BBC, "The Stuarts"

[mme_hardy]

Dr Clare Jackson of Cambridge University "argues that the Stuarts, more than any other, were Britain's defining royal family."  (That's the tagline of the show, on BBC Two's page.

[In the coming century, seven Stuarts will rule the three separate kingdoms of  over Scotland, England, and Ireland]  Through bloodshed and civil war, they will refashion them into the Great Britain that we know today.

Entirely by accident and in many cases against their will.

They are the first family of Great Britain.  They are ... the Stuarts.

I have no idea what that first sentence is supposed to mean.

“His distant cousin, the childless Queen Elizabeth”

 

HIS FIRST COUSIN ONCE REMOVED.  Sigh, pause, open Google Docs window.

 

Today, we tend to take the modern kingdom of Great Britain for granted…

 

AHAHAHAHAHA referendum . (Note:  This series aired in January 2014.)

 

[at Berwick, James I and XI declares that Scots and English should become brothers] “That would require a leap of faith, and would require them to become more intimate with one another.”
 

Hey, I consider centuries of raiding, killing, and marrying each other pretty damn intimate.  Ask anybody on the Borders, or read the superb The Steel Bonnets by George Macdonald Fraser.

 

“but he was the first fully to confront confront the new religious tensions brought about by the Protestant Reformation”

 

That would be news to Mary, Queen of Scots, looking back on her long, mutually enjoyable relationship with John Knox.

 

“James was a wonderful wordsmith ... It must have been quite unnerving for the English MPs, after decades of taciturn Tudor rule, suddenly to have a Stewart king in their midst, engaged in a massive PR exercise.”

 

[insert Tilbury speech here]

 

“England’s Kings and Queens had a troubled past in Ireland.”

 

No shit, Sherlock.

 

“[Tyrone and Tyrconnell's] destination was  Spain, a Catholic superpower, but it was what  they left behind troubled James most: a power vacuum that stretched across the north of Ireland.

 

Because Spain had no history at all of supporting Catholic revolts.  no, no.  He just didn't want a power vacuum in Northern Ireland.

 

James set up a scheme to send loyal citizens from his other two realms to live in Ireland.  

 

Er… way to plaidwash.

 

They were given land, the land of the earls, and it was called plantation.  The land was also used by the native Irish population. who herded cattle and moved with the seasons.    [photos of an Irish cattle auction?!?!?]

 

!!!!!!  

 

...In the darkest, most impenetrable part of the Gaelic north, James knew he would need help.

 

...Ironically, during the early years of James’s reign, Ireland was more settled than it had been, or would be, for centuries.  James had done what previous English monarchs had failed to do: planted something stronger than army.  James had planted an idea.  The idea of loyalty.

 

I could quote much more of the narration about Ireland, but I’m losing the will to live.

 

“But why would someone give a suit of armor to a fourteen-year-old?”
Oh, I dunno, it's not as if kings had been doing it for centuries.

 

 

INTERRUPTION:  In my googling for examples, I was devastated to find out that the Higgins Armory Museum in Worcester, Mass closed in 2013.   Aiiieee.

 

“[Prince Henry]  is a kingdom united, in flesh and blood, the first British prince.”

… I think his father might disagree with you.

 

“How would Charles convince?  How would he control?  If he was unable to speak properly?”

 

Like his father, you mean?  Whose not only had a speech impediment ("tongue too big for his mouth") but  whose habits  of spitting and drooling during speech you seem to have overlooked?

 

[in the context of Charles I's visit to Spain in the attempt to marry the Infanta] “This is Corpus Christi, … the body of Christ in the form of a communion wafer being paraded through the streets." [street shots of Corpus Christi in Spain] "In the 17th century,  it powerfully confirmed how central the Catholic religion was to Spanish identity.  And today, it seems as if little has changed.  It’s certainly like nothing I’VE ever witnessed before.”
... Don't get around much?

 

“Corpus Christi is a massive assault on the senses.”
...

 

“[Charles I]  controlled his church through bishops, and kept dissenting voices out.”

 

King James I and VI: If you aim at a Scottish presbytery, it agreeth as well with monarchy, as God and the devil. ... No bishop, no King!

 

"[the Kirk] had become a wellspring of Scottish identity since the departure of the Royal Court.  You might say it had become a law unto itself."

 

I’m assuming that the Royal Court whose departure you’re referring to was Mary, Queen of Scots heading off to France ?  

 

"[The National Covenant of Scotland]  To my mind, it was a traditional way of registering serious discontent.  A yellow card, if you like.  An invitation to Charles to reconsider his religious policy.  Charles, however, regarded it as an outrageous attack on his authority."

That would be the one that offered him conditional allegiance, as in ". And because we perceive that the quietness and stability of our religion and Kirk doth depend upon the safety and good behaviour of the King's Majesty, as upon a comfortable instrument of God's mercy granted to this country for the maintenance of His Kirk, and ministration of justice among us, we protest and promise with our hearts under the same oath, hand-writ, and pains, that we shall defend his person and authority with our goods, bodies, and lives..."

 

“The three kingdoms had been united under their first Stuart king.”

 

Er,  Ireland?  Seriously?