Mary of Modena: life of the week
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Hello and welcome to Life of the Week, where leading historians delve into the lives of some of history's most intriguing and significant figures, from ancient Egyptian pharaohs and medieval warriors to daring 20th-century spies. Imagine being forced to give birth to a baby in front of as many as 80 witnesses. amid a climate of suspicion and fear in which many are calling for your husband's head. This was the fate of Maria or Mary of Modena, the second wife of the man crowned, King James II of England, and Seventh of Scotland, a Catholic Italian princess shipped to England to marry James when she was just fifteen, Maria's faith and foreignness later became lightning rods for xenophobia and misogyny in Restoration era England, eventually leading to the Glorious Revolution.
In this episode you'll hear from historian and author Breeze Barrington, whose new book, The Graces, tells the story of Maria and the women who surrounded her in the merry court of Charles II. She was speaking to Eleanor Evans. Her life is so often a little bit lost in terms of stories about succession and restoration and revolution, and I'm so pleased that we're going to be bringing her and her legacy to our listeners today. Before we do dive into her life, I wondered if we could give a bit of context about the England that she finds herself in, where we sort of meet her in your book.
Who's on the throne, what's happening, and why is her role so important in this story of succession? So when Maria arrived in England, it was 1673. So at this point it was Charles II on the throne. He'd been on the throne since 1660, so about 13 years. And this is the kind of the the big moment of restoration after
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