Alice Loxton

Now legend has it, 5,000 years ago, revered Chinese emperor and herbalist, Shennong, was relaxing under a camellia sinensis tree as his servants prepared some boiling water to be drunk.

As he did so, a leaf of the tree drifts off the branch and lands in the pot of boiling water.

But instead of throwing it away, Shenong takes a sip.

He tries this new concoction.

And there we have it.

Tea is born.

A huge moment.

Now, there are a few origin stories of how tea was invented, but this is probably the most famous of all.

But if we're going to be looking at the role that tea played in Britain's history, it actually starts much later in the 1600s.

So a time of civil wars, Puritans, roughs, people wearing those big wide-brimmed hats, the plagues, the Great Fire of London, that sort of thing.

And we're going to look at the year 1662.

The Portuguese princess Catherine of Braganza is sailing through storms and rolling seas.

She's in an English fleet travelling from Portugal to England for a pretty big moment in her life.

She's going to marry King Charles II of England, who, by the way, at this point, she's never actually met.

So pretty full on for her.

The thing about Catherine, though, she's only 23 years old.

She grew up next to a nunnery.

She's basically had this life of seclusion and strict religious studies.

She's got this reputation for being pretty pious and quiet, kind of a mousy figure, you might say.

Absolutely.