English Civil War: The Turbulent Reign Of Charles I | Game Of Kings

Game of Kings the Stuarts is an evocation of the extraordinary era when these four Stuart kings lived through turbulent times. Catholic versus Protestant. Parliament against King. The English Civil War. Europe torn apart by religious conflict. The plague. The Great Fire of London. And finally, a Catholic king fled his country and his throne. Charles I succeeded James I, who had inherited the throne from his mother, Mary Queen of Scots, which had brought the two kingdoms together, but at such a bloody cost. Charles struggled to be the king that everyone longed for. In the very beginning of Charles's reign, Charles plunges England into two simultaneous wars. To fight both of the superpower simultaneities is crazy, and the result, of course, is that all the campaigns are failures. He did believe in the divine right of kings. He believed he was placed there by God. Through history, we think Charles I lost his head having lost a civil war, but we forget the years when he was seen as the luckiest monarch in Europe. He was a highly sophisticated king. He really put British visual culture on the map, both in terms of what he commissioned in the form of Rubens and Van Dyck, but also what he collected. Charles II, the restoration would bring unity and glamour back to the country. The people were worn out by the austerity of Cromwell and the parliamentarian era and ecstatically welcomed the new king. James II, the Catholic king of a Protestant country, was a disaster waiting to happen. In this series, we're looking at the reign of the Stuart kings through the lives of the Wynne family, who lived here at Gwydir Castle in North Wales. The Wynnes rather prospered during the Stuart era. Sir John, the head of the family, had been knighted during the reign of King James I and was later elevated to the position of baronet. But it was during the reign of King Charles I that the connection between the two families grew closest. Charles I became king of England, Scotland and Ireland in 1625, succeeding his father, King James, the second Stuart monarch. Like his father, Charles believed in the divine right of kings and shunned parliament as irrelevant. As a result, he had a tempestuous reign and eventually led to the outbreak of a civil war. Sir Richard Wynne was a confidant of the new King Charles I and he was appointed groom of the bedchamber and gentleman of the privy chamber. Sir Richard Wynne and King Charles were long acquainted. Richard had even joined his future king on a pretty disastrous trip to Spain in 1623. Charles had hoped to negotiate his marriage to the Spanish infanta Maria Anna, daughter of King Philip III, but he was forced to return home humiliated. Charles's abject failure in Spain was an absolute delight to many back home. They did not want their future king marrying a Catholic. This was supposed to be a Protestant country now. However, Charles still ended up marrying a Catholic despite all of their protests. As he made his way to Spain on that fateful journey in 1623, he'd been to Paris and there he met Henrietta Maria, daughter of the King of France, Henry IV. So that hopeless journey abroad trying to get the Spanish infanta had not been in vain. Charles and Henrietta Maria would be married in Canterbury in 1625. Henrietta Maria got married on the understanding with Pope Urban that she would try and do her best to bring England back to the true faith of Roman Catholicism and also the sort of understanding that she would do her best to influence the royal family itself, the children that she would produce. The real problem was she was very zealously Catholic, so she flaunted her Catholicism, even to the extent that she refused to take part in the coronation because she would not have the proceedings overseen by a Protestant. It was something that was anathema to her. It's very puzzling if you're a modern person to find the answer to why it should have been such a source of contention that Charles, the first ever monarch to be brought up as a member of the Church of England, shouldn't have been married to a Roman Catholic. She was French. So you have really strong religious prejudices on the side of Queen Henrietta Maria and of a lot of people in political power in England and it would have needed somebody to back down and it wasn't going to be the politicians. In the year of the coronation and marriage, 1625, Sir Richard Wynne is supposed to have planted out these 12 saplings that he brought back from Spain in 1623, which are the famous cedars here at Wooder. There are three that survive. These are the earliest statement of royalism, which is going to be a feature throughout the 17th century of the relationship between the Wynnes and the House of Stuart. This is the Queen's House in Greenwich. The building was designed by the great architect Inigo Jones and it was intended as a gift from King James I to his wife, Anne of Denmark. However, she died during its construction and the building was put on hold. Construction recommenced on the Queen's House when King Charles decided it would make a wonderful gift for his new wife, Henrietta Maria. A second level was even added by Inigo Jones and Henrietta became one of Inigo's key benefactors. Just like her husband, Henrietta Maria was a devoted patron of the arts. Fortunately for the Queen, she had Sir Richard Wynne as a treasurer to help fund her artistic endeavours. Sir Richard would sign off her payments and often paid with funds from his own estate. Sir Richard Wynne was now a firmly established figure in the Royal House of Stuart. Treasurer to the Queen Consort, groom of the bedchamber to the King. This meant he had the right to touch the King, a rare honour. Of course, this also meant he prepared the new King for his many portraits. One of the King's very favourite artists was the exceedingly popular Anthony van Dyck. Have you sat for many portraits yourself, Richard? One or two, sire. Oh, never for as skilled a man as Master van Dyck. The better sort know faster. Let us try that one. There is majesty in art. If there be a lesson I took from Spain, it is that my court should outshine all others. Just as England should outshine all nations. Excepting Wales, sire. Of course, excepting Wales. It's difficult to understate the impact that this genius of portraiture had. He was like an impresario, crying action. And for the first time, people genuinely began to move in pictures. There was a feeling of illusion and realism, in a way that Daniel Meitens had slightly prepared the English for, but van Dyck swept the board with. I mean, one of the first things that he did, Charles I, of course, was highly aware of the possibilities of an artist like van Dyck. He collected the works of Titian. He was familiar, and through osmosis of contact, with the works of the High Renaissance. He knew that there were ways of portraying him and his court in a way that was different from the past. No, it will not do. Take it away. Forgive me, sire. Did you fashion the collar, Richard? No, sire. Purchase it for my wardrobe? No, sire. Never make defence or apology before you be accused. Advice fit for statesmen, courtiers and husbands. We shall try another. Physically speaking, he was not prepossessing. He had a slightly gnomish face, very pronounced, slightly goggly eyes. He was also very small. He was five foot four. He had bow legs. He had rickets when he was young. And so he needed an artist to transform this rather unprepossessing human form into something magnificent. And I genuinely feel that when you look at those portraits of Charles I, Van Dyck has elevated him with a subtle manipulation of the brush into an almost Christ-like figure. Van Dyck brought with him this box of tricks from the High Renaissance, and he dumped them down in London. And with all the tools, all the insights, all the technical brilliance and proficiency, all the sort of poetic mood that he was able to imbue his sitters with, he transformed the way we looked. Despite a whirlwind start to his reign, Charles faced the same difficulties as his father, King James I. A strange relationship with Parliament and an urgent need to raise funds through unpopular taxes would force his reign into extreme tensions. With a 30 years war raging on the continent, it wouldn't be long before the country plunged into its own civil war and blood would flow. Sir Richard Wynne, the owner of Gwydir Castle here in North Wales, inherited his property and his titles from his father, Sir John Wynne. Richard's brother Owen was a rockish type, interested in a variety of subjects, including the mysterious business of alchemy. Owen preferred to stay here at the family home of Gwydir while Richard was busy in the court of the new king, Charles I. King Charles's reign had started at a frantic pace. He married Henrietta Maria, daughter of the King of France, just a couple of months after gaining the throne and was already planning a war with Spain after those failed attempts to marry the Spanish Infanta. But Charles inherited the same problems as his father, a poor relationship with Parliament and a misplaced trust in a particular figure at court, the Duke of Buckingham. He'd been a favourite of King James and had retained a considerable amount of influence over King Charles as well. There was a sort of intense friendship which I think started on both sides from a mutual regard of how powerful the other one was, you know, Buckingham because of his royal favour, which he certainly didn't want to lose with the change of ruler, and Charles because he wanted to be loved by his father and what better way of being loved than to show favour for his favourite? There was a sort of element of intelligence on both parts that diplomatically they should make the most of each other because it was going to further their own interest. But after James's death, Buckingham maintained this extraordinary hold over the throne for the remaining three years of Buckingham's life. From the very beginning, Charles and Parliament don't get on. The distrust builds very, very quickly, not least because Charles is pouring money into failed military campaigns led by Buckingham and Parliament doesn't see why it should continue to give money. He starts raising monies under his prerogative in ways which are truly controversial. It is one of the major issues which generates the distrust of Charles that he's going to be the background of factors for a civil war a few years later. Despite a lack of finances, Charles pressed ahead with his intervention in the Thirty Years' War and an expedition was launched against Spain. Buckingham oversaw an alliance with the Dutch and the plan was effectively to engage in piracy by raiding Spanish treasure ships, returning from the New World as gold and then to attack Spanish towns in order to drag the country out of the Thirty Years' War. It was a complete disaster. Through bad luck and incompetence, at least 1,000 English soldiers died with nothing to show for it. People blamed the already unpopular Duke of Buckingham. The record Parliament needed impeaching him and Charles dismissed them, spare his friend. But he couldn't protect the Duke of Buckingham from all the threats. On the 23rd of August, 1628, Buckingham was stabbed to death in Portsmouth by a disgruntled army officer. Charles and the court mourned Buckingham deeply, but the rest of the country pretty much celebrated his death. The rift between king and country was growing deeper. One of the officers, Felton, who had been on his first mission, stabbed him to death and Buckingham knew the wound was fatal. He actually called it out. The shock in this country of the greatest non-royal in the country being just commonly assassinated was something absolutely astonishing. A lot of people didn't like the influence Buckingham had, but the thought of him suddenly being gone, like the blade of an assassin, was something that took a lot of coming to terms with. Once Buckingham was dead, Sir Richard Wynne was one of King Charles's most trusted advisors, but he could also be viewed as one of the king's greatest benefactors. Richard's father, Sir John Wynne, had been offered a baronetcy by King James and bought it at a hefty price. Only Parliament could levy taxes, so Stuart monarchs had to find new, inventive ways of acquiring funds if they were going to ignore Parliament, as King Charles liked to do. He generated new income through the highly unpopular ship money levy. This was essentially a tax intended for wartime, but it was now levied during peacetime. It had only been imposed on counties that lay on the coast, but it was now implied inland as well. Families like the Wynnes would be the ones footing this massive tax bill. Drawn up by Master Inigo Jones himself. It's a bridge. By these surveyor to his majesty. Surprised the king can spare him. He must be a man much occupied. A generosity typical of his character. 25 shillings and fourpence. What? 25 shillings and fourpence. That's the king's demand, oh apologies, generosity that arrived this morning courtesy of the sheriff. Ship money owed on our rectory. Are we to dispute over 25 shillings? That is but the latest demand, brother. We bear the queen's debts. We pay the king's ship money. Were it not for the Irish estates we... The king must have means. To gild his palace while our roofs fall in. Whitehall is dilapidated. It shames the nation. The nation has other concerns. I've seen the pamphlets. The printing press may echo a voice a thousand times over. It is still but one man. Do not be swayed by malfactors in London. The nation is happy. I think one of the tragedies for the Stuarts is that they never had enough money and parliament wasn't prepared to give enough or to tax enough in their own way. Charles I was very keen to get around this problem and to use whatever device he could come up with. Anything that connected to the crown to raise money he would look at. And ship money was the first really big disaster in terms of confrontation with people who were not prepared to put up with what they saw as an abuse of kingly power. There is a case for it. There is a big European war going on. 20,000 English young people mainly are being captured by pirates coming from North Africa and taking them off to be slaves in North Africa. Charles I, in fairness, was building up the navy in a very dramatic way which was good for the nation. But to impose a tax on internal counties of England for the growing of a navy was a really difficult concept for people who are being asked to pay it. He will not recall parliament then? Why let that disputatious gathering disturb the peace? I have conducted alchemic investigations these many years. Vapours foul and copious are a near constant. In naivety of my youth I sought once to contain those airs lest farther catch upon the breeze a hint of my designs. I remember. I capped a fermenting bottle. Yet my attempts at amelioration only worsened the explosion when it came. Parliament is the bottle? The country is the bottle. I fear the long containment of grievance without safe release will bring us all to greater misfortune. The king may rule without parliament so ever long he wishes. It's not his prerogative I doubt brother but his wisdom. It is a very fine bridge. To do it without consulting parliament and then say well I have a right in a national emergency to raise these sorts of monies when in fact there's time to call a parliament is to abuse your power. It was just the first major step of Charles being seen as an absolutist monarch in an unacceptable very un-British way. The 30 years war had begun as a religious conflict between Catholic and Protestant states and although King Charles disengaged from the conflict the religious divisions within his own kingdoms did not disappear. England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland all had their own unique and combustible mix. Many also suspected Charles of secret Catholic sympathies. His wife was French. His attempts to help Protestant allies in Europe were seen as half-hearted and together with his Archbishop of Canterbury William Lord Charles passed a series of anti-Calvinist reforms. These were particularly unpopular in Scotland. In 1639 the church and public there rebelled. Charles couldn't stand this affront to his authority if he didn't have the funds to raise an adequate army. Scottish forces swept into England seizing Northumberland and forcing the King to pay them for the privilege. Charles had no choice but to recall Parliament. Humiliated by the Scots and backed into a corner by his finances Charles could not dismiss the members this time and the men of Parliament quickly moved against Charles's government. Advisers were impeached and new acts were passed preventing the King from ruling alone in the way he had done. The times seem as a man with ague. Some days good, some days bad. I see not the good. The remedy as ever is best found at home. Executing Chief Minister Strafford has purchased not a moment's respite. Had His Majesty not called Parliament last year I do believe the Earl of Warwick would have marched on London. Now bit by bit they gnaw away at his prerogative. An act for preventing the long intermission of Parliaments. An act declaring ship money unlawful and void. An act for the regulation of the Privy Council. His Majesty is most sensible of the disrespect. He will brook it though. He says it is but a few malcontents goading and leading the rabble on. I'm sure he has it right. Come home brother. If it turns to conflict I would not have you here in London. My place is with His Majesty. Tensions were reaching boiling point in Ireland. Terrible killings took place between Catholics and Protestants. Rumours abounded. Parliament wanted to impeach Charles's Catholic wife Henrietta Maria for collusion with the rebels. That, for the King, was the last straw. Charles marched on the House of Commons with an armed guard to arrest who he thought were his enemies. The opposition ringleaders. But the Speaker refused to surrender the MPs. Not long afterwards Charles left London which was increasingly hostile to him. Further negotiations with Parliament failed. Soon both sides were raising armies. At Nottingham on the 22nd of August 1642 Charles raised the royal standard. The English Civil War had begun. In order for there to be an English Civil War there has to be a collapse of authority in Ireland and Scotland first. You have to send an army to Ireland in order to safeguard the Protestants who've not been massacred. You can't trust the King with that army but the King can't possibly be expected to, as King, to give over the power to control armies to a Parliament that is a legislative body, it's not an executive body. So that becomes the non-negotiable issue in which all the tensions in England burst forth into violence. I see the Civil War coming from a shifting of tectonic plates to do with politics, society and religion. There were very, very bloody things going on in the continent which show the intensity of religious feeling on both sides. There was a similar feeling over here about what is right religiously and people believe passionately to the point of death in their particular brand of Christianity. I think one of the things about Charles I, almost his besetting sin, was tactlessness. They were so in love with their idea of what the church was and how it could be beautified that they were stupidly intolerant of the purest means. Definitely there was a class of people in the political sphere of England who believed that they should be representing the interests of the country versus the court. And equally vehemently you have Charles I and before him James I believing absolutely rigidly in the divine right of kings. So there's a sort of religious conflict and a philosophical one about who's actually in charge of this country and what is it about. Come. Everything is read, Your Majesty. Do you know what they say of me, Richard, in these pamphlets? I do not read them, sir. They say I plot with Rome that I conspire for the propagation of potpourri in my kingdoms. They are seditious, sir. They are bane, lewd and wicked. But fire must with fire be matched. I have ordered a printing press be conveyed to Oxford with the court. Very wise, sir. Our own newsletter. Where they entice with empty falsehood we shall nourish with the truth. So equipped will the people shake off their current sickness and better affection be to their king. I shall return, Richard, and to such a welcome. The stage was set for civil war. Charles on one side, Parliament on the other. Charles's belief in the divine right of kings was about to be severely tested. Charles said of his capital in Oxford, his strength lay in the north and west, whereas Parliament had the wealth in London and the southeast and control of the navy. The initial battles of the civil war were pretty much a draw alongside intermittent and futile peace talks. Father? Is it from Uncle Richard? Father, what news of the war? Oh, it's from one of our tenants. A clothier. He cannot pass army lines to reach market in Shrewsbury. Our drovers cannot take their cattle into England either. Perhaps they should fight instead, if their lord would not forbid it. Wisely they keep themselves apart. And no matter if people think they're cowards, if people talk of themselves. Were I to hear such a word, I would correct it very seriously. I think the Royalists were in the ascendant from the summer of 1642 until Marston Moor in 1644, marginally. I think the energy of the Royalists was quite impressive, but the fundamentals were against the Royalists the longer the war went on. The Navy being for Parliament and London being for Parliament, and then when the Scots came in, that was really the turning point. He did believe in the divine right of kings. He believed he was placed there by God. It was his destiny as an anointed king to be the supreme head of the British state. Whereas the Puritans, fed with this Hebraic idea that there is only one king, namely almighty God, disputed the idea that Charles Stuart, that man of blood as they called him, should make any such claim. I am a man grown. We've spoken about this. Is it not my duty to serve the king? These people live in the mountains. They sow no crop. Their livelihood is in cloth, in cattle. Only by reaching market can they pay the rent. Only with their rent can we support the king. That is our duty. It is yours. You cannot stop me. But most of these drovers, these clothiers, are too old for the fight. They are perhaps fearful of losing what they hold dear. That does not mean that they have forgotten what it is to be young and eager. I want to fight. 1645 was a turning point in the civil wars that so far have been a stalemate. Many in Parliament were unhappy that their advantage in resources hadn't translated into victory. They suspected some commanders of half-hearted leadership. They demanded change. So, in January 1645, the New Model Army was founded. It was to be professional, well-trained, a national army not limited to one geographical area like the old militia. And promotion were to be based on merit, not on social status. The New Model Army first took to the field in late spring 1645 under the command of Sir Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell. Its first major battle was on 14th of June at Naseby, where it faced the king's smaller but more experienced force. The result, a stunning victory for the new parliamentary force. Naseby in Northamptonshire, that's the one which really settles it because once the king's main marching army has been destroyed and his wonderful, wonderful infantry, there's no way to come back for him. The amount of territory he now occupies is too little to support the war effort. The emergence of the New Model Army, his first great victory at Naseby, is a clear sign that Parliament now has an instrument that will ensure that they will not lose the benefits of their great victory in the middle of Northamptonshire. That Naseby defeat robbed Charles of his best men, his artillery, his stores, and his grip over the royalist heartland of the West Country. Charles retreated to his capital, Oxford. Later, Charles headed for Conway Valley in North Wales, where he had loyal support. It's believed that he came here to Gwydir Castle upon the invitation of Sir Richard Wynne. Sir Richard Wynne was at the side of King Charles as his brother Owen received this message at Gwydir. He ever was an unfortunate king. Had the Wynnes been otherwise in 28, a fine victory might have been his in France. Instead, he was garlanded with humiliation. Now, defeat hurries quick upon defeat. His last port is besieged and his forces spent. And word comes he would seek refuge here at Gwydir to receive a king. That is an honour even I can recognise. Yet, danger slips through an open door. Offer your hand to a drowning man, you may be pulled down with him. Paint ourselves too lurid a royal hue, we mark ourselves as the victor's prize. But will Gwydir at the last reject Caesar? Should peace be struck, his kingdom retained, he may remember the friends that betrayed him with more rancour than the enemies that fought him. Alchemic reaction once begun cannot so easily be undone. Yet, they will have an answer. There was this king who was a charming man, had lots of good qualities, religious, thoughtful, very good family man, but a terrible king. And one who had taken very poor advice at a lot of key junctures. The problem with Charles was he was just so weak and it used to drive Henrietta Moriah mad. You see her letters to him from the safety of the continent saying, you agreed to do this, but you did that yet again, what are you doing? And he couldn't help himself. He just was easily swayable. And this was not a decade, the 1640s, where you could have a weak king and hope for a good outcome for the country or for him. King Charles was running out of options. He was forced to surrender to the Scottish army on the 5th of May, 1646. And after months of negotiation, Charles was given up into the custody of the English parliament, essentially taken to prison. Charles didn't give up hope. He knew about growing divisions between the Scots and the English and between parliament and the new model army. So he had a plan. He made a secret agreement with the Scots they would invade England and with the help of the remaining royalist forces return Charles to the throne. In return, Charles would establish a Scottish Presbyterian religion in England. The king, having lost the war, tries to win the peace. I mean, he tries to play off his enemies against one another, but it's not impossible that couldn't have worked. If he'd been a little bit more flexible in 1647, he could probably have made a deal with the army and the army would have put him back on the throne. In return, what they were demanding was complete religious freedom, that there should be complete liberty. And that was better for him, I think, than having a Presbyterian, strict, Scottish-style church government. He could have had a weak Episcopalian system, the Church of England, the weak Church of England, but with complete freedom outside it. And he doesn't take that opportunity. The Second Civil War flamed into life in 1648, but it was brief. The New Model Army put down the royalist rebellions before defeating the Scottish forces at Preston in August. Charles was forced to negotiate, but those divisions between the New Model Army and Parliament had not gone away. Parliament voted narrowly to continue negotiating with the king, but by now, the army and Oliver Cromwell thought Charles a tyrant who had to be removed. Choosing between the radical demands of the army and a king who surely is chastened and wiser than he was when we first fought him, faced by that, the army has a choice and the army decides that God will not forgive them if they put man of blood, this man who had caused all this suffering for his people, they put him back on the throne. So the army occupies London, it purges Parliament, it removes a majority of MPs and it puts the king on trial. When finally the king is taken, it's interesting that Sir Richard Wynne, of course, as well as his royal duties, was an MP. He then has to watch the slow unravelling of the royalist cause. And he'd been in his service for all these years already when he was prince and being all the way through. Having carried his robes at the coronation, having been with him on a drunken jaunt in Spain, having done all those things with the king and then ultimately with the queen later, it must have been terrifyingly difficult for anyone to cope with. There was a strong element of Parliament who were not in favour of the king being tried on any level. It was a huge jump for people mentally to go from the king that they had always been taught as being a representative of God and a figure of great awe. Even though he had been defeated in battle repeatedly, even though he was reneging on agreements, he was still the king. And to a lot of loyalist members of Parliament, they could understand a way forward where the king might be persuaded to be a more acceptable form of himself. The trial of a king was something new in England. No existing court thought the trial legal, so Parliament had to create a special body to try Charles. And it met for the first time in Westminster Hall on the 20th of January, 1649. Charles was accused of high treason, held responsible for all the death and destruction caused by the war. Of course, Charles didn't recognise the court's authority. He refused to enter a plea, insisting the trial was not only illegal by English law, but against God as well. The colonels of the New Model Army were the dominant force, really, in the trial of Charles I. They had seen too much bloodshed and they could then only see Charles as this famous phrase, this man of blood. He was no longer Charles, King of England on a pedestal. He was just another man who had caused this appalling bloodshed. And I think it's always worth remembering that the English civil wars, they caused the heaviest loss of life percentage of population in this country ever, including the First World War. And the casualties were even worse in Scotland and considerably worse in Ireland. So I think that with all that in mind, people thought those who hated the king by this stage or who suddenly loathed the bloodshed that went with the king's cause, I think they thought that if we could just lock the head off, literally, the crown, then we could have a fresh start and no more blood. The court sentenced Charles to death. He bade farewell to his children who were with him to the end. He requested two shirts so that he would not shiver from the cold and so give the impression of being afraid. The king was beheaded on a scaffold outside Banqueting House in Whitehall on the 30th of January, 1649. You look tired. Are you there? When they... Richard, may we all meet our deaths in so steadfast a spirit. Did they grant him any last words? The soldiers kept us at a far remove. A scaffold had been erected. It was at the Banqueting House, designed by Master Jones. Back our bridge. I could not hear what he said. I saw him speak a prayer and kneel at the block, hands outstretched before him. When the axe fell, the crowd gave out a moan as I never heard before and desire I may never do so again. Charles, king and martyr. Charles. It's interesting that Sir Richard Wynne just sort of fizzles out a few months after the execution of the king. He's dead. He's dead himself. In the 19th century, they would have romantically said he died of a broken heart, but he really had no purpose. He sort of fizzled out. It's a sort of unspecific illness. I think he just wasted away, probably through grief. The House of Lords was abolished, an executive power wielded by Parliament and its Council of State. The new model army was the most powerful force in Britain. With Oliver Cromwell in command, it swept aside all remaining military opposition. In 1653, Cromwell disbanded Parliament. He thought it quarrelsome and ineffective and seized power as Lord Protector. In the end, the bloody English civil war between King and Parliament saw both sides lose. All the while, across the sea, Charles's son and heir waited in exile. In the next episode of The Stuarts, A Bloody Reign, the heir to the throne, Charles II, goes into hiding on the continent, where he is stunned by the news that his father has been put to death. For over a decade, Charles travels in exile around the royal houses of Europe, planning to overthrow Cromwell's Commonwealth and restore the House of Stuart. But his attempts are in vain, and it seemed all hopes are lost. However, the tides begin to turn back in the Stuarts' favour with the death of Cromwell. And soon, Charles II will be welcomed with open arms by an adoring public in London. The restoration of the monarchy sees a return to prominence for the Wynne family as well. But there are many enormous obstacles to overcome, including a huge outbreak of the dreaded plague, and the Great Fire of London.