Eleven years when Britain had no king.
On a raw January afternoon in 1649, the Stuart king, Charles I, was executed for treason. Within weeks the English monarchy had been abolished and the ‘useless and dangerous’ House of Lords discarded. The people, it was announced, were now the sovereign force in the land. What this meant, and where it would lead, no one knew.
The Restless Republic is the story of the extraordinary decade that followed. It takes as its guides the people who lived through those years. Among them is John Bradshaw, the Cheshire lawyer who found himself trying the King. Marchamont Nedham, the irrepressible newspaper man and puppet master of propaganda. And the indomitable Countess of Derby who defended to the last the final Royalist stronghold on the Isle of Man. Notable players from the time also feature, including Lord Fairfax, creator of the New Model Army, Oliver Cromwell and George Monck the general who negotiated the return of the monarchy.
Keay brings to vivid life the most extraordinary and experimental decade in Britain’s history. It is the story of how these tempestuous years set the British Isles on a new course, and of what happened when a conservative people tried revolution.

In episode five the competing priorities of the men who ruled England make for a dangerous instability, and lead eventually to the end of the republic.

Abridged and produced by Jill Waters and The Waters Company for BBC Radio 4
Reader: Helen Schlesinger Show less