Charles II: The Power and The Passion

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Charles II: The Power and the Passion is a British television mini-series, broadcast on BBC One in 2003, and produced by the BBC in association with the A&E Network in the United States. It was produced by Kate Harwood, directed by Joe Wright and written by award-winning screenwriter Adrian Hodges, whose credits include David Copperfield and The Lost World.

1 Synopsis
2 Summary of differences between American & UK versions
3 Historical veracity
4 Cast
5 External links

[edit] Synopsis

It covers the life of Charles II, almost entirely after his Restoration to the throne in 1660 - who was deeply traumatized by the execution of his father by the victorious Parliamentarians in 1649, after the former's defeat in the English Civil Wars; it begins, however, with his penurious exile in Antwerp in 1658. The mini-series' emphasis is on his court, his conflicts with Parliament--essentially the same issues which had led to the Civil War between his father and the House of Commons, the politics of who would succeed him and his relationships with his family as well as his mistresses and illegitimate son James, Duke of Monmouth.

The mini-series dramatizes both Charles laziness and frivolous diversion as well as the later determination he showed when his brother's right to succeed him as well as Royal Power were being challenged by Parliament.

The production won the British Academy Television Award for Best Drama Serial in 2004; the series was also nominated for a minor Emmy (see the Internet Movie Database's entry, http://imdb.com/title/tt0364800/awards).

[edit] Summary of differences between American & UK versions

It was shown in the United States under the title The Last King: The Power and the Passion of King Charles II. This version, however, was heavily edited. The original British version was a four hour mini-series divided into four parts. For American broadcast over an hour was edited out, and it was shown in two 90 min (with commercials, 2 hour) installments.

The edits often make little regard for either the script's continuity or coherence. Unless otherwise stated, items said to have been left out refer to the version shown in America and the DVD version available.

Many things are left out including the full details of the Treaty of Dover which contained a secret clause wherein Charles promised Louis XIV, his first cousin, to convert to Catholicism for an enormous sum of money. Louis also promised six thousand French troops if Charles needed them.

The edited American version also leaves out Charles' trickery of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham (played by Rupert Graves) regarding the treaty's secret provision. Thus, Buckingham's later opposition to Charles' insistence that his brother James (later James II played by Charlie Creed-Miles) inherit the throne, appears to be motivated by nothing more than spite and jealousy rather than a very real feeling of betrayal.

James' marriage to Ann, the daughter of Sir Edward Hyde, made Earl of Clarendon by Charles in 1661, is also unexplained in the American version. Played by Tabitha Wady, Ann is only seen in two scenes, when Charles first meets Catherine of Braganza and later, in conversion with Lady Castlemaine as the Queen "took the waters" at Tunbridge Wells, were many noble and wealthy women went to seek treatment for infertility.

The part where James is shown demanding, from Charles, a divorce from Anne, was also removed, further confusing viewers not familiar with the history.

The conversations between "Minette" (Charles' sister Henrietta-Anne) and Louise de Kéroualle with Louis XIV (played by Anne-Marie Duff, Perkins Thierry, and Mélanie Thierry, respectively) are all in French with English subtitles in the British version. In the American version, only the conversation between Minette and Louis, where Louis states his wish that Minette act as his envoy to Charles is in English (perhaps because of the perception that American audiences dislike subtitles).

Another scene edited out, shows "Minette"'s husband, the Duc d'Orleans, called "Monsieur" (the traditional appellation for the King's eldest brother), a notorious homosexual libertine, battering and raping her after insulting her.

All in all, the cuts made by A&E distort the picture of Charles II's personality and political maneuvers whereas the version shown in Britain displays much more fully Charles II's "shifty insincerity" (as Will & Ariel Durant put in it The Age of Louis XIV) and his willingness to sacrifice loyal servants at need. Indeed, the cuts seem to have been made with little regard for continuity or narrative coherence in the American version.

The American version presents Charles as the last "absolute" monarch of England. This does not dovetail with the historical reality (see the Durants and Fraser). In fact, Charles maintained his indepdence of Parliament in his last years only by taking French money. He also ensured his brother's succession to the throne not through royal command, but through Parliamentary maneuvers and the nation's reluctance to see another civil war so soon after the First and Second English Civil Wars in the 1640s.

The full, BBC version gives a more detailed, coherent presentation of the story of Charles' life and (temporary) victory over his opponents in Parliament.

Three scenes of brief nudity which were removed.

The only version available on DVD, in the US & Canada, is the one broadcast on A&E. The British DVD retains the full BBC version. Due to technical reasons, the most important impediment being the different television formats used in the two countries, see PAL and NTSC; also (see DVD article for further details on controversial "copy protection" measures), the British version cannot be readily viewed with the vast majority of American set-top DVD players. The aforementioned television format differences also make viewing a VHS copy of the British version difficult on US and Canadian TVs.

[edit] 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 Dame 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 covert to Catholicism. Henry says, "My father the King [commanded me to remain loyal to the Anglican Church]." There's no mention of such an admonition in either Dame Antonio 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 [his enemies] 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. This would have been ludicrous thing to do. 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.

However, there is little chance that Charles would have married anyone without royal blood--as Dame Antonia points out (Charles II, page 82), 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.

Louise de Keroualle fell from royal favor in 1676, whereas, she's shown here as continuing as one of Charles (13 known mistresses) to nearly the end of his life.

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, in her apartments in White Hall palace, Lady Castlemain, only to find her in bed with a young John Churchill, future Duke of Marlborough, who would become one of Englands 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 Castlemain 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 Shaftsbury even though he did obtain the title until 1674. Presumably, both errors were used to avoid confusing viewers unfamiliar with the period.

There are also certain ommissions 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 place to which Charles wandered in the 15 years of his exile, including the Scilly Islands, 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 [Parliament] 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 2 sisters, Elizabeth and "Minette" (Henrietta Anne). Elizabeth died during her captivity by the Parliamentarians (see Roundheads), but she is never menionted in either version. During an audience with the Dutch Prince William, son of Charles' sister and later husband of his niece (Mary II|Mary), daughter of his brother James.

And the end of the mini-series, when brief summaries of the lives of the major character's lives after Charles II's death in 1685 are made in voice over, William of Holland is mentioned as overthrowing the Catholic James II to become King of England, Scotland and Ireland. James' daughter by Ann Hyde, Mary, is not mentioned despite the fact that it was William of Holland's marriage to her that provided the dynastic continuity used to cover what was, in effect, a coup d'etat by Parliament. In fact, the only mention of James' two daughters by Ann, is by Charles, "[If you were to die] only your infant daughters would be left [to inherit throne]!" In fact, both daughters did accede to the throne, Mary in 1688 and Anne in 1702. (Queen Anne was the last Stuart to sit on the throne of England.)