2/8: The Blazing World: A New History of Revolutionary England, 1603-1689 Hardcover – by Jonathan Healey (Author)
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 24 December 2024
⏱️ 6 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
https://www.amazon.com/Blazing-World-History-Revolutionary-1603-1689/dp/0593318358
The seventeenth century was a revolutionary age for the English. It started as they suddenly found themselves ruled by a Scotsman, and it ended in the shadow of an invasion by the Dutch. Under James I, England suffered terrorism and witch panics. Under his son Charles, state and society collapsed into civil war, to be followed by an army coup and regicide. For a short time—for the only time in history—England was a republic. There were bitter struggles over faith and Parliament asserted itself like never before. There were no boundaries to politics. In fiery, plague-ridden London, in coffee shops and alehouses, new ideas were forged that were angry, populist, and almost impossible for monarchs to control.
But the story of this century is less well known than it should be. Myths have grown around key figures. People may know about the Gunpowder Plot and the Great Fire of London, but the Civil War is a half-remembered mystery to many. And yet the seventeenth century has never seemed more relevant. The British constitution is once again being bent and contorted, and there is a clash of ideologies reminiscent of when Roundhead fought Cavalier.
The Blazing World is the story of this strange, twisting, fascinating century. It shows a society in sparkling detail. It was a new world of wealth, creativity, and daring curiosity, but also of greed, pugnacious arrogance, and colonial violence.
1649 REGICIDE
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | I'm John Datchel with Jonathan Healy, an associate professor of social history at Oxford University. |
| 0:10.0 | His new book is comprehensively an explanation of where America comes from, my reading, |
| 0:15.2 | because we're about to witness through all these regents and their parliaments |
| 0:19.3 | the arguments that the founders will use to |
| 0:23.6 | stand up to a king in the late 18th century. Standing to a king in the early 17th century was that |
| 0:30.5 | much more difficult. James I is mostly a successful leader and king. He suffers from arthritis. He also has doubts about his |
| 0:41.7 | ability to manage his household. We now need to introduce Charles, his son, the heir apparent, |
| 0:48.7 | and a man named Buckingham. His name is George Fillers. There are rumors about the King and Buckingham having a relationship, but this is the kind of rumors that circulate around courts. |
| 1:01.0 | So I want to go to an incident that's much more revelatory of the future for me. |
| 1:05.0 | In 1622, I believe, my notes are inexact here. In 1622, the king is anticipating trouble on the continent, |
| 1:17.5 | and he needs help. He needs some way to hold it off. And suddenly, Charles, the heir apparent, |
| 1:26.4 | and Buckingham, the Duke of Buckingham are charging off to madrid to meet with the king of |
| 1:31.8 | spain uh jonathan when i read this i had to read it twice because it came out of nowhere what were they |
| 1:39.1 | thinking what was their mission it is one of those kind of really sort of bizarre moments in 70th century history. |
| 1:46.6 | And the immediate context is that in 1618, there is a rebellion in Bohemia of all places. |
| 1:59.7 | And what this does is it leads to |
| 2:02.9 | Frederick, |
| 2:06.6 | Elector Frederick of the Palatine, |
| 2:09.8 | of the Platinum being placed on the throne of Bohemia. |
| 2:13.6 | Now, that may seem very, you know, |
| 2:15.7 | a distant land of which we know nothing. But he just happens to be married to James the first daughter, Elizabeth Stewart. So when he then gets ousted by the, he's a Protestant, he gets ousted by the Catholics. There's a big war in Europe. And in England, lots of, lots of church ministers are shouting at James and saying, |
| 2:38.7 | look, this is good versus evil. This is Christ versus the Antichrist. This is Catholics versus |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from John Batchelor, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of John Batchelor and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.