0:00:07 > 0:00:10Edinburgh's extinct volcano, Arthur's Seat,
0:00:10 > 0:00:12is named after the mythical King Arthur
0:00:12 > 0:00:15who ruled the ancient kingdoms of Britain.
0:00:18 > 0:00:22The legend was that one day he would return to unite Britain.
0:00:25 > 0:00:29In June 1566 in this tiny room in Edinburgh Castle,
0:00:29 > 0:00:33a boy was born who was hailed as Little Arthur.
0:00:34 > 0:00:38He was born into a bewildering world of emotional turbulence
0:00:38 > 0:00:41and political mayhem.
0:00:41 > 0:00:44Before this baby's first birthday, his father would be murdered,
0:00:44 > 0:00:47blown up by gunpowder.
0:00:47 > 0:00:51He would be forcibly separated from his mother, Mary Queen of Scots,
0:00:51 > 0:00:53whom he'd never see again.
0:00:53 > 0:00:56And yet this was the boy who would rise to become
0:00:56 > 0:00:58the first king of all Britain.
0:01:00 > 0:01:03His name is James, and if his early years were traumatic,
0:01:03 > 0:01:07they are only a taste of what was to come for his remarkable family.
0:01:09 > 0:01:14In the coming century, seven members of this dynasty will rule
0:01:14 > 0:01:18the three separate kingdoms of Scotland, England and Ireland.
0:01:19 > 0:01:22Through bloodshed and civil war they will refashion them
0:01:22 > 0:01:24into the Great Britain that we know today.
0:01:28 > 0:01:31It was a century of struggle marked by religious divisions,
0:01:31 > 0:01:35revolution and conflicting visions of what Great Britain would be.
0:01:38 > 0:01:40A struggle that has echoes today.
0:01:43 > 0:01:47They are the first family of Great Britain.
0:01:47 > 0:01:49They are the Stuarts.
0:02:04 > 0:02:06On the 5th April 1603,
0:02:06 > 0:02:09the King of Scotland, James VI, left Edinburgh for London,
0:02:09 > 0:02:12promising to return home every three years.
0:02:15 > 0:02:18The reason for his departure was a sudden vacancy
0:02:18 > 0:02:19for a Protestant king.
0:02:21 > 0:02:24His distant cousin Elizabeth Tudor, the Queen of England,
0:02:24 > 0:02:25was dead without an heir.
0:02:27 > 0:02:29And her crown had been offered to him.
0:02:32 > 0:02:36With England would come Ireland too and the Principality of Wales.
0:02:37 > 0:02:41James would rule all three kingdoms of the British Isles.
0:02:41 > 0:02:43No-one had ever done that before.
0:02:43 > 0:02:46except in those myths of King Arthur.
0:02:47 > 0:02:50When King James VI of Scotland became James I of England,
0:02:50 > 0:02:53he actually inherited three very different kingdoms,
0:02:53 > 0:02:57each with separate parliaments, clashing religious preferences
0:02:57 > 0:03:01and even a history of going to war with one another.
0:03:01 > 0:03:04Today we tend to take the modern United Kingdom for granted,
0:03:04 > 0:03:07though there was nothing inevitable about its creation.
0:03:07 > 0:03:09Yet more than any other, the Stuart century was
0:03:09 > 0:03:13the one in which the foundations of modern Britain were laid.
0:03:13 > 0:03:14So how did this come about?
0:03:14 > 0:03:17And what role did this remarkable family play?
0:03:21 > 0:03:23Where then does this new relationship begin?
0:03:27 > 0:03:29It begins in Berwick.
0:03:36 > 0:03:37During James' Scottish reign,
0:03:37 > 0:03:41Berwick was a frontier town with a frontier mentality.
0:03:49 > 0:03:51A place surrounded by these massive fortifications
0:03:51 > 0:03:54designed to keep James and his countrymen out.
0:03:58 > 0:04:00And whose townspeople rode the Borders
0:04:00 > 0:04:02to protect them from Scottish raiders.
0:04:06 > 0:04:09Today that same event is a colourful pageant
0:04:09 > 0:04:10called the Riding of the Bounds.
0:04:16 > 0:04:20But it was once a security patrol along a very edgy border.
0:04:26 > 0:04:31In 1603, at a stroke, the Stuart succession transformed this town.
0:04:37 > 0:04:40It was round about here that James climbed up onto these fortifications
0:04:40 > 0:04:43and it's hard to imagine the excitement
0:04:43 > 0:04:45with which he saw England, his new kingdom.
0:04:46 > 0:04:50He fired off a canon in celebration, and the town of Berwick erupted
0:04:50 > 0:04:53as people lit bonfires, sang and cheered
0:04:53 > 0:04:54and welcomed their new king.
0:04:57 > 0:05:01In a royal proclamation, James ordered his Scottish subjects
0:05:01 > 0:05:05to acknowledge the English as "their dearest brethren and friends."
0:05:05 > 0:05:07That would be quite a change.
0:05:10 > 0:05:12It would require a leap of faith...
0:05:14 > 0:05:17..and would mean becoming more intimate with one another.
0:05:19 > 0:05:23As James sized up England, England sized up James.
0:05:24 > 0:05:27James' new subjects would have known that he believed himself
0:05:27 > 0:05:29to have been chosen by God to rule.
0:05:32 > 0:05:36Yet looking at James, they would have seen not a divine being,
0:05:36 > 0:05:40but a short, ungainly man, modestly dressed.
0:05:40 > 0:05:44Some might - some did - say scruffily dressed.
0:05:46 > 0:05:48They'd also have heard an alien accent -
0:05:48 > 0:05:51undiluted, freely using Scottish words.
0:05:53 > 0:05:56But those who really wanted to know what James' reign
0:05:56 > 0:05:58might have held in store, could do something other than
0:05:58 > 0:06:03judge his clothes or his accent - they could read one of his books.
0:06:09 > 0:06:13It's called the Basilikon Doron, which means "the gift of the king".
0:06:17 > 0:06:19It's a manual on kingship that James wrote
0:06:19 > 0:06:22for his four-year-old son and heir, Prince Henry.
0:06:22 > 0:06:23And it was published in London
0:06:23 > 0:06:26within weeks of him becoming King of England.
0:06:26 > 0:06:28You really get to know James reading this book.
0:06:28 > 0:06:32He advises Henry that he should talk in a plain, honest, natural, clean
0:06:32 > 0:06:36and short way, and that's exactly what James does in this book.
0:06:36 > 0:06:38It's not written in ornate fancy language.
0:06:38 > 0:06:42It's plain middle Scots, it's advice between a father and a son.
0:06:47 > 0:06:48At least that's how it reads.
0:06:50 > 0:06:54But what I also like about this book is the way that James deliberately
0:06:54 > 0:06:56uses it to project an image of himself as a wise king.
0:06:59 > 0:07:00A philosopher-king,
0:07:00 > 0:07:04from whom his new subjects would have nothing to fear.
0:07:04 > 0:07:06Take this little section, for example.
0:07:07 > 0:07:11In political terms, one of the key pieces of advice James gives Henry
0:07:11 > 0:07:13is always to keep in mind two images -
0:07:13 > 0:07:16one is of a good king, the other is of a tyrant.
0:07:16 > 0:07:18The good king rules lawfully
0:07:18 > 0:07:22and is well supported and liked by his subjects and very secure.
0:07:22 > 0:07:27The tyrant rules illegally, is arbitrary, violent and insecure.
0:07:27 > 0:07:29And it's only by always thinking of those two images
0:07:29 > 0:07:32that Henry will realise what it is that a good king does
0:07:32 > 0:07:35as opposed to an insecure, neurotic, illegal tyrant.
0:07:36 > 0:07:39He also thinks that kings should be good physicians,
0:07:39 > 0:07:43and he advises Henry that he needs to be a doctor of the body politic.
0:07:43 > 0:07:44He needs to know the illnesses
0:07:44 > 0:07:47that his patient is naturally most subject unto.
0:07:47 > 0:07:49And what might those illnesses be?
0:07:49 > 0:07:51They might be riot, they might be rebellion,
0:07:51 > 0:07:53they might be religious extremism.
0:07:53 > 0:07:56That Henry really needs to get to know the tempers of his people.
0:07:59 > 0:08:02In his 36 years as King of Scotland,
0:08:02 > 0:08:06James had got to know the tempers of his people only too well.
0:08:08 > 0:08:11After the traumas of his early childhood, he'd been brought up by
0:08:11 > 0:08:15noble guardians at Stirling Castle, a Stuart family seat.
0:08:16 > 0:08:21He was the ninth Stuart monarch in a line stretching back to 1371.
0:08:22 > 0:08:26But he was the first fully to confront the new religious tensions
0:08:26 > 0:08:28brought about by the Protestant Reformation.
0:08:31 > 0:08:36Don't be misled by its name - the Reformation was a revolution
0:08:36 > 0:08:38with the power to unleash holy war.
0:08:38 > 0:08:41It divided Europe and transformed Scotland
0:08:41 > 0:08:43from a Catholic country into a Protestant one.
0:08:47 > 0:08:50It also made some Protestant fanatics bold enough
0:08:50 > 0:08:52to challenge James' royal authority openly.
0:08:56 > 0:08:59In Basilikon Doron, he calls them, "rash-headed puritans
0:08:59 > 0:09:02"who think it their honour to contend with kings
0:09:02 > 0:09:05"and perturb whole kingdoms."
0:09:09 > 0:09:11But the Reformation brought the Stuarts
0:09:11 > 0:09:13one unexpected political gift.
0:09:14 > 0:09:17As they found themselves on the same Protestant side
0:09:17 > 0:09:19as their traditional enemy England,
0:09:19 > 0:09:22facing the same Catholic threat from Europe.
0:09:28 > 0:09:31And this new bond encouraged James to dream of fulfilling
0:09:31 > 0:09:35his family's deepest ambition - the ambition to rule in England.
0:09:44 > 0:09:46If you can decode it,
0:09:46 > 0:09:50the ceiling here in the royal apartments at Stirling Castle
0:09:50 > 0:09:54reveals why the Stuarts were able to dream on such a big scale.
0:10:00 > 0:10:02It all dated back to the marriage
0:10:02 > 0:10:04between the Thistle and the Rose in 1503,
0:10:04 > 0:10:07between James's great-grandmother, Margaret Tudor,
0:10:07 > 0:10:10who's painted up there holding a Tudor greyhound
0:10:10 > 0:10:12and his great-grandfather, James IV.
0:10:15 > 0:10:16And this shows us very vividly
0:10:16 > 0:10:18James's claim to the English throne -
0:10:18 > 0:10:22his unique descent from both Tudor and Stuart blood.
0:10:24 > 0:10:28Margaret Tudor was the sister of this character, Henry VIII.
0:10:28 > 0:10:31And while his bloodline famously died out in England,
0:10:31 > 0:10:34hers went from strength to strength in Scotland,
0:10:34 > 0:10:37through these two - James V and his wife -
0:10:37 > 0:10:41via Mary Queen of Scots and finally through to James himself.
0:10:43 > 0:10:46What I get very strongly from this ceiling is confirmation
0:10:46 > 0:10:49of James' hereditary right to the English throne.
0:10:49 > 0:10:51Henry VIII is on the sidelines.
0:10:51 > 0:10:53He was the one who had married six wives
0:10:53 > 0:10:56but couldn't secure the English succession beyond his own children.
0:10:56 > 0:11:00But James has this terrific dynastic inheritance.
0:11:08 > 0:11:13James made his official entry to London in early 1604.
0:11:13 > 0:11:15And it was a huge and hopeful affair.
0:11:22 > 0:11:26The State Opening of Parliament today provides a flavour
0:11:26 > 0:11:29of the kind of spectacle that would have surrounded the occasion.
0:11:31 > 0:11:33HE ISSUES COMMANDS
0:11:37 > 0:11:41When James arrived in London, it was as James VI of Scotland
0:11:41 > 0:11:43and James I of England.
0:11:45 > 0:11:47But James didn't want to stop at that.
0:11:47 > 0:11:51He intended to fulfil his destiny as the new King Arthur
0:11:51 > 0:11:53by uniting his kingdoms.
0:11:57 > 0:11:59James planned a complete union of Scotland and England,
0:11:59 > 0:12:02to create a new country called Great Britain.
0:12:04 > 0:12:06It would have one law, one parliament
0:12:06 > 0:12:08and one king.
0:12:08 > 0:12:11And - the best bit - James's family, the Stuarts,
0:12:11 > 0:12:14would be this new country's only rightful rulers.
0:12:18 > 0:12:21We still watch the monarch travel to Parliament today.
0:12:22 > 0:12:24The pomp and pageantry has taken over
0:12:24 > 0:12:27as her political power has diminished.
0:12:27 > 0:12:30But that wasn't the case in James' day.
0:12:47 > 0:12:49For James, the English Parliament
0:12:49 > 0:12:52was the place to unveil his bold idea
0:12:52 > 0:12:54and he expected the English MPs to listen.
0:13:05 > 0:13:08When he first addressed both Houses of Parliament,
0:13:08 > 0:13:13he outlined his idea in rich and characteristically vivid detail.
0:13:13 > 0:13:16BIG BEN TOLLS
0:13:17 > 0:13:19He explained that the moment had come to,
0:13:19 > 0:13:22"Perfect that Union which is made in my blood."
0:13:25 > 0:13:28James is a wonderful wordsmith and a brilliant propagandist.
0:13:28 > 0:13:32It must have been quite unnerving for the English MPs
0:13:32 > 0:13:34after decades of taciturn Tudor rule
0:13:34 > 0:13:37suddenly to have a Stuart king appear in their midst,
0:13:37 > 0:13:39engaged in a massive PR exercise.
0:13:41 > 0:13:43He outlined a long, interesting rationale for union,
0:13:43 > 0:13:45even looking at a map.
0:13:45 > 0:13:48Surely it made sense that one island should be one country,
0:13:48 > 0:13:51especially as there weren't any great physical boundaries
0:13:51 > 0:13:53between Scotland and England.
0:13:54 > 0:13:58The two countries also shared a similar Protestantism,
0:13:58 > 0:14:02a similar language and very similar social customs and mores.
0:14:05 > 0:14:08For James, it would only be out of malice or ignorance
0:14:08 > 0:14:10that anyone would oppose union.
0:14:10 > 0:14:12It would only be those, as he put it,
0:14:12 > 0:14:16"Who delighted to fish in troubled waters."
0:14:16 > 0:14:20James also claimed that union was God's will.
0:14:20 > 0:14:22This was to be not just a union,
0:14:22 > 0:14:24but a marriage between two equal countries,
0:14:24 > 0:14:29and that enabled James to use an emotional, almost carnal rhetoric
0:14:29 > 0:14:30when he addressed English MPs,
0:14:30 > 0:14:36as he told them, "What God hath conjoined, let no man separate.
0:14:36 > 0:14:40"I am the husband and all the whole isle is my lawful wife.
0:14:40 > 0:14:44"I am the head and it is my body.
0:14:44 > 0:14:47"I am the shepherd and it is my flock."
0:14:50 > 0:14:53I think this is a very clever speech,
0:14:53 > 0:14:55the first time that James met his English MPs.
0:14:55 > 0:14:58It would have been delivered in an unfamiliar Scottish accent
0:14:58 > 0:15:00and it would have presented the MPs
0:15:00 > 0:15:03with an unfamiliar notion of Anglo-Scottish Union.
0:15:03 > 0:15:06But it was presented with a rhetoric of inevitability,
0:15:06 > 0:15:09telling the MPs that not only was the Union in their interests,
0:15:09 > 0:15:13but also it was the Royal wish and it was also God's plan.
0:15:13 > 0:15:18James was making the idea of Great Britain pretty hard to resist.
0:15:21 > 0:15:24As a statement of intent to the English Parliament,
0:15:24 > 0:15:26James' plan was crystal clear.
0:15:26 > 0:15:30But the MPs didn't succumb to his rhetoric right away.
0:15:30 > 0:15:35Instead, a commission was set up to consider the idea soberly
0:15:35 > 0:15:37in the fullness of time.
0:15:41 > 0:15:42And while it did,
0:15:42 > 0:15:45James tried to bring Great Britain into existence in other ways,
0:15:45 > 0:15:49taking his message out beyond parliament, beyond London.
0:15:50 > 0:15:53I live and work in Cambridge, and in one of its museums
0:15:53 > 0:15:57are objects that help to reveal just how James sold his plans
0:15:57 > 0:16:00for a single United Kingdom to his subjects directly.
0:16:00 > 0:16:04He made sure that they literally carried the idea around with them
0:16:04 > 0:16:06wherever they went.
0:16:06 > 0:16:09Adrian, what do we... What do we have here?
0:16:09 > 0:16:15Oh, we have a nice selection of Scottish and English coins.
0:16:15 > 0:16:17First of all, this is a pound coin.
0:16:17 > 0:16:21To start with, James appears like an English king,
0:16:21 > 0:16:26but you can notice that in the inscription it reads "Mag Brit",
0:16:26 > 0:16:29so he is King not of England and Scotland,
0:16:29 > 0:16:33but King of Great Britain, "Magnae Britanniae."
0:16:33 > 0:16:38That idea of unity is reflected even further by the inscription
0:16:38 > 0:16:40around the arms, which reads in Latin,
0:16:40 > 0:16:43"Faciam eos in gentem unam."
0:16:43 > 0:16:46"I will make them one people."
0:16:46 > 0:16:50So it's a very tangible sense of James's project
0:16:50 > 0:16:53that he was putting across right from the very start?
0:16:53 > 0:16:58And as a result, this pound coin was known in its age as a Unite.
0:16:58 > 0:17:01- "So I will give you one Unite." - HE LAUGHS
0:17:01 > 0:17:07Yes. But also the message goes all down to the small change coins,
0:17:07 > 0:17:10which would have been used in the marketplace.
0:17:10 > 0:17:13You can see on one side an English rose
0:17:13 > 0:17:17and on the other side a Scottish thistle.
0:17:17 > 0:17:19So even if somebody was illiterate,
0:17:19 > 0:17:23they would have one of these, and they could handle it
0:17:23 > 0:17:25and know that the two countries were now in some relationship?
0:17:25 > 0:17:29So you don't have to read this to be able to know what is behind.
0:17:29 > 0:17:32And generally, people would put their hands in their pockets
0:17:32 > 0:17:36in James's reign, see a new country - Great Britain.
0:17:36 > 0:17:39See a new coat of arms with England, Scotland and Ireland
0:17:39 > 0:17:41and then a very powerful political message?
0:17:41 > 0:17:45Yes. The idea of unity, it's on all his coinages.
0:17:47 > 0:17:49"And I will make them one nation"
0:17:49 > 0:17:53is a quote from the Old Testament book of Ezekiel.
0:17:56 > 0:18:01James was so keen to present union as part of God's divine plan
0:18:01 > 0:18:04that he targeted his subjects' spiritual world.
0:18:06 > 0:18:09He commissioned a new translation of the Bible
0:18:09 > 0:18:12that all his subjects could share
0:18:12 > 0:18:16and even boldly used its front page to promote the idea of himself
0:18:16 > 0:18:18as King of a new country.
0:18:25 > 0:18:27Which brings me onto these,
0:18:27 > 0:18:31the very first attempts at a new British flag,
0:18:31 > 0:18:35under which James wanted Scottish and English ships to sail.
0:18:37 > 0:18:39The Earl of Nottingham was commissioned
0:18:39 > 0:18:41to come up with some designs.
0:18:41 > 0:18:43He made various attempts
0:18:43 > 0:18:45at trying to balance the two countries equally,
0:18:45 > 0:18:46as he no doubt saw it.
0:18:48 > 0:18:50But these weren't what James wanted
0:18:50 > 0:18:53to represent his union of hearts and minds.
0:18:54 > 0:18:57James was looking for something much more...intertwined.
0:19:01 > 0:19:04Something like this - the modern Union flag,
0:19:04 > 0:19:08first raised on April 12th 1606.
0:19:08 > 0:19:10Uniting and - it must be said -
0:19:10 > 0:19:14dividing the nations of Britain ever since.
0:19:17 > 0:19:20But could the two countries really unite as seamlessly in reality
0:19:20 > 0:19:23as they did on James' flag?
0:19:25 > 0:19:27I'm on my way to see for the first time,
0:19:27 > 0:19:30the rather forgotten treaty that James' commission drew up
0:19:30 > 0:19:32in response to his wish for union.
0:19:32 > 0:19:37It's tucked away in the vaults of the National Archives at Kew.
0:19:37 > 0:19:40This document is one of three copies
0:19:40 > 0:19:45of the Anglo-Scottish Treaty of Union of 1604.
0:19:47 > 0:19:48So it's rather spectacular.
0:19:48 > 0:19:54You have these wonderful seals plated onto velvet and bullion thread.
0:19:54 > 0:19:57We believe this is the King's copy.
0:20:00 > 0:20:04Among other things, the treaty legitimizes
0:20:04 > 0:20:09intermarriage between any man and women in England and Scotland
0:20:09 > 0:20:12and proposes to do away with the name "the Borders".
0:20:13 > 0:20:16So you can see on this side you've got
0:20:16 > 0:20:19the signatures of the 39 English commissioners
0:20:19 > 0:20:23and then you have their seals fixed in order down these platted threads
0:20:23 > 0:20:27and on this side, you have the Scots signatures and then their seals.
0:20:28 > 0:20:32So it literally is a document of two halves.
0:20:32 > 0:20:33Yes, exactly.
0:20:34 > 0:20:37The finest vellum, velvet thread laced with bullion and the seals
0:20:37 > 0:20:41and signatures of the greatest men in the land.
0:20:43 > 0:20:47But ultimately, these good intentions were as close to a formal political union as Scotland
0:20:47 > 0:20:50and England could come.
0:20:50 > 0:20:53The English Parliament wouldn't pass it into law.
0:20:56 > 0:21:00English MPs raised arguments about the sanctity of English common law
0:21:00 > 0:21:04and economic arguments about the wisdom of England joining with its
0:21:04 > 0:21:06poorer neighbour.
0:21:08 > 0:21:10So James coolly shifted the goalposts.
0:21:10 > 0:21:16He reassured his English audience that, "You are to be the husband, they the wife,
0:21:16 > 0:21:21"you conquerors, they as conquered, though not by the sword,
0:21:21 > 0:21:24"but by the sweet and sure bond."
0:21:26 > 0:21:30But still the English Parliament of 1607 refused.
0:21:32 > 0:21:35It's clear to me that although James' accession to the
0:21:35 > 0:21:38English throne is a giant step towards modern Great Britain,
0:21:38 > 0:21:41the kind of Great Britain that he envisaged simply wasn't ready
0:21:41 > 0:21:45to be born - certainly not in England and not in Scotland either.
0:21:47 > 0:21:50But there was one other kingdom under James' rule
0:21:50 > 0:21:53and his attention was soon directed there.
0:21:57 > 0:22:00Ireland was different.
0:22:02 > 0:22:06Ireland was James' Catholic kingdom.
0:22:06 > 0:22:11England's kings and queens had a troubled past in Ireland - wars,
0:22:11 > 0:22:16persecution, upheaval, failed attempts at colonization.
0:22:16 > 0:22:21But when James came to power, a mood of optimism briefly shone through.
0:22:22 > 0:22:26Initially, the leaders of Gaelic Ireland had high hopes
0:22:26 > 0:22:30for the Stuart dynasty and much was made of its fabled Gaelic origins.
0:22:30 > 0:22:34They hoped that things might be different under James and he might
0:22:34 > 0:22:38see things their way. But that mood of optimism quickly evaporated.
0:22:38 > 0:22:42James wanted the Irish nobles to prove their loyalty to him.
0:22:42 > 0:22:46But here in the north of the country, the Catholic, Gaelic heartland,
0:22:46 > 0:22:49the ruling Catholic landowners wouldn't subject
0:22:49 > 0:22:53themselves to James', or any British monarch's, authority.
0:22:53 > 0:22:56This is Lough Swilly on Ireland's north coast
0:22:56 > 0:23:00and it was from this point on 4th September 1607 that the Earls
0:23:00 > 0:23:03of Tyrone and Tyrconnell dramatically set sail for the
0:23:03 > 0:23:05Continent in a party of 99,
0:23:05 > 0:23:08including their friends and families.
0:23:08 > 0:23:11Known as "the Flight of the Earls" it dramatically changed
0:23:11 > 0:23:13the course of British and Irish history.
0:23:16 > 0:23:21Their destination was Spain, Catholic Europe's superpower,
0:23:21 > 0:23:24but it was what they left behind that troubled James most -
0:23:24 > 0:23:29a power vacuum that stretched across the north of Ireland.
0:23:31 > 0:23:35So James planned to fill it in the most opportunistic way.
0:23:40 > 0:23:44James set up a scheme to send loyal citizens from his other two
0:23:44 > 0:23:46kingdoms to live in Ireland.
0:23:52 > 0:23:54James was looking for a certain type of person
0:23:54 > 0:23:56if his new venture was to succeed.
0:23:56 > 0:23:59Ideally, they'd be English or Lowland Scots, Protestant,
0:23:59 > 0:24:03willing to sign up for five years and in a position to defend
0:24:03 > 0:24:06the new settlements with arms, if it came to it.
0:24:06 > 0:24:09They were given land - the land of the earls,
0:24:09 > 0:24:11and it was called Plantation.
0:24:13 > 0:24:18The land was also used by the native Irish population
0:24:18 > 0:24:23who herded cattle and moved with the seasons.
0:24:31 > 0:24:34They were driven off land they'd used for centuries
0:24:34 > 0:24:39as James established new permanent towns each with a Protestant church
0:24:39 > 0:24:42and a market square at its heart.
0:24:42 > 0:24:43As James said,
0:24:43 > 0:24:44"The settling of religion
0:24:44 > 0:24:47"and the introducing of civility, order
0:24:47 > 0:24:51"and government amongst a barbarous and unsubdued people were
0:24:51 > 0:24:54"acts of piety and glory and worthy always of a Christian
0:24:54 > 0:24:56"prince's endeavour."
0:25:09 > 0:25:12But James also wanted his scheme to make a profit.
0:25:12 > 0:25:17In the darkest, most impenetrable part of the Gaelic north,
0:25:17 > 0:25:24James knew he'd need help. And he knew just the people to ask.
0:25:24 > 0:25:29The merchant banks of their day - the City of London's trade guilds known as livery companies.
0:25:30 > 0:25:34They were lined up to provide the cash to develop the area economically.
0:25:34 > 0:25:37But how could James sell them this plan?
0:25:37 > 0:25:41Well, it was sold to the livery companies, of course, as an asset -
0:25:41 > 0:25:45the idea was that the land was flowing with milk and honey,
0:25:45 > 0:25:49that you could rear any kinds of crop or animals on it - that the
0:25:49 > 0:25:53rivers teemed with fish, the minerals were of great value.
0:25:53 > 0:25:57There were some attractions there, some of them were genuine
0:25:57 > 0:26:00but I think in reality most of them were going to be hard-won
0:26:00 > 0:26:02and the livery companies realised this.
0:26:02 > 0:26:04But this was an offer they couldn't refuse.
0:26:04 > 0:26:07If you don't do it, you're off to the Tower of London and we will
0:26:07 > 0:26:11fine your livery company very, very hard - you know, there was really
0:26:11 > 0:26:14no choice for the livery companies, they had to become involved.
0:26:17 > 0:26:21So the London guilds divided up the land around Derry
0:26:21 > 0:26:25between fishmongers and goldsmiths, mercers and grocers,
0:26:25 > 0:26:29and the first thing they did was build protective walls
0:26:29 > 0:26:35around their new settlements to keep the Irish rebels, almost all of whom were Catholic, out.
0:26:37 > 0:26:40In thanks, the settlement of Derry became Londonderry - for some.
0:26:40 > 0:26:45Though today, the town's identity remains a matter of political preference.
0:26:50 > 0:26:53Ireland would haunt James' successors but ironically,
0:26:53 > 0:26:56during the early years of his reign,
0:26:56 > 0:27:01Ireland was more settled than it had been or would be for centuries.
0:27:07 > 0:27:11James had done what previous English monarchs had failed to do -
0:27:11 > 0:27:14planted something stronger than an army -
0:27:14 > 0:27:17James had planted an idea, the idea of loyalty.
0:27:23 > 0:27:27For James, as a Stuart monarch, this must have seemed
0:27:27 > 0:27:31a kind of golden moment. His three kingdoms might not have been
0:27:31 > 0:27:34united politically but they were settled and loyal
0:27:34 > 0:27:37and full of optimism about the Stuarts' rule.
0:27:39 > 0:27:42And part of the reason for this optimism was that
0:27:42 > 0:27:46for the first time in living memory, England had a Prince of Wales.
0:27:51 > 0:27:55I can just about make out the word Henry.
0:27:55 > 0:27:59There's a very intimate way in which we can get to know Prince Henry -
0:27:59 > 0:28:00James' eldest son and heir.
0:28:00 > 0:28:03This is one of his school books that date from
0:28:03 > 0:28:07when he is about 10 or 12 and it's his handwriting book.
0:28:07 > 0:28:11We can see in the first page Henry practising his letters,
0:28:11 > 0:28:14just doing letters over and over again - like all children do.
0:28:14 > 0:28:17A few pages later you can see lots of Henry's doodles - practising
0:28:17 > 0:28:21signing his name, playing with his fountain pen and lots of squiggles.
0:28:21 > 0:28:24He seems to have forgotten on this page that he is supposed to be
0:28:24 > 0:28:27the great Protestant hero, the learned prince. Instead,
0:28:27 > 0:28:30he's just taken up a pen and started doodling.
0:28:30 > 0:28:34I think this is a really fascinating way of getting to know the young prince.
0:28:34 > 0:28:37He is writing here over and over again Hericus Principi Salute,
0:28:37 > 0:28:39how you might start a letter.
0:28:39 > 0:28:42"I greet you" - just as any child would be in a grammar school
0:28:42 > 0:28:44at this stage, learning how to open a formal letter.
0:28:44 > 0:28:47Of course, in Henry's case he's actually going to be writing
0:28:47 > 0:28:50formal letters to the heads of state throughout Europe,
0:28:50 > 0:28:52but he's nevertheless practising over and over again
0:28:52 > 0:28:55but if I'm interested, just as a historian,
0:28:55 > 0:28:58the whole of 17th-century Europe was fascinated by Henry's education
0:28:58 > 0:29:02because his father was James, the philosopher king, who had
0:29:02 > 0:29:05written a manifesto for kingship, Basilikon Doron, that was
0:29:05 > 0:29:08essentially an outline of how a good prince should be educated.
0:29:11 > 0:29:16By most accounts, Henry wasn't the world's brightest student.
0:29:16 > 0:29:19But he didn't need to be - he was good looking, athletic
0:29:19 > 0:29:21and hugely popular.
0:29:28 > 0:29:31In the Tower of London, there's a remarkable object that brings
0:29:31 > 0:29:33alive this side of his character.
0:29:33 > 0:29:35What I think of as Henry's true character -
0:29:35 > 0:29:38not the man of letters, but the man of action.
0:29:49 > 0:29:52This is Henry's very own suit of armour -
0:29:52 > 0:29:54presented to him when he was 14.
0:30:00 > 0:30:04This is so different from looking at portraits - it's a very vivid
0:30:04 > 0:30:07three-dimensional sense of exactly what Henry would have
0:30:07 > 0:30:10looked like if he was standing right here.
0:30:10 > 0:30:15He's 14, he's about 4 foot 9 inches, and he is dressed ready for battle.
0:30:19 > 0:30:23The exquisite detail isn't just decoration - it's a story
0:30:23 > 0:30:27celebrating the achievements of the greatest warrior of antiquity,
0:30:27 > 0:30:28Alexander the Great.
0:30:29 > 0:30:32The exotic global spread of Alexander's empire is
0:30:32 > 0:30:35reflected in the fact that there are depictions of elephants
0:30:35 > 0:30:38everywhere - there are also quite humorous touches.
0:30:38 > 0:30:42There's an amorous couple about to elope into a tent
0:30:42 > 0:30:47and there's a dog that's either being rescued or drowned down a well.
0:30:47 > 0:30:50But why would someone give a suit of armour to a 14-year-old?
0:30:50 > 0:30:52Well, there's a practical reason -
0:30:52 > 0:30:56as a young man, Henry needs to learn how to wear a suit of armour
0:30:56 > 0:30:59and it's much better to start at this age than when you are an adult.
0:30:59 > 0:31:04But there's a second symbolic reason - the Stuarts need to
0:31:04 > 0:31:07project Henry as a credible warrior in waiting.
0:31:09 > 0:31:14Henry Stuart rides, fences, excels with his pike and lance,
0:31:14 > 0:31:16and he swims in the Thames every day.
0:31:18 > 0:31:24He is a kingdom united in flesh and blood, the first British prince.
0:31:32 > 0:31:34But there never was a Henry IX.
0:31:34 > 0:31:36So what happened?
0:31:39 > 0:31:44In the early autumn of 1612, Prince Henry fell ill.
0:31:44 > 0:31:49He became uncharacteristically listless and remained in bed.
0:31:49 > 0:31:52The physicians gathered.
0:31:52 > 0:31:56They ordered split pigeons to be applied to his head,
0:31:56 > 0:32:01and a dead cockerel to be fixed to his feet.
0:32:06 > 0:32:09The family visited to lift his spirits.
0:32:12 > 0:32:15But Henry's spirits didn't lift.
0:32:15 > 0:32:21On the 6th of November, 1612, Henry died aged 18.
0:32:23 > 0:32:27The worst thing about Henry's death was that it was so unexpected.
0:32:27 > 0:32:29For years, Henry had enjoyed rude health
0:32:29 > 0:32:33and the adjectives that people used when they describing him
0:32:33 > 0:32:35was robust, athletic, muscular.
0:32:35 > 0:32:38The fact that it had also been a four-week illness,
0:32:38 > 0:32:42and Henry appeared to have suffered excruciating gastro-intestinal
0:32:42 > 0:32:46symptoms, led some to suspect perhaps medical malpractice - even poisoning.
0:32:46 > 0:32:48People were so desperate
0:32:48 > 0:32:52to explain how this seemingly healthy prince could just suddenly be no more.
0:32:56 > 0:33:00An autopsy carried out at the time ruled out the possibility
0:33:00 > 0:33:05of poisoning, recording instead that Henry had died of a fever.
0:33:05 > 0:33:09A fever that medical historians later identified as typhoid.
0:33:12 > 0:33:15Contracted, no doubt, here in the Thames,
0:33:15 > 0:33:18where the prince once swam every day.
0:33:20 > 0:33:24James was so distraught he couldn't attend Henry's funeral
0:33:24 > 0:33:28and courtiers feared for the sanity of his wife, Anna.
0:33:31 > 0:33:34It's ironic that, for most people, they first encounter Henry
0:33:34 > 0:33:36through death, rather than through his life,
0:33:36 > 0:33:39but the impact of his death was profound
0:33:39 > 0:33:42and it rendered the Stuart dynasty much more precarious and fragile.
0:33:42 > 0:33:45From three heirs, they were now down to two.
0:33:47 > 0:33:51And the most important of those two was cause for concern.
0:33:53 > 0:33:54Meet Charles.
0:33:54 > 0:33:57Or Baby Charles, as James called him all his life.
0:34:03 > 0:34:06In some respects, Charles was the opposite of Henry.
0:34:06 > 0:34:10His childhood achievements aren't particularly well documented,
0:34:10 > 0:34:12but his physical infirmities are.
0:34:19 > 0:34:22Today, you have to seek out the anonymous exhibits
0:34:22 > 0:34:26of a medical museum to understand just why Charles
0:34:26 > 0:34:28was such a cause for concern.
0:34:31 > 0:34:34As a young child, he'd suffered from rickets -
0:34:34 > 0:34:38a disease caused by lack of sunlight that produced bone deformities.
0:34:38 > 0:34:41Rickets had made it difficult for Charles to learn to walk,
0:34:41 > 0:34:43let alone excel at princely sports.
0:34:43 > 0:34:46James had ordered that his son's legs be put in irons,
0:34:46 > 0:34:50to help straighten them, but for all his father's intervention,
0:34:50 > 0:34:54the sense remained that Charles was a weak physical specimen.
0:34:56 > 0:34:58Charles was also a stammerer,
0:34:58 > 0:35:01so James ordered another helpful intervention...
0:35:02 > 0:35:04..to cut the tendons under his tongue.
0:35:08 > 0:35:12And only reluctantly relented when Charles' guardian intervened.
0:35:16 > 0:35:20In an era when royal authority came from rhetoric and debate,
0:35:20 > 0:35:23how would Charles convince, how would Charles control,
0:35:23 > 0:35:26if he was unable to speak properly?
0:35:28 > 0:35:31English MPs were so concerned about the sickly prince's prospects
0:35:31 > 0:35:34that, in 1614, they suggested that
0:35:34 > 0:35:38Charles' sister Elizabeth should become the official heir.
0:35:38 > 0:35:41She was married to a Protestant prince in Europe.
0:35:41 > 0:35:45Elizabeth looked a safer bet than Baby Charles.
0:35:48 > 0:35:51But by early adulthood, Charles was transformed.
0:35:53 > 0:35:55He had toughened up.
0:35:55 > 0:35:58He was an excellent fencer and an outstanding horseman.
0:35:58 > 0:36:02And as James' official heir, he was approaching his first major test...
0:36:10 > 0:36:11..marriage.
0:36:11 > 0:36:15A royal wedding, 17th-century style,
0:36:15 > 0:36:17loaded with power, politics and religion...
0:36:20 > 0:36:23..and just a dash of blatant opportunism.
0:36:24 > 0:36:26James saw a chance
0:36:26 > 0:36:29for his Stuart heir to marry someone a little bit special.
0:36:33 > 0:36:36Her name was Maria Anna. She was the princess of the most
0:36:36 > 0:36:39powerful family in all Europe - the Spanish Habsburgs,
0:36:39 > 0:36:43who, controversially, were very devout Catholics,
0:36:43 > 0:36:46which didn't go down well at home,
0:36:46 > 0:36:49especially when war broke out between Catholics and Protestants
0:36:49 > 0:36:52in central Europe and James was urged to take sides.
0:36:53 > 0:36:56When the English Parliament met in November,
0:36:56 > 0:36:58keen to debate events overseas,
0:36:58 > 0:36:59where was James?
0:36:59 > 0:37:03Not where you'd expect him - in Parliament - but here at Newmarket,
0:37:03 > 0:37:09claiming ill health, but distracted by horses and hunting.
0:37:13 > 0:37:15Hunting or hiding,
0:37:15 > 0:37:18James had left Charles to take his place in Parliament,
0:37:21 > 0:37:25Some MPs called for James to defend his Protestant faith -
0:37:25 > 0:37:28to declare war on the Catholic Habsburgs,
0:37:28 > 0:37:31rather than marry his son and heir to them.
0:37:32 > 0:37:35Each evening, Prince Charles met the Privy Council,
0:37:35 > 0:37:38to review the day's proceedings and, in his letters back to James,
0:37:38 > 0:37:42Prince Charles became increasingly angry that his future subjects
0:37:42 > 0:37:45thought it was all right to discuss who he might marry.
0:37:45 > 0:37:48As he put it, the subject of his marriage was being
0:37:48 > 0:37:50"prostituted" in the House of Commons.
0:37:52 > 0:37:56Fractious, critical and highly personal...
0:37:56 > 0:38:00this was Charles' introduction to politics.
0:38:00 > 0:38:05But the English Parliament of 1621 broke up with little accomplished
0:38:05 > 0:38:10and with Charles stubbornly clinging to his controversial marriage plans.
0:38:11 > 0:38:13For Charles, I think the marriage plans had become more
0:38:13 > 0:38:17than dynastic ambition, more even than religious power broking.
0:38:17 > 0:38:19They had become his way of proving himself.
0:38:21 > 0:38:25So, Charles did something extraordinary.
0:38:25 > 0:38:26With his father's help,
0:38:26 > 0:38:28he hatched a daring scheme.
0:38:28 > 0:38:31He would travel to Spain, in secret,
0:38:31 > 0:38:35to secure his marriage and bring back his bride himself.
0:38:37 > 0:38:42And in February, 1623, Charles readied his horse,
0:38:42 > 0:38:48donned a false beard and set off for Spain, in disguise,
0:38:48 > 0:38:50with just one trusted advisor.
0:38:57 > 0:38:58He travelled through France,
0:38:58 > 0:39:01heading south, to the very heart of Catholic Spain.
0:39:05 > 0:39:09Finally, covered in dust after a 13-day journey from Paris,
0:39:09 > 0:39:13the heir to the Stuart thrones of Scotland, England and Ireland
0:39:13 > 0:39:16arrived in Madrid at eight o'clock one evening.
0:39:19 > 0:39:23He and his advisor were looking for a house with seven chimneys.
0:39:24 > 0:39:28And this is it - the one-time English Ambassador's residence.
0:39:31 > 0:39:34The only problem was, they hadn't told anyone they were coming.
0:39:37 > 0:39:40Charles' surprise arrival presented the British Ambassador
0:39:40 > 0:39:42with a huge dilemma.
0:39:42 > 0:39:46It wasn't just that he didn't have food and lodging prepared
0:39:46 > 0:39:49for his distinguished guest. It was that Charles' decision
0:39:49 > 0:39:52to pitch up spontaneously at the most strictly formal
0:39:52 > 0:39:55and ceremonious royal court in Europe represented a genuinely
0:39:55 > 0:39:58astonishing and unprecedented breach of diplomatic protocol.
0:40:01 > 0:40:05You didn't just drop in on the Habsburgs.
0:40:05 > 0:40:08They ruled over the largest empire the world had ever seen.
0:40:08 > 0:40:13At its heart was 17-year-old King Felipe IV,
0:40:13 > 0:40:15who was worshipped by his subjects almost as a God.
0:40:18 > 0:40:22Having Charles suddenly turn up at his court was doubtless unsettling,
0:40:22 > 0:40:28but for Felipe, it must surely also have been intriguing.
0:40:30 > 0:40:34If Charles had come this far, might he be willing to go further?
0:40:36 > 0:40:38Might he be willing to become a Catholic?
0:40:41 > 0:40:45Charles was allowed to meet his intended bride, in person, briefly,
0:40:45 > 0:40:47once...or twice,
0:40:47 > 0:40:50then Maria Anna faded into the background...
0:40:52 > 0:40:55..as religion and politics took over.
0:41:04 > 0:41:08The Spanish began a religious charm offensive,
0:41:08 > 0:41:11to detoxify their religion in Charles' eyes.
0:41:19 > 0:41:23Charles was invited to debates with Catholic priests and scholars
0:41:23 > 0:41:25and to attend Catholic feasts.
0:41:27 > 0:41:30This is Corpus Christi.
0:41:30 > 0:41:31It involves the body of Christ,
0:41:31 > 0:41:35in the form of a communion wafer, being paraded through the streets.
0:41:42 > 0:41:45In the 17th century. it powerfully confirmed
0:41:45 > 0:41:49just how central the Catholic religion was to Spanish identity.
0:41:53 > 0:41:55And today, it seems little has changed.
0:41:59 > 0:42:03CHORAL SINGING
0:42:05 > 0:42:07It's certainly like nothing I've ever witnessed before.
0:42:16 > 0:42:19Corpus Christi is a massive assault on the senses.
0:42:19 > 0:42:23Visually, everyone is immaculately dressed and there is every colour
0:42:23 > 0:42:27imaginable, whether it's religious vestments or costumes or flags
0:42:27 > 0:42:31or flowers or the tapestries hanging from the cathedrals.
0:42:31 > 0:42:34There's also a cacophony of sound -
0:42:34 > 0:42:37bells, military bands, people cheering, plainsong chant
0:42:37 > 0:42:38and fireworks.
0:42:38 > 0:42:43But actually, more than anything else, it's the very heady smell.
0:42:43 > 0:42:46It's a very odd mix of incense, which is everywhere,
0:42:46 > 0:42:50and dried herbs, thyme and rosemary, that are strewn across the streets.
0:42:50 > 0:42:54It is completely intoxicating.
0:43:02 > 0:43:05After two months at the Spanish court,
0:43:05 > 0:43:08Charles was invited to attend that year's parade,
0:43:08 > 0:43:11while Felipe led the celebrations.
0:43:15 > 0:43:18Watching King Felipe take part in the Corpus Christi processions,
0:43:18 > 0:43:20alongside clerics, courtiers and statesmen,
0:43:20 > 0:43:22showed a pious king and his subjects brought together
0:43:22 > 0:43:25in the same lavish celebrations.
0:43:25 > 0:43:28If any religious festival was going to tempt Charles to convert,
0:43:28 > 0:43:29then this was it.
0:43:32 > 0:43:35But, of course, Charles didn't convert,
0:43:35 > 0:43:38though that's not to say that he wasn't influenced
0:43:38 > 0:43:41by what he observed at the Habsburg court.
0:43:41 > 0:43:45Here, he'd have seen the tempting reality of a king treated
0:43:45 > 0:43:51almost as a God - served on bended knee, with impressive formality.
0:43:52 > 0:43:56In Spain, the monarch ruled with just a small group of advisors,
0:43:56 > 0:43:59without trouble from Parliament.
0:43:59 > 0:44:04And I think that all this must have left its mark on the young prince.
0:44:08 > 0:44:11As the summer heat increased, so did the stakes.
0:44:13 > 0:44:16The Habsburgs eventually made clear what the conditions were
0:44:16 > 0:44:17for any marriage.
0:44:18 > 0:44:20They were laid down by the Pope himself
0:44:20 > 0:44:23and they were really quite something.
0:44:23 > 0:44:26It wasn't enough that British Catholics would be allowed
0:44:26 > 0:44:29to worship privately, without fear of persecution.
0:44:29 > 0:44:33Instead, the Pope insisted that all forms of anti-Catholic legislation
0:44:33 > 0:44:35be abolished separately in the parliaments
0:44:35 > 0:44:37of England, Scotland and Ireland.
0:44:37 > 0:44:40For the Protestant Stuarts, this was surely unacceptable.
0:44:47 > 0:44:50Charles' romantic adventure was quickly turning into
0:44:50 > 0:44:54a political quagmire and a diplomatic nightmare.
0:44:55 > 0:45:00He was out of his depth and, suddenly, out of love with the idea
0:45:00 > 0:45:02of a Spanish bride.
0:45:04 > 0:45:06Back home, James began to suspect
0:45:06 > 0:45:09that Charles was being held a virtual prisoner.
0:45:12 > 0:45:14So, he advised Charles to agree to
0:45:14 > 0:45:17every one of the Habsburgs' conditions -
0:45:17 > 0:45:19to promise anything that would get him home.
0:45:23 > 0:45:25And Charles listened to his father's advice.
0:45:29 > 0:45:31If Charles' initial appearance in Madrid
0:45:31 > 0:45:33had shocked the Spanish court,
0:45:33 > 0:45:36it was in for an even greater surprise in late July,
0:45:36 > 0:45:40when Charles announced that he had seriously made up his mind
0:45:40 > 0:45:43to accept every condition Spain had laid down for the marriage.
0:45:43 > 0:45:46Astonished, but delighted, the Spanish court announced
0:45:46 > 0:45:49the official engagement of the Infanta to Charles
0:45:49 > 0:45:53with four days of fireworks and festivities.
0:45:53 > 0:45:55The Spanish match was on and, mission accomplished,
0:45:55 > 0:45:57Charles could now return home.
0:45:57 > 0:46:01There were to be no fond farewells, however, between the prince
0:46:01 > 0:46:04and his fiancee. Instead, Charles met Felipe here,
0:46:04 > 0:46:08at this exact spot outside Madrid on September 2nd.
0:46:08 > 0:46:10They bid their final farewells to one other
0:46:10 > 0:46:12as prospective brothers in law.
0:46:12 > 0:46:15To commemorate the occasion, Felipe had the column behind me built.
0:46:15 > 0:46:17It once bore the inscription,
0:46:17 > 0:46:20"Stop here, fame, there is nothing more than this."
0:46:20 > 0:46:23Nothing greater that is than this new marriage alliance
0:46:23 > 0:46:26between the Habsburgs and the Stuarts.
0:46:32 > 0:46:36But this strange column in a field outside Madrid
0:46:36 > 0:46:38is actually the only thing to come out of
0:46:38 > 0:46:40this whole extraordinary escapade.
0:46:42 > 0:46:45Charles renounced his intention to go through with the marriage before
0:46:45 > 0:46:49he'd even boarded his ship home. He was just pleased to have escaped.
0:46:52 > 0:46:54But if he didn't return from Spain with a bride,
0:46:54 > 0:46:55what did he return with?
0:46:57 > 0:47:01A certain style, an education in formality
0:47:01 > 0:47:04and in the absolute virtue of royal authority.
0:47:08 > 0:47:12Something he'd draw on when it was his turn to be king.
0:47:24 > 0:47:28James died on the 27th of March, 1625, at the age of 58.
0:47:32 > 0:47:36In his pursuit of peace and unity, in his willingness to tolerate
0:47:36 > 0:47:39and to be pragmatic, James had been more than a king.
0:47:39 > 0:47:42He'd been that most modern of bogeymen - a politician.
0:47:45 > 0:47:49One source summed up James' achievements.
0:47:49 > 0:47:51"The schools of the prophets newly adorned,
0:47:51 > 0:47:54"all kind of learning highly improved,
0:47:54 > 0:47:56"manufactures at home daily invented,
0:47:56 > 0:48:00"the Borders of Scotland peaceably governed,
0:48:00 > 0:48:03"the north of Ireland religiously planted,
0:48:03 > 0:48:06"the Royal Navy magnificently furnished.
0:48:06 > 0:48:12"And they are all the actions and true-born children of King James, his peace."
0:48:14 > 0:48:16It's good, isn't it?
0:48:16 > 0:48:18It's about as close as we get in Britain to the magnificence
0:48:18 > 0:48:20of the Sistine Chapel.
0:48:21 > 0:48:23This was Charles' tribute to his father.
0:48:25 > 0:48:27It was painted by one of Europe's leading artists,
0:48:27 > 0:48:32Peter Paul Rubens who came to London from the Spanish court.
0:48:34 > 0:48:37It shows James as a wise King Solomon figure,
0:48:37 > 0:48:41imposing order on the chaos around him just as James had brought
0:48:41 > 0:48:44order to the chaos of the three Stuart kingdoms during his reign.
0:48:48 > 0:48:51Impressive in scale, beautiful in execution.
0:48:51 > 0:48:54But wasn't it also just a little bit Catholic?
0:48:58 > 0:49:02Charles wasn't a Catholic but some of his subjects were
0:49:02 > 0:49:05beginning to suspect that he wasn't Protestant enough either.
0:49:13 > 0:49:16He projected an image of royal authority that was formal
0:49:16 > 0:49:19and aloof and very different to James.
0:49:20 > 0:49:23And the way he ruled was highly authoritarian.
0:49:23 > 0:49:26You could say it was a little like a Spanish Emperor.
0:49:28 > 0:49:32He controlled his church through bishops and kept dissenting voices out.
0:49:35 > 0:49:39He married, not the Spanish Infanta, but a French Catholic princess
0:49:39 > 0:49:41whom he allowed to practise her religion openly.
0:49:44 > 0:49:46When the English Parliament criticised his conduct
0:49:46 > 0:49:49he dispensed with it and dispensed with debate,
0:49:49 > 0:49:54to rule with the support of a few trusted advisors.
0:49:54 > 0:49:55He grew remote.
0:49:57 > 0:50:00But of course, England wasn't his only kingdom.
0:50:00 > 0:50:03In Scotland he'd always been remote.
0:50:08 > 0:50:11Charles had been born in Scotland but it took him eight years
0:50:11 > 0:50:14to arrange his long overdue coronation as King of Scots.
0:50:15 > 0:50:18The country of his birth was now a place as foreign to him
0:50:18 > 0:50:20as England had once been to James.
0:50:23 > 0:50:25So what would Charles make of Scotland
0:50:25 > 0:50:28and what would Scotland make of Charles?
0:50:34 > 0:50:39He arrived in Edinburgh in June 1633
0:50:39 > 0:50:42and took up residence in his royal palace.
0:50:49 > 0:50:52Today the monarch still does the same when visiting Scotland
0:50:52 > 0:50:56in a modest ceremony, with just a smattering of pomp.
0:51:00 > 0:51:02With no royal court for a generation,
0:51:02 > 0:51:05Scottish subjects had no doubt imagined what it would be like
0:51:05 > 0:51:07to have their king back among them.
0:51:11 > 0:51:14But somehow Charles didn't seem to fit the bill.
0:51:16 > 0:51:19His ceremonial style took the Scots by surprise.
0:51:22 > 0:51:25He came with his own ministers, his own advisors
0:51:25 > 0:51:28and his own formal way of doing things.
0:51:39 > 0:51:41Charles' differences were soon on public display
0:51:41 > 0:51:43at his coronation in Holyrood.
0:51:47 > 0:51:50The coronation was based on an English service
0:51:50 > 0:51:54the likes of which Scotland hadn't seen since the Reformation.
0:51:57 > 0:51:59And then Charles called a parliament,
0:51:59 > 0:52:02which allowed his Scottish subjects to get to know him better.
0:52:03 > 0:52:04Bad move.
0:52:08 > 0:52:12For 30 years monarchy had been an absent and therefore abstract notion
0:52:12 > 0:52:15for Scots but when Charles I arrived in person
0:52:15 > 0:52:20his subjects found the reality of Stuart rule distinctly unsettling.
0:52:20 > 0:52:25For a start Charles' Coronation had been weirdly alien, very formal and ritualistic.
0:52:25 > 0:52:29It was also at Holyrood whereas Scots kings were traditionally crowned at Scone.
0:52:29 > 0:52:33And when Charles then attended the specially convened Coronation parliament
0:52:33 > 0:52:36he acted in ways that were at best suspicious and at worst alarming.
0:52:36 > 0:52:40He made clear that everyone knew he was keeping a careful record
0:52:40 > 0:52:42of anyone who dared oppose his government.
0:52:44 > 0:52:47Charles was an instinctive authoritarian.
0:52:47 > 0:52:50And whereas in England he'd dispensed with Parliament,
0:52:50 > 0:52:53here in Scotland he didn't.
0:52:53 > 0:52:56He commissioned this new Parliament Hall.
0:52:59 > 0:53:02It reminds me that in Scotland it wasn't Parliament that concerned him...
0:53:04 > 0:53:06..it was the church.
0:53:13 > 0:53:16Today the annual gathering of the Kirk is a gentle affair.
0:53:19 > 0:53:23But then, it was a hotbed of firebrands made from the same mould
0:53:23 > 0:53:26as hard line reformer John Knox.
0:53:30 > 0:53:32The Scottish Kirk considered itself to be the most
0:53:32 > 0:53:34perfectly reformed Protestant church in the world.
0:53:36 > 0:53:39Answerable only to God,
0:53:39 > 0:53:41not keen on bishops...
0:53:42 > 0:53:44..not keen on the authority of kings.
0:53:46 > 0:53:50And what's more it had become a wellspring of Scottish identity
0:53:50 > 0:53:52since the departure of the royal court.
0:53:54 > 0:53:57You might say it had become a law unto itself.
0:53:59 > 0:54:02But Charles saw a way to increase his control over it.
0:54:04 > 0:54:06His big idea was a new prayer book,
0:54:06 > 0:54:10to be used by every minister, in every service
0:54:10 > 0:54:11in every church in the land.
0:54:13 > 0:54:17But when Scottish churchgoers opened Charles's new prayer book,
0:54:17 > 0:54:19they saw something astonishing.
0:54:20 > 0:54:22Illustrations,
0:54:22 > 0:54:26a typeface normally associated with Catholic texts,
0:54:26 > 0:54:29instructions to kneel at communion.
0:54:31 > 0:54:34Small things but far from trivial.
0:54:38 > 0:54:43It seemed like a British solution to a problem that the Scottish church didn't even know it had.
0:54:44 > 0:54:46And Charles was determined to push it through.
0:54:49 > 0:54:52The new prayer book caused a riot...
0:54:53 > 0:54:56..as the tensions between disgruntled people
0:54:56 > 0:54:58and distant king boiled over.
0:55:00 > 0:55:02And events now moved at speed.
0:55:14 > 0:55:16Some of the church's leaders took action.
0:55:18 > 0:55:23They met here in Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh on 28th February, 1638.
0:55:26 > 0:55:29And set out clearly where their loyalties lay.
0:55:31 > 0:55:34And it wasn't necessarily with the monarch.
0:55:36 > 0:55:40They drew up a remarkable document called the National Covenant.
0:55:42 > 0:55:46It called for a return to the purity of Reformation religion
0:55:46 > 0:55:48and opposed all recent "innovations".
0:55:52 > 0:55:55From this spot, copies of the Covenant were sent all over Scotland.
0:55:57 > 0:56:02In town after town, parish after parish people stood solemnly in line to sign it.
0:56:04 > 0:56:08To Charles it must have seemed like the whole country was standing against him.
0:56:09 > 0:56:14To my mind it was a traditional way of registering serious discontent.
0:56:14 > 0:56:15A yellow card if you like
0:56:15 > 0:56:19and an invitation to Charles to rethink his religious policy.
0:56:19 > 0:56:22Charles however regarded it as an outrageous attack on his authority
0:56:22 > 0:56:25and something to be suppressed with force if necessary.
0:56:25 > 0:56:28Moreover Charles had a blind spot,
0:56:28 > 0:56:32he insisted that Scottish opposition was political and not religious.
0:56:34 > 0:56:38For Charles it was all about whether he was a proper King of Scotland or not
0:56:38 > 0:56:41as he wrote, "As long as the covenant is in force in Scotland
0:56:41 > 0:56:45"I am no more king there than a Doge of Venice."
0:56:45 > 0:56:48He also insisted that he would rather die than yield to
0:56:48 > 0:56:50the impertinent demands of the covenanters.
0:56:53 > 0:56:54Grand rhetoric,
0:56:54 > 0:56:56but not designed to build bridges.
0:56:58 > 0:57:02The two Stuart kings that we've met both believed in the Divine Right of Kings.
0:57:04 > 0:57:08But I think James would have found a pragmatic way out of Charles' problem.
0:57:08 > 0:57:12It might have stung, but the James I know would've compromised
0:57:12 > 0:57:14and kept his hands firmly on power.
0:57:15 > 0:57:17But that wasn't Charles' style.
0:57:18 > 0:57:24The king the Scots chose to test their power against was allergic to the idea of compromise.
0:57:26 > 0:57:28So he raised an army and marched north
0:57:28 > 0:57:31and his Scottish opponents did the same and marched south.
0:57:33 > 0:57:36And ironically they faced each other precisely where
0:57:36 > 0:57:39little Arthur's dreams of a union had begun.
0:57:41 > 0:57:4436 years earlier King James had crossed the River Tweed
0:57:44 > 0:57:49and set foot in England promising a Union of Hearts and Minds born out of love.
0:57:50 > 0:57:53The three kingdoms had been united in loyalty to their
0:57:53 > 0:57:56first Stuart king but had become fatally divided by their second.
0:57:57 > 0:58:02Berwick's famous battlements should have been redundant but now it seemed they might be needed again.
0:58:02 > 0:58:06A hostile Scottish army was on the march and war was imminent.
0:58:10 > 0:58:11In the next episode...
0:58:11 > 0:58:13"And I will make them one nation,"
0:58:13 > 0:58:17said James when he became King of England, Scotland, and Ireland.
0:58:18 > 0:58:23But under his son Charles, the Stuart dynasty and its three kingdoms fell into an abyss.
0:58:25 > 0:58:28Driven by religious hatred and religious violence,
0:58:28 > 0:58:32they tore themselves and each other's people...apart.