31. The Stuarts: plumbing the depths

We stand on the brink of saying goodbye to the Stuart kings, at last (not, alas, to the Stuarts though: they'll be back a couple more times to haunt us).

The history of England saved the worst to last: James II, or James VII in Scotland, was the bottom of the barrel, the worst of the Stuarts, the man whose only achievement was to help shorten his reign by his sheer ineptitude.

We'll find out how, we'll find out who was standing in the wings ready to take over, and how he needed to be invited before he'd come to the party.

Illustration: Anne Hyde, the king's wife, with James II.
By Sir Peter Lely
National Portrait Gallery 5077

Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License