Sunday Feature

The King's Nosebleed

Sunday 26 December 2004 21:30-22:15 (Radio 3)

Historian Justin Champion tells the story of the 'saving' of Protestantism in England in 1688 and 1689 by the invited invasion of William of Orange and his revolutionary ousting of King James who wasn't helped by his unfortunate bleeding nose. Many of the institutions we take for granted - parliamentary democracy, religious toleration, the public sphere, the rise of modern science, even the origins of the Bank of England - were the product of the crisis of 1688-89 and these years mark one of the key moments of Britain's transformation to modernity. Remembered with sectarian intensity in Ireland, elsewhere, the Glorious Revolution hardly features in the popular memory. What have we forgotten and why?

With Tim Harris, Clare Jackson, Geoffrey Robertson and Ian McBride.

Duration:

45 minutes

Sunday Feature

Episode and Playlist Information

• 13 February 2005
• 6 February 2005
• 23 January 2005
• 16 January 2005
• 9 January 2005
• 2 January 2005
• 26 December 2004
• 26 December 2004
• 19 December 2004
• 12 December 2004

Sunday Feature pages