GETTY IMAGES, ALAMY, BRIDGEMAN IMAGES
6 Timeline
A whistlestop tour through
100 years of Stuart rule114 Subscribe
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Britain’s monarchs? Subscribe
to BBC History MagazineCHARLES I AND
THE ENGLISH
CIVIL WAR28 Civil wars: 15 key moments
Pivotal points in the conflicts
besetting 17th-century Britain36 Paper wars of the 1640s
How the English Civil War
was fought in the press38 Has history been hard
on Charles I?
Re-evaluating the
controversial royal44 Selling off the
crown jewels
When Parliament sold
Charles’s assetsJAMES I AND
THE ARRIVAL
OF THE STUARTS10 A king of low regard
Why hope for the rule of
James I quickly evaporated14 The King James Bible
How this most influential
book came into being18 Francis Bacon: the true
renaissance man
Triumphs of the polymath20 The Gunpowder Plot
Where the action unfoldedRESTORATION
AND REVOLUTION86 The people’s prince
Charm, spin and pomp: how
Charles II wooed the nation92 Paper talks
How a 1660 newspaper paved
the way for Charles II’s return94 The exiled king
The fall of James II and VII
98 A not-so-bloodless
revolution
How William took the throneLIFE IN
STUART TIMES68 The war on witches
Five key sites that saw trials
and executions during this
period of persecution72 Bad sports
How Puritan attempts to
ban games divided the
people of England78 Breaking the mould
Meet the succession of strong
women who broke the rules
in 17th-century Britain80 Dressing to impress
Discover the styles sported
by women of substance –
and the perils of making
a fashion faux pasOLIVER
CROMWELL
AND THE
PROTECTORATE50 God’s executioner
The massacre at Drogheda by
Cromwell’s New Model Army55 Cromwell: hero or villain?
How the leader’s reputation
has waxed and waned58 No Christmas
under Cromwell
Why festivities were
forbidden for over a decade62 Digging for Britain
How Gerrard Winstanley
founded radical crop-
cultivating communesTHE END OF
THE STUARTS106 Daughter and heir
The reign of Anne, last of the
Stuart monarchs of Britain
110 The Union of 1707
Why did
Scottish MPs
support a
union that
divided the
nation?CONTENTS
106
Charles I resisted political
extremism, but paid a heavy
price for his policiesQueen Anne, whose children
all died before adulthood, was
the last of the Stuart monarchs