We're in London, early on the morning of the 2nd of September 1666.

The air is dry as parchment. The great city's timbered houses creak in a warm, restless wind.

Down a narrow lane of bakeries and warehouses, a single ember slips from a

dying oven fire in the King's bakery, tiny, unnoticed, and deadly. Within minutes, flames lick

the beams, crawl up the walls and roar into the night. While the people of the nearby area try in vain to stop the fire, the majority of Londoners are fast asleep. They don't know it yet, but within hours London will face one of the greatest challenges in 1666. And I think this is a date that people are, it's one of those dates, right? It's the 1066. It's a 1666.

What is it with 16, 1960? Yeah, what happened in 1960s? Oh, okay. Apparently.

There are dates that are emblazoned in the public imagination, and this is certainly one of them.

And for a good reason, it's a very dramatic event.

But before we got onto the event itself, we're talking, of course, about the Great Fire of London.

Give us some context around this part of the 17th century. Okay. So the 17th century, there's a lot going on up until 1666. There is. There really is a lot going on. There is. And do you know what? I will concede that whilst the 18th century is the best century, for so many reasons, the 17th century does draw my attention. Good. I'm writing a book about it, so I'm glad to hear it. I'll read your book and then that'll be fine. I'll know all about it. Okay, so we've had the execution of Charles I first, obviously, the Civil War. We've had Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth, all that's been and gone, but it's still, obviously, very much within living memory.

Charles II is back on the throne. What are your feelings on Charles II?

So we have this idea of the merry monarch, and we have, but actually what Charles II brings is this continued idea, or this restored idea, of an an absolute monarch of somebody who is entirely in control. There are no new limitations put on the restored Stuart monarchy when they

come back in 1660. But, and I think we overlook this with Charles a second sometimes, he's actually

quite a good politician, despite this idea of him being a merry monarch. He can balance. There's a lot of problems going on in his brain.

I mean, he has to be a good politician. Look what's happened to his dad. He has to be able to

navigate his brother afterwards. So he really does find a balance. And it's basically something

along the lines of yes, there's absolute absolutism in the back of his mind, but there's also this thing of going, I need to play the game here. This is territory. I need to smooth it over. So I think he's, I think he's more interesting than we think he is. Yeah, and I think it's important as well to think about the fact that he, yes, the restoration of the monarchy has happened, but it's not that he's

come back to stability and everything is fine. Again, the world has been literally turned on its

head, you know, hierarchy has been collapsed. And now, during his reign, we have the plague

that strikes London in 1665, and the king himself actually goes out to Oxford and spends, I think,

the whole year, basically, out there trying not to die of plague, which, lucky for him.

He succeed.

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