Fit to Rule? How Royal Illness Changed History, BBC Two series, April 2013

Were our kings and queens really fit to rule?  This series for BBC 2 set out to answer that question – investigating the biological and psychological strengths and weaknesses of rulers from Henry VIII to Edward VIII.  It also charts the decline of the power of the monarchy.  Henry VIII is usually depicting as magnificent and god-like, and indeed some of his subjects believed that he had ‘two bodies’, one living breathing sleeping real-life body, and a second immaterial body that represented the nation.  They also believed that he had some of the powers of God himself, such as being able to hear what they said in confession.  Over the next four centuries, our kings and queens became more and more human – until we end up with Edward VIII, a man who believed that he simply wasn’t up to the job of being king, and resigned.  Along we way we had mad kings, bad kings, incompetent ones, and infertile queens.  With a sideways glance at the history of medicine, gender, sexuality and politics, this is an intimate history of the monarchy.