Reviews

I have looked for this series since first seeing it when it was new. It is very well done and reveals the divisions that split families, much as was done in the Wars of The Roses in the 15th C { York / Lancaster } and in the United States { Union and Confederacy } in the 1860's.

I am a staunch monarchist and have a photograph of the martyred King Charles 1 in my home. On 30 January { 1649 } I fly the English Medieval Flag at Half Mast.

There is an expression regarding people you despise being on fire and reluctance to extinguish the flames. Thus my opinion of Oliver Cromwell.

By the way, England has never been a republic. From the death of Charles 1 in 1649 his son, also Charles, became Charles 11.

Having descent from the Kings of Wessex and the successive dynasties, inclusive of two lines of descent through Edward 1, my opinion of Oliver Cromwell may be guessed fairly easily. Some people may be familiar with the expression about what would not do if a certain person was on fire.

On the other hand I would have gladly played football with the head of this male child of a female dog had I been at Westminster Abbey in 1660 when he was dis-interred from his thoroughly un-deserved tomb.

On January 30 each year I remember the judicially murdered and martyred Charles 1 and on September 3, the death of Cromwell in 1658, I fervently pray that his soul and those of Henry Ireton, John Bradshaw et al shall fry in the darkest and hottest corner of the infernal regions. They can spend eternity commiserating with Robespierre and Lenin, two other regicide wretches of history.

I am nauseated that there is a statue of Cromwell in the grounds of the Houses of Parliament - damnatio memoriae is all he deserves and that fact that his corpse now lies in a pit under the site of Tyburn gallows is fitting in my opinion.

I wish to clarify a point of confusion to some and that is England did become a republic in 1649. The moment Charles 1 died by the executioner's axe at Whitehall his son in exile, Charles, Prince of Wales, became King Charles 11. The same principal applied with our present sovereign, Queen Elizabeth 11 - Princess Elizabeth was in Africa when her father, George V1 died in 1952 - and she was immediately acknowledged as Queen from that moment.

As to the movie, it attempts to fashion a hero out of a cold-blooded and bigoted traitor. The King was tried by an unlawful court and besides which he could not be charged with Treason because that law specifically deals with crimes against the King.