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[Assistant] After ticking off a few other complaints, the petition got to the real kicker.


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[Assistant] We've been talking about it and decided that you need to call for new elections by next week.


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[Assistant] For the Rump to meet this deadline, they would have to either give up trying to control who could run and who could sit and who could vote, or they could rush through some half-baked scheme that everyone else would find deeply offensive.


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[Assistant] If they took the former route, hey, free and full elections. If they took the latter route, Monk would have grounds to overrule them and call the elections anyway.


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[Assistant] He was letting them choose basically if they wanted to do this the easy way or the hard way. The rump, of course, chose the hard way.


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[Assistant] And on February the 18th, they produced an electoral plan that included way too many restrictions.


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[Assistant] This gave Monka's excuse to step in and switch up the rules of the game.


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[Assistant] The day after the Rump produced their unacceptable electoral plan, Munch announced that he was in favor of reinstating to Parliament all the members who had once upon a time been purged by Colonel Pride. And with his favor came men with guns.


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[Assistant] Monk had been in secret contact with representatives of the Purge members for a while now, and they had all agreed to a legislative package that they could ram through the minute they walked through the door.


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[Assistant] Now though, as I said, there were only about a hundred of these XMPs, they easily outnumbered the 40 odd Rump members still left.


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[Assistant] In a flash, they voted that Monk be made Commander-in-Chief, they reorganized the officer roles to Monk's liking, and then ordered free elections to be held immediately for a parliament that would meet at the end of April.


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[Assistant] Upon taking care of some other business, like letting Sir George Booth out of the tower and putting John Lambert into the tower, the members looked around and said okay, we've done what we came to do, and then they voted to dissolve themselves.


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[Assistant] For as many early deaths to parliament as we have seen, I think we can all agree, this one was long overdue.


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[Assistant] The elections for the next parliament were as free and open and contentious as any election anyone could remember.


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[Assistant] But the issue on the table was not whether to invite the king back or forge ahead with the Republican experiment, it was whether to invite the king back with strings attached, or to invite him back unconditionally.


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[Assistant] Almost to a man, the people of England were done with the factions and the coups and the power grabs and the rapid fire regime changes. King. Lords. Commons. We'd like that back now, please.


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[Assistant] The only question left was how restricted the new monarchy would be.


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[Assistant] Charles II, currently watching all of this with the light on the continent.


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[Assistant] Moved up to Breda in the Netherlands to await his call.


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[Assistant] With the end of the Commonwealth in sight though, John Lambert made one last play to save it.


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[Assistant] He escaped from the tower on April 10th and ran around attempting to rally support for...


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[Assistant] Richard Cromwell and the restoration not of the monarchy, but of the protectorate.


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[Assistant] But time, sentiment, and history were no longer on Lambert's side.


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[Assistant] Two weeks after he escaped, he met up with four loyal cavalry troops at Edgehill, side of the first battle of the first civil war, but those four troops is all he could raise.


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[Assistant] His little band was easily outgunned, outmanned, and outskirmished.


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[Assistant] On April 22nd, John Lambert was taken into custody.


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[Assistant] He managed to survive the restoration, but he lived as a prisoner for the remaining 23 years of his life, eventually winding up in a castle on Drake's Island.


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[Assistant] After his wife died in 1676, Lambert started to lose touch with reality.


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[Assistant] And by all accounts, by the time he died in 1684, he had been completely insane for years.


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[Assistant] It is a sad end for a man who I think probably had both the military and political chops to lead the Protectorate to solid ground.


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[Assistant] Had he not fallen out with Cromwell, it is entirely possible that the British Commonwealth would have survived.


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[Assistant] When the newly elected parliament met on April the 25th, it was, first of all, not technically a parliament, since only a king could call a parliament, so it was referred to as a convention, which is how we come to call it the convention parliament.


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[Assistant] The few extremist members of the rump who tried to get in were mostly defeated.


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[Assistant] Arthur Haslerig, for example, had gone into terminal depression, and begged Monk to allow him to retire peacefully from public life.


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[Assistant] Monk demanded Haslerig pay him two pence for such consideration, and then sent him on his way.


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[Assistant] After the restoration, Hazelrig was thrown in the tower, but, good to his word, Monk arranged for the old parliamentarian's life to be spared. Not that it mattered much, Hazelrig died in captivity within the year.


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[Assistant] Now everyone knew that the convention parliament was there to do one thing, and one thing only. Restore the House of Stuart.


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[Assistant] But still, there was that little question about what strings, if any, would be attached.


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[Assistant] In a brilliant piece of political maneuvering, Charles II answered their question for them by writing up the Declaration of Breda.


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[Assistant] Which announced his intention to unilaterally impose restrictions on himself, both as a show of good faith, and because it was the right thing to do.


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[Assistant] The Declaration was read on May the 1st and promised full pardons for all ex-parliamentary men, religious toleration, parliamentary jurisdiction over land disputes, and after 20 years of confiscations, seizures, and forced sales, there were quite a few of those, I can tell you.


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[Assistant] No one apparently noticing that Charles, with the help of his trusted Secretary of State Edward Hyde, who you will notice has just received his own little supplemental, have just pawned off on Parliament all the thorniest problems posed by the Restoration. Problems that would no doubt require unpopular solutions. But for now, no one cared.


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[Assistant] The next week, a commission of 12 representatives, including Sir Thomas Fairfax, sailed to The Hague to officially invite Charles to London. Charles accepted.


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[Assistant] King Charles II entered London to thunderous applause. It was all over. The cycle of the English Revolution had finally come full circle.


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[Assistant] So let's wrap this up by looking back a little and then forward a little to get a handle on what the heck has just happened.


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[Assistant] I think we can all agree that the last two decades have been tumultuous.


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[Assistant] The 1640s were consumed by a series of civil wars. The 1650s saw the attempt to build a republican government constantly stymied by intransigence and incompetence and ego. But was it a revolution?


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[Assistant] Now some point to the simple fact of the Restoration as enough of a reason to not call it a revolution, but that seems to miss the point.


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[Assistant] More persuasively, you could argue that parliament did not go to war to abolish the monarchy, that the vast majority of people did not support the execution of Charles, and that in just a few years later, a majority of MPs were begging Cromwell to take the crown.


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[Assistant] So, this was not about some group of dedicated revolutionaries getting it in their head to topple the monarchy and establish an entirely new socio-political system in its place, as you'd get with, oh let's say, the Bolsheviks.


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[Assistant] But that said, whatever anyone's intentions were, half the country did take up arms against their king.


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[Assistant] And not because they were supporting some rival claimant to the throne, but because they thought that parliament as the representative of the people ought to wield some kind of independent sovereignty.


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[Assistant] Religious factionalism exploded during the period leading to an entirely new conception of religious liberty.


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[Assistant] The leveler movement, short-lived as it was, turned out to be at least a century ahead of its time.


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[Assistant] Men who in earlier days would have not been allowed within a hundred miles of real power suddenly found themselves running the country. And of course, even though no one planned any of it, the revolutionary results speak for themselves. The king was executed. The monarchy and the House of Lords were abolished.


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[Assistant] Written Republican constitutions were introduced for the first and only time in English history.


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[Assistant] Had the commonwealth not been driven into the ground by the successors of Cromwell, and had the restoration never taken place,


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[Assistant] We would not be debating whether the period constituted a revolution because it would have been so obvious that it was.


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[Assistant] Oh, the English Revolution. You mean when they overthrew the monarchy and Britain became a republic? How can you not call that a revolution?


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[Assistant] But with the advent of the restoration, the period turned out to be just a wave that crashed up on the beach and then retreated.


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[Assistant] Permanent gains were made, arbitrary royal taxation, for example, is now dead and buried.


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[Assistant] But those of you who know a little English history know that the really permanent games were won in the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and 1689.


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[Assistant] That was when Parliament revolted against James II, son of Charles I and brother of Charles II, and invited William of Orange in to be king.


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[Assistant] Sensing that the country was against him, James put up hardly any fight at all, and pretty soon William and Mary were signing the so-called Revolutionary Settlement, which defined the scope of a now fully constitutional monarchy, with its vastly more powerful parliament.


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[Assistant] A glorious revolution essentially birthed modern Britain, and some historians consider it to be the first truly modern revolution.


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[Assistant] But looking ahead even further to the American Revolution, I very much enjoy a little anecdote that will serve to defend our English Revolution.


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[Assistant] When John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were serving in England as ministers for the new United States of America, they made a point to visit the battlefields of both Edge Hill and Worcester.


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[Assistant] And I'll close with something that John Adams wrote in his diary.


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[Assistant] Edgehill and Wooster were curious and interesting to us, as scenes where free men had fought for their rights.


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[Assistant] The people in the neighborhood appeared so ignorant and careless at Worcester that I was provoked and asked, and do Englishmen so soon forget the ground where liberty was fought for?


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[Assistant] Tell your neighbors and your children that this is holy ground, much holier than that on which your churches stand. All England should come in pilgrimage to this hill once a year.


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[Assistant] Okay, so with that, I will go dark for four weeks and get myself prepared to explain the American Revolution, and when we come back on February the 9th, we'll find ourselves right back where we started.


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[Assistant] When the new model army defeated King Charles at Naseby in mid-June 1645, the first English Civil War basically came to an end.


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[Assistant] I say basically because the last royalist strongholds didn't surrender until early 1646. But after Nasby, the only question was how long these little pockets of royalist resistance would hold out.


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[Assistant] But just to run through it quickly, when the king was driven from the field at Naseby, he headed north, hoping that he'd be able to link up with the Marquis of Montrose, who, remember, has suddenly found himself master of Scotland.


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[Assistant] But the king soon found his path blocked and was forced to circle back around to Oxford, and from Oxford race for the relative safety of Worcester.


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[Assistant] Fairfax and the New Model Army, meanwhile, turned West to go crush Goring and his troops, who never had left Haunton.


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[Assistant] Goering ran circles around the New Model Army for a few weeks, but on July the 10th, Fairfax finally pinned him down and beat Goering at Langport after executing a brilliant cavalry charge that required the parliamentary troopers to ride at full speed across a narrow bridge only four abreast.


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[Assistant] Fairfax then turned north to seize the key port of Bristol, which the royalists considered so important that Prince Rupert himself had taken over command of the city after Nasby.


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[Assistant] The New Model Army dug in with 10,000 troops at the end of August, and on September the 10th, after six days of shelling, Fairfax ordered a general assault.


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[Assistant] Despite a promise to the king that he would hold the city, Rupert, with only 2,000 plague-ridden men at his disposal, had to face facts.


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[Assistant] After six hours of fighting, Rupert decided that further resistance was pointless. Fairfax granted him generous terms. Rupert himself was allowed to ride away, escorted the first two miles of his journey back to Oxford by Fairfax and Cromwell personally.


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[Assistant] But as justified as Rupert had been in his decision, the King treated the loss of Bristol as a personal betrayal. Because he, like everyone else, considered the city impregnable.


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[Assistant] So he sent a curt letter to Rupert telling the prince that he was dismissed from service and no longer welcomed at court.


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[Assistant] Goring, meanwhile, was apparently never even disciplined for all his drunken lethargy, because King Charles was a master of human resources.


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[Assistant] The king was headed north to once again try to link up with Montrose when he got the even worse news from Scotland.


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[Assistant] After the Battle of Kilsyth, most of the Highlanders who had made up Montrose's little army deserted, and Alistair McCalla had taken most of his Irishmen west to continue plundering the Campbells.


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[Assistant] Two days after the fall of Bristol, Montrose was encamped with somewhere around 2,000 men near Philippa when they were surprised by a Covenanter army of 4,000 men, although both those numbers are pretty soft.


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[Assistant] For the first time since he had re-entered Scotland, Montrose was beaten. Brutally beaten.


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[Assistant] Montrose himself got away, but when elements of his army surrendered after being offered quarter, the Covenanters just walked up and started massacring them.


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[Assistant] Montrose would spend the next year trying to raise another army, but the jig was up.


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[Assistant] The royalist cause in Scotland, if it could really be called that, was dead.


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[Assistant] The King holed up in Newark through October and was then back in Oxford in November.


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[Assistant] Now attended only by his lifeguard, the king watched helplessly as his remaining garrisons and detachments set down their arms.


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[Assistant] But Charles was ever the optimist. He just did not believe that it was God's plan for him to lose.


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[Assistant] So with his English forces melting away, he turned to his other two kingdoms and simultaneously opened negotiations with the Irish and the Covenanterscots.


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[Assistant] To the Irish, he floated the possibility of Catholic toleration, and to the Scots, he pointed out that he could probably make them a better deal than they'd get from the increasingly powerful independence in parliament and the new model army.


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[Assistant] Nevermind that these two promises were basically mutually exclusive.


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[Assistant] But at this same moment, it became public knowledge through the royal correspondence that had been captured at Naseby, and a copy of a secret treaty found on a dead Irish lord, that the king had actually been in talks with the Irish all through 1645.


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[Assistant] Talks that had been going on behind the back of the king's own lord lieutenant in Ireland, a man who was getting pretty short shrift by yours truly, the Marquis of Ormond.


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[Assistant] The revelations about the King's dealings with the Irish lost him even more support in England, and Charles tried to stamp out the PR fiasco by disavowing the deal worked out by his secret negotiator, which immediately nullified a second treaty that had just then been arranged.


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[Assistant] By January 1646, the Irish option looked no good. So Charles turned to the Covenanter Scots in the hopes that they would join him in a political and religious realignment that would pit them against the independents and the new model army.


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[Assistant] But in the subsequent negotiations, Charles would agree only to tolerate Presbyterianism, not make it compulsory.


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[Assistant] This drove Queen Henrietta Maria nuts, and she hounded Charles in almost daily letters to get over his religious scruples and just make the deal.


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[Assistant] But he refused to compromise himself, and continued to hope that maybe the Scots would bend to him rather than the other way around.


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[Assistant] Meanwhile, down in the deep southwest, Sir Ralph Hopton held out long enough to get the King's eldest son, Charles, Prince of Wales, the future King Charles II, out of the country in February. Then he surrendered to Fairfax on generous terms. Generous terms turning out to be the hallmark of Fairfax's mop-up policy.


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[Assistant] Because as word spread that the New Model Army was being super lenient, men who might have fought to the bitter end in the face of vicious reprisals just gave up and went home. What was the point of resisting? The First English Civil War was over.


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[Assistant] On April 27, 1646, the king slipped out of Oxford disguised as a servant. He was now attended by only two loyal friends.


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[Assistant] He headed in the direction of Newark, where the Covenanter Scots were besieging one of the last royalist cities.


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[Assistant] He sent a letter on ahead telling them that he was still hoping to cut a deal


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[Assistant] But all they would offer is a vague promise to fight for the king if the independents in parliament tried to do something insane like depose him.


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[Assistant] But other than that, they gave him no indication that an alliance was even remotely possible.


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[Assistant] Which is why they were also surprised on May the 5th when the King rode into the Scottish camp at Newark and presented himself as, I don't know, well, here I am. So they took him prisoner. King Charles would remain a prisoner for the rest of his life.


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[Assistant] With the king in custody, the parliamentary alliance quickly broke down into three camps, each with their own vision of what the coming political and religious settlement ought to look like.


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[Assistant] The Presbyterians wanted the king back on the throne with some pretty extensive political reforms. The Earl of Essex, somewhat recovered from the disgraced at Los Wythiel, was once again leading the drive for an aristocratic-led monarchy.


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[Assistant] This, of course, would be coupled with compulsory Presbyterianism.


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[Assistant] The independence and the new model army, which were almost synonymous at this point, at least that's what their enemies thought, wanted the king back on the throne, some mild political reforms, and general religious toleration.


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[Assistant] The Scots, who currently held Charles, wanted the king back on the throne and uniform Presbyterianism.


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[Assistant] The English could do what they wanted politically, but we are for sure keeping the government that's been running Scotland since the Bishop's Wars.


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[Assistant] You'll notice, of course, that all three assume Charles would continue to be king.


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[Assistant] Because nobody, well, except for maybe Henry Martin, thought that the first civil war had been about abolishing monarchy or even deposing the current king.


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[Assistant] Charles, for his part, planned to play these three factions off one another to get the best deal that he could.


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[Assistant] At least that was the plan. But he just didn't seem capable of making the compromises that each faction needed him to make to secure any deal at all, let alone the best deal.


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[Assistant] Like for example, after he presented himself to the Scots, Charles discovered that they weren't kidding when they said that uniform Presbyterianism is our one core demand.


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[Assistant] The king had apparently convinced himself that even after they had been saying that for ten years, that it wasn't really a deal breaker for them.


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[Assistant] Charles' intransigence only drove the Scots into a deeper alliance with the Presbyterians, who were preparing to offer Charles terms of their own, including, yes, uniform Presbyterianism, and then disband the new model army, breaking the power of the Independents.


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[Assistant] But the demands the Presbyterians came up with and presented to Charles in July 1646, known as the New Castle Propositions, were harsh.


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[Assistant] Having spent so much of the war angling for a settlement, when they finally got the chance to broker a deal, the terms the Presbyterians came up with were almost guaranteed to be rejected. Charles must swear to the solemn league and covenant.


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[Assistant] Order all of his subjects to do the same. Abolish episcopacy. Initiate uniform Presbyterianism. Impose harsh penalties on Catholics. Hand over control of the armed forces to Parliament for 20 years. Allow them to reclaim that control any time after that.


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[Assistant] Give parliament the power to nominate all government offices, allow only new peers into the House of Lords if both Houses consented,


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[Assistant] Agreed to a list of royalists who would not be offered pardons, and then consent to the confiscation of royalist property.


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[Assistant] And then they said, this isn't the starting point for negotiations, this is the deal.


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[Assistant] See, the Presbyterians thought that with Charles beaten militarily and a prisoner of the Scots, that he would be forced to accept their terms.


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[Assistant] But the king said, let me think about it. And then he reopened negotiations with the confederated Irish to come over and bail him out. At which point, the Scots threw up their hands.


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[Assistant] Charles refused to even pretend like he would accept compulsory Presbyterianism, so they decided, hey, we're never going to get what we want out of this guy. But maybe we can sell him to Parliament in exchange for the full repayment of our war debts.


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[Assistant] On Christmas Day 1646, King Charles, realizing that the Scots were not just going to suddenly see the light, made an absolutely feeble escape attempt, but he was busted immediately.


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[Assistant] And on January the 30th, 1647, the Scots finally washed their hands of the king who refused to believe he was beaten and handed him off to a detachment of Presbyterian-aligned parliamentary troops in exchange for £400,000.


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[Assistant] Charles was then taken to Holmby House in Northamptonshire, where he was plopped down into a comfortable house arrest.


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[Assistant] By February the 11th, all Scottish forces were back north of the Tweed.


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[Assistant] With the Royals beaten and the Scots withdrawing, Parliament was finally able to turn its full attention to the ongoing rebellion in Ireland.


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[Assistant] Where the Presbyterians saw first and foremost a golden opportunity to break the power of the new model army.


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[Assistant] As the Committee of Both Kingdoms was coming apart back in October, a new Committee of Irish Affairs had taken over control of the armed forces.


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[Assistant] In March, it settled on a plan to bust apart the New Model Army, sending some forces to Ireland and disbanding the rest.


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[Assistant] But when the new model soldiers caught wind of this plan, they wanted to get a few things straight.


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[Assistant] First, don't even think about disbanding us without paying our wages, which are months behind.


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[Assistant] Second, we want to be indemnified for any acts committed during the war. Because I don't want Farmer John tracking me down and bugging me about that chicken I stole. Or that castle I bombarded, pillaged, and then destroyed.


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[Assistant] Third, anyone who remains in service is going to get paid on time.


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[Assistant] Fourth, men who volunteered to serve can't be forced to fight outside of England, and cavalrymen can't be forced to serve as infantrymen.


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[Assistant] Finally, we want pensions for our widows, orphans, and wounded.


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[Assistant] In March, all of this was written up in a petition addressed to their General, Sir Thomas Fairfax.


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[Assistant] When the Presbyterians heard that the new model soldiers were getting uppity, they immediately ordered Fairfax to suppress the petition, separate the officers from the enlisted men, and then step aside as a commander the Presbyterians thought they could trust came in to organize the forces bound for Ireland and disband the rest.


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[Assistant] But before we knock the Presbyterians too much, the week before the soldier's petition came to light, they had been presented with another petition making the rounds that was far more political, far more radical, and far more unsettling than just about anything any Englishman had ever seen.


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[Assistant] And we'll talk about that next week when we talk about the levelers.


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[Assistant] In early April, the Committee for Irish Affairs sent a delegation to the Army to break the news that Parliament had officially voted to offer the troops a choice, serve in Ireland or disband. The soldiers asked who will be leading the Irish expedition, and the delegation told them it was going to be


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[Assistant] Now it doesn't really matter who it was going to be because all the soldiers heard was not Fairfax and not Cromwell.


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[Assistant] At which point they got pretty upset and started chanting Fairfax and Cromwell and we all go.


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[Assistant] But the last thing the Presbyterians wanted was to keep Fairfax or Cromwell, especially Cromwell, in charge of the army.


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[Assistant] When the delegation reported on the mood of the soldiers, and the fact that so far only a thousand had signed up for service in Ireland,


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[Assistant] The Committee for Irish Affairs responded by promising six weeks pay for those who disbanded peacefully, which only ticked the soldiers off even more.


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[Assistant] So in late April, the various regiments started electing spokesmen from their own ranks called agitators. Which is not what it sounds like. When you hear agitator, think agent. Not, you know, agitator.


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[Assistant] These agitators drew up documents outlining the grievances and demands of their comrades, and in mid-May met with the senior officers, and demanded the things that they had asked for in the March petition, while also pointing out that these demands were not unreasonable, and they weren't, especially given that these are the guys who just won the war.


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[Assistant] But parliament maintained that disbanding the army would proceed on the terms that they had just outlined.


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[Assistant] They also started lining up support from the London train bands, who were sympathetic to the Presbyterians, and sending letters up to Scotland explaining that the independent-dominated New Model Army might have to be put down by force, and asking for help if it came to that.


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[Assistant] Fairfax then called for all the regiments of the New Model Army to gather for a general meeting at New Market on June the 5th to work through everything and hopefully arrange a settlement that would satisfy everyone.


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[Assistant] Now the one big thing the Presbyterians had going for them through all this is that they controlled the king. He was still under house arrest at Holmby House.


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[Assistant] But on May 31, 1647, Cornet George Joyce of the New Model Army, Cornet being basically a second cavalry lieutenant,


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[Assistant] Where his orders came from is still something of a mystery.


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[Assistant] Enemies of Cromwell see a conspiracy in the upper echelon of the new model army, giving Joy's explicit instructions to seize the king.


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[Assistant] But so far as I can tell, the historical consensus today seems to be that Cornet Joyce was acting in concert with the agitators on an initiative of their own devising to prevent the Presbyterians from moving the king to some undisclosed location. But also,


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[Assistant] That there is no way Cromwell didn't know what was going on. Cromwell knew what was going on, even if he didn't explicitly order it, or know how it was eventually going to shake out.


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[Assistant] Cornett Joyce and his men arrived at Holmby House on June 2nd and ordered the regiments guarding the king to stand down.


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[Assistant] But one of their colonels rode away back to London to raise the alarm.


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[Assistant] Joyce then got a report that said Colonel would soon be back at the head of a much larger force.


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[Assistant] Probably with the intention of escorting the king back to London.


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[Assistant] Joyce talked his way into the royal bed chamber to tell the king to be ready to ride out the next morning.


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[Assistant] Joyce was apparently exceedingly polite and respectful about all of this, and Charles agreed to go with him, so long as Joyce promised not to hurt him, not to make him do anything against his conscience, and to treat him with the respect due to a king. Joyce agreed.


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[Assistant] The next morning, Charles was ready to go. But before they embarked, well, I'll let SR Gardner take it from here because I love this bit.


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[Assistant] At six in the morning on the fourth, Charles, according to his promise, stepped onto the lawn in front of the house, where he found himself face to face with Joyce, behind whom were troopers drawn up in ordered ranks.


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[Assistant] At his demand, the men at once shouted adherence to the promises given by their commander.


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[Assistant] The king then turned inquiringly to Joyce, what commission, he asked, do you have to secure my person?


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[Assistant] Joyce tried hard to evade the question, but Charles fixed him to the point. Have you nothing, he said in writing from Sir Thomas Fairfax, your general, to do what you do?


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[Assistant] Then Joyce turned in his saddle and pointed to the disciplined ranks who had fought at Naseby. It is behind me was all the explanation he had to give. Charles could no longer misunderstand him.


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[Assistant] It is a fair commission, he said, doubtless with a smile, and as well written as I have seen a commission written in my life.


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[Assistant] Was kind of making this up as he went along. And even after the king was saddled up, he still had no idea where he was going.


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[Assistant] So Joyce started offering suggestions. Oxford? Cambridge? But the king wasn't keen on either of those. So Joyce asked Charles where he wanted to go, and the king suggested Newmarket.


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[Assistant] Not knowing, of course, that the entire New Model Army was currently descending on New Market. Joyce agreed.


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[Assistant] It was an increasingly radical new model army that rendezvoused at Newmarket on June the 5th.


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[Assistant] Presbyterian-inclined officers had been retiring, and promotions to fill the gaps had been made from within the ranks, leaving the army not just more independent-minded, but also closer knit than ever before.


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[Assistant] At least a quarter of the officers were now ex-enlisted men, and they fully sympathized with the demands of their comrades.


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[Assistant] Fairfax spent the 5th and 6th, working his way from regiment to regiment, making sure his men were heard and turned, but also impressing upon them that discipline was going to be maintained.


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[Assistant] The fruit of these meetings was the solemn engagement of the army.


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[Assistant] Fairfax led the army out of Newmarket on a slow march towards London.


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[Assistant] And in case anyone missed that the army was delving deeper into political waters, on June 14th, they presented the House of Commons with articles of impeachment against 11 MPs who had been particularly hostile to the army.


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[Assistant] Including Denzel Halls, one of the five members Charles had tried to arrest, and Sir William Waller, formerly commander of Parliament's Western armies.


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[Assistant] By mid-July, the army was in Reading and working on another angle to secure their demands, drawing up their own peace agreement with the king.


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[Assistant] After spending a delightful few weeks in Newmarket, thoroughly enjoying the comfortable and tolerant treatment he was receiving from the New Model Army, Charles was moved on to Hampton Court for an even more comfortable house arrest that even included getting to see his daughter Elizabeth and younger son James, the future King James II.


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[Assistant] Deciding it was time to treat with the king directly, the senior officers of the army, and by that I mean Henry Ireton, Cromwell's now-son-in-law, who appears to have been the main author of all the official army manifestos, drew up the Heads of Proposals, which laid out the basis for negotiations with the king.


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[Assistant] The heads of proposals were far more lenient than the Newcastle propositions and required only modest constitutional reforms be coupled with broad religious tolerance, clearing out that sticky demand for strict Presbyterianism that Charles had been so unwilling to grant.


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[Assistant] When the Presbyterians in London got a copy of the Heads of Proposals, they of course went bonkers, and the 11 impeached MPs set to work not only mobilizing the trained bands, but also stirring up the mobs of London to intimidate independents in parliament to repudiate the army.


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[Assistant] On July 26th, a mob actually forced their way into the House of Commons chamber.


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[Assistant] Fairfax announced that at the behest of the speakers, he was going to enter London and restore order.


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[Assistant] The King, of course, was loving all of this, and when he heard about the MPs fleeing London, he immediately sent word to Fairfax that he'd be happy to negotiate under the heads of proposals


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[Assistant] Knowing that this would keep his enemies divided and put him in position to get the best possible deal. But then, he just straight up blew it.


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[Assistant] Henry Ireton led a small group of negotiators to Hampton Court. But when they got there, the King acted as if he was in a way stronger position than he actually was.


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[Assistant] Ireton was prepared to make all kinds of concessions just to get the king to sign a settlement, any settlement, that would allow the army to lead not just the speakers of parliament, but the king himself back into London.


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[Assistant] But Charles, as always, continued to believe that compromise was a sin, and persisted in the belief that if he just held out a little longer, he'd get everything he wanted without having to give up anything.


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[Assistant] Ayrton left disappointed, and the king probably missed his last best chance to ever really be king again.


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[Assistant] Oh, also, the new model army is now totally pissed at him.


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[Assistant] On August the 3rd, Fairfax drew up 15,000 troops on Hounslow Heath. The 11 impeached members fled London.


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[Assistant] On August the 4th, Fairfax encircled the city.


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[Assistant] The London train band didn't even pretend like they could stop him.


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[Assistant] On August the 5th, he personally escorted the Speaker of Parliament back to Westminster.


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[Assistant] It was all very orderly, very disciplined, and very impressive, but there was no mistaking what had just happened. The New Model Army had just seized London. The question on everyone's mind? What were they going to do with it?


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[Assistant] Next week, we will watch them try to figure that out for themselves as they struggle through the constitutional implications of the Civil War in the famous Putney debates.


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[Assistant] We will also watch as the Scots, who had so recently washed their hands of the whole business, decide that the new model army running England was just too much to bear, and finally forge an alliance with the King, sparking the second English Civil War.


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[Assistant] Oh wait, I ended on Second Civil War last week, didn't I? Okay, let's see. Finally forge an alliance with the King, and once again, invade England.


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[Assistant] ...had been to show what a complete pinko I was, I had been a Peace Corps volunteer.


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[Assistant] What the Vice President seems to be doing is charting a course which could lead close to impeachment.


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[Assistant] The relationship between Mr. Agnew and his president seems to be in grave disrepair. In truth, both men are in bad trouble tonight.


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[Assistant] Because their problems are becoming entwined legally and politically.


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[Assistant] We're in for what only can be called a nasty chapter in the history of this country.


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[Assistant] You say that you were actually fearful that if you did not go along...


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[Assistant] President Nixon or General Hague, it's not quite clear, might have ordered you assassinated.


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[Assistant] It really has. I think, uh, the public is still in shock. Uh, many people just disbelieve it. It's hard to accept that it has come to this.


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[Assistant] This week's episode is brought to you by Harry's. As you know, Harry's founders were fed up with overpaying for expensive razors with unnecessary features. They knew a great shave comes down to great blades, made with sharp, durable steel that lasts.


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[Assistant] That's why they bought a factory that's been making some of the highest quality blades in the world for over 95 years. And by selling directly to you over the internet, Harry's can offer their blades at a price much lower than the leading brand, just $2 a blade compared to $4 or more.


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[Assistant] I miss his revolutions and I both continue to use our Harry's razors. We love the closeness of the shave and the look and feel of the handles. And for me, the precision trim blade is great for cleaning up my hairline every time I shave my head.


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[Assistant] Now Harry stands behind the quality of their blades, but they know that switching razors isn't an easy decision. So they created a trial offer. You get a $13 value trial set that comes with everything you need for a close, comfortable shave. Weighted ergonomic handle, 5 blade razor with lubricating strip and a trimmer blade,


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[Assistant] Lathering shave gel and a travel blade cover. If you don't love your shave, let Harry's know within 30 days and they'll give you a full refund.


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[Assistant] Last time, we discussed the growing disenchantment with the Porfiriato, wrapping things up with the infamous Creelman interview of 1908, when President Porfirio Díaz just sort of casually mentioned that he was not planning to run for re-election in 1910. This was huge news to say the least.


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[Assistant] So he wasn't just saying, I won't run again, but by the way, here's my handpicked successor who I expect you to support.


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[Assistant] Dias was issuing an open invitation for a genuine political opposition to form. This turned out to be a huge problem for Dias, because people took him at his word. They accepted the invitation, and so the little snowball started rolling down the hill and turning into a revolutionary avalanche.


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[Assistant] The Krillman interview was first published in March 1908. It took a few months to get it translated and fully distributed throughout Mexico, but wherever it was read and discussed, the question at the forefront of everyone's mind was, well, what happens now?


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[Assistant] There were men and women in their 30s who literally had no memory of life without President Diaz. So what happens now?


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[Assistant] Both would-be opposition leaders and stalwart regime loyalists face this question.


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[Assistant] Initially, Díaz inviting dissenting voices into the political discourse seemed genuine, and various authors were allowed to publish books and pamphlets that addressed how the coming election could be made truly representative and democratic, and what direction Mexico should take when Don Porfirio stepped aside.


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[Assistant] Many called for the creation of some kind of democratic party that would run on a platform of free and fair elections, the protection of civil rights, and the end of the petty tyrannies of the hefeis politikos.


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[Assistant] But the most famous and influential of these books was called The Presidential Succession of 1910. And friends, it is time to meet the man who wrote that book, and who would be at the center of the coming storm, Francisco Madero.


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[Assistant] The Madeiros were not some random provincial family. They were probably one of the 10 or 15 richest families in Mexico. The old patriarch of the clan Averisto was still alive and kicking, even though he was a couple of years older than Porfirio Díaz.


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[Assistant] The Madeiros had owned extensive properties in the north for generations, and as a youth, Evaristo had watched a huge chunk of their property disappear into the Republic of Texas, never to be seen again.


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[Assistant] Evaristo had been a patriotic liberal. He had fought in the armies of Benito Juarez against the French. And then, when Porfirio Díaz came to power, Evaristo served as governor of Coahuila from 1880 to 1884.


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[Assistant] But like many of the old liberal guard, he ran afoul of Dias' personalist authoritarianism, and Evaristo retired from politics to focus on growing the family estates. And in many ways, the Mederos were the perfect Porfirian family. They made no trouble for Dias politically, and they stayed focused on economic progress and modernization.


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[Assistant] The Mederos acquired vast and diversified estates and properties. They owned cotton plantations and mines, mills, distilleries, textile factories, a bit of everything that added up to a lot of wealth.


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[Assistant] And though they made no political waves, their wealth put them inside the elite of the elite. And they had friendly connections, for example, to Minister of Finance Leman Tour and the inner circle financiers in Mexico City.


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[Assistant] So Francisco was born in 1873 with a silver spoon in his mouth. He was the crown prince of the Madero clan. And he was given a proper rich boy education. He was sent to the United States for school, and then on to Europe for five years, which he spent mostly in Paris, and then back to the United States where he went to Berkeley to study agricultural science.


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[Assistant] He returned home in 1893 at the age of 20 bursting with intelligence, energy, and ideas.


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[Assistant] A restless reformer, Francisco further improved and modernized the family estates and introduced the latest methods and technologies.


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[Assistant] In addition to the general enhancement of the family, Francisco was also given title to various properties in his own right, and by 1900 he had made a personal fortune for himself.


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[Assistant] He was quite small even for his day. He stood at just 5 foot 3.


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[Assistant] He was also an enthusiastic adherent of every fashionable pseudoscientific fad that was swirling around at the turn of the century. Spiritualism, theosophy, homeopathy.


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[Assistant] It was an odd combination because Francisco was as fervent a believer in the latest in real science in progress as he was in the crank new agey style pseudosciences.


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[Assistant] But he managed to hold them both in his creative and clever little head.


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[Assistant] He was also not strictly an economic liberal and he believed that the welfare of the people must go hand in hand with economic growth. So he paid high wages and benefits and provided social services to his workers, employees and residents of the towns where the Maderos held property.


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[Assistant] According to Madero's own account, he first turned his attention to politics in 1903, when he read about the brutal treatment of demonstrators in neighboring Nuevo Leon by General Reyes. We talked about that incident last week.


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[Assistant] Though, to mention again Madero's eccentricities, he also said that this revelatory call to politics was aided by some helpful advice given to him by the ghost of his dead brother, who urged him to liberate Mexico from tyranny.


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[Assistant] Now 30 years old, Francisco Madero broke with the family's apolitical turn and he re-embraced their liberal roots.


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[Assistant] Now this was a bit dangerous given that the liberal congresses we talked about last week had just been broken up, but Madero went ahead and formed his own liberal political club. He called it the Club Benito Juarez, cloaking it in the memory of the man who would now become something of a patron saint of Mexican liberalism.


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[Assistant] The club Benito Juarez endorsed real elections, real democracy, and constantly used the restoration of the Constitution of 1857 as a baseline for what freedom ought to look like.


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[Assistant] Madero's emerging ideology, such as it was, was a mix of classical liberalism augmented by the kind of progressive social reforms he had tried to implement on the family estates.


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[Assistant] The efforts of the Club Benito Juarez were initially aimed at local politics. In 1904, Madero and his friends tried to oust the unpopular and corrupt mayor of San Pedro, but they lost, thanks to a mix of police tactics, voting booth shenanigans, and ultimately, the authorities just declaring the incumbent mayor the winner.


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[Assistant] Undeterred, Madero and his friends moved on to a bigger fish, the very unpopular governor of Coahuila, Miguel Cardenas.


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[Assistant] Cardenas was deeply unpopular and causing a lot of problems, and when Madero launched his bid to unseat him in 1905, he first tried to negotiate with Dias' agents and said, look, your boy is making you look very bad, so drop your support for him and back us instead.


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[Assistant] But instead the regime dug in its heels. Not only was Cardenas re-elected, but Madero's newspaper was shut down and a warrant went out for his arrest.


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[Assistant] But this is the Madeira we're talking about, and they used their many powerful friends in Mexico City to get the warrant for Francisco quashed.


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[Assistant] The next few years were particularly difficult for everyone in northern Mexico, from the lowest peasant to the great Madero clan.


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[Assistant] American landowners continue to proliferate, gobble up more land, and divert precious water to their foreign owned, for foreign export, and foreign profit estates.


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[Assistant] And the Baderos is a whole state out of politics. But they clashed with American agents and investors. They were locked in lawsuits and lobbying and counter-lobbying efforts in Mexico City and Washington DC.


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[Assistant] And then remember from last week, at the end of 1907, Mexico got hit hard with the double whammy of the Panic of 1907 and resulting recession, and the crop failures and drought that were leading to hunger, poverty, and increased dislocation and desperation. Particularly in northern Mexico.


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[Assistant] All of this was just getting started when the Creelman interview dropped in March of 1908.


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[Assistant] And having cut his teeth in local politics, 34 year old Francisco Madero decided this was the invitation he had been waiting for to take his program and his ambitions to the national level.


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[Assistant] Madero was among those who accepted this invitation.


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[Assistant] Modero spent a good chunk of 1908 working on what became the short book, The Presidential Succession of 1910, which was published in January of 1909.


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[Assistant] It was presented as a brief analysis of Mexican history.


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[Assistant] Madero of course lauded Benito Juarez, the constitution of 1857, and other heroic liberals.


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[Assistant] he lamented the slip into authoritarianism the rise of petty tyranny


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[Assistant] The book was principally focused on political issues of democracy and liberty, but most importantly, Madero honed in on the necessary return of the principle of no re-election. That we must prevent men from entrenching themselves in power indefinitely.


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[Assistant] He also made a point of not directly criticizing Dias too much and in fact went out of his way to laud the president for presiding over an era of unparalleled economic growth and modernization.


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[Assistant] But the cost of lost liberty was now outweighing the benefits of material progress.


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[Assistant] The presidential succession of 1910 would become the most prominent of the opposition literature that sprouted up in 1908 and 1909, and Madero used it as an excuse to start going out on speaking tours.


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[Assistant] He had come to believe more than anything that as long as opposition groups in the several states remain disunited, that they could be individually crushed by the center. But if they joined together, maybe they could collectively fight back.


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[Assistant] So even though I've spent the last eight minutes or so talking about Francisco Madero, in early 1909, he hardly looked like he was going to be a major player in the coming election of 1910. I mean, nobody paid much attention to eccentric outsiders like Madero who were looking to challenge the regime, to change it, reform it, transform it.


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[Assistant] The real action was going to be among those inside the regime looking to inherit the regime.


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[Assistant] The key point here is that Porfirio Díaz was approaching his 80th birthday, and even if he did what everyone expected him to do and say, oh wait, yes, I am actually going to run again, it was unlikely he was going to survive his next term.


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[Assistant] Those on the inside knew the president was slipping. He was getting slower both physically and mentally. He was old and tired and stuck in his ways. He was prone to lapses in memory. He was prone to making ill-judged decisions without thinking through all the consequences. He was not as creative, alert, or flexible as he used to be.


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[Assistant] Now this was all hidden from the public, of course, but with the old man clearly deteriorating, getting named to the vice presidency was now the prize to be won.


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[Assistant] Because that guy was going to become president whenever Dias died.


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[Assistant] So the jockeying to become Díaz's heir was where the real action was, and that struggle reopened the rift between the científicos and Mexico City, and an array of outsiders who, while loyal to Díaz and the regime, wanted political changes made.


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[Assistant] Now we set this up a bit last week because if you were in this loyal opposition camp, the man whose name was now on the tip of your tongue was a guy we introduced in our last episode, General Bernardo Reyes.


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[Assistant] In many ways, Reyes was the perfect candidate to succeed Dias. He had an extensive military background. He held porfiring beliefs in both order and progress. As governor of Nuevo León, Reyes had displayed a zeal for economic modernization coupled with some patrician concern for the poor.


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[Assistant] But he also had no love for popular politics and was always happy to wield the porphyryan stick when the porphyryan bread was rejected.


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[Assistant] And above all, Reyes was scrupulously and unconditionally loyal to Dias.


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[Assistant] Over the years, Dias had subjected Reyes to very slight and public humiliations and Reyes had borne it all without making a peep.


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[Assistant] Now the guys who coalesced around Reyes are a mixed bunch, but they all shared one thing in common.


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[Assistant] They, like Reyes, were rivals of the Científico clique in Mexico City that had held such an influential hold on Diaz these last few years.


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[Assistant] Remember, Reyes and the Cientificos had clashed over the years, going back even before Reyes' brief stint as Minister of War. Which, remember, the Cientificos had helped make a brief stint as Minister of War.


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[Assistant] So even though everyone I'm about to talk about is loyal to Dias and wants to basically continue the regime, there were subtle ideological and personal differences between them that lined them up into this loyal oppositional camp.


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[Assistant] So, early supporters of Ra's included men who wanted more progressive political and social reform.


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[Assistant] Who wanted to believe what Dias himself claimed, that Dias's own run of successive re-elections was meant to be THE transition period. And when he stepped down, that would be the end of authoritarian Mexico, which had always been portrayed as a necessary evil.


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[Assistant] Also among Reyes's early supporters were members of the government who yearned for a turnover in the upper rungs of power. These all tended to be younger men whose ambitions were being stifled by the continued presence of a bunch of old fuddy-duddies monopolizing every office and ministerial post.


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[Assistant] Also looking to Reyes were provincial elites who had long ago made their personal peace with Dias, but who did not like the scientificos who surrounded him, or their haughty condescension.


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[Assistant] These provincial elites saw the old man's departure as a way to get back into power.


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[Assistant] And then sprinkled into the growing Reista movement, as there always are in movements like this, were an array of guys prosecuting personal grudges and rivalries.


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[Assistant] In January of 1909, a core group of the loyal opposition formed an organization called the Partido Democrático, the Democratic Party.


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[Assistant] And though Reyes made no public move to join them, and they in turn made no declaration of support for any particular candidate, the Democratic Party was assumed to be a stalking horse for Reyes.


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[Assistant] And when they spread out to get allies in other cities in Mexico they were among the first to be shocked at how enthusiastic and receptive the people were to their message.


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[Assistant] They discovered that much of what had driven the formation of the liberal clubs back around the turn of the century was still out there. The frustrated, educated middle classes whose dignity and self-respect were constantly challenged by the farce of democracy and the arbitrary, petty rule of the jefes politicos and the corrupt officials that surrounded them.


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[Assistant] So when the Democratic Party guys showed up preaching the mildest of liberal reforms and a push for a bit more democracy, and whispering the name Bernardo Reyes, they found lots of enthusiastic support.


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[Assistant] Reyes himself remained totally silent, and let all of this work be done by surrogates, never so much as hinting that he had any connection to any of it, and that it was all just sort of happening spontaneously.


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[Assistant] The response from Diaz and the scientificos and other rock-ribbed regime loyalists was as predictable as it was offensive.


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[Assistant] A re-electionist party also started up, quote unquote, spontaneously, to call for Dias to run for president once again.


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[Assistant] And right on cue, Dias let it be known that despite his misgivings and honest desire to step away from the presidency that this was simply not yet the time.


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[Assistant] And so, by the time the Democratic Party was forming in January of 1909, most everyone was assuming that Dias would in fact be running for president again.


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[Assistant] So the object was not necessarily to make Reyes president, but to force a political marriage between Dias and Reyes to get Dias to make Reyes vice president.


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[Assistant] Their campaign was meant to publicly demonstrate Reyes' popularity to say to the president, look how much support Reyes has throughout Mexico.


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[Assistant] With the implication of course being all of that support can be yours, if you name Reyes Vice President, and if you don't,


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[Assistant] The sudden rise in popular support for Reyes made Dias paranoid that if he tapped Reyes for Vice President, that a coup would probably be the next step.


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[Assistant] So Dias rejected the proposed marriage with Reyes.


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[Assistant] In April of 1909, the various re-electionist clubs sent delegates to a national convention where they formally nominated Porfirio Díaz for what would be his seventh re-election.


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[Assistant] For Vice President, they went again with Ramon Corral, who, remember, was a personally unpopular member of the Científico clique.


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[Assistant] His continuation as vice president meant that Diaz thought he was inoculating himself against the possibility of the coup he so obviously feared.


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[Assistant] But it's not like he was doing anything to groom Corral for the presidency. Corral was kept in the dark. He was not consulted about anything or given any real power or responsibility.


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[Assistant] When Diaz both accepted the nomination for another re-election and passed over Reyes for the vice presidency, the Rajista clubs only redoubled their efforts.


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[Assistant] And they started moving now from loyal opposition to disloyal opposition.


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[Assistant] Because, well, some of them really did want political reform for its own sake.


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[Assistant] Most of them looked at the continued rule of the scientificos as closing the door not just on reform, but on anyone else ever getting a chance to wield power.


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[Assistant] And so included among the reistas now were not just private citizens, but also mayors and state governors and senior army officers who had clashed with the scientificos and wanted them gone.


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[Assistant] So through the summer of 1909, the Reistas continued to send out speakers, organize events, and distribute literature. And the tone of their attacks was getting sharper.


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[Assistant] They were not just calling for political reform or lambasting the hated Corral, they were also criticizing Díaz himself.


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[Assistant] And thousands now were turning up to Reist events throughout Mexico, with particularly strong showings of support around Monterrey in Nuevo Leon and Guadalajara in Reis' home state of Jalisco.


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[Assistant] Now Reyes himself continued to play no public role in this campaign on his behalf, and only ever publicly supported Diaz and Corral.


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[Assistant] But despite Reyes' professed loyalty, the insulting tone of the race to opposition was getting a bit much for the president, and Dias' paranoia only grew.


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[Assistant] To Diaz, this democratic party looked like the beginning of a broad, national, popular political movement that was coalescing around one of the most popular men in Mexico.


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[Assistant] Which is, to say, a giant threat to his continued rule.


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[Assistant] To try to counter the popular Reyes movement, the regime tried to beat them at their own game.


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[Assistant] The re-electionists sent out their own speakers. They organized their own events and distributed their own literature. But the results were a bit embarrassing.


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[Assistant] Pro Dios rallies and speeches were often poorly attended, and often only attended by those scared not to show their faces for fear of getting marked down as a troublemaker by the local jefe politico.


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[Assistant] Meanwhile, the few pro-regime periodicals couldn't keep up with the increasing torrent of mockery and attacks on old Don Porfirio and his cronies in the opposition presses.


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[Assistant] When some reelectionist speakers came to Guadalajara, they were greeted by 3,000 jeering demonstrators. It sparked a low-key unrest. It took the local jefe politico four days to fully restore order.


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[Assistant] So with this brief foray into popular politics getting them nowhere, the regime supporting reelectionists went back to their more traditional tactics. Local bosses and police shut down the opposition political clubs, they seized printing presses, and when they could think of a plausible reason, they would arrest opposition leaders and potential troublemakers.


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[Assistant] So by the end of the summer in 1909, the Reistas were getting harassed, intimidated, and even arrested. They could feel the hard pinch of repressive authoritarianism returning after the brief, and clearly fake, open invitation for them to form a real opposition in the Mexican Republic.


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[Assistant] Meanwhile, Díaz was also moving personally against Reyes. In July of 1909, the president appointed an old retired general named Geronimo Trevino to head the third military zone of Mexico. This was a large regional area that included Reyes' base of operations in Nuevo León.


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[Assistant] The selection of Trevino was Dias coming back full circle.


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[Assistant] An old liberal veteran of the reform war and the war against the French, and thus an old comrade in arms, uh, Dias, Trevino had clashed with Dias after Dias became president. And it was partly to undermine the local power base of General Trevino that Dias had first sent Bernardo Reyes to Nuevo León back in the mid-1880s. And now here he was being recalled to do the reverse.


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[Assistant] And he did. Trevino issued a flurry of orders and transfers to remove known Raista officers from important commands and replace them with more loyal men.


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[Assistant] On the civilian side, government officials, politicians, and judges who were known reistas were similarly replaced.


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[Assistant] So in this moment of crisis for the Reistas, they naturally look now for Reis to lead them. They saw these moves and were like, okay, they're coming for us. Let's do this. Let's fight back. Now is the time.


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[Assistant] They wanted Reyes to speak out, to mount his horse and lead a counterattack.


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[Assistant] But Reyes was not the man they wanted him to be. And he was never going to be the man they wanted him to be.


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[Assistant] His supporters are trying to cast Reyes in a role that he refused to play.


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[Assistant] He was loyal to Dias. He was opposed to popular politics. He was never gonna put himself at the head of a popular uprising.


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[Assistant] Bernardo Reyes was ambitious. He did want to be president. But not this way.


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[Assistant] He wanted Dias to name him Vice President, to recognize him as a worthy heir, so that he could inherit the regime from the inside, not overthrow it from the outside.


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[Assistant] To put it bluntly, Reyes was never the threat that Dias believed him to be.


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[Assistant] And so, Dias's treatment of Reyes really is one of the old president's biggest mistakes.


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[Assistant] Reyes was the perfect successor. He was almost the spitting image of Dias. The same beliefs, the same style. He offered nothing but total loyalty.


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[Assistant] But rather than seeing all of this as an asset, Dias decided it was a threat.


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[Assistant] And so not only did he miss a chance to pass power to a pretty popular, intelligent, and capable heir who would have continued a bunch of Dias' own policies, he disowned and banished Reus.


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[Assistant] In November 1910, Dias ordered Reyes to go on a fact-finding mission to Europe to study the organization and tactics of the German military.


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[Assistant] Reyes obliged, and he departed Mexico knowing full well he was being sent into political exile.


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[Assistant] Not only did this deny Dias his most worthy successor, when the chaos of the revolution came about a year later, Reus, the best general and most popular leader on the Porphyrian side, was in Europe.


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[Assistant] Oh, and one more thing before we move on. Old General Trevino? Yeah, he's an old school liberal, and he's already in regular friendly contact with Francisco Madero.


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[Assistant] Meanwhile, in the background of all of this played out some state elections that hinted that Díaz's invitation for a democratic opposition to join the Mexican Republic was complete BS.


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[Assistant] Of particular note for us, though I'm only gonna mention it in passing, was the governor's race in Madero's home state of Coahuila, which saw the government-backed candidate challenged by a rejista liberal named Venustiano Carranza.


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[Assistant] Carranza ran a strong campaign and it looked like he might win, but when election day finally came, the ballots disappeared into the hands of the local officials who then simply announced that Carranza had lost.


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[Assistant] Anyway, remember that name. Venustiano Carranza. He's important.


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[Assistant] The other race I'll mention will actually get far more attention next week. And that's the race for the governor in the state of Morelos.


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[Assistant] Next week we're actually going to dedicate an entire episode to Morelos, because Morelos is really important.


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[Assistant] For now though, just know that the state and local elections of 1909 revealed the regime had no interest in real democratic challenges. It was the same old story. And many people were now sick to death of that story and looking for anyone to help them write a new story.


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[Assistant] With the local elections of 1909 won Handley and Reyes out of the picture.


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[Assistant] Porfirio Díaz comfortably believed that he was now untouchable, and he even hosted a state visit from President William Howard Taft at the end of 1909 to celebrate the continued alliance between Mexico and the United States, and hopefully unruffle some of the feathers Díaz and José Limontur had recently been ruffling,


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[Assistant] Particularly among the executives at Standard Oil and Texaco.


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[Assistant] Dias believed he could clearly handle his own internal political security. But if the United States decided that they had grown tired of him, he might have a real problem.


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[Assistant] And so, the state visit with Taft was outwardly a success. But as we will see in the episodes to come, it's not like there were very many American interests in Mexico who were exactly sad to see Díaz coming under furious attack the next year.


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[Assistant] In fact they might even give those attackers a helpful nudge or two.


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[Assistant] Diaz, though, was not expecting any further trouble in 1910. His principal obsession had been with Reyes, and Reyes was now sidelined.


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[Assistant] But while the departure of Reyes did lead some in the loyal opposition, who were more loyal than opposition, to call it quits,


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[Assistant] There were those who were more opposition than they were loyal, and they were now adrift and looking for somewhere to channel their energy.


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[Assistant] Similarly, those frustrated by the regime's conduct during the recent state elections were now angrier than ever that the promise of democratic reform had been dangled only to be cruelly snatched away.


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[Assistant] And so it was that they turned to Francisco Madero. The only guy continuing to run a national challenge to Dias, however quixotic it might be, and however eccentric he might personally be.


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[Assistant] Madero's relentless energy and refusal to quit turned a lot of these bitter rayistas into materistas.


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[Assistant] It was another consequence of Dias sidelining Reyes. Instead of reformist energy being channeled through a leader absolutely loyal to the regime, it was now being channeled through an outsider looking to supplant the existing order.


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[Assistant] So getting back now to Madero. Madero understood that despite his words in the Creelman interview, that Porfirio Díaz was very likely to run again for president in 1910.


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[Assistant] And though this was something of an inevitability, Madero used it to his advantage and made his signature issue no re-election.


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[Assistant] That would in fact be the simple and easy to grasp name of the political party Madero was now organizing. They were the party of no re-election.


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[Assistant] And so it is of course dripping with historical irony that this movement that will ultimately bring Dias down marched out under the same simple slogan that Dias himself had not once but twice gone into open revolt for back in the 1870s. No re-election.


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[Assistant] But Madero's call for no reelection was not just a threat to Dias. It was also a threat to all those national and state and local officials now being reelected in perpetuity year after year.


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[Assistant] That natural history museum that was the National Congress, all the old governors, all the old mayors. Madero was proposing to dump all of them en masse and bring in an entirely new cohort of leaders, all hopefully younger, reformist, and liberal.


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[Assistant] So Madero himself was never a revolutionary, but what he was promising looked a lot like a political revolution to those who stood on the other side.


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[Assistant] But for most of 1909, if Madero was thought of at all, he was dismissed as a goofy eccentric. He was no real threat to anyone.


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[Assistant] His own grandfather, who hated that Francisco was getting the Maderos back into politics, said that his grandson stood a microbe's chance against an elephant.


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[Assistant] Everyone knew that if there was going to be a popular opposition, it was going to be led by Bernardo Reyes.


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[Assistant] Now this rankled Madero quite a bit because he astutely concluded that Reyes was a false prophet. He was not interested in real reform at all.


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[Assistant] Madera was in fact very frustrated that so many would-be supporters were tying themselves to Reyes.


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[Assistant] And so through 1909, Reyes got all the press, all the attention, all the popular rallies.


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[Assistant] But also, critically, all the reactionary repression.


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[Assistant] For like a full year, Madero was able to fly completely under the radar.


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[Assistant] After Dias formally accepted the nomination to be re-elected, Madero went out on a national speaking tour, evangelizing the gospel of no re-election. And wherever he went, he found willing supporters who were going to help him form local clubs to support the idea of no re-election.


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[Assistant] And these guys benefited from the disdain shown to them by all the respectable political elites who dismissed them as a non-entity.


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[Assistant] Ah, let the harmless goofballs meet. They are no threat to us.


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[Assistant] Things started to change in the fall of 1909, when two things coincided.


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[Assistant] First, the refusal of Reyes to lead an opposition campaign, and second, the clearly rigged state elections.


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[Assistant] Both drove a lot of bitter and disillusioned souls into the waiting arms of Madera, who was still out there stumping for no re-election. He was still calling for liberal reform.


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[Assistant] And it was over the winter of 1909-1910 that the Matarista Coalition really started to gain momentum.


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[Assistant] And where once the Rajistas had been presiding over large rallies in the thousands, it was now Madero who was drawing those crowds.


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[Assistant] His principal base of support was always going to be those dissatisfied, mostly urban, educated professionals who were always a part of these liberal democratic revolutionary mixes. The lawyers and the doctors, the accountants, the engineers, the students, the professors.


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[Assistant] A lot of them were true believers in democratic reform and the extension of civil rights and participatory government.


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[Assistant] They had been the types who had gotten in on the liberal clubs around the turn of the century, and then been frustrated when the authorities cracked down.


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[Assistant] The period after the recession of 1907 had been hard on them economically, and now their resentments were more acute than ever.


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[Assistant] But Madero was also able to increasingly call on working class supporters, who had also been hard hit since 1907.


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[Assistant] In particular, he got support from the artisan classes, who I have not talked much about, but like their counterparts in Europe, who we talk a lot about in 1848, Mexican artisans had been getting pummeled by industrial competition, much of that produce being brought in by new railroads.


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[Assistant] These artisans had long been independent, they'd been proud and literate, and they liked the idea of liberty and rights and participatory government, the kind of thing that Madero was preaching.


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[Assistant] But Madera was also getting support from the growing industrial working classes, from the miners and from the railroad workers.


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[Assistant] Madero would sprinkle his correspondence and speeches with references to the Cananea and Rio Blanco strikes as proof of the regime's political tyranny.


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[Assistant] But Madero did not actually have much of substance to offer these working class supporters.


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[Assistant] Despite the fact that Madero had long personally been a liberal with a social conscience, his employees and neighbors could attest to that, he was, and his movement was, essentially a political project.


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[Assistant] And we talked about this particular dynamic a lot in 1848, and now it's just playing out here in Mexico.


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[Assistant] Madero is out there primarily preaching democratic political reform as the necessary precondition for social and economic advancement.


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[Assistant] That the establishment of democracy was the goal. And everything else would just work itself out after that.


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[Assistant] And in fact far from attacking the Porfiriato's economic program, remember that's an area Madero specifically praised them for. Only regretting the sacrifice of political liberty.


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[Assistant] In fact, one of the things Madero said out there on the trail, partly to allay suspicions that he was a social revolutionary, was that the people did not want bread. They wanted liberty.


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[Assistant] But for the moment, this political message was more than enough to garner Madero a popular following. And in the spring of 1910, he went out again for another long speaking tour.


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[Assistant] And ultimately, over the course of about a year, Madero wound up visiting 22 of the 27 Mexican states in an almost unprecedented whirlwind of traveling as he whipped up the first truly national political campaign Mexico had practically ever seen.


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[Assistant] In April of 1910, the anti-re-electionists held a convention in Mexico City.


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[Assistant] And though a few of the delegates were arrested before they got there, the convention was allowed to proceed.


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[Assistant] Madero was nominated to be the presidential candidate, with Dr. Francisco Vazquez-Gomez, a prominent doctor and former Raista, nominated as vice president.


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[Assistant] Now at this point, Madero was himself a bit ambivalent about running directly against Dias, and so through intermediaries he arranged a personal meeting with President Dias to discuss whether a compromise could be reached.


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[Assistant] At this meeting, Madero offered to simply be Diaz's vice president, if Diaz promised free and open elections.


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[Assistant] But Díaz refused and Madero walked away convinced that Díaz was never going to give up power and never allow for real democratic elections in Mexico.


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[Assistant] Now when Dias and his advisor decided to drop all pretenses, I have not yet pinpointed, whether it was before or after this personal meeting.


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[Assistant] What I do know is that Madero then went off on one more speaking tour, now as an official candidate for president, and he was drawing crowds in the tens of thousands.


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[Assistant] Everywhere he went, there was enthusiasm, energy, and passion. He was a phenomenon. Local authorities did what they could to hinder him, to deny him access to public meeting spaces and things like that. But Madero kept on trucking right up to the day of the election, which was scheduled for the end of June, 1910. But for sure, by the end of June, 1910, Diaz had decided he was done playing games.


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[Assistant] After entering Monterey on June the 16th, 1910, Francisco Madero and a few members of his entourage were arrested. The charges were insulting the president and fomenting rebellion.


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[Assistant] As they would later find out. Madero himself was just the tip of the iceberg.


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[Assistant] In a coordinated roundup across Mexico, the authorities arrested party leaders and club members who were linked to the anti-re-electionist campaign.


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[Assistant] Conservative estimates put it at about 5,000 total arrests. More generous estimates say 60,000. So, probably somewhere in between those two numbers.


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[Assistant] In any case, with the election just a few days away, most of the anti-re-electionist party leaders were either in hiding or in jail. Including their presidential candidate.


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[Assistant] So of course, after this crackdown, election day came, replete with further accusations of fraud, intimidation, and corruption. Now try to contain your shock, but Porfirio Diaz was overwhelmingly re-elected president of Mexico.


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[Assistant] While sitting in jail, Madero came to the conclusion that maybe he was going to have to take all this to the next level.


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[Assistant] Dias had been lying about welcoming an opposition and democracy. This was an authoritarian regime that would never allow itself to be reformed from the inside.


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[Assistant] So possibly, it needed to be toppled from the outside.


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[Assistant] Madero was released on bail once the authorities believed the coast was clear, now that the election was safely over. But the coast was not clear. Madero was not yet ready to quit the field.


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[Assistant] Two months after his release from jail, he slipped out of town and headed north following the path of so many Mexican revolutionaries before him.


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[Assistant] But we will leave Madero there, and next week turn our attention to the critical state of Morelos. This heavily populated rural region full of sugar haciendas, dubbed the Planters Paradise, was not really ever connected to Madero's national movement.


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[Assistant] They had their own concerns, their own problems, and their own leaders. And when Madero's revolution came, they would launch their own revolution.


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[Assistant] But before we go, I want to remind you that the storm before the storm, the beginning of the end of the Roman Republic, comes out in paperback on October the 16th, 2018. And that in support of this, I will be doing my own little whirlwind speaking tour.


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[Assistant] October the 15th at Ben McNally's in Toronto, October the 16th at The Strand in New York City, October the 17th at Parnassus Books in Nashville, and finally October the 18th at an event at the Carter Library in Atlanta hosted by Acapella Books. I cannot wait to see you there.


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[Assistant] Hey there, I'm Chris Hayes from MSNBC. Thanks for watching MSNBC on YouTube. If you want to keep up to date with the videos we're putting out, you can click subscribe just below me or click over on this list to see lots of other great videos.


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[Assistant] This week's episode is brought to you by Audible. It's the time of year when everyone is thinking about thoughtful gifts.


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[Assistant] Well, think about giving yourself the gift of an audible membership. You'll be able to access an unbeatable selection of audiobooks, including bestsellers, motivational books, mysteries, thrillers, memoirs, and more.


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[Assistant] You can choose three titles every month, one audiobook, and two audible originals that you can't hear anywhere else. You can listen on any device, anytime, anywhere, at home, at the gym, on your commute, or just on the go.


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[Assistant] You'll also enjoy easy audiobook exchanges, rollover credits, and an audiobook library you get to keep forever even if you cancel your membership.


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[Assistant] Now even if you don't agree with Reid's politics, he was after all a passionately radical socialist, he's a great writer, providing a detailed first-hand account of revolution.


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[Assistant] We ended last time with Pancho Villa and his increasingly invincible Division del Norte smashing a federal army at the Battle of Tierra Banca, forcing the remainder of said federal army to evacuate Chihuahua City.


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[Assistant] With the city wide open, the Division del Norte moved down at the end of November 1913 and occupied the capital.


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[Assistant] Pancho Villa, who had started the year sitting in a dingy hotel room in El Paso, Texas, was then proclaimed governor of Chihuahua by a committee of revolutionary generals.


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[Assistant] From all their enemies on the run, the hacendados and the jefes politicos who had all evacuated with the federales, Pancho Villa was now the master of Chihuahua and he had all the resources of the state at his disposal.


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[Assistant] But he faced an enormous task, made even more enormous by the fact that he and his friends had zero experience running a government.


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[Assistant] Via Stinta's governor was by far the most revolutionary of all the revolutionary governments that had acquired power since 1911.


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[Assistant] Without a hugely sophisticated ideological program, Villa mostly just went about expanding and entrenching his Robin Hood and Avenging Angel routine. The enemies of the people were identified, and when found they were executed without fuss or apology, and with only the briefest of windows to lobby and appeal.


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[Assistant] But there was now a limit to stealing from the rich and giving to the poor.


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[Assistant] As long as the war was on, the state would then operate and exploit the profits of these estates to service the army.


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[Assistant] One third of it would be given back to villages and colonies that had been encroached upon by the aforementioned Mexican oligarchs. And one third would remain in state hands to generate revenue for the government.


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[Assistant] But all of this would happen after the war, and the principal beneficiaries would be those who fought in the war. If you sat on the sidelines, Via promised you nothing. If you didn't fight, then why should you benefit?


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[Assistant] So not unlike an old Roman warlord promising a parcel of land upon discharge from the army, Via created a massive incentive for men both to join his army and to fight relentlessly for victory.


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[Assistant] Via's ascension to power and mass confiscations were very controversial among the more conservative constitutionalists, especially the ostensible first chief, Carranza.


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[Assistant] Carranza kept trying to put a stop to the confiscation of the haciendas, but Via kept brushing his first chief off, always with effusive supplication, but brushed off nonetheless.


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[Assistant] Navia never wanted the responsibility of being governor. He wasn't really a politician.


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[Assistant] So after he organized Chihuahua to put the state at the disposal of the growing war machine that was the Division del Norte, he announced that he was ready to hand the reins of government over to Chao. He wrote a note to Carranza just after New Year, saying, Oh jefe, of course I will always follow your orders, and if you say Manuel Chao should be governor, then Chao shall be governor. I shall resign.


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[Assistant] So even though he resigned as governor of Chihuahua on January the 7th, 1914, Pancho Villa was still the most powerful man in Chihuahua, probably the entire north of Mexico, including First Chief Carranza.


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[Assistant] By the time he left office in January of 1914, Pancho Villa was probably the most popular revolutionary leader of any revolutionary leader at any point in the whole revolution.