0:00:17 > 0:00:21Deep below London's streets, hidden from public view,
0:00:21 > 0:00:24lies an almost forgotten Royal relic.
0:00:26 > 0:00:29A survival from the most shocking day in our history.
0:00:54 > 0:00:58This is a kind of jacket with long sleeves.
0:00:58 > 0:01:00It was called a waistcoat at the time.
0:01:00 > 0:01:04It's made of the finest knitted silk.
0:01:04 > 0:01:08Beautiful patterns on the sleeves and all over the front.
0:01:08 > 0:01:11Very fine buttons up here.
0:01:13 > 0:01:18But the significance of this waistcoat is here -
0:01:18 > 0:01:24these great splodges of brown, which are thought to be blood.
0:01:24 > 0:01:27Because it's said that this is the waistcoat
0:01:27 > 0:01:33that King Charles I wore when he knelt for the executioner's axe
0:01:33 > 0:01:37on 30th January 1649,
0:01:37 > 0:01:41the day this country killed its King.
0:01:49 > 0:01:53In the same vault is this extraordinary painting.
0:01:53 > 0:01:56It shows the dead Charles, his eyes closed,
0:01:56 > 0:02:00his skin a ghostly pallor.
0:02:00 > 0:02:03And beside him, three female figures,
0:02:03 > 0:02:08England, Scotland and Ireland, all distraught in misery,
0:02:08 > 0:02:13their crowns actually in the act of falling off their heads.
0:02:13 > 0:02:15And if you look very closely,
0:02:15 > 0:02:20you can see that the painter has turned the King into a martyr.
0:02:20 > 0:02:25He has rejoined the Royal head to the Royal body,
0:02:25 > 0:02:28and the stitching round the neck shows,
0:02:28 > 0:02:31with blood trickling down.
0:02:31 > 0:02:35This is an artist in turmoil over something unimaginable
0:02:35 > 0:02:36that's happened to him.
0:02:36 > 0:02:40It's a time when art was used as a weapon
0:02:40 > 0:02:44on the battlefield of a world turned upside down.
0:02:46 > 0:02:48CROWD BOOS
0:03:30 > 0:03:33The early years of the 17th century
0:03:33 > 0:03:35gave the first signs of trouble to come.
0:03:37 > 0:03:41A new dynasty had inherited the English throne -
0:03:41 > 0:03:44the Stuarts of Scotland.
0:04:02 > 0:04:07The pretensions of Charles I reached unprecedented heights,
0:04:07 > 0:04:11which were unashamedly displayed in his capital.
0:04:42 > 0:04:46This magnificent hall, unique in Britain at the time,
0:04:46 > 0:04:50is where Charles I, when he ascended the throne,
0:04:50 > 0:04:52did all his grand entertaining.
0:04:52 > 0:04:55This was a place of dances, of receptions,
0:04:55 > 0:04:58thronging with politicians and diplomats.
0:04:58 > 0:05:01And to make it all the more impressive,
0:05:01 > 0:05:05Charles commissioned this stupendous ceiling.
0:05:08 > 0:05:13He turned for that to perhaps the greatest European painter of his age,
0:05:13 > 0:05:17Peter Paul Rubens from the Netherlands.
0:05:19 > 0:05:23If you don't want to get a permanent crick in your neck,
0:05:23 > 0:05:26there's only one way to enjoy this painting,
0:05:26 > 0:05:30and that's by lying flat on the floor...
0:05:32 > 0:05:35..and seeing it as it should be seen.
0:05:35 > 0:05:37Ah, that's better!
0:05:40 > 0:05:46What Rubens has done is to show Charles's vision of kingship
0:05:46 > 0:05:51by telling the story of Charles's father, James I,
0:05:51 > 0:05:56and what this shows is the apotheosis of James.
0:05:56 > 0:06:01That's to say, James I ascending to heaven as a god.
0:06:04 > 0:06:06It's the most extraordinary claim.
0:06:06 > 0:06:12James actually believed that he was as a god.
0:06:12 > 0:06:16He told his Parliament, "Even God calls kings God."
0:06:16 > 0:06:19And he told his children that they were little gods,
0:06:19 > 0:06:23set on Earth to rule over men.
0:06:23 > 0:06:30Not with hindsight the wisest advice, perhaps, that a father might give.
0:06:47 > 0:06:50It wasn't long before Charles's behaviour
0:06:50 > 0:06:53and his claims to divine kingship
0:06:53 > 0:06:58had upset his subjects and, more dangerously, his Parliament.
0:06:58 > 0:07:02With protests growing throughout the 1630s,
0:07:02 > 0:07:05another great painter arrived from the Netherlands.
0:07:06 > 0:07:10His name was Anthony van Dyck.
0:07:11 > 0:07:18The portraits he produced are a snapshot of a doomed generation.
0:07:40 > 0:07:42You'd never guess looking at these pictures
0:07:42 > 0:07:45that we were going through the most turbulent period in our history.
0:07:45 > 0:07:50Instead, van Dyck came here as a painter of fantasy land,
0:07:50 > 0:07:57making portraits of people with beautiful silks, wonderful faces,
0:07:57 > 0:08:01full of life and colour and swirling movement.
0:08:01 > 0:08:07Elegant...handsome...relaxed...
0:08:08 > 0:08:10..powerful.
0:08:37 > 0:08:42This huge portrait was done by van Dyck to hang in the Royal palace.
0:08:42 > 0:08:46Now, the King was quite a short man. Not here.
0:08:46 > 0:08:50He looks like some great Roman emperor, some powerful warrior,
0:08:50 > 0:08:55in his armour, long-legged, sitting on his great white charger.
0:08:56 > 0:08:59The setting - very grand and powerful.
0:08:59 > 0:09:07This Roman arch, with curious green silk drapery hanging.
0:09:07 > 0:09:10Behind, a turbulent sky.
0:09:10 > 0:09:12A Royal coat of arms
0:09:12 > 0:09:17looking as if it's just been dumped on the side there, but vast.
0:09:17 > 0:09:21But the key thing is the way that the King himself
0:09:21 > 0:09:23is sitting on his white charger.
0:09:23 > 0:09:25He's not just out for a ride.
0:09:25 > 0:09:29He's actually doing quite a complicated dressage movement.
0:09:29 > 0:09:33It's the horse trotting, slowly and deliberately.
0:09:33 > 0:09:35Difficult to achieve,
0:09:35 > 0:09:38but the King's doing it with consummate ease
0:09:38 > 0:09:41just with his staff resting on the horse's withers.
0:09:41 > 0:09:45And the idea is that he can control his horse
0:09:45 > 0:09:49with the same calm as he holds the reins to his kingdom.
0:09:58 > 0:10:01For my money, this is the most poignant painting here
0:10:01 > 0:10:04because of the story it tells.
0:10:04 > 0:10:10It shows two brothers - Lord John Stuart and his brother Bernard.
0:10:10 > 0:10:16John, the elder one, looking a bit aloof out into the distance,
0:10:16 > 0:10:22but Bernard - absolute picture of self-obsessed, rather arrogant,
0:10:22 > 0:10:25rather carefree youth,
0:10:25 > 0:10:31elegantly dressed in wonderful blue silks with absurd boots,
0:10:31 > 0:10:35his hand on his hip, the other one holding his cloak
0:10:35 > 0:10:38as though he hadn't got a care in the world,
0:10:38 > 0:10:40all his future ahead of him.
0:10:40 > 0:10:46But both these boys, seven years from the painting of this portrait,
0:10:46 > 0:10:51would be dead - killed in bloody civil war.
0:10:54 > 0:10:55SIREN WAILS
0:11:01 > 0:11:05Events moved so quickly that few predicted the outcome.
0:11:05 > 0:11:08It began with the protests of the Puritans -
0:11:08 > 0:11:11extreme Protestants who set themselves
0:11:11 > 0:11:14against the luxury of the court.
0:11:15 > 0:11:19Their fear was that Charles was abandoning the Church of England
0:11:19 > 0:11:22to flirt with Roman Catholicism,
0:11:22 > 0:11:27and they pulled no punches in their pamphlets and sermons.
0:11:30 > 0:11:35"All images, be they molten, carved or painted,
0:11:35 > 0:11:41"are to God deceits, uncleanness, filthiness, dung,
0:11:41 > 0:11:44"mischief and abomination."
0:11:50 > 0:11:57"A dance is the devil's procession, and he that entereth into the dance
0:11:57 > 0:12:01"entereth into his possession!"
0:12:03 > 0:12:07"The loathsome and odious sin of drunkenness...
0:12:07 > 0:12:15CROWD BOOS "..is the root and foundation of many other enormous sins,
0:12:15 > 0:12:20"as bloodshed, stabbing, murder,
0:12:20 > 0:12:23"swearing, fornication,
0:12:23 > 0:12:30"adultery and suchlike, to the great dishonour of God!"
0:12:30 > 0:12:32CROWD BOOS
0:12:41 > 0:12:46But the attack that really hit home was on the evils of the theatre.
0:12:46 > 0:12:48William Prynne wrote,
0:12:48 > 0:12:53"It hath evermore been the notorious badge of prostituted strumpets
0:12:53 > 0:12:54"and the lewdest harlots
0:12:54 > 0:12:58"to ramble abroad to plays and playhouses,
0:12:58 > 0:13:03"whither only branded whores and infamous adulteresses
0:13:03 > 0:13:06"did usually resort in ancient times."
0:13:06 > 0:13:09It was a thinly veiled reference to the Queen herself,
0:13:09 > 0:13:12who was well known to enjoy the theatre,
0:13:12 > 0:13:17and by implying that the Queen of England was a whore,
0:13:17 > 0:13:21Prynne landed himself in a load of trouble.
0:13:28 > 0:13:31He was fined £5,000, he was sentenced to life imprisonment
0:13:31 > 0:13:34and ordered to have part of his ears cut off.
0:13:34 > 0:13:37In prison, he went on writing the same kind of stuff
0:13:37 > 0:13:40and they then ordered his ears to be cut off entirely,
0:13:40 > 0:13:46and they branded the letters "SL" on his cheeks for "seditious libeller".
0:14:04 > 0:14:06Many of the Puritans' objections to Charles
0:14:06 > 0:14:08that were being heard across the country
0:14:08 > 0:14:10were shared by Parliament,
0:14:10 > 0:14:14which was already in a power struggle with the King.
0:14:14 > 0:14:18It all came to a head in the winter of 1642.
0:14:20 > 0:14:23A decade earlier, Charles had actually abolished Parliament,
0:14:23 > 0:14:26thinking that he had the right and would rule by himself.
0:14:26 > 0:14:31But then he ran out of money and had to summon them back to raise cash.
0:14:31 > 0:14:36Instead of just agreeing, they returned with a long list of grievances -
0:14:36 > 0:14:41about religious freedom, about his court, about taxation itself
0:14:41 > 0:14:43and about their rights.
0:14:43 > 0:14:47The King was so alarmed, and actually feared for his life,
0:14:47 > 0:14:49that he fled the capital.
0:14:49 > 0:14:54It was a terrible mistake. Events were out of his control.
0:15:00 > 0:15:04Within months, the unthinkable was happening.
0:15:04 > 0:15:08The nation was at war with itself.
0:15:08 > 0:15:11On one side, the King's army,
0:15:11 > 0:15:13determined to restore Royal authority.
0:15:13 > 0:15:17On the other, a militia raised by Parliament
0:15:17 > 0:15:19to assert its independence.
0:15:32 > 0:15:35Each year in a Northamptonshire field,
0:15:35 > 0:15:38enthusiasts stage a Civil War re-enactment.
0:15:43 > 0:15:46How did it go? How did it go for you, that?
0:15:46 > 0:15:48- We had a good battle today. - Did you have a good battle?
0:15:48 > 0:15:50- Yes, yeah.- It was fun.
0:15:50 > 0:15:52- Can I see the pikes?- You can.
0:15:52 > 0:15:54- Can I try one?- You can indeed.
0:15:54 > 0:16:00Um, 16ft of ash, topped with about 2ft of metal, normally.
0:16:00 > 0:16:03But when you... when you charged, it's...
0:16:03 > 0:16:05Oh, my God, watch out! LAUGHTER
0:16:05 > 0:16:10Well, the idea is that at the press of pike, you would lunge together,
0:16:10 > 0:16:13- gradually...- It's all right, I can hold it. It's just heavy.
0:16:13 > 0:16:17..they would gradually come in towards each other and you would try and stab them.
0:16:17 > 0:16:21When you got very close, you'd probably drop your pike, draw your sword
0:16:21 > 0:16:25and set about each other in a very tightly packed close combat.
0:16:25 > 0:16:28- It's very unwieldy, though, isn't it?- It is.
0:16:28 > 0:16:31- Did you run with the pike, or walk? - You'd tend to walk.
0:16:31 > 0:16:34As an individual weapon, it is, but if you've got 300 men
0:16:34 > 0:16:37with these all pointed straight at you,
0:16:37 > 0:16:40that's when it becomes frightening, and that's when people run away.
0:16:40 > 0:16:43A lot of the power of the pike was psychological, in reality.
0:16:43 > 0:16:47If you look at the records, there's not that many pike wounds,
0:16:47 > 0:16:49but an awful lot of people ran away.
0:16:53 > 0:16:55It makes for a lively day out.
0:16:55 > 0:16:59But the reality of the Civil War was grim.
0:16:59 > 0:17:02Proportionally, more British lives were lost
0:17:02 > 0:17:04than in the First World War.
0:17:04 > 0:17:09And 400 years later, people still know who they'd have supported.
0:17:11 > 0:17:14How did you decide which army to belong to?
0:17:14 > 0:17:17It's whether you want to fight with the King or the Parliament!
0:17:17 > 0:17:18- Is it?- Yes.
0:17:18 > 0:17:21- It's where your loyalties lie. - Which are you? Are you Parliament?
0:17:21 > 0:17:23- Or are you...- ALL: Oooh!
0:17:23 > 0:17:25We are the King's army, sir.
0:17:25 > 0:17:27Are you a republican now?
0:17:27 > 0:17:32Um...I'm Labour Party so, yes, I believe in the Levellers.
0:17:32 > 0:17:35- I think I'm a natural Royalist. - HE LAUGHS
0:17:35 > 0:17:40- What side would you have been on? - Royalist. I'd have been a Royalist.
0:17:40 > 0:17:43I must admit, I've got republican leanings.
0:17:43 > 0:17:46If you had a choice, would you be with Cromwell or with the King?
0:17:46 > 0:17:48- Er, with Cromwell.- Why?
0:17:48 > 0:17:51Because I, once again, vote Labour and suchlike, trade union...
0:17:51 > 0:17:55- You must be tempted to make it a real fight!- Why, yes!
0:18:13 > 0:18:19It's almost impossible to imagine this tranquil English countryside
0:18:19 > 0:18:21ravaged by civil war.
0:18:24 > 0:18:26The desolation of the battlefield...
0:18:28 > 0:18:33..bodies lying in the ditches and by the hedgerows,
0:18:33 > 0:18:36towns divided against towns,
0:18:36 > 0:18:39villages fighting villages,
0:18:39 > 0:18:43and, worst of all, families divided against themselves.
0:19:13 > 0:19:16Middle Claydon has been home to the Verney family
0:19:16 > 0:19:18for five-and-a-half centuries.
0:19:29 > 0:19:33The Verney story, typical of so many families during the Civil War,
0:19:33 > 0:19:37is captured in a moving monument in the family church.
0:19:43 > 0:19:49It was constructed by the eldest son, Sir Ralph, in the aftermath of the war.
0:20:11 > 0:20:14This is the memorial to the Verney family.
0:20:14 > 0:20:18Down here, Sir Ralph Verney and his wife
0:20:18 > 0:20:21and above, his father Sir Edmund and his wife.
0:20:21 > 0:20:26Now, Sir Edmund was a courtier to Charles I,
0:20:26 > 0:20:28and when the trouble began,
0:20:28 > 0:20:32he felt compelled by the years he'd spent in his service
0:20:32 > 0:20:35to remain loyal to the King on the Royalist side.
0:20:35 > 0:20:40The son, on the other hand, thought on principle that the King was wrong
0:20:40 > 0:20:43and that he had to fight for the Parliamentary side.
0:20:43 > 0:20:48So this family was torn apart by this decision.
0:20:48 > 0:20:52The father, while they were still estranged,
0:20:52 > 0:20:55went off to fight at the great Battle of Edgehill,
0:20:55 > 0:20:58where he had the job of carrying the Royal standard into battle,
0:20:58 > 0:21:02and apparently fought very bravely, was said to have killed two people
0:21:02 > 0:21:04and then was himself hacked to pieces,
0:21:04 > 0:21:09and all that was left of him was the hand still holding the standard.
0:21:10 > 0:21:14Now, years later, the war over,
0:21:14 > 0:21:18Ralph had this great memorial commissioned.
0:21:18 > 0:21:21And what does he do? Puts his father there at the top.
0:21:21 > 0:21:24So despite all the divisions they had,
0:21:24 > 0:21:28this great tribute to his father is made
0:21:28 > 0:21:32with a plaque here recording his life.
0:21:34 > 0:21:37In life, they may have been divided.
0:21:37 > 0:21:41In death, they're reunited.
0:21:59 > 0:22:01Which side do you think you'd have been on?
0:22:01 > 0:22:04I think I would naturally be a Royalist.
0:22:04 > 0:22:07I feel myself to be a Royalist, a monarchist.
0:22:07 > 0:22:12But whether I would've approved of the way the King carried on
0:22:12 > 0:22:17and would've allowed myself to be seduced by that, in a way,
0:22:17 > 0:22:18I'm not sure.
0:22:18 > 0:22:20And what would you think?
0:22:20 > 0:22:22Well, I'd hate to tear the family apart
0:22:22 > 0:22:26in such a way as it was torn apart all those years ago,
0:22:26 > 0:22:29and at my age, I suppose, my emotional attachment
0:22:29 > 0:22:32would be more towards keeping the family together.
0:22:32 > 0:22:36So I might well decide to follow my father and go with the King.
0:22:36 > 0:22:39Is there any evidence of what was going on in the family?
0:22:39 > 0:22:45Well, yes, we've got a wonderful lot of letters in the archive from then,
0:22:45 > 0:22:48and for instance, there's this one here,
0:22:48 > 0:22:52which is written by Ralph's brother to him.
0:22:52 > 0:22:53"Brother,
0:22:53 > 0:22:58"what I feared is true, which is your being against the King.
0:22:58 > 0:23:01"Give me leave to tell you in my opinion,
0:23:01 > 0:23:03"'tis most unhandsomely done,
0:23:03 > 0:23:09"and it grieves my heart to think that my father already, and I,
0:23:09 > 0:23:11"who so dearly love and esteem you,
0:23:11 > 0:23:15"should be bound in consequence, because it's in duty to our King,
0:23:15 > 0:23:17"to be your enemy."
0:23:17 > 0:23:20- Very touching, isn't it?- Yeah.
0:23:20 > 0:23:23Ralph's younger brother is writing, saying,
0:23:23 > 0:23:26"Your father and I love you, but we're going to be your enemies."
0:23:26 > 0:23:29The story about his hand holding the standard.
0:23:29 > 0:23:31Is that true? I mean, is there any evidence of that?
0:23:31 > 0:23:37Oh, yes. The hand was found clutching the standard after Edmund was killed.
0:23:37 > 0:23:40And his body was never found but the hand was brought back,
0:23:40 > 0:23:44and indeed, on his hand was a ring,
0:23:44 > 0:23:49and I have managed to obtain it for today and there it is.
0:23:49 > 0:23:53His hand was buried in the tomb in the church.
0:23:53 > 0:23:55Just his hand.
0:23:55 > 0:23:58And there's the ring, which is still preserved.
0:23:58 > 0:24:01My goodness! An enamel portrait.
0:24:01 > 0:24:04- It is identifiably Charles I. - Yes, it is.
0:24:04 > 0:24:07- Like the van Dyck portraits.- Mmm.
0:24:33 > 0:24:35With all the turmoil it caused,
0:24:35 > 0:24:41the Civil War forced people to question the way they led their lives.
0:24:47 > 0:24:49The basement of the British Library.
0:24:49 > 0:24:55They have 400 miles of books, many, many treasures among them,
0:24:55 > 0:24:57and, in particular, a collection that tells us
0:24:57 > 0:25:00about the most extraordinary moment in our history.
0:25:00 > 0:25:05Because once people dared take up arms against God's anointed king,
0:25:05 > 0:25:09they dared to think things they'd never thought before,
0:25:09 > 0:25:13and what's more, they dared to publish them.
0:25:26 > 0:25:30Down this alleyway are 2,000 volumes
0:25:30 > 0:25:36containing 22,000 different tracts and pamphlets and newsletters -
0:25:36 > 0:25:39a great explosion of ideas,
0:25:39 > 0:25:44everybody speaking their mind and arguing with each other.
0:25:44 > 0:25:48And these individual books contain an invaluable story -
0:25:48 > 0:25:53the story of a great experiment in living.
0:26:03 > 0:26:05This is a pamphlet from the Levellers,
0:26:05 > 0:26:08people who believed in universal franchise -
0:26:08 > 0:26:11that all men should have the vote.
0:26:11 > 0:26:15And here, a document from the Diggers,
0:26:15 > 0:26:19whose idea was that all land should be held in common.
0:26:19 > 0:26:23It was a sort of very early version of communism.
0:26:23 > 0:26:26But what they are specifically going against here
0:26:26 > 0:26:29is another group - the Ranters.
0:26:29 > 0:26:34Now, the Ranters believed that they were saved
0:26:34 > 0:26:36and therefore would go to heaven,
0:26:36 > 0:26:39and therefore could behave as they liked on Earth.
0:26:39 > 0:26:42Perhaps slightly exaggerated by the Diggers, who say,
0:26:42 > 0:26:46"They enjoy meat, drink, pleasures and women."
0:26:46 > 0:26:50Here they are snogging in a corner,
0:26:50 > 0:26:53celebrating, saying, "Let's give up the old ways.
0:26:53 > 0:26:55"No way to the old way."
0:26:55 > 0:26:59Standing there naked with somebody playing a musical instrument.
0:26:59 > 0:27:03All these ideas sprang from a ferment of theories
0:27:03 > 0:27:05about life and how it should be lived
0:27:05 > 0:27:08and particularly how you should achieve salvation.
0:27:08 > 0:27:10And here, some of them are listed -
0:27:10 > 0:27:13a catalogue of several sects and opinions in England.
0:27:13 > 0:27:18Jesuits, Arminians, Arians, Adamites,
0:27:18 > 0:27:21Libertines, Soul Sleepers.
0:27:21 > 0:27:24It must've been an extraordinary time to be alive.
0:27:24 > 0:27:28The lid was off the pot and all these ideas exploded.
0:27:28 > 0:27:31Complete chaos and constant argument and bickering
0:27:31 > 0:27:33about who was right and who was wrong.
0:27:33 > 0:27:37It's wonderfully summed up in a woodcut -
0:27:37 > 0:27:39the world turned upside down.
0:27:39 > 0:27:42And it shows the man has got
0:27:42 > 0:27:45his britches on his shoulders
0:27:45 > 0:27:49with his boots and spurs coming out where his arms should be,
0:27:49 > 0:27:52his armour down below, and he's standing on his hands
0:27:52 > 0:27:56and he's surrounded by an upside-down candle,
0:27:56 > 0:27:59a church, upside down,
0:27:59 > 0:28:01a rat chasing a cat,
0:28:01 > 0:28:05a wheelbarrow pushing a man along on his hands.
0:28:05 > 0:28:08And in the sky, of course,
0:28:08 > 0:28:10fish flying.
0:28:10 > 0:28:15And now appearing gradually, increasingly, in these documents
0:28:15 > 0:28:19is one man and one name -
0:28:19 > 0:28:21Oliver Cromwell.
0:28:22 > 0:28:26Cromwell was a gentleman farmer in East Anglia
0:28:26 > 0:28:28and he could've just passed his life peacefully there.
0:28:28 > 0:28:34But when war started, he joined the Parliamentary forces
0:28:34 > 0:28:36and he proved himself very quickly
0:28:36 > 0:28:39to be an absolutely brilliant soldier...
0:28:40 > 0:28:42..if a merciless one.
0:28:50 > 0:28:52Cromwell's military genius
0:28:52 > 0:28:56brought about the defeat of the Royalist army.
0:28:56 > 0:28:59With the King captured and behind bars,
0:28:59 > 0:29:04Parliament made the decision to put him on trial for treason.
0:29:04 > 0:29:07The verdict - guilty.
0:29:14 > 0:29:18He was led through the palace to a platform
0:29:18 > 0:29:20which had been built out here,
0:29:20 > 0:29:25and there he made a final statement of his beliefs with amazing calm,
0:29:25 > 0:29:30ending with the words, "I go from a corruptible to an incorruptible crown
0:29:30 > 0:29:33"where no disturbance can be."
0:29:33 > 0:29:37And that said, he tucked his hair into a cap,
0:29:37 > 0:29:39so that his neck would be free,
0:29:39 > 0:29:42took off his cloak and lay down on the scaffold.
0:29:42 > 0:29:44And at a signal from him,
0:29:44 > 0:29:49the executioner with his axe, with one blow, severed his head.
0:29:56 > 0:29:58With Charles out of the way,
0:29:58 > 0:30:01a new form of government had to be invented.
0:30:06 > 0:30:09Out of the confusion,
0:30:09 > 0:30:11Cromwell eventually emerged
0:30:11 > 0:30:17as Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland.
0:30:26 > 0:30:29Cromwell was a mass of contradictions,
0:30:29 > 0:30:30and when he gained power,
0:30:30 > 0:30:33he seemed to be pulled in all sorts of different directions.
0:30:33 > 0:30:38He was a Puritan who famously banned the celebration of Christmas,
0:30:38 > 0:30:41and yet he loved music and allowed dancing at his daughter's wedding.
0:30:41 > 0:30:46In England he was seen as rather a hero of liberty,
0:30:46 > 0:30:51in Ireland, as a vile oppressor who committed the most terrible massacres.
0:30:51 > 0:30:55He'd tried to curb the tyranny of a king,
0:30:55 > 0:30:58and yet in later years he became something of a tyrant himself.
0:30:59 > 0:31:04The truth is that the new regime never really established
0:31:04 > 0:31:06what it was meant to be.
0:31:06 > 0:31:09And it shows in the portraits of its leader.
0:31:18 > 0:31:20This is the first portrait of him,
0:31:20 > 0:31:23and it's curious because it's almost like a Royal portrait.
0:31:23 > 0:31:26It could be van Dyck painting Charles I -
0:31:26 > 0:31:30the same sort of stormy clouds behind,
0:31:30 > 0:31:33his armour on, staff of authority,
0:31:33 > 0:31:38and a page to show his power, tying a sash round his waist.
0:31:40 > 0:31:43Then there seems to have been a change of heart.
0:31:43 > 0:31:45From the rather grand style of portrait,
0:31:45 > 0:31:49Cromwell changed completely,
0:31:49 > 0:31:55and in the famous words that he used to the painter of the next portrait,
0:31:55 > 0:31:58"I want you to paint me, warts and all."
0:31:58 > 0:32:01And here it is, this little miniature.
0:32:01 > 0:32:03Look at Cromwell's face -
0:32:03 > 0:32:05puffy, big nose,
0:32:05 > 0:32:08warts on the forehead,
0:32:08 > 0:32:11looking like an ordinary person.
0:32:11 > 0:32:13And even more so in this one...
0:32:15 > 0:32:18..where you can clearly see he's going bald,
0:32:18 > 0:32:24and he even seems to have tried a comb-over to disguise it.
0:32:24 > 0:32:28It's the first time I've seen a portrait of a head of state
0:32:28 > 0:32:30that is not designed to flatter.
0:32:30 > 0:32:33There is nothing flattering at all.
0:32:33 > 0:32:36And then there's another change of heart,
0:32:36 > 0:32:42and this time he reverts to the seriously pompous Cromwell.
0:32:42 > 0:32:46He has his head put on a gold coin,
0:32:46 > 0:32:52shown as a Roman emperor, with a wreath of laurels.
0:32:53 > 0:32:56So it's quite an extraordinary change
0:32:56 > 0:33:00and a sort of lack of certainty about how he wanted people to see him.
0:33:07 > 0:33:10Cromwell died in 1658,
0:33:10 > 0:33:14and in less than two years the Commonwealth had fallen apart.
0:33:25 > 0:33:29Britain had lost its appetite for radical change.
0:33:30 > 0:33:35Charles I's son was invited back from exile
0:33:35 > 0:33:37to assume his father's throne.
0:33:40 > 0:33:44It looked as though the whole revolution had been in vain.
0:34:02 > 0:34:07This statue of Charles II perfectly captures the spirit of his reign.
0:34:07 > 0:34:12At first glance, we could be back under the rule of his father, Charles I -
0:34:12 > 0:34:16this rather boastful figure dressed as a military conqueror,
0:34:16 > 0:34:19for all the world as though the Civil War had never happened.
0:34:21 > 0:34:24The reality, of course, couldn't be more different.
0:34:24 > 0:34:28Charles I believed he was God's anointed,
0:34:28 > 0:34:30ruled at God's command.
0:34:30 > 0:34:35Charles II, on the other hand, ruled by his people's consent.
0:34:47 > 0:34:52Charles accepted that he had to bow to the will of Parliament,
0:34:52 > 0:34:55but it didn't mean he wouldn't enjoy himself like a king.
0:34:55 > 0:34:57On the contrary.
0:34:57 > 0:35:00He was famous for his countless mistresses
0:35:00 > 0:35:03and he fathered 14 illegitimate children.
0:35:03 > 0:35:09He cultivated a new mood of informality, even abandon.
0:35:09 > 0:35:14He chose as his court painter someone who'd reflect his tastes -
0:35:14 > 0:35:15Peter Lely.
0:35:31 > 0:35:35Lely had rather a lean time during the Cromwellian republic,
0:35:35 > 0:35:39with all its austerity. It wasn't going to be a moment
0:35:39 > 0:35:42when aristocrats would be commissioning paintings from him.
0:35:42 > 0:35:45In fact, he had to take in a lodger to make ends meet.
0:35:45 > 0:35:49But come the Restoration, he got the dream job,
0:35:49 > 0:35:52painting the finest ladies of the court,
0:35:52 > 0:35:56and a great collection of them hangs here.
0:36:17 > 0:36:20They're called the Windsor Beauties,
0:36:20 > 0:36:23and they're the most beautiful women of the time
0:36:23 > 0:36:26who surrounded the King or were at court.
0:36:28 > 0:36:31When people looked at them, they would, of course, know their history -
0:36:31 > 0:36:35what political games they were playing, whose mistress they were,
0:36:35 > 0:36:37whose illegitimate children they'd had.
0:36:37 > 0:36:42And they all have a particular beauty of the time,
0:36:42 > 0:36:45rather different from what we think of as beautiful now,
0:36:45 > 0:36:49but I think nonetheless voluptuous and enticing.
0:36:49 > 0:36:54Rather full lips, pale skin with pink cheeks,
0:36:54 > 0:36:58almond-shaped eyes. And their dress is interesting,
0:36:58 > 0:37:00because the grander you were at court,
0:37:00 > 0:37:02the less formally you had to be dressed,
0:37:02 > 0:37:05so some of them look as if they're wearing their nightdresses,
0:37:05 > 0:37:09which, of course, allows the painter to show the shape of the body
0:37:09 > 0:37:13and, perhaps all-important, just a hint of the bosom.
0:37:31 > 0:37:35The deliciously seductive Jane Middleton.
0:37:35 > 0:37:39She was married at 14, she was surrounded by admirers all her life,
0:37:39 > 0:37:41had a lot of lovers.
0:37:41 > 0:37:43The King wanted to make her his mistress,
0:37:43 > 0:37:46but she always, always refused.
0:37:57 > 0:38:02But this is the most powerful of this great bevy of beauties,
0:38:02 > 0:38:05the formidable Barbara Villiers,
0:38:05 > 0:38:09suitably dressed in almost military garb,
0:38:09 > 0:38:14with a helmet with feathers, and a staff and a shield.
0:38:14 > 0:38:17She was a long-term mistress of the King,
0:38:17 > 0:38:19by whom she had many children,
0:38:19 > 0:38:21but a great political operator as well at court,
0:38:21 > 0:38:23a person people feared,
0:38:23 > 0:38:27and a woman prepared to do what she wanted with her life.
0:38:27 > 0:38:30She had not just the King as her lover,
0:38:30 > 0:38:33she had a tightrope walker, an actor, a playwright
0:38:33 > 0:38:37and a man who was to become Britain's greatest soldier,
0:38:37 > 0:38:39the Duke of Marlborough.
0:38:39 > 0:38:43A jaundiced bishop said of her she might have been very beautiful,
0:38:43 > 0:38:47but she was most enormously vicious and ravenous.
0:38:47 > 0:38:49What a woman.
0:39:01 > 0:39:04Charles may have been a pleasure-seeker...
0:39:05 > 0:39:08..but he also took care to act as patron
0:39:08 > 0:39:12of the greatest intellectual enterprise of the age -
0:39:12 > 0:39:18to explore and understand the secrets of the natural world.
0:39:25 > 0:39:27One effect of the Civil War and the republic
0:39:27 > 0:39:29was to free up scientific experiment.
0:39:29 > 0:39:31Because there was such political chaos,
0:39:31 > 0:39:34the scientists - many of them young geniuses -
0:39:34 > 0:39:36were left to get on with it as they chose.
0:39:36 > 0:39:37And when Charles came back,
0:39:37 > 0:39:40he may have put an end to political experiment,
0:39:40 > 0:39:43but he certainly didn't put an end to scientific experiment.
0:39:43 > 0:39:47On the contrary, he realised it could be to England's greater glory,
0:39:47 > 0:39:49and he gave it his Royal seal of approval.
0:39:54 > 0:39:59What had been a ragtag association of amateur enthusiasts
0:39:59 > 0:40:01became the Royal Society,
0:40:01 > 0:40:05unleashing nothing short of a revolution in science.
0:40:09 > 0:40:12The Royal Observatory was built on the King's orders
0:40:12 > 0:40:14to promote the study of the heavens.
0:40:39 > 0:40:43The work that was done here was typical of the spirit of the age.
0:40:43 > 0:40:46Night after night for 40 years,
0:40:46 > 0:40:50the Astronomer Royal came here and, looking through his telescopes,
0:40:50 > 0:40:52measured the position of the stars.
0:40:52 > 0:40:55And when I say "measured", it's not just a casual thing.
0:40:55 > 0:40:58He had to obsessively record in minute detail
0:40:58 > 0:41:01where every star he saw was in the firmament.
0:41:01 > 0:41:04The idea behind it was very simple.
0:41:04 > 0:41:07If you could tell where all the stars were
0:41:07 > 0:41:10every hour of every day of the year,
0:41:10 > 0:41:12then by looking at them,
0:41:12 > 0:41:15you could work out where you were on Earth.
0:41:19 > 0:41:23The celestial map produced by the first Astronomer Royal,
0:41:23 > 0:41:28John Flamsteed, revealed the universe as never before.
0:41:37 > 0:41:41Flamsteed fleshed out the known constellations
0:41:41 > 0:41:44with newly discovered stars,
0:41:44 > 0:41:48bringing the heavens to life with that sensual imagination
0:41:48 > 0:41:50so beloved of Charles.
0:42:00 > 0:42:02The work that was begun under Charles II
0:42:02 > 0:42:07led to Greenwich eventually being declared the official centre of the world
0:42:07 > 0:42:12for the purposes of measuring time and space.
0:42:15 > 0:42:19And reaching out across the night sky is a laser beam
0:42:19 > 0:42:25that marks the prime meridian, nought degrees,
0:42:25 > 0:42:27the imaginary line
0:42:27 > 0:42:30from which all the time zones of the world are calculated.
0:42:59 > 0:43:04The study of science was so new that it welcomed anyone to its ranks.
0:43:04 > 0:43:08One of the great scientists of the age still venerated here
0:43:08 > 0:43:14had begun life as a painter apprenticed to Peter Lely.
0:43:14 > 0:43:16His name was Robert Hooke,
0:43:16 > 0:43:21and he became the first Curator of Experiments at the Royal Society.
0:43:26 > 0:43:29This is thought to be Hooke's microscope,
0:43:29 > 0:43:33and a very, very fine object it is, too -
0:43:33 > 0:43:34beautifully decorated,
0:43:34 > 0:43:38because obviously it was a very special instrument.
0:43:38 > 0:43:40Hooke looked at all kinds of things.
0:43:40 > 0:43:44The one we've got under here is just an ordinary flea.
0:43:44 > 0:43:46And... Oh, my goodness!
0:43:48 > 0:43:52It shows the flea in very fine detail.
0:43:52 > 0:43:57You can see the sort of hairy legs and little spikes
0:43:57 > 0:44:02and the amber colour - the gleam of light on it.
0:44:02 > 0:44:04Of course, Hooke would have spent
0:44:04 > 0:44:09hours and hours looking at these specimens.
0:44:09 > 0:44:12What he wanted to do was to record in great detail what he was seeing,
0:44:12 > 0:44:14and the way he did it
0:44:14 > 0:44:19was to assemble a great book of all the objects he'd observed -
0:44:19 > 0:44:22plant life, animal life, all the rest of it.
0:44:22 > 0:44:23It's called Micrographia,
0:44:23 > 0:44:29and this is the page of a flea, and he gives this description of it.
0:44:29 > 0:44:31He says, "The microscope manifests it to be
0:44:31 > 0:44:36"all over adorned with a curious polished suit of sable armour
0:44:36 > 0:44:40"and beset with multitudes of sharp pins..."
0:44:40 > 0:44:42There they are.
0:44:42 > 0:44:45"..shaped almost like porcupine's quills or..."
0:44:45 > 0:44:48And here's a nice common touch.
0:44:48 > 0:44:51"..bright, conical steel bodkins."
0:44:51 > 0:44:55The kind that women used in their clothes.
0:44:55 > 0:44:58Look at this. Perfect detail.
0:44:58 > 0:45:04Eye of the flea... these rather unpleasant back legs.
0:45:04 > 0:45:07Next to the flea is the louse.
0:45:07 > 0:45:11No guesses about why the louse and the flea were popular.
0:45:11 > 0:45:13They were very easy to find.
0:45:13 > 0:45:14You only...
0:45:14 > 0:45:17He probably only had to look in the seams of his own clothes
0:45:17 > 0:45:19to come up with a louse or a flea.
0:45:19 > 0:45:25And here - the most beautiful louse.
0:45:27 > 0:45:30There's something else from his body - rather surprising -
0:45:30 > 0:45:35that he also put under the microscope, and it's drawn here,
0:45:35 > 0:45:39and it's a sample of his frozen urine...
0:45:39 > 0:45:40Weird.
0:45:40 > 0:45:43..with little bubbles or circles.
0:45:50 > 0:45:54When this book was produced, it caused a sensation.
0:45:54 > 0:45:58It was the first time that many people had had a chance
0:45:58 > 0:46:02to see these extraordinary pictures of natural life.
0:46:02 > 0:46:04When Samuel Pepys, the diarist, got his copy,
0:46:04 > 0:46:08he says he stayed up till two in the morning going through it,
0:46:08 > 0:46:11it was so fascinating. And of course, for most people,
0:46:11 > 0:46:14this was the first time they'd had any chance to see
0:46:14 > 0:46:18what the natural world was like, all thanks to Hooke's work.
0:46:29 > 0:46:31By the 1660s,
0:46:31 > 0:46:35London was one of the busiest trading capitals in the world.
0:46:36 > 0:46:42Here, Robert Hooke and his friend, the brilliant Christopher Wren,
0:46:42 > 0:46:46would make their names transforming the great city around them.
0:46:51 > 0:46:53Science today is very specialised.
0:46:53 > 0:46:56But Wren was delving into everything.
0:46:56 > 0:47:00He was fascinated by astronomy, by mathematics,
0:47:00 > 0:47:02he built mechanical devices,
0:47:02 > 0:47:04he did operations on a dog
0:47:04 > 0:47:07to try to work out the circulation of the blood,
0:47:07 > 0:47:08he made musical instruments.
0:47:08 > 0:47:12It's even said he devised a scheme of writing in the dark.
0:47:12 > 0:47:14But all this discovery -
0:47:14 > 0:47:17this excitement of the universe on the one hand
0:47:17 > 0:47:20and the tiny, microscopic details of life -
0:47:20 > 0:47:23gave him and others an ambition,
0:47:23 > 0:47:26and it was an ambition that was to get its great opportunity
0:47:26 > 0:47:29to be unleashed in this city of London
0:47:29 > 0:47:33by something that happened here in Pudding Lane.
0:47:42 > 0:47:47In the early hours of Sunday 2nd September 1666,
0:47:47 > 0:47:50fire broke out at a Pudding Lane bakery.
0:47:52 > 0:47:57Soon, fanned by strong winds and fuelled by timber-frame houses,
0:47:57 > 0:47:59the fire was raging out of control.
0:48:06 > 0:48:09In four days, it destroyed three-quarters of the city.
0:48:23 > 0:48:25Within a week of the fire being put out,
0:48:25 > 0:48:29Wren submitted a plan for a new City of London.
0:48:31 > 0:48:36It swept away the narrow streets that had helped the fire spread,
0:48:36 > 0:48:40and replaced them with broad avenues and squares.
0:48:44 > 0:48:45Hooke had a plan too.
0:48:45 > 0:48:50It was more regimented - a rigorous grid system.
0:48:51 > 0:48:53Hosts of other plans followed.
0:48:53 > 0:48:56Like Wren's, they all tried to recreate London
0:48:56 > 0:49:00as a great Roman city with a logical layout -
0:49:00 > 0:49:04a capital to suit the scientific age.
0:49:06 > 0:49:09The trouble was, these imaginative plans
0:49:09 > 0:49:12were too ambitious to be implemented.
0:49:14 > 0:49:18But Wren was not to be defeated. He imposed his mark on the city
0:49:18 > 0:49:22by designing the greatest building of the age.
0:50:04 > 0:50:07What an astonishing commission.
0:50:07 > 0:50:10There'd been a cathedral here for a thousand years,
0:50:10 > 0:50:12but when the old one burned down in the fire,
0:50:12 > 0:50:15Wren got the job of building a new one.
0:50:15 > 0:50:20He wanted, of course, to build a monument to the revived City of London,
0:50:20 > 0:50:23to the glory of the King and, of course, the glory of God.
0:50:23 > 0:50:25But look at it another way for a moment.
0:50:25 > 0:50:27Think of what really preoccupied Wren.
0:50:27 > 0:50:31Look at this building, not as a monument to faith,
0:50:31 > 0:50:34but a monument to science.
0:50:48 > 0:50:54Wren was determined to build a cathedral whose scale and ambition
0:50:54 > 0:50:57would push mathematics and engineering to its limits.
0:51:00 > 0:51:03He wanted to use scientific principles
0:51:03 > 0:51:08to create a monumental structure to rival St Peter's in Rome.
0:51:33 > 0:51:37From the start, Wren faced opposition from the clergy
0:51:37 > 0:51:40in getting the building he wanted commissioned.
0:51:40 > 0:51:45It went through a number of designs before he won their approval.
0:52:11 > 0:52:14This was one of Wren's earliest experiments -
0:52:14 > 0:52:19this completely entrancing, detailed and magnificent model
0:52:19 > 0:52:22of the cathedral he wanted to build.
0:52:33 > 0:52:36It's so enticing. You long to be about this size
0:52:36 > 0:52:40and to be able to go up the steps and walk around inside.
0:52:42 > 0:52:46It cost as much to put it together as to build a London house.
0:52:46 > 0:52:47But as a scientist,
0:52:47 > 0:52:50Wren was determined to embark on this project
0:52:50 > 0:52:54by a process of trial and error.
0:52:55 > 0:52:57His great ambition was to deliver to England
0:52:57 > 0:53:01something that it had never seen before -
0:53:01 > 0:53:03a dome on a huge scale.
0:53:17 > 0:53:21Wow! That's so cool.
0:53:38 > 0:53:40What Wren wanted was to make a dome
0:53:40 > 0:53:44that was in proportion to the cathedral from the inside,
0:53:44 > 0:53:48but from the outside was big enough to dominate the London skyline.
0:53:53 > 0:53:58It was Wren's collaborator, Hooke, who came up with the solution.
0:53:58 > 0:54:01You think you're looking at one dome.
0:54:01 > 0:54:03In fact, there are two.
0:54:03 > 0:54:07There's the inner dome, and then above it a huge outer dome
0:54:07 > 0:54:10which you actually can't see from here.
0:54:10 > 0:54:13So it's the two-dome solution -
0:54:13 > 0:54:18a unique idea, a brilliant achievement.
0:54:35 > 0:54:39Hidden between the two domes, Wren built a brick cone
0:54:39 > 0:54:43to carry the load of the stone lantern on top of the cathedral -
0:54:43 > 0:54:45850 tons of it -
0:54:45 > 0:54:49freeing the outer dome from any structural burden.
0:54:55 > 0:55:00And there's another less well-known testament to Wren's genius at St Paul's.
0:55:00 > 0:55:03It's hidden away in the south-west tower -
0:55:03 > 0:55:06the geometric staircase.
0:55:24 > 0:55:28This staircase is a marvel of engineering.
0:55:28 > 0:55:31It appears simply to float.
0:55:31 > 0:55:35Each step rests on the other with nothing supporting it underneath,
0:55:35 > 0:55:39and to this day they argue about why it actually stands up,
0:55:39 > 0:55:41which is not very encouraging for people like me
0:55:41 > 0:55:43who suffer from a bit of vertigo.
0:55:49 > 0:55:53But Wren didn't just want to use science to serve the building.
0:55:53 > 0:55:57He wanted the building to serve science.
0:55:57 > 0:56:00He had a scheme to install a giant telescope
0:56:00 > 0:56:04reaching from right down there up through a hole in the roof.
0:56:04 > 0:56:07You could stay at the bottom, look through the telescope,
0:56:07 > 0:56:09and as the Earth turned,
0:56:09 > 0:56:14the telescope would track the stars in the night sky.
0:56:33 > 0:56:37The 17th century had been a time of turmoil,
0:56:37 > 0:56:42but out of it had come scientific genius and creative enterprise
0:56:42 > 0:56:47that laid the foundations for Britain to become a world power.
0:56:47 > 0:56:50At the moment that the final stone was laid
0:56:50 > 0:56:53to the top of this dome in 1708,
0:56:53 > 0:56:56St Paul's stood at the heart of a new nation.
0:56:56 > 0:56:59Only the year before, it had been officially renamed -
0:56:59 > 0:57:02not Britain, but Great Britain.
0:57:02 > 0:57:05It was an end to warring factions.
0:57:05 > 0:57:10In their place, collaboration and confidence that heralded a new era.
0:57:16 > 0:57:17In the next age -
0:57:17 > 0:57:21wealth beyond our wildest dreams
0:57:21 > 0:57:24and the new middle class that enjoyed it.
0:57:24 > 0:57:28Out of it all would emerge some of our most inspired artists...
0:57:31 > 0:57:33..and our greatest hero.
0:57:33 > 0:57:35It's the Age of Money.