Tracy Borman - The Stolen Crown

The truth and monarchy have always been strange bedfellows, but in the hands of Tracy Borman they make for great history and story-telling. Join her as she cracks open the end of the Tudor dynasty.

In March 1603, Queen Elizabeth I, the last Tudor monarch, lies dying at Richmond Palace. The queen's ministers cluster round her bedside, urging her to name her successor - something she has stubbornly resisted throughout her reign. Almost with her last breath she whispers that James VI of Scotland should succeed her. She dies shortly afterwards and the throne of England passes peacefully from Tudor to Stuart.

Or so we've been led to believe . . .

But, as enthralling new research shows, this is not what happened. In the years that followed, history was literally re-written on the orders of James VI to hide the truth: Elizabeth went to her grave without formally naming an heir. The notion of an approved succession from Tudors to Stuarts is little more than an elaborately constructed fiction.
And so James's rule in England began with a lie - a lie that went on to have devastating consequences. The Stuart regime rapidly descended into turbulence and uncertainty, conspiracy and persecution, witchcraft and gunpowder - culminating in the destruction of the monarchy in the English Civil War.

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• This August, 11th August, 07:30 pm, Robert Macfarlane -- Is a River Alive? in St Andrews
• This September, 10th September, 07:30 pm, Clare Jackson - The Mirror of Great Britain: A Life of James VI & I in St Andrews
• This September, 12th September, 07:30 pm, Damian Barr - The Two Roberts in St Andrews