Broadcast on Radio 3 Monday 24 to Friday 28 May 2010 (The Essay)
160/44; 80 MB; sound quality excellent
Jonathan Sawday paints a picture of Restoration Britain, exploring the politics, the science, the culture and the philosophy which made this an extraordinary period in the country's history.
In May 1660, Charles II was invited to return to England and take the throne lost by his beheaded father. A dozen years of Puritan rule were overthrown with a resuming of vigorous cultural life. There was an ebullient outpouring of baroque music, liberated playwriting, scientific progress, stately architecture and courtly entertainment that became known as the Restoration.
Caricatured as excessive in today's costume drama, this was a time that was also energetic, experimental and outward looking. From the foundation of the Royal Society to the construction of St Paul's, to the new contractual nature of government, this was a period which marked the creation of crucial aspects of modern Britain. But in the 1660s, how much was really "restored" of pre-Cromwellian Britain, and how much was actually newly introduced? How much that was restored had really never gone away?
On the 350th anniversary of the King's return, Sawday attempts to retell the story of the Restoration in a new way Ð through five essays, each of which provides a snapshot of cultural and intellectual life.
Part 1 - Remembering and Forgetting. Jonathan Sawday presents the first of five portraits of Restoration Britain.
Part 2 - In this essay, how Charles II's return brought a resurrection of the king's bodily powers like his healing "touch". Jonathan Sawday uses this event to tell the story of how the body returned to public life in so many forms - women on stage, sexualised poetry, the return of fashion, the first attempts at surgery - it symbolised a pushing aside of the Godly people who had ruled under Cromwell.
Part 3 - Why were Pepys, Charles II and Christopher Wren all pre-occupied by lenses? Because the microscope, with Robert Hooke's help, was one of the great novelties of the age for the learned. Jonathan Sawday charts how science became one of the unexpected beneficiaries of Charles II's Restoration and how the visual impact of science - the world seen through a lens - offered new ways of thinking about the world around them.
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Part 4 - Jonathan Sawday charts the rise of the architect as a figure of authority in Restoration Britain - as Plague, Fire and royal ambition offered the chance for new buildings in the capital.
Part 5 - Why did the idea of the contract become so pervasive in society?
The King may have been invited home to his rightful place, but some things had changed for good. After 1649, any king had to be aware of the idea of a contract of with his people. After all, that was philosopher Thomas Hobbes' defence of monarchy in the 1650s - and it culminated at the end of this period with John Locke's famous Social Contract and the 1688 Glorious Revolution. Jonathan tells the story of why the idea of the contract become so pervasive in political and mercantile Restoration society.
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