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In the early 17th century, the British Isles were engulfed | 0:00:05 | 0:00:09 | |
by bitter religious and political conflict. | 0:00:09 | 0:00:13 | |
The people divided into two warring tribes, | 0:00:14 | 0:00:17 | |
The Roundheads - | 0:00:17 | 0:00:19 | |
radical parliamentarians led by Oliver Cromwell, | 0:00:19 | 0:00:23 | |
fighting to create a more egalitarian church and state - | 0:00:23 | 0:00:26 | |
SHOUTING AND SWORDS CLASHING | 0:00:26 | 0:00:28 | |
and the Cavaliers - royalists led by Charles I | 0:00:28 | 0:00:31 | |
fighting to preserve the political and religious hierarchy | 0:00:31 | 0:00:35 | |
and the King's authority. | 0:00:35 | 0:00:37 | |
SHOUTING AND HORSES WHINNYING | 0:00:37 | 0:00:39 | |
The conflict came to a head in civil war | 0:00:39 | 0:00:42 | |
that would revolutionise the culture and politics of Britain. | 0:00:42 | 0:00:47 | |
MEN SHOUTING AND GALLOPING HOOVES | 0:00:47 | 0:00:49 | |
'It shattered unified society forever.' | 0:00:51 | 0:00:55 | |
And ever since then we've had, | 0:00:55 | 0:00:56 | |
essentially, some kind of two party system. | 0:00:56 | 0:00:59 | |
The division of Roundhead and Cavalier | 0:00:59 | 0:01:02 | |
got perpetuated, in many ways, into Whig and Tory, | 0:01:02 | 0:01:06 | |
Liberal and Conservative, | 0:01:06 | 0:01:08 | |
Conservative and Socialist. | 0:01:08 | 0:01:10 | |
The Civil War was more than a battle for political power. | 0:01:12 | 0:01:15 | |
It was also a struggle between two conflicting attitudes to life | 0:01:15 | 0:01:19 | |
and that struggle continues to this day. | 0:01:19 | 0:01:22 | |
I think we subconsciously divide ourselves into Roundheads and Cavaliers. | 0:01:23 | 0:01:27 | |
It's not a mark of wealth, it's not a question of class distinction, | 0:01:27 | 0:01:31 | |
it's a, sort of, cast of mind. | 0:01:31 | 0:01:32 | |
The Cavalier is flamboyant, a person of the grand gesture, | 0:01:34 | 0:01:39 | |
they're not particularly interested in the nitty-gritty | 0:01:39 | 0:01:41 | |
of organising life and politics. | 0:01:41 | 0:01:44 | |
They probably don't have a huge overall plan. | 0:01:44 | 0:01:47 | |
Rather vainglorious but also terribly affable and very friendly. | 0:01:47 | 0:01:54 | |
Beautiful, beautiful style, not much substance. | 0:01:54 | 0:01:58 | |
Roundheads I would say, more austere, | 0:02:00 | 0:02:02 | |
more careful, more organised. | 0:02:02 | 0:02:04 | |
Dour, godly, sincere, determined, thoughtful... | 0:02:04 | 0:02:09 | |
People of principle, people of purpose... | 0:02:09 | 0:02:12 | |
Very militant, power hungry, rebellious... | 0:02:12 | 0:02:18 | |
The battle between Roundheads and Cavaliers | 0:02:20 | 0:02:22 | |
continues to shape our national life. | 0:02:22 | 0:02:25 | |
In architecture... | 0:02:25 | 0:02:27 | |
..in the press... | 0:02:29 | 0:02:30 | |
..on the sports field... | 0:02:31 | 0:02:33 | |
..and in the kitchen. | 0:02:36 | 0:02:38 | |
To understand the origins of this great divide | 0:02:39 | 0:02:42 | |
is to understand what it means to be British. | 0:02:42 | 0:02:47 | |
Prepare to march. March on! | 0:02:50 | 0:02:53 | |
August Bank Holiday, Godalming, in Surrey. | 0:03:00 | 0:03:05 | |
And The Sealed Knot - | 0:03:09 | 0:03:11 | |
the Roundheads and Cavaliers of 21st Century Britain - | 0:03:11 | 0:03:16 | |
are on the march. | 0:03:16 | 0:03:17 | |
They regularly gather to re-create battles | 0:03:19 | 0:03:22 | |
from a civil war that forged our national character. | 0:03:22 | 0:03:25 | |
Very definitely pleased to say that I'm a royalist | 0:03:30 | 0:03:33 | |
and definitely a Cavalier as well. | 0:03:33 | 0:03:34 | |
And me now, you get Daddy! | 0:03:34 | 0:03:36 | |
'Cavalier means a gentleman of the royalist ranks, really.' | 0:03:36 | 0:03:40 | |
'I'm a Roundhead and I'm proud of it. Parliament for me.' | 0:03:40 | 0:03:44 | |
One voice, one people, one vote. | 0:03:44 | 0:03:46 | |
Without it where'd we be today? | 0:03:46 | 0:03:48 | |
We'd all be living in the gutter, king'd still be living in castles. | 0:03:48 | 0:03:51 | |
The first people to be called Roundheads | 0:03:52 | 0:03:55 | |
were bands of apprentices rioting in London in 1641 | 0:03:55 | 0:03:59 | |
in protest against the power of the King and the Church of England. | 0:03:59 | 0:04:03 | |
'Roundheads is a name that appeared out of the blue almost.' | 0:04:03 | 0:04:07 | |
There was a short-lived fashion for people, | 0:04:07 | 0:04:08 | |
Parliamentarians and Puritans in particular, | 0:04:08 | 0:04:11 | |
to wear their hair very short | 0:04:11 | 0:04:13 | |
and this made their heads look almost naked and bald or round. | 0:04:13 | 0:04:16 | |
And the name stuck, even though the fashion itself did not last very long. | 0:04:16 | 0:04:21 | |
The Roundheads were campaigning for a radical transformation | 0:04:21 | 0:04:24 | |
of Britain's political and religious hierarchy. | 0:04:24 | 0:04:27 | |
Radical Puritans had, in their day, a very advanced view of equality. | 0:04:28 | 0:04:34 | |
That view came from their religious beliefs, | 0:04:34 | 0:04:37 | |
where they were all equal before God, | 0:04:37 | 0:04:40 | |
they were all going to be saved. | 0:04:40 | 0:04:41 | |
And if they were all equal in religion | 0:04:41 | 0:04:45 | |
they should be equal in politics | 0:04:45 | 0:04:47 | |
and so the religion fed into the political demands. | 0:04:47 | 0:04:51 | |
The Cavaliers were determined | 0:04:52 | 0:04:54 | |
to stop this Puritanical Roundhead revolution. | 0:04:54 | 0:04:57 | |
Cavaliers were fighting to protect the authority of the King | 0:04:58 | 0:05:02 | |
and to protect the old established Church of England, | 0:05:02 | 0:05:05 | |
and they saw the Roundheads as fanatics, essentially, | 0:05:05 | 0:05:07 | |
who would bring down the church, bring down the state | 0:05:07 | 0:05:10 | |
and bring down law and order itself. | 0:05:10 | 0:05:12 | |
-ALL: -King Charles! | 0:05:12 | 0:05:13 | |
'The origin of the term Cavalier comes from the Spanish, "caballero," | 0:05:16 | 0:05:20 | |
'and it's used particularly to identify Royalists.' | 0:05:20 | 0:05:25 | |
Royalist courtiers on horsebacks | 0:05:25 | 0:05:28 | |
with their swords, with their honour code | 0:05:28 | 0:05:30 | |
and as the propaganda campaign kicks off | 0:05:30 | 0:05:33 | |
it also has connotations of drunkenness, | 0:05:33 | 0:05:36 | |
rowdy behaviour, and can be used, also, as an insult | 0:05:36 | 0:05:40 | |
as well as a way of identifying the enemy. | 0:05:40 | 0:05:44 | |
As the conflict spread across the British Isles, | 0:05:47 | 0:05:51 | |
the two tribes expressed their political and religious differences | 0:05:51 | 0:05:54 | |
in the way they dressed. | 0:05:54 | 0:05:56 | |
Cavaliers were flamboyant and extravagant. | 0:05:58 | 0:06:03 | |
Some even sported ribbons on their codpieces. | 0:06:03 | 0:06:06 | |
Roundheads valued simplicity and modesty as signs of godliness. | 0:06:07 | 0:06:11 | |
'Puritans, seeing someone dressed in fine silk clothes' | 0:06:15 | 0:06:18 | |
showed exactly how morally degraded they were. | 0:06:18 | 0:06:22 | |
A puritan believed you displayed your own moral integrity | 0:06:22 | 0:06:25 | |
by quiet, modest dress. | 0:06:25 | 0:06:26 | |
So seeing those individuals in court full of their fine silks | 0:06:26 | 0:06:30 | |
really exposed their fundamental moral depravity. | 0:06:30 | 0:06:34 | |
The war of the wardrobes was fought out in sharply-worded pamphlets - | 0:06:40 | 0:06:45 | |
precursors of the newspaper. | 0:06:45 | 0:06:47 | |
One Puritan pamphlet raged against the Cavalier's long hair - | 0:06:49 | 0:06:54 | |
The Unloveliness of Lovelocks. | 0:06:54 | 0:06:57 | |
John Lilburne, a radical Roundhead and pamphleteer, | 0:07:00 | 0:07:05 | |
was a model for the puritan values of modesty and restraint. | 0:07:05 | 0:07:09 | |
'John Lilburne had an engraving done of him' | 0:07:09 | 0:07:12 | |
and it promoted this image of the man in plain clothes, | 0:07:12 | 0:07:16 | |
in black dress, unadorned, plain, | 0:07:16 | 0:07:20 | |
just a little bit of ruff collar and a very simple hairstyle - | 0:07:20 | 0:07:25 | |
the classic Roundhead with a few curls around the ears. | 0:07:25 | 0:07:29 | |
The Cavaliers defended their exuberant exhibitionism | 0:07:30 | 0:07:34 | |
with pamphlets of their own - | 0:07:34 | 0:07:37 | |
and it wasn't just the men. | 0:07:37 | 0:07:38 | |
'There is one wonderful pamphlet, by a woman, denouncing what she called, | 0:07:40 | 0:07:45 | |
' "The ill-bred plebeian zealotry of Puritans," ' | 0:07:45 | 0:07:48 | |
and insisting that it was entirely up to women | 0:07:48 | 0:07:50 | |
to wear hair as long as they liked, | 0:07:50 | 0:07:52 | |
to wear beauty spots and cosmetics, | 0:07:52 | 0:07:55 | |
and denounced religion as just as fickle as fashion had ever been. | 0:07:55 | 0:07:59 | |
The English Civil War dropped a pebble into our pond | 0:08:00 | 0:08:06 | |
and those ripples keep coming, keep coming. | 0:08:06 | 0:08:10 | |
MUSIC: "Vogue" by Madonna | 0:08:10 | 0:08:13 | |
'I think if we look at modern fashion then, obviously,' | 0:08:20 | 0:08:22 | |
a sense of permissiveness, and pleasure, and glamour, | 0:08:22 | 0:08:26 | |
and extravagance has won out. | 0:08:26 | 0:08:28 | |
So the Cavaliers have definitely won. | 0:08:28 | 0:08:30 | |
# Vogue | 0:08:30 | 0:08:32 | |
# Let your body groove to the music | 0:08:32 | 0:08:35 | |
# Hey, hey, hey! | 0:08:35 | 0:08:37 | |
# Vogue... # What are you looking at? | 0:08:37 | 0:08:39 | |
'I do think that the exposure, | 0:08:39 | 0:08:41 | |
'which goes on in our streets at the moment, is plain immodest. | 0:08:41 | 0:08:44 | |
'And I did use to say to some of the girls on Strictly,' | 0:08:44 | 0:08:47 | |
"Are you feeling a bit cold?" | 0:08:47 | 0:08:49 | |
Because they weren't really wearing very much and I do disapprove. | 0:08:49 | 0:08:53 | |
And I do think that people should conduct themselves modestly. | 0:08:53 | 0:08:57 | |
I mean, just the sense of disapproval of everything | 0:08:57 | 0:09:02 | |
still happens today. | 0:09:02 | 0:09:04 | |
The idea that dressing up is wrong, anything indulgent is wrong. | 0:09:04 | 0:09:08 | |
It's about distracting you away from your core value, | 0:09:08 | 0:09:13 | |
which, you know, obviously, for the Roundheads was God, was religion. | 0:09:13 | 0:09:18 | |
In the early 1640s, | 0:09:24 | 0:09:26 | |
the Roundheads stepped up their parliamentary campaign | 0:09:26 | 0:09:29 | |
for democratic reform of church and state... | 0:09:29 | 0:09:33 | |
but the Cavaliers refused to compromise | 0:09:33 | 0:09:35 | |
the supremacy of the monarchy. | 0:09:35 | 0:09:37 | |
'By the summer of 1642, their differences are irreconcilable.' | 0:09:38 | 0:09:43 | |
They can only be decided on the field of war by the use of the sword. | 0:09:43 | 0:09:47 | |
And that's what happens, | 0:09:47 | 0:09:48 | |
both Parliament and the King set up their standards in August 1642, | 0:09:48 | 0:09:53 | |
and the English Civil War is under way. | 0:09:53 | 0:09:55 | |
On October 23rd 1642, at Edgehill, in Warwickshire, | 0:09:56 | 0:10:02 | |
Roundhead and Cavalier armies faced each other for the first time. | 0:10:02 | 0:10:07 | |
The King's Cavalry were crack troops led by his nephew, | 0:10:14 | 0:10:18 | |
the 23-year-old Prince Rupert of the Rhine. | 0:10:18 | 0:10:21 | |
One of the most experienced cavalry commanders in Europe, | 0:10:21 | 0:10:25 | |
he was the very image of a Cavalier. | 0:10:25 | 0:10:28 | |
'He was so dashing, he was definitely romantic.' | 0:10:28 | 0:10:32 | |
And I love the fact he used to ride into battle with his standard poodle, | 0:10:32 | 0:10:38 | |
which the parliamentary forces thought was his familiar, | 0:10:38 | 0:10:42 | |
running along beside him. | 0:10:42 | 0:10:44 | |
How do you train a poodle to take somebody's throat out | 0:10:44 | 0:10:46 | |
if they're trying to hamstring your horse, I don't really know! | 0:10:46 | 0:10:49 | |
'This the saddle belonging to Prince Rupert of the Rhine. | 0:10:55 | 0:10:59 | |
'An extremely posh saddle.' | 0:10:59 | 0:11:02 | |
The most expensive accessory which a household can have is tapestry | 0:11:03 | 0:11:08 | |
and this is a miniature piece of tapestry. | 0:11:08 | 0:11:10 | |
It's also extremely comfortable | 0:11:10 | 0:11:12 | |
by the standards of saddles of that day and most. | 0:11:12 | 0:11:15 | |
Instead of the usual hard leather thing, | 0:11:15 | 0:11:17 | |
what you have here is velvet plush, | 0:11:17 | 0:11:20 | |
really deep, and maximum comfort. | 0:11:20 | 0:11:22 | |
At Edgehill, Rupert launched the Cavalier's secret weapon... | 0:11:25 | 0:11:29 | |
..a manoeuvre he'd learnt on the battlefields of Europe... | 0:11:31 | 0:11:34 | |
MEN SHOUTING | 0:11:34 | 0:11:36 | |
..the thunderbolt charge. | 0:11:36 | 0:11:38 | |
'You hear the sound of thousands and thousands | 0:11:42 | 0:11:44 | |
'of horses' hooves striking the ground at once' | 0:11:44 | 0:11:48 | |
and it's louder than thunder. | 0:11:48 | 0:11:50 | |
It's an extraordinary cacophony of noise, | 0:11:50 | 0:11:54 | |
which sweeps you along with it, | 0:11:54 | 0:11:56 | |
as finally the canter turns into the all-out charge. | 0:11:56 | 0:11:59 | |
Horses encourage each other, | 0:12:01 | 0:12:03 | |
so as one moves faster the whole mass begins to go, | 0:12:03 | 0:12:06 | |
and it's rather like something being released from a bow or from a gun. | 0:12:06 | 0:12:11 | |
'Prince Rupert knew the shock value of cavalry.' | 0:12:12 | 0:12:14 | |
He went straight in and hard. | 0:12:14 | 0:12:16 | |
He knew if he broke the enemy cavalry they would never reform. | 0:12:16 | 0:12:19 | |
He could then dominate the field. | 0:12:19 | 0:12:21 | |
MEN SHOUTING | 0:12:21 | 0:12:23 | |
The Cavalier Thunderbolt scattered the Roundhead cavalry | 0:12:25 | 0:12:30 | |
but then Prince Rupert and his high-spirited horsemen | 0:12:30 | 0:12:33 | |
continued charging... | 0:12:33 | 0:12:34 | |
..off the battlefield and toward the Roundhead encampment. | 0:12:36 | 0:12:41 | |
'And one of the most glorious things about old-fashioned warfare' | 0:12:41 | 0:12:45 | |
is your ability to loot the defeated enemy. | 0:12:45 | 0:12:47 | |
And here in the wagons were not just the foodstuffs, and the drink, | 0:12:47 | 0:12:52 | |
and the cloth for the ordinary soldiers | 0:12:52 | 0:12:55 | |
but all the valuables of the officers. | 0:12:55 | 0:12:58 | |
And so what Rupert's troopers did | 0:12:58 | 0:13:00 | |
was set about plundering for hours - | 0:13:00 | 0:13:02 | |
behind them the battle was largely being lost. | 0:13:02 | 0:13:06 | |
The Cavaliers' lack of self-discipline | 0:13:06 | 0:13:09 | |
allowed the Roundheads to regain the initiative. | 0:13:09 | 0:13:12 | |
As darkness fell, the battle of Edgehill ended in stalemate. | 0:13:12 | 0:13:17 | |
'Cavaliers don't do self-discipline at all,' | 0:13:20 | 0:13:22 | |
that's, the absolute antithesis of Cavalier thought is self control, | 0:13:22 | 0:13:26 | |
it's all about letting it go. | 0:13:26 | 0:13:28 | |
You know, about just enjoying the moment. | 0:13:28 | 0:13:31 | |
It's carpe diem, it's gather ye rosebuds while ye may, | 0:13:31 | 0:13:34 | |
all of that kind of stuff. | 0:13:34 | 0:13:35 | |
'A Cavalier person, in a way, reflects Cavalier principles, | 0:13:37 | 0:13:40 | |
'which are they don't care too much. They are there for the moment.' | 0:13:40 | 0:13:43 | |
They are dazzling rather than detailed, | 0:13:43 | 0:13:45 | |
they are, they are there to entertain and to move life along | 0:13:45 | 0:13:49 | |
but they're not there, really, to do the nitty-gritty. | 0:13:49 | 0:13:52 | |
Over the next three years, as the Civil War swept through the country, | 0:13:55 | 0:13:59 | |
the radical Parliamentarian Oliver Cromwell | 0:13:59 | 0:14:02 | |
emerged as the Roundheads' most effective military leader. | 0:14:02 | 0:14:05 | |
Open your order from the centre! | 0:14:05 | 0:14:07 | |
In 1644, he began building | 0:14:07 | 0:14:09 | |
Britain's first full-time professional fighting force... | 0:14:09 | 0:14:13 | |
Port your pike! | 0:14:13 | 0:14:14 | |
..the New Model Army. | 0:14:14 | 0:14:16 | |
Double your files! | 0:14:16 | 0:14:17 | |
It became a showcase for the Roundhead values | 0:14:17 | 0:14:20 | |
of godliness and discipline. | 0:14:20 | 0:14:22 | |
Without discipline you get nowhere in life | 0:14:38 | 0:14:43 | |
and that's very true of today, never mind the 17th century. | 0:14:43 | 0:14:46 | |
You think this is your birthday, don't you, Josh? | 0:14:47 | 0:14:50 | |
You have to have discipline, | 0:14:50 | 0:14:52 | |
you have to have order | 0:14:52 | 0:14:54 | |
and Cromwell was very good at instilling order into his troops. | 0:14:54 | 0:14:59 | |
We believe, "Work hard and play hard." | 0:15:04 | 0:15:06 | |
It wouldn't be unfair to say Ruperts believe, | 0:15:06 | 0:15:10 | |
"Play hard, and play a bit harder." | 0:15:10 | 0:15:12 | |
So, that's the main difference between the two units. | 0:15:13 | 0:15:16 | |
Discipline was absolutely essential. | 0:15:21 | 0:15:24 | |
And we know that the Parliamentary troops were far better disciplined. | 0:15:24 | 0:15:29 | |
Everything from drunkenness and fornication | 0:15:30 | 0:15:33 | |
being punished severely... | 0:15:33 | 0:15:35 | |
The penalty for blasphemy was particularly severe. | 0:15:35 | 0:15:39 | |
Somebody who was a persistent blasphemer | 0:15:39 | 0:15:42 | |
would have his tongue drawn out of his mouth with pincers, | 0:15:42 | 0:15:46 | |
and bored through with a red hot iron, | 0:15:46 | 0:15:48 | |
so he ended up with a hole in his tongue. | 0:15:48 | 0:15:50 | |
Cromwell now set out to improve the performance | 0:15:52 | 0:15:54 | |
of the Roundhead cavalry. | 0:15:54 | 0:15:56 | |
He trained them, and trained them, and trained them, | 0:15:59 | 0:16:01 | |
until they would charge home, | 0:16:01 | 0:16:04 | |
the thunderbolt charge, like Prince Rupert's men, | 0:16:04 | 0:16:06 | |
but after the charge, | 0:16:06 | 0:16:07 | |
they would regroup, return to the battlefield, | 0:16:07 | 0:16:10 | |
and be good for another charge. | 0:16:10 | 0:16:13 | |
And that, of course, was a tremendous advance. | 0:16:13 | 0:16:17 | |
The Roundheads also introduced a military uniform for the first time. | 0:16:17 | 0:16:21 | |
The famous redcoat, | 0:16:23 | 0:16:25 | |
worn by the British army for the next two centuries. | 0:16:25 | 0:16:28 | |
The New Model Army recruited according to military competence, | 0:16:34 | 0:16:38 | |
not aristocratic birthright. | 0:16:38 | 0:16:40 | |
Britain's feudal hierarchy was being replaced by the newly-emerging | 0:16:42 | 0:16:45 | |
Roundhead state. | 0:16:45 | 0:16:47 | |
You have new institutions. The committee for the army, | 0:16:51 | 0:16:55 | |
the committee for the navy. And so, the state bureaucracy | 0:16:55 | 0:17:00 | |
is inevitably increasing to a size previously unheard of. | 0:17:00 | 0:17:06 | |
I think a good case can be made that the modern state begins | 0:17:06 | 0:17:11 | |
in the 1640s, with the Civil War and these new bureaucratic institutions. | 0:17:11 | 0:17:15 | |
Roundhead bureaucracy introduced a new spirit of professionalism | 0:17:19 | 0:17:23 | |
into British life, that still endures. | 0:17:23 | 0:17:25 | |
We work all the hours that God sends, | 0:17:31 | 0:17:32 | |
and if you don't die of a heart attack, | 0:17:32 | 0:17:34 | |
you might make a nice profit in your old age, | 0:17:34 | 0:17:37 | |
when you're too old to enjoy it. | 0:17:37 | 0:17:38 | |
But certainly that "Cavalier joy", as it's called, | 0:17:38 | 0:17:44 | |
has gone in our attitude to work. | 0:17:44 | 0:17:47 | |
We've definitely become the Roundhead state. | 0:17:47 | 0:17:50 | |
Undoubtedly there is a more austere | 0:17:52 | 0:17:55 | |
and professional attitude in British life. | 0:17:55 | 0:17:59 | |
The great cult of the amateur, the great cult of the eccentric, | 0:17:59 | 0:18:02 | |
the person who sort of organised life from the seat of their pants | 0:18:02 | 0:18:05 | |
has rather gone, I think. | 0:18:05 | 0:18:06 | |
I think we certainly do expect people to have a plan, | 0:18:06 | 0:18:09 | |
to stick to it, and to understand the detail of the machine. | 0:18:09 | 0:18:12 | |
Deep in the Cavalier heartlands of modern Britain, | 0:18:23 | 0:18:26 | |
the cult of the amateur lives on. | 0:18:26 | 0:18:29 | |
Henley of course started as the Regatta in 1839, | 0:18:41 | 0:18:45 | |
and amateur sport was absolutely at the heart of it. | 0:18:45 | 0:18:48 | |
There was something fundamental about the way you looked at sport. | 0:18:53 | 0:18:57 | |
The amateur was not all about winning, | 0:18:57 | 0:18:59 | |
it was the playing the part. It was about the whole man. | 0:18:59 | 0:19:03 | |
The professional was about the prize. | 0:19:03 | 0:19:05 | |
Ready for the contest, boys? Come on. | 0:19:09 | 0:19:12 | |
The flower, it's all dying on you. | 0:19:12 | 0:19:15 | |
I'm more a Cavalier. | 0:19:17 | 0:19:18 | |
Cavalier, sir. Cavalier attitude and mannerism. | 0:19:18 | 0:19:21 | |
Cavalier. And that's all about team spirit and enjoying yourself. | 0:19:21 | 0:19:24 | |
It's not about winning. | 0:19:24 | 0:19:26 | |
It's just about taking part. | 0:19:26 | 0:19:28 | |
The buttonholes at the veterans' | 0:19:28 | 0:19:30 | |
National Flower Day Competition would humble any 17th century dandy. | 0:19:30 | 0:19:35 | |
These are calla lilies, Asiatic lily and estrelicia, | 0:19:36 | 0:19:41 | |
the bird of paradise flying in and taking nectar from it. | 0:19:41 | 0:19:45 | |
This is plucked from the garden this morning. | 0:19:45 | 0:19:48 | |
These are all hand-reared. and smelling delightful. | 0:19:48 | 0:19:52 | |
But even in this Cavalier stronghold, | 0:19:52 | 0:19:55 | |
there's been a Roundhead incursion. | 0:19:55 | 0:19:58 | |
Two British Olympic hopes, Andy Triggs-Hodge | 0:20:07 | 0:20:10 | |
and Pete Reed have brought Roundhead professionalism onto the water. | 0:20:10 | 0:20:15 | |
Rowing is 24 hours a day for us. | 0:20:17 | 0:20:19 | |
I pressurise myself in training, to make sure I'm improving | 0:20:19 | 0:20:23 | |
on a daily basis. I feel that that's a decent Roundhead attitude. | 0:20:23 | 0:20:26 | |
And it's finding anything we can do. | 0:20:26 | 0:20:29 | |
It's all the little things that help you through the day. | 0:20:29 | 0:20:32 | |
If you can reduce the amount of hours you drive, if you can sleep longer. | 0:20:32 | 0:20:36 | |
The quality of your bed, it all makes a difference. | 0:20:36 | 0:20:39 | |
It's applying how we execute our finest 2km race in the Olympic Games, | 0:20:39 | 0:20:46 | |
and how every bit of life affects that in the four years prior. | 0:20:46 | 0:20:50 | |
At the end of the day, it is all about winning. | 0:20:50 | 0:20:52 | |
But Olympic success still calls | 0:20:53 | 0:20:55 | |
for a touch of the old "Cavalier" spirit. | 0:20:55 | 0:20:57 | |
When I get on the water, | 0:21:02 | 0:21:03 | |
there's got to be a bit of me that's a bit of a loose cannon, | 0:21:03 | 0:21:07 | |
and you've just got to go out and do crazy things, | 0:21:07 | 0:21:09 | |
cos if you don't, you'll never achieve your personal best. | 0:21:09 | 0:21:14 | |
I think it's fascinating the way most sports teams require | 0:21:15 | 0:21:18 | |
a combination of Roundhead and Cavalier. | 0:21:18 | 0:21:21 | |
The England rugby team, for example, requires the Roundhead, | 0:21:21 | 0:21:24 | |
Jonny Wilkinson, to kick the ball through the post | 0:21:24 | 0:21:27 | |
with metronomic efficiency, but it also needs those extraordinary, | 0:21:27 | 0:21:31 | |
flamboyant figures on the wing, who can suddenly carve through. | 0:21:31 | 0:21:34 | |
I think it's the same of all sports, and perhaps it's true of all teams. | 0:21:34 | 0:21:38 | |
You need a Boycott, but you also need to have a Kevin Pietersen. | 0:21:38 | 0:21:42 | |
On June 14th, 1645, | 0:21:46 | 0:21:49 | |
Roundhead discipline was put to the test at Naseby, in Northamptonshire. | 0:21:49 | 0:21:53 | |
The New Model Army prepared to confront the Cavalier forces. | 0:21:54 | 0:21:58 | |
Prince Rupert began the battle with another thunderbolt charge. | 0:22:00 | 0:22:04 | |
At Naseby, Prince Rupert was on the Royalist right wing. | 0:22:05 | 0:22:08 | |
He charged and scattered the Parliamentary left wing. | 0:22:08 | 0:22:13 | |
But made the same mistake as at Edgehill. | 0:22:13 | 0:22:17 | |
His men scattered off in all directions, | 0:22:17 | 0:22:19 | |
plundered the baggage train, | 0:22:19 | 0:22:22 | |
and were not much use for the rest of the battle. | 0:22:22 | 0:22:24 | |
Cromwell's new, well-drilled cavalry were now ready to be deployed | 0:22:25 | 0:22:30 | |
with devastating effect. | 0:22:30 | 0:22:32 | |
On the right wing, Cromwell charged home, | 0:22:33 | 0:22:36 | |
scattered the Royalist left wing, | 0:22:36 | 0:22:40 | |
and then got his men to come to the assistance of the cavalry, | 0:22:40 | 0:22:44 | |
and then charge into the flank of the Royalist infantry, | 0:22:44 | 0:22:48 | |
and win the Battle of Naseby. | 0:22:48 | 0:22:50 | |
Naseby annihilates the King's own army, | 0:22:54 | 0:22:57 | |
it destroys a body of men he had built up over three years. | 0:22:57 | 0:23:00 | |
And he never manages to rebuild it. | 0:23:00 | 0:23:02 | |
It is the knockout blow of the English Civil War. | 0:23:02 | 0:23:05 | |
By October 1647, | 0:23:07 | 0:23:08 | |
the King was imprisoned, | 0:23:08 | 0:23:11 | |
and the Cavaliers were in disarray. | 0:23:11 | 0:23:13 | |
Roundhead forces were camped just outside the capital, here in Putney. | 0:23:13 | 0:23:17 | |
The more radical Roundheads were now demanding their reward | 0:23:18 | 0:23:22 | |
- a more equal society. | 0:23:22 | 0:23:25 | |
They became known as the Levellers. | 0:23:25 | 0:23:27 | |
These people wanted reform of the law, | 0:23:30 | 0:23:33 | |
religious toleration, reform of election procedure. | 0:23:33 | 0:23:37 | |
They wanted the soldiers who'd fought for parliament | 0:23:37 | 0:23:40 | |
to be rewarded in some way. | 0:23:40 | 0:23:42 | |
These were not mercenaries. | 0:23:42 | 0:23:44 | |
These were, in the language of the day, developing "citizens". | 0:23:44 | 0:23:47 | |
-Second colour, yes? -ALL: Yes. | 0:23:47 | 0:23:50 | |
-Who's going to be second colour? -Alex. -No, we'll sort that out... | 0:23:50 | 0:23:55 | |
Today, the 21st century Roundheads are following tradition, | 0:23:55 | 0:23:58 | |
by voting for their commanding officer. | 0:23:58 | 0:24:01 | |
You've got advice... | 0:24:01 | 0:24:03 | |
It's important to have democracy, | 0:24:03 | 0:24:05 | |
because the Royalists had dictatorship, | 0:24:05 | 0:24:07 | |
and it didn't work. | 0:24:07 | 0:24:08 | |
ALL: Aye. | 0:24:08 | 0:24:11 | |
Inspired by radicals like John Lilburne, | 0:24:11 | 0:24:15 | |
the Levellers published their demands for human rights | 0:24:15 | 0:24:17 | |
and democratic reform | 0:24:17 | 0:24:19 | |
in a manifesto called The Agreement Of The People. | 0:24:19 | 0:24:22 | |
It's a radical vision of England. | 0:24:24 | 0:24:26 | |
It's an England, eventually, in which he would like to see | 0:24:26 | 0:24:29 | |
a greater extension in democracy. Voting rights for certain men. | 0:24:29 | 0:24:33 | |
Men, not women, one should add. Not servants, not beggars. | 0:24:33 | 0:24:38 | |
Religious toleration. | 0:24:38 | 0:24:40 | |
This is the type of England Lilburne would like to see. | 0:24:40 | 0:24:43 | |
It was a fascinating and fabulous moment in British history. | 0:24:44 | 0:24:49 | |
The Levellers, by The Agreement of the People | 0:24:52 | 0:24:55 | |
were proposing a bill of rights | 0:24:55 | 0:24:58 | |
that would give individuals, | 0:24:58 | 0:25:02 | |
autonomous individuals, certain rights against government. | 0:25:02 | 0:25:07 | |
So that is a very important, profoundly important idea today. | 0:25:07 | 0:25:12 | |
But the Roundhead forces were divided. | 0:25:16 | 0:25:18 | |
Even a committed Parliamentarian like Cromwell | 0:25:18 | 0:25:22 | |
feared the Levellers' egalitarian demands would lead to anarchy. | 0:25:22 | 0:25:26 | |
For 13 days, here in the Church of St Mary in Putney, | 0:25:28 | 0:25:33 | |
the two sides took part in a great debate | 0:25:33 | 0:25:36 | |
about the future of the nation. | 0:25:36 | 0:25:38 | |
The position of the generals was put by Cromwell's son-in-law, | 0:25:39 | 0:25:42 | |
Henry Ireton, who said the vote should be restricted | 0:25:42 | 0:25:46 | |
to those who traditionally had it. | 0:25:46 | 0:25:49 | |
To the people who had a stake in the country, who owned a piece of land. | 0:25:49 | 0:25:53 | |
From his point of view, this was only right and proper. | 0:25:53 | 0:25:56 | |
Why should you have a say in government | 0:25:56 | 0:25:59 | |
if you don't own anything, if you're poor? | 0:25:59 | 0:26:02 | |
If you're beholden to a people who are more powerful than you, | 0:26:02 | 0:26:05 | |
they will influence the way that you vote. | 0:26:05 | 0:26:08 | |
This is a profound moment. | 0:26:08 | 0:26:10 | |
There had been popular rebellions before in English history. | 0:26:10 | 0:26:13 | |
These had been about particular issues - food, taxation - | 0:26:13 | 0:26:18 | |
but not about a right to have a say in how government is chosen. | 0:26:18 | 0:26:24 | |
The Levellers began a debate about citizenship and democracy | 0:26:27 | 0:26:30 | |
that continues in modern Britain, and across the world. | 0:26:30 | 0:26:34 | |
It was John Lilburne who said famously, | 0:26:36 | 0:26:40 | |
that although we may die, our ideas will live on, | 0:26:40 | 0:26:44 | |
and it will be for later generations to implement them. | 0:26:44 | 0:26:47 | |
And, after all, this is what we are about today. | 0:26:50 | 0:26:53 | |
I always laugh about the Conservatives who dismiss | 0:26:53 | 0:26:58 | |
the European Convention on Human Rights, | 0:26:58 | 0:27:02 | |
because it goes back to these times | 0:27:02 | 0:27:04 | |
when torture was abolished, | 0:27:04 | 0:27:06 | |
when religious freedom - comparatively - was permitted, | 0:27:06 | 0:27:10 | |
when parliament was sovereign, when we were working out democracy. | 0:27:10 | 0:27:14 | |
These rights go back to Cromwell and the Levellers, | 0:27:14 | 0:27:17 | |
who argued them in this little Putney church. | 0:27:17 | 0:27:19 | |
With the King in prison, the Roundheads could now | 0:27:21 | 0:27:24 | |
set about moulding the nation in their own image. | 0:27:24 | 0:27:26 | |
But playful Cavalier traditions were deeply rooted in British life. | 0:27:27 | 0:27:33 | |
-Give me an 'O'. -ALL: O! -Give me an 'N'. -ALL: N! | 0:27:33 | 0:27:37 | |
-Give me an 'I'. -ALL: I! | 0:27:37 | 0:27:38 | |
-And an 'O'. -ALL: O! | 0:27:38 | 0:27:40 | |
-And an 'N'. -ALL: N! -Onion! -CHEERING | 0:27:40 | 0:27:45 | |
Here in Newent, Gloucestershire, the Roundhead struggle | 0:27:45 | 0:27:48 | |
to crush the town's Cavalier spirit has never been forgotten. | 0:27:48 | 0:27:52 | |
There's still remains of the Cavalier/Roundhead rivalry. | 0:27:53 | 0:27:57 | |
Gloucester being a Roundhead stronghold, | 0:27:57 | 0:27:59 | |
and the rural area surrounding being Cavalier. | 0:27:59 | 0:28:02 | |
There was fighting going on. | 0:28:02 | 0:28:04 | |
There was a battle around here, | 0:28:04 | 0:28:06 | |
and it can take hundreds of years for that to wear off. | 0:28:06 | 0:28:09 | |
SHOUTING | 0:28:11 | 0:28:14 | |
Every year, the people of Newent reaffirm their Cavalier spirit | 0:28:14 | 0:28:19 | |
with the pleasures of the 850-year-old Onion Fayre. | 0:28:19 | 0:28:22 | |
-CHEERING -Who won? | 0:28:23 | 0:28:26 | |
ALL: Five, four, three, | 0:28:26 | 0:28:29 | |
-two, one. -Go! | 0:28:29 | 0:28:32 | |
The climax of this festival is the World Onion-Eating Championship. | 0:28:32 | 0:28:37 | |
Put your hands in the air when you're finished, lads, | 0:28:37 | 0:28:39 | |
and open your mouths for the judges. | 0:28:39 | 0:28:42 | |
CHEERING | 0:28:42 | 0:28:43 | |
LOUD CHEERING | 0:28:50 | 0:28:52 | |
I've been practising nearly all week. | 0:28:55 | 0:28:57 | |
This is the fourth year now I've won it. | 0:28:57 | 0:29:00 | |
That was my slowest time ever. | 0:29:02 | 0:29:04 | |
Thank you very much. See you all again, hopefully, next year. | 0:29:04 | 0:29:08 | |
I've got to be Cavalier, without a doubt. | 0:29:09 | 0:29:11 | |
You have only got to look at today. The party atmosphere, the fun everybody is having. | 0:29:11 | 0:29:16 | |
I couldn't imagine that under Cromwell. | 0:29:16 | 0:29:19 | |
Puritans were not really in favour of fun. | 0:29:20 | 0:29:23 | |
The Puritans felt that a lot of popular behaviour | 0:29:23 | 0:29:26 | |
was bad for the people themselves, even if they liked doing it. | 0:29:26 | 0:29:28 | |
Their approach was to do what was good for the people, | 0:29:28 | 0:29:31 | |
not necessarily what the people merely wanted. | 0:29:31 | 0:29:33 | |
But the Roundheads were confronted by a pleasure-loving people. | 0:29:37 | 0:29:41 | |
And they were never happier than when they were getting drunk. | 0:29:41 | 0:29:45 | |
Puritans pretty much find drunkenness a despicable | 0:29:45 | 0:29:48 | |
form of immodesty. | 0:29:48 | 0:29:50 | |
Drunkenness allows your sins to come to the fore. | 0:29:50 | 0:29:54 | |
Drunkenness means you're out of control, | 0:29:54 | 0:29:56 | |
and you can't act in a godly way. | 0:29:56 | 0:29:58 | |
So, for the Puritan, the alehouses are these great sites of sinfulness, | 0:29:58 | 0:30:02 | |
and have to be policed and disciplined. | 0:30:02 | 0:30:04 | |
I don't know what makes the English a nation of binge drinkers. | 0:30:07 | 0:30:12 | |
There is something about the inhabitants of this island | 0:30:12 | 0:30:14 | |
which means we want to drink too much, | 0:30:14 | 0:30:17 | |
and not just get amusing with it, but actually pick a fight with it. | 0:30:17 | 0:30:22 | |
Of course, the Roundheads were terribly disapproving | 0:30:22 | 0:30:25 | |
about alcohol, because it is fundamentally pretty anti-social. | 0:30:25 | 0:30:29 | |
Drunken British people are absolutely appalling. | 0:30:29 | 0:30:33 | |
Where the Cavaliers have won, | 0:30:35 | 0:30:37 | |
is that, I think, most of the British population, | 0:30:37 | 0:30:43 | |
whatever their political beliefs, actually, | 0:30:43 | 0:30:47 | |
feel they have the right to get drunk if they want to. | 0:30:47 | 0:30:51 | |
They have the right to eat what they want to, | 0:30:51 | 0:30:53 | |
even if it makes them fat, they have the right not to go for a run. | 0:30:53 | 0:30:57 | |
That's their business. | 0:30:57 | 0:30:59 | |
They're perfectly happy with the government saying, | 0:30:59 | 0:31:02 | |
"You can't get drunk and then drive." | 0:31:02 | 0:31:04 | |
That's absolutely fine, but not, "You can't get drunk." | 0:31:04 | 0:31:09 | |
Perhaps that's the line between Roundhead and Cavalier. | 0:31:09 | 0:31:13 | |
In 1648, the Roundheads turned their attention | 0:31:19 | 0:31:23 | |
to one of the most popular forms of public entertainment, | 0:31:23 | 0:31:26 | |
the theatre. | 0:31:26 | 0:31:28 | |
Parliament issued an order for the "utter suppression | 0:31:28 | 0:31:31 | |
"and abolishing of all stage-plays." | 0:31:31 | 0:31:35 | |
Puritans were very suspicious of the theatre, | 0:31:35 | 0:31:38 | |
and almost everything involved with it. | 0:31:38 | 0:31:40 | |
They thought some of the plots were dealing with unsuitable subjects. | 0:31:40 | 0:31:44 | |
Violence, or bawdy comedy, they didn't like that. | 0:31:44 | 0:31:47 | |
They strongly disapproved of the actors - | 0:31:47 | 0:31:49 | |
the fact that all the female roles were taken | 0:31:49 | 0:31:52 | |
by young boys in drag, essentially, | 0:31:52 | 0:31:54 | |
and they said the emotions being created on stage were, of course, | 0:31:54 | 0:31:57 | |
artificial and false emotions - that was bad. | 0:31:57 | 0:32:00 | |
And finally they disapproved of the audiences, | 0:32:00 | 0:32:02 | |
that different ages and sexes were jumbled together, | 0:32:02 | 0:32:05 | |
and that theatres attracted pickpockets and prostitutes. | 0:32:05 | 0:32:09 | |
The Roundhead mission to control the people's pleasures | 0:32:13 | 0:32:16 | |
unleashed a culture war between high-minded Puritans | 0:32:16 | 0:32:20 | |
and populist Cavaliers. | 0:32:20 | 0:32:22 | |
It continues to this day. | 0:32:22 | 0:32:24 | |
The Cavalier culture has absolutely won out, as far as the arts go, | 0:32:25 | 0:32:29 | |
and erm... | 0:32:29 | 0:32:30 | |
It is sort of pushing out high art by popular art. | 0:32:30 | 0:32:35 | |
I feel deeply oppressed by what I see | 0:32:37 | 0:32:40 | |
when I run through the programmes on the television. | 0:32:40 | 0:32:43 | |
Oh! Watch it! | 0:32:43 | 0:32:47 | |
What I suspect about the drama is that it's facile, mostly. | 0:32:47 | 0:32:53 | |
It's designed to please. | 0:32:53 | 0:32:56 | |
It knows that it has to please | 0:32:56 | 0:32:57 | |
the greatest possible number of the population. | 0:32:57 | 0:33:01 | |
Oh, that dirty, disgusting monster! | 0:33:01 | 0:33:03 | |
There's a kind of run of repeated gestures, | 0:33:03 | 0:33:07 | |
and repeated emotions, which people satisfy themselves on, | 0:33:07 | 0:33:11 | |
like sausage in a bun, or ice cream. | 0:33:11 | 0:33:18 | |
Those things are OK, but too much of them isn't good for your life, | 0:33:22 | 0:33:26 | |
I feel, being a Roundhead. | 0:33:26 | 0:33:29 | |
I think that this is a very old contest | 0:33:32 | 0:33:35 | |
between the Roundhead critic of frivolity | 0:33:35 | 0:33:39 | |
and the Cavalier enjoyer of it. | 0:33:41 | 0:33:43 | |
-Welcome to Downton. -Lady Grantham, this is so kind of you. | 0:33:45 | 0:33:48 | |
Not at all, Duke. We're delighted you could spare the time. | 0:33:48 | 0:33:52 | |
Very popular shows, of any kind, | 0:33:52 | 0:33:54 | |
bring out a sort of anger | 0:33:54 | 0:33:56 | |
among a certain kind of journalist. | 0:33:56 | 0:34:01 | |
I don't know what it is, quite. | 0:34:01 | 0:34:03 | |
Sometimes, you could say it's envy of the fact that their message | 0:34:05 | 0:34:09 | |
is reaching so few, and this other message, | 0:34:09 | 0:34:12 | |
which they consider worthless, is reaching so many. | 0:34:12 | 0:34:15 | |
That may be a good part of it. | 0:34:15 | 0:34:18 | |
But certainly, there is a Roundhead anger | 0:34:18 | 0:34:24 | |
at the extent of popular culture's reach. | 0:34:24 | 0:34:28 | |
But I don't think that's ever going to change. | 0:34:28 | 0:34:33 | |
Mama, may I present Matthew Crawley and Mrs Crawley. | 0:34:33 | 0:34:35 | |
My mother, Lady Grantham. | 0:34:35 | 0:34:37 | |
What should we call each other? | 0:34:39 | 0:34:41 | |
We could always start with "Mrs Crawley" and "Lady Grantham". | 0:34:41 | 0:34:45 | |
As the Puritan revolution unfolded, | 0:34:49 | 0:34:51 | |
the Roundhead parliament was still being challenged by Cavaliers | 0:34:51 | 0:34:55 | |
demanding the King's release from prison. | 0:34:55 | 0:34:57 | |
In 1649, Cromwell took action to assert Parliament's supremacy. | 0:34:59 | 0:35:04 | |
He put the King on trial for treason and war crimes against the people. | 0:35:04 | 0:35:09 | |
Putting the King on trial was almost inconceivable. | 0:35:09 | 0:35:13 | |
It is unthinkable. | 0:35:13 | 0:35:15 | |
Kings have been killed on the battlefield, | 0:35:15 | 0:35:17 | |
kings have been assassinated. | 0:35:17 | 0:35:19 | |
But trying a monarch - a divinely appointed king, | 0:35:19 | 0:35:22 | |
the power that exists by God's authority - | 0:35:22 | 0:35:25 | |
trying a king by authority of the people is almost unprecedented. | 0:35:25 | 0:35:29 | |
On the morning of January 20th, 1649, | 0:35:32 | 0:35:35 | |
Charles I was marched into Westminster Hall. | 0:35:35 | 0:35:39 | |
Up to 10,000 people watched | 0:35:41 | 0:35:43 | |
as the Roundhead Solicitor General John Cook and his team | 0:35:43 | 0:35:47 | |
prepared to make legal history. | 0:35:47 | 0:35:50 | |
What they do is make an argument that separates the office of the King | 0:35:50 | 0:35:53 | |
from the person of the King, | 0:35:53 | 0:35:55 | |
and what they are prosecuting is a wilful, wicked tyrant - | 0:35:55 | 0:35:59 | |
an individual not a king. | 0:35:59 | 0:36:02 | |
Everyone was aware of what an ominous moment it was | 0:36:03 | 0:36:07 | |
and what an iconic moment it was in British history. | 0:36:07 | 0:36:11 | |
It was the symbol of the end of absolute power. | 0:36:11 | 0:36:16 | |
And there's a telling moment. This is the King, | 0:36:18 | 0:36:20 | |
the man who is used to having his every whim served. | 0:36:20 | 0:36:24 | |
At some point, the silver top of his cane | 0:36:24 | 0:36:28 | |
falls off and rolls to the floor. | 0:36:28 | 0:36:30 | |
The King expects somebody else to pick it up | 0:36:32 | 0:36:34 | |
but he's instructed to pick it up himself. | 0:36:34 | 0:36:37 | |
And at that little moment, I think, | 0:36:37 | 0:36:39 | |
we can see the theatre of power that's going on. | 0:36:39 | 0:36:41 | |
These days, we've found a way | 0:36:45 | 0:36:49 | |
to put heads of state on trial | 0:36:49 | 0:36:52 | |
for a particularly heinous crime, | 0:36:52 | 0:36:55 | |
a crime against humanity, | 0:36:55 | 0:36:57 | |
against which their immunity does not operate. | 0:36:57 | 0:37:01 | |
And so Milosevic, Saddam Hussein, | 0:37:03 | 0:37:06 | |
Charles Taylor, Karadzic, and so forth, | 0:37:06 | 0:37:11 | |
will be prosecuted | 0:37:11 | 0:37:13 | |
on the basis that John Cook took the first nervous step | 0:37:13 | 0:37:18 | |
to bring down an all-powerful head of state, | 0:37:18 | 0:37:22 | |
namely on the grounds of their commission | 0:37:22 | 0:37:26 | |
of a crime against humanity, a crime against their own people. | 0:37:26 | 0:37:30 | |
After a seven-day trial the King was found guilty. | 0:37:35 | 0:37:40 | |
He would be executed here, | 0:37:40 | 0:37:43 | |
outside the banqueting hall of Whitehall Palace. | 0:37:43 | 0:37:46 | |
So January 30th, just before two o'clock, | 0:37:49 | 0:37:52 | |
a very nervous, anxious Charles I stepped out onto the scaffold, | 0:37:52 | 0:37:55 | |
having said farewell to his family. | 0:37:55 | 0:37:57 | |
And a few moments later, the axe fell. | 0:38:02 | 0:38:04 | |
SCREAMING | 0:38:04 | 0:38:07 | |
Around the gathered crowd, people reacted by fainting, | 0:38:08 | 0:38:12 | |
women miscarried. There was tremendous horror. | 0:38:12 | 0:38:16 | |
But that horror reverberated around the kingdom. | 0:38:16 | 0:38:18 | |
It was as if a great cataclysm in a sense of order had happened. | 0:38:18 | 0:38:22 | |
Like the twin towers, like those planes smashing into them, | 0:38:22 | 0:38:25 | |
there's a sudden horror and chaos. | 0:38:25 | 0:38:28 | |
The Roundheads now abolished the monarchy and the House of Lords. | 0:38:31 | 0:38:36 | |
An English republic was established. | 0:38:37 | 0:38:39 | |
The Roundhead revolution intensified. | 0:38:42 | 0:38:46 | |
The King had encouraged | 0:38:49 | 0:38:50 | |
the installation of ornate stained-glass windows | 0:38:50 | 0:38:53 | |
in churches all over the country. | 0:38:53 | 0:38:55 | |
The Roundheads were now determined to smash them | 0:38:56 | 0:38:59 | |
as they imposed their own austere form of Protestantism. | 0:38:59 | 0:39:03 | |
Charles loved ritual, | 0:39:03 | 0:39:05 | |
he loved beauty, | 0:39:05 | 0:39:06 | |
he loved holiness as a sort of experience | 0:39:06 | 0:39:09 | |
that brought someone closer to God, | 0:39:09 | 0:39:11 | |
whereas Puritans loved the idea of plain, unadorned, simple - | 0:39:11 | 0:39:17 | |
no stained glass in their churches. | 0:39:17 | 0:39:19 | |
In 1651, the Roundheads went into action | 0:39:21 | 0:39:24 | |
here at Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford. | 0:39:24 | 0:39:27 | |
The orders from the newly-installed dean | 0:39:29 | 0:39:31 | |
are written in the church records. | 0:39:31 | 0:39:33 | |
"All pictures representing God, good or bad angels, or saints, | 0:39:33 | 0:39:38 | |
"shall be forthwith taken down out of our church windows." | 0:39:38 | 0:39:41 | |
Well, when the windows were taken out, | 0:39:41 | 0:39:44 | |
they were laid out on the floor | 0:39:44 | 0:39:47 | |
and one of the canons who was appointed by Cromwell | 0:39:47 | 0:39:50 | |
was so against them being preserved | 0:39:50 | 0:39:52 | |
that he furiously stamped up and down on it, | 0:39:52 | 0:39:54 | |
destroying most of the glass. | 0:39:54 | 0:39:56 | |
Only one out of the 20 stained-glass windows | 0:40:05 | 0:40:09 | |
survived the Roundhead assault, | 0:40:09 | 0:40:11 | |
perhaps because it contains a powerful Roundhead message. | 0:40:11 | 0:40:15 | |
The prophet Jonah is on his way to warn the people of Nineveh | 0:40:15 | 0:40:19 | |
that they must give up the pleasures of the flesh | 0:40:19 | 0:40:22 | |
or face the wrath of God. | 0:40:22 | 0:40:24 | |
It's fantastic. I think it's got so much more detail | 0:40:34 | 0:40:36 | |
than any other stained-glass window in the cathedral | 0:40:36 | 0:40:39 | |
and every time you look at it, you see something new, | 0:40:39 | 0:40:41 | |
there's always something that sticks out that you've never seen before. | 0:40:41 | 0:40:45 | |
For centuries, the smashed stained-glass windows | 0:40:54 | 0:40:56 | |
were thought to have been totally destroyed. | 0:40:56 | 0:40:58 | |
But 13 years ago, the verger spotted something in a pile of rubbish | 0:41:00 | 0:41:05 | |
that was being cleared out of a coal hole. | 0:41:05 | 0:41:08 | |
It was like discovering buried treasure. | 0:41:08 | 0:41:10 | |
It was amazing. | 0:41:10 | 0:41:13 | |
You think, "What have I found?" | 0:41:13 | 0:41:17 | |
If you look at the glass without light behind it, | 0:41:17 | 0:41:20 | |
it looks just like a piece of slate, almost. | 0:41:20 | 0:41:24 | |
But then when I show it to the light... | 0:41:24 | 0:41:27 | |
This is the first piece of glass I found. | 0:41:27 | 0:41:30 | |
You can imagine my surprise! | 0:41:30 | 0:41:32 | |
We've probably most likely got Christ | 0:41:33 | 0:41:36 | |
disputing with the Doctors of Divinity | 0:41:36 | 0:41:38 | |
and all we have here are some of the doctors in that scene. | 0:41:38 | 0:41:43 | |
The central figure, which will have been Christ, | 0:41:43 | 0:41:45 | |
will have been destroyed at the time. | 0:41:45 | 0:41:46 | |
So it's very unlikely that there'll be any images of Christ left. | 0:41:46 | 0:41:52 | |
ALL CHANT: Rooster! Rooster! Rooster! | 0:41:55 | 0:41:58 | |
In 1653, Cromwell was confirmed as head of state, | 0:42:01 | 0:42:06 | |
Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland. | 0:42:06 | 0:42:12 | |
His government intruded ever more deeply into people's lives | 0:42:12 | 0:42:16 | |
and passed a law to make Sunday | 0:42:16 | 0:42:19 | |
a day of worship and quiet contemplation. | 0:42:19 | 0:42:22 | |
Sunday should be hanging out with the guys, having a good time, | 0:42:24 | 0:42:27 | |
drinking a few drinks, watching some football. | 0:42:27 | 0:42:29 | |
There are enough things we're not allowed to do during the rest of the week, | 0:42:29 | 0:42:33 | |
so we deserve to do something we want to do on a Sunday. | 0:42:33 | 0:42:36 | |
Definitely not sitting in church and thinking. | 0:42:36 | 0:42:38 | |
BELL CHIMES | 0:42:38 | 0:42:41 | |
The Puritans wanted the whole of the Lord's day, as they called it, | 0:42:44 | 0:42:47 | |
to be devoted to religion alone, exclusively, | 0:42:47 | 0:42:50 | |
and they pushed through a series of ordinances and parliamentary acts | 0:42:50 | 0:42:54 | |
banning all the things of which they disapproved, | 0:42:54 | 0:42:56 | |
so that every conceivable activity pretty well was prohibited. | 0:42:56 | 0:43:00 | |
Hundreds of activities were banned. | 0:43:05 | 0:43:07 | |
It was forbidden to ride a horse... | 0:43:07 | 0:43:11 | |
sit on your own threshold... | 0:43:11 | 0:43:15 | |
or even to knit on a Sunday. | 0:43:15 | 0:43:18 | |
Where Puritans were in control locally, | 0:43:21 | 0:43:23 | |
they enforced these restrictions very tightly indeed, | 0:43:23 | 0:43:25 | |
and one remarkable case in a village not far from here - | 0:43:25 | 0:43:28 | |
Barnsley in Gloucestershire - | 0:43:28 | 0:43:29 | |
two village women were put in the stocks merely for having gone for a Sunday afternoon stroll, | 0:43:29 | 0:43:35 | |
even though they had already attended | 0:43:35 | 0:43:37 | |
two church services that morning. | 0:43:37 | 0:43:39 | |
Roundhead values would define the British Sunday | 0:43:42 | 0:43:44 | |
well into the 20th century. | 0:43:44 | 0:43:47 | |
Strict licensing laws, shops closed, | 0:43:47 | 0:43:51 | |
no sporting fixtures - an obligatory day of rest. | 0:43:51 | 0:43:54 | |
Sunday... | 0:43:56 | 0:43:58 | |
Without a doubt, the worst day of the week. | 0:43:59 | 0:44:02 | |
Everything was shut and the transport didn't run very much. | 0:44:04 | 0:44:07 | |
You were not allowed to do anything. | 0:44:07 | 0:44:09 | |
Church in the morning, walk to the zoo - wow - | 0:44:11 | 0:44:14 | |
Sunday lunch, nothing. | 0:44:14 | 0:44:16 | |
My father said he had to read books | 0:44:18 | 0:44:20 | |
about the holy deaths of little children | 0:44:20 | 0:44:23 | |
and the little children would lie in their beds and die | 0:44:23 | 0:44:25 | |
and the angels would come down and take them to heaven. | 0:44:25 | 0:44:28 | |
And my father said it was absolutely awful, but this was how it was. | 0:44:28 | 0:44:32 | |
Just like hell. | 0:44:32 | 0:44:34 | |
So I can't really support Cromwell and the repression of Sunday sports. | 0:44:34 | 0:44:38 | |
In August 1994, the Sunday Shopping Act | 0:44:49 | 0:44:53 | |
brought 300 years of Roundhead Sundays to an end. | 0:44:53 | 0:44:58 | |
I think if our Roundhead forebears | 0:44:58 | 0:45:00 | |
could see what we've done to Sundays, | 0:45:00 | 0:45:02 | |
they'd be spinning in their graves like fury. | 0:45:02 | 0:45:06 | |
You can hear their bucket top boots hitting the top of the coffin, just like this. | 0:45:06 | 0:45:10 | |
Because we have 100% ruined Sunday | 0:45:10 | 0:45:13 | |
compared to everything that they believed in. | 0:45:13 | 0:45:16 | |
I would like Sunday to be a quiet day. | 0:45:16 | 0:45:20 | |
I would like everything to stop on a Sunday, as it used to, | 0:45:20 | 0:45:24 | |
for people to be able to spend the day with their families, | 0:45:24 | 0:45:28 | |
for the church bells to ring out across the land, | 0:45:28 | 0:45:32 | |
and for there to be an active interest in church. | 0:45:32 | 0:45:35 | |
That is what I would like to see. | 0:45:35 | 0:45:37 | |
It's not what I'm going to see in my lifetime. | 0:45:37 | 0:45:41 | |
We fear Sunday, I think. | 0:45:42 | 0:45:45 | |
That's the problem that we've got - | 0:45:45 | 0:45:48 | |
we fear Sunday because it is a void. | 0:45:48 | 0:45:51 | |
If we're not careful, we might have to sit still, | 0:45:51 | 0:45:55 | |
be quiet and think about stuff, and this is the thing that none of us | 0:45:55 | 0:46:00 | |
let ourselves do any more. | 0:46:00 | 0:46:02 | |
And, of course, for the Puritans | 0:46:02 | 0:46:04 | |
that's exactly what you should do on a Sunday. | 0:46:04 | 0:46:06 | |
You should use it as an opportunity to explore your mind, | 0:46:06 | 0:46:13 | |
explore your spirituality. | 0:46:13 | 0:46:14 | |
Sunday had now been claimed for the Roundheads. | 0:46:19 | 0:46:23 | |
At the same time, they also passed a law | 0:46:23 | 0:46:25 | |
to abolish the celebration of Christmas. | 0:46:25 | 0:46:28 | |
Puritans strongly disapproved of Christmas. | 0:46:30 | 0:46:32 | |
They pointed out that there was no evidence that Christ was born on that particular day. | 0:46:32 | 0:46:36 | |
They pointed out too | 0:46:36 | 0:46:38 | |
that it had its origins as a Pagan mid-winter festival | 0:46:38 | 0:46:41 | |
and they strongly disapproved of the fact | 0:46:41 | 0:46:43 | |
that it had been turned into a general occasion for feasting, | 0:46:43 | 0:46:46 | |
merry-making, drinking, general profanity. | 0:46:46 | 0:46:49 | |
All those things were wrong in their eyes. | 0:46:49 | 0:46:51 | |
How miserable can you be? | 0:46:53 | 0:46:56 | |
How miserable can you be | 0:46:56 | 0:46:59 | |
that you do away with Christmas? | 0:46:59 | 0:47:01 | |
That should say it all about Oliver Cromwell! | 0:47:03 | 0:47:05 | |
I don't know how people can admire Cromwell! | 0:47:05 | 0:47:09 | |
# Have a holly jolly Christmas | 0:47:09 | 0:47:11 | |
# It's the best time of the year | 0:47:11 | 0:47:15 | |
# I don't know if there'll be snow... # | 0:47:15 | 0:47:18 | |
The Cavaliers fought back. | 0:47:18 | 0:47:21 | |
They circulated pamphlets | 0:47:21 | 0:47:24 | |
attacking the Puritan assault on the old Christmas. | 0:47:24 | 0:47:27 | |
People hated the fact Christmas was abolished | 0:47:28 | 0:47:30 | |
and even more hated the idea that they were supposed to treat it simply as another working day, | 0:47:30 | 0:47:34 | |
and, for the most part, they refused to accept that new regulation. | 0:47:34 | 0:47:39 | |
Despite the full force of the Roundhead state, | 0:47:39 | 0:47:43 | |
Cromwell failed to crush the Cavalier spirit of Christmas. | 0:47:43 | 0:47:46 | |
What you see now is a Christmas which is almost entirely Pagan. | 0:47:50 | 0:47:55 | |
Bringing in Christmas trees, giving of gifts, lighting candles, | 0:47:55 | 0:47:58 | |
all of that - this is the very much older history | 0:47:58 | 0:48:01 | |
that Cromwell couldn't eliminate. | 0:48:01 | 0:48:04 | |
The Roundheads have been absolutely defeated on Christmas. | 0:48:06 | 0:48:09 | |
I think Jesus may have been defeated on Christmas. | 0:48:09 | 0:48:12 | |
HUNTING HORN SOUNDS | 0:48:13 | 0:48:17 | |
It's like a cavalry charge, and it's every man for himself. | 0:48:25 | 0:48:28 | |
You have to be an adrenaline junkie to do it. You really do. | 0:48:28 | 0:48:31 | |
In the early 21st century, | 0:48:33 | 0:48:35 | |
there was a new stand-off between Roundheads and Cavaliers. | 0:48:35 | 0:48:39 | |
In 2004, demonstrators invaded Parliament | 0:48:45 | 0:48:49 | |
to protest against the passing of the Hunting Act, | 0:48:49 | 0:48:53 | |
which outlawed hunting foxes with hounds. | 0:48:53 | 0:48:55 | |
And the two tribes went to war once more. | 0:48:58 | 0:49:02 | |
I think very much that those of us who support hunting see themselves, | 0:49:02 | 0:49:06 | |
and probably rightly, as the descendants of the Cavaliers. | 0:49:06 | 0:49:11 | |
Certainly, the rank and file of the Parliamentarians, | 0:49:17 | 0:49:20 | |
if they were alive today, they would be hunt saboteurs. | 0:49:20 | 0:49:23 | |
The Atherstone Hunt in Leicestershire | 0:49:26 | 0:49:29 | |
is one of the oldest in Britain. | 0:49:29 | 0:49:30 | |
A loophole in the law permits them to continue running with hounds, | 0:49:32 | 0:49:35 | |
but only if a bird of prey is used for the kill. | 0:49:35 | 0:49:39 | |
Parliament has set out to ban hunting, | 0:49:42 | 0:49:44 | |
and that makes us a criminal. Should we kill a fox, we are a criminal. | 0:49:44 | 0:49:48 | |
Here we are. | 0:49:50 | 0:49:52 | |
There's absolutely loads of kit in this little bag. | 0:49:52 | 0:49:55 | |
From hats to gloves to nets... | 0:49:55 | 0:50:00 | |
Members of the League Against Cruel Sports | 0:50:00 | 0:50:03 | |
are now keeping close watch on hunts across Britain. | 0:50:03 | 0:50:06 | |
If the hunt is breaking the law, then with a bit of luck | 0:50:06 | 0:50:10 | |
we'll get good evidence, to catch them, possibly, | 0:50:10 | 0:50:12 | |
with their pants down, you know, by being hidden. | 0:50:12 | 0:50:16 | |
I think it's important that Parliament's will is upheld, | 0:50:20 | 0:50:23 | |
simply because if you believe in democracy, the law is the law. | 0:50:23 | 0:50:28 | |
And if we start choosing which law we want to abide by, | 0:50:28 | 0:50:34 | |
then we will soon slip into anarchy and civil unrest. | 0:50:34 | 0:50:38 | |
HUNTING HORN SOUNDS | 0:50:38 | 0:50:40 | |
A Roundhead Britain? Haven't we just lived through it? | 0:50:41 | 0:50:45 | |
People being told what they can and cannot do, | 0:50:45 | 0:50:48 | |
limitations on all our activities. | 0:50:48 | 0:50:50 | |
And I don't just mean hunting - there are plenty of other activities | 0:50:50 | 0:50:54 | |
that were limited by Mr Blair and his friends. | 0:50:54 | 0:50:58 | |
I'm afraid I think that modern Britain is decidedly Roundhead | 0:50:58 | 0:51:03 | |
because I measure that by, | 0:51:03 | 0:51:05 | |
"How much intrusion do we have from the state in our daily lives?" | 0:51:05 | 0:51:09 | |
Oh, and they try to protect us against ourselves | 0:51:09 | 0:51:12 | |
like very good Roundheads. | 0:51:12 | 0:51:15 | |
To play conkers, you must put goggles on, | 0:51:15 | 0:51:17 | |
don't do the backstroke in swimming baths in case you crack your dear little head at the end of it - | 0:51:17 | 0:51:21 | |
all with the force of law! | 0:51:21 | 0:51:24 | |
Oh, Cromwell would have loved it. | 0:51:24 | 0:51:27 | |
He would have loved it. | 0:51:27 | 0:51:29 | |
# ..But he will have a right | 0:51:29 | 0:51:32 | |
# To be a pilgrim. # | 0:51:32 | 0:51:36 | |
For all men and women of good will, | 0:51:38 | 0:51:40 | |
and especially for thy servant Oliver Cromwell... | 0:51:40 | 0:51:44 | |
ALL: We give thee thanks, O God. | 0:51:44 | 0:51:47 | |
For all associated with him in the struggle for liberty, | 0:51:47 | 0:51:53 | |
justice and truth... | 0:51:53 | 0:51:55 | |
ALL: We give thee thanks, O God. | 0:51:55 | 0:51:58 | |
Oliver Cromwell ruled as Lord Protector for nearly five years | 0:51:58 | 0:52:03 | |
until his death on September the 3rd, 1658. | 0:52:03 | 0:52:07 | |
Every year on this day, | 0:52:07 | 0:52:09 | |
the Cromwell Association gathers to mark the anniversary. | 0:52:09 | 0:52:13 | |
Cromwell is one of the great Britons | 0:52:15 | 0:52:16 | |
and, indeed, at the end of the last millennium | 0:52:16 | 0:52:19 | |
when they had various polls, he did make the top ten. | 0:52:19 | 0:52:22 | |
He didn't come first, unfortunately, | 0:52:22 | 0:52:24 | |
but he is one of the formative influences | 0:52:24 | 0:52:26 | |
in English and British history, for good and ill. | 0:52:26 | 0:52:29 | |
He's still a controversial person. He should still be remembered. | 0:52:29 | 0:52:32 | |
Cromwell was a great man. A greatly great man. | 0:52:34 | 0:52:37 | |
He bestrides English history like a colossus. | 0:52:37 | 0:52:41 | |
I mean, the time of his rule is usually whited out, | 0:52:41 | 0:52:46 | |
because he's the only non-royal, | 0:52:46 | 0:52:48 | |
which makes him, of course, | 0:52:48 | 0:52:50 | |
enormously important and infinitely superior to any of the royals. | 0:52:50 | 0:52:55 | |
I have no instinct towards vandalism at all | 0:52:57 | 0:52:59 | |
except when I pass Oliver Cromwell's statue outside the House of Commons | 0:52:59 | 0:53:03 | |
and I dearly wish I could push it over. | 0:53:03 | 0:53:05 | |
The conflict goes on. | 0:53:12 | 0:53:15 | |
But even the Cromwell Association | 0:53:15 | 0:53:17 | |
has called a truce with the monarchy. | 0:53:17 | 0:53:19 | |
We pray for our Queen and for all who are called at this time | 0:53:22 | 0:53:27 | |
to serve the state and lead the people. | 0:53:27 | 0:53:31 | |
'I don't think there is a contradiction in having prayers for both,' | 0:53:31 | 0:53:36 | |
the protector who was a regicide | 0:53:36 | 0:53:38 | |
'and having a prayer for the reigning monarch.' | 0:53:38 | 0:53:40 | |
Amen. | 0:53:40 | 0:53:42 | |
The impact of the Civil War, | 0:53:42 | 0:53:44 | |
the tide of blood, the regicide, all the overturning, | 0:53:44 | 0:53:47 | |
had a lasting effect on the British and the English psyche. | 0:53:47 | 0:53:50 | |
It makes us shy away from civil war, it makes us shy away from extremism. | 0:53:50 | 0:53:53 | |
So we're a broad church, and we're inclusive. | 0:53:53 | 0:53:56 | |
Within two years of Cromwell's death, the monarchy was restored. | 0:53:58 | 0:54:03 | |
MUSIC: God Save The Queen | 0:54:03 | 0:54:05 | |
A Cavalier triumph. | 0:54:07 | 0:54:09 | |
But the new constitution placed significant limits on royal power. | 0:54:09 | 0:54:13 | |
The Roundheads had put Britain on the road to parliamentary democracy. | 0:54:15 | 0:54:19 | |
If we look at the 21st century, I think we are a republic in all but name. | 0:54:22 | 0:54:26 | |
Of course, we have a Queen, | 0:54:26 | 0:54:29 | |
we will soon have King Charles III... | 0:54:29 | 0:54:33 | |
..but in fact they have no power | 0:54:35 | 0:54:38 | |
and I think this is the legacy of the Roundheads. | 0:54:38 | 0:54:42 | |
Over 350 years after the Civil War came to an end, | 0:54:51 | 0:54:54 | |
Roundhead values have even infiltrated the Royal Family. | 0:54:54 | 0:54:59 | |
The Queen herself, it seems to me, is by instinct a sort of Roundhead - | 0:55:00 | 0:55:05 | |
dutiful, she knows the rules, | 0:55:05 | 0:55:06 | |
she abides by a code of behaviour that is very precise | 0:55:06 | 0:55:09 | |
and very austere, in some ways. | 0:55:09 | 0:55:13 | |
I mean, she lives a sort of very careful life. | 0:55:13 | 0:55:15 | |
Whereas Prince Charles, it seems to me, is sort of King Charles again. | 0:55:15 | 0:55:19 | |
There is somebody, we understand, to put toothpaste on his toothbrush. | 0:55:19 | 0:55:22 | |
This is a man who probably does deep down believe | 0:55:22 | 0:55:25 | |
in the divine right of kings. | 0:55:25 | 0:55:27 | |
Centuries of conflict | 0:55:28 | 0:55:30 | |
have had a surprising effect on the British character. | 0:55:30 | 0:55:33 | |
It now seems there's a little bit of Roundhead and Cavalier in us all. | 0:55:33 | 0:55:38 | |
In some ways, it's a strangely self-defining aspect | 0:55:43 | 0:55:46 | |
of our politics that people feel they are slotted into one or the other | 0:55:46 | 0:55:50 | |
and then spend quite a lot of time trying to break the mould. | 0:55:50 | 0:55:53 | |
I think fascinatingly at the moment we probably have | 0:55:53 | 0:55:55 | |
a prime minister who is, by instinct, a Cavalier, | 0:55:55 | 0:55:59 | |
but realises that the whole Bullingdon Club, | 0:55:59 | 0:56:02 | |
"let your hair down" person who is kind of born to rule | 0:56:02 | 0:56:06 | |
is a very dangerous aspect of his perhaps unfair public persona. | 0:56:06 | 0:56:11 | |
So Cameron spends a great deal of his time, | 0:56:11 | 0:56:13 | |
I think, trying to play down the Cavalier aspects of his image | 0:56:13 | 0:56:16 | |
and trying to play up the Roundhead ones. | 0:56:16 | 0:56:19 | |
Conversely, Ed Miliband seems to me to be probably a natural Roundhead. | 0:56:19 | 0:56:22 | |
He is somebody who seems to me to have a very clear and crisp set of ideas | 0:56:22 | 0:56:25 | |
of where he wants to go. | 0:56:25 | 0:56:27 | |
On the other hand, he's fighting the perception | 0:56:27 | 0:56:29 | |
that actually he's very boring. | 0:56:29 | 0:56:31 | |
I think the Cavaliers did win. | 0:56:33 | 0:56:35 | |
We have a society which is a pyramid of snobbery and wealth. | 0:56:35 | 0:56:39 | |
That seems to me a Cavalier Britain. | 0:56:39 | 0:56:42 | |
We are definitely getting more Cavalier. | 0:56:46 | 0:56:49 | |
We are now getting more Cavalier. | 0:56:49 | 0:56:51 | |
And that's not a good thing. | 0:56:51 | 0:56:53 | |
There are no Roundheads telling you what to do and what not to do, | 0:56:54 | 0:56:59 | |
you are encouraged to be a Cavalier and just get on with it on your own. | 0:56:59 | 0:57:02 | |
But, actually, most people are now suddenly realising | 0:57:02 | 0:57:05 | |
that you've got to have a bit of Roundhead backbone | 0:57:05 | 0:57:08 | |
in your Cavalier existence | 0:57:08 | 0:57:10 | |
or else it all implodes. | 0:57:10 | 0:57:12 | |
Over the last few decades | 0:57:14 | 0:57:15 | |
we've probably become a more Roundhead society. | 0:57:15 | 0:57:19 | |
I think we are much more carefully controlled, | 0:57:19 | 0:57:21 | |
there are many more CCTV cameras around | 0:57:21 | 0:57:23 | |
that I think Oliver Cromwell and his like would certainly have approved of. | 0:57:23 | 0:57:27 | |
On the other hand, I think, as a reaction to that, | 0:57:27 | 0:57:30 | |
when the Cavalier spirit breaks out, it breaks out with all feathers on. | 0:57:30 | 0:57:34 | |
And so I think in a way we've probably become more extreme | 0:57:34 | 0:57:38 | |
in both aspects of the national character. | 0:57:38 | 0:57:41 | |
Roundhead... | 0:57:41 | 0:57:42 | |
..or Cavalier? | 0:57:44 | 0:57:46 | |
The battle continues. | 0:57:46 | 0:57:48 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:58:11 | 0:58:14 |