Palaces of Revolution
Life in the court of the House of Stuart has been shrouded in mystery: the first half of the century overshadowed by the fall and execution of Charles I, the second half in the complete collapse of the House itself. Lost to time is the extraordinary contribution the Stuarts made to the fabric of sovereignty.
Every palace they built, painting they commissioned, or artwork they acquired was a direct reflection of the lives that they led and the way that they thought. Palaces of Revolution explores this rich history in graphic detail, giving a unique insight into the lives of this famous dynasty. It takes us from Royston and Newmarket, where James I appropriated most of the town centre as a sort of rough-and-ready royal housing estate, to the steamy Turkish baths at Whitehall where Charles II seduced his mistresses. We see the intimate private lives of the monarchs, presented through the buildings in which they lived and the objects they commissioned, creating an entirely new narrative of the Stuart century.
Palaces of Revolution traces this extraordinary period across the places and palaces on which the action played out, giving us a thrilling new history of this remarkable dynasty.
Simon Thurley is a leading historian of English architecture, the Provost of Gresham College, Chair of the National Lottery Heritage Fund and a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Historical Research. For 13 years he was chief executive of English Heritage, responsible for heritage protection and for the National Heritage Collection of 420 sites and monuments including Stonehenge. Before that he was director of the Museum of London and Curator of Historic Royal Palaces. He has written 12 books and made many television programmes about historic buildings.