles pressed ahead with his intervention in the 30 years war an expedition was launched against spain buckingham oversaw an alliance with the dutch and the plan was effectively to engage in piracy by raiding spanish treasure ships returning from the new world with gold and then to attack spanish towns in order to drag the country out of the 30 years war it was a complete disaster through bad luck and incompetence at least 1 000 english soldiers died with nothing to show for it people blamed the already unpopular duke of buckingham the record parliament muted impeaching him and charles dismissed them spare his friend but he couldn't protect the duke of buckingham from all the threats on the 23rd of august 1628 buckingham was stabbed to death in portsmouth by a disgruntled army officer charles and the court mourned buckingham deeply but the rest of the country pretty much celebrated his death the rift between king and country was growing deeper one of the officers felton who had been on his first mission stabbed him to death and buckingham knew the wound was fatal he actually called it out the shock in this country of the greatest non-royal in the country being just commonly assassinated was something absolutely astonishing a lot of people didn't like the influence buckingham had but the thought of him suddenly being gone at the blade of an assassin was was something that took a lot of coming to terms with [Music] once buckingham was dead sir richard nguyen was one of king charles's most trusted advisors but he could also be viewed as one of the king's greatest benefactors richard's father sir john wynn had been offered a baronetcy by king james and bought it at a hefty price only parliament could levy taxes so stuart monax had to find new inventive ways of acquiring funds if they were going to ignore parliament asking charles like to do he generated new income through the highly unpopular ship money levy this was essentially a tax intended for wartime but it was now levied during peacetime it had only been imposed on counties that lay on the coast but it was now implied inland as well families like the winds would be the ones footing this massive tax bill drawn up by master inigo jones himself it's a bridge by the surveyor to his majesty surprise the king can spare him he must be a man much occupied a generosity typical of his character 25 shillings and fourpence what 25 shillings and 4 pence that's the king's demand apologies generosity that arrived this morning courtesy of the sheriff ship money owed on our rectory are we to dispute over 25 shillings that is but the latest demand brother we bear the queen's debts we pay the king's ship money were it not for the irish estates the king must have means to guild his palace while our roofs fall in whitehall is dilapidated it shames the nation the nation has other concerns i've seen the pamphlets the printing press may echo a voice a thousand times over it is still but one man do not be swayed by mal factors in london the nation is happy i think one of the tragedies for the stewards is that they never had enough money and parliament wasn't prepared to give enough or to tax enough in their own way charles the first was very keen to get around this problem and to use whatever device he could come up with anything connected to the crown to raise money he would look at and ship money was the first really big disaster in terms of confrontation with people who were not prepared to put up with what they saw as an abuse of kingly power there is a case for it there was a big european war going on 20 000 english young people mainly are being captured by pirates coming from north africa and taking them off to be slaves in north africa charles the first in fairness was building up the the navy in a very dramatic way which was good for the nation but to impose a tax on internal counties of england for the growing of the navy was a really difficult concept for people who are being asked to pay it he will not recall parliament then why let that disputatious gathering disturb the peace i have conducted alchemic investigations these many years vapers foul and copious are a near constant the naivety of my youth i sought wants to contain those heirs less farther catch up on the breeze a hint of my designs i remember i capped a fermenting bottle yet my attempts at amelioration only worsened the explosion when it came parliament is the bottle the country is the bottle i fear the long containment of grievance without safe release will bring us all to greater misfortune the king may rule without parliament so ever long he wishes it's not his prerogative i doubt brother but his wisdom it is a very fine bridge to do it without consulting parliament and then say well i have a right in a national emergency to raise these sorts of monies when in fact there's time to call a parliament is to abuse your power it was just the first major step of charles being seen as an absolutist monarch in an unacceptable very unbritish way the thirty years war had begun as a religious conflict between catholic and protestant states and although king charles disengaged in the conflict the religious divisions within his own kingdoms did not disappear england wales ireland and scotland all had their own unique and combustible mix of catholics and protestants many also suspected charles of secret catholic sympathies his wife was french his attempts to help protestant allies in europe were seen as half-hearted and together with his archbishop of canterbury william lord charles passed a series of anti-calvinist reforms these were particularly unpopular in scotland in 1639 the church and public there rebelled charles couldn't stand this affront to his authority but he didn't have the funds to raise an adequate army scottish forces swept into england seizing northumberland and forcing the king to pay them for the privilege charles had no choice but to recall parliament humiliated by the scots and backed into a corner by his finances charles could not dismiss the members this time and the men of parliament quickly moved against charles's government advisors were impeached and new acts were passed preventing the king from ruling alone in the way he had done the times seem as a man with egg you some days good some days bad i see not the good the remedy as ever is best found at home executing chief minister strafford has purchased not a moment's respite had his majesty not called parliament last year i do believe the earl of warwick would have marched on london now bit by bit they norway at his prerogative an act for preventing the long intermission of parliaments and act declaring ship money unlawful and void and act for the regulation of the privy council his majesty is most sensible of the disrespect he will brook it though he says it is but a few malcontents goading and leading the rabalon i'm sure he has it right come home brother if it turns to conflict i would not have you here in london my place is with his majesty tensions were reaching boiling point in ireland terrible killings took place between catholics and protestants rumors abounded parliament wanted to impeach charles's catholic wife henrietta maria for collusion with the rebels that for the king was the last straw charles marched on the house of commons with an armed guard to arrest who he thought were his enemies the opposition ringleaders but the speaker refused to surrender the mps not long afterwards charles left london which was increasingly hostile to him further negotiations of the parliament failed soon both sides were raising armies at nottingham on the 22nd of august 1642 charles raised the royal standard the english civil war had begun in order for that to be an english civil war there has to be a collapse of authority in ireland and scotland first you have to send an army to ireland in order to safeguard the the protestants have not been massacred you can't trust the king with that army but the king can't possibly be expected to as king to give over the power to control armies to to a parliament that is a legitimate body it's not an executive body so that becomes the non-negotiable issue in which all the tensions in england burst forth into violence i see the civil war coming from a shifting of tectonic plates to do with politics society and religion there were very very bloody things going on in the continent which show the the intensity of religious feeling on both sides there was a similar feeling over here about what is right religiously and people believe passionately to the point of death in their particular brand of christianity i think one of the things about george the first almost his besetting sin was tactlessness they were so in love with their idea of what the church was and how it would be beautified that they were stupidly intolerant of the puritans definitely there was a class of people in the political sphere of england who believed that they should be representing the interests of the country versus the court and uh equally vehemently you have charles the first and before him james the first believing absolutely rigidly in the divine right of kings so there's a sort of religious conflict and a philosophical one about who's actually in charge of this country and what is it about come everything is ready your majesty do you know what they say of me richard in these pamphlets i do not read them sire they say i plot with rome that i conspire for the propagation of potpourri in my kingdoms they are seditious so they are bane lewd and wicked but fire must with fire be matched i have all the printing press be conveyed to oxford with the court very wise sire our own newsletter where they entice with empty falsehood we shall nourish with the truth so equipped will the people shake off their current sickness and better affection be to their king i shall return richard and to such a welcome the stage was set for civil war charles on one side parliament on the other charles's belief in the divine right of kings was about to be severely tested charles set up his capital in oxford his strengths lay in the north and west whereas parliament had the wealth in london and the south east and control of the navy the initial battles of the civil war were pretty much a draw alongside intermittent and futile peace talks father father is it from uncle richard father what news of the war it's from one of our tenants oh a clothier he cannot pass army lines to reach marketing shrewsbury our drovers cannot take their cattle into england either perhaps they should fight instead if their lord would not forbid it wisely they keep themselves apart and no matter if people think they're cowards if people talk of themselves we're right to hear such a word i would correct it very seriously i think the royalists were in the ascendant from the summer of 1642 until marston moore in 1644 marginally i think the energy of the royalists was quite impressive but the fundamentals were against the royalists the longer the war went on uh the navy being for parliament and london being for parliament and then when the scots came in that was really the turning point he did believe in the divine right of kings he believed he was placed there by god it was his destiny as an anointed king to be the supreme head of the british state whereas the puritans fed with this hebraic idea that there is only one king namely almighty god disputed the idea that charles stuart that man of blood as they called him uh should make any such claim i am a man grown we've spoken about this it's not my duty to serve the king these people live in the mountains they sow no crop their livelihood is in cloth in cattle only by reaching market can they pay the rent only with their rent can we support the king that is our duty it is yours you cannot stop me but most of these drovers these clothiers are too old for the fight they are perhaps fearful of losing what they hold dear that does not mean that they have forgotten what it is to be young and eager i want to fight 1645 was a turning point in the civil wars that so far been a stalemate many in parliament were unhappy that their advantage in resources hadn't translated into victory they suspected some commanders of half-hearted leadership they demanded change so in january 1645 the new model army was founded it was to be professional well-trained a national army not limited to one geographical area like the old militia and promotion which are based on merit not on social status the new model army first took to the field in late spring 1645 under the command of the thomas fairfax and oliver cromwell its first major battle was on 14th of june at nasby where it faced the king's smaller but more experienced force the result a stunning victory for the new parliamentary force naysby in northamptonshire that's the one which really settles it because once the king's main marching army has been destroyed and his wonderful wonderful infantry there's no way to come back for him the amount of territory he now occupies is too little to support the war effort the emergence of the new model army his first great victory at nasa b is a clear sign that parliament has an instrument that will ensure that they will not lose the benefits of their great victory in the middle of northamptonshire that nays we defeat robbed charles of his best men his artillery his stores and his grip over the royalist heartland of the west country charles retreated to his capital oxford later charles headed for conway valley in north wales where he had loyal support it's believed that he came here to guide castle upon the invitation of sir richard nguyen sir richard nguyen was at the side of king charles as his brother owen received this message at gwydia [Music] he ever was an unfortunate king had the wind's been otherwise in 28 a fine victory might have been his in france instead he was garlanded with humiliation now defeat hurries quick upon defeat his last port is besieged and his forces spent and word comes he would seek refuge here at gwitter to receive a king that is an honor even i can recognize yet danger slips through an open door offer your hand to a drowning man you may be pulled down with him paint ourselves to lurid a royal hue and we mark ourselves as the victor's prize but will guider at the last reject caesar should peace be struck his kingdom retained he may remember the friends that betrayed him with more rancor than the enemies that fought him alchemic reaction once begun cannot so easily be undone yet they will have an answer [Music] there was this king who was a charming man had lots of good qualities religious thoughtful very good family man but a terrible king and one who had taken very poor advice at a lot of key junctures the problem with charles was he was just so weak and it used to drive henrietta mariah mad you see her letters to him from the safety of the continent saying you agreed to do this but you did that yet again what are you doing and he couldn't help himself he just was easily swayable and this was not a a decade the 1640s where you could have a weak king and hope for a good outcome for the country or for him [Music] king charles was running out of options he was forced to surrender to the scottish army on the 5th of may 1646 and after months of negotiation charles was given up into the custody of the english parliament essentially taken to prison charles didn't give up hope he knew about growing divisions between the scots and the english and between parliament and the new model army so he had a plan he made a secret agreement with the scots they would invade england and with the help of the remaining worthiest forces returned charles to the throne in return charles would establish a scottish presbyterian religion in england the king having lost the war tries to win the peace i mean he tries to play off his enemies against one another then it's not impossible that couldn't have worked if he'd been a little bit more flexible in 1647 he could probably made a deal with the army and the army would have put him back on the throne in return what they were demanding was complete religious freedom but there should be complete liberty and that was better for him i think than having a presbyterian strict scottish style church government he could have had a weak episcopalian system you know church of england the weak church of england with complete freedom outside and he doesn't take that opportunity the second civil war flamed into life in 1648 but it was brief the new model army put down the royalist rebellions before defeating the scottish forces at preston in august charles was forced to negotiate but those divisions between the new model army and parliament had not gone away parliament voted narrowly to continue negotiating with the king but by now the army and oliver cromwell thought charles a tyrant who had to be removed [Music] choosing between the radical demands of the army and a king who surely is chastened and wiser than he was when we first fought him faced by that the army has a choice and the army decides that god will not forgive them if they put man of blood this man who had caused all this suffering for his people if they put him back on the throne so the army occupies london it purges parliament it removes a majority of mps and it puts the king on trial when finally the king is taken it's interesting that sir richard wynn of course as well as his royal duties was an mp he then has to watch the the slow unraveling of the royalist cause he'd been in his service for all these years already when he was prince and going all the way through having carried his robes at the coronation having been with him on a drunken jaunt in spain having done all those things with the king and then ultimately with the queen later it must have been terrifyingly difficult for anyone to cope with there was a strong element of parliament who were not in favor of the king being tried on any level it was a huge jump for people mentally to go from the king that they had always been taught as being a representative of god and a figure of great awe even though he had been defeated in battle repeatedly even though he was reneging on agreements he was still the king and to a lot of loyalist members of parliament they could understand a way forward where the king might be persuaded to be a more acceptable form of himself the trial of a king was something new in england no existing court thought the trial legal so parliament had to create a special body to try charles and it met for the first time in westminster hall on the 20th of january 1649. charles was accused of high treason held responsible for all the death and destruction caused by the war of course charles didn't recognize the court's authority he refused to enter a plea insisting the trial was not only illegal by english law but against god as well the colonels of the new model army were the dominant force really in the trial of charles the first they'd seen too much bloodshed and they could then only see charles as this famous phrase this man of blood he was no longer charles king of england on a pedestal he was just another man who had caused this appalling bloodshed and i think it's always worth remembering that the english civil wars they caused the heaviest loss of life percentage of population in this country ever including the first world war and the casualties were even worse in scotland and considerably worse in ireland so i think that with all that in mind people thought those who hated the king by this stage or who certainly loathed the bloodshed that went with the king's cause i think they thought that if we can just lock the head off literally the the crown then we could have a fresh start and and no more blood the court sentenced charles to death he bade farewell to his children who were with him to the end he requested two shirts so that he would not shiver from the cold and so give the impression of being afraid the king was beheaded on a scaffold outside banqueting house in whitehall on the 30th of january 1649. [Music] you look tired are you there when they richard may we all meet our deaths in so steadfast to spirit do they grant him any last words the soldiers kept us at a far remove a scaffold had been erected it was at the banqueting house designed by master jones like our bridge i could not hear what he said i saw him speak a prayer and kneel at the block hands outstretched before him when the axe fell the crowd gave out a moan as i never heard before and desire i may never do so again charles king and martyr charles [Music] it's interesting that serrated wind just sort of fizzles out a few months after the execution of the king he's dead he's dead himself in the 19th century they would have romantically said he died of a broken heart but he really had no purpose he's sort of fizzled out it's a sort of unspecific illness i think just wasted away probably through grief the house of lords was abolished an executive power wielded by parliament and its council of state the new model army was the most powerful force in britain with oliver cromwell in command it swept aside all remaining military opposition in 1653 cromwell disbanded parliament he thought it qualism and ineffective and seized power as lord protector in the end the bloody english civil war between king and parliament saw both sides lose all the while across the sea charles's sun and air waited in exile in the next episode of the stuarts a bloody rain the heir to the throne charles ii goes into hiding on the continent where he is stunned by the news that his father has been put to death for over a decade charles travels in exile around the royal houses of europe planning to overthrow cromwell's commonwealth and restore the house of stewart but his attempts are in vain and it seemed all hopes are lost however the tides begin to turn back in the stewart's favor with the death of cromwell and soon charles ii will be welcomed with open arms by an adoring public in london the restoration of the monarchy sees a return to prominence for the wynne family as well but there are many enormous obstacles to overcome including a huge outbreak of the dreaded plague and the great fire of london [Music] [Music] charles ii finally came to the throne after years in exile following the execution of his father charles the first who had struggled to be the king that everyone longed for the restoration would bring unity and glamour back to the country the people worn out by the austerity of cromwell in the parliamentarian era and they ecstatically welcomed the new king people always say oh gosh charles he was so relaxed you know just interested in a luxurious life but there was one part of him that was unforgiving and that was his attitude towards those who had been involved in the death of his father i've always thought that the key to understanding charles second's reign is he spends 11 years just desperately wanting to be king so once he becomes king he doesn't want to do anything in the reign of charles ii you have the birth of modern times clever people who were literally rebuilding england and then the fire in london which enabled london to be rebuilt it must have been so exciting by the time you got to about 1700 to look around and find yourself in this spanking new city in this series we're examining the reigns of the stuart kings through the lives of the wind family here at gwydia castle in north wales the winds had flourished during the reign of king james the first and his son king charles the first so john wynne the patriarch of the family had been knighted and honoured with a baronetcy his son sir richard nguyen was a friend of king charles the first and had been appointed first gentleman of the bedchamber as well as treasurer to the new queen henrietta maria but now the situation had reached an all-time low for both the stuarts and the winds [Music] [Music] king charles the first was executed on the 30th of january 1649. the royalists had lost the civil war the reign of the stewards appeared over the entire system of monarchy appeared over in its place was now the commonwealth a new system of government where england scotland wales and ireland were ruled over by oliver cromwell the lord protector [Music] the hero of the new model army is oliver cromwell and he had a spectacular career from the minute he gets into parliament as the poorest man to make it to parliament in 1640 he is a dynamo i mean he's a man totally committed to godly reformation completely convinced of the fact that god has called him to some great cause and he just rises from being a captain in 1642 and then becomes the lieutenant general the head of the cavalry for the new model army eventually of course the the head of the whole army leading unparalleled the successful and brutal campaigns in ireland and scotland after the execution of charles the first his wife henrietta maria had to escape and found refuge in the french court his son charles attempted to muster forces in france and the netherlands [Music] they became royal prey they were pursued out of the country henrietta mariah fled in a ship from the southwest to france under gunfire from parliament the future james second as a young boy managed to escape from scion house in middlesex dressed as a girl and was spirited away to the netherlands and um there was a little princess elizabeth who sadly sort of faded away and died in carrisburg castle in in the isle of wight between 1646 and 51 the future charles ii endures a really humiliating exile the story is that nobody dared tell charles ii that his father had been executed and they didn't know what to do so one of the senior coaches went in to see charles ii instead of saying your royal highness which would have been his title as prince bowden said your majesty meaning you are now the king and charles took a moment to understand it but when he did it was uh an absolute body blow the wind family at gwydia castle were deeply affected by the execution of charles the first so richard nguyen had lost both his king and his seat at parliament as he'd been expelled by the pride's purge of 1648 orchestrated by oliver cromwell sir richard was heartbroken he would never recover and he died just a few months after king charles was beheaded succeeding sir richard as the new head of the wind family would be his younger brother sir owen nguyen owen was a very different character bookish endlessly intrigued by the possibilities of alchemy it wasn't easy for poor and cereal and when he was the third son and he was the more bookish one he wasn't the sort of glamorous courtiers his brother richard had been and so he was given all the kind of difficult jobs he had to look after the estate for his brother his brother gave him an allowance to do so and he was at the brunt of it here during the civil war he and of course lady grace's wife so it kind of been easy during the civil war having all of this going on being twice sacked being seriously squeezed in terms of finances so owen had to be especially careful under this new commonwealth the wynne family had been close to the deposed royal house of stewart and there was a very real threat that the winner state could be seized by force at any moment just like worthless families up and down the country following the end of the english civil war and the battles that occurred across wales scotland and ireland known as the war of the three kingdoms oliver cromwell had firmly established his grip on power he'd been sworn in as lord protector in 1653 and drastically altered the cultural landscape of the country theatre was outlawed celebration of christmas and easter was banned for quite a lot of 1650s oliver cromwell is ruling england as lord protector refusing to take the title of king but very much like a king and his policy of of promoting religious liberty you know does benefit a lot of people including of course former anglicans and even catholics who have a much easier time under cromwell than they had under any of the stewards if cromwell had lived beyond his 60th birthday the real possibility that the stewart option might have faded away in 1658 oliver cromwell fell ill and died and was succeeded by his son richard cromwell but richard lacked any real authority because if the position of law protector could be inherited so how was that any different from the monarchy a power vacuum was developing and the booth rebellion was one of several attempts to fill it sir george booth was a former member of parliament who organized an uprising against richard cromwell in 1659 joining him in his efforts would be another former member of parliament sir thomas middleton and middleton's son-in-law so richard wynne the younger son of sir owen the booth rebellion had been planned in the regions near gwydia castle north wales and the northwest of england the forces assembled were able to take the important city of chester but although cromwell's power was undoubtedly failing and the commonwealth was weak booth's rebellion was still put down booth himself managed to escape capture dressed as a woman but sir richard nguyen was not quite so fortunate [Music] when booth's revolt happens in 1659 it is sir thomas middleton and sir richard wynn they are rising north wales at the same time as george booth is rising cheshire it was supposed to happen all over britain but the problem is these were the only two areas that did rise so the full weight of the new model army under general lambert were there waiting for them and they didn't stand a chance as you can imagine um is caught in the fallout of that obviously he's one of the casualties of being mopped up and he's dragged off to carnarvon castle where he's a prisoner i would have had you in the dungeon mother i did not think to see you my keeper permits me no letters i met the colonel he's a villain is he not i found him amenable he's parliament's creature courtesy will loosen a door rather than spite richard and a ready purse is more persuasive still i think he will see you released his expectation was to be courted i'm in no mood for wooing perhaps you were enjoying your little game too much there was a time to end this tyranny under which we live mother if general monk had joined me but he did not he waited to see how the die would fall and the army are in dispute our king may return and our prayers rest upon that hope but some new lord protector may rise in cromwell's place we have weathered this long darkness estate and family intact but you do not throw away your winter garb at the first bud of spring snows may return as quickly as they are banished you are of no use to me here recall the habits of a courting youth and practice them upon the colonel my purse will do the rest the failure of the booth rebellion a terrible blow to sir richard win the younger and all royalists across the country even in its weakened state cromwell's commonwealth has somehow hung on but their disappointment wouldn't last for long across the english channel king charles the first son and heir was patiently waiting in exile within a year he'd be summoned back to london and the new stuart king would be back on the throne [Music] the booth rebellion of 1659 had failed to bring down the commonwealth but it hadn't been totally in vain the actions of sir george booth sir thomas middleton and sir richard win the younger had inspired another key figure of the era george monk governor of scotland monk was a man of floating allegiance at one point he considered defending richard cromwell later he thought of joining boone's rebellion but now in 1660 he was launching his own uprising he led his army of loyal soldiers down from scotland to london and no one could stop him he became the most powerful man in the country but monk was not in the mould of oliver cromwell there would be no new lord protector he made overtures to the stewart family in exile they were the only ones who could offer the country the stability it's so desperately needed general monk realized that the mood in the country was fed up with cromwell fed up with the rule of the major generals the army had stopped being on the side of the revolution the army was reverting to the king and once that happened there was no hope of keeping richard trombo he didn't have any of his father's bullying strength he was a quieter man and anyway there's something absurd if you've given up the concept of monarchy thinking that there should be a hereditary protectorate [Music] even though the great rising didn't happen and it was put down nevertheless all eyes were on it and at that moment george monk makes his move and he could have been king of course and in fact the throne was offered to him um tentatively in that in the way of him becoming the inheritor of the protector ship but wisely he decided no it's much better to be the king maker than the king so he is the grand choreographer who brings charles back or enables uh charles to come back of course charles doesn't actually win back the throne it's parliament and the commonwealth that lose it they haven't got somebody to succeed oliver cromwell who has the substance or the respect of both parliament and the army to take his place so it's really because of oliver cromwell's death and the inability of anyone following him to grab that power that eventually the english resort to default and think well we'll have a king back then [Music] charles had spent most of his exile in the dutch city of braider and on the 4th of april 1660 he issued the declaration of braider promising a general pardon for crimes committed during the civil war recognition of property rights religious toleration and payment of army wage arrears four days later the parliament in london proclaimed charles king at once the young exile made preparations in europe to return home [Music] charles ii and his advisors they were convinced that uh if there were conditions they were going to be very onerous they'd be probably close to what charles the first had turned down before his trial and execution but actually the english parliament had turned around on its head in just two months in early 1660. although he has promised everything be settled by parliament he is returned unconditionally i mean parliament passes the declaration that he has been king since the moment of the death of his father of royal memory so they say come back unconditionally but thank you for your promise that you will accept any settlement we make on the most neuralgic terms charles landed at dover on may the 25th he made his way to london which he reached four days later he had deliberately timed it so he'd re-enter the city on his birthday he was exactly 30 years old the people of london were lining the streets the crowds were so thick that it took seven hours to cross the still familiar city perhaps some of them had been there that cold january morning more than a decade earlier when the king's father had been beheaded in whitehall now they were cheering the return of the stewards charles ii had come home to claim his crown [Applause] [Music] so greater multitude and in so mary's spirit too holding the king's picture aloft that was near a hanging matter but weeks ago it must be all of london we shall know of his coming from the crowd they line the streets like this from dover to whitehall in all the years of cromwell did you ever see such a thing no nor can i remember when last week you had an afternoon of leisure such as this he will be a fine king i'm sure of it despite the general pardon offered by charles in his declaration at breda not every crime was forgotten 50 people were deliberately excluded from charles's acts of forgiveness nine men who'd signed his father's death warrant were executed the identity of the executioner who actually carried out the beheading of king charles the first is still a mystery to this day as for oliver cromwell the man who usurped charles's father even after death he will be held accountable as with the judge who oversaw charles's trial john bradshaw and henry ayotte who'd signed the king's death warrant the three of them were removed from their graves and hung up for the crowds to witness before they were all decapitated and their heads placed on spikes there was one part of him that was unforgiving and that was his attitude towards those who had been involved in the death of his father and that's the 59 men who signed the death warrant and another 20 or so who were either legal officers in the court case or on the scaffold at the execution and charles's hatred for them never ended the people he most blames for his father's death their heads were cut off and their bodies turned into a lime pit and the heads stuck on spikes on the palace of westminster i think he just adored his father and couldn't believe that these people could expect any sort of sympathy at all and there was also an underlying point too that if he had been soft with them what would it have said about him as a as a monarch so i think that there was a cold part of charles ii and it was absolutely focused on those who had killed his father [Music] life would change drastically with the return of the king puritan oppression was lifted almost at once a new age of liberty and even debauchery took hold and with a dazzling cultural rebirth poetry in the arts would prosper theatres reopen with women appearing on stage for the first time the sciences flourished as well with luminaries such as sir isaac newton and expanding the horizons of human knowledge i think there was an enormous mood of optimism when charles ii came back partly because he did this clever thing he was prepared to tolerate an awful lot of people who had supported the civil war therefore because he was a genial person on some on some levels and certainly politically very intelligent he was able to create an atmosphere in which political reconciliation could happen charles is very keen to work with as many people who'd work with cromwell as possible he wants to see healing and settling his former enemies were much more likely to send him on his travels again and his former friends he'd rather disappoint his friends than his enemies because his aim is not to have to go away again [Music] charles himself will be the founder of the royal observatory which you can see here in this painting from its earliest days he had an interest in the burgeoning field of natural sciences and he would grant a charter to the royal society [Music] sir owen nguyen would not get to see much of the restoration he died in the same year as king charles ii was crowned the period that sir owen nguyen had lived under so cautiously in the last years of his life was now called the interregnum so owen's sons sir richard win the younger freshly released from carnarvon castle inherited the win estate so richard wynn's uncle had been such a key figure in the court of charles the first there was no reason to believe that the wind family would not prosper once again now that the stewards were back [Music] king charles ii was finally on the throne and he needed a queen during the reign of king charles the first there'd be negotiations with the royal family of portugal for the hand of catherine of braganza this arrangement had been put on permanent hold thanks to oliver cromwell but it was brought back to life following the restoration king charles ii married catherine of braganza in 1662 and the nation of tea drinkers was born catherine brought over the custom of tea drinking from portugal and it quickly became popular amongst the aristocracy in the reign of king charles ii so richard wynn the younger would be a key part of this restored royal court taking up the position of chamberlain to charles's new queen a delighted nation dubbed the new king the merry monarch but just like his father charles had married a catholic and the religious difficulties that has so blighted the past did not simply disappear however there were far more pressing problems just around the corner the worst outbreak of plague since the black death and the great fire of london your fire was dying lady grace let me summon the maid i have brought it back to life it is quite all right i can manage a fire sit i thought i heard the foot post not long ago yet i know that cannot be i forbade the london post from approaching our gates and none would be so disrespectful as to disobey my wishes do not blame the poor man no i do not you commanded him and he obeyed as he should i had not heard from richard in so very long he lives then the existence of the letter was all you needed to know that i fear it is very bad this time i remember the plague in 1625 i was younger than you not long married ultra john kept carts of london cloth outside for days at a time happier as he was to see his finest purchases ruined than risk plagued within our walls he must be destroyed it is one letter that has passed through what hands and what parts of the country we know not every moment it is in this house the danger deepens i will have it removed from you if i must [Applause] [Music] in 1665 the great plague of london hit the city there had been large outbreaks throughout the 17th century particularly in 1625 and 1636 but nothing as bad as this it would be the last major outbreak of the disease to occur in england a quarter of the population of the capital died in little over a year plague had been something they'd all lived with forever it's something that they were pretty wised up to and there are accounts of bolts of cloth for example being sent up from london which would be kept outside the gates of gwydda for up to two weeks so the carters would not be allowed into the uh the main the great court they'd be kept outside by the porter and they would observe for two weeks they knew that one thing was certain if you have an infected cargo that came into somewhere like twitter the house would get it [Music] king charles ii and the family escaped to salisbury and england's parliament relocated to oxford by the spring of 1666 the outbreak had died down and it was deemed safe for the stewards to return to london but just as life was returning to normal yet another disaster unfolded [Music] the great fire of london broke out on the 2nd of september 1666. what began in a pudding lane bakery spread out of control and burned for three days straight the fires gutted the medieval heart of the city and the ancient saint paul's cathedral was utterly destroyed fears abounded that the fire was a foreign plot and king charles ii worried that the entire city might fall into anarchy england was at war with the netherlands at the time the dutch saw the fire as a divine retribution for the actions of the english navy and rear admiral robert holmes who'd set the town of west telesinger blaze in what became known as holmes's bonfire the disasters that befell charles the hammer blow of the plague the fire the wars with the dutch meanwhile the people of england were predominantly in favor of the dutch so he was out of kilter with the political feeling of of his uh of his parliament for a lot of his reign these were terrible things because the mentality of the time was somehow that the the monarch was responsible for life everyday life king charles ii was facing battles on all fronts just like the stewart kings who'd come before him his capital burned to the ground the economy in the doldrums the only reason why he gone to war in the first place was to try to help the economy the dutch republic was in the midst of its golden age lucrative trade routes across the globe charles's younger brother james had suggested they seized lucrative colonial possessions from the dutch disrupt their trading dominance charles agreed he was keen for popular war to boost his standing the war was not a success the netherlands may have been a smaller nation but had a far superior navy and much more money disasters such as the great fire of london further sapped england's ability to prosecute the war [Music] by 1667 the dutch controlled much of the waters around the south of england they'd secured pivotal european alliances and that june they staged a devastatingly bold naval assault dubbed the road on the medway they attacked the english fleet at anchor in the mouth of the thames many ships were destroyed and it remains one of the greatest disasters in the history of the royal levy charles crush had to sue for peace [Music] the royal oak burned the loyal london and the royal james too the flagship carried off without a single shot fired in her defense i thought the dutch are much lesser power than england we are the more numerous but they are richer and they have directed their wealth with far greater wisdom since the last war they've rebuilt their navy and plain made expert study of river navigation and warfare and what have we done beggared our garrisons with masks and courtly merriments i have no place there then be done with london go not there again the pride and pomp and luxury all the jails of england hold no more cunning a collection of thieves than court they never leave off robbing his majesty even his dogs are target for pilfering it was thought the dutch could not even set out a fleet this year it will have to be peace or the kingdom hole may be undone [Music] the treaty ending the war was signed in 1667 in the town of brader where charles had made his famous declaration that allowed him to return to the english throne several years earlier charles was humiliated but it did at least bring the war to an end and allow london to be rebuilt charles encouraged the greatest architects to come forward with radical plans for the city had these been realized london today would be a completely different place but in the end practicalities money meant most of the city was rebuilt on the same plan as before but the buildings themselves were much changed here the genius of sir christopher wren did have the opportunity to shine and his designs remain some of the most famous in the london skyline because there was a sense of a new beginning but a new beginning not out of total novelty but out of something that was old all sorts of exciting things happened during the restoration and then as it unfolded the full reign of charles ii the birth of the royal society figures like boyle figures like christopher wren clever people who were scientists who were architects who were literally rebuilding england and then the rather good luck as it happened of the fire which enabled london to be rebuilt and gloriously rebuilt it must have been so exciting to look around and find yourself in this spanking new city with so many absolutely mind-bogglingly beautiful buildings all around you on a river thames which was crammed with ships commerce theaters it really was blessed to be alive i think in the reign of charles ii [Music] as king charles arranged for his city to be rebuilt he was also building up the forces for another battle with the dutch republic that had so humiliated him in secret a new alliance was forged with louis xiv of france together they take on the dutch [Music] in 1670 king charles ii made a monumental decision he signed a secret agreement with the french known as the treaty of dover charles had been humiliated by a loss to the dutch republic three years earlier he was determined to gain revenge by joining forces with france to conquer the dutch but one of the provisos of the pact was that charles would convert to catholicism charles was playing with fire [Music] perhaps the thing which historians are most divided about over child's second is what on earth he was doing in the treaty of dover when he told louis xiv that he would become a catholic if louis would give him the many the money and the troops to make good his claim now there are plenty of people who think that he's being too clever by half that he's simply using this as a device to get louie to believe him and give him other things i've always been inclined to think that charles always yearns to become a catholic that for most of his reign he can see that he'll become it will be very dangerous that he will cause a huge amount of political reaction but there's a point around then and when you know he's under such pressure from his catholic wife he's catholic mistress and there's just a moment at which he thinks everywhere in europe where monarchy is strong catholicism is strong catholics have been the people who've been my most loyal supporters it but for the catholics i would not have escaped after battle of worcester it was the catholics who risked their lives to hide me get me out of the country and they it's just possible that he went through a a moment when he thought i wonder if i can get away with becoming a catholic england was still fiercely divided by religion a catholic king would rip open old wounds in march 1672 charles made the first moves towards fulfilling part of the secret deal with king louis xiv of france by making the royal declaration of indulgence it promised religious toleration for all including catholics and seemed to be a first step towards some kind of reconciliation between england and rome following the great break of henry viii's reign you seek stained glass for the new chapel i shall not ask how you came by such intelligence lest you implicate the walls and doors of my chamber i had thoughted an art lost in this country there are men in paris who preserve the skill why not rome the king was declared indulgence on matters of religion and parliament i care not is his declaration even legal i care not i have an image in my mind mother the chapel shall not be complete without it it is a cross a fine cross i must have it it was working too long of the day that took your father ill it is not that you must mother it is not that we shall consult physicians i have the outward applications having proved unsuccessful they now prescribe inward medicines and what course do they predict i must have that glass mother after the declaration of indulgence things become obviously much easier for not just catholics but but cryptocatholics we don't know precisely uh where sir should win the youngest stood on this um but we know that he's the chamberlain of queen catherine of braganza and we know that he's trying to get a stained glass cross the new chapel he's building in 1673 to four if you look at the chapel you would think he was a catholic chapel actually [Music] in april 1672 just a month after the royal declaration of indulgence england and france declared war on the netherlands it did not go according to plan the money promised by france to charles was not enough to cover the military expenses the king was forced to record parliament and it contained many members who were fiercely opposed to the royal declaration they deemed it far too generous to catholics and they now had the king in a bind parliament refused to fund the war until the declaration was withdrawn charles had to comply but worse was to come for the king the details of his secret patch within louis xiv were leaked the public was furious charles quickly realized that to defend his own position he had to pull out of the alliance with france end the war with the netherlands in early 1674 the treaty of westminster was signed which brought peace between england and the netherlands the war had achieved precisely nothing [Music] fortunately the full details of what he'd agreed to never did come out but it clearly helps to build the climate of anxiety in the 1670s about whether there is a drift back towards catholic monarchy there was still a lot of political tensions and the constant question of if charles couldn't produce a legitimate heir with catherine roberganza who was going to succeed and then the realization that his brother james duke of york was a roman catholic was it led to a flaring up of intense anti-catholic feeling and part of that was driven by a wish to make sure that james could not become the future king of england so all in all i think charles second would have preferred a much quieter time than he was handed [Music] 1674 also saw the death of sir richard wynn the younger he'd been a member of parliament for a total of 20 years both before and after the interregnum without any male heirs the winner's state passed to his daughter mary but his title of baronet would be given to his cousin john wynn the strength of the wynne family seemed to be dissipating charles ii had returned to england and so many across the country had had such high hopes but his reign was turning out to be a disappointment just like the winds the stewards were losing power despite having many children with his numerous mistresses king charles had no legitimate heirs with his wife catherine of berganza nor would any be born in the remaining 11 years of his life the heir apparent throughout was his younger brother james many suspected that james was a catholic they were right in fact charles ii himself converted to the catholic religion on his deathbed he became incredibly ill in february 1685 very very quickly and suddenly had a massive seizure and then poor man he was handed over to the combined ignorance of the royal physicians who did not know what to do and they took a view that the best thing they could do was stimulate him and get his whole energy pulsing through him i suppose so they shaved off his hair and applied white hot glass to his scalp they put a sort of acid in his nostrils they pumped him full of laxatives and animals and they gave him tonics of ground up man's skull and put poultices of pigeon droppings on his feet and although occasionally bizarrely he seemed to be getting better the general flow was towards death and one of his mistresses louise de caraway took james duke of york the king's brother aside and said look please don't tell anyone i've said this but his one wish has always been that he dies a catholic the evidence that charles second conversion is deathbed is in the end the testimony of the tiny number of people who are witnesses to it it it is very widely accepted that that it was so the man who was is supposed to have interceded into the church was someone who had helped him during his escape after worcester in 1651 and had been in that sense someone he trusted for many years and for me at any rate it is a logical outcome out of the shadows james brings a man called father huddleston who had helped charles survive during his six weeks on the run after the battle of worcester and james utters the immortal line of sire i bring you now a man who once saved your life and now he'll save your soul and huddleston sits with the king and takes him through the various processes to bring him to catholicism uh including what i'd imagine was rather a long confession by charles and he dies the following day having just reconnected briefly with the six weeks in his life of which he was most proud when he had shown himself to be brave and resilient [Music] if anyone thought that the controversial issue of religious tolerance had gone away they were mistaken the reign of james ii would bring with it another crisis in england and another war in the next episode of the stewards of bloody reign we see how the committed catholic james ii ascends to the throne of england succeeding his brother what had seemed an impossibility decades earlier was now a reality the religious tensions across the british isles reached fever pitch and they would test the loyalties of the wind family at gwydia castle in their relationship with the house of stewart all across the country plans were made to usurp the catholic king but the real danger lay very close to home james's own daughter mary and her husband the protestant william of orange of the dutch republic were the greatest threat of all this would spell the end of the house of stewart and the beginning of the glorious revolution [Music] james ii the catholic king of a protestant country was a disaster waiting to happen the stewart's vein had begun with james the first then charles the first their belief in the divine right of kings ultimately led to their downfall at the restoration charles ii became a popular if outrageous monarch the kingdom remains simmering with catholic verses protestant sentiment king james ii was a last desperate attempt at a stewart monarchy i think history is very tough on james ii he was a very brave headstrong figure a very good soldier very good admiral but unfortunately being so pig-headedly roman catholic was the undoing of him he goes on an all-out very rapid process of catholicization this completely wrecks the popular base of his powers he'd enjoyed in his first year [Music] he was in some ways a very competent person but he threw it away for no particular reason but it was absolutely extraordinary james ii just thought he was going to do his bit as a catholic king and it went spectacularly wrong [Music] king charles ii died on the 6th of february 1685. he had ruled over england wales scotland and ireland for quarter of a century following the restoration of the monarchy after the collapse of oliver cromwell's commonwealth charles converted to the catholic faith on his deathbed and he will be succeeded by his younger brother king james ii a man who had been catholic for nearly two decades in a country that was now officially protestant this was a grave concern james ii's reign would not last long [Music] in this series we've examined the reign of the four stewart monarchs through the lives of the wind family who lived here at gwydia castle in north wales the winds owned hundreds of acres of land surrounding the castle and they prospered enormously during the stuart era it all began with john wynn who inherited the winner's date in 1580 during the reign of the earliest stuart monarch king james the first john will be knighted and the family would be honoured with the title of baronet during king charles the first reign guido was overseen by john wynn's son sir owen and sir richard it was at this point that the connection between the wind family and the ruling stewart dynasty was strongest of all as sir richard nguyen was a close personal friend of king charles the first but then civil war broke out and the king was beheaded sir richard nguyen never recovered and died just a few months after he witnessed his friend and king being publicly executed so owen nguyen had to care for the estate with his wife lady grace during the challenging period of oliver cromwell's rule with the restoration of the monarchy and the return of king charles ii the winds would prosper once again this time with sir owen's son sir richard win the younger back in the restored royal court however sir richard wynne the younger had no male heirs meaning the estate piles to his daughter mary known to everyone as mali along with her grandmother lady grace it was her job to maintain the winner's state in the new era of the restoration [Music] lady sarah dies of the plague in 1671 she's very young and then in 1674 at the age of 39 sir richard dies as well so it's too young and that means that they only have one child that's the lovely lady mary and at the age of 17 she is suddenly the ares of a vast estate and the person who's uh who becomes the sort of grand choreographer of all of this is her grandmother lady grace when who survives as the matriarch this powerful figure of the past and she brokers marriage deal after marriage deal until she finds the one that is acceptable and the one that's acceptable turns out to be the young lord willoughby deresby robert barty mali married robert bertie in 1678 later the duke of ancaster a member of parliament the baronetsy that the wynne family had gained during the reign of king james the first could not be transferred to the female line and so that was given to a junior branch of the wind family and the berties acquired the guido state from that moment the direct connection of the winds to the land and the landscape and the people of north wales stops because it becomes a secondary estate it becomes an additional part of the willowby deresby empire which was in itself quite huge they were a lincolnshire family based at grimsthorpe castle um paul willoughby deresby goes on to become um the earl and then the duke of anchester and castevan so he becomes very important the wynn family one so powerful was now losing influence and status and so were the stewards for most of his life king james ii had never expected to become king he'd been born in james's palace in london in 1633 the second son of king charles the first and his wife henrietta maria james held the title of the duke of york from birth during the english civil war he'd been confined by parliament to his birthplace since james palace while his father fought a losing battle with the royalist forces at the age of 15 james managed to sneak away from his confines disguised as a woman and made it all the way to the hague in the netherlands continental europe would be where james would spend much of his life when his father was executed in 1649 when james was only 16 his elder brother was proclaimed king by the royalists and the parliaments of scotland and ireland charles was even crowned in scotland in 1651 but the stewart family was unable to reclaim england and eventually oliver cromwell prevailed becoming the undisputed ruler of a new commonwealth [Music] charles and his brother james sought exile in france their mother's homeland and it was during this time abroad that james was exposed to the beliefs and the ceremonies of the catholic religion as time went by he was drawn to that faith with greater and greater conviction james even served in the french army but france chose to ally itself with oliver cromwell the stewart family made an alliance with spain as a result and james switched over to the spanish forces and battled his previous french colleagues james learned to be a soldier and he'd fought first for the french and then for the spanish he'd fought for the french until he was driven out of the french army by the treaty by which cromwell um allied with france against spain but he just flipped over and went and fought for the uh for the spanish side and in fact in the last of the great battles of the new model army back of the dunes up in france and belgium the english armies of cromwell one of the people fighting against him was james he was on the battlefield james was considered a brave fighter and was on the brink of accepting the rank of admiral in the spanish navy when the collapse of cromwell's protectorate in england rapidly changed those steward prospects james declined the spanish offer within months his brother would reclaim the english throne james returned to london and was soon appointed lord high admiral of the navy he became one of his brother's closest advisers and was widely praised for his tireless efforts to extinguish the great fire of london but in private his religious allegiances were shifting his wife ann hyde had converted to the catholic religion almost as soon as the couple had returned to london by the late 1660s james had converted as well [Music] we now know that james was formally receiving the catholic church in 1668 he continues to attend protestant services for a few years but news about his is going you know privately to catholic mass catholic confessors and so on was was leaking out and by 1676 james comes out so then you have a crisis that the heir to the throne is going to be a catholic therefore there is a huge political campaign to prevent it well i think history is very tough on james ii we tend to forget all about him except the disaster of his three years as a king he was a very brave headstrong figure he was a very good soldier very good admiral and had fought bravely and he had a lot of qualities but unfortunately being so pig-headedly roman catholic was the undoing of him [Music] 1673 was a critical year in the life of the future king james ii his first wife anne hyde who converted to the catholic faith long before him died in 1671 and james was about to marry his second wife mary of medina 1673 was also the year of the test act this was a penal law voted in by parliament and it required all civil and military officials to take an oath that declared their allegiance to the anglican church james was in an impossible position he couldn't betray his principles and make such an oath he refused resigned as lord high admiral well there have been rumors abounding that he converted to the catholic faith and he was now married to a catholic bride from italy those rumors now seemed confirmed by james's refusal to make that oath required by the test act the difficulty with james ii was everyone knew he was catholic it was not something he could hide and not some he wanted to hide either i mean obviously when push came to to shove at the test act he had to just resign his commission as admiral and that meant he was okay because he didn't have to do any signing he didn't have to do any oh thing [Music] the fact that james's elder brother king charles ii had no legitimate heirs with his wife catherine braganza that meant james was next in line for the throne he became the focus of numerous conspiracy theories many suspected there were plots to assassinate charles replacing with james anti-catholic sentiment rose again across the country fairly soon after the test tax and the sheer scale of the number of people who resigned which took people by surprise they had no idea they would have so many people who were secret catholics and the great anxiety of what will happen if a catholic does become king you begin to get people who started to claim that there was a conspiracy at the top of government to assassinate charles to hasten james's accession to the throne this is called the popish plot and the claim that there were there were a large number of people who were conspiring to assassinate the king and that if james didn't know about it he was turning a blind eye to it and in any case he was the beneficiary of what they were doing and the way to prevent the assassination of the king and the succession of the catholic ruler it was to pass an act that would mean that the catholics couldn't couldn't benefit from the assassination i mean if there was a law which prevented a catholic successor there's no point in killing the existing king particularly one who had been fairly lenient you know his attitude to the catholic population [Music] to sue the world public king charles ii arranged for james's daughter mary to marry the protestant william of orange james reluctantly consented to the match the marrying of of william of orange who was a royal british blood and therefore had a potential claim to james's elder daughter gave her a potential focus now for those who are just not prepared to tolerate a catholic king this was not enough however to relieve the growing hysteria in the country and in parliament in 1679 the exclusion bill was introduced into the house of commons if passed it would have prevented james from inheriting the throne because he was catholic the exclusion bill was also having an impact at gwydia castle molly wynn had married or bertie lord willoughby darisby the previous year he had tried unsuccessfully for election into parliament maddie winn and her grandmother lady grace eagerly awake correspondence from him as unrest spreads across the country at the thought of king charles ii's brother james becoming the first catholic monarch my lady my lady thank you portal are there no others that could deliver your letters grandmama the years antel have not rendered him past use i cannot conceive of gwadar without him but surely there are others who can share his burden master williams has a son a boy he is 19. how fair is your husband is robert recovered from his disappointment he resolves to stand again in the next election but when that will be the exclusionists are much in the ascendancy even if the bill passes through the commons it will fail in the laws the duke of york will be king child full dahiby not in my time i pray but does the duke not abide by his conscience his principles principles are an over-admired thing i wonder though that the exclusionist mind can the law alter what god has settled if parliament can choose itself a king why not attendant his lord it pulls us society's very order i fear i suppose master williams can learn the duties of a gatekeeper they grow so fast the young let us see if we can ur pace tal and tell him of his new apprentice the bill bitterly divided the commons indeed parts of the modern british parliamentary system can be set a date from this dispute those who backed the exclusion bill became known as the whigs those against became known as the tories the bill was finally defeated in 1681 when it was rejected by the house of lords clearly the failure exclusion and the revenge which was taken by the regime in dismissing so many prominent supporters occlusion from their positions will produce as it always has in history you know some people who overreact and think the the only solution is to assassinate charles and james there's a lot of talk there's not at all clear how much action there is to plan to intercept him as he returns to london from the races in new market but in fact they return early and so the plot hadn't matured but when you have plots there are always people going to betray them because you can't make a plot work without a lot of people knowing and if a lot of people know it's increasingly likely somebody will know who will betray it and that's what happens the botched assassination attempt on the stewart brothers in 1683 provoked a wave of sympathy for james several wig opponents were implicated and james's position was strengthened further as a result of their fall the catholic duke of york would indeed be king [Music] king james ii was crowned on april the 23rd 1685 but almost immediately he faced a rebellion from his own nephew the duke of monmouth monmouth was the eldest illegitimate son of king charles ii he proclaimed himself the true king in line regis in dorset and his monmouth rebellion attempted to overthrow king james ii here at gwydia the situation was followed especially closely because mali's husband robert bertie was a captain i was now fighting on behalf of king james in the attempt to swiftly crush the rebellion it gives me great joy dear husband to hear of your efforts in london and the commons on behalf of our new king there is great rejoicing here at grimstorp as well this sunday gone the parson even read from the pulpit his majesty's words which i thought very fine and noted well i shall make it my endeavor to preserve this government both in church and state as it is by law established as i shall never depart from the rights and prerogative of the crown so i shall never invade any man's property the parson gave it much import the word of a king being more secure by far than any mutable law laura bederrasby is holding office under james ii but also interestingly he's captain of a troop of horse under king james fighting uh at the battle of sargent in 1685 so against the duke of monmouth and the monmouth rebellion that's very interesting the monmouth rebellion was quickly dealt with as was another rebellion in scotland that occurred at the same time known as argyles rising led by the earl of argyll these two rebellions had been coordinated together but neither of them were able to drum up enough volunteers in the end both the jupiter monmouth and the earl of argyll were captured and executed the rebellions were put down with ease but they deepened james's insecurities he strengthened his army and put loyal men in charge of the regiments this might have eased his worries but the actions caused alarm in parliament a standing army of such size was not a tradition and many of the chosen commanders were catholics this placed mali's husband lord willoughby's position as captain under threat [Music] that you in there boy forgive me m'lady thought it was young williams i can have these chambers ready no no well perhaps just the fire tal yes my lady will you not sit a moment well i know you did so with my grandmother from time to time perhaps in her memory and how is master williams proving tardy often the need of a bath i can see why you and my grandma got on so you were a soldier were you not for the martyred king we have always been loyal servants to the crown this family my husband's likewise he's been turned out of his employment as captain the king is displeased with the militia he desires a standing army with officers he can trust though robert led a troop of horse against monmouth in 85 he is not of the popish faith nor his brothers the king has cleared the army of our whole family i am sorry my lady we were only ever loyal but our hope for advance now seems quite remote the gunpowder plot of 1605 has seemed like a last desperate attempt to return the catholic monarch to the throne but now with king james ii the seemingly impossible had happened the new king's royal court was soon dominated by catholics a representative from rome was welcomed for the first time since the days of mary the first over a century before in may 1686 james sought a ruling from the courts to show he had the power to dispense with acts of parliament he fired judges who disagreed with him the following year he made a new declaration of indulgence announcing religious toleration including for the english catholic minority and ordered it be read from every pulpit in the land the man thought to be the instigator of the declaration of indulgence was william penn the founder of pennsylvania and member of a new religious movement that had arisen during stewart rule quakerism penn went on a tour of the country to promote james's declaration of indulgence but it was fiercely resisted by the anglican clergy james overplays his hand he wants to give catholics a lot of power so they can demonstrate they can use it responsibly so they can show they can be catholics who will live in peace with their protestant neighbours so he goes on an all-out very rapid process of catholicization of local government of the civil service he's determined to reverse the penal laws he's got to find people who will do his bidding who are protestants and so the anglican establishments are pushed aside and lots of quakers and presbyterians and others are pressed into service to be nominated for parliament and he changes the conditions of elections in towns so that the town councils will elect mps and not the general electorate he narrows the franchise and then of course he himself nominates the people who will be the town councillors it is an extraordinary extraordinary thing and he calls in every single existing mp one by one and asks them if they will support the repeal of the penal laws and the test acts and they all say no so he has to go to these even more desperate lengths and this this completely wracks the popular base of his powers he'd enjoyed in his first year the archbishop of canterbury along with six other bishops defy the king's orders the seven bishops as they were known were soon arrested taken to the tower of london but their acts of resistance galvanized the public in an unexpected manner the bishops were eventually acquitted at their trial and this meant jubilant scenes up and down the nation embarrassing the king with each passing month of his reign james seemed to mimic and exceed the example of his executed father more and more his attempts to rule as an absolute monarch or being fiercely resisted his reign that has started with enthusiasm general goodwill was coming to a crashing end [Music] i think he believed it was his duty as a catholic prince to push forward the catholic agenda in this country he strayed into parts of life that were very threatening to the establishment he got involved in the election of of fellows at modern college oxford and it became a cause celeb with uh people having to very important influential people being put into prison because they disagreed with him and at the end of the day i think he thought his powers as a monarch were greater than they were he hadn't taken on board the lessons of the civil wars the fact that the stewards weren't able to just behave as they wished on the 10th of june 1688 king james and his wife mary of medina had a son according to the rules of primogeniture this child was due to inherit the throne but james already had two daughters from his first marriage mary and anne and they'd been raised protestant according to the wishes of king charles ii the people just about tolerated james's pro-catholic rule because they knew his only possible successors were his protestant daughters but now with the baby there was a real threat of a permanent catholic dynasty and to many in the church and across the country this was simply unacceptable and there's another pretty intriguing twist to this story the child born to king james ii and mary of medina was rumored to be an imposter the story went that the royal baby was still born and another child was smuggled in to replace him and ensure a catholic succession when james ii's second wife mary of moderner had a son even that wasn't enough i mean clearly that boy should have been king in the the law of succession but the protestant establishment managed to say that the baby had been smuggled in in a bedpan it wasn't really the rightful heir to the throne and there was a ready-made air in william and mary and their line [Music] king james ii knew he had a problem on his hands he published testimonies of numerous witnesses who'd been present at the birth of his son he also made plans to pack the next parliament with his supporters and cement his grip on power but their news reached him of a fresh challenge to his authority william of orange the husband of james's protestant daughter mary was coming to england with an invasionary force what became known as the glorious revolution had begun they persuaded william and mary that they were being cut out of their lawful rights by this tender child and they should come to england to insist on their rights to a full public inquiry into the legitimacy of the new prince of wales and william is willing to do that because william is fighting an all-out war against louis xiv and he desperately wants english resources he wants english troops and above all english money now the contender was william who saw england as a very very useful ally particularly its wealth and its navy in his perpetual battle against louis xiv france so that's why he was prepared to do it it wasn't out of any great pride or whatever it was purely practical he wanted to have the english on side against france in the great struggle against the catholic king [Music] william of orange certainly had pedigree he'd been involved in several battles with the catholic king of france and he was seen across europe as a storage defender of the protestant faith his armada of 463 ships carried 15 000 fighting men across the channel william landed his forces at tour bay on the 5th of november 1688 83 years after guy fawkes's attempt to end the rule of stewart kings had failed another attempt on another king james was about to begin and this time it wasn't going to fail [Applause] the glorious revolution is sometimes known as the bloodless revolution while that's not literally the case it certainly was very low on casualties when william orange's forces arrived on the english coast the army of king james ii that they were up against was twice the size but william knew he had support among the english and his strategy was perfect he gathered in the finances during his preparations for the war to pay his soldiers for three months in advance meaning they were happy to delay any battle williams patience paid off as james's troops soon started to defect an anti-catholic riot spread across the land the brief reign of james ii was collapsing and he knew it lord willer bederesby advised his wife mali to seek refuge in the relative safety of british castle as support for william of orange was spreading [Music] no running elizabeth what did i say how long will my lady and the children be in residence as long as my husband deems it necessary for our safety a general insurrection is it how do you perceive the local sentiment the king jailed our lord bishop some might mark that in his favor others less but do you detect any general inclination he'll not to have done it my lady my husband is for the duke of orange he marches on york with his brothers and his uncle stays at court so the family can claim loyalty should the enterprise go awry but what then have robert any letters come i shall have them brought at once day or night [Music] james's real problem lies in the fact that he's relying on certain loyalties that are no longer intact his own children the two daughters mary and anne have been persuaded to put their protestantism above their duties as daughters and this of course is a devastating blow to james when he finds this out and also some of his finest generals have made it clear that they will fight against the king rather than for him i'm including john churchill who becomes the first duke of marlborough who had been really the instrument who had defeated monmouth at the battle of such more three years earlier maybe it was because he was a protestant he couldn't bear to help a catholic but james was correct to say that he had taken him from an obscure page boy given him a commission and helped him on his way and now this young brilliant commander was fighting against him when william arrives james's commanders are career mercenaries they're not catholics they do what mercenaries always do they make a calculation on whether they think they're going to win and james is having some sort of nervous breakdown he has incessant nose bleeds which are clearly hypertension he's clearly behaving irrationally and i think the professional soldiers like john churchill are the future duke of marlborough they look at their commander-in-chief and they think this is not a guy i want to serve with to have your daughters side against you in a matter really of life and death and of your dynasty's future and to have those who you've made from nothing into people of great substance it must have been devastating on a personal level but there was always the thought during his remaining years that well look what happened to charles ii he'd come back against the odds so we know it never happened but i there were a lot of people in england who were playing a double game um communicating with james in secret just in case he did come back because they didn't want to end up being beheaded [Applause] they've taken york the northern nobles are declaring for william the king marches west to meet the prince with forty thousand men though robert says that number is continually diminished whole armies are abandoning the king's cause day by day prince william's army grows all seems to be happening with great speed my lady well robert is very hopeful [Music] unwilling to make the compromises that might have saved his reign james readed himself to flee the country he ordered his unreliable army to disband his wife and baby son left for france in early december and when it came his turn to follow james fortunately dumped the great seal in the thames without it no lawful parliament could be called james fled to france to join his family and william let him go it is done the king has fled to france the queen and the prince of wales too with scarce a battle or bloodshed will we be making arrangements for your return to grimstop we shall also well these knees aren't much up to chasing the young ones they have been most contented here as have i king james's escape to france was actually a total farce the yacht that was meant to take him across the channel was boarded by english fishermen they had no idea who he was they thought he was a jesuit spy he was kept prisoner for a week before the uh misunderstanding was rectified and he was even returned to london to william's intense rage he's brought back by some fishermen in favisham so he has to be allowed to escape a second time and this time you know the roads are kept clear and and the orders are under no no circumstances find it so he gets into france and louis xiv takes him in rather startled with this unexpected defeat he's experienced and sets him up with his own court at saint germain near paris [Music] within a matter of weeks parliament declared that james had abdicated the throne and left it vacant william and mary were declared joint monarchs just as the promise of a stable succession have been so important to the elevation of james sick to the throne as james the first in 1603 so it was the peace and security embodied by william and mary that ultimately secured that crown for them [Music] i always view 1688 and james ii's exile as the defining moment of the change that started with the outbreak of civil war in 1642 where really the the status of the crown is subjugated to that of parliament and it's james because of his three years of intensely unintelligent prejudice rule he brings it to a head finally so that uh the the british parliament gets the upper hand from then on [Music] james did not give up he was planning an attempt to reclaim the throne just as his elder brother charles had done with the help of the french he landed in ireland and raised an army to seize back the throne but he was defeated by william at the battle of the boy in 1690 james fled never to return to england [Music] i don't think james ii was a natural quitter it was because of the overwhelming evidence that it was over he just misjudged the central tenet of the protestant establishment in england particularly when they looked overseas to france and saw what louis xiv was doing for protestants treating them with savagery people being broken on the wheel literally broken on a wagon wheel or being executed in other ways or being branded uh as being protestants and it was so close geographically and that the thought that it might come across the channel to england meant that there was absolutely no way that what looked suspiciously like catholic absolutism could be tolerated by james's people james died in exile in 1701 convinced he'd lost his throne because god had punished him for his adultery his remains were destroyed during the french revolution and so too were his memoirs meaning that we don't have an awful lot of his perspective and we've got rather a lot of the opinions of his enemies james's descendants made attempts to get that throne back his son the reported impostor james francis edward became known as the old pretender he started a rebellion in 1715 the jacobite rising and tried to restore the exile stewart dynasty he failed there was another attempt in 1719 with spanish support but it was just as ineffective then in 1745 king james ii's grandson bonnie prince charlie made one final shot at the crown but the country had moved on king james ii was the last stuart king [Music] the winds span the whole rise and fall of the stuarts sir john wynn is knighted in 1606 three years after james the first came to the throne one of the very first baronets charles the first served loyally by sir richard wynn second baronet the fourth baronet richard win the younger was chamberlain to the queen of charles ii the brief reign of james ii followed by the glorious revolution in 1688 and then in 1689 lady mary win the last of the winds dies gwiddier castle's glory has also come to an end [Music] [Applause] [Music] those four stuart men who ruled england wales ireland and scotland each wrestled with similar problems the scope the nature of government was contested at this time as it never was before it made their era divisive often bloody but the reigns of the stewart kings saw the beginnings of the modern british state the unification of england and scotland the last death rattles of absolute monarchy and the rise of parliament as the dominant power in the land [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Real Royalty

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Keywords: real royalty, real royalty channel, british royalty, royalty around the world, royal history, the stuarts documentary bbc, the stuarts a bloody reign episodes, the stuarts documentary, the stuarts a bloody reign, the stuarts history, the stuarts of england, prof kate williams historian, charles i, english civil war, james i, jame II, charles II, gunpowder plot, guy fawkes, william of orange, royal history documentary

Id: rF13wfhs550

Length: 172min 39sec (10359 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 03 2021