S8 Ep697: 1. The Gunpowder Plot and the Rise of the Middling Sort Guest Author: Jonathan Healey Jonathan Healey introduces James I, who inherited a kingdom deeply divided by religion between Catholics, Puritans, and the mainstream. The 1605 Gunpowder Plot, a radica
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 5 April 2026
⏱️ 12 minutes
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Summary
1. The Gunpowder Plot and the Rise of the Middling Sort Guest Author: Jonathan Healey Jonathan Healey introduces James I, who inherited a kingdom deeply divided by religion between Catholics, Puritans, and the mainstream. The 1605 Gunpowder Plot, a radical Catholic attempt to blow up Parliament, instilled a lasting "popish plot" paranoia that influenced English politics for decades. Healey emphasizes the era's social shift with the emergence of the "middling sort"—wealthy, literate peasant farmers and lawyers who began dominating Parliament. This group’s sophisticated political thinking and legal training became a cornerstone of the century’s revolutionary friction, as James struggled to fund the state without Parliamentary consent amid rising inflation. (1)
1650 PIETER DE HOOCH
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| 0:20.3 | This is CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor. |
| 0:24.8 | Here's John Batchelor. |
| 0:27.4 | It is 1605 in London. |
| 0:31.0 | A discovery is made in the vaults below the building where the king and his family will |
| 0:36.9 | gather for an important representation. To court, the king and his family will gather for an important |
| 0:38.1 | presentation to court the king is James I of England James the 6th of Scotland |
| 0:45.0 | he is the beginning monarch that understands the challenge ahead of him is to |
| 0:52.6 | deal with a country that is both rich and divided, divided by |
| 0:56.5 | religion, divided by government, divided by region, divided by the vicissitudes of nature. And I now turn |
| 1:06.3 | to Jonathan Healy. His new book, The Blazing World, introduces James I as a way of understanding |
| 1:14.4 | what we remember in America as the English Revolutionary Times, very violent, extremely difficult |
| 1:22.8 | to generalize about, and leading to the glorious revolution that was the sponsor of peace and |
| 1:30.1 | stability in the 18th century, and the imperial project then became serious, the building of |
| 1:37.1 | the great British Empire. Jonathan is an historian. He's an associate professor in social history |
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