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00:04The Stuarts, a bloody reign, is an evocation of the extraordinary era when these four Stuart Kings lived through turbulent
00:15times.
00:19Catholic versus Protestant.
00:22Parliament against King.
00:25The English Civil War.
00:28Europe torn apart by religious conflict.
00:32The plague. The great fire of London.
00:36And finally, a Catholic king fled his country and his throne.
00:47As we reveal their fate, we'll trace the story of another family, the Wynns who lived here at Gwydir.
00:54They were there for the great events of the era, and their fortunes rose and fell with that of the
01:00Stuarts.
01:02James I inherited a throne through his mother, Mary, Queen of Scots.
01:07This would bring the two kingdoms together, but at such a bloody cost.
01:13I admire James first. I like his intellect and his inquiring mind.
01:17He was somebody who was very curious about life, a man who was trying to make sense of the world.
01:23I think it's very important with James that he felt himself committed to promoting unity of his peoples, the peoples
01:31of England, Ireland and Scotland, unity of Europe and the union of Christianity itself that might even reunite Protestants and
01:39Catholics.
01:41Charles I, the reluctant king, pushed into being the heir because his brother, the magnificently suitable Prince Henry, had died.
01:50Charles struggled to be the king that everyone longed for.
01:53Through history, we think Charles I lost his head, having lost a civil war, but we forget the years when
02:01he was seen as the luckiest monarch in Europe.
02:04He was a highly sophisticated king. He really put British visual culture on the map, both in terms of what
02:12he commissioned in the form of Rubens and Van Dyck, but also what he collected.
02:17Charles II, the restoration would bring unity and glamour back to the country.
02:22The people were worn out by the austerity of Cromwell and the parliamentarian era, and ecstatically welcomed the new king.
02:32In the reign of Charles II, you have the birth of modern times.
02:35Clever people who were literally rebuilding England.
02:38And then the fire in London, which enabled London to be rebuilt.
02:42It must have been so exciting by the time you got to about 1700 to look around and find yourself
02:48in this spanking new city.
02:50James II, the Catholic king of a Protestant country, was a disaster waiting to happen.
02:56I think history is very tough on James II.
02:59He was a very brave, headstrong figure, a very good soldier, very good admiral.
03:05But unfortunately, being so pig-headedly Roman Catholic was the undoing of him.
03:11I think the spirit is truly in this zg tipos, where it comes and tangible after that moment.
03:56In the autumn of 1605, a letter arrived here at Gwydir Castle for the owner, Sir John Wynne.
04:03It contained an urgent message. It implored Sir John not to travel to London for the opening of Parliament that
04:09November.
04:09Wynne had been planning to do just that. King James I, all his ministers and the Lords would be attending.
04:20John Wynne didn't know it at the time, but he just received a tip-off about the most notorious
04:26attempted terror attack in British history, the Gunpowder Plot.
04:32A small group of religious fanatics wanted to blurt Parliament, kill the King and return
04:38Protestant England to the Catholic faith. The plot failed, but to this day, the 5th of November
04:44is celebrated across the country with bonfires and fireworks. But there was far more to King
04:51James I's rule than gunpowder, treason and plot.
04:57James was the first of a new dynasty to rule England, the Stuarts. And he came to the throne
05:03at a dangerous time. Britain was divided as never before, between nations, between religions,
05:09and the rulers and the ruled. Rebellion was in the air.
05:22Queen Elizabeth I had died on the 24th of March 1603. She had ruled England for over 44 years,
05:30but she left no heir, so she would be the last of the Tudor monarchs. Succeeding her would be King
05:37James
05:37the 6th of Scotland, the son of a woman Elizabeth had put to death, Mary Queen of Scots. However,
05:44despite this difficult family history, James I's accession to the English throne had been agreed
05:49by both parties via secret correspondence in the years before Elizabeth's death. James had held the
05:56Scottish throne since he was just 13 months old, but now he would sit on the thrones of England and
06:02Ireland as well, in what was known as the Union of the Crowns.
06:11We are here at the Charter House in Smithfield, London. This magnificent complex began life as a home
06:19to Carthusian monks in the 14th century, but its days as a monastery were brought to a violent end during
06:25the reign of Henry VIII. It became one of the great aristocratic houses during the Tudor period,
06:31period, and when King James VI of Scotland, soon to be King James I of England, headed down from
06:37Edinburgh to London in 1603, he held his first ever court right here.
06:49James had been invited to do so by Thomas Howard. Howard would be rewarded with the title of Lord
06:56Chamberlain in the new King's government. Charter House is now a palace of the Howard family.
07:04Suffolk, resident there, is related to the man who had tried to depose Elizabeth in favour of James'
07:11mother, Mary Queen of Scots. So the Howards are people he knows are loyal to him and it seems to
07:17him
07:17that he's going to make him Lord Chamberlain, the head of his household, the man in charge of the everyday
07:22management of the court, that he's a crucial figure and he should be given priority when it comes to
07:29meetings in London and where he's seen to be.
07:35James had been greeted by huge crowds of enthusiastic supporters as he made his way down from Scotland.
07:41But things turned sour almost as soon as he reached London and held his first court here at the Charter
07:48House. The original monastery built on this site was constructed on land that had been used to bury
07:54the countless dead from the great plague of the 14th century. Of course the threat of another outbreak
08:00always remained and it just so happens that the dreaded disease returned with a vengeance almost as
08:06soon as James arrived. It hampered his plans for coronation and for many of his citizens it was a bad
08:12omen
08:13about his reign. Plague had been something they'd all lived with in these houses forever. I mean they
08:22were well used to outbreaks of the plague, not just in London but local outbreaks as well. Those that don't
08:28like James think it's a judgment from God, those who do like James think it's an unfortunate recurrence
08:33to the plague. There's apprehension because he's a foreigner, because the English on the whole don't
08:39like the Scots and because they're worried about a Scottish takeover and James has to balance that
08:45very carefully because if he he doesn't want to become a purely English king neglecting his original
08:51kingdom to the north but neither does he want the Scots to take over and he does initially particularly
08:57a very good balancing act. James knew he had to be especially careful of usurpers. His father Lord
09:06Darnley had been murdered and his mother Mary Queen of Scots had been executed. He'd faced attempts on
09:13his life while ruling in Scotland and this didn't change in England. Almost immediately two plots were
09:19being made to remove him from power. The main plot, the bi-plot. Sir Walter Valle, one of Queen Elizabeth's
09:25favourites was even involved in the conspiracy but it was a gunpowder plot of 1605 that would come the
09:32closest to eliminating King James I. The Wynns here at Gwydir are supporters of the new King James
09:44and are advancing in courtly life. John Wynne, head of the family, is about to return to Whitehall.
10:00Attending Parliament would be injurious to my health. Richard, what meaning do you impute to that?
10:08Come on boy. He is your physician.
10:12The city heirs will be fettered of course and all manner of thieves and cutthroats will dog my journey
10:18with plenty more to be found in Parliament besides. But ever before was it thus and no letter then from
10:26my dear friend the Doctor. Some new peril lies behind this innovation. One of the strikes of Parliament
10:33and even the King. Aye. Should we warn his Majesty?
10:45There's always a problem with plots, as with the gunpowder plots, that in order to succeed you have to
10:50have enough people to carry through the aftermath of the assassination of the King. But the more people
10:56you tell, the more likely you'll tell the wrong people and they'll leak it. And that's what seems to
11:01have happened here.
11:04It is one of the great what if moments in history. The 13 conspirators hired a cellar directly below the
11:10chamber in which James was due to appear. Under the supervision of their munitions expert Guy Fawkes,
11:17they filled the cellar with dozens of barrels of gunpowder. More than enough to do the job. But too many
11:23people were being warned to stay away. And this aroused suspicions. One was the Catholic priest who warned his
11:29old friend John Wynne. Another was the writer of an anonymous letter which eventually made its way to
11:36the King and his Privy Council. And it would be Thomas Howard, the owner of the Charter House and now
11:42the new Lord Chamberlain who would head down to the cellars of Parliament in order to investigate. The
11:48entire cellars were searched and Guy Fawkes and his bowels of gunpowder were discovered. After days of
11:54terrible torture, Fawkes confessed. The other conspirators were killed or captured. The plot had
12:01failed. The demise of the would-be terrorists triggered national rejoicing. But the plot exposed
12:06the divisions in James's new kingdom. How would he handle these challenges? And how would the Wynne
12:13family thrive in this dangerous new world? The gunpowder plot of 1605 had been foiled to the last
12:22moment. Parliament had been saved from destruction and King James I continued to rule over Scotland,
12:29Ireland and England. But this would be a challenging reign to say the least. James had been raised a
12:35Protestant and a Catholic conspiracy had been made against his life. To further worsen matters,
12:40not all of his new subjects were very pleased with the idea of a Scottish King. Nor were the Scots
12:46thrilled by their monarch's departure for London. James sought to maintain peace amid these divisions.
12:53He did tighten anti-Catholic measures after the gunpowder plot, but otherwise he broadly tolerated
12:59religious difference, provided it didn't threaten his rule. And there was another slight issue to deal
13:05with a lack of money. A constant shortage of funds had plagued his time moving in Edinburgh,
13:11and James hoped this new kingdom would solve all his financial woes. This wouldn't quite be the case,
13:18given how extravagant a court James liked to maintain. So new money-making ventures were needed,
13:25and this need would benefit the Wynne family of North Wales.
13:32Is this all of them? It is. I am certain there were more. The letters patent have been issued.
13:38You do still have that list I sent you. Owen, father is made baronet.
13:44His Majesty has bestowed upon us a great honour. An honour we must pay for. Three hundred pounds a year.
13:51And for three years? Can purchase many books. There exist some things more important than
13:57swelling your library, brother. I cannot conceive of them. The title will be the families forever.
14:03It will be our dear brother John's, and his sons, and his sons after that. We younger brothers are
14:09better off investing in books. It is a sign of royal favour. It is a sign that the king has
14:16run out of
14:17money. Now have you that list I sent you on air? Fine. The winds of Goodyear are perhaps the very
14:27first
14:27to get the baronet, which is a new hereditary knighthood at the James Institute. You see,
14:33that's a very good way both of giving people a higher honour than just being an ordinary knight,
14:37and of course it's a money raise because you pay for the privilege of being made a baronet.
14:41Sir John Wynne was one of the first baronets, and the reason was that he was perceived to be the
14:46senior knight of Wales, really. There were two of Wales, one from the south, Sir Edward Stradling,
14:52and one from the north, Sir John Wynne. And I think it was self-evident when they put the lists
14:56together that his extraordinary dominance in all public affairs in North Wales meant that he was going to be
15:03on the list. He's very much of the period in that he's canny, acquisitive, he's very intelligent and
15:09very well educated, but he's carving out an empire for himself at a time when other people are doing
15:17similar. So there are a lot of heads being trodden on to get where he is, and that means there's
15:23a lot
15:23of jealousy or of envy from his contemporaries, particularly his neighbours.
15:37This was a win-win situation for the Wynns and the Stuarts. John gained greater power and status,
15:44and King James got money for the treasury by giving away titles to his most loyal subjects
15:51at an excellent price. King James needed to raise funds directly from the wealthier families in the
15:59country because he was often in conflict with Parliament, both in Scotland and England.
16:05He had been set on unifying his two nations. The kingdoms were on the same island after all,
16:11and now they had the same ruler. James believed that God had made it so for a reason.
16:16The English and Scottish parliaments were fiercely opposed to the idea of Great Britain. However,
16:22the debates, they're about prejudice. Scots feared they'd be ignored by the English,
16:27while the English feared the Scots would undercut wages and steal jobs. Mutual animosity ensured the
16:34scheme never proceeded. On the margins, there are people who really can't take James, they can't take
16:42a Scotsman, they can't take a Protestant. So there are a group of plotters who engage themselves with
16:49the idea of getting rid of him and replacing him by his cousin Arabella Stuart, who is also descended
16:56from Henry VIII's elder sister. There was also the problem of competing visions. James believed in
17:04the divine right of kings. He illustrated his views in two of his published works,
17:08the true law of free monarchies, and Basilic and Doran, which is Greek for royal gift.
17:15James believed he was chosen by God to rule. Therefore, the law was an extension of his power,
17:21and parliament was subordinate. Many in parliament viewed the relationship differently. They believed a
17:28king ruled through partnership and cooperation with lawmakers. This fundamental disagreement doomed the
17:34relationship. And for much of his reign, James attempted to rule without parliament, hence the need for extra sources of
17:42money.
17:46I think one of the tragedies for the Stuarts, we look back on the executions, the exiles and the general
17:52disastrous
17:52relationship with parliament for a lot of the century or so that they were in control in this country.
17:58And one thing that is absolutely true is that they never had enough money and parliament wasn't prepared
18:04to give enough or to tax enough in their own way. James brings in surcharges on customs, which are called
18:12impositions, which don't have parliamentary authority and therefore are controversial with some. And the
18:18result of that is the kings can manage on their own income in peacetime. The problem is what will they
18:23do if they
18:24get into wars? Then you do need parliamentary supply. You can't possibly fund wars otherwise. And that's where
18:30the problems are going to arise.
18:37James was struck by the greatest tragedy that could befall a man who believed in the divine right of
18:43kings, the death of his first born son and heir. James has two children who survive infancy. Henry,
18:52who had all the hallmarks of being a great all-rounder, great sportsman, great promoter of the arts,
18:59but also someone who is clearly quite radical in his Protestantism and is strongly supportive of the
19:07Protestant cause internationally. Henry dies in a rather unwise exercise for athleticism by swimming in the
19:15Thames and getting typhoid from the water. Whereas his younger brother, Charles, who'd had rickets as a
19:21child, was bandy-legged, small, had a stutter, wasn't intellectually the match of his older brother.
19:29He lives on and is to be the heir. And I always suspect that when James and perhaps Anne looked
19:35at
19:35Charles, they always looked with regret. Why are you the survivor? Why has our golden boy died?
19:45The country was devastated to learn about his sudden death and a period of mourning ensued. His younger
19:51brother, Charles, who'd adored his elder brother and tried to emulate him, would now be the successor to
19:57James. Back at Gordier Castle, Sir John Wynne would suffer a similar tragic loss.
20:08Not long after the death of the heir to the throne, Prince Henry, devastating news arrives from Luca in
20:15Italy about the passing of the wind's eldest son, John.
20:19He was dispatched from Tuscany by his companions. They had that decency at least.
20:37Dated this 23rd of August, 1614. Bequests to the parish first, of course, as is proper.
20:46Father, the family. To my brother Owen, ten pounds for the purchase of books.
20:54With temperance to your usual habits that should see you through a week, perhaps.
21:01Thank you, Father.
21:02Thank your good brother. To Richard, my velvet coat.
21:12Father, I need not. Take it.
21:17Put it on.
21:26It's interesting that, of course, James I loses his eldest son, Prince Henry,
21:31and Sir John Wynne loses his eldest son, Sir John Junior. So they're both in the same sort of position
21:39in that sense, where the second sons have to take over. So it's interesting that Sir Richard takes over
21:45that courtly role and ends up serving Charles, who is himself the number two.
21:51The Wynne family and the Stuarts grew ever closer, as Richard Wynne was appointed groom of the bedchamber
21:58to Charles, the new heir to the throne, and would join him on a wild and highly secretive voyage to
22:04Spain.
22:05But for now, both families were in deep mourning.
22:08Richard.
22:09I must make ready. I am required at court.
22:12Stay a day or two, for mother's sake.
22:14I serve the young prince.
22:15I hear he is a fine marksman now.
22:18Tolerably so.
22:19And a better rider than most.
22:21He stammers yet and speaks too soft.
22:23But his efforts, I am certain, gladden his father.
22:30Stay safe in London, brother.
22:33It becomes you well.
22:37At this point, King James seemed beset on all sides,
22:41and he increasingly relied only upon his closest advisers.
22:45But this also led to huge resentments over the years with the chief among them,
22:50his infamous and controversial favourites. There's long been speculation over James's sexuality,
22:55because although the king was married to Anne of Denmark, he had seven children by her.
23:00He was always drawn to handsome men, often with near disastrous consequences.
23:06The favourite of his childhood years in Scotland, the Duke of Lennox, had been forced out by jealous lords.
23:12Robert Carr, another who was close to James during the early years of his reign in England,
23:16until a court scandal engulfed him, a handsome, foolish youth, ended his career.
23:21James then transferred his affections to another young courtier, a man named George Villiers.
23:27He would use the king's favour to sideline rival factions,
23:31enrich his family and become the most powerful nobleman in the country.
23:36The Wynne family weren't the only ones climbing up the social ladder during James's reign.
23:43Villiers was obviously fantastically physically attractive.
23:47This is written about by ambassadors at the time.
23:50They were absolutely struck dumb by his physical beauty.
23:54And it was something that he was very aware of.
23:56And of course, you know, James I fell in love with him.
24:01He was born into a decent but not massive gentry family.
24:05And then he puts him up to every stage.
24:07Baron, Viscount, Earl, Marquess, Duke.
24:10I mean, there hasn't been a non-royal Duke for a couple of hundred years.
24:15There's always the jealousy of the over-mighty courtier.
24:19But in this one man, Buckingham, his rise through the aristocracy,
24:23the way that the favour from the royal crown cascaded through his wider family,
24:29it must have been incredibly difficult for the older aristocracy to look at this man,
24:33arrive from almost nothing, and become by some distance the most powerful man in the kingdom.
24:42George Villiers will be raised to the title of Duke of Buckingham.
24:46He would be at the king's side for the rest of his reign,
24:50and he would play a crucial part in the events that would push England into war.
25:07We're here at the Queen's House in Greenwich,
25:09a magnificent building designed by the greatest architect of his era, Inigo Jones.
25:15It began construction in 1616 under the orders of King James I,
25:20and was intended as a gift for his wife, Anne of Denmark,
25:24whom he'd married in 1589.
25:27But Anne would never see her finished Queen's House.
25:30She fell ill soon after construction began and died in 1619.
25:35Anne's a mysterious figure, emblematic of the challenging religious era in which she reigned.
25:41She had been raised a Lutheran in Denmark,
25:43but it's possible that she may have secretly converted to Catholicism at some point in her life.
25:49She infamously refused an Anglican communion at her coronation in England.
25:54If Anne did convert, well, even a queen had to keep it a very tightly guarded secret.
26:00The law of the old faith seems to have been present for the Wynne family at Guido Castle as well,
26:05but being a Catholic was a very dangerous endeavour.
26:11Father.
26:14Will you not sit, Father?
26:16I am not yet so infirm.
26:18Eager though you may be for your inheritance, some wine.
26:22Of course.
26:25The prince still pins hope on the Spanish match.
26:28He has a portrait of the Infanta he much admires.
26:32Enough of the prince's fancy. What of the king?
26:34He too remains set.
26:37I wrote of this in my letter.
26:39You lack your brother's memorable expression. And the dowry?
26:43Six hundred thousand.
26:45Utterly dulcie.
26:49The pleasing and the useful.
26:51Ah, the money spent on your schooling were not all wasted then.
26:55We know very little about their personal beliefs,
26:58religiously, because this is such a dangerous time. You're not going to wear that.
27:03I think it's, we have to read between the lines. I think it's pretty clear that
27:07um, his wife, Lady Sydney Wynne, um, she certainly came from an old, uh, old faith family,
27:15the Gerrards of Lancashire. Uh, I think it's pretty clear, reading between the lines,
27:19that she remained Catholic. But it was a secret. She was a crypto-Catholic.
27:24She is to be allowed mass for herself and for her household, the Infanta.
27:29Should the contract be made?
27:31She will not be queen. A Papist alone, England could suffer,
27:35but not a Spaniard, too. Many in court favour the match.
27:39Until the tide shifts. And then marvel at how forgetful of his past a man can be.
27:47Yes, father.
27:50Do not turn Papist Richard. That was your dear late brother's mistake.
27:57You keep that faction at a clear remove. Do you understand me?
28:03I think one of the extraordinary things about the House of Stuart is that the whole tragedy
28:08of Catholic versus Protestant is contained within this royal house. It was never resolved,
28:15the question of whether England should become a Catholic or a Protestant country. You'd think,
28:21if you were a modern person, particularly if you weren't religious, but you just liked the idea of
28:26the Church of England and its inclusiveness and its beautiful music and its ceremonies,
28:29that this would have been the perfect compromise between the Protestant religion and the Catholic
28:35faith. In fact, it was even more divisive. And out of that arose the terrible, bloody English civil wars.
28:46You can become a known Catholic, you can become a recusant and it'll kill your estate. The fines are so
28:54horrendously large that you can bleed out the estate and that'll be the end of that. So if on principle,
28:59you want to do that, fine. And a lot of people did it. But most people actually just towed the
29:04line and
29:06they went to church and they did their obeisance and privately they might have thought otherwise.
29:12I think there was a lot of what one might flippantly call sort of cafeteria Catholicism going on,
29:18particularly with people like Sir John Wynne.
29:23King James I was well aware of the delicate religious situation in the country. Many of his subjects in
29:30England and Scotland would be furious at any return to the Catholic religion in the royal family.
29:36But still, despite this, James attempted a union with Catholic Spain.
29:41By 1619, the king had lost his wife and his firstborn southern heir and he would not get any respite
29:48in
29:48foreign affairs. War had broken out on the continent.
29:55The Thirty Years' War started in 1618. What began as a quarrel among the divided states of the Holy Roman
30:02empire drew in all the major powers of the day. And with eight million casualties, it became the
30:09bloodiest religious conflict in European history. It was also the greatest foreign policy failure
30:16of King James I's reign.
30:23I think for the British living across the sea from the Thirty Years' War, it must have been a very
30:30frightening spectator sport, especially with the propaganda coming back from both sides. It resonated
30:35very much over here that this sort of absolute catastrophe could happen here through religious
30:41bigotry. I think it was something that the English looked at askance and thought,
30:45we just cannot have that here.
30:49James was a peacemaker. He had ended the long Anglo-Spanish War soon after inheriting the throne, and he had
30:57grand
30:57hopes of securing a lasting peace in Europe. To do this, he began the negotiations to marry his heir
31:04child to the Catholic Infanta of Spain, Maria Anna. The protected talks were unpopular with the English Protestants.
31:12James, however, was more tolerant of religious differences than many, and he persisted. He believed
31:18finding England and Catholic Spain together would help secure peace in Europe. The Thirty Years' War
31:25confounded all those hopes. It was a conflict the King could not ignore, because he had a personal
31:31stake in it. His daughter, Elizabeth, she was married to the Protestant Frederick V of the Electoral
31:37Palatinate, a pivotal figure in the early years of the war.
31:41England is requiring that the Spanish drive their cousins, the Austrians, out of the lands of James's
31:50daughter and her husband in the Palatinate, and that's just asking too much. Rome is asking too much,
31:57and that Rome is expecting the children of the marriage to be brought up as Catholics,
32:01and James and Charles can't deliver that. So both sides were willing to make a deal,
32:07but only on their own terms, and the gap between them was simply too great.
32:13After the catastrophic defeat of Elizabeth and Frederick's forces at the Battle of White Mountain
32:18outside Prague in November 1620, James had to intervene.
32:22But war was expensive, and money had long been a problem for the English Crown.
32:27James would call Parliament, but the meeting was fractious, and the MPs were more interested in
32:32investigating abuses by James's government than giving him the cash he wanted. James soon dissolved
32:38the meeting, as he had done so often before. He now had no choice but to rely on his diplomatic
32:44efforts.
32:44The Spanish match for his son was the only chance he saw of defusing the conflict and helping his
32:51daughter. Negotiation with Madrid began again, but at the same slow pace as before. Frustrated by these
32:59constant delays, James's favourite, the Duke of Buckingham, and his son, Prince Charles, made an extraordinary decision.
33:12It is my ill fortune to be one of those who is shortly to follow the Prince into Spain. Past
33:17doubts, the journey will be dangerous and expensive. But as subject and servant, I must needs obey.
33:28Prince Charles and the Duke of Buckingham were heading to Spain incognito, as Sir John Wynne's son and heir, Richard,
33:34was going with them.
33:36In February 1623, this group left England in disguise for potentially a perilous journey across Europe.
33:43The goal was to break the deadlock in the marriage negotiations with Charles, winning the hand of the Spanish Infanta
33:51in person.
33:52It was romantic, foolishly daring, and it was doomed.
34:02In the spring of 1623, Richard Wynne, the heir to the Wynne estate, was travelling to Spain, along with Prince
34:09Charles, the heir to the throne, and the Duke of Buckingham.
34:13Richard wrote back home to Gwydir, but he did not care for Spain at all.
34:18Richard's letter is full of fascinating insights, but there's one I really wanted to read to you.
34:24The group encounters a Spanish Jesuit priest who is preaching to the crowd.
34:30The priest's description of England vividly illustrates the religious challenges of the era.
34:37Henry VIII, king of England, until whose time the subjects there were obedient children to their mother church of Rome,
34:44having many famous martyrs that suffered for the cause, as Sir Thomas Beckett, and Sir Thomas More, and diverse others.
34:51This king, I say, was the first who, to satisfy his own lust and to bring his adulterous conception to
34:58his own heart's desire,
35:00did, forgetting God and religion, alter the course of the ever-held obedience to the church of Rome,
35:05by dissolving their abbeys and putting to death, I know not how many hundreds,
35:10for which act his soul lies chained in the bottomless pit of hell, in everlasting torments.
35:17This is not all their heretical opinions, but the damnablest and worst of all is, which is my last point,
35:24this is my body. They dare have the impudence to deny our saviour's own words,
35:30saying it is but a sign and not the body and blood itself.
35:38Prince Charles wasn't likely to have much success on this Spanish sojourn.
35:46The Spanish trip was an extraordinary fiasco, really, and marvellously amateurish and silly.
35:51It was like a sort of adolescent jabe in some ways. To think that this would be anything other
35:56than a diplomatic disaster, which of course it was, was pretty naive. But off they went,
36:02Prince Charles and Duke of Buckingham, and of course Sir Richard Wynne. Sir Richard had a very
36:07low opinion of Spain. He said there's no land worth speaking of, and the worst counties of
36:12North Wales are better than what he saw in Castile and Aragonham. He's quite dismissive of it. But
36:17they have all sorts of adventures, and of course, the one thing they don't come back with is any
36:22sensible deal on the Infanta's hand. They managed to sort of wreck the plans of this great dynastic
36:28union between England and Spain. But it's very interesting that Sir Richard is a witness to
36:33that, and not only a witness, but he produces this account of the royal trip to Spain. And very amusing
36:39it is.
36:42The Spanish Infanta didn't really take to Charles the future king. He wasn't a Catholic. He was an
36:49infidel who turned his back on the Church of Rome. This wasn't going to be as straightforward as his
36:55father James is married to the Lutheran princess Anne of Denmark. When the disguised royal procession
37:01finally arrived in Madrid, their host presented them with impossible demands. The Duke of Buckingham
37:07got into terrible quarrels with the Spanish equivalent, and so Prince Charles had to negotiate
37:13for himself, hardly fitting for a future king. The whole business of adopting disguises as
37:19travelling gentlemen and calling yourself Mr Smith and all this sort of thing, it's entirely silly.
37:24It's very adolescent. And you know, going boating and dressing up and getting drunk. And I mean,
37:29you can imagine how that went down with a strict protocol of the court of Madrid. I mean,
37:34ridiculous really, to think that anything other than disaster would come out of that.
37:40It soon became clear that the Spanish had been stringing Charles all along,
37:44just enough to keep England out of the Thirty Years' War.
37:48Charles was virtually cast out after bursting in on the young Infanta in her own private garden.
37:55The men returned home humiliated.
38:04The heat between those hills was such we thought ourselves in stoves,
38:09yet at their heights we walked on snow, and colder it was than England in the midst of...
38:14Lank as shotten herring. They feed you not over there?
38:18At issue was not the quantity of fair, but its nature. Castile and Aragon together are not worth
38:25the meanest county in Wales. With Father's blessing, I shall see it published.
38:34Did he speak of my return at all? He is as much relieved of your safe arrival as the nation
38:39is of
38:40the Prince's, though perhaps with rather less dancing through the streets.
38:44I cannot imagine Father ever danced a jig in his life.
38:47Not well, certainly. But come, tell me of it all. Tell me of Spain and the Prince's great adventure.
38:54You despair of the English court, brother. It is as nothing to the severity of the Spanish.
39:00The Prince had convinced himself he was in love, but all chance of speaking with the Infanta was denied him.
39:12The public, however, were delighted by their failure. Eager to court this,
39:17and embittered by their time in Spain, Charles and Buckingham switched sides. They pushed the
39:23reluctant James towards war with Spain. Parliament was summoned once again. This time, its anti-Spanish
39:29further was equalled by many at court. Despite this combined pressure, James still refused to go to war.
39:36But his ability to control events was diminishing. James was dying. Courtiers looked to the future,
39:45to Prince Charles, who would soon be king. By his side in his endeavours was Sir Richard, who would be
39:51promoted to first gentleman of the bedchamber. The Winds had lost their firstborn son and heir at the same
39:59time as the stewards of the royal family. They were about to lose their patriarch at the same time as
40:05well.
40:06Sir John Wynne was also succumbing to the ravages of old age.
40:1227th of March, 1625.
40:16Dear father, the king died this day at noon. He had been sick a fortnight with Tertian fever. The stag
40:24that was dead yet lives. The young king was proclaimed this evening. He has promised he shall deal with me
40:31nobly, and I do believe a great office will be mine. I hope this letter finds you well and recovered
40:36of
40:37your recent sickness. Know that I endeavour each day to be worthy of your example, your dear and loyal son,
40:45Richard.
41:03In 1625, James dies. He's been ailing for quite a long time. He's been chronically unwell. Because of the
41:10way in which he wastes away, and because of the way in which Buckingham is so hated by the political
41:16elite, of course, rumour spread very quickly that James had been poisoned. And in fact, Buckingham had,
41:24in defiance of the royal doctors, arranged for poultices to be applied to him, which it was easy for
41:31those that wanted to believe there was foul play to believe there was foul play. And to a degree that
41:36historians have only recently began to re-evaluate the story that Buckingham had murdered James,
41:45and that Charles had condoned it. Those haunted Charles right down to his own death 24 years later,
41:54and certainly were very prevalent in the months before the outbreak of civil war.
42:01Historians debate James's legacy. To some, he's an intelligent, a flawed man who bought peace in the
42:08time of extremism. To others, he was stubborn, extravagant, and his belief in the divine right of
42:13kings sowed the seeds for his son's own clashes with parliament and the bitter English civil war that was to
42:20come.
42:25In the next episode, we see how Charles I followed in his father's footsteps with his
42:31profound belief in the divine right of kings and a misplaced trust in the Duke of Buckingham.
42:39Charles' shunning of parliament and autocratic style of rule fuelled enormous political and religious
42:44tensions in his kingdoms. A civil war would break out across the British Isles, and in the end,
42:52the House of Stuart would fall, and the Commonwealth, headed by a commoner called Oliver Cromwell,
42:57would rise in its place. The fall of the monarchy would be a nightmare for the Wynne family of North
43:04Wales. They would have to fight to survive in this new puritanical era. England, Wales, Scotland,
43:13Ireland, and Ireland would never be the same again.
43:43So,
43:56you
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