Good evening. Tonight I am Alastair Cook. We kick off a 9-part series with the latest from John Hawkesworth and several of his writing team first conquering American TV with upstairs and downstairs. This latest production also tells the story of a family that started out as close and united as the Bellamys. But the Bellamys are almost a society in themselves. The Lacey family is the epitome of British society during the English Civil War in the 17th century. The upheaval across England was as devastating and chaotic as the American Civil War, but also tragic. Opponents on the one hand and Parliament on the other. Although the people who took part in the war were recruited from all levels of the county, there were noble merchants, peasants, and mechanics, and merchants on both sides. Although you could say that the person who most regretted breaking with Rome's religion was on the king's side. And most Protestants sided with the parliament. In May 1640, a year later, we begin this fascinating and appalling chapter of British history. Charles I, who has been on the throne for 15 years, has been at odds with Parliament, mainly because of his habit of collecting taxes arbitrarily without parliamentary permission to fight lost wars in Spain and now in Scotland. Whenever Parliament rejected his legal right to the money, he dismissed it. Well, these troubles and the catastrophe they are about to erupt, are now on hold, if not forgotten in the home of a Sir Martin Lacey, who seems to have married his eldest daughter to a young lawyer, who is the son of a self-made shipping company tycoon in the North Country, and doesn't have much hope of betrothing his young daughter to the son of an earl whom she neither loves nor likes. We had these touching preliminaries at Arnescote at Lacey Castle in May 1540. Divided by Swords Episode 1.
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