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The Stuarts

Drama

Drama: Historical

James II: The Storms of this Deceitful World

Mike Walker's epic chronicle of Britain's most mutable dynasty

BBC Radio 4 FM

Julian Rhind-Tutt

Vanessa Kirby

Dominic Mafham

Kate Fleetwood

Anton Lesser

Vincent Franklin

Amaka Okafor

Ben Crowe

Michael Bertenshaw

Paul Stonehouse

Philippa Stanton

Matthew Watson

Sean Murray

David Seddon

Mike Walker

Jessica Dromgoole

Sasha Yevtushenko

The Stuarts: A World of Fools and Knaves

A World of Fools and Knaves

07/07/2013

BBC Radio 4 - The Stuarts, A World of Fools and Knaves

Henrietta Maria watches husband Charles I fail to keep a hold on the reins of government.

By Mike Walker. Henrietta Maria, Charles I's Catholic queen, watches her husband, the 'second-best-king', fail to keep a hold on the reins of government.

by Mike Walker. Henrietta Maria - Charles I's Catholic queen - watches her husband, the 'second-best-King', fail to keep a hold on the reins of government. 

Directed by Jessica Dromgoole & Sasha Yevtushenko
Sound design by Colin Guthrie

Production co-ordinator: Selina Ream
Studio managers: Martha Littlehailes, Alison Craig


Notes:
An inauspicious marriage of three people changes when the third member, the Duke of Buckingham is assassinated. Charles becomes closer to his Queen Henrietta Maria and what started a marriage of convenience, becomes much deeper as the two try to support each other through turbulent times. Neither of them is able to read the signs of the times as politics and political philosophy take radical new directions. A man of great artistic taste, Charles is both too thoughtful and too indecisive to rule successfully and despite his hatred of war, war becomes his inheritance. Like many fundamentally decent men, Charles lacks iron: the ability to be utterly ruthless when necessary and merciful when expedient.

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