0:00:11 > 0:00:13March 1906.
0:00:17 > 0:00:20German uniforms in central London.
0:00:20 > 0:00:24The unsmiling men begin to disperse among the early morning shoppers.
0:00:24 > 0:00:26SIREN
0:00:27 > 0:00:33They'd arrived to bring fear to the very heart of Britannia's imperial capital.
0:00:37 > 0:00:40They were now goose-stepping down Oxford Street.
0:00:45 > 0:00:48No, this was not a real invasion, of course,
0:00:48 > 0:00:52which has been unaccountably missed out by the history books,
0:00:52 > 0:00:56but nor is it entirely television fantasy.
0:00:56 > 0:00:57It did happen.
0:00:57 > 0:01:01But it was a publicity stunt for the Daily Mail,
0:01:01 > 0:01:06who were serialising the latest thriller to shock the Edwardian British -
0:01:06 > 0:01:09The Invasion Of 1910.
0:01:10 > 0:01:13The German military threat was real enough
0:01:13 > 0:01:18and Britain was being drawn into a ruinously expensive arms race.
0:01:18 > 0:01:20But a Liberal government
0:01:20 > 0:01:25had just been elected by a landslide, promising a welfare revolution.
0:01:26 > 0:01:29And Britain couldn't afford both.
0:01:31 > 0:01:35So, which was it to be? Battleships or pensions?
0:01:35 > 0:01:40The underpinnings of warfare, or of welfare?
0:01:40 > 0:01:45We are about to enter one of the most dangerous and exhilarating periods
0:01:45 > 0:01:48in the history of British politics.
0:01:48 > 0:01:51And our stage is set for a showdown.
0:02:29 > 0:02:32The Edwardian era is often remembered
0:02:32 > 0:02:34as a romantic golden age...
0:02:36 > 0:02:41A long hot summer of big hats, cottage gardens,
0:02:41 > 0:02:45and messing about on the river.
0:02:45 > 0:02:47A time of simple pleasures...
0:02:47 > 0:02:52country-house parties, with picnics on the lawn.
0:02:54 > 0:02:57A lost Eden of innocence and imagination,
0:02:57 > 0:03:01immortalised in classic children's stories -
0:03:04 > 0:03:07The Railway Children,
0:03:07 > 0:03:09The Wind In The Willows,
0:03:09 > 0:03:12and Peter Pan.
0:03:16 > 0:03:20Now, it may be partly because of those children's stories,
0:03:20 > 0:03:26but Edwardian Britain has been covered by a golden, dappled glow
0:03:26 > 0:03:30despite the facts, which are that this was a country tearing itself apart
0:03:30 > 0:03:32politically, economically and socially.
0:03:32 > 0:03:35Millions of real Edwardian children
0:03:35 > 0:03:39were barefoot and living on diets worse than the Middle Ages.
0:03:39 > 0:03:44The glitter was real, fun was being had,
0:03:44 > 0:03:48but almost everywhere you look in Edwardian Britain,
0:03:48 > 0:03:52dark, angry storm clouds were brewing.
0:03:54 > 0:03:57THUNDER RUMBLES
0:03:59 > 0:04:05On 15th July 1906, a young woman called Adela Pankhurst
0:04:05 > 0:04:10made her way to a park in Manchester called Boggart Hole Clough.
0:04:10 > 0:04:13She'd just been released from prison
0:04:13 > 0:04:19for heckling a local MP, Winston Churchill, at a public meeting.
0:04:19 > 0:04:22She was here to make a speech about that most basic right -
0:04:22 > 0:04:24the right to vote.
0:04:26 > 0:04:29Adela Pankhurst and her fellow speakers
0:04:29 > 0:04:33were standing here at the bottom of the hillside.
0:04:33 > 0:04:37A massive crowd spread out around them in all directions.
0:04:37 > 0:04:39As the meeting began,
0:04:39 > 0:04:43a group of thugs began mingling with the Pankhurst supporters.
0:04:43 > 0:04:48One of the speakers asked what the "Tory cave-dwellers" and "medieval Liberals"
0:04:48 > 0:04:50were going to do about women's suffrage.
0:04:54 > 0:04:58The answer was a terrifying Northern roar,
0:04:58 > 0:05:00and down the hill poured the men,
0:05:00 > 0:05:05many of them carrying sticks, and coming straight for Adela.
0:05:05 > 0:05:08SHOUTING
0:05:10 > 0:05:13People in the crowd began to scream and panic.
0:05:13 > 0:05:15The men went straight for the women, grabbed them
0:05:15 > 0:05:20and brutally hauled them back up the hill, passing them from man to man.
0:05:20 > 0:05:22Their clothes were half torn off,
0:05:22 > 0:05:24they were beaten around the face until the blood flowed,
0:05:24 > 0:05:29and older men, respectable-looking men, started to shout obscene suggestions.
0:05:29 > 0:05:33The mood of the crowd turned until they were roaring like savages.
0:05:43 > 0:05:48What happened here one long ago Edwardian Sunday
0:05:48 > 0:05:50was only the very beginning,
0:05:50 > 0:05:53because the battle for democracy, women's votes,
0:05:53 > 0:05:56would prove to be extraordinarily violent.
0:05:59 > 0:06:04And this was only one of the increasingly violent arguments
0:06:04 > 0:06:06about poverty, privilege and liberty
0:06:06 > 0:06:10that provided the soundtrack for Edwardian Britain.
0:06:10 > 0:06:12SHOUTING
0:06:12 > 0:06:14BREAKING GLASS
0:06:19 > 0:06:24But calming, progressive help was at hand.
0:06:24 > 0:06:28In January 1906, the Liberals were swept into power,
0:06:28 > 0:06:32promising to tackle inequality and reform politics.
0:06:32 > 0:06:35Their policies were exciting.
0:06:35 > 0:06:37Their prime minister wasn't.
0:06:37 > 0:06:41Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman had a radical streak
0:06:41 > 0:06:46but looked and sounded like an elderly sea lion.
0:06:46 > 0:06:49Sir Henry once declared,
0:06:49 > 0:06:52"Personally, I am a great believer in bed,
0:06:52 > 0:06:56"in constantly keeping horizontal.
0:06:56 > 0:07:01"The heart and everything else goes slower,
0:07:01 > 0:07:04"and the whole system is refreshed."
0:07:04 > 0:07:10Now, Sir Henry wasn't a well man, as well as being rather an idle one.
0:07:10 > 0:07:16Never mind. He did lead the Liberals to their greatest-ever election victory.
0:07:16 > 0:07:20A new dawn after ten years of Tory rule.
0:07:20 > 0:07:26And the new Liberal government contained three of modern Britain's great future prime ministers.
0:07:28 > 0:07:33Herbert Asquith was ridiculously clever, a self-made statesman
0:07:33 > 0:07:38whose sternly sober face hid a wildly romantic heart.
0:07:38 > 0:07:43Cartoonists called him "the Last of the Romans".
0:07:43 > 0:07:50Alongside him was Lloyd George, a charismatic Welsh radical,
0:07:50 > 0:07:52and his unlikely admirer,
0:07:52 > 0:07:57a young aristocrat and former Tory MP, Winston Churchill.
0:08:00 > 0:08:04Three musketeers, they were ready to slash through
0:08:04 > 0:08:06the complacency of Westminster.
0:08:08 > 0:08:10But just at that moment,
0:08:10 > 0:08:15Campbell-Bannerman's clever lying-down-in-bed cure failed him.
0:08:15 > 0:08:19In April 1908, he became the first and only prime minister
0:08:19 > 0:08:21to die in Downing Street.
0:08:21 > 0:08:25Asquith took over.
0:08:25 > 0:08:28Now the reforms would really begin.
0:08:28 > 0:08:32A little later, alarmed by his exuberant drinking habits,
0:08:32 > 0:08:37colleagues would refer to the Prime Minister as "Old Squiffy".
0:08:37 > 0:08:41But in 1908, Herbert Asquith was reshaping the administration
0:08:41 > 0:08:45into the greatest Liberal government of modern times.
0:08:49 > 0:08:55The Liberals came to power in an age of technological change -
0:08:55 > 0:08:57careering motor cars,
0:08:57 > 0:09:00the telephone craze,
0:09:00 > 0:09:05talk of hydroelectric energy and wave power...
0:09:07 > 0:09:10..and, above all, the flying machine.
0:09:12 > 0:09:15A Frenchman - Louis Bleriot -
0:09:15 > 0:09:21was the first man to fly across the Channel in July 1909.
0:09:21 > 0:09:25Britain wasn't quite an island any more.
0:09:25 > 0:09:29Within 24 hours, his plane was on display at Selfridges in London.
0:09:29 > 0:09:33And a motor car salesmen called Claude Grahame-White
0:09:33 > 0:09:37was one of thousands of visitors who came to gape.
0:09:43 > 0:09:48Well, Claude was hooked and within six weeks, he'd been over to France,
0:09:48 > 0:09:50helped to build his own aircraft
0:09:50 > 0:09:52and then, when it was trundled out of the factory,
0:09:52 > 0:09:55no instruction, no training, he'd flown it
0:09:55 > 0:09:58successfully for at least 20 minutes,
0:09:58 > 0:10:01which meant that he was officially
0:10:01 > 0:10:04a magnificent man in a flying machine.
0:10:05 > 0:10:08The Daily Mail, always ready for a sharp stunt,
0:10:08 > 0:10:12offered a prize of £10,000 - huge money,
0:10:12 > 0:10:16more than £750,000 today...
0:10:16 > 0:10:21to the first pilot to fly the 195 miles from London to Manchester.
0:10:21 > 0:10:24And the race of the year was filmed.
0:10:25 > 0:10:32Two men came forward - another Frenchman, Louis Paulhan,
0:10:32 > 0:10:33and our Claude.
0:10:35 > 0:10:38Things didn't start well for Claude.
0:10:38 > 0:10:40He went for an afternoon nap
0:10:40 > 0:10:43to prepare himself for the race the following day.
0:10:43 > 0:10:48Meanwhile, Paulhan, not even waiting for a test flight, had set off.
0:10:49 > 0:10:55By the time Grahame-White was woken up, he was already an hour behind
0:10:55 > 0:10:57and he decided on a desperate measure.
0:10:57 > 0:11:00He would fly through the night.
0:11:07 > 0:11:09Now, he had no lights, no altimeter,
0:11:09 > 0:11:15no fuel gauge, no compass - this was enormously dangerous.
0:11:15 > 0:11:19He relied on the headlamps of friends' cars on the roads below.
0:11:19 > 0:11:23By four in the morning, his engine had failed and he had to put down.
0:11:23 > 0:11:27A huge crowd gathered and he was off again.
0:11:31 > 0:11:35Next time, he was forced down by winds,
0:11:35 > 0:11:38to hear the dreadful news that it was too late.
0:11:38 > 0:11:43Paulhan had already arrived in Manchester and claimed the prize,
0:11:43 > 0:11:49thanks to such dastardly tactics as not having a sleep before he started.
0:11:56 > 0:12:01Meanwhile, swathes of deepest England were also sleeping.
0:12:02 > 0:12:06Compton Verney, near Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire -
0:12:06 > 0:12:09the traditional seat of the Willoughby de Brokes.
0:12:11 > 0:12:13Here, for centuries,
0:12:13 > 0:12:19there was hierarchy and order, fox-hunting and forelock-tugging.
0:12:19 > 0:12:21And it would go on like this for ever.
0:12:23 > 0:12:25Or would it?
0:12:25 > 0:12:30Soon after the Liberal landslide, a quizzical, long-faced aristocrat,
0:12:30 > 0:12:35the 19th Lord Willoughby de Broke, was clip-clopping around his estate,
0:12:35 > 0:12:39reflecting on the joys of fox-hunting.
0:12:42 > 0:12:46That morning, Willoughby de Broke met an old farmer who told him
0:12:46 > 0:12:50that after the Liberal victory, nothing would be the same again.
0:12:50 > 0:12:53"Everything that you 'ave will be taken away from you
0:12:53 > 0:12:56"and divided amongst the people."
0:12:56 > 0:13:01"I didn't believe a single word of it," said the 19th Lord later.
0:13:01 > 0:13:05"I carried on hunting as if nothing was going to happen."
0:13:05 > 0:13:08For Willoughby and his kind,
0:13:08 > 0:13:11the modern world was a most unpleasant rumour.
0:13:11 > 0:13:16But they were all about to get the shock of their titled little lives.
0:13:20 > 0:13:23From the day the Liberals came to power,
0:13:23 > 0:13:27a small army of gloriously old-fashioned Tory peers
0:13:27 > 0:13:31had been vetoing almost every attempt at reform.
0:13:32 > 0:13:37And in 1909, Asquith's Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lloyd George,
0:13:37 > 0:13:42was about to ignite one of the greatest political battles of the age
0:13:42 > 0:13:46whose result shapes our politics even now.
0:13:50 > 0:13:51David Lloyd George
0:13:51 > 0:13:55was the most radical Chancellor this country had ever known.
0:13:55 > 0:14:00He was pledged to bring Britain into a new age of welfare...
0:14:00 > 0:14:03IN WELSH ACCENT: ..."when wretchedness and human degradation
0:14:03 > 0:14:06"will be as remote to the people of this country
0:14:06 > 0:14:10"as the wolves which once infested its forests."
0:14:10 > 0:14:13But to the rich, Lloyd George himself
0:14:13 > 0:14:16was a great deal more dangerous than any wolf.
0:14:18 > 0:14:24In 1909, recession was looming, unemployment was rising.
0:14:24 > 0:14:27With no State pensions or national insurance,
0:14:27 > 0:14:28Britain was still tormented
0:14:28 > 0:14:33by Victorian levels of poverty, sickness and hunger.
0:14:33 > 0:14:37Lloyd George wanted to pay for welfare reforms
0:14:37 > 0:14:40by making massive cuts in defence spending.
0:14:45 > 0:14:50But with fears of a German invasion being stoked by the popular press,
0:14:50 > 0:14:52he had little room for manoeuvre.
0:14:54 > 0:14:56Out on the streets,
0:14:56 > 0:15:01patriotic crowds were chanting for the latest awesome war machine -
0:15:01 > 0:15:04the British-built dreadnought battleship.
0:15:04 > 0:15:07"We want eight and we won't wait!"
0:15:07 > 0:15:12Lloyd George's problem was that dreadnoughts were ruinously expensive.
0:15:12 > 0:15:15To pay both for them and for welfare,
0:15:15 > 0:15:19he devised what he called his People's Budget.
0:15:19 > 0:15:21He said it was "a war budget,
0:15:21 > 0:15:24"to wage implacable warfare
0:15:24 > 0:15:27"against poverty and squalidness."
0:15:27 > 0:15:31To pay for both dreadnoughts and welfare,
0:15:31 > 0:15:34Lloyd George announced an increase in estate duties -
0:15:34 > 0:15:37a huge blow to the wealthy.
0:15:37 > 0:15:42And he also introduced a new super-tax for the super-rich.
0:15:42 > 0:15:48The People's Budget was a direct hit on landowners in the Lords,
0:15:48 > 0:15:50many of them in Lloyd George's own party,
0:15:50 > 0:15:55and they still had huge power over the elected Commons.
0:15:55 > 0:16:00Lord Rosebery, an immensely wealthy landowner
0:16:00 > 0:16:02who'd also been Liberal prime minister,
0:16:02 > 0:16:06described the People's Budget as pure socialism...
0:16:06 > 0:16:13The negation of faith, of family, of property, of Monarchy, of Empire.
0:16:13 > 0:16:19In fact, he said, it wasn't really a budget at all, it was a revolution.
0:16:19 > 0:16:24And around Britain, the wealthy began the most ferocious campaign
0:16:24 > 0:16:27in the newspapers, in the City, among landowners
0:16:27 > 0:16:29and in the House of Lords.
0:16:29 > 0:16:32They even formed the Anti-Budget League.
0:16:32 > 0:16:37And so, on the evening of July 30th 1909,
0:16:37 > 0:16:40Lloyd George decided he had no choice
0:16:40 > 0:16:46but to take his People's Budget directly to the people.
0:16:50 > 0:16:53That night, 4,000 men crammed themselves
0:16:53 > 0:16:59into a former pub called the Edinburgh Castle in the East End of London.
0:16:59 > 0:17:03The Chancellor of the Exchequer stood up, to raucous applause.
0:17:06 > 0:17:08Many who heard Lloyd George in his prime
0:17:08 > 0:17:13said he was the greatest orator British politics ever produced.
0:17:13 > 0:17:17And this was to be the speech of his life.
0:17:17 > 0:17:23"Was it not a shame that a rich country like Britain
0:17:23 > 0:17:27"should allow people who had toiled all their lives
0:17:27 > 0:17:32"to die in penury and starvation?"
0:17:32 > 0:17:37His People's Budget, he said, was being opposed by "shabby rich men".
0:17:37 > 0:17:40He needed the money for dreadnoughts,
0:17:40 > 0:17:42he reminded the audience,
0:17:42 > 0:17:46"And the workmen put in their coppers."
0:17:46 > 0:17:49But when he went round wealthy Belgravia,
0:17:49 > 0:17:52"There arose such a howl.
0:17:52 > 0:17:58"Well, I tell you, the day of their reckoning is at hand."
0:17:59 > 0:18:03This was bare-knuckle class warfare.
0:18:03 > 0:18:05Rumours were already spreading
0:18:05 > 0:18:08that some landowners were threatening to sack their servants
0:18:08 > 0:18:10if the People's Budget was passed.
0:18:12 > 0:18:15Lloyd George was merciless.
0:18:15 > 0:18:20"Are they going to threaten to devastate rural England
0:18:20 > 0:18:23"by feeding and dressing themselves?" he asked.
0:18:23 > 0:18:26"A typical nobleman needs one man
0:18:26 > 0:18:29"to fix his collar and adjust his tie in the morning,
0:18:29 > 0:18:34"a couple of men to carry a boiled egg to him for his breakfast,
0:18:34 > 0:18:36"a fourth man to open the door for him,
0:18:36 > 0:18:39"a fifth to help him in and out of his carriage,
0:18:39 > 0:18:42"a sixth and seventh to drive him...
0:18:42 > 0:18:46"Why, a fully equipped duke costs as much to keep up
0:18:46 > 0:18:48"as two dreadnoughts."
0:18:48 > 0:18:51To his fervent admirers,
0:18:51 > 0:18:53Lloyd George was the Welsh wizard.
0:18:53 > 0:18:57He was the Merlin of radical politics.
0:18:57 > 0:19:03And on that night, he blew on the fire with all his magic-dragon might
0:19:03 > 0:19:07and brought the trouble to boiling point.
0:19:07 > 0:19:10APPLAUSE
0:19:10 > 0:19:14This was an age of public meetings and mass hysteria,
0:19:14 > 0:19:18live politics and live theatre.
0:19:18 > 0:19:21While Lloyd George was wowing them at the Edinburgh Castle,
0:19:21 > 0:19:26another rising star was doing the same in the West End.
0:19:27 > 0:19:33Music hall, or vaudeville, mattered in 1909. Films didn't.
0:19:33 > 0:19:37They were mostly novelties and curiosities.
0:19:37 > 0:19:40Like the aristocrats, music-hall stars would surely
0:19:40 > 0:19:42be around for ever...
0:19:42 > 0:19:44Not quite.
0:19:44 > 0:19:48One young Londoner would become the symbol of this next revolution.
0:19:50 > 0:19:54Charlie Chaplin grew up in Lambeth, south London,
0:19:54 > 0:19:57and his early life was as grim as anything you'll find
0:19:57 > 0:19:59in the novels of Dickens.
0:19:59 > 0:20:02His father deserted the family
0:20:02 > 0:20:06before drinking himself to an early grave.
0:20:06 > 0:20:10The Chaplins ran out of money and food
0:20:10 > 0:20:16and they touched bottom here at the Lambeth workhouse,
0:20:16 > 0:20:19a place built to be scary,
0:20:19 > 0:20:22designed to be humiliating.
0:20:24 > 0:20:27Desperately trying to help out the family finances,
0:20:27 > 0:20:31Chaplin tramped all over Britain as a child performer.
0:20:31 > 0:20:36He had a go at singing, clog dancing and a disastrous attempt
0:20:36 > 0:20:37at stand-up comedy
0:20:37 > 0:20:43before settling on slickly timed, gag-filled comedy sketches.
0:20:43 > 0:20:46In early 1908, he had his big break -
0:20:46 > 0:20:50a contract with the Fred Karno Company.
0:20:50 > 0:20:53Karno had been a famous acrobat and clown,
0:20:53 > 0:20:58credited with the invention of the custard-pie-in-the-face gag.
0:20:58 > 0:21:02Now he was head of the greatest comedy troupe in Britain,
0:21:02 > 0:21:04if not the world.
0:21:06 > 0:21:09Fred Karno's headquarters, here in Camberwell in south London,
0:21:09 > 0:21:12was known as the "fun factory".
0:21:12 > 0:21:14It really was a kind of factory.
0:21:14 > 0:21:20He drove his performers very hard with frantic rehearsal schedules,
0:21:20 > 0:21:22and if he didn't like an act, he'd stand in the wings
0:21:22 > 0:21:26and blow raspberries at his own actors.
0:21:26 > 0:21:29Whenever he was asked, "Who's your star turn?",
0:21:29 > 0:21:35he'd reply, "My name's up there, and that's enough!"
0:21:35 > 0:21:41Mr Karno - and who's heard of him nowadays? - had a cuckoo in the nest.
0:21:42 > 0:21:44In February 1908,
0:21:44 > 0:21:49Charlie Chaplin topped the Karno bill for the first time.
0:21:49 > 0:21:50In the same year,
0:21:50 > 0:21:54a young comic called Arthur Stanley Jefferson joined the company.
0:21:54 > 0:21:57He's better known now as Stan Laurel.
0:21:57 > 0:22:02So, for a couple of years, two of the great comic geniuses of cinema
0:22:02 > 0:22:06shared shabby digs and performed together all over Britain
0:22:06 > 0:22:08and the United States.
0:22:10 > 0:22:15In 1912, Chaplin was spotted by the emerging American film industry
0:22:15 > 0:22:20and offered a contract with the Keystone Company in Los Angeles.
0:22:20 > 0:22:26Chaplin had seen some of the Keystone films and he wasn't much impressed.
0:22:26 > 0:22:29He described them as "crude rough and tumble".
0:22:29 > 0:22:34But he took the money - it was a lot - and said ta-ta to the Karno troupe.
0:22:34 > 0:22:38Stan Laurel thought he was making a great mistake.
0:22:38 > 0:22:42"We all wished him well from the bottom of our hearts," he said later,
0:22:42 > 0:22:48"while secretly congratulating ourselves on possessing a superior wisdom."
0:22:48 > 0:22:52Even Chaplin didn't really get the movies.
0:22:52 > 0:22:55"A year in that racket," he said,
0:22:55 > 0:22:59"and I could return to Vaudeville an international star."
0:23:01 > 0:23:04In his first movie, Making A Living,
0:23:04 > 0:23:08Chaplin played a hapless newspaper reporter.
0:23:12 > 0:23:13Drawing on his Karno training,
0:23:13 > 0:23:19he packed every scene of the eight-minute reel with improvised gags.
0:23:22 > 0:23:24Later, he sat down with great excitement
0:23:24 > 0:23:30to watch the edited version of his first performance on screen...
0:23:30 > 0:23:32and it broke his heart.
0:23:36 > 0:23:42Chaplin's first film performance had been butchered beyond recognition.
0:23:42 > 0:23:47The next day, he was told to go away and put on some comedy make-up.
0:23:47 > 0:23:53Anything would do. They were already haphazardly improvising the next film.
0:23:53 > 0:23:55On his way to the wardrobe, Chaplin said,
0:23:55 > 0:23:59he decided to put on some baggy pants,
0:23:59 > 0:24:03big shoes, a cane and a derby hat.
0:24:03 > 0:24:09Already, gags and joke ideas were racing through his mind.
0:24:09 > 0:24:13And with the single addition of a small moustache,
0:24:13 > 0:24:15The Tramp was born.
0:24:20 > 0:24:25By 1912, the British were flocking to the movies in their millions,
0:24:25 > 0:24:27and the boy from the Lambeth workhouse
0:24:27 > 0:24:30would go on to become the greatest film star of the age.
0:24:33 > 0:24:36Had he not taken that reckless gamble on the other side of the Atlantic,
0:24:36 > 0:24:40he'd have been stuck in the declining world of the music hall
0:24:40 > 0:24:43and Charlie Chaplin would be a name
0:24:43 > 0:24:47known only to a tiny number of enthusiasts.
0:24:47 > 0:24:50Actually, more likely, given the streets he came from,
0:24:50 > 0:24:55he would have signed up early for the First World War and been killed.
0:25:02 > 0:25:09Throughout 1909, British fears about German military expansion grew and grew.
0:25:10 > 0:25:13But five months after his great People's Budget speech,
0:25:13 > 0:25:17Lloyd George's attempt to balance defence and welfare
0:25:17 > 0:25:21was still being blocked by the House of Lords.
0:25:22 > 0:25:27In November 1909, by a huge majority,
0:25:27 > 0:25:29they finally kicked it out.
0:25:29 > 0:25:34The first time the Lords had ever rejected a budget.
0:25:34 > 0:25:38It was an act of suicidal stupidity,
0:25:38 > 0:25:43and it was Asquith's chance to clip the old buzzards' wings.
0:25:43 > 0:25:45Under the British system,
0:25:45 > 0:25:49the Lords would only lose those powers by voting themselves.
0:25:49 > 0:25:52A kind of political self-slaughter.
0:25:52 > 0:25:54Not very likely.
0:25:54 > 0:25:56And so Asquith asked the King
0:25:56 > 0:26:01to allow the creation of 400 to 500 new Liberal peers.
0:26:01 > 0:26:06Democracy would swamp aristocracy.
0:26:06 > 0:26:09Edward VII hated the idea.
0:26:09 > 0:26:12The man was, after all, a king emperor.
0:26:12 > 0:26:16And so, to try and delay things, he said to Asquith
0:26:16 > 0:26:20there'd have to be another special general election first.
0:26:20 > 0:26:26This concession did not reassure the landed aristocrats.
0:26:26 > 0:26:32In this chamber, behind gnarled hands, where blue blood still flowed,
0:26:32 > 0:26:37they started to call the King himself a traitor.
0:26:40 > 0:26:451910 would be a year of political turmoil.
0:26:45 > 0:26:49There would be two general elections -
0:26:49 > 0:26:53the first to break the deadlock on the People's Budget,
0:26:53 > 0:26:57the second to decide the fate of the House of Lords.
0:26:59 > 0:27:05The Liberals hung on to power with the backing of 40 Labour MPs
0:27:05 > 0:27:09and 82 Irish Nationalists.
0:27:09 > 0:27:12And the People's Budget was finally passed.
0:27:14 > 0:27:19Asquith now turned his attention to the House of Lords.
0:27:19 > 0:27:23His Reform Bill, to cut away their powers of veto,
0:27:23 > 0:27:27wouldn't mean the total abolition of the upper house.
0:27:27 > 0:27:31But it did mean that the domination
0:27:31 > 0:27:34of the House of Commons
0:27:34 > 0:27:39over this place would be near absolute.
0:27:40 > 0:27:45In May, worried old King Edward died.
0:27:45 > 0:27:48His successor, George V, was just as queasy,
0:27:48 > 0:27:53but he was afraid the monarchy would be the Liberals' next target.
0:27:53 > 0:27:57Feeling bullied, and with great reluctance, he secretly gave Asquith
0:27:57 > 0:27:59the promise he'd been looking for.
0:27:59 > 0:28:03If the Government won a second election in December,
0:28:03 > 0:28:05the King would allow the Lords to be swamped
0:28:05 > 0:28:10by 500 mass-manufactured Liberal peers.
0:28:10 > 0:28:15To the King's dismay, the Liberals won that election too.
0:28:16 > 0:28:23On the 23rd of July 1911, Asquith set out for his Parliamentary triumph.
0:28:23 > 0:28:27He had the King's promise to swamp the Lords chamber with Liberal peers
0:28:27 > 0:28:28in his pocket,
0:28:28 > 0:28:32and on the short journey, he was cheered by crowds.
0:28:32 > 0:28:34But when he got into the Commons chamber,
0:28:34 > 0:28:38Asquith was shouted down
0:28:38 > 0:28:42by almost-berserk Tory MPs
0:28:42 > 0:28:45chanting "Traitor, traitor, traitor!"
0:28:45 > 0:28:49and "Who killed the King?"
0:28:49 > 0:28:52After 45 minutes of this,
0:28:52 > 0:28:56Asquith gave up and walked out.
0:28:58 > 0:29:02But the Last of the Romans wasn't going to crack.
0:29:02 > 0:29:05The Tory party itself was now at daggers drawn,
0:29:05 > 0:29:08with the leadership calling for surrender.
0:29:08 > 0:29:14234 Tory peers eventually agreed to throw in the towel,
0:29:14 > 0:29:15including Lord Curzon,
0:29:15 > 0:29:19who'd led the campaign for the defence of aristocratic government.
0:29:21 > 0:29:24Curzon said that anyone who kept fighting
0:29:24 > 0:29:27"deserves to be sent to a lunatic asylum".
0:29:27 > 0:29:31Willoughby de Broke preferred Bedlam to Curzon.
0:29:31 > 0:29:34"I am prepared to defend the hereditary principle," he said,
0:29:34 > 0:29:37"whether it be applied to peers
0:29:37 > 0:29:39"or to fox hounds."
0:29:40 > 0:29:44After a bitter debate, the vote was going to be very tight.
0:29:44 > 0:29:49Lord Willoughby de Broke could see that some of his allies were wavering.
0:29:49 > 0:29:53Some cowardly souls were even sneaking out of the House.
0:29:54 > 0:29:59In a rather desperate bid to keep one wobbly duke in the chamber for the vote,
0:29:59 > 0:30:04Willoughby de Broke stole his top hat and coat.
0:30:04 > 0:30:10In 1911, it would have been unthinkable for a gentleman to go outside hatless.
0:30:10 > 0:30:13But the noble peer bolted anyway.
0:30:13 > 0:30:15He scampered off into the night
0:30:15 > 0:30:17without his hat.
0:30:17 > 0:30:21And that's as good an image, perhaps, as we'll get
0:30:21 > 0:30:27of the final political scuttling of Britannia's aristocratic order.
0:30:34 > 0:30:37The Liberals had triumphed over the Lords.
0:30:37 > 0:30:41But they weren't nearly radical enough for the trades unions,
0:30:41 > 0:30:45now aflame with anger and a sense of injustice,
0:30:45 > 0:30:48and nowhere more so than in the docks.
0:30:58 > 0:31:03The Edwardians were hugely dependent on imported food...
0:31:05 > 0:31:09..unloaded by tens of thousands of badly paid men.
0:31:18 > 0:31:22At the start of a scorching August in 1911,
0:31:22 > 0:31:26the London dockers came out on strike.
0:31:26 > 0:31:29Piles of vegetable on the wharves rotted,
0:31:29 > 0:31:34barrels of butter turned rancid, fish and meat began to stink.
0:31:36 > 0:31:39It was getting hotter, and tempers rose.
0:31:40 > 0:31:44Armed police and the Army prepared to break the strike.
0:31:46 > 0:31:51The key union leader, a flamboyant man called Ben Tillett,
0:31:51 > 0:31:55wrote a letter to the Home Secretary, Winston Churchill.
0:31:55 > 0:32:01Tillett's letter to Churchill was a blood-curdling warning.
0:32:01 > 0:32:05"We shall bring about a state of war.
0:32:05 > 0:32:10"Hunger and poverty have driven the dock and ship workers
0:32:10 > 0:32:13"to this present resort,
0:32:13 > 0:32:18"and neither your soldiers, nor police, your murder,
0:32:18 > 0:32:22"shall avert the catastrophe that is coming to this country."
0:32:24 > 0:32:26In the early years of the century,
0:32:26 > 0:32:30most radicals and socialists had relied on the Liberals.
0:32:30 > 0:32:35But the Russian revolution of 1905 changed the mood.
0:32:35 > 0:32:38Ben Tillett and his comrades intended to take Britain
0:32:38 > 0:32:41down the same revolutionary road.
0:32:41 > 0:32:47Now they challenged the Liberals directly by calling strikes all over Britain.
0:32:49 > 0:32:53The mood turned ugly when police intervened
0:32:53 > 0:32:56in a dock strike in Liverpool.
0:32:56 > 0:33:00Violence spread rapidly through the city.
0:33:01 > 0:33:06The Mayor of Birkenhead warned that this was no longer a strike.
0:33:06 > 0:33:09A revolution was in progress.
0:33:09 > 0:33:11And he told the Home Office,
0:33:11 > 0:33:15"If you cannot offer me more military or naval support,
0:33:15 > 0:33:19"I cannot answer for the safety of life or property."
0:33:31 > 0:33:35Within days, the entire Aldershot Garrison had been ordered north
0:33:35 > 0:33:41and off the coast of Birkenhead, there were two warships.
0:33:42 > 0:33:46The strikes and violence continued to spread.
0:33:46 > 0:33:49It was getting hard to see how the Liberals,
0:33:49 > 0:33:53with so many landowners and mill-owners among their MPs,
0:33:53 > 0:33:58could ever be the true champions of the working class.
0:33:58 > 0:34:03In 1912, the leader of the London Port Authority, Lord Devonport,
0:34:03 > 0:34:06tried to break another strike in the London docks
0:34:06 > 0:34:10by drafting in blackleg labour with police protection.
0:34:13 > 0:34:19Tillett came here to Tower Hill to a huge open-air meeting
0:34:19 > 0:34:21to test the workers' resolve.
0:34:23 > 0:34:28In front of the now silent river and a sea of faces,
0:34:28 > 0:34:31with his hat tipped back on his head,
0:34:31 > 0:34:34Tillett demanded to know how many of the striking dockers
0:34:34 > 0:34:36had military training?
0:34:36 > 0:34:40And how many would serve in a workers' police.
0:34:40 > 0:34:42And a forest of hands went up
0:34:42 > 0:34:45and his language became more inflamed.
0:34:45 > 0:34:51"Sedition or no sedition, I want to say that if our men are murdered,
0:34:51 > 0:34:56"I am going to take a gun and shoot Lord Devonport."
0:34:56 > 0:35:02And later, he called upon God to strike Lord Devonport dead.
0:35:02 > 0:35:05And the cry came back from the crowd,
0:35:05 > 0:35:09"He shall die! He shall die!"
0:35:15 > 0:35:17Mounting panic.
0:35:17 > 0:35:22Army camps appeared in Hyde Park, Regent's Park, Battersea Park.
0:35:22 > 0:35:26It's reckoned that almost every available soldier in the country
0:35:26 > 0:35:30was on standby for the coming uprising.
0:35:30 > 0:35:33In the West End, gents left their clubs
0:35:33 > 0:35:36to go and buy revolvers to protect themselves
0:35:36 > 0:35:39from the revolution that was about to happen.
0:35:48 > 0:35:50For a short while, it seemed
0:35:50 > 0:35:56that those who predicted a British revolution weren't so daft.
0:35:56 > 0:35:58All of this happened exactly between
0:35:58 > 0:36:03the first Russian revolution and the second Russian revolution.
0:36:03 > 0:36:07And though, in the end, this fever,
0:36:07 > 0:36:11with its talk of workers, police and revolvers,
0:36:11 > 0:36:17would be washed away in the vastly greater violence and bloodshed to come,
0:36:17 > 0:36:21in 1912, the old order
0:36:21 > 0:36:25seemed not only old but fragile.
0:36:28 > 0:36:32And the same was true in private life.
0:36:32 > 0:36:36In 1913, a 33-year-old biologist
0:36:36 > 0:36:41marched into the British Museum reading room with only one thing on her mind.
0:36:43 > 0:36:48She'd been married for over a year to a Canadian called Reginald Gates
0:36:48 > 0:36:50but she was still a virgin.
0:36:53 > 0:36:55Her name was Marie Stopes.
0:36:55 > 0:36:58And like so many women of her time,
0:36:58 > 0:37:01sex was a subject she knew very little about.
0:37:03 > 0:37:08In true scientific spirit, and showing considerable courage,
0:37:08 > 0:37:12Marie Stopes came here, to the reading room at the British Museum,
0:37:12 > 0:37:17to find out everything that was known about sex.
0:37:17 > 0:37:22And for six months, she read her way through every document and tract
0:37:22 > 0:37:24in English and French and German,
0:37:24 > 0:37:28some of them so explicit, so dangerous,
0:37:28 > 0:37:32that they were kept locked away in a room with restricted access
0:37:32 > 0:37:36known simply as "the cupboard".
0:37:36 > 0:37:39Marie Stopes was genuinely puzzled
0:37:39 > 0:37:42about what was wrong with her marriage.
0:37:42 > 0:37:45She had recently fallen in love with a married man,
0:37:45 > 0:37:50a translator of Tolstoy, Aylmer Maude, who was lodging in her home.
0:37:52 > 0:37:55Reginald Gates was suspicious of their friendship
0:37:55 > 0:37:58and in a jealous rage, he threatened to shoot him.
0:38:00 > 0:38:04When Marie Stopes returned home each evening,
0:38:04 > 0:38:06her husband was waiting for her,
0:38:06 > 0:38:08livid and brimming
0:38:08 > 0:38:11with abuse and taunts.
0:38:11 > 0:38:16She wanted to escape to the arms of Aylmer Maude
0:38:16 > 0:38:21but in those days, for an Edwardian woman, divorce was almost impossible.
0:38:23 > 0:38:29Edwardian Britain wasn't a nation of universal sexual repression.
0:38:29 > 0:38:31Among working-class families,
0:38:31 > 0:38:35huge numbers of children were born out of wedlock.
0:38:36 > 0:38:38Among the upper classes,
0:38:38 > 0:38:42sexual behaviour was getting wilder.
0:38:45 > 0:38:48The late King Edward had led the way.
0:38:48 > 0:38:52Rather earlier, his notorious appetite for women
0:38:52 > 0:38:55had earned him the nickname Edward The Caresser.
0:38:56 > 0:38:59Herbert Asquith's diaries and letters
0:38:59 > 0:39:04reveal floods of passion for his much younger mistresses.
0:39:04 > 0:39:08If Asquith was an elderly romantic, and possibly a lecher,
0:39:08 > 0:39:13Lloyd George was a notorious goat.
0:39:13 > 0:39:16Lord Kitchener used to say that he objected to discussing
0:39:16 > 0:39:18sensitive military matters in front of the Cabinet
0:39:18 > 0:39:22because they all went home and told their wives...
0:39:22 > 0:39:26except for Lloyd George, who went home and told somebody else's wife.
0:39:30 > 0:39:33But, like Marie Stopes, most people
0:39:33 > 0:39:36were still comparatively ignorant about sex.
0:39:36 > 0:39:41In the course of her research, Stopes came to the conclusion
0:39:41 > 0:39:44that her husband was impotent.
0:39:44 > 0:39:48To get a divorce, however, she'd have to prove it.
0:39:48 > 0:39:52In May 1914, she underwent a medical examination
0:39:52 > 0:39:55that certified her virginity.
0:39:55 > 0:39:58And the marriage was annulled.
0:40:01 > 0:40:05Marie Stopes wrote about her traumatic experiences of love, sex and marriage
0:40:05 > 0:40:08in the pioneering book Married Love.
0:40:10 > 0:40:14She was the first to write about sexual intercourse in a matter-of-fact way.
0:40:16 > 0:40:20We tend to think of "women's lib" as a 1970s thing,
0:40:20 > 0:40:24but it was also one of the growing intellectual movement
0:40:24 > 0:40:26of Edwardian life.
0:40:30 > 0:40:33GLASS SHATTERS
0:40:35 > 0:40:40Just after 6am on the 19th of February 1913,
0:40:40 > 0:40:43there was an explosion at Lloyd George's new house,
0:40:43 > 0:40:46still under construction near his golf club
0:40:46 > 0:40:49at Walton-on-the-Hill in Surrey.
0:40:49 > 0:40:53The servants' wing was badly damaged, the ceilings ruined,
0:40:53 > 0:40:55doors and windows blown out.
0:40:55 > 0:41:00The bombs were simple - canisters filled with gunpowder -
0:41:00 > 0:41:03and the timing device very crude -
0:41:03 > 0:41:08simply a lighted candle stuck on top of a paraffin-soaked rag.
0:41:08 > 0:41:10No note was found,
0:41:10 > 0:41:14but the police did discover two broken hatpins
0:41:14 > 0:41:18and, in the road outside, one woman's shoe.
0:41:23 > 0:41:27The main culprit was a gawky, rather awkward young redhead
0:41:27 > 0:41:29called Emily Wilding Davison,
0:41:29 > 0:41:34and within a few months, her name would echo around the world.
0:41:34 > 0:41:36But for now, responsibility was taken,
0:41:36 > 0:41:40on behalf by the whole suffragette movement, by Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst.
0:41:40 > 0:41:43Speaking that very night in Cardiff,
0:41:43 > 0:41:47she said, "We may not have yet got the whole Government in prison,
0:41:47 > 0:41:50"but we have blown up the Chancellor of the Exchequer's house."
0:41:50 > 0:41:55Now, some people booed and one protester said, "Why have you blown him up?"
0:41:55 > 0:41:59to which Mrs Pankhurst replied, "To wake him up!"
0:41:59 > 0:42:02Laughter, applause,
0:42:02 > 0:42:04and hooting of horns.
0:42:07 > 0:42:13Even radical Liberals like Lloyd George still drew the line at votes for women.
0:42:13 > 0:42:15On both sides, the struggle became more intense...
0:42:18 > 0:42:23Hunger strikes, forced feeding, windows smashed, paintings slashed,
0:42:23 > 0:42:28post boxes burned and telegraph links brought down.
0:42:32 > 0:42:35And sweet-looking little old ladies
0:42:35 > 0:42:39terrorising the authorities by applying for gun licences.
0:42:46 > 0:42:52Next target - the social event of the year - Derby Day in Epsom.
0:42:54 > 0:42:57Emily Davison arrived at Epsom by railway,
0:42:57 > 0:43:00made her way to the racecourse,
0:43:00 > 0:43:01and then marked up her card,
0:43:01 > 0:43:04waiting for the all-important three o'clock race
0:43:04 > 0:43:07when the King's horse, Anmer, would be running.
0:43:21 > 0:43:23The race was a flat sprint.
0:43:23 > 0:43:26As the horses turned into the final straight,
0:43:26 > 0:43:29Anmer was running in third-from-last position.
0:43:29 > 0:43:34Emily Davison slipped underneath the barrier.
0:43:34 > 0:43:36One of the bystanders tried to grab her
0:43:36 > 0:43:40but he said later that she shook herself free and cried, "I will!"
0:43:40 > 0:43:45And then she strode straight into the path of the King's horse.
0:43:54 > 0:43:59The horse hit Emily Davison with colossal force.
0:43:59 > 0:44:04She fell and rolled over two or three times...then lay unconscious.
0:44:08 > 0:44:11Film footage shows her grabbing the reins.
0:44:11 > 0:44:15Some believe she was trying to pin a banner on the horse.
0:44:23 > 0:44:26Davison was taken to hospital.
0:44:26 > 0:44:29Hate mail was to follow.
0:44:30 > 0:44:34This being Britain, more concern was expressed for the horse...
0:44:34 > 0:44:36which survived.
0:44:36 > 0:44:41Emily Wilding Davison didn't.
0:44:41 > 0:44:44On 8th June 1913,
0:44:44 > 0:44:49four days after her protest, she died of terrible internal injuries.
0:44:52 > 0:44:55MUSIC: The March Of The Women
0:44:55 > 0:44:57# Shout! Shout! Up with your song... #
0:44:57 > 0:45:01At the funeral, her coffin was draped in a suffragette flag.
0:45:01 > 0:45:02# ..For the dawn is breaking
0:45:02 > 0:45:04# March! March... #
0:45:04 > 0:45:08Thousands of men and women lined the streets as it passed.
0:45:08 > 0:45:12# ..Wide blows our banner and hope is waking
0:45:12 > 0:45:15# Song with this story... #
0:45:15 > 0:45:21The coffin was flanked by women dressed in the colours of the suffrage movement.
0:45:21 > 0:45:26Green for hope, purple for dignity and white for purity.
0:45:26 > 0:45:27# ..Loud and louder it swells
0:45:27 > 0:45:30# Thunder of freedom
0:45:30 > 0:45:33# The voice of the Lord! #
0:45:43 > 0:45:46These rebel women and rebel girls
0:45:46 > 0:45:51smashed the complacent face of Edwardian Britain
0:45:51 > 0:45:55and changed the image of this country around the world.
0:45:55 > 0:46:00No longer the stuffy, narrow, unchanging society.
0:46:00 > 0:46:04Suffragettes turned Emily Davison, quite deliberately,
0:46:04 > 0:46:07into an international martyr.
0:46:07 > 0:46:11Impossible to ignore and unforgettable.
0:46:11 > 0:46:14What she did to herself here was horrible,
0:46:14 > 0:46:20but what happened to her after her death was everything she hoped for.
0:46:35 > 0:46:40Attacked by militant women and challenged by socialist strikes,
0:46:40 > 0:46:42Asquith now made another,
0:46:42 > 0:46:45even more dangerous enemy.
0:46:45 > 0:46:47For more than a generation,
0:46:47 > 0:46:51the Liberals had been committed to loosening Britain's grip on Ireland
0:46:51 > 0:46:54with a form of devolution or Home Rule.
0:46:54 > 0:47:00But they'd always been angrily opposed by the Protestant majority in Ulster.
0:47:00 > 0:47:04In April 1912, Asquith tried again.
0:47:06 > 0:47:11Under the leadership of lawyer and QC Sir Edward Carson,
0:47:11 > 0:47:14the Ulster Unionists started organising fellow Protestants,
0:47:14 > 0:47:17and the Tories were with him.
0:47:20 > 0:47:26At a vast meeting here in Belfast, Edward Carson challenged the crowd
0:47:26 > 0:47:29to raise their hands and declare that,
0:47:29 > 0:47:34"Never, under any circumstances, will we submit to Home Rule."
0:47:34 > 0:47:39Even the leader of the Conservative Party, standing beside Carson,
0:47:39 > 0:47:41raised his hand as well.
0:47:41 > 0:47:46And then they set out to get the entire unionist population of Northern Ireland
0:47:46 > 0:47:49to sign an oath of resistance,
0:47:49 > 0:47:52not just with speeches and pens,
0:47:52 > 0:47:56but, if necessary, bullets and bayonets too.
0:47:56 > 0:47:59This oath was called the Ulster Covenant,
0:47:59 > 0:48:04and in the end nearly half a million people signed it,
0:48:04 > 0:48:07including a man called Fred Crawford,
0:48:07 > 0:48:13who, to show his dedication to the cause, signed in his own blood.
0:48:18 > 0:48:23In January 1913, the Unionists formed the Ulster Volunteer Force
0:48:23 > 0:48:26to defend the northern counties of Ireland
0:48:26 > 0:48:30against British attempts to enforce Home Rule.
0:48:30 > 0:48:34Some 100,000 men joined up,
0:48:34 > 0:48:38armed with half a dozen machine guns and 50,000 rifles...
0:48:38 > 0:48:41mainly smuggled from Germany.
0:48:45 > 0:48:47CHEERING
0:48:47 > 0:48:50This wasn't just about Ireland.
0:48:50 > 0:48:51All across Britain,
0:48:51 > 0:48:53huge sums of money were being raised
0:48:53 > 0:48:55for the unionist cause.
0:48:55 > 0:48:59In Liverpool shipyards and Hammersmith pubs,
0:48:59 > 0:49:05working men were secretly stockpiling massive quantities of arms.
0:49:05 > 0:49:08Lorries were jolting across the roads of England and Scotland
0:49:08 > 0:49:12with secret cargoes of guns and ammunition.
0:49:12 > 0:49:15Young men were slipping quietly away from their homes
0:49:15 > 0:49:19to go across the water and fight for Ulster.
0:49:19 > 0:49:21Because for many people,
0:49:21 > 0:49:25the loss of Britain's first colony would be the beginning of the end
0:49:25 > 0:49:28for that great imperial power, Britannia.
0:49:29 > 0:49:35On 20th March 1914, British troops based near Dublin
0:49:35 > 0:49:40were ordered to prepare to move north to Ulster.
0:49:40 > 0:49:42The commander of British forces in Ireland,
0:49:42 > 0:49:45Lieutenant-General Sir Arthur Paget,
0:49:45 > 0:49:46was worried by the orders
0:49:46 > 0:49:52because many of his men were from Protestant unionist families.
0:49:52 > 0:49:56Paget sent an urgent, secret telegram to the War Office.
0:49:56 > 0:50:01"All but two officers resigning their commissions today.
0:50:01 > 0:50:05"Fear men will refuse to move."
0:50:05 > 0:50:07From London - silence.
0:50:07 > 0:50:10Paget sent another telegram.
0:50:10 > 0:50:17"Brigadier and 57 officers prefer to accept dismissal if ordered north."
0:50:17 > 0:50:21For a large swathe of the British Army in Ireland,
0:50:21 > 0:50:25this was close to outright mutiny.
0:50:27 > 0:50:31The Government sent a battle fleet to the Ulster coast.
0:50:31 > 0:50:35"If it comes to rebellion and civil war," Winston Churchill said,
0:50:35 > 0:50:38"the Government will fight to win it."
0:50:47 > 0:50:52In the end, the rebellion was stopped dead in its tracks.
0:50:52 > 0:50:58Not by troops, not by battleships, but by the Great War.
0:50:58 > 0:51:01Within weeks, the men of the Ulster Volunteer Force
0:51:01 > 0:51:05would be reorganised into the 36th Ulster Division.
0:51:05 > 0:51:08And their action in battle would be so heroic,
0:51:08 > 0:51:11the scale of their slaughter so overwhelming,
0:51:11 > 0:51:16that the idea of betraying their memory by imposing a single,
0:51:16 > 0:51:20united Ireland disappeared from most British minds.
0:51:27 > 0:51:28GUNSHOT
0:51:33 > 0:51:36On June 28th 1914,
0:51:36 > 0:51:401,500 miles away in Sarajevo,
0:51:40 > 0:51:43a single shot rang round the world.
0:51:43 > 0:51:49A Serbian nationalist had assassinated the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne,
0:51:49 > 0:51:51Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
0:51:51 > 0:51:54The starting pistol for Armageddon.
0:51:56 > 0:51:59The Austro-Hungarians declared war on the Serbs.
0:52:01 > 0:52:04The pro-Serb Russians declared war on them.
0:52:04 > 0:52:08And, suddenly, half Europe was mobilising.
0:52:11 > 0:52:14Churchill wrote to his wife, Clementine,
0:52:14 > 0:52:19"Everything tends towards catastrophe and collapse.
0:52:19 > 0:52:24"I am interested, geared up and happy.
0:52:24 > 0:52:28"Is it not horrible to be built like that?
0:52:28 > 0:52:32"The preparations have a hideous fascination for me."
0:52:35 > 0:52:37Right to the end,
0:52:37 > 0:52:41Herbert Asquith was working through the night to preserve peace.
0:52:41 > 0:52:45After midnight on 1st August, he drove to Buckingham Palace.
0:52:47 > 0:52:52Asquith said, "The poor King was hauled out of his bed..."
0:52:52 > 0:52:54to appeal to his cousin, Tsar Nicholas II,
0:52:54 > 0:52:57to stop the Russian mobilisation.
0:52:57 > 0:53:02King George appeared "in a brown dressing gown over his nightshirt
0:53:02 > 0:53:08"and with copious signs of having been aroused from his beauty sleep."
0:53:08 > 0:53:12He topped the diplomatic letter, "My Dear Nicky,"
0:53:12 > 0:53:15and signed it "Georgie".
0:53:15 > 0:53:19But Russian mobilisation continued.
0:53:19 > 0:53:23Later that day, Germany declared war on Russia.
0:53:23 > 0:53:27Asquith called an emergency Cabinet meeting.
0:53:27 > 0:53:31He'd been told that three-quarters of his own MPs
0:53:31 > 0:53:34were against intervention in Europe.
0:53:34 > 0:53:36Churchill stood firm.
0:53:36 > 0:53:39But his great friend and ally Lloyd George
0:53:39 > 0:53:43was threatening to resign from the Government rather than vote for war.
0:53:45 > 0:53:49Lloyd George and Churchill spent a lot of the meeting
0:53:49 > 0:53:53scribbling hasty notes and throwing them across the table at each other.
0:53:53 > 0:53:56After it was over, Lloyd George tore most of them up
0:53:56 > 0:54:00but his mistress and secretary, Frances Stevenson,
0:54:00 > 0:54:03gathered together the pieces and she kept them.
0:54:03 > 0:54:06And what they show is Churchill
0:54:06 > 0:54:10exerting all his eloquence and cajoling charm
0:54:10 > 0:54:13to win his ally round.
0:54:14 > 0:54:16"I am deeply attached to you
0:54:16 > 0:54:21"and have followed your instinct and guidance for nearly ten years."
0:54:21 > 0:54:22And again...
0:54:22 > 0:54:27"Pray God, it is our whole future, comrades...
0:54:27 > 0:54:29"or opponents?"
0:54:29 > 0:54:31And again...
0:54:31 > 0:54:35"All the rest of our lives we shall be opposed."
0:54:35 > 0:54:40Lloyd George's replies are much terser,
0:54:40 > 0:54:46almost coquettish in their brevity, and fewer.
0:54:46 > 0:54:50But they do show that he was coming round.
0:54:51 > 0:54:54Like most radical Liberals, Lloyd George
0:54:54 > 0:54:57had always been a patriotic imperialist.
0:54:59 > 0:55:04In the end, he believed that the two democracies, Britain and France,
0:55:04 > 0:55:06would have to stand together.
0:55:10 > 0:55:13"Awful but necessary."
0:55:13 > 0:55:17On the street, it seemed simpler - time to teach the Hun a lesson.
0:55:18 > 0:55:22The Daily Mail's old goose-stepping Germans
0:55:22 > 0:55:26would turn out to be the ghosts from a terrible future.
0:55:27 > 0:55:30An anti-war demonstration in Trafalgar Square
0:55:30 > 0:55:34on Sunday August 2nd was a damp squib.
0:55:36 > 0:55:38Very late the following night,
0:55:38 > 0:55:43Asquith heard a roaring sound half a mile away.
0:55:43 > 0:55:45It was the crowd cheering the King.
0:55:45 > 0:55:49And he found himself disgusted.
0:55:49 > 0:55:52He wrote to his lover, Venetia Stanley,
0:55:52 > 0:55:57"War or anything that seems likely to lead to war
0:55:57 > 0:56:01"is always popular with the London mob."
0:56:04 > 0:56:08On 3rd August at 6.45 in the evening,
0:56:08 > 0:56:11Germany declared war on France.
0:56:11 > 0:56:16German troops were gathering on the Belgian border.
0:56:16 > 0:56:18The Foreign Secretary, Edward Grey,
0:56:18 > 0:56:22informed the German Ambassador that if Germany invaded Belgium,
0:56:22 > 0:56:25Britain would go to war.
0:56:29 > 0:56:35Armed guards suddenly appeared at British railway junctions and ports.
0:56:35 > 0:56:40Britannia's home fleet, lights doused, slipped down the Channel
0:56:40 > 0:56:44to take up battle stations in the North Sea.
0:56:46 > 0:56:51The British ambassador in Berlin packed his bags and hurried home.
0:56:55 > 0:56:58At dusk on 3rd August,
0:56:58 > 0:57:03Edward Grey was standing by a window in his room at the Foreign Office,
0:57:03 > 0:57:08looking down at the lamplighters going about their business,
0:57:08 > 0:57:10and he said,
0:57:10 > 0:57:13"The lamps are going out all over Europe,
0:57:13 > 0:57:18"and we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime."
0:57:23 > 0:57:27At 11pm on 4th August 1914,
0:57:27 > 0:57:30Britain declared war on Germany
0:57:30 > 0:57:33and, in doing so, committed herself
0:57:33 > 0:57:37to the greatest bloodletting the world had ever seen.
0:58:09 > 0:58:11In the next programme,
0:58:11 > 0:58:16anti-German riots, trench warfare, the first blitz
0:58:16 > 0:58:20and the dictatorship of David Lloyd George.
0:58:20 > 0:58:22E-mail us at subtitling@bbc.co.uk