An historical drama entitled The Stuarts conjures up all manner of enticing visions from past time: Charles I kneeling at the block; his son returned in triumph; James II in flight; a long drawn out coda of kings across the water and seedy continental exile. In fact the latest in Mike Walker’s epic chronicle (28 June) was largely focused on the early career of William III, formerly Prince of Orange and the complex series of manoeuvrings that, in 1688, brought him to the English throne.Our tour guide to these uncertain early days is his childhood chum Hans Willem Bentinck, later Earl of Portland, first found sorrowing over the tomb in which William and his wife Mary Stuart lie buried and wondering whether the friendship on which he prided himself was really only a case of beguilement