The death of Queen Elizabeth foreshadowed a power struggle between parliament and the monarchy. This program begins with the crowning of James I—whose policies made the confrontation inevitable—and documents five generations of tumultuous Stuart governance. Sifting through the complex mixture of financial crisis and mounting religious factionalism that characterized Jacobean England, the program describes the eruption of the Civil War, the execution of Charles I, the heavy-handed authority of Cromwell, and the legacy of the prolonged conflict: an enthusiastic return to monarchy and a general distaste among the English for political extremism. (46 minutes)