The Life And Times Of The Stuarts focuses on a nation-defining period of British history that is every bit as enthralling, dramatic and pivotal as that of Henry VIII and co. BBC History magazine now turns its attention from The Story Of The Tudors to the seismic changes that occurred within the British Isles during the Stuart rule between 1603 and 1714. Inside you will find: • The Gunpowder Plot • The English Civil War • Charles I’s execution • Oliver Cromwell’s rule • The restoration of the monarchy • The ousting of James II in the Glorious Revolution and many other key events in British history!

This special edition calls upon the expertise and analysis of the world’s leading historians as an in-depth and invaluable way to understand more about this absorbing time. "

WELCOME...

THE STUART YEARS • The rise and fall of the royal house

James I and the arrival of the Stuarts

A KING OF LOW REGARD • When Elizabeth I died, so too did the House of Tudor. But, as Tracy Borman explains, the optimism surrounding the accession of the first Stuart king, James I, didn’t last long

THE MAKING OF THE KING JAMES BIBLE • More than 400 years after it was first published, Pauline Croft explains how the “most important book in the English language” came into being

FRANCIS BACON THE TRUE RENAISSANCE MAN • Bacon was a prominent and influential figure in both Tudor and Stuart times. Richard Serjeantson reveals the many disciplines in which this 16th-century polymath excelled

THE GUNPOWDER PLOT • In 1605, a small group of disaffected Catholics came within a whisker of blowing the king and parliament to smithereens. Rob Attar uncovers nine places associated with this bloody scheme

Charles I and the English Civil war

BRITAIN'S CIVIL WARS: THE 15 KEY MOMENTS • Britain was engulfed by war in the mid-17th century. Three leading historians of the conflict – Micheál Ó Siochrú, John Adamson and Blair Worden – consider the pivotal points

The paper wars of the 1640s • The English Civil War was fought in press as much as on the battlefield. Helen Weinstein considers how propaganda created a climate of terror in England

HAS HISTORY BEEN HARD ON CHARLES I? • For all the king’s undoubted flaws, Tim Harris explains why we should recognise that the much-maligned monarch was handicapped by both his father’s failings and chronic bad luck

SELLING OFF THE CROWN JEWELS • With the king executed, parliament needed to raise some funds. Jerry Brotton tells the story of the biggest-ever closing-down sale – that of the King Charles I’s goods

Everything must go • Charles I was a voracious purchaser of art and had amassed a valuable collection reflecting his royal status. But after his death, it was split up and sold to the highest bidder

Oliver Cromwell and the Protectorate

CROMWELL GOD'S EXECUTIONER • The massacre of thousands of soldiers and civilians by the New Model Army at Drogheda in 1649 ranks among the greatest atrocities in Anglo-Irish history. Micheál Ó Siochrú re-examines the evidence

CROMWELL’S VERDICT ON DROGHEDA • Oliver Cromwell’s letter to William Lenthall, Speaker of the House of Commons, on 17 September 1649

CROMWELL HERO OR VILLAIN? • Labelled everything from a towering champion of social justice to a canting hypocrite, Oliver Cromwell has rarely lost his ability to divide opinion since his death. John Morrill assesses how history has remembered him

NO CHRISTMAS UNDER CROMWELL • Mark Stoyle investigates popular resistance to the Puritan assault on Christmas during the 1640s and 1650s

WHAT WAS CHRISTMAS LIKE BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR? • During the early 1600s, Christmas was celebrated in many ways, just as it is today. Among the most widely observed customs were...

Digging for Britain •...