WEBVTT 1 00:00:14.199 --> 00:00:18.039 This is Stuart England The Civil Wars episode two point one hundred and eleven. 2 00:00:18.320 --> 00:00:23.519 Conclusion, Well, it's been a fun four years. I started this project 3 00:00:23.519 --> 00:00:26.920 as a way to continue reading and writing about history after my decision to leave 4 00:00:26.960 --> 00:00:30.320 professional academia. But it's really taken out a life of its own that I 5 00:00:30.320 --> 00:00:34.640 couldn't have imagined. It turns out running a podcast involves all the best aspects 6 00:00:34.640 --> 00:00:37.799 of teaching. You get to read books all day and interact with people who 7 00:00:37.840 --> 00:00:41.000 are just as passionate about history as you, and you get to cut out 8 00:00:41.039 --> 00:00:44.280 all the dreary parts of the job. Very rarely have I been called in 9 00:00:44.280 --> 00:00:48.359 for a podcast or faculty meeting. I suppose there's less money in podcasting, 10 00:00:48.600 --> 00:00:52.280 but since when is money an important part of a job anyway? This is 11 00:00:52.320 --> 00:00:56.119 my roundabout way of thanking you all for introducing me to the wonderful world of 12 00:00:56.159 --> 00:00:59.960 history podcasting. It was a bumpy ride at times, especially at the beginning. 13 00:01:00.600 --> 00:01:03.479 A friend of mine once noted that the show really picked up when it 14 00:01:03.520 --> 00:01:07.040 decided to buy a microphone instead of yelling into a tin can with a string 15 00:01:07.079 --> 00:01:11.319 running out of the bottom. It certainly has been an educational experience in everything 16 00:01:11.319 --> 00:01:15.159 from production to editing to learning how to speak to an empty room without sounding 17 00:01:15.159 --> 00:01:19.239 like a robot. But I'm glad you guys stuck with me. What I'd 18 00:01:19.280 --> 00:01:22.760 like to do in this final episode is lay out a mini epilog to get 19 00:01:22.799 --> 00:01:25.599 a sense of where the characters we've all grown to love or headed from here. 20 00:01:25.840 --> 00:01:29.079 Answer a few viewer questions that have come in, then offer some concluding 21 00:01:29.120 --> 00:01:32.439 thoughts on the whole project. Why was it worth spending more than one hundred 22 00:01:32.480 --> 00:01:36.400 hours contemplating the first half of the seventeenth century in England. Surely there was 23 00:01:36.400 --> 00:01:40.640 a good reason, Otherwise we've all made some poor life decisions. We'll start 24 00:01:40.719 --> 00:01:42.879 by rounding up the story from last time. As I'm sure you remember, 25 00:01:42.959 --> 00:01:47.799 King Charles the Second formally entered London in Triumph on the twenty ninth of May 26 00:01:47.920 --> 00:01:52.159 sixteen sixty, technically the eleventh year of his reign, but for all practical 27 00:01:52.159 --> 00:01:57.120 purposes, the beginning of the Late Stuart era. Earlier that month, Parliament 28 00:01:57.120 --> 00:02:00.799 had decreed that England would be ruled by king, lords and Commons, and 29 00:02:00.920 --> 00:02:05.280 now each of those institutions were present and accounted for, the real work could 30 00:02:05.280 --> 00:02:09.639 begin. Although Charles had made an excellent impression with his magnanimous declaration of Breda. 31 00:02:09.719 --> 00:02:14.240 There were still several contentious issues to resolve, each of them capable of 32 00:02:14.319 --> 00:02:17.960 ruining the joyful atmosphere in London and Westminster. Charles did his best to keep 33 00:02:17.960 --> 00:02:23.879 the good will going by surrounding himself with a collaborative council. His advisers included 34 00:02:23.919 --> 00:02:27.479 those who can loosely be described as Cromwellians, men who had never been full 35 00:02:27.520 --> 00:02:30.240 thrown a supporters of the various regimes that had followed the Protectorate, and who 36 00:02:30.280 --> 00:02:35.000 had, to varying degrees aided the return of the King. Leading the way 37 00:02:35.120 --> 00:02:38.639 here were George Monk and Edward Montagu, both of whom were prominent in the 38 00:02:38.719 --> 00:02:43.680 King's formal escort home. Charles also invited as many as eight Presbyterians into his 39 00:02:43.719 --> 00:02:46.360 council, men who had been purged from Parliament in sixteen forty eight and so 40 00:02:46.439 --> 00:02:52.879 were untainted by any association with the regicidal Republican regime. The important names here 41 00:02:52.960 --> 00:02:57.400 were the Earl of Manchester, denzil Holes and Arthur Annesley, the Anglo Irish 42 00:02:57.479 --> 00:03:01.000 leader who had recently risen to prominence as Monk's close in Parliament. In many 43 00:03:01.000 --> 00:03:05.599 ways. The first month of the Parliament had been a blow to Presbyterian designs. 44 00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:08.680 Their efforts to place conditions on the king's return had been stymied, as 45 00:03:08.680 --> 00:03:13.840 had an attempt to make Manchester the dominant figure in the King's council. Despite 46 00:03:13.840 --> 00:03:17.639 Presbyterian arguments to the contrary. Parliament determined that Charles had the prerogative to choose 47 00:03:17.680 --> 00:03:23.039 his own advisors, but the new king had no desire to alienate the Presbyterians 48 00:03:23.319 --> 00:03:25.840 by including so many of them in his council. Charles encouraged them to believe 49 00:03:25.879 --> 00:03:30.879 that their voices would be heard. The council would be a communal body, 50 00:03:30.159 --> 00:03:35.080 but there was little doubt about who the King's closest advisor would be, Chancellor 51 00:03:35.159 --> 00:03:38.919 Edward Hyde. It was Hyde who had guided Charles through his years and exam, 52 00:03:38.319 --> 00:03:44.520 and the miraculous and largely bloodless restoration was a vindication of Hyde's constitutional vision. 53 00:03:45.080 --> 00:03:47.439 For the next seven years, Hyde would be the de facto chief Minister 54 00:03:47.560 --> 00:03:53.000 of the Royal administration. With a coherent government now in place, the King 55 00:03:53.080 --> 00:03:57.159 could begin working with Parliament to hash out England's new political settlement. In the 56 00:03:57.159 --> 00:04:00.520 immediate term, the Declaration of Breda had identified four major issues that needed to 57 00:04:00.560 --> 00:04:05.759 be addressed, amnesty's religion, determining the ownership of land seized by Parliament, 58 00:04:06.039 --> 00:04:11.080 and paying off the army so it could be safely disbanded. As you recall, 59 00:04:11.199 --> 00:04:15.280 in each case, Charles deferred to Parliament, relieving himself of the burden 60 00:04:15.319 --> 00:04:19.959 of making any controversial decisions. The Parliament passed a fairly lenient Bill of indemnity 61 00:04:19.959 --> 00:04:24.439 and oblivion. In fact, some of the most ardent royalists complained that the 62 00:04:24.480 --> 00:04:29.759 bill delivered indemnities to the King's enemies and oblivion to his friends. In general, 63 00:04:29.839 --> 00:04:32.759 all past rebellions were forgiven so long as men now swore their loyalty to 64 00:04:32.800 --> 00:04:38.120 the king. There were exceptions, however, Those that could be directly tied 65 00:04:38.160 --> 00:04:42.480 to the trial and execution of Charles the first were explicitly named and exempted from 66 00:04:42.480 --> 00:04:46.360 any amnesty. Though inclusion on this unfortunate list wasn't entirely cut and dry. 67 00:04:47.040 --> 00:04:51.399 Personal connections and recent behavior counted two. Those who had friends in the new 68 00:04:51.439 --> 00:04:56.680 regime willing to vouch for them were usually granted clemency. A bribe or two 69 00:04:56.720 --> 00:05:00.639 to the right people helped as well. Both Strode Whitelock, who had provided 70 00:05:00.680 --> 00:05:04.639 the constitutional justification for much of the Commonwealth and Protectorate state apparatus, greased a 71 00:05:04.639 --> 00:05:09.800 few poems and was rewarded with an audience with the King himself. After some 72 00:05:09.839 --> 00:05:14.000 pleasant chit chat, Charles advised Whitelocke to retire from public life and enjoy his 73 00:05:14.040 --> 00:05:18.279 country estate, advice he was grateful to accept. Meanwhile, Henry Cromwell was 74 00:05:18.279 --> 00:05:23.399 allowed to retain the properties he had accumulated in Ireland. This was largely due 75 00:05:23.399 --> 00:05:27.439 to the lobbying of George Monk and Roger Boyle, who convinced the royal administration 76 00:05:27.639 --> 00:05:30.800 that this Cromwell had, like them, done much to oppose the radical regimes 77 00:05:30.800 --> 00:05:35.160 that followed the collapse of the Protectorate. Arthur Hasselrigg for so long the face 78 00:05:35.199 --> 00:05:40.759 of English Republicanism was also offered a degree of leniency. Once it was obvious 79 00:05:40.759 --> 00:05:44.480 that the rump was doomed. Monk had secured from Hasselerigg a pledge to quietly 80 00:05:44.519 --> 00:05:47.759 retire from politics. Hasserigg kept up his end of the bargain by denouncing John 81 00:05:47.800 --> 00:05:53.360 Lambert's insurrection in April and not standing for election for the new Parliament. Monk 82 00:05:53.399 --> 00:05:58.720 reciprocated by convincing Charles to commute Hasselerigg's death sentence, though it was little consolation 83 00:05:58.759 --> 00:06:00.879 for Hasseregg, who died in the Tower of London a few months later in 84 00:06:00.959 --> 00:06:05.160 January sixteen sixty one. Religion, as you can imagine, was a far 85 00:06:05.240 --> 00:06:11.959 thornier problem. The Presbyterians still hoped for a Calvinist national church. The return 86 00:06:11.959 --> 00:06:15.240 of bishop seemed inevitable, but at the very least they argued for a more 87 00:06:15.279 --> 00:06:18.759 decentralized model that would curtail their powers. That would be a bitter pill for 88 00:06:18.800 --> 00:06:21.920 the bishops who had joined the king in exile and expected that they would be 89 00:06:21.959 --> 00:06:28.360 restored along with their patron Meanwhile, those who worshiped outside the established church pointed 90 00:06:28.399 --> 00:06:33.000 to Charles's promise of liberty to tender consciences in the Declaration of Bredon. Radical 91 00:06:33.000 --> 00:06:38.519 groups like the Quakers enjoyed little sympathy in Parliament, but by sixteen sixty more 92 00:06:38.600 --> 00:06:43.639 mainstream independent churches had taken root in English society. Their adherents were not cats. 93 00:06:43.680 --> 00:06:46.560 They would be willingly stuffed back in the bag of an established church, 94 00:06:46.879 --> 00:06:51.360 if that metaphor makes any sense. Unsurprisingly, religion sparked the most contentious debates 95 00:06:51.360 --> 00:06:55.879 of the whole Parliament. In the end, Westminster took a page under the 96 00:06:55.920 --> 00:07:00.199 King's book and deferred a final decision. Everyone agreed to hold a in it 97 00:07:00.319 --> 00:07:03.160 later in the year, where learned scholars would debate the issue and Charles would 98 00:07:03.160 --> 00:07:08.000 act as arbiter. But seeing as any decision would have to be ratified by 99 00:07:08.040 --> 00:07:12.560 Parliament, this was in effect a delaying tactic to skip ahead of it. 100 00:07:12.839 --> 00:07:15.959 This is, after all, an epilog. The delay worked to the advantage 101 00:07:15.959 --> 00:07:19.720 of the bishops and the traditional established church. The religious question would be determined 102 00:07:19.720 --> 00:07:24.160 by the next Parliament, opened in the spring of sixteen sixty one. For 103 00:07:24.240 --> 00:07:28.600 reasons we'll touch on in a moment. The Presbyterians and independence wielded much less 104 00:07:28.600 --> 00:07:31.319 influence in that subsequent session, allowing for the return of a much more traditional 105 00:07:31.399 --> 00:07:36.120 established church. This was an early indication of the long term strategy behind the 106 00:07:36.199 --> 00:07:41.759 declaration of Bredam. For Hyde, the conciliatory tone of the King's initial position 107 00:07:41.959 --> 00:07:45.800 was tactical, a way to buy time in order to ensure the success of 108 00:07:45.839 --> 00:07:48.560 the restoration. Charles had to make as many friends as possible, but once 109 00:07:48.680 --> 00:07:53.959 ensconced in power, time was on the side of the royalists. Over time, 110 00:07:54.160 --> 00:07:58.480 allies of convenience could be abandoned, and peace by peace the old constitution. 111 00:07:58.639 --> 00:08:03.279 Restored land posed an entirely different problem for the king. Delay wasn't really 112 00:08:03.319 --> 00:08:07.519 a viable option. The King's friends, who had suffered the loss of their 113 00:08:07.519 --> 00:08:11.680 properties while in exile, expected the immediate restoration of their estates, a just 114 00:08:11.920 --> 00:08:16.920 reward for their loyalty. But neither Charles nor Hyde saw any political upside in 115 00:08:16.959 --> 00:08:20.560 the forcible redistribution of property. This was the source of the earlier complaint I 116 00:08:20.560 --> 00:08:26.920 mentioned that the king's enemies enjoyed indemnity while his friends faced oblivion. What kind 117 00:08:26.959 --> 00:08:30.720 of sense did it make for Oliver Cromwell's son in Ireland to retain his lands 118 00:08:30.879 --> 00:08:35.000 while men who had stood by the king for years got nothing. Monks suggested 119 00:08:35.039 --> 00:08:39.200 a compromise. Confiscated lands would be restored, but the men who had purchased 120 00:08:39.200 --> 00:08:43.039 them from Parliament would stay on as tenants under generous leases. Like all good 121 00:08:43.039 --> 00:08:46.799 compromises, However, no one liked Monk's idea, and it was roundly defeated 122 00:08:46.840 --> 00:08:52.679 in Parliament. Instead, a different compromise was reached. Crown and church lands 123 00:08:52.679 --> 00:08:56.399 would be restored to their original owners, but before we taking possession, they 124 00:08:56.399 --> 00:09:00.120 would pay for any improvements that had been made to the land. The process 125 00:09:00.120 --> 00:09:05.159 of surveying lands to determine the value of any improvements was complicated and easily manipulated 126 00:09:05.200 --> 00:09:09.240 by the well connected men who surrounded the king. Landowners who had made peace 127 00:09:09.240 --> 00:09:13.759 with the royal administration enjoyed quick surveys and generous payouts. Meanwhile, the program 128 00:09:13.799 --> 00:09:18.799 was limited to former Church and Crown lands, leaving many Royalist lords and gentlemen 129 00:09:18.840 --> 00:09:22.960 out in the cold. They couldsole themselves with the option of taking their disputes 130 00:09:22.960 --> 00:09:26.080 to the civil courts through lawsuits, but that could be a lengthy, expensive 131 00:09:26.120 --> 00:09:31.000 process, and some lands were deemed irretrievable. The Earl of Darby, the 132 00:09:31.120 --> 00:09:35.440 King's most loyal subject in the northwest of England, found that much of his 133 00:09:35.480 --> 00:09:39.960 family's land was gone forever. Some of it he had willingly sold in order 134 00:09:39.960 --> 00:09:43.960 to raise money to pay fines and taxes to Parliament. Others he had given 135 00:09:43.000 --> 00:09:48.279 away in trusts to protect against seizure. Darby argued that justice demanded the return 136 00:09:48.320 --> 00:09:52.919 of those properties. He was informed by the courts, however, that property 137 00:09:52.000 --> 00:09:56.960 law trump's justice. The land issue was perhaps the least successful of the King's 138 00:09:56.960 --> 00:10:01.519 gambles. Royalists, who were u satisfied with the land compromises, directed most 139 00:10:01.559 --> 00:10:05.279 of their are at the rebels who had illegally confiscated their lands, but they 140 00:10:05.320 --> 00:10:09.919 saved some of their resentment for the king, who failed to appreciate their loyalty 141 00:10:09.039 --> 00:10:13.799 and stand up for their rights. Charles could not take the support of ultra 142 00:10:13.879 --> 00:10:16.840 royalists for granted, a lesson that would influence his decisions in the early years 143 00:10:16.840 --> 00:10:22.360 of his reign. Finally was the problem of the army, which in reality 144 00:10:22.480 --> 00:10:26.440 was the familiar problem of money. Most everyone agreed that the army had played 145 00:10:26.440 --> 00:10:30.279 a destructive role in politics over the past few years, an assessment George Monk 146 00:10:30.279 --> 00:10:33.320 had made explicit shortly before the King was invited back to England. The only 147 00:10:33.360 --> 00:10:37.559 issue to be resolved was how to raise the money necessary to pay off the 148 00:10:37.600 --> 00:10:41.799 soldiers and have them disband peacefully. Parliament approved a poll tax on every subject, 149 00:10:41.960 --> 00:10:46.080 their contributions determined by social rank, and when that proved insufficient, army 150 00:10:46.120 --> 00:10:50.320 pay was supplemented by additional taxes on property holders. By the end of sixteen 151 00:10:50.399 --> 00:10:54.440 sixty, the men of the Army had received all the pay they were owed 152 00:10:54.039 --> 00:10:58.440 for fifteen years. One of the most powerful institutions in England, the New 153 00:10:58.480 --> 00:11:03.559 Model Army dissolved peaceful at the beginning of sixteen sixty one. The King retained 154 00:11:03.559 --> 00:11:07.720 a small personal guard of less than four thousand men. Its size and political 155 00:11:07.720 --> 00:11:11.240 influence would be restricted by limited Crown finances. In a general antipathy within England 156 00:11:11.279 --> 00:11:16.879 for standing armies paying out the New Model Army led into a more general settlement 157 00:11:16.919 --> 00:11:20.679 on public finances. In effect, Westminster revisited the idea of the Great Contract 158 00:11:20.840 --> 00:11:26.679 proposed by Robert Cecil in sixteen ten. After closely reviewing the costs of maintaining 159 00:11:26.679 --> 00:11:30.399 a government, Westminster agreed to an annual budget for the Crown of just under 160 00:11:30.440 --> 00:11:33.559 a million pounds. The need for the Crown to raise money irregularly through prerogative 161 00:11:33.559 --> 00:11:37.360 perks was therefore removed, and with it many of the abuses that had bred 162 00:11:37.399 --> 00:11:43.039 resentment towards the administrations of James the First and Charles the First, having completed 163 00:11:43.039 --> 00:11:46.120 its work on the twenty ninth of December, Parliament was dissolved by King Charles 164 00:11:46.159 --> 00:11:52.159 the Second, Though completed, is a bit misleading. There were many details 165 00:11:52.200 --> 00:11:54.679 yet to be worked out, especially in the always contentious realm of religion. 166 00:11:56.200 --> 00:12:01.080 In reality, the Restoration Settlement would be a prolonged process which times even reverse 167 00:12:01.159 --> 00:12:03.519 some of the decisions made at Westminster in sixteen sixty. It would take a 168 00:12:03.519 --> 00:12:07.879 whole other podcast series maybe someday to untangle that whole mess. But I thought 169 00:12:07.879 --> 00:12:11.120 i'd end with some of the early harbingers of what the Restoration era would happen 170 00:12:11.120 --> 00:12:16.679 In store, Charles's reign would be defined by two tensions, the line of 171 00:12:16.759 --> 00:12:20.840 succession and the balance between the warring factions that had been reconciled in sixteen sixty. 172 00:12:22.000 --> 00:12:24.240 So far, Charles had proven himself to be a skilled politician, but 173 00:12:24.440 --> 00:12:30.639 navigating those dual challenges would not be easy. To take the king's family first. 174 00:12:30.799 --> 00:12:33.039 When Charles returned to England in sixteen sixty, there was every reason to 175 00:12:33.080 --> 00:12:37.559 believe the Stewart line was well supplied with airs. Charles was unmarried, but 176 00:12:37.720 --> 00:12:41.960 he was just thirty years old, and now the undisputed King of England, 177 00:12:41.399 --> 00:12:46.639 he would surely be a great prize on the European marriage market. Meanwhile, 178 00:12:46.639 --> 00:12:50.840 he had four surviving siblings, including two younger brothers, James, Duke of 179 00:12:50.919 --> 00:12:54.399 York and Henry, Duke of Gloucester. But soon after Charles's return to England, 180 00:12:54.440 --> 00:12:58.480 the Stewart family suffered a series of blows. In September sixteen sixty, 181 00:12:58.600 --> 00:13:03.559 Henry died, either from smallpox or from the actions of doctors who were trying 182 00:13:03.559 --> 00:13:07.000 to save him from smallpox. Shortly thereafter, Charles's sister Mary, who had 183 00:13:07.000 --> 00:13:11.559 married William of Orange back in sixteen forty one, also died. Though setting 184 00:13:11.559 --> 00:13:16.879 aside the personal tragedy, this was not necessarily a problem from a dynastic perspective. 185 00:13:16.519 --> 00:13:20.399 Charles could fully expect to produce his own heirs, and he still had 186 00:13:20.440 --> 00:13:24.120 his remaining brother, James. But another development that fall muddied the family waters 187 00:13:24.159 --> 00:13:30.360 still further. In a scandalous revelation, Edward Hyde's daughter Anne revealed that she 188 00:13:30.440 --> 00:13:33.919 was pregnant thanks to James, Duke of York, who she had secretly married 189 00:13:33.000 --> 00:13:39.080 earlier that year. James initially denied the allegation, but when witnesses to the 190 00:13:39.159 --> 00:13:41.320 private marriage ceremony came forward, he was forced to admit the truth of it. 191 00:13:43.200 --> 00:13:48.000 The scandal was doubly problematic for Charles, first, his brother and current 192 00:13:48.080 --> 00:13:52.039 heir to the throne had demonstrated a shocking lack of judgment, both in terms 193 00:13:52.080 --> 00:13:56.519 of marrying Anne Hyde and attempting to cover it up. James could very well 194 00:13:56.559 --> 00:13:58.639 be the King of England some day, and so his choice of wife ought 195 00:13:58.639 --> 00:14:01.960 to have been a matter of politics, diplomacy, and strategy, not a 196 00:14:03.000 --> 00:14:07.279 secret ceremony to legitimize a tryst. James's ham handed approach to the resulting scandal 197 00:14:07.519 --> 00:14:13.879 also demonstrated a troubling incompetence in a potential king. He could perhaps be excused 198 00:14:13.879 --> 00:14:16.120 on account of his youth, but James was now twenty five years old, 199 00:14:16.320 --> 00:14:20.600 hardly a child. If he was going to turn into a respectable royal, 200 00:14:20.919 --> 00:14:24.159 time was running out. The second headache James had given his brother had to 201 00:14:24.200 --> 00:14:30.039 do with who he had married. Anne's father was Charles's closest adviser, which 202 00:14:30.120 --> 00:14:33.639 was a real problem among some royalists. Hide was already resented for his influence 203 00:14:33.679 --> 00:14:39.159 over the king. Some had always disagreed with his constitutional approach to royalism, 204 00:14:39.320 --> 00:14:43.399 and others were aristocrats who hated playing second fiddle to a commoner like Hyde. 205 00:14:43.120 --> 00:14:46.200 The news that Hyde's family was now joined to that of the royal line, 206 00:14:46.320 --> 00:14:50.840 who was greeted with outrage. It was all too easy to believe that this 207 00:14:50.919 --> 00:14:54.320 had not been some unplanned indiscretion. It would make perfect sense for a schemer 208 00:14:54.399 --> 00:14:58.720 like Hyde to manipulate his way into the Stewart dynasty. Charles tried to put 209 00:14:58.759 --> 00:15:03.600 the face on the situation and elevated Hide to the peerage, naming him the 210 00:15:03.600 --> 00:15:07.399 Earl of Clarendon. But to his critics this merely reinforced their suspicions that he 211 00:15:07.480 --> 00:15:13.360 was the puppetmaster behind the restored monarchy. Resentment towards Hyde made it much more 212 00:15:13.360 --> 00:15:16.159 difficult for Charles to manage the factions within his government. Not only did he 213 00:15:16.200 --> 00:15:20.960 have to balance the interests of men like Monk and Montagu against their bitter enemies 214 00:15:20.960 --> 00:15:24.200 among his most loyal entourage, but now he had to contend with a chief 215 00:15:24.279 --> 00:15:28.360 minister who seemed to be resented by everyone. Charles would spend the next twenty 216 00:15:28.360 --> 00:15:31.879 five years trying to balance the royaling factions within English political life. Many of 217 00:15:31.879 --> 00:15:35.240 the decisions he made in that time can be traced back to the instability within 218 00:15:35.279 --> 00:15:39.919 his own family in the opening weeks of his reign. Of course, Charles 219 00:15:39.000 --> 00:15:43.200 wasn't the only one whose life was reshaped by the events of sixteen sixty. 220 00:15:43.919 --> 00:15:48.120 Some used the uncertainty and turmoil of the transition to their advantage. Topping the 221 00:15:48.159 --> 00:15:50.799 list has to be George Monk, who had done more than anyone else to 222 00:15:50.919 --> 00:15:54.879 engineer the restoration. He was rewarded with an elevation to the nobility estates in 223 00:15:54.919 --> 00:15:58.960 Ireland and England and high political office, both a seat on the Privy Council 224 00:16:00.120 --> 00:16:03.200 and the office of Lord Deputy of Ireland. Monk, however, soon stepped 225 00:16:03.200 --> 00:16:07.919 back from public life, partially due to ill health. He resigned from his 226 00:16:07.000 --> 00:16:11.879 position in Ireland and was replaced by the Marquess of Ormond, for twenty years 227 00:16:11.879 --> 00:16:15.440 the face of royalism in Ireland. Monk enjoyed the benefits of his private largesse, 228 00:16:15.600 --> 00:16:19.120 returning to military service in the Second Anglo Dutch War of sixteen sixty five 229 00:16:19.159 --> 00:16:23.200 to sixteen sixty seven. He died in sixteen seventy at the age of sixty 230 00:16:23.200 --> 00:16:27.399 one. Edward Montague also reaped the rewards of his role in the restoration. 231 00:16:29.200 --> 00:16:32.720 Like Monk, Montague was granted a noble title, the Earl of Sandwich. 232 00:16:33.440 --> 00:16:36.960 Charles also named him the Admiral of the Narrow Seas and made him a key 233 00:16:36.960 --> 00:16:41.480 figure in the naval and diplomatic arms of the new administration. Montague was therefore 234 00:16:41.559 --> 00:16:45.039 front and center in these second and third Anglo Dutch Wars that Charles fought against 235 00:16:45.039 --> 00:16:48.360 his one time hosts in the Netherlands. In fact, he died in battle 236 00:16:48.399 --> 00:16:52.240 against the Dutch in sixteen seventy two when the royal flagship he was commanding was 237 00:16:52.279 --> 00:16:56.240 sunk in the Battle of Sole Bay. Rudge Or Boyle prospered out of the 238 00:16:56.279 --> 00:17:00.559 restoration as well. The King rewarded him with lands in Ireland and promotion to 239 00:17:00.600 --> 00:17:04.160 an earldom. More importantly, Boyle secured the office of Lord President of Munster, 240 00:17:04.400 --> 00:17:08.079 making him the most powerful man in the South of Ireland. From there, 241 00:17:08.240 --> 00:17:11.279 Boyle waged a kind of political war with the Marquis of Ormond, who 242 00:17:11.400 --> 00:17:15.920 ruled from Dublin. In a sense, it was Irish politics as usual. 243 00:17:15.279 --> 00:17:19.200 The new English Boyle persistently nipped at the heels of the old English Ormond. 244 00:17:21.039 --> 00:17:25.359 But not everyone who had fought against the king was forgiven. Unrepentant regicigns like 245 00:17:25.400 --> 00:17:30.039 the Fifth monarchist Thomas Harrison, the rump spymaster Thomas Scott, and the preacher 246 00:17:30.119 --> 00:17:36.039 Hugh Peter were apprehended and executed. Henry Vane was targeted too, although he 247 00:17:36.119 --> 00:17:40.359 hadn't participated in the trial and execution of the old King. Charles found it 248 00:17:40.359 --> 00:17:44.920 impossible to forgive Vane's repeated denunciations of the institution of monarchy, and after a 249 00:17:45.000 --> 00:17:48.240 lengthy debate in Parliament, he was sentenced to death. The Marquis of Argyle, 250 00:17:48.400 --> 00:17:52.559 so long the most powerful man in Scotland, suffered a similar fate. 251 00:17:52.200 --> 00:17:56.359 After the restoration, Argyle traveled to London in hopes of reconciling with the newly 252 00:17:56.359 --> 00:18:00.559 returned King, but Charles had not forgotten the indignities he had undergone in order 253 00:18:00.599 --> 00:18:04.640 to win argyll support. Back in sixteen fifty, the Scottish lord was cleared 254 00:18:04.680 --> 00:18:08.680 of any involvement in the execution of Charles the First, but his subsequent cooperation 255 00:18:08.720 --> 00:18:14.559 with the Commonwealth was deemed treasonable. It's a testament how arbitrary the line was 256 00:18:14.680 --> 00:18:19.119 between reconciliation and retribution that much of the evidence against Argyll came from his correspondence 257 00:18:19.119 --> 00:18:25.839 with fellow Commonwealth and protectorate collaborator George Monk. Monk enjoyed wealth and influence after 258 00:18:25.839 --> 00:18:30.400 the restoration Argyle had his head chopped off. Other commonwealth or protectorate figures found 259 00:18:30.440 --> 00:18:34.559 the King open to appeals for mercy. Charles Fleetwood, Bostrode Whitelocke, and 260 00:18:34.599 --> 00:18:40.200 Oliver Sinjohn escaped without any criminal punishment, though they were barred from holding public 261 00:18:40.240 --> 00:18:44.240 office for the rest of their lives. Richard and Henry Cromwell weren't punished at 262 00:18:44.279 --> 00:18:47.400 all. They were allowed to live out the rest of their lives in obscurity. 263 00:18:48.400 --> 00:18:52.920 More stalwart enemies of the monarchy like Arthur Hesselreag and John Lambert were imprisoned 264 00:18:52.920 --> 00:18:56.200 and sentenced to death, but Charles graciously commuted their sentences, largely on the 265 00:18:56.200 --> 00:19:00.279 advice of George Monk and others. In the end, defiance evaporated, and 266 00:19:00.319 --> 00:19:03.640 the King saw the advantage of a benevolent response to their pleas for mercy. 267 00:19:04.319 --> 00:19:08.960 Though neither Hassereg nor Lambert had pleasant lives after the restoration. As we've seen, 268 00:19:10.160 --> 00:19:12.519 Hasselig died after less than a year in the tower, and while Lambert 269 00:19:12.559 --> 00:19:17.079 survived for another twenty four years, he spent all that time in confinement. 270 00:19:17.680 --> 00:19:19.960 Forty years old at the time of his arrest, Lambert spent the last third 271 00:19:19.960 --> 00:19:25.640 of his life in a declining mental state that eventually ended in insanity. Charles 272 00:19:25.680 --> 00:19:30.720 saved his greatest animosity for those regicides who were already dead. After the Restoration, 273 00:19:30.799 --> 00:19:34.240 the bodies of Alver Cromwell and John Bradshaw were exhumed and ceremonially hanged in 274 00:19:34.279 --> 00:19:40.319 their shrouds. Afterwards, their skulls were displayed in Westminster Hall for Charles is 275 00:19:40.359 --> 00:19:44.079 a pale facsimile of the justice that had been stolen by Cromwell's fatal illness. 276 00:19:45.039 --> 00:19:49.440 It also acted as a symbolic representation of the reconciliation England was undergoing. Cromwell 277 00:19:49.559 --> 00:19:53.240 was a convenient villain. He was safely beyond the grave, and so all 278 00:19:53.240 --> 00:19:56.400 the evils of the past twenty years could be heaped on to him at little 279 00:19:56.400 --> 00:20:03.359 political cost. Any animosity the King's Royalist entourage might harbor towards parliamentary leaders like 280 00:20:03.440 --> 00:20:08.319 Monk Montagu or Boyle could be safely redirected towards Cromwell's corpse. That didn't erase 281 00:20:08.359 --> 00:20:12.359 the tensions within Restoration England. These scars of the Civil War couldn't be healed 282 00:20:12.359 --> 00:20:17.680 so easily, but it was a useful fiction that allowed politics to function in 283 00:20:17.720 --> 00:20:21.359 that way, the restoration was a return to pre war norms, Just as 284 00:20:21.400 --> 00:20:25.799 in James's day, It didn't benefit anyone to examine too closely the fundamental assumptions 285 00:20:25.799 --> 00:20:30.039 of the political world, So what had changed with the restoration? The return 286 00:20:30.039 --> 00:20:34.240 of the king didn't really settle the constitutional questions that had plagued England since James 287 00:20:34.240 --> 00:20:38.440 came down from Scotland. The warm reception Charles received on the streets of London 288 00:20:38.640 --> 00:20:42.920 was not an expression of popular support for an ultra royalist interpretation of the monarchy. 289 00:20:44.400 --> 00:20:48.039 The mood would be more accurately described as a rejection of republicanism and the 290 00:20:48.119 --> 00:20:52.279 rule of the army. For many, especially of the younger generation, the 291 00:20:52.319 --> 00:20:56.440 Commonwealth or protectorate were far more familiar than the rule of kings, which had 292 00:20:56.440 --> 00:21:00.599 taken on a kind of mythic quality. Edward Hyde and other royalists hope to 293 00:21:00.640 --> 00:21:03.880 gradually direct England back towards an idealized version of the old monarchy, but the 294 00:21:03.920 --> 00:21:08.640 sixteen forties and sixteen fifties couldn't be erased from English history. The memory of 295 00:21:08.680 --> 00:21:14.039 that turbulent period would continue to shape English political culture for decades and centuries to 296 00:21:14.039 --> 00:21:17.880 come. If anything, the legacy of the Civil Wars wasn't so much the 297 00:21:17.960 --> 00:21:22.279 restoration of the monarchy, but a rejection of radical republicanism and army politics. 298 00:21:22.839 --> 00:21:26.160 After the failure of the instrument of government and the humble petition and advice, 299 00:21:26.480 --> 00:21:32.480 generations of English political thinkers developed an aversion to written constitutions. Rules and systems 300 00:21:32.480 --> 00:21:34.640 that sprang from the mind of one man or even a group of men would 301 00:21:34.680 --> 00:21:40.720 always be flawed and easily exploited. The only way to ensure lasting stability was 302 00:21:40.759 --> 00:21:44.440 to follow the lead of Edward Cook and look to the past. History was 303 00:21:44.480 --> 00:21:48.440 a laboratory, the only true test that could determine the value and staying power 304 00:21:48.480 --> 00:21:53.440 of constitutional ideals and institutions. Secondly, these sixteen fifties exploded any faith in 305 00:21:53.519 --> 00:22:00.319 divine providence as a reliable guide for constitutional politics. Radical religion and political power 306 00:22:00.440 --> 00:22:04.119 had proved to be a dangerous, combustible mix. The toleration of dissenting churches 307 00:22:04.119 --> 00:22:08.400 remained a hotly contested issue in English politics for centuries to come, but radical 308 00:22:08.440 --> 00:22:15.200 religion would never again be a justification for constitutional change. Finally, the Civil 309 00:22:15.240 --> 00:22:19.400 War period confirmed English distrust of standing armies. In James's day, parliaments had 310 00:22:19.440 --> 00:22:23.519 balked at the cost of even modest temporary armies in the lead up to the 311 00:22:23.559 --> 00:22:29.240 Civil War. Those concerns of economy turned to outright suspicion when Charles in Parliament 312 00:22:29.319 --> 00:22:33.759 battled over control of the militias. But the determining factor was the outsized role 313 00:22:33.799 --> 00:22:37.680 the army played in the politics of the post war period. To many in 314 00:22:37.680 --> 00:22:41.279 England, the new model Army had fought for laudable principles, and perhaps their 315 00:22:41.319 --> 00:22:47.000 interventions at Westminster prevented disasters of royalists or radical takeovers. But by sixteen sixty 316 00:22:47.119 --> 00:22:51.880 the argument that the army could deliver political stability had been thoroughly debunked. As 317 00:22:51.920 --> 00:22:56.799 a political institution, the army couldn't justify itself on representative grounds nor an appeal 318 00:22:56.839 --> 00:23:00.839 to tradition. Neither did it appear capable of delivering results in the form of 319 00:23:00.839 --> 00:23:04.759 political stability. Army politics had failed, and generations of english men and women 320 00:23:04.960 --> 00:23:10.039 came to believe that it would always be destined to fail. Almost by default, 321 00:23:10.359 --> 00:23:14.200 monarchy was the only alternative, which is the tragedy of the mid seventeenth 322 00:23:14.200 --> 00:23:18.559 century. After two decades of warfare and civil strife, England was back where 323 00:23:18.559 --> 00:23:22.519 it had started. Like his grandfather and father before him, Charles the Second 324 00:23:22.519 --> 00:23:25.920 would spend his reign trying to figure out how a political system designed to rule 325 00:23:25.960 --> 00:23:30.720 over a medieval society could be adapted to an early modern world. This Charles 326 00:23:30.759 --> 00:23:33.240 had the benefit of hindsight and had already shown an ability to avoid the mistakes 327 00:23:33.240 --> 00:23:37.880 his father had made. He also had new tools to work with, the 328 00:23:37.920 --> 00:23:42.559 Commonwealth and protectorate regimes had created new administrative instruments and a far more centralized bureaucracy 329 00:23:42.559 --> 00:23:47.319 than anything the early Stewarts had enjoyed, and the new king was canny enough 330 00:23:47.359 --> 00:23:51.720 to realize that restoring the monarchy didn't necessarily mean throwing out the baby with bathwater. 331 00:23:52.680 --> 00:23:56.680 Of course, he also inherited a far more divided England. King James 332 00:23:56.680 --> 00:23:59.480 had been forced to deal with factional in fighting, but he had never been 333 00:23:59.480 --> 00:24:03.920 asked to together enemies who had literally squared off in battle. The other side 334 00:24:03.920 --> 00:24:07.599 of the coin was that England now knew the stakes at play. Failure meant 335 00:24:07.599 --> 00:24:11.839 a return to civil war, the costs of which no one underestimated. But 336 00:24:11.880 --> 00:24:15.440 I'll stop my rambling before I end up convincing myself to do a podcast series 337 00:24:15.440 --> 00:24:18.559 on the restoration. Perhaps someday I wanted to end this long journey with a 338 00:24:18.559 --> 00:24:23.880 few thought provoking questions listeners have graciously sent my way. Joseph pointed out the 339 00:24:23.960 --> 00:24:27.079 legacy of the Civil War period on the founding of the United States, a 340 00:24:27.200 --> 00:24:33.039 connection I know little about but has always fascinated me. Thomas Jefferson and James 341 00:24:33.079 --> 00:24:36.400 Madison, and I'm sure most of the founding fathers were students of history and 342 00:24:36.480 --> 00:24:40.079 surely would have seen the relevance of the rebellions and revolutions of the mid seventeenth 343 00:24:40.119 --> 00:24:45.039 century to their eighteenth century predicament. More indirectly, throughout the podcast, we've 344 00:24:45.039 --> 00:24:49.200 seen heated debate an ideas such as popular sovereignty, religious liberty, determining when 345 00:24:49.279 --> 00:24:53.079 armed revolt is justified, the balance of powers, and the nature of written 346 00:24:53.119 --> 00:24:59.400 constitutions, whether explicitly referenced or not. The patriots of the seventeen seventies were 347 00:24:59.400 --> 00:25:03.319 reaching a hu twenty years into the past to make their arguments. I suppose 348 00:25:03.319 --> 00:25:06.440 the obvious place to start with the connection between the English Civil War and the 349 00:25:06.440 --> 00:25:11.519 American Revolution is Kevin Phillips's The Cousins Wars, which ties together the English Civil 350 00:25:11.559 --> 00:25:15.160 War the American Revolution and the American Civil War, a span of more than 351 00:25:15.200 --> 00:25:18.440 two hundred years. I'm usually not a fan of history with that kind of 352 00:25:18.440 --> 00:25:22.000 epic scope, but Phillips throws up some interesting parallels. In the eighteenth century, 353 00:25:22.079 --> 00:25:26.920 the large British military presence in the colonies, especially after these seven years 354 00:25:26.920 --> 00:25:30.599 War with France, spurred comparisons to the use of armed muscle by the Stuart 355 00:25:30.680 --> 00:25:34.279 Kings, though interestingly, the army politics of the sixteen forties and sixteen fifties 356 00:25:34.480 --> 00:25:38.279 seems to have held a more ambivalent meeting for the colonists. An even more 357 00:25:38.319 --> 00:25:42.680 direct parallel might be drawn between these seventeenth century fears of Irish Catholic armies and 358 00:25:42.799 --> 00:25:48.279 later colonial fears of French Catholic Canadians being used as an instrument of royal tyranny. 359 00:25:48.000 --> 00:25:53.440 In both cases, government accommodations with foreign Catholic subjects spread terror and paranoia 360 00:25:53.559 --> 00:25:59.119 among Englishmen and contributed to the outbreak of hostilities. I've always been a bit 361 00:25:59.160 --> 00:26:03.160 more interested in how the American colonists remembered the Civil War. Thomas Jefferson admitted 362 00:26:03.160 --> 00:26:07.000 to cribbing material from the pamphlets of the sixteen forties and John Adams, when 363 00:26:07.000 --> 00:26:11.319 he was the American envoy to Britain, toured the Civil War battle sites of 364 00:26:11.440 --> 00:26:15.119 Edge Hill and Worcester, which he referred to as Holy Ground. More broadly, 365 00:26:15.200 --> 00:26:18.759 the tensions of the seventeen sixties and seventeen seventies seemed to have sparked a 366 00:26:18.799 --> 00:26:23.240 revival of Oliver Cromwell as a folk hero in New England, perhaps unsurprising considering 367 00:26:23.240 --> 00:26:27.920 the Puritan origins of the northern colonies. Oliver became a much more popular baby 368 00:26:29.000 --> 00:26:32.680 name in the seventeen seventies, and Connecticut in particular seems to have embraced the 369 00:26:32.720 --> 00:26:37.599 old Lord Protector. Some colonists boasted at Cromwell, along with John Pym and 370 00:26:37.680 --> 00:26:41.559 John Handen, had considered migrating to Connecticut before the Civil War, and two 371 00:26:41.680 --> 00:26:45.960 vessels in the state's Revolutionary Navy were named after Oliver Cromwell. More broadly, 372 00:26:47.039 --> 00:26:49.920 I think many of the ideas that fuel the American Revolution were born, or 373 00:26:49.960 --> 00:26:55.119 at least refined, during the turbulent middle decades of the seventeenth century. I 374 00:26:55.200 --> 00:26:59.200 get the sense that the Glorious Revolution of sixteen eighty eight eighty nine produced a 375 00:26:59.240 --> 00:27:03.680 more coherent book fabulary for the revolutionaries, but many of the arguments and debates 376 00:27:03.680 --> 00:27:07.599 in Philadelphia or Boston would have been comprehensible to Bolstrode Whitelock, John Lambert or 377 00:27:07.680 --> 00:27:12.480 Edward Hyde. Another listener, Finnbar was also interested in the long term legacy 378 00:27:12.480 --> 00:27:18.400 of the Commonwealth and Protectorate period, though within Great Britain itself. Finnbar asks 379 00:27:18.440 --> 00:27:22.160 if we're not a bit mistaken in thinking about the Commonwealth and Protectorate period as 380 00:27:22.160 --> 00:27:26.799 the republican road not taken by English history. Instead, Cromwell and his friends 381 00:27:26.880 --> 00:27:29.839 did as much as anyone else to set England on the path that ended up 382 00:27:29.839 --> 00:27:33.799 taking through the constitutional reforms of the following generations and even into these scientific and 383 00:27:33.839 --> 00:27:40.359 industrial revolutions. I'd be inclined to agree. At first glance, the Commonwealth 384 00:27:40.359 --> 00:27:44.839 and Protectorate era can seem like a blip on the otherwise unbroken historical evolution of 385 00:27:44.839 --> 00:27:48.160 the monarchy. But on closer inspection, the legacy of the sixteen forties and 386 00:27:48.200 --> 00:27:52.799 sixteen fifties can be found throughout these subsequent centuries. The Restoration was not a 387 00:27:52.839 --> 00:27:57.039 comprehensive repudiation of what had come before, Despite the efforts of some royalists, 388 00:27:57.480 --> 00:28:03.319 the constitutional and religious ideology of the period was not snuffed out. The same 389 00:28:03.359 --> 00:28:07.119 goes for practical affairs, like government bureaucracy in the economy. Charles the second 390 00:28:07.200 --> 00:28:11.279 was candy enough to see the value of the administrative apparatus he inherited. Although 391 00:28:11.319 --> 00:28:15.440 he populated his council with friends and allies as his father and grandfather had, 392 00:28:15.799 --> 00:28:19.359 day to day affairs were run by the kinds of civil servants the Republican regime 393 00:28:19.359 --> 00:28:22.960 had employed. The king's brother, James, Duke of York, was the 394 00:28:23.000 --> 00:28:27.039 Lord Admiral, but his administration was nothing like the personal fiefdom the Duke of 395 00:28:27.039 --> 00:28:30.559 Buckingham had run in the sixteen twenties. Management of the navy fell to a 396 00:28:30.559 --> 00:28:34.440 commission of dedicated bureaucrats, just as it had under the Rump or Cromwell. 397 00:28:36.279 --> 00:28:38.759 You could also make the case that the foundations of the modern English economy were 398 00:28:38.799 --> 00:28:44.119 set during the sixteen fifties, whether a product of war, Republican governance, 399 00:28:44.240 --> 00:28:48.279 or general turmoil. The England that emerged in sixteen sixty was quite different from 400 00:28:48.319 --> 00:28:51.079 the one that witnessed the outbreak of the Civil War in sixteen forty two. 401 00:28:51.799 --> 00:28:56.920 In a twenty year span, England saw remarkable experimentation in taxation, public finance, 402 00:28:56.960 --> 00:29:00.680 and international trade policy. These in turn spurt developments outside of government, 403 00:29:00.920 --> 00:29:06.400 for instance, the emergence of a mature and innovative financial sector. Many of 404 00:29:06.400 --> 00:29:10.920 the defining features of Restoration England and even later errors have their roots in the 405 00:29:10.960 --> 00:29:15.240 Civil War and its aftermath. Finally, Danny Buck, Norfolk's most celebrated witchfinder, 406 00:29:15.480 --> 00:29:19.519 asks what aspect of the Stewart era surprised me the most. I've given 407 00:29:19.519 --> 00:29:22.720 this a lot of thought, and I'd have to say that it might be 408 00:29:22.759 --> 00:29:26.119 the continuities of the era. The England's of sixteen ten, sixteen forty two 409 00:29:26.160 --> 00:29:30.680 and sixteen fifty nine can seem like entirely different worlds, and yet some people 410 00:29:30.759 --> 00:29:34.839 somehow lived in all three of them. If Lord Protector Cromwell met the thirty 411 00:29:34.880 --> 00:29:38.480 year old version of himself struggling to keep his head afloat in Huntingdon, would 412 00:29:38.519 --> 00:29:42.640 they even recognize one another? Or were they roughly the same person? England 413 00:29:42.680 --> 00:29:47.240 was the one that had changed. I guess surprise might not be the best 414 00:29:47.240 --> 00:29:51.839 word, but that's certainly what I find so fascinating about the seventeenth century politics, 415 00:29:51.920 --> 00:29:55.559 economics, and society in general were changing. So rapidly, and yet 416 00:29:55.559 --> 00:29:59.319 people had to find a way to adapt. I suppose it's not that remarkable 417 00:29:59.359 --> 00:30:02.920 to us. We expect to see rapid changes virtually on a yearly basis, 418 00:30:03.359 --> 00:30:07.240 But in a world where continuity and the durability of tradition were taken for granted, 419 00:30:07.519 --> 00:30:11.039 the ever changing environment must have been incomprehensible. So I suppose, in 420 00:30:11.079 --> 00:30:15.359 a roundabout way, that's my answer. The surprising thing to me is how 421 00:30:15.400 --> 00:30:18.440 someone like Ebet Hyde was able to make sense of the world he found himself 422 00:30:18.440 --> 00:30:22.359 in despite it being unexpectedly and quite suddenly alien, which I suppose is a 423 00:30:22.359 --> 00:30:26.160 good segue into my own naval gazing thoughts on the podcast. I feel like 424 00:30:26.200 --> 00:30:30.119 I've learned a lot over the past four years, from how radical constitutional change 425 00:30:30.160 --> 00:30:34.039 can be effected, to the relationship between narrative and history, to just how 426 00:30:34.160 --> 00:30:37.880 much sound waves can bounce off the walls of a bedroom. Probably the most 427 00:30:37.920 --> 00:30:42.559 lasting and often repeated lesson has been about context. The early Stuart period, 428 00:30:42.720 --> 00:30:47.279 like any other period, I suppose, lends itself too pithy, easy to 429 00:30:47.319 --> 00:30:52.559 remember assessments. James the First was an irresponsible spendthrift. William Laude led an 430 00:30:52.559 --> 00:30:56.240 Inquisition in the Church of England. The Fifth Monarchists were a bunch of religious 431 00:30:56.240 --> 00:31:00.160 whackadoodles. Oliver Cromwell was a bloodthirsty tyrant. Each of them have an element 432 00:31:00.200 --> 00:31:03.039 of truth about them, but when taken in isolation, they can give him 433 00:31:03.079 --> 00:31:07.599 misleading impression of the early seventeenth century world. The closer you look at any 434 00:31:07.640 --> 00:31:12.119 historical moment or figure, the more those helpful shorthands break down, to the 435 00:31:12.160 --> 00:31:15.799 point that it can be difficult to have any faith in any kind of narrative 436 00:31:15.799 --> 00:31:18.759 structure altogether. More than once over the course of this project, I stopped 437 00:31:18.759 --> 00:31:22.759 and thought about what I was leaving out, or what avenues I chose not 438 00:31:22.799 --> 00:31:26.200 to pursue, and how those choices shaped the narrative as much as what was 439 00:31:26.240 --> 00:31:30.799 included. But maybe that's getting a bit too meta. Perhaps a more constructive 440 00:31:30.839 --> 00:31:33.720 way to talk about context is to keep it tangible. In the seventeenth century, 441 00:31:33.880 --> 00:31:37.480 England's story wasn't just England's. It was also the story of Wales, 442 00:31:37.640 --> 00:31:42.240 Scotland and Ireland, not to mention Europe, America, India, Africa, 443 00:31:42.279 --> 00:31:45.960 and even littler corners of the globe like Newovendland closely linked to the West Country 444 00:31:45.960 --> 00:31:52.480 fishing industry. Neither is the story of England's constitutional revolutions. The exclusive property 445 00:31:52.480 --> 00:31:56.480 of Westminster and Whitehall. London, as an entirely separate political institution, played 446 00:31:56.480 --> 00:32:00.599 a prominent role, and so too did events and people in Yorkshire, Cornwall, 447 00:32:00.680 --> 00:32:05.480 East Anglia, Cheshire, the Midlands and all places in between. It's 448 00:32:05.519 --> 00:32:08.920 perhaps impossible to squeeze all that into a coherent explanation of six decades of history, 449 00:32:09.160 --> 00:32:14.160 but it was fun to try. I suppose that's what fascinates me the 450 00:32:14.200 --> 00:32:16.559 most about history. I'm always drawn by the promise of solving the puzzle, 451 00:32:16.880 --> 00:32:22.000 unlocking the secret explanations for why things happen the way they did, why people 452 00:32:22.000 --> 00:32:27.000 made the decisions they did. But a perfect understanding always remains elusive. Was 453 00:32:27.039 --> 00:32:30.440 the Civil War the inevitable outcome of a flawed and ambiguous political system? Was 454 00:32:30.440 --> 00:32:35.480 it the product of incompetence on the part of Charles the First Was England's experiment 455 00:32:35.480 --> 00:32:38.599 with republicanism a dead end on the march to constitutional monarchy? Or did it 456 00:32:38.680 --> 00:32:44.279 lay the groundwork for the liberties that underpinned the British Constitution today. I'm not 457 00:32:44.319 --> 00:32:46.279 sure I'm in any better position to answer questions like that than I was four 458 00:32:46.359 --> 00:32:50.119 years ago. At least, I don't feel like I'm able to give any 459 00:32:50.160 --> 00:32:54.319 kind of conclusive answer, but conclusions are overrated anyway. And on that note, 460 00:32:54.440 --> 00:32:58.599 let me once again thank all of you for making this grand experiment possible. 461 00:32:58.960 --> 00:33:00.799 It's been more fun than it could have imagined, and hopefully I'll see 462 00:33:00.839 --> 00:33:01.680 you all again out there.