Charles II: The Power and The Passion - Historical Veracity

Historical Veracity

The production team and the writer made an attempt to make this version as close to history as the constraints of squeezing 27 years of history into 4 hours allow. The script appears to be heavily influenced by Lady Antonia Fraser's bestselling 1979 biography Charles II. In the "Making of Charles II" Rufus Sewell states that he used Dame Antonia's book as guide to his portrayal of the penultimate Stuart king.

There are some issues of fact which are altered or omitted in the script.

• During the exile in Holland, early in the first part, Charles' mother, Henrietta Maria is shown admonishing her youngest son, Henry, Duke of Gloucester, for his refusal to convert to Catholicism. Henry says, "My father the King ." There's no mention of such an admonition in either Lady Antonia Fraser's 1979 biography or other sources (e.g. the Britannica entry on Henry, http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9037072/Henry-Stuart-duke-of-Gloucester). In fact, in his last words to Henry before his execution, Charles I made no mention of the Church of England, being chiefly concerned with admonishing Henry not to become the puppet of Parliament by agreeing to become King while his older brothers, Charles and James, were still alive.

• The script implies, in a statement by George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham that both his and Charles' father had died fighting for the Royalist cause. In fact, George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham was assassinated by a disgruntled, perhaps mentally unbalanced, navy officer named John Felton (http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9017888/George-Villiers-1st-duke-of-Buckingham).

• Before arriving in England, at Parliament's invitation, to take up his throne, Charles II promised an amnesty "for all except those exempted by Parliament." After much debate, Parliament decided that all of the enemies of Charles I should be amnestied except for those who had signed the death warrant. The mini-series portrays Charles as pardoning some of his father's "murderers" after the brutal execution of a number (in fact 15). In fact, the thirteen not executed were not pardoned, but sentenced to life imprisonment (Durants, The Age of Louis XIV).

• In one scene, shown in the British version only, Charles is seen to cast a piece of paper into a fire, in a context that heavily implies it was a marriage contract between himself and Lucy Walter, mother of his favorite, and ill-fated, natural son, James, Duke of Monmouth. Charles's alleged marriage to Lucy Walters is heavily contested by historians. On the one hand,much of Charles' trouble with the House of Commons had to do with the prospect of his Catholic-convert brother James succeeding him. A legitimate, Protestant son would have eliminated one of the major issues in the fierce struggles between Charles and the Commons. Lady Antonia Fraser (Charles II, page 82) points out that such a match would have taken one of "the last aces" Charles had, his "marriageability" to some foreign princess which, conceivably, could have brought him aid in regaining his throne.On the other hand, Monmouth's biographer J. N. P. Watson ("Captain-General and Rebel Chief", 127) has argued there is a substantial amount of circumstantial evidence to support the marriage between Lucy Walters and Charles, including letters from Charles's sister (a confidante of Lucy Walters) in the 1640s which refer to Charles's "wife". Watson has argued that Charles's refusal to reveal his marriage to Lucy was due to James's knowledge that Charles was a secret Catholic. If Charles revealed that Monmouth was legitimate and removed the Duke of York from his position as heir, James would reveal Charles's faith and lose him the throne.

• Above, Charles kept his friend and adviser, the Duke of Buckingham, in the dark about the secret provisions of the Treaty of Dover. Buckingham was later sent to Paris to sign a sham treaty with Louis XIV. This is left out of the mini-series altogether (See the Durants' The Age of Louis XIV).

• In one scene, Charles visits his mistress Lady Castlemaine in her apartments at Whitehall palace, only to find her in bed with a young John Churchill, future Duke of Marlborough, who would become one of England's most famous military commanders and play an important part in the War of the Spanish Succession. A brief conversation ensues between the King and Churchill (an ancestor of Winston Churchill). In reality, Lady Castlemaine was at one of her houses and Churchill leapt from a window to avoid a scene with the King (Durants, The Age of Louis XIV).

• Sir Edward Hyde is so addressed throughout the mini-series even though he'd been made Earl of Clarendon by the King in 1661. Thus he is, from that time, properly called Clarendon as he is by historians. In the same manner, Anthony Ashley Cooper, Lord Ashley, is referred to as the Earl of Shaftesbury even though he did not obtain the title until 1674. Presumably, both names were used constantly to avoid confusing viewers unfamiliar with the period.

There are also certain omissions in the script.

• While the mini-series begins with Charles I's execution, shown in a nightmare of Charles II, the real beginning of the latter's story is in his exile in the Antwerp in 1658. In fact, this was the last of many places to which Charles wandered in the 15 years of his exile, including the Scilly Isles, the Channel Island of Jersey, France, and, briefly, Scotland. The only reference to these wanderings is in the reconciliation scene between Charles and the Duke of Buckingham, when Charles says, responding to Buckingham's statement that, "It's amazing what will do when they feel guilty." Charles' answer, "They think money will make me forget the last twenty years. Well, they will find I have a very good memory."

• Charles had three sisters: Mary, Elizabeth and "Minette" (Henrietta Anne). Mary, the mother of William of Orange featured in the programme, died in 1660. Elizabeth died during her captivity by the Parliamentarians (see Roundheads), but she is never mentioned in either version.