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On January 30th, 1649,
the English killed their king.
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It had happened before -
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all those Edwards and Richards
done in by their subjects.
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But this was different.
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The British monarchy itself
had been exterminated.
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Now there was just the people
and its parliament,
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the keepers of the liberties of England.
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What use was freedom
when you were frightened?
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What the people really wanted to know
was - who would keep them safe?
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Who'd stop the soldiers
burning and pillaging,
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allow people to sleep quietly
in their beds?
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Who'd protect them from the wars
of religion and politics
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which seemed to go on and on and on?
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Would it be parliament or would it be
a great general like Oliver Cromwell?
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"It doesn't matter," said hard-headed
philosopher Thomas Hobbes,
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a royalist who'd come back
to Cromwell's England.
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"What the country needs
is a strong ruler
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"who embodies ALL the people.
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"Whatever or whoever
can save the country from anarchy,
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"whatever can save you from yourselves.
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"Never mind
about what's right or wrong.
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"Put yourself in the hands
of the power that protects,
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"the all-powerful Leviathan."
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If that's Oliver Cromwell,
then so be it.
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It's the reasonable thing to do.
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The Scots, the English and the Irish
were not about to be reasonable.
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They were much too busy
being righteous.
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Over the next half century, righteousness
would kill a lot of the British.
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At the end, reason would appear,
but not before a lot of tears had been shed.
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Tears of rapture and tears of grief.
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Not everyone was lying awake at night
biting their nails about the plight
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of kingless Britain.
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For many, this was the dawn
of a new age.
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No one had foreseen this
during the civil wars,
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but in giving them victory,
the Almighty had shown them
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that Albion must be turned into Jerusalem.
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He had lain the Stuart kings
in the dust.
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The only king to follow now
was King Jesus,
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and the only true government
that of his saints.
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Let them sing aloud,
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let the high praise of God
be in their mouth
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and a two-edged sword in their hand!
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The kingdom of God was at hand,
the most blessed revolution of all.
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No one was more convinced of this than
Albion's holy warrior - Oliver Cromwell.
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Religion was not at first
the thing contended for,
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but God brought it to that issue
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and at last it proved
that which was most dear to us.
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Cromwell called himself "a seeker",
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and what he sought all his life was God's
destiny for himself and for his country.
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At first, he'd been innocent
of the Lord's design.
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For years, he'd led the life of an obscure
East Anglian country gentleman.
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As Cromwell began
to make his way in the world,
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some sort of crisis happened
to his modest fortune.
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But what the world might have seen
as misfortune
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was, through the cunning
of the Almighty, his saving grace.
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He underwent
some kind of religious conversion.
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The vanities were stripped away
so he might be opened to the light.
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Oh, I lived in
and loved darkness and hated the light!
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This is true. I hated Godliness,
yet God had mercy on me.
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Oh, the riches of His mercy!
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The sense that God
had some special service for him
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made a new man of Cromwell.
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He knew where he was going.
He knew what had to be done.
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He must tear the sword out of the hands
of the untrustworthy, Papist-loving king.
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He went to war as a complete novice
with no military experience.
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His sense of divine appointment
was his armour.
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It made him supremely confident,
cool under fire,
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but never reckless.
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An aura of invincibility
began to cling to him.
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He became the driving force
of the Godly Revolution.
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When the vanquished king
defied God's judgement,
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his blood was needed
to expiate the crime.
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But it became obvious
that doing away with the monarch
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was no guarantee
of doing away with the monarchy.
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For if Charles couldn't be among
his subjects in person, his proxy could.
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The Greek word 'icon' means
both an image and a copy.
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The "Eikon Basilike",
the spitting image of the king,
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appeared within a week of his execution.
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It was an instant bestseller,
going through 35 editions in a year,
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and it made Charles
an imperishable martyr...
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...a latter-day Christ
sacrificed for the sins of his people.
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Like Christ, Charles would be resurrected
wearing his heavenly crown
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and made flesh
in the person of his son, Charles II,
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awaiting the call from exile in France.
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The poet John Milton, a champion
of the parliamentary Commonwealth,
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was hired to attack the cult of the king
martyr as so much wicked idolatry,
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to persuade the fearful and gullible
they didn't need a Charles I.
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In fact, they didn't need
any Stuart monarch.
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"Look," he wanted to say,
"just stop worrying about the dead king.
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"You're the sovereign now. Come to think
of it, you've always been the sovereign.
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"Kings have been yours to hire or fire."
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But when Cromwell and Milton
told the people
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that it was time for them
to govern themselves,
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they didn't, of course,
mean to be taken literally.
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What? Every jumped-up weaver
or ploughman
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with some sixpenny book-learning
appointing himself the magistrate
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of Mucking-on-the-Wold,
granting himself the vote?
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Heaven forbid! That way lay chaos.
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No, the people should put
the government
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into the hands of the kind of men
God saw fittest to exercise it -
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incorruptible men
of substance and piety.
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"Oh, I see," said free-born
John Lilburne, the Leveller,
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an ex-army officer
who wanted to level the distance
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between the mighty and the humble,
the rich and the poor.
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"The same kind of people
who got us into this mess."
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We've all known a John Lilburne,
some of us have even been John Lilburne.
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First at the barricades,
first to be arrested, won't shut up!
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But love him or hate him,
you know he won't go away.
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To Cromwell, he was a pain in the neck,
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a dangerous loudmouth, capable of
wrecking discipline in the army.
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Lilburne, for his part,
detested the new regime.
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All you intended when you set us fighting
was to unhorse our old riders and tyrants
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so that you might get up
and ride in their stead.
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The soldiers read Freeborn John
and believed they should have a vote.
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Give them an inch and they take a mile
and, pretty soon, they'd start believing
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their officers were the tyrants Lilburne
and the Levellers said they were.
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They had to be stopped.
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An army was not, repeat not,
a commune.
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I tell you, you have no other way
to deal with these men,
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but to break them or they will break you.
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Yea, and bring all the guilt of the blood
and treasure shed and spent
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in this kingdom
upon your heads and shoulders
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and frustrate and make void
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all that work that with so many years'
industry, toil and pains you have done.
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I tell you again, you are necessitated
to break them.
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Off to the Tower went the Leveller leaders
like so many traitors.
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Then something astounding happened.
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A petitioning campaign
to demand the Levellers' release
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was mobilised in London
by Leveller women.
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For the Puritans, the cardinal virtues
of women were silence and meekness.
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But these women were shameless,
obstinate, loud-mouthed,
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and, it has to admitted, brave.
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Leveller women had always been
involved in the movement's campaigns.
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Elizabeth Lilburne had been politicised
through her efforts to spring her husband
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from one prison or another.
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Mary Overton had been brutally punished
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for printing and distributing
her husband's tracts.
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Tied to a cart and dragged
through London's streets
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with her six-month-old baby,
pelted and abused like a common whore.
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But the most impassioned and articulate
of the sisters was Katherine Chidley.
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She started as a charismatic preacher
and turned to politics
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in an attempt to make
the Commonwealth understand
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the particular sufferings of her sex.
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We have an equal share and interest
with men in the Commonwealth,
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and it cannot be laid waste.
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Considering that poverty,
misery and famine,
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like a mighty torrent,
is breaking in upon us
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and we are not able to see our children
hang upon us and cry out for bread
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and not have wherewithal to feed them,
we had rather die than see that day!
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This was not what Oliver Cromwell
had expected from Jerusalem.
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It got worse.
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In May 1649,
some hundreds of soldiers mutinied
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and tried to combine forces
in Oxfordshire.
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Cromwell rode hell for leather -
50 miles in a day -
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and caught them
in the middle of the night at Burford.
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One of the prisoners, Anthony Sedley,
locked in the church,
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expecting the worst,
carved his name into the font.
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The next morning, three of his comrades
were led into the churchyard and shot.
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Then Oliver went off to get
an honorary degree in law from Oxford.
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He made sure that the mutinous soldiers
were shipped off to a place
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where they could vent their frustration
on someone else.
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"Angry, are we?" was his line.
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"Want to know who's to blame
for prolonging the civil wars?"
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Say hello to the Antichrist
across the Irish Sea.
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The target of Cromwell's
march through blood
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was an army of royalists holding out
in Ireland in the name of the king's son.
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It was as much Protestant as Catholic,
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but in his conviction
they were the legions of the Devil,
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Cromwell was not about
to make nice distinctions.
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At Drogheda, on the main road
between Dublin and Ulster,
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he made it only too clear
what he had in mind.
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There's no point side-stepping
this horror, is there?
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This was Cromwell's war crime,
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an atrocity so hideous, it's contaminated
Anglo-Irish history ever since.
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We need to get right
just what this atrocity was.
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What it wasn't was the indiscriminate
butchery of women and children.
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No eye-witnesses ever claimed
to have seen any such thing.
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But what Cromwell did order,
unhesitatingly and without any mercy,
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was, in any case,
an act of unspeakable murder.
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At least 3,000 royalist soldiers
were butchered at Drogheda...
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...the vast majority after they had
surrendered and disarmed.
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At St Peter's Church,
Cromwell had his soldiers burn the pews
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beneath the steeple
to smoke out the defenders,
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who were incinerated in the flames.
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The General saw no need
to hang his head about the massacre.
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We are come to break
the power of lawless rebels
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who, having cast off the authority
of England,
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live as enemies to human society, whose
principles are to destroy and subjugate
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all men not complying with them.
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We come by the assistance of God
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to hold forth and maintain the lustre
and glory of English liberty
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in a nation where we have
an undoubted right to it.
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This is absolutely authentic
Oliver Cromwell
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and today it makes for unbearable reading.
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No, it's not the confession
of a genocidal lunatic.
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It IS the confession of a narrow-minded,
pig-headed Protestant bigot
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and English imperialist,
and that surely is bad enough.
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Cromwell treated Ireland like
the primitive colony he thought it was,
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moving the native Irish off their farms
and using the land to pay his soldiers.
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Before he could finish his pacification,
if that's what he thought it was,
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another piece of unquiet Britain
rose up to mock him.
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For the Scots had invited the 20-year-old
Charles II to come and be their king
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and went to war on his behalf.
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Cromwell lured them into England
in the summer of 1651.
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The Scottish army found itself caught
between two massively bigger forces.
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At the Battle of Worcester,
on the 3rd September,
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it went down to a ruinous
and irreversible defeat.
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Charles went on the run,
hidden by royalist sympathisers
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until he could get smuggled out
of the country.
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(TRUMPET FANFARE)
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So when Oliver Cromwell returned
to London in the autumn of 1651,
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it was as an English Caesar,
the like of whom had not been seen
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since the days of Edward I.
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If Cromwell was God's Englishman,
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it was because he felt in his marrow
that England was God's true promised land
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and the best thing for Britain was
that it become as English as possible.
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The Stuart dream
of the united Britain, of course,
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had been what had started
the civil wars.
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Now Cromwell had ended them
by making that dream a reality.
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Not as a united kingdom,
but as a united republic of Great Britain.
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But what kind of republic
was it supposed to be?
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Cromwell knew the county was exhausted
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from almost 15 years of war.
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It was time, as he said,
"to heal and settle".
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But this didn't mean business as usual.
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Surely God didn't mean for so much blood
and treasure to have been spilled
227
00:19:21,441 --> 00:19:26,435
only so that ungodly lawyers
and money brokers could get richer?
228
00:19:27,241 --> 00:19:31,234
That seemed to be the way things
were going under the parliament -
229
00:19:31,401 --> 00:19:36,634
the keeper of the liberties of England,
as it styled itself.
230
00:19:37,801 --> 00:19:42,158
It still sat as it had when its members
were purged by the army
231
00:19:42,321 --> 00:19:44,789
to allow the king's trial to proceed,
232
00:19:44,961 --> 00:19:48,715
ridiculed by its enemies as the "Rump".
233
00:19:48,881 --> 00:19:52,191
To Cromwell,
the Rump was a monstrosity,
234
00:19:52,361 --> 00:19:54,921
a bastion of selfishness and greed,
235
00:19:55,081 --> 00:19:58,278
more like Sodom than Jerusalem.
236
00:19:58,441 --> 00:20:03,834
Worst of all, it showed no signs at all
of wanting ever to close down.
237
00:20:04,001 --> 00:20:06,993
When it designed a bill
to replace old members
238
00:20:07,161 --> 00:20:12,110
and keep itself going indefinitely,
this was the last straw.
239
00:20:16,921 --> 00:20:20,231
On April 20th, 1653,
240
00:20:20,401 --> 00:20:25,714
Cromwell marched down to Westminster
in the company of a troop of musketeers.
241
00:20:32,561 --> 00:20:35,712
Moses was descending
from the mountain
242
00:20:35,881 --> 00:20:38,998
and he was not a happy prophet!
243
00:20:42,481 --> 00:20:47,475
At first, it seemed as though the Member
for Cambridge might behave himself.
244
00:20:47,641 --> 00:20:51,475
Cromwell sat in his usual seat,
he doffed his hat,
245
00:20:51,641 --> 00:20:55,714
he asked the Speaker respectfully
if he might address the House.
246
00:20:55,881 --> 00:20:59,669
He even commended the Rump
for its care of the public good,
247
00:20:59,841 --> 00:21:03,436
but as he warmed to his task,
niceties were tossed aside
248
00:21:03,601 --> 00:21:06,320
and he began to berate
the astounded members
249
00:21:06,521 --> 00:21:10,434
for their indifference
to justice and to piety.
250
00:21:10,601 --> 00:21:14,879
"I expect you think this is not
parliamentary language," he said.
251
00:21:15,041 --> 00:21:17,794
"Well, I confess, it is not,
252
00:21:17,961 --> 00:21:22,352
"and neither are you to expect
any such from me."
253
00:21:23,361 --> 00:21:26,831
The hat went back on,
always a very bad sign.
254
00:21:27,001 --> 00:21:30,152
Cromwell marched
up and down the chamber,
255
00:21:30,321 --> 00:21:32,915
shouting that the Lord had done
with them
256
00:21:33,081 --> 00:21:37,233
and had chosen instruments
more worthy of their calling.
257
00:21:37,401 --> 00:21:40,598
Some poor soul tried to stop him
in full spate,
258
00:21:40,761 --> 00:21:43,833
but Cromwell was
in exterminating angel mode
259
00:21:44,001 --> 00:21:46,834
and brushed him aside contemptuously.
260
00:21:47,001 --> 00:21:51,791
"You are no parliament!" he bellowed,
"I say, you are no parliament!"
261
00:21:51,961 --> 00:21:54,191
With that, he called in the musketeers.
262
00:21:54,361 --> 00:21:58,195
The boots entered heavily, noisily.
263
00:21:59,521 --> 00:22:02,319
Parliament was shut down.
264
00:22:07,561 --> 00:22:10,121
This was a depressingly
modern moment,
265
00:22:10,281 --> 00:22:13,114
a classic coup d'etat, in fact.
266
00:22:13,281 --> 00:22:18,992
At this point, Cromwell crossed the line
from bullying to outright dictatorship.
267
00:22:19,161 --> 00:22:21,800
In so doing, he undid at a stroke
268
00:22:21,961 --> 00:22:25,158
the entire point of the war
he himself had fought
269
00:22:25,321 --> 00:22:28,711
against the king's
unparliamentary conduct.
270
00:22:28,881 --> 00:22:34,001
Cromwell liked to claim he was striking
a blow against "ambition" and "avarice",
271
00:22:34,161 --> 00:22:37,073
but what he really wounded,
and fatally,
272
00:22:37,241 --> 00:22:39,596
was the Commonwealth itself.
273
00:22:49,041 --> 00:22:53,432
This is the point at which Cromwell
could've seized power,
274
00:22:53,601 --> 00:22:56,161
and everyone expected him to.
275
00:22:57,361 --> 00:23:02,116
But Cromwell wasn't working for himself,
he was working for God.
276
00:23:03,241 --> 00:23:06,631
In parliament's place,
he'd set up an assembly of men
277
00:23:06,801 --> 00:23:09,190
hand-picked for their piety.
278
00:23:09,361 --> 00:23:14,640
It would be an assembly of saints,
and his language was very different
279
00:23:14,801 --> 00:23:18,589
as he exhorted them
to go about their business.
280
00:23:22,401 --> 00:23:27,680
Love all the sheep,
love the lambs. Love all.
281
00:23:27,841 --> 00:23:29,832
Tender all.
282
00:23:31,161 --> 00:23:36,918
But mystical rapture and politics don't
go well together. At least, not in Britain.
283
00:23:37,081 --> 00:23:40,551
In a few months,
the unworkable assembly collapsed,
284
00:23:40,721 --> 00:23:44,919
its leaders begging Cromwell
to put it out of its misery.
285
00:23:47,441 --> 00:23:49,830
He duly obliged.
286
00:23:51,161 --> 00:23:54,312
Now there seemed no alternative
but to take the crown -
287
00:23:54,481 --> 00:23:56,949
to become Oliver I.
288
00:23:58,001 --> 00:24:01,789
This was still a step too far
for a man God had told
289
00:24:01,961 --> 00:24:04,953
to punish the haughtiness of kings.
290
00:24:05,121 --> 00:24:08,750
So instead he chose to become
a Lord Protector.
291
00:24:08,921 --> 00:24:13,949
That had a good ring to it.
Authority, but not tyranny.
292
00:24:14,121 --> 00:24:16,589
He was king in all but name,
293
00:24:16,761 --> 00:24:18,911
but a constitutional sovereign,
294
00:24:19,081 --> 00:24:23,438
ruling with a council
and a newly-elected parliament.
295
00:24:25,481 --> 00:24:28,553
His great hope was for a settling,
296
00:24:28,721 --> 00:24:32,839
but the truth was that the Protector
himself was anything but settled
297
00:24:33,001 --> 00:24:35,993
about the direction
he should take the country.
298
00:24:37,041 --> 00:24:40,431
Should Britain be righteous
or reasonable?
299
00:24:40,601 --> 00:24:45,834
It was a civil war he fought
over and over again in his own head.
300
00:24:46,001 --> 00:24:50,950
Squire Cromwell could see the virtues
of a reasonable state of affairs.
301
00:24:51,121 --> 00:24:53,840
Given a breathing space,
the old world of counties
302
00:24:54,001 --> 00:24:57,914
was coming ever so cautiously
back to life.
303
00:24:58,081 --> 00:25:00,436
Magistrates were sitting at courts,
304
00:25:00,601 --> 00:25:05,197
gentlemen riding to hounds,
war-damaged houses being repaired,
305
00:25:05,361 --> 00:25:10,640
children being married off,
friends and neighbours asked to dinner.
306
00:25:13,041 --> 00:25:17,671
And when some of those gentlemen were
elected to the Protectorate parliaments,
307
00:25:17,841 --> 00:25:21,311
the old connections between
Westminster and the counties,
308
00:25:21,481 --> 00:25:27,351
the secret of English government,
were, at last, being put back together.
309
00:25:28,881 --> 00:25:31,634
But the righteous side
of Cromwell fretted
310
00:25:31,801 --> 00:25:36,158
that this return to an older way
of doing things was too successful.
311
00:25:36,321 --> 00:25:42,760
It was not so much healing as backsliding.
Royalism by the back door.
312
00:25:43,641 --> 00:25:49,079
So in 1655,
Cromwell turned his mastiffs loose.
313
00:25:51,361 --> 00:25:54,512
The Major Generals.
314
00:25:56,081 --> 00:25:59,073
They took righteousness
out into the shires -
315
00:25:59,241 --> 00:26:02,551
the Protestant Taliban on horseback.
316
00:26:02,721 --> 00:26:06,555
"Muffle the bell-ringers,
snoop on the ale-houses,
317
00:26:06,721 --> 00:26:10,714
"lock up the fornicators...
cancel Christmas!"
318
00:26:16,161 --> 00:26:19,597
John Evelyn, ardent royalist
and gentleman of letters,
319
00:26:19,761 --> 00:26:23,754
who grudgingly endured the Leviathan
of the Cromwellian state,
320
00:26:23,921 --> 00:26:29,518
was one of countless people who were
on the short end of the generals' bullying.
321
00:26:30,681 --> 00:26:35,072
I went with my wife to London
to celebrate Christmas Day,
322
00:26:35,241 --> 00:26:37,835
Mr Gunning preaching in Exeter Chapel.
323
00:26:38,441 --> 00:26:43,720
As he gave us the Holy Sacrament,
the chapel was surrounded by soldiers...
324
00:26:45,801 --> 00:26:49,840
... all the communicants and assembly
surprised and kept prisoner by them,
325
00:26:50,001 --> 00:26:52,469
some in the house, others carried away!
326
00:26:57,401 --> 00:27:01,394
It was a public relations disaster
for the Protectorate.
327
00:27:01,561 --> 00:27:05,440
The prudent Cromwell
reasserted himself over the pious
328
00:27:05,601 --> 00:27:09,150
and he got rid of the Major Generals
in a hurry!
329
00:27:11,721 --> 00:27:15,509
There were some places
where the two instincts worked together,
330
00:27:15,681 --> 00:27:19,469
and changed Britain as a result,
and this is one of them -
331
00:27:19,641 --> 00:27:22,599
the Synagogue of Bevis Marks
in London.
332
00:27:24,201 --> 00:27:28,194
Historians sometimes complain
that it's difficult to find hard evidence
333
00:27:28,361 --> 00:27:31,592
of any good that came out
of the Protectorate.
334
00:27:31,761 --> 00:27:34,673
Well, this is
hard enough evidence for me.
335
00:27:34,841 --> 00:27:38,959
For it was on these unforgiving
backless oak benches
336
00:27:39,121 --> 00:27:44,036
that the first Jews to be admitted since
the expulsion 360-odd years before
337
00:27:44,201 --> 00:27:46,192
parked their behinds.
338
00:27:47,041 --> 00:27:52,911
Under the Protectorate, Jews were allowed
finally to worship openly and to live openly
339
00:27:53,081 --> 00:27:56,676
in what became a little piece
of early multi-cultural London.
340
00:27:57,441 --> 00:27:59,830
It's Oliver Cromwell we have to thank
341
00:28:00,001 --> 00:28:05,280
for opening a new chapter
of Anglo-Jewish history - my history.
342
00:28:07,361 --> 00:28:10,717
(JEWISH RELIGIOUS SONG)
343
00:28:18,801 --> 00:28:23,158
His Apocalyptic timetable told him
that the conversion of the Jews
344
00:28:23,321 --> 00:28:26,518
would herald
the coming of the last days.
345
00:28:26,681 --> 00:28:28,672
His business sense told him that,
346
00:28:28,841 --> 00:28:32,038
through their network
in the Dutch and Spanish trading world,
347
00:28:32,201 --> 00:28:37,594
the Jews could be a priceless source
of commercial and military intelligence.
348
00:28:39,001 --> 00:28:41,720
Piety and pragmatism,
those twin qualities,
349
00:28:41,881 --> 00:28:45,157
so often at odds
inside Cromwell's personality,
350
00:28:45,321 --> 00:28:49,792
this time came together to make him,
as far as the Jews were concerned,
351
00:28:49,961 --> 00:28:51,952
a true Lord Protector.
352
00:28:53,321 --> 00:28:55,312
But not king.
353
00:28:55,481 --> 00:28:59,599
In the end, and so unlike the king
he had destroyed,
354
00:28:59,761 --> 00:29:02,912
Cromwell could never shake off
his sense of unworthiness.
355
00:29:03,721 --> 00:29:08,715
It was what saved him and Britain
from a true dictatorship.
356
00:29:08,881 --> 00:29:12,351
Oliver Cromwell believed
he worked for God.
357
00:29:12,521 --> 00:29:14,910
Real dictators think they are God.
358
00:29:15,081 --> 00:29:18,471
It was those men
who fancied themselves little gods -
359
00:29:18,641 --> 00:29:21,314
Charles I or the republican oligarchs -
360
00:29:21,481 --> 00:29:24,518
who most aroused Cromwell's contempt.
361
00:29:24,681 --> 00:29:28,071
Simplicity was a word
he used all the time about himself
362
00:29:28,241 --> 00:29:31,233
and it was the highest
of moral compliments.
363
00:29:31,401 --> 00:29:35,394
But to prolong the Protectorate,
he needed to be more of a Leviathan
364
00:29:35,561 --> 00:29:37,552
than he could ever stomach.
365
00:29:37,721 --> 00:29:42,431
That is both his exoneration
and his failure.
366
00:29:43,961 --> 00:29:47,556
It's one of the most extraordinary ironies
of British history
367
00:29:47,721 --> 00:29:53,398
that Cromwell's Protectorate, demonised
by both royalists and republicans alike,
368
00:29:53,561 --> 00:29:57,998
ultimately formed the blueprint
for our constitutional monarchy -
369
00:29:58,161 --> 00:30:00,834
a chief executive
who chose his government,
370
00:30:01,001 --> 00:30:05,472
but who were both answerable
to a regularly elected parliament.
371
00:30:06,681 --> 00:30:10,754
But Cromwell himself would not live
to see this happen.
372
00:30:13,481 --> 00:30:18,714
On September 3rd, 1658,
the anniversary of the Battle of Worcester,
373
00:30:18,881 --> 00:30:24,080
Cromwell died while an immense
black tempest was raging over England,
374
00:30:24,241 --> 00:30:28,678
ripping out trees and sending belfries
crashing to the ground.
375
00:30:36,601 --> 00:30:38,910
It was, the old wives said,
376
00:30:39,081 --> 00:30:41,754
the Devil coming for his soul.
377
00:30:46,721 --> 00:30:51,556
What Oliver Cromwell left behind was not
a workable political system, but a vision.
378
00:30:51,721 --> 00:30:55,396
He may have been an angry, ruthless,
overbearing man,
379
00:30:55,561 --> 00:30:58,029
perhaps even a manic depressive,
380
00:30:58,201 --> 00:31:01,398
but that vision was something
of startling sweetness -
381
00:31:01,561 --> 00:31:03,552
a sighting of Jerusalem,
382
00:31:03,721 --> 00:31:08,476
a place where everyone would be free
to receive Christ in their own way,
383
00:31:08,641 --> 00:31:12,316
provided that they did not disturb
the peace and conscience
384
00:31:12,481 --> 00:31:14,472
of anybody else.
385
00:31:14,641 --> 00:31:20,830
After all his marches and slaughters
and fits of table-pounding red-faced fury,
386
00:31:21,001 --> 00:31:24,710
what, it turned out,
Oliver Cromwell wanted for everyone
387
00:31:24,881 --> 00:31:27,839
was a quiet life.
388
00:31:28,001 --> 00:31:30,799
But Catholics were excluded
from this vision
389
00:31:30,961 --> 00:31:35,671
because for Cromwell, as for the country
at large, Catholicism meant tyranny.
390
00:31:36,481 --> 00:31:41,635
The Protector may have left the country
safe from despots, but not from anarchy.
391
00:31:41,801 --> 00:31:44,759
After his death,
it returned with a vengeance,
392
00:31:44,921 --> 00:31:47,754
power swinging between soldiers
and politicians,
393
00:31:47,921 --> 00:31:53,200
sleepless nights and nagging questions
from ten years before.
394
00:31:53,361 --> 00:31:55,716
Who'll keep us safe? Who do we obey?
395
00:31:55,881 --> 00:31:58,918
Where do we find a sovereign
to protect us?
396
00:32:00,681 --> 00:32:04,833
It took another hard-headed soldier
to see the only way to restore order.
397
00:32:05,001 --> 00:32:09,392
General George Monck had been
a royalist in the Civil War
398
00:32:09,561 --> 00:32:14,510
and a Cromwellian when it seemed that
only the Protector could keep the peace.
399
00:32:14,681 --> 00:32:17,639
He realised that,
with the Lord Protector gone,
400
00:32:17,801 --> 00:32:21,794
there was only one person
who could take his place.
401
00:32:23,441 --> 00:32:26,001
That was a new king.
402
00:32:28,681 --> 00:32:31,479
The irony about the restoration
of Charles II
403
00:32:31,641 --> 00:32:36,795
was he came to the throne not because
England needed a successor to Charles I.
404
00:32:36,961 --> 00:32:42,035
He came to the throne because England
needed a successor to Oliver Cromwell.
405
00:32:49,361 --> 00:32:53,513
There was universal rejoicing,
bonfires and feasting.
406
00:32:54,361 --> 00:32:57,159
The chaos brought
by Cromwell's death was ending.
407
00:32:57,321 --> 00:33:00,996
This new Charles seemed just
what everyone had hoped for -
408
00:33:01,161 --> 00:33:03,800
a model of sweet reason.
409
00:33:03,961 --> 00:33:07,590
That, at any rate,
is what Samuel Pepys thought.
410
00:33:07,761 --> 00:33:11,071
Pepys was a pure product
of Cromwell's England.
411
00:33:11,241 --> 00:33:15,234
He was present when the new king
boarded his flagship home.
412
00:33:15,401 --> 00:33:20,077
En route, the tall, dark-haired man
strode up and down the quarterdeck
413
00:33:20,241 --> 00:33:24,792
telling the story of his escape
after the Battle of Worcester.
414
00:33:24,961 --> 00:33:27,714
Here was a king full of charisma.
415
00:33:30,241 --> 00:33:32,630
He had magic.
416
00:33:32,801 --> 00:33:35,395
(CROWDS CHEERING)
417
00:33:37,121 --> 00:33:42,241
But would his reason survive
the emotions stirred by his return?
418
00:33:42,801 --> 00:33:46,396
The diarist John Evelyn recorded,
with unrepentant royalism
419
00:33:46,561 --> 00:33:49,439
burning in his breast:
420
00:33:49,601 --> 00:33:52,593
This day came in
His Majesty to London
421
00:33:52,761 --> 00:33:55,355
after a sad and long exile,
422
00:33:55,521 --> 00:33:59,878
with a triumph of above 20,000 horse
and foot brandishing their swords
423
00:34:00,041 --> 00:34:02,760
and shouting with inexpressible joy,
424
00:34:02,921 --> 00:34:06,709
the way strewn with flowers,
the bells ringing.
425
00:34:06,881 --> 00:34:10,556
I stood in the Strand and beheld it
and blessed God.
426
00:34:10,721 --> 00:34:13,281
And all this without one drop of blood
427
00:34:13,441 --> 00:34:17,150
and by that very army
which had rebelled against him.
428
00:34:19,041 --> 00:34:24,911
The king was crowned at Westminster
on the 23rd April, 1661.
429
00:34:25,081 --> 00:34:30,838
His reign was backdated to the day
after his father had been beheaded.
430
00:34:31,001 --> 00:34:34,994
But even before the king was crowned,
there were those with long memories
431
00:34:35,161 --> 00:34:37,152
looking for revenge.
432
00:34:39,521 --> 00:34:42,911
On January 30th, 1661,
433
00:34:43,081 --> 00:34:48,394
exactly 12 years after Charles I's
severed head dropped into the straw,
434
00:34:48,561 --> 00:34:53,112
the remains of Cromwell and the regicides
were dragged from their tombs
435
00:34:53,281 --> 00:34:59,550
and hanged from the gallows at Tyburn
before being buried in a deep pit.
436
00:35:02,281 --> 00:35:05,239
Over the next months,
eleven other king-killers
437
00:35:05,401 --> 00:35:07,961
were hanged, drawn and quartered.
438
00:35:12,681 --> 00:35:17,914
The old Cromwellians watched all this
in tactful, furtive silence.
439
00:35:18,081 --> 00:35:23,075
They wondered just how reasonable
this new regime might actually be.
440
00:35:25,161 --> 00:35:27,755
Killing the killjoys, though,
Charles knew,
441
00:35:27,921 --> 00:35:30,754
would not damage his popularity.
442
00:35:30,921 --> 00:35:35,870
Given a free vote, the people would,
especially after the Major Generals,
443
00:35:36,041 --> 00:35:38,077
vote for pleasure over piety.
444
00:35:39,281 --> 00:35:44,036
(FEMALE SINGER)
445
00:35:44,201 --> 00:35:48,194
And leading the dance, of course,
was Charles himself,
446
00:35:48,361 --> 00:35:51,558
constitutionally incapable
of being so churlish
447
00:35:51,721 --> 00:35:56,397
as to spurn any woman generous enough
to invite him into her bed.
448
00:35:56,561 --> 00:35:58,552
They all did.
449
00:36:01,601 --> 00:36:03,717
This was the golden age of ogling.
450
00:36:03,881 --> 00:36:07,237
If Puritan England
had been governed by the ear,
451
00:36:07,401 --> 00:36:11,599
wide open to receive the word of God,
the Restoration restored
452
00:36:11,761 --> 00:36:14,321
the sovereignty of the eye.
453
00:36:16,121 --> 00:36:21,878
Its ruling passion was "scopophilia",
the addiction of the gaze,
454
00:36:22,041 --> 00:36:26,319
whether eyeballing an outrageous wig,
a plunging neckline,
455
00:36:26,481 --> 00:36:29,518
a louse caught in the lens
of a microscope
456
00:36:29,681 --> 00:36:32,115
or the constellations of the stars.
457
00:36:32,281 --> 00:36:37,116
458
00:36:37,281 --> 00:36:42,275
459
00:36:42,441 --> 00:36:45,911
Charles's boyish enthusiasm
for optical instruments
460
00:36:46,081 --> 00:36:49,676
suggested he might turn out to be
a new kind of Stuart,
461
00:36:49,841 --> 00:36:53,311
whose vision dwelled
not in cloudy realms of absolutism,
462
00:36:53,481 --> 00:36:55,676
but which was precisely focused,
463
00:36:55,841 --> 00:37:00,312
concerned to observe reality -
political as well as physical.
464
00:37:00,481 --> 00:37:06,272
He might, in fact, turn out to be that most
unlikely thing - a reasonable Stuart king.
465
00:37:07,761 --> 00:37:12,630
This was the Stuart for whom the
physical world was his alpha and omega,
466
00:37:12,801 --> 00:37:15,269
who was earthy in his realism.
467
00:37:16,281 --> 00:37:20,354
All too earthy, some thought,
as they looked down in disgust
468
00:37:20,521 --> 00:37:25,959
at a theatre of indolence, punctuated by
debauchery, that had become the court.
469
00:37:27,041 --> 00:37:30,351
They were not so worldly,
not so rational,
470
00:37:30,521 --> 00:37:35,549
as to be free of the fear that some day
there would be a reckoning.
471
00:37:35,721 --> 00:37:38,315
Some day soon, as it turned out.
472
00:37:41,921 --> 00:37:47,359
In the summer of 1664, a comet
appeared in the skies over England.
473
00:37:47,521 --> 00:37:51,309
Its sallow tail could be seen
with unprecedented clarity
474
00:37:51,481 --> 00:37:56,680
through the lens of the new telescopes
owned, among others, by the king.
475
00:37:56,841 --> 00:38:01,039
But what most people saw
was disaster in the offing.
476
00:38:01,201 --> 00:38:03,192
They had all read their almanacs.
477
00:38:03,361 --> 00:38:09,152
They knew that the Apocalypse would
be heralded by pestilence, fire and war.
478
00:38:15,161 --> 00:38:18,949
A year later, thousands of bodies
killed by bubonic plague
479
00:38:19,121 --> 00:38:23,512
were being tossed each week
into the great pit of Aldgate
480
00:38:23,681 --> 00:38:26,514
and there was nothing science
could do about it,
481
00:38:26,681 --> 00:38:30,640
except count the dead
with the care demanded
482
00:38:30,801 --> 00:38:33,110
by modern statistics.
483
00:38:35,761 --> 00:38:38,958
(MAN)
484
00:38:39,121 --> 00:38:43,478
485
00:38:45,681 --> 00:38:49,310
486
00:38:50,921 --> 00:38:53,389
487
00:38:54,361 --> 00:38:56,670
488
00:38:57,921 --> 00:39:01,709
489
00:39:04,521 --> 00:39:08,355
One-sixth of London's population
perished.
490
00:39:09,321 --> 00:39:12,074
The infection ebbed
with the onset of autumn,
491
00:39:12,241 --> 00:39:14,914
but the trepidation hung around
492
00:39:15,081 --> 00:39:20,280
for the number of the Beast was 666.
493
00:39:23,961 --> 00:39:27,556
And sure enough,
up from the smoky regions of Hell,
494
00:39:27,721 --> 00:39:31,430
in the first week of September, 1666,
495
00:39:31,601 --> 00:39:34,069
came the diabolical fire.
496
00:39:38,721 --> 00:39:41,633
In the early hours
of Sunday September 2nd,
497
00:39:41,801 --> 00:39:44,520
the Lord Mayor of London was woken
498
00:39:44,681 --> 00:39:49,994
to be told that a fire had started
in a baker's shop in Pudding Lane.
499
00:39:50,161 --> 00:39:55,758
His response was
"Pish! A woman might piss it out!"
500
00:40:05,761 --> 00:40:10,118
As he snored on, the flames reached
the warehouses flanking the Thames
501
00:40:10,281 --> 00:40:16,038
between the Tower and London Bridge,
brimful of tallow, pitch and brandy.
502
00:40:18,361 --> 00:40:22,593
A monstrous fireball came roaring
and sucking out of the narrow streets,
503
00:40:22,761 --> 00:40:24,991
feeding on overhanging bays and gables.
504
00:40:28,721 --> 00:40:35,069
In another hour, 200 to 300 houses
had been swallowed by the flames.
505
00:40:40,801 --> 00:40:43,031
John Evelyn, who'd said for years
506
00:40:43,201 --> 00:40:46,511
that overcrowded London
was a disaster waiting to happen,
507
00:40:46,681 --> 00:40:50,754
took no joy
in the fulfilment of his prophecy.
508
00:40:53,601 --> 00:40:56,991
Oh, the miserable
and calamitous spectacle.
509
00:40:57,681 --> 00:41:00,832
God grant mine eyes
that I never behold it again,
510
00:41:01,001 --> 00:41:04,789
who now saw 10,000 houses
all in one flame.
511
00:41:06,361 --> 00:41:10,752
The noise and crackle and thunder
of the impetuous flames.
512
00:41:10,921 --> 00:41:14,118
The shriek of women and children,
the hurry of people,
513
00:41:14,281 --> 00:41:19,036
the fall of towers, houses and churches
like a hideous storm.
514
00:41:19,961 --> 00:41:23,351
London was... but is no more.
515
00:41:40,001 --> 00:41:43,710
When the rain started,
a week after the outbreak of the fire,
516
00:41:43,881 --> 00:41:45,872
allowing an early stocktaking,
517
00:41:46,041 --> 00:41:50,398
the scale of the devastation
horrified even the pessimists.
518
00:41:50,561 --> 00:41:54,076
13,200 houses had been destroyed,
519
00:41:54,241 --> 00:41:58,234
along with some of the most famous
buildings of the city.
520
00:41:59,601 --> 00:42:02,673
St Paul's Cathedral was in ruins.
521
00:42:03,761 --> 00:42:08,073
The new Leviathan, it seemed,
had no fire insurance.
522
00:42:08,761 --> 00:42:11,514
Still, there were those
who were determined
523
00:42:11,681 --> 00:42:15,276
that London would rise
as a phoenix from its ashes
524
00:42:15,441 --> 00:42:20,561
and, like the reborn, rebuilt Rome,
astonish the world.
525
00:42:21,481 --> 00:42:24,598
This had long been on the mind
of Christopher Wren,
526
00:42:24,761 --> 00:42:27,833
mathematician, architect
and brilliant prodigy
527
00:42:28,001 --> 00:42:29,992
of the Royal Society.
528
00:42:30,161 --> 00:42:32,959
So when Roman antiquities
were found in the debris
529
00:42:33,121 --> 00:42:37,399
around St Paul's, one of them a tablet
bearing the Latin inscription
530
00:42:37,561 --> 00:42:42,954
"Resurgam" - I shall arise,
Wren took the message to heart.
531
00:42:45,001 --> 00:42:47,959
London had once been
a great Roman city
532
00:42:48,121 --> 00:42:51,272
and now would outdo the ancients,
533
00:42:51,441 --> 00:42:53,830
with great piazzas, broad avenues,
534
00:42:54,001 --> 00:42:58,279
calculated to afford
geometrically satisfying vistas
535
00:42:58,441 --> 00:43:01,433
and up to fifty new churches.
536
00:43:02,321 --> 00:43:05,597
And at its heart would be
a new St Paul's,
537
00:43:05,761 --> 00:43:10,152
a cathedral the like of which had
never been seen in northern Europe.
538
00:43:11,321 --> 00:43:15,155
He built a giant wooden model
to show the king and clergy
539
00:43:15,321 --> 00:43:17,516
just what they would be getting.
540
00:43:18,561 --> 00:43:21,951
How could they not be awestruck
by the huge dome
541
00:43:22,121 --> 00:43:24,874
that used the same technology
as a microscope
542
00:43:25,041 --> 00:43:28,192
to flood the interior with light?
543
00:43:54,881 --> 00:43:57,441
But there was a problem.
544
00:43:57,601 --> 00:44:00,832
Wren had designed his cathedral
as a Greek cross,
545
00:44:01,001 --> 00:44:05,199
sacrificing the traditional floor plan
of a Protestant church
546
00:44:05,361 --> 00:44:08,194
in favour of perfect acoustics
and light.
547
00:44:09,041 --> 00:44:13,751
You can almost hear the mystified,
angry complaints of the reverends.
548
00:44:13,921 --> 00:44:17,630
"Where exactly is the choir
supposed to go?
549
00:44:17,801 --> 00:44:21,714
"How do we process up a nave
which isn't there?"
550
00:44:21,881 --> 00:44:24,600
Mostly they said, "Call us old-fashioned,
551
00:44:24,761 --> 00:44:28,674
"but this looks suspiciously to us
like a Catholic basilica.
552
00:44:28,841 --> 00:44:30,832
"We'll be damned
553
00:44:31,001 --> 00:44:34,960
"if we're going to let St Paul's
turn into St Peter's."
554
00:44:36,681 --> 00:44:41,118
When the king told him
to go back to the drawing board,
555
00:44:41,281 --> 00:44:46,150
Wren's normally very dry eyes
are said to have filled with tears.
556
00:44:46,321 --> 00:44:49,119
He would have his chance
to build his dome,
557
00:44:49,281 --> 00:44:52,432
but only when it was joined
to a long nave,
558
00:44:52,601 --> 00:44:55,877
something resembling
a traditional church.
559
00:44:56,761 --> 00:44:59,594
The irony was,
for all his Roman enthusiasm,
560
00:44:59,761 --> 00:45:04,881
Wren believed he was building
a truly Protestant church...
561
00:45:05,041 --> 00:45:07,999
but his timing was terrible.
562
00:45:08,881 --> 00:45:15,070
Ever since the Reformation, Britain
had been victim to anti-Catholic fear
563
00:45:15,241 --> 00:45:18,472
and, once again, in Charles's reign,
it erupted.
564
00:45:22,401 --> 00:45:24,961
Not all of it was misplaced.
565
00:45:25,121 --> 00:45:30,639
Charles was suspected of having secret
Catholics in his government, and so he did.
566
00:45:30,801 --> 00:45:33,793
He was also suspected
of making secret treaties
567
00:45:33,961 --> 00:45:38,239
with the militantly Catholic
Louis XIV of France.
568
00:45:38,401 --> 00:45:40,392
And so he had.
569
00:45:40,561 --> 00:45:43,871
But there was worse... much worse.
570
00:45:44,041 --> 00:45:46,760
The king's own brother, James,
Duke of York,
571
00:45:46,921 --> 00:45:49,389
had actually converted
to the Roman Church
572
00:45:49,561 --> 00:45:51,995
and he made no secret of it.
573
00:45:52,161 --> 00:45:56,871
With no children born to the king,
the first Catholic ruler since Bloody Mary
574
00:45:57,041 --> 00:45:59,430
was an imminent prospect.
575
00:45:59,601 --> 00:46:02,354
There was shivering in the shires.
576
00:46:03,681 --> 00:46:07,469
A century before, Queen Elizabeth
had been threatened
577
00:46:07,641 --> 00:46:09,632
with Catholic assassination plots.
578
00:46:09,801 --> 00:46:15,000
The Jesuit lurking in the shadows was
a permanent fixture in popular nightmare.
579
00:46:17,321 --> 00:46:19,516
When an ex-Jesuit called Titus Oates
580
00:46:19,681 --> 00:46:24,118
concocted a pack of lies
about a plot to murder the king,
581
00:46:24,281 --> 00:46:28,911
invite a French invasion and create
a Catholic state under James,
582
00:46:29,081 --> 00:46:31,959
he tripped the Guy Fawkes alert.
583
00:46:32,961 --> 00:46:35,759
And when the magistrate
investigating the charges
584
00:46:35,921 --> 00:46:40,278
was found mysteriously murdered
on Primrose Hill, it seemed obvious
585
00:46:40,441 --> 00:46:43,274
that Oates knew what he was talking about.
586
00:46:43,441 --> 00:46:45,511
It set the jittery country
587
00:46:45,681 --> 00:46:47,990
right over the edge.
588
00:47:01,481 --> 00:47:04,393
Anti-Catholic violence swept the country.
589
00:47:04,561 --> 00:47:09,032
Riots, burnings, lynch mobs,
kangaroo courts.
590
00:47:11,681 --> 00:47:14,673
For some politicians,
the ugly mood of the country
591
00:47:14,841 --> 00:47:19,198
was a golden opportunity
to press their favourite cause.
592
00:47:19,361 --> 00:47:23,877
James, Duke of York, should never
be allowed to sit on the throne.
593
00:47:24,041 --> 00:47:26,350
He had to be excluded.
594
00:47:26,521 --> 00:47:31,197
Anything to stop the cycle of
religious wars from breaking out again.
595
00:47:32,761 --> 00:47:37,152
It was an extraordinary crisis
in the history of the British monarchy.
596
00:47:37,321 --> 00:47:41,200
At stake were not only the lives
of hundreds of those victimised
597
00:47:41,361 --> 00:47:43,636
by all the lies and hysteria,
598
00:47:43,801 --> 00:47:46,235
but the fate of the polity itself.
599
00:47:46,401 --> 00:47:50,314
Because to concede exclusion was
to accept parliament had the right
600
00:47:50,481 --> 00:47:54,554
to judge who was fit or unfit
to occupy the throne.
601
00:47:54,721 --> 00:48:01,433
And that was a concession Charles II
was absolutely not about to make.
602
00:48:02,521 --> 00:48:05,752
Charles met the most serious
crisis of his reign
603
00:48:05,921 --> 00:48:11,234
with his most powerful weapon -
reason. He offered a compromise.
604
00:48:11,401 --> 00:48:16,395
His brother would be allowed to succeed
if he agreed to be a private Catholic
605
00:48:16,561 --> 00:48:20,349
and not to lay a finger
on the Church of England.
606
00:48:20,521 --> 00:48:22,716
Riding the wave of paranoia,
607
00:48:22,881 --> 00:48:27,193
the newly elected parliament
summoned to Oxford turned him down.
608
00:48:27,361 --> 00:48:30,478
They assumed that memory
was on their side,
609
00:48:30,641 --> 00:48:35,476
that Charles would remember the fate of
his stubborn father, who'd triggered a war
610
00:48:35,641 --> 00:48:40,237
when he too had been suspected
of being soft on Catholicism.
611
00:48:41,641 --> 00:48:45,714
But historical memory
is a double-edged sword.
612
00:48:45,881 --> 00:48:49,078
(TRUMPET FANFARE)
613
00:48:50,281 --> 00:48:53,318
When the Commons met
in the Great Hall of Christchurch
614
00:48:53,481 --> 00:48:56,553
to hear what they thought would be
the royal capitulation,
615
00:48:56,721 --> 00:49:02,478
they found themselves instead
confronted by a Leviathan in ermine.
616
00:49:05,241 --> 00:49:08,119
"This is the king's will," he said.
617
00:49:08,281 --> 00:49:11,034
"Take it or leave it."
618
00:49:13,041 --> 00:49:15,794
It was a breathtaking gamble.
619
00:49:15,961 --> 00:49:20,910
Backed up by the House of Lords, Charles
had left the exclusionists in the Commons
620
00:49:21,081 --> 00:49:23,800
no alternative but to go to war.
621
00:49:26,561 --> 00:49:29,598
He was betting that the memory
of the last round
622
00:49:29,761 --> 00:49:33,879
would be a deterrent. He was right.
623
00:49:34,041 --> 00:49:38,592
The tombs of the dead from Edgehill,
Marston Moor and Worcester
624
00:49:38,761 --> 00:49:41,514
were still being carved.
625
00:49:41,681 --> 00:49:44,275
That war began as a parliamentary protest
626
00:49:44,441 --> 00:49:47,513
and ended in Puritan crusade.
627
00:49:47,681 --> 00:49:51,435
Who wanted that back?
Not the exclusionists.
628
00:49:51,641 --> 00:49:53,916
They blinked first.
629
00:49:56,881 --> 00:50:01,955
James did get the keys to the kingdom
when his brother died in 1685,
630
00:50:02,121 --> 00:50:06,433
and he inherited a new parliament
with a massively royalist majority,
631
00:50:06,601 --> 00:50:09,638
along with widespread public sympathy.
632
00:50:09,801 --> 00:50:13,589
Within three years, though,
he had squandered it all.
633
00:50:19,361 --> 00:50:23,354
James never had any intention
of hiding his faith.
634
00:50:23,521 --> 00:50:26,354
His Catholicism
wasn't just a private comfort
635
00:50:26,521 --> 00:50:29,877
to be celebrated
away from the public gaze.
636
00:50:30,041 --> 00:50:34,159
No, James was going to be
a visible Catholic king...
637
00:50:34,961 --> 00:50:38,556
but he was playing a dangerous game.
638
00:50:41,641 --> 00:50:44,838
When James tried to reverse
anti-Catholic laws,
639
00:50:45,001 --> 00:50:49,677
pillars of the establishment - the country
gentry and the Church - were horrified.
640
00:50:51,641 --> 00:50:54,439
When the bishops complained,
the king declared,
641
00:50:54,601 --> 00:50:58,037
"I shall find a way
to do my business without you."
642
00:50:59,801 --> 00:51:03,635
The protesting bishops
were locked up in the Tower.
643
00:51:07,481 --> 00:51:10,757
James's timing was disastrous.
644
00:51:11,681 --> 00:51:14,593
For he was doing all this
when Louis XIV,
645
00:51:14,761 --> 00:51:19,152
the militantly Catholic King of France,
was threatening Europe.
646
00:51:20,521 --> 00:51:22,716
By January, 1688,
647
00:51:22,881 --> 00:51:27,193
James had managed
to alienate all his natural allies
648
00:51:27,361 --> 00:51:32,071
and turn himself into a more dangerous
version of his father, Charles I.
649
00:51:33,241 --> 00:51:38,269
He was even filling the officer ranks
of the army with Irish Catholics.
650
00:51:40,801 --> 00:51:44,953
The only consolation was that, at 52,
he had no son.
651
00:51:46,001 --> 00:51:50,631
Next in line to the throne was
his daughter Mary, a staunch Protestant,
652
00:51:50,801 --> 00:51:53,395
who'd married the Dutch prince,
William of Orange,
653
00:51:53,561 --> 00:51:56,712
hero of the resistance to Louis XIV.
654
00:51:57,441 --> 00:52:01,912
On June 10th, 1688, all this changed.
655
00:52:02,441 --> 00:52:05,831
James's wife, Mary of Modena,
gave birth to a boy,
656
00:52:06,001 --> 00:52:09,073
who was duly baptised with Roman rites.
657
00:52:10,441 --> 00:52:13,433
Now, not only was the king Catholic,
658
00:52:13,601 --> 00:52:15,637
so was his dynasty.
659
00:52:16,401 --> 00:52:21,794
What could be done?
Well, something quite extraordinary.
660
00:52:21,961 --> 00:52:25,556
Seven leading statesmen
sent a message to Holland
661
00:52:25,721 --> 00:52:27,757
with an explosive request.
662
00:52:28,281 --> 00:52:31,876
"Prince William," they asked,
"would you mind invading Britain
663
00:52:32,041 --> 00:52:34,350
"and saving us from a Catholic king?"
664
00:52:37,921 --> 00:52:42,119
William of Orange wanted to save
his country from Catholic despots,
665
00:52:42,281 --> 00:52:46,274
but the country he had in mind -
first, foremost and always -
666
00:52:46,441 --> 00:52:48,432
was the Dutch Republic.
667
00:52:48,601 --> 00:52:52,879
English politics were always a sideshow
for William to the main event.
668
00:52:53,041 --> 00:52:57,114
That was the great European war
against Louis XIV.
669
00:52:59,721 --> 00:53:04,192
What choice did he have?
There would be British troops in that war.
670
00:53:04,361 --> 00:53:07,558
To ensure they'd be fighting for him,
not against him,
671
00:53:07,721 --> 00:53:13,034
100 years after the Spanish Armada
had failed to do the very same thing,
672
00:53:13,201 --> 00:53:16,511
William set out to conquer Britain.
673
00:53:20,761 --> 00:53:23,116
He was nothing if not thorough.
674
00:53:23,281 --> 00:53:25,875
60,000 copies of William's manifesto
675
00:53:26,041 --> 00:53:30,956
blanketed England in an effort to present
the planned invasion as a response
676
00:53:31,121 --> 00:53:35,558
to a spontaneous uprising
against the Catholic tyrant.
677
00:53:35,721 --> 00:53:38,360
It was so persuasive that he succeeded
678
00:53:38,521 --> 00:53:41,638
in making James
seem the foreigner in his own land
679
00:53:41,801 --> 00:53:44,713
and the Dutchman the true Brit.
680
00:53:48,401 --> 00:53:51,438
The fate of the Armada
was a sobering thought,
681
00:53:51,601 --> 00:53:55,640
so his Dutch invasion force
made the Spanish one seem puny.
682
00:53:55,801 --> 00:53:58,759
This time there were 600 vessels
683
00:53:58,921 --> 00:54:01,515
and up to 20,000 troops.
684
00:54:03,441 --> 00:54:06,035
(WOMAN)
685
00:54:06,201 --> 00:54:08,761
686
00:54:08,921 --> 00:54:11,754
687
00:54:11,921 --> 00:54:14,640
688
00:54:16,041 --> 00:54:20,080
He landed at Torbay
on November 5th - Guy Fawkes Day.
689
00:54:20,241 --> 00:54:24,519
Obviously, God was a Protestant!
690
00:54:24,681 --> 00:54:28,959
When he realised that this Protestant
invasion was really going to oust him,
691
00:54:29,121 --> 00:54:31,681
James' courage failed him.
692
00:54:31,841 --> 00:54:37,279
His resolution in meltdown, his nights
haunted by the ghost of his daddy,
693
00:54:37,441 --> 00:54:39,830
he fled the kingdom.
694
00:54:47,161 --> 00:54:51,837
William claimed that he'd come
just to restore English liberties,
695
00:54:52,001 --> 00:54:55,232
but now he had Dutch soldiers
in the streets,
696
00:54:55,401 --> 00:55:00,873
and if he decided to be king after all,
who was going to say otherwise?
697
00:55:07,081 --> 00:55:11,552
In February 1689, William of Orange
and Mary Stuart
698
00:55:11,721 --> 00:55:14,519
were proclaimed
King and Queen of England.
699
00:55:17,441 --> 00:55:21,400
But during the ceremony,
something profoundly novel happened.
700
00:55:21,561 --> 00:55:23,995
A Declaration of Rights was read out
701
00:55:24,161 --> 00:55:26,880
listing the conditions
under which the new monarchs
702
00:55:27,041 --> 00:55:29,760
would be allowed to sit on the throne.
703
00:55:31,761 --> 00:55:35,117
Parliament had changed
the job description of the ruler.
704
00:55:35,281 --> 00:55:39,035
It turned out that the country
did not need Leviathan.
705
00:55:39,201 --> 00:55:45,071
It wanted a chairman of the board,
and Dutch William fitted that role to a tee.
706
00:55:47,121 --> 00:55:51,797
William III would fight his wars
by asking, not demanding funds
707
00:55:51,961 --> 00:55:55,510
from the elected representatives
of the people.
708
00:55:55,681 --> 00:55:57,717
Ruling together with parliament,
709
00:55:57,881 --> 00:56:01,590
his government looked remarkably like
a reasonable version
710
00:56:01,761 --> 00:56:04,321
of Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate.
711
00:56:07,761 --> 00:56:11,834
History has called this
a "Glorious Revolution".
712
00:56:12,001 --> 00:56:14,071
It was probably neither,
713
00:56:14,241 --> 00:56:19,269
but afterwards, the British monarchy
would never be the same again.
714
00:56:25,361 --> 00:56:30,594
But the old monarchy had
one last desperate play to make.
715
00:56:30,761 --> 00:56:34,356
In March, 1689, James landed in Ireland
716
00:56:34,521 --> 00:56:37,274
with 20,000 French troops.
717
00:56:38,761 --> 00:56:41,321
The Catholic Irish flocked to their king.
718
00:56:42,161 --> 00:56:47,713
Like the English, they'd become pawns
in someone else's chess game.
719
00:56:52,521 --> 00:56:56,309
Outside Drogheda,
two armies, two worlds,
720
00:56:56,481 --> 00:56:58,949
faced each other across the River Boyne.
721
00:56:59,121 --> 00:57:03,319
One belonged to the old world
of faith and fervour,
722
00:57:03,481 --> 00:57:06,154
the other,
Dutch and German professionals,
723
00:57:06,321 --> 00:57:09,233
were part of a modern war machine.
724
00:57:19,721 --> 00:57:22,918
No prizes for guessing who won.
725
00:57:23,601 --> 00:57:25,592
Nobody.
726
00:57:35,601 --> 00:57:39,958
(MAN) It is the patriotic duty
of Irish men and Irish women
727
00:57:40,121 --> 00:57:43,591
to engage in that legitimate
armed struggle.
728
00:57:43,761 --> 00:57:46,639
We will never surrender!
729
00:57:46,801 --> 00:57:52,080
Never, never, never, never!
(PEOPLE CHEERING)
730
00:57:54,001 --> 00:57:56,993
(NEWSPEAKER) I appeal to Unionists
to engage fully
731
00:57:57,161 --> 00:57:59,356
in the search for a lasting peace.
732
00:57:59,521 --> 00:58:02,115
I, too, am an Ulsterman
733
00:58:02,281 --> 00:58:06,069
and we don't need the British ministers
to rule us...