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CBC - Commonwealth Broadcasting Corporation
Announcer: Coming up tonight on CBC Four, in an hour at Nine O'Clock we have a new episode of Celebrity Mind Challenge when another three celebrities pit their wits against the chair. But now on CBC Four, we have the first episode in new series examining the rise of the Commonwealth and the exploration of the Americas in the Seventeenth Century and beyond. It's episode one of Crownless: The European Conquest of the Americas.
Presenter: It was here, at Preston, that the true beginnings of the Commonwealth are. Prior to the Second English Civil War, many Parliamentarians had tried to reason with King Charles to make him see reason and accept law of Parliament. They begged and pleaded with the King to give up this foolish conflict and restore democratic law to the Kingdom. However this last battle made it clear to many that the King could not be reasoned with. After Preston, Cromwell and his allies gathered together to put the King on trial. The crime? Treason against the Kingdom. The sentence? Death.
With the death of King Charles, the last King of England, Britain entered into a New Age of Republicanism. Whilst few will deny the Commonwealth had its share of tyranny and corruption, the idea of a Kingdom willfully throwing off the shackles of monarchy was revolutionary. Whilst many nations had sought to break away from their royalty and form Republics, the Commonwealth was the first to bring an end to the idea of Kingship in such a brutal fashion. They would not be the last.
Over the course of this series, I will be exploring the foundations of our Commonwealth, our role in the exploration and conquest of the Americas, and the establishment of Republicanism at the very heart of Europe. I will be travelling across the Dominions, from North America, Ireland, Britain, to Africa and the Far East. As the threat of violence once again rises in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, I will be explaining the history of these conflicts and how the many European Wars and the War against the rising Far East Empires set the world on this inevitable collision and how we can hope to avoid repeating the past.