The Stuarts

When James VI of Scotland succeeded Elizabeth as James I on the throne of England in 1603, the Stuarts became the first dynasty to rule Britain as a whole. The problems that James and his successors encountered in reconciling their kingdoms led to tensions and revolts in Scotland, Ireland and England itself, leading to the Civil War under Charles I between 1642 and 1646, and to the king's subsequent execution. While Charles II, restored after Cromwell's Interregnum, died on the throne, his brother James II quickly alienated much of the political nation and had to flee abroad after an invasion by his son-in-law, who became William III. Following William's death, James's daughter Anne presided over a period of victory on the Continent, but bitter internal tension at home. Her death without an heir in 1714 brought in the Hanoverians. In "The Stuarts", John Miller looks at the individual monarchs who made up this remarkable dynasty. He also examines the history of the dynasty as a whole, in terms of the Stuarts' identity and agenda as a ruling house.