BẢN CHÉP ÂM THANH 🔗
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This is CBS Eye on the World. I'm John Batchelor.
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Continuing with Professor Jonathan Healy of Oxford University. He teaches history.
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He is also the author of The Blood and Winter,
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a new book about the England on the brink of
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Civil War, 1642. Great Britain is a concept invented by
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James I, who was also James VI of Scotland, who
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follows Elizabeth and takes the crown of England in 1603.
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His first son, the man they believe will be the
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next king, Henry, dies suddenly at the age of 18.
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His second son, Charles, becomes king when James dies in 1625.
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It is now 15 years later, and Charles has been
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king successfully, in his opinion and mine, for some time,
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ruling without parliament, nobody to say no to him. At
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the same time, Scotland is has gone into dissent. Ireland
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is always dissenting. And though he is the king of
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Great Britain, Ireland, Scotland, England, and Wales, it can appear
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to be coming apart, not holding together. At the same time,
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Charles has to deal with a non-ruly parliament that has factions.
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I learned from Jonathan that we're about to plunge into
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Charles's solution for the factions in Parliament and how he
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can regain the authority of his kingship to put together
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an army to march on Scotland or, because the revolt
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starts again in Ireland, they're always revolting every so many years,
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he can put together an army to march on Ireland.
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The only thing that unites, in fact, Charles's enemies in
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Parliament and Charles's loyalists in Parliament is they all want
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to march on Ireland. But Jonathan, this is a wonderful
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telling because it's a conspiracy. And the conspiracy is well
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documented up to a point. It's the 1st, 2nd, and
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3rd of January. What is it that Charles wants to
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achieve in consultation with his queen and a few others
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with Parliament? What does he intend to do romantically, disastrously?
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Thank you.
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Well, in January, Charles decided to launch impeachment proceedings against
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some of the leading members of the opposition. It's a
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sort of a very famous moment in English history. Most
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of us sort of know about it over here in
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the UK. initially it's all quite legal. And basically what
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he wants to do is he wants to kind of
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slow things down in parliament because he realises that impeachment
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takes up a lot of parliamentary time. So it will
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stop them passing legislation that he thinks they're going to
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try and pass, which will take away his power of
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government and his power to raise an army. So he
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wants to kind of slow them down. And what he
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does is he has his attorney general, He has his
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attorney general introduce impeachment charges in the House of Lords
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against five MPs, five members of the House of Commons
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and one peer, Lord Mandeville, who we talked about. And
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his expectation is that the Lords will accept this and
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have these people arrested. And then he can rifle through
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their papers, find really incriminating evidence against against other people,
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but also slow things down. But unfortunately, the House of
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Lords doesn't do what they're supposed to. And instead, they
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basically kind of raise a procedural objection. They sort of say, well,
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impeachment should be started in the Commons. It shouldn't be
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launched in the House of Lords by the Attorney General.
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So we're going to create a committee, but it's going
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to be a committee which looks at the legality of
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what the King has just done. And this made Charles furious.
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The next night, that night, he went home to Whitehall.
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He obviously stayed up late with the Queen. And with
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the Queen kind of pushing him on, he decided that
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the next day he would take things into his own
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hands and he would march on Parliament and he would
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arrest the men himself. And that would be the 4th
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of January 1642.
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The The grab that he makes of their documents gives
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Parliament something to argue about, which is you can't take
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documents without a charge. I agree with all of that.
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But the scene that is better than any other is
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the scene with Charles and Henrietta and a woman known
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as Lady Carlyle. And this is– it's a cinematic moment, Jonathan,
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so I want to pause over it. Charles is unclear
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the road ahead and he needs to explain to Henrietta Maria,
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his wife, why he's doing this and not that. He's
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grabbed the documents but he hasn't grabbed the men. He's
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intimidated or in some fashion taking a step back because
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lords won't obey him. They want this argued in the
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commons first and they want to charge first before they
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try to impeach somebody. In other words, it's all process.
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How is it How is it that that secret of
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what he's plotting gets out is the question you raise
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in your book. Guilty parties have been advanced for 400 years.
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Do you have a version that you're comfortable with? Yes.
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I mean, I think it was Lady Carlisle who first
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leaked the information. She was a courtier. She'd been, you know,
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quite close to, she'd been very, very significant, of course,
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in the 1630s. But she'd been close to the Earl
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of Stratford, actually. But after his execution, she'd gravitated towards
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the Junto, partly because several of her family members were um,
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significantly involved with them. So she was very worried about
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the direction of travel. And if, if Charles was able
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to start arresting leading members of the Junto, then it
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might be that members of her family would, would be next. Um,
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but she's still at this point, very close to the
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queen and she's got this probably acting as a sort
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of double agent between, between the two. Um, and at
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late at night in Whitehall, Charles and Henrietta Maria seemed
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to stay up, uh, arguing essentially about what to do next. Um,
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And the Queen manages to use her sort of forceful
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persuasion to encourage Charles to decide to go to Parliament
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himself the next day. And then at some point, Lady
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Carlyle got wind of this. So she was probably told.
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And then she disappeared off into the night, I assume,
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and then went and told probably Mandeville because she thought
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that he was under threat. And he then told the
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members of the House of Commons that, that they were
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under threat the next day. So when they went into
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the house on the 4th, they knew what to expect
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that day. They knew to be on alert.
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For 400 years, we've had recorded in history after history
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that what Henrietta says to her husband, the king, is, poltroon,
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go pull them out by their beards. Now, who heard
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that and who passed it on? Why do we have
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it 400 years later? for the Queen to call Charles
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the poltroon in the middle of the night in Whitehall
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where he's plotting a coup.
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Who tells us? I mean, it sort of crops up.
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It crops up in a very, very obscure source several
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decades later. And the... The only way that I can
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really see that story getting out is if Lady Carlyle
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had reported that specific.
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Listened at the door of the closet, right?
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Yeah, I guess. Yeah, I guess. Because, you know, there's
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thin walls in this period and raised voices. I think
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people would have been able to hear these kind of things.
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There are historians who think, well, that all sounds too
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good to be true. But it's sort of so... it's
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so specific. For me, it has the ring of truth
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about it. I'd like to believe it was true. But
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of course, you know, one can never be completely sure
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about these kinds of things in, you know, looking at this.
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Everyone's available.
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If you meet it for the first time in Jonathan's book,
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you're all available for your own version of how it happened.
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400 years later, the plot was betrayed by someone who
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heard the queen yell, now, There's nothing wrong with Henrietta Maria.
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She sees exactly what's going on. She understands that Charles
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must act with dispatch. And in this instance, he doesn't
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back down, as he likes to do, come up with
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a great plot and then doubt himself. He shows up
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in Parliament, and he's there to make arrests. This gets
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another scene. Remember, we're in Westminster now. Another scene. King's
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standing there. surrounded by his guards who've come in to
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make the arrests. Where are the five? What's happened to them?
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Well, they've escaped. They had been warned. And they'd come
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into Parliament that morning. They got the warning probably from
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Lucy Hay. They'd also had a warning from the Earl
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of Essex. At lunchtime in Parliament, they'd sent someone up
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to the Palace of Whitehall where they'd seen large sort
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of large collection of armed cavaliers, armed soldiers who'd been
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there for a while now. And they'd sort of seen
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that they were getting ready to do something. And then
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when Charles came out of Whitehall, gathered together these cavaliers
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and started, you know, going down the street towards Parliament,
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a lookout posted by the French ambassador saw them and
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then ran all the way down the street to Parliament
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so they'd heard that he was coming and as he
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was coming into Parliament they were escaping through the back
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door down the stairs right down to the river because
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of course Parliament is on the river as it is
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today and they slipped onto a boat and And then
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they rode along the Thames into the city of London.
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So they made their escape. And so Charles is stood
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there in the House of Commons saying, you know, where
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am I? Where are my five members? And they're not here.
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They've gone.
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This is one of the most dramatic moments in all
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of English history. We have another player we've not introduced
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when we come back. The plague is afoot. Jonathan Healy
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is the author, The Blood in Winter, England on the
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Brink of Civil War, 1642. I'm John Batchelor. I'm John
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Batchelor with Professor Jonathan Healy. His first book is The
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Blazing World, which was a stunning achievement for me because
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I didn't know any of this. And now I've had
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a very good 20th century education. I read a lot
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of history in university, and I've read a lot since.
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Jonathan's book introduces you to a world that we come from.
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The 17th century, you remember your date, 1607. That's Jamestown. 1619,
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that's the Pilgrims. All of this material is watching England,
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Great Britain, in civil war or building towards civil war
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in the 17th century when power would pass from the
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king to the parliament. Constitutional monarchy, we call it today.
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That would be the model for the founders in the
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18th century, which is why all this backstory is so
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helpful to understand our institutions. We come now to not
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an institution, but the question of health of the republic
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or health of the empire or health of the kingdom,
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the plague. It returns in the 17th century, never more
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worrisome than in 1660s, but it strikes that winter in
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In only London, Jonathan, or was it throughout the land?
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Well, at this point, the plague tended to hit city
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by city. When the Black Death first arrived in England
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in the 14th century, it just swept through the country very,
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very quickly. But now, ever since that, it sort of
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pops up in one place and then disappears and then
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goes somewhere else. So it was in other places a
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little bit, but the main centre at this point was
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London and Westminster. And that summer, In particular, the summer
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of 1641 had been very, very bad. Plague had been
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killing quite a lot of people. By the wintertime, because
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of the particular kind of seasonality of plague, it was
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starting to die out. But yeah, it had been a
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sickly year.
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The reason the plague is important here is because members
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of the House of Lords and those who could afford
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it in common have fled the city. and are called
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to return to Parliament. Remember, this is the long Parliament.
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It never really recesses. It has a committee that's always
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meeting permanently. It's a process fiction. But Charles has reason
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to believe that his numbers will strengthen to dominance on
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January 12th. He's not the only person who knows that.
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The Junto at this time, Jonathan, what does John Pym
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make of Charles' attempt? Does he think that it was
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nearly successful and we escaped it? Or does he use
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it against the king? How does he explain to the
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parliament and even to lords what the king's afoot with?
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Well, the proclamation whereby Charles tried to get his supporters
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to come back to parliament is the sort of background,
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if you like, to the the attempted impeachments of the
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early January, because one of the things that Charles is
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hoping is that he can sort of slow things down
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until January the 12th, as you say, when he'd get
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these sort of moderate MPs back. But the attempt on
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the five members kind of just dramatically changes the landscape.
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And whereas Charles was in a position before that, that
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he might have been able to sort of gather a.
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A very, very strong, well, actually a majority in both houses.
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He's now completely lost that because people are looking at
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the royalists in fear. And those moderates in the middle
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have really kind of swung behind Pym and the Junto.
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So it's a huge, a catastrophic decision by Charles because
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it makes it look like he is a military threat
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to Parliament. And that means that a lot of moderates
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kind of dramatically swing against him.
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What's going on outside is important here because the crowds
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make a lot of noise, but many of them are
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parts of gangs that are gathering in the night and
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very dangerous. But there are two groups that we need
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to pay attention to. The cavalieros, the cavaliers who are royalist-associated,
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the roundheads who are Puritan-associated, the mob that's in between.
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And one group I found fascinating. The apprentices, what do
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they represent in London at this time, Jonathan?
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That's a really interesting question. And actually, the word roundhead,
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although it's often said to come from the Puritans who
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wore their hair short, the other people who had to
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wear their hair short were apprentices because their masters insisted
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that they look smart. So roundhead was also an insult
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aimed at the apprentices. And they're basically young people who
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are learning a trade. And they're often quite a volatile group.
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If there's any kind of street protest in London, much
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as students would be today at the forefront of it,
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apprentices would be in the 17th century. So they are
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a very kind of vocal group. They make up a very,
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very large proportion of the population. And they are, as
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I say, they're young. They're also impacted by poor trading.
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There's bad trading at this point. And they are I mean,
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I think that they're also particularly in tune to particularly
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attuned to ideas about tyranny because they are they are
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looking at their work situation where they have this master.
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And if that master acts tyrannically to them, they can
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they can sue them in the law court. So they
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they kind of have this idea that they they have
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rights there. And I think that helps them think about
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the monarchy in a particular way. But yeah, I mean,
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London's very, very volatile at this point. And you've got
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lots of demobbed soldiers coming back as well from the army,
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which had been raised to fight Scotland, had not done so.
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It had then been disbanded and a lot of the
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soldiers then came back to London and became the cavaliers,
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as you say. So it's a very, very volatile situation
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on London streets.
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And when it gets dark, it's very dangerous to be
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out on the street. Very dangerous. And things happen outside
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of Whitehall. Things happen outside of Westminster that they're not
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sure of. It's spooky, plus the plagues out there. So
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when we come back, the king is pushed to the limits.
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They move against his queen. And time to flee. The
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book is The Blood in Winter. Jonathan Healy is the author.
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This is CBS Eye on the World. I'm John Batchelor.
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I'm John Baxter visiting with Professor Jonathan Healy. The new
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book is The Blood in Winter, England on the Brink
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of Civil War, 1642. There's lots of violence. There are
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lots of threats. There are people grabbing their weapons. They're
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threatening in the crowds. They swing sabers at each other.
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But the threat that upsets the king more than any
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other in my imagination is the threat to impeach the queen,
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Henrietta Maria. And that may drive decisions by the king
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It also is going to lead to it's time to flee.
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But before with the fleeing, I want to come to
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what happens in late January. There's violence every night, Professor.
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And the violence can seem ceremonial, as if there are
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crowds coming out and crowds not coming out. There are
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several nights where the crowds don't come out. Is it
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organized in any fashion or are people really spontaneous?
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And historians have debated this point for many, many years.
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And I think there must be some kind of organization.
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There's definitely a few. There's one particularly striking moment where
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there's a report. And it shows that there's a debate
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going on in Parliament and the Junto are losing. So
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someone runs into the city, City of London, goes to
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a shop where they know someone will be, finds one
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of the MPs' wife, and she calls out the crowd.
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And then the crowd of people go down to Westminster.
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So there's obviously some organisation. And I think also the pastors,
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the ministers, the ministers of the gathered congregations are also–
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you know, bringing out the crowd and also when the
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crowd are no longer necessary, they tell the crowd to
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go home. So there's definitely some organization, but I do
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think there's also a capacity for spontaneous crowd action as well.
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So it's a bit of both, really, I think.
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Old Testament, 1 Kings 1, 2 to 1, 5 to 6,
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15 to 16, a passage to your tents, O Israel.
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You make that a chapter late in the drama.
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Why?
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What happens?
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Well, for me, this is the moment that Charles really
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kind of realises that he's losing control. And the day
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after he tried to arrest the five members in Parliament,
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he tried to do it again, this time in the
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City of London. And he went to the City of London.
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There was a big crowd and he was rebuffed by
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the city government. So he went for lunch with the sheriff,
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one of the sheriffs. And then after that, he got
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in a coach to go home back to Whitehall. On
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his way, the coach was surrounded by crowds and someone
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ran up to his coach and threw in a pamphlet entitled. Well,
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I mean, it had a longer title. It basically sort
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of reported what had happened the day before. But it
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had this biblical passage that you talk about to your tents,
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O Israel. And it's it's basically a call for the
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the nation of the biblical nation of Israel to withdraw
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its support from the House of David because the House
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of David had become tyrannical. And, you know, the sort
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of innuendo is very, very clear that Charles is acting
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as a tyrant. But also the fact that people can
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get that close to his person and that coach, which
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is supposed to be the sort of barrier between him
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and his people, is permeable, means that I think he
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suddenly gets
very, very frightened. And within a few days,
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he left. He left London.
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Is that when they changed the locks in Whitehall or
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had they done that earlier? I don't remember.
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The lost key in Whitehall is one of those things
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that I discovered in the archives. I don't think anyone's
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ever found that before. And I would love to think
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it was significant. But basically, one of the king's nephews,
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who's actually considered as a potential pretender, loses his keys
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on the day of the 3rd of January. And there's
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a record in the household account saying a new set
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of keys for this guy. So I'd love to have
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been a fly on the wall when it was discovered
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that those keys had gone missing in the midst of
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all this kind of anarchy on the streets of London.
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I know I'm reading backwards, Professor. But it's impossible to
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ignore the fact that this is a man who will
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suffer regicide as he makes decisions here. And you might
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say that he's protected by large, organized, and very capable
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soldiers at Whitehall. But I felt that he was vulnerable
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every moment, especially where passages where you would say he
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would disappear into the warrens of Whitehall. Anything could have
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happened in those corridors.
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I think that's right. And I think he feels vulnerable.
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And the other thing to bear in mind about Charles
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and Henrietta Maria is that they had both suffered assassinations
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to people that they were close to. Henrietta's father, Henry
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IV of France, had been assassinated. She was a baby
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at the time, but she knew about it. And Charles,
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of course, had lost the Duke of Buckingham, who'd been
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assassinated in 1628. And so they are both very conscious
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that the people of are not just a kind of,
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you know, they're not just a concept. They are potentially
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dangerous and their lives are at threat if they go
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the wrong way. So I think that's true. I think
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we have to understand this kind of background of threats
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that they are experiencing if we want to understand their actions.
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I don't think it's irrational of Charles to be afraid,
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I think.
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Charles and Henrietta Maria make a decision to flee. They
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descend into a boat and are off to Hampton Courts.
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What does Parliament make of the king leaving the city?
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Is it satisfied? Is it frustrated?
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Well, I think, I mean, they spend a lot of
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time trying to get him to come back. And I
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think the realisation in Parliament with the king gone is
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is that it becomes much harder to sort of come
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to a settlement, if you like. And I think the
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realisation at that point is that if we don't do
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something pretty serious in terms of negotiation, then we are
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going to end up in a civil war fairly soon.
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So although it's a sort of victory for the Junto,
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I think it's a very uneasy victory because of what
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it represents. I think what they hope What they'd hoped
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for is that Charles would back down and give them
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the political reforms that they want. Instead, what he'd done
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is he'd run away because they'd frightened him. And I
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think that meant that the realisation was it wasn't likely
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to end in compromise and, you know, a kind of
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set of articles of agreement. It was going to end
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in a battle. So, yeah, it was unnerving, I think.
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There's a scene that is very convincing. When they flee
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to Hampton Court, it was not prepared for them. So
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the rooms are cold and the fires are not lit.
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And they sleep together as a family that night. And
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I saw them extremely representing the old world that's about
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to pass away. And we come to what it is
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that Parliament does over the next weeks. But before that,
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Henrietta and Charles have a meeting. And they've got new
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plans now. Where is Henrietta going?
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So Henrietta
will go to the continent and she will
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try to raise forces, money and potentially armed forces to
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come over and support Charles. Whereas he will go and
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set up a court somewhere and he ends up setting
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up his own court in York, which is quite a
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long way from London. And that. that means that the
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potential for a negotiated settlement gets even further away. And
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I think, you know, the fact that Henrietta has been
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sent over to the continent to raise forces, I think
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Charles has realised that he's not going to put down
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Parliament without using force. So he's kind of come to
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an acceptance that he will have to raise an army
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against these people. So, yeah, I mean, again, it's another
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step towards the sort of inevitable end, which is, pitched battles.
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As Charles makes his way north, Parliament is passing laws
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that again and again reproach the king or rebuke the
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king or reject the king as an authority. They take
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away from him the power of raising soldiers, I think.
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They already had the power of purse. Surely they knew
430
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that that was pushing him towards violence. Is that what
431
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they expected? They wanted him to make the first move?
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There's some some some would say yes. I think the
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one of the things that is very, very central to
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the way that parliamentarians are thinking at this point is
435
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that they are still afraid and they are afraid of
436
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the rebellion in Ireland and they are afraid of the Cavaliers.
437
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And what Charles had done on the 4th of January
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had made them afraid of the people around him. So
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as a result of that, they they tried to take
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control of the militia. And but of course, as you say,
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Charles was not willing to do to allow them to
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do that. So they had to do something which was
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actually quietly very, very radical, which was that they passed
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an ordinance rather than a bill. And an ordinance is
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basically something which has gone through two houses of parliament,
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but not been given the assent of the king. But
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it has the force of law and it has the
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force of law because the king is indisposed. Now, if
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the king had been away and not contactable, that was fine.
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But he was there and he was literally saying, I
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don't agree to this. And so the fact that they're
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passing this ordinance and then putting it into and treating
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it as law is a very, very radical statement. And
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it's very, very hard to see how you go back
455
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from that because they are claiming kind of sovereign authority
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over the kingdom. So that's why that militia ordinance is
457
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such a critical moment. And you're right, no, Charles would
458
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never assent to that and in fact at the same
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time he starts to raise his own forces by using
460
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something called the commissions of array and then gradually you're
461
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getting these kind of two armed camps which is the
462
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next stage that you want uh that you need for
463
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a for a civil war um you know you've got
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two two two armies growing.
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The blood and winter jonathan healy i'm john bachelor i'm
466
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john bachelor with professor jonathan healy the book is the
467
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blood and winter There are scenes here that are hard
468
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to believe. You all remember the scene in Monty Python
469
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and the Holy Grail where they arrive at a French
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court and demand to be let in because they're on
471
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a mission from God or something like that. And the
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lord of the castle shouts down at them and throws
473
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things on them and says, you can't come in. Well,
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that actually played out as Charles marched north. He wanted
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a port city with weapons. That would be Hull. Is
476
00:28:49.319 --> 00:28:52.420
that correct, Jonathan? Do I remember that right? That's right. Yeah.
477
00:28:52.720 --> 00:28:56.529
And they shouted. Did they really, as you position it,
478
00:28:56.599 --> 00:28:59.660
was the report back to Parliament that they were shouting
479
00:28:59.680 --> 00:29:01.779
at each other and Hull wouldn't open its gates?
480
00:29:03.019 -->
00:29:05.619
Yeah, I mean, the governor is standing on the gates
481
00:29:05.779 --> 00:29:08.240
shouting down to the king and the king is shouting
482
00:29:08.299 --> 00:29:13.240
back or having his people shout back. And it's quite
483
00:29:13.299 --> 00:29:17.809
farcical in many ways. It's also of immense constitutional significance
484
00:29:17.869 --> 00:29:20.869
because what Parliament are doing or what the governor of
485
00:29:20.930 --> 00:29:23.910
Hull is doing is he's saying that the king shouldn't
486
00:29:23.930 --> 00:29:26.970
be allowed access to this stuff because Parliament says that
487
00:29:26.990 --> 00:29:30.009
he shouldn't. So then there becomes a question as to
488
00:29:31.470 --> 00:29:33.930
At what point, you know, does the king have a
489
00:29:34.019 --> 00:29:37.420
right to go into all of his castles and, you know,
490
00:29:37.539 --> 00:29:41.019
all the sort of square yards of England's land? So
491
00:29:41.039 --> 00:29:44.119
it's a very, very significant moment. It's also very humiliating
492
00:29:44.160 --> 00:29:47.599
for Charles because, you know, he is being rebuffed in
493
00:29:47.640 --> 00:29:50.619
this way. And it's of huge military significance because, as
494
00:29:50.640 --> 00:29:54.089
you say, Hull is full of weapons and it's a
495
00:29:54.089 --> 00:29:59.369
really key port area. on the River Humber, which would
496
00:29:59.390 --> 00:30:02.759
be a landing point for any sort of foreign army.
497
00:30:03.259 --> 00:30:06.559
So it's a very, very significant moment. And it's actually
498
00:30:07.359 --> 00:30:11.420
after what happens at Hull that Charles starts explicitly talking
499
00:30:11.460 --> 00:30:14.839
about the fact that Parliament is waging war upon him.
500
00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:17.900
So he's talking as if war has been declared, really.
501
00:30:18.359 --> 00:30:22.299
This is 1642, the summer of 1642. Charles has been
502
00:30:22.339 --> 00:30:26.750
moving north towards York. He eventually achieves it. But I
503
00:30:26.789 --> 00:30:30.809
want to step back just a moment and understand the
504
00:30:30.910 --> 00:30:36.930
spirit of history for 400 years. I get the sense
505
00:30:36.950 --> 00:30:39.750
from your book, Jonathan, that it's never really been resolved
506
00:30:39.809 --> 00:30:42.789
whether Parliament was right or not in the way it
507
00:30:42.890 --> 00:30:46.589
conducted its affairs, that there have been epochs ever since
508
00:30:46.930 --> 00:30:51.990
coming and going in my country, in your country, where
509
00:30:52.339 --> 00:30:57.519
there's doubt about the decision to challenge authority. Is that
510
00:30:57.579 --> 00:31:01.599
still true in 21st century Britain, doubting about challenging the king?
511
00:31:02.869 --> 00:31:03.990
I think that is true, yes.
512
00:31:04.269 --> 00:31:04.730
I think.
513
00:31:06.150 --> 00:31:08.970
In the later 17th century, I think people believed that
514
00:31:09.009 --> 00:31:13.069
the parliamentarians were wrong. I think into the 19th century,
515
00:31:13.109 --> 00:31:14.970
when you've got the sort of Whig tradition of history,
516
00:31:14.990 --> 00:31:19.599
a lot of historians essentially believed the parliamentarians had right
517
00:31:19.640 --> 00:31:21.940
on their side. I think the 20th century has made
518
00:31:21.980 --> 00:31:25.130
things a little bit more a little bit more balanced,
519
00:31:25.170 --> 00:31:27.690
if you like. I mean, I think from the point
520
00:31:27.750 --> 00:31:32.869
of view of modern liberal democracies, I think it's hard
521
00:31:32.910 --> 00:31:35.349
to argue a royalist position. But I don't think as
522
00:31:35.390 --> 00:31:38.089
historians we necessarily should be doing that. We should be
523
00:31:38.130 --> 00:31:41.190
trying to put ourselves in the 17th century. And then
524
00:31:41.250 --> 00:31:43.329
it becomes a lot more complicated. And one of the
525
00:31:43.349 --> 00:31:46.730
things I've really enjoyed actually about writing this book is
526
00:31:46.839 --> 00:31:49.359
to try and understand where the royalists were coming from.
527
00:31:49.579 --> 00:31:52.640
What did they believe? Why did they make this particular choice?
528
00:31:53.200 --> 00:31:55.329
You know, they turn their back on the idea of
529
00:31:55.390 --> 00:32:00.349
a representative constitutional monarchy. And what was it that made
530
00:32:00.390 --> 00:32:02.250
them do that? And I think it's things like loyalty.
531
00:32:02.309 --> 00:32:04.950
It's a belief in the old church. It's a worry
532
00:32:05.029 --> 00:32:10.869
about the uncertainties and the potential for chaos that there
533
00:32:10.910 --> 00:32:14.509
would be in a kind of in a revolution. And
534
00:32:14.529 --> 00:32:17.029
I think it's really interesting to think about the events
535
00:32:17.069 --> 00:32:17.910
from their point of view.
536
00:32:18.549 --> 00:32:21.289
I agree with you. I'm trying to. go to the
537
00:32:21.430 --> 00:32:24.230
one man who you spend a deal of time with
538
00:32:24.309 --> 00:32:28.569
following his life, John Banks, who I believe starts on
539
00:32:28.730 --> 00:32:31.349
one side and drifts to the middle and then drifts
540
00:32:31.369 --> 00:32:34.380
to the other side. Is that correct? Yes.
541
00:32:34.519 --> 00:32:38.599
And it's, he's, I was, I basically wanted a figure
542
00:32:38.720 --> 00:32:42.119
who could sort of represent the, the kind of, I
543
00:32:42.440 --> 00:32:44.279
don't know, the soul of England, if you like, in
544
00:32:44.319 --> 00:32:46.700
a way and being forced to make these decisions. And
545
00:32:46.740 --> 00:32:50.170
he was a really interesting one because he, His family
546
00:32:50.210 --> 00:32:54.039
are quite legendary in this country as being the legendary royalists.
547
00:32:54.450 --> 00:32:58.960
Their castle is still kind of very... you know, the
548
00:32:59.009 --> 00:33:00.809
signs around it are
all about how royalist they were.
549
00:33:00.829 --> 00:33:03.970
But actually, his story was much more, much more balanced.
550
00:33:04.230 --> 00:33:06.509
And there's this kind of, so he's a very successful
551
00:33:06.569 --> 00:33:09.529
lawyer from quite a humble background. He was central to
552
00:33:09.750 --> 00:33:13.230
royal government in the 1630s. But he, as you say,
553
00:33:13.269 --> 00:33:17.089
he sort of drifted towards the centre in 1641. And
554
00:33:17.130 --> 00:33:20.490
in 1642, he actually, he was named as one of
555
00:33:20.569 --> 00:33:24.269
the militia commanders by Parliament. So he'd sort of gone
556
00:33:24.329 --> 00:33:26.859
over to or people thought he'd gone over to the
557
00:33:26.880 --> 00:33:30.740
parliamentarian side. And then in 1642, he wrote these really
558
00:33:30.799 --> 00:33:32.799
kind of moving letters, I think, to all these kind
559
00:33:32.819 --> 00:33:36.440
of parliamentarian figures, trying to get them to come together
560
00:33:36.819 --> 00:33:39.509
and sort things out and trying to sort of bring
561
00:33:39.569 --> 00:33:44.289
things together and create consensus and avoid civil war. But
562
00:33:44.349 --> 00:33:47.569
he was obviously unsuccessful. And I thought that part of
563
00:33:47.609 --> 00:33:52.920
the story, that belief– That kind of, you know, vain belief, really,
564
00:33:52.980 --> 00:33:56.089
that these things could be sorted and actually people wouldn't
565
00:33:56.140 --> 00:33:58.589
have to end up taking a decision on one side
566
00:33:58.630 --> 00:34:01.690
or the other was, I thought, really, really interesting and
567
00:34:01.730 --> 00:34:03.970
really humane. And of course, in the end, he did
568
00:34:04.009 --> 00:34:07.930
have to take a decision. He became a royalist. He
569
00:34:07.990 --> 00:34:11.219
died during the Civil War. He didn't die in fighting
570
00:34:11.599 --> 00:34:15.059
and his castle was blown up. So, you know, his
571
00:34:15.119 --> 00:34:16.960
family was ruined. So it was a real kind of
572
00:34:17.000 --> 00:34:17.980
tragic ending, I think.
573
00:34:18.400 --> 00:34:20.820
He married well. I want to speak of Mary.
574
00:34:20.840 --> 00:34:24.920
Yeah, I mean, yeah, he married well. Mary was an
575
00:34:24.980 --> 00:34:27.860
incredible figure, another one of these incredible figures from the
576
00:34:28.019 --> 00:34:31.110
17th century, had a lot of children. And then she
577
00:34:31.179 --> 00:34:33.409
is now more famous than him because she's the one
578
00:34:33.429 --> 00:34:37.909
who holds on to Corfe Castle against the parliamentarians. And
579
00:34:37.969 --> 00:34:42.389
she's sort of known as Brave Dame Mary because she's
580
00:34:42.449 --> 00:34:45.369
one of these very, very kind of forceful characters who
581
00:34:45.469 --> 00:34:48.340
holds on to castles in the face of real adversity
582
00:34:48.889 --> 00:34:51.369
um so yeah i mean she's a she's a fascinating
583
00:34:51.409 --> 00:34:52.590
character as well and uh.
584
00:34:53.630 --> 00:34:56.630
The war that they made on her was unjust the
585
00:34:56.750 --> 00:35:03.170
parliamentarians become extremely violent i understand the king's forces were
586
00:35:03.210 --> 00:35:06.260
violent too there was nothing but cruelty on all sides
587
00:35:06.760 --> 00:35:10.219
the puzzle is why there wasn't a committee coming forward
588
00:35:10.239 --> 00:35:14.119
for compromise was that ever debated in I know we
589
00:35:14.159 --> 00:35:18.880
have the next book to get to. I'm anxious for it.
590
00:35:20.539 --> 00:35:22.460
There were a number of figures here who could have
591
00:35:22.500 --> 00:35:25.559
come forward and say, let's talk about this. Did they, Jonathan?
592
00:35:26.539 --> 00:35:28.880
Yeah, I mean, people did. And that's what Sir John
593
00:35:29.199 --> 00:35:31.440
tries to do. He tries to sort of bring people together.
594
00:35:31.460 --> 00:35:35.340
But I think in 1642, the differences are just irreconcilable
595
00:35:35.380 --> 00:35:38.900
at this point. And the force is on both sides.
596
00:35:39.420 --> 00:35:41.119
And it's not just the kind of radicals on the
597
00:35:41.159 --> 00:35:44.679
parliamentarian side. There's a sort of hardline cavaliers as well,
598
00:35:45.349 --> 00:35:47.550
who are pushing for a military solution. I think they're
599
00:35:47.570 --> 00:35:50.769
the ones who are driving the agenda. And I think
600
00:35:50.889 --> 00:35:52.250
one of the things I'm trying to say in the
601
00:35:52.269 --> 00:35:55.789
book is that at its heart, there is this fundamentally
602
00:35:56.329 --> 00:36:00.909
irreconcilable debate about where does power come from? Does it
603
00:36:00.949 --> 00:36:02.889
come from God or does it come from the people?
604
00:36:02.909 --> 00:36:07.369
And that's ultimately what each side is arguing for. And
605
00:36:07.429 --> 00:36:09.969
obviously there are religious elements too, but I think fundamentally
606
00:36:10.010 --> 00:36:12.300
that's the thing at its heart. And it's quite hard
607
00:36:12.320 --> 00:36:14.880
to see how that will get settled without, um, without
608
00:36:14.900 --> 00:36:17.260
a civil war, I think in, in the 70th century context.
609
00:36:17.619 --> 00:36:19.989
Is Henrietta Maria remembered today, Jonathan?
610
00:36:21.969 --> 00:36:25.469
Not really. And, and actually, um, she is, she has
611
00:36:25.510 --> 00:36:30.150
quite a bad reputation unfairly, maybe, um, she's sort of
612
00:36:30.170 --> 00:36:32.889
seen as being a, a kind of real hardliner who's
613
00:36:32.909 --> 00:36:37.650
sort of pushing the King towards much more militancy, I suppose.
614
00:36:37.670 --> 00:36:40.630
And there's, there's definitely elements of that, but, um, But
615
00:36:40.650 --> 00:36:44.409
I think she's someone who is very, very interesting in
616
00:36:44.429 --> 00:36:47.199
the context of her time. I think he has a
617
00:36:47.219 --> 00:36:52.340
very understandable set of ideas. And, you know, she's a
618
00:36:52.380 --> 00:36:55.559
Catholic in a very, very anti-Catholic country.
619
00:36:58.219 --> 00:37:01.320
Executing monks routinely. Yeah. Yeah.
620
00:37:01.619 --> 00:37:06.280
And, you know, executing, you know, Jesuits and preachers.
621
00:37:06.820 --> 00:37:06.980
Yeah.
622
00:37:08.190 --> 00:37:09.849
I can understand why she was how she was.
623
00:37:09.869 --> 00:37:13.300
The Blood in Winter, Jonathan Healy, waiting for the Civil
624
00:37:13.320 --> 00:37:16.380
War book coming soon. This is CBS Eye on the World.
625
00:37:16.880 --> 00:37:17.760
Thank you, Jonathan.
626
00:37:18.699 --> 00:37:19.909
Thank you very much indeed.
627
00:37:20.090 --> 00:37:20.809
I'm John Batchelor.