Episode list

Doctor Thorne

Episode #1.1

Sat, Mar 05, 2016
In 1850s Barsetshire kindly doctor Thorne has brought up his niece Mary, following her father's mysterious death twenty years earlier. Handsome Frank Gresham is in love with her but his snobbish mother Arabella and his aunt, the Countess de Courcy, are aristocrats who look down on her, causing the doctor to reveal to her her lowly origins. Frank's sister Augusta is marrying a boorish older man for money, not love, and Arabella, unlike her more reasonable husband, wants a similar match for Frank with eccentric heiress Miss Dunstable. For all their apparent wealth the Greshams are in debt to Dr Thorne's most illustrious patient, the drunken, dissolute parvenu, Sir Roger Scatcherd, who makes an enigmatic statement to Thorne, regarding his beneficiary and allowing the doctor to identify them.
7.3 /10
Episode #1.2

Sat, Mar 12, 2016
With the upcoming elections Sir Roger is the popular candidate but drink takes its toll and he passes away, telling Dr Thorne the beneficiary of his new will. His mercenary and equally alcoholic son Louis arrives but is only interested in his inheritance and - to her uncle's dismay - Mary. Frank is urged by his aunt and mother to propose to Miss Dunstable but she is astute enough to see that he loves Mary and turns him down, leaving Barchester. A displeased Lady Arabella unsuccessfully asks Dr Thorne to discourage Mary's friendship with her children, notably Frank, but the Greshams have another problem, Louis's new ownership, requiring the services of lawyer Mortimer Gazebee to advise them. Despite the opposition Mary accepts Frank's marriage proposal but Louis plans revenge.
7.5 /10
Episode #1.3

Sat, Mar 19, 2016
Louis Scatcherd arrives for dinner with the Greshams but he is tactless and drunk, reminding them of his newly acquired fortune and Dr Thorne has to get rid of him. Later the doctor learns that Scatcherd demands rent from the family or he will evict them. Only marriage to Mary will prevent him and, whilst Lady Arabella and her sister encourage it, Dr Thorne and Frank try to appeal to his - non-existent - better nature. Fortunately fate intervenes to ensure that all parties get what they deserve.
7.6 /10
Episode #1.4

Wed, May 18, 2016
While Frank and Mary plan their upcoming nuptials, Lady Arabella determines not to give up without a fight. She manages to persuade Mary that marrying Frank would be a selfish act, and that if she truly loves him she should set him free. Meanwhile, Louis is drinking as much as his father ever did, while struggling with his unpopular position in society and Mary's rejection. A troubled and destructive young man, he takes great pleasure in insulting the Greshams when they invite him for dinner.
8.4 /10

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Alhambra Decree 1492

Alhambra Decree 1492

On March 31, 1492, the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, Isabella and Ferdinand, issued the Alhambra Decree, an edict requiring the expulsion or conversion of all Jews from the Crowns of Castile and Aragon by July 31 of that year. The edict was issued shortly after Ferdinand and Isabella had won the Battle of Granada, completing the Catholic Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula from Islamic forces. As noted in the decree itself, it was issued to stop Jews from trying "to subvert the holy Catholic faith" by attempting to "draw faithful Christians away from their beliefs." Unfortunately, persecution by Catholics against the Jews of the Iberian Peninsula was not a new phenomenon in 1492. One hundred one years earlier, violence against the Jews of Castile erupted in what is known as the Massacre of 1391. After 4,000 Jews were murdered in Seville, the violence spread to more than 70 cities throughout Castile, resulting in the death of thousands of Jews while thousands others converted to Catholicism so their lives might be spared.Violence, persecution, and forced conversion continued against the Jews of the Iberian Peninsula into the 1400s. Because of that persecution, by 1415 more than half of the Jews of the crowns of Castile and Aragon had converted to Catholicism. But, because of the Spanish Inquisition, conversion did not guarantee the safety of former Jews in the region. Out of distrust by "Old Christians", popular revolts against the conversos broke out in 1449 and 1474. Jews who chose exile had to sell nearly all their possessions, taking only what they could carry. Whole communities packed up and left, their homes and sacred areas quickly reclaimed by the Catholic communities that remained. The expulsion led to mass migration of Jews from Spain to Italy, Greece, Turkey, North Africa, and the Mediterranean Basin. As a result of the Alhambra Decree, over 200,000 Jews converted to Catholicism, and between 40,000 and 100,000 were expelled.

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