Omid Scobie revelations nothing new; scandal in Royal Family goes back centuries

The British royal family dogged by scandal and bad behavior, unpopular with wide swaths of the population, and seemingly on its last legs. Sounds like something from Omid Scobie’s new book, Endgame: Inside the Royal Family and the Monarchy’s Fight for Survival. But it could also apply to times long past — especially the 17th century, according to Andrew Walkling, historian of early modern Britain and professor at Binghamton University, State University of New York. 

Walkling said: “During the reign of the House of Stuart, one king slept with his beautiful young cupbearer; another fought a bloody civil war against his own Parliament, was taken prisoner, and eventually lost his head; the next couldn’t keep his hands off the ladies and was nearly assassinated; and his successor tried to subvert the laws and fled the country in disgrace, whereupon the throne was briefly declared vacant. The tribulations of the British monarchy are nothing new, though some of the underlying conditions have certainly changed over three hundred-odd years.”