For most of the 17th Century, the Stuart dynasty ruled a newly united Britain during a period of religious conflict, civil war and political revolution. When Elizabeth I died, her cousin James VI of Scotland was installed as James I of England. His son, Charles I, was beheaded following a civil war and his family forced into exile.

Even after the Restoration, the family’s fortunes ebbed and flowed; eventually James II was forced from
the throne by his own daughter, Mary, and her husband, William of Orange. Join Dr Clare Jackson for THE STUARTS (Monday 14th – Wednesday 16th, 8.45pm) as she takes viewers through the story of a family who, though an era of political violence and spiritual conflict, helped lay the foundations of the modern UK.