Monarchy

In episode one, Dr Starkey begins his history of the British monarchy in the violence and chaos of the dark ages. There, from a legendary world occupied by dragons and monsters, a uniquely English idea of monarchy, which was able to stand firm in the face of the Viking invasions, emerged. In this first of the six episode series, Starkey tells the dramatic story of the creation of England and the triumph of an English hero, Alfred the Great.

In episode two of Monarchy Dr. Starkey chronicles the stormy path of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England, the world's first nation state. He tells how, assailed by blitzkrieg from the Danes of King Canute, it survived to take its captor captive; and how, driven by civil strife, it nonetheless restored itself to power until through a historic misfortune, it fell in the end to the knights of William the Conqueror.

From the devastation of the initial Norman conquest, through the intrigues and murder of King William II, to the civil war in the reign of King Stephen, 'when God and his angels slept', Dr Starkey illuminates the experience of a turbulent time which changed the course of English history.

In this stirring program, Dr David Starkey profiles a mediaeval superstar, King Henry II of England, whose dominion stretched from the moors of Scotland to the foothills of the Pyrenees, including more than half of modern France. And he tells some of the most dramatic and significant stories of English history: the bitter tale of King Henry's conflict with Archbishop Thomas Becket, which ended in Becket's murder; the struggle for the nation's liberties in Magna Carta; and the beginnings of the modern parliamentary system.

In this episode Dr. Starkey explores a century which saw three Edwards reign: father, son and grandson. Edward I took the image and might of the English monarchy to new heights. He was the new Caesar; a man who would unite England, Wales and Scotland into one kingdom. All his achievements almost came to nothing during his son's disastrous reign which ended in abdication and murder. It would take the third Edward to rebuild the prestige of the English monarch. With his victory against the French at Crecy, Edward III made England great again, but also plunged her into a war with France, which would last one hundred years.

In this final episode, Dr. Starkey takes up the story of Shakespeare's kings: Richard II, Henry IV, Henry V and Henry VI. It starts with the usurpation and murder of Richard II and ends in a bloody civil war in which the English royal house tears itself apart. The last medieval kings see the institution of the monarchy reach a crisis point in which its future seems far from certain.