Original subtitles

[Music]

the story of the kings and queens of

England is more surprising than you

might think it's a fine drama a thousand

years of tales of lust and betrayal a

parallelism and cruelty of mysteries

murders tragedies and triumphs but

there's more than that for example one

of the most reliable chronicles

describes how a king of England proposed

adopting Islam as the national religion

this episode the first of six includes

that tale it tells the story of the

English crown from 1066 to 1216 from one

French invader William to the next Louis

yes Louis another surprise a king of

England who's pretty much disappeared

from history it's easier to say where

the history of the English monarchy ends

than where it begins it ended on the

14th of October 1066 here at what became

battle Abbey on sin Lac Hill near

Hastings

we all know that this was where Harold

was killed and replaced by William the

conquerer and Harold was the last

Englishman to be crowned king from then

on the sovereign would always be from a

foreign family right down to Queen

Elizabeth the second

so a history of the kings and queens of

England isn't like the history of kings

and queens anywhere else in the world

what happened here on that October day

started a completely new history which

is why it's the one dating history that

everybody knows 1066 the story of that

day was spelled out in a strip cartoon

the Bayeux Tapestry probably stitched

for Williams brother odo here's our

heroes first appearance in the story

that's William Duke of Normandy about 37

years old in 1064 he's being told that

Harold Godwinson Earl of Wessex at the

time has been shipwrecked on the French

coast one of these guys is Godwinson I

think it's the chap with the handlebar

moustache he's about six years older

than William and the most powerful man

in England after King Edward these are

both pretty hard men survivors in a very

tough world

[Music]

Williams spent his whole life fighting

for survival and was good at it by the

time he was 20 he de stablished complete

control over Normandy from then on he

was fighting to hang on to what he had

he got Harold to help him in one of

those battles capturing mulsanne Michele

and then apparently as the price of

letting him go home had Harold swear to

support him in becoming the next king of

England which as the tapestry very

clearly shows is not what happened

[Applause]

[Music]

when old King Edward died Harold as we

all know had himself crowned instead

actually to be a bit more precise he had

himself elected King the crown of

England in those days was not inherited

but awarded in Williams view this had

all gone very badly wrong so he set

about putting it right

the Norwegian ruler Harald Hardrada

took a similar view there was an old

Norwegian claim to England which he

decided to revive by launching an

invasion of his own their two fleets

arrived within a few days of each other

one in the north of England one in the

south both fleets were probably about

the same size about 500 ships King

Harald rushed north and destroyed

hot-rodders army only about 34 ships

made it back to Norway then he rushed

south and this time of course he failed

to pull it off we don't know for sure

that the man with the arrow in his eye

is Harald but he certainly died at the

battle

he and his axe wielding spear carrying

army of Danish and anglo-saxon noblemen

was simply swept away in their place

were the new rulers of England Normans

on horseback and William was their

master master of the country he owned it

[Music]

he was not an elected King when he went

to London to be crowned on Christmas Day

the population thinking that was their

duty now tried to elect him there

claimed him with loud shouts the Normans

not knowing what was going on

thought this was some kind of uprising

they rushed out of Westminster Abbey and

burned London down England had become a

new kind of Kingdom one which was owned

locked stock and barrel by its King the

story were telling through this series

the story of a thousand years of English

history is the story of this alien

comprar and his successors to the throne

it's the story of how they changed

England and changed with it eventually

turning into puppet rulers symbols of

power they cannot wield and how in that

transformation they survived through

tides of revolution and republicanism so

that today while they're not quite the

only surviving Royals in Europe they

alone still they claim to majesty now

how did that happen

the story of Williams rain is really the

story of a warrior Lord taking all power

into his hands he confiscated all the

privately-owned land in the country its

new occupiers were tenants of the king

bound to him people of the north of

England with their Viking capital at

York were much more bound to Scandinavia

than to Normandy they refused to submit

he punished them by destroying all

animals and all crops between York and

Durham according to the Chronicles he

celebrated Christmas 1070 in the ruins

of York the inhabitants were reduced to

starvation even cannibalism 16 years

later when all the land in England was

accounted for and valued in his doomsday

survey there were places in Northumbria

that were still utterly worthless the

church too was made Norman and old

anglo-saxon ways crushed at Glastonbury

archers were stationed inside the abbey

and orders given that the old chants

should be replaced by new ones from

France

twenty-one monks was shot and yet there

were limits to his power

a few thousand Norman's most of them not

even understanding the language of their

new country couldn't run the place they

needed the English to keep everything

working and William understood that

perfectly well his coronation he made an

oath to uphold the laws of King Edward

to uphold good law and renounce bad the

old courts would continue to function

and old traditions would normally be

respected this oath would become

fundamental to the coronation of any

King the question though would be who

got to wear the crown when william died

bloated and exhausted at the ripe age of

sixty his attendants stripped his body

and scattered what mattered now was who

would hold the land he'd conquered and

how it had all been his and it was he

who decided on his deathbed in Normandy

he handed out the spoils he gave his

eldest surviving son Robert his Duchy of

Normandy but it was the younger son the

red-haired William William Rufus who the

Conqueror willed should be acclaimed

King of England and the youngest Henry

was told he would have to be content

with five thousand pounds but Henry was

his father's son content with five

thousand pounds was that likely

[Music]

the key to the plotting that followed

was that of course none of the brothers

was content

Henry stirred the brew of resentment

that made Robert try to take the kingdom

of England from William and William try

to take the Duchy of Normandy from

Robert and Henry was always changing

sides weakening them both

eventually Robert tiring of the whole

struggle decided it would be more

satisfying to fight Saracens and his

brothers and went off on crusade William

was now secure and powerful and Henry

changed his policy he was now William

Rufus his very best best friend the

Bishop of Lincoln later said that when

Henry praised anyone he was sure to be

plotting that person's destruction it

does seem as though Henry concentrated

on quietly stirring up discontent among

churchmen and barons in England which

was not hard as William Rufus needed

their money and had little to offer in

return except to give to some what he'd

taken from others

and besides William Rufus wasn't their

kind of chap he didn't marry he had no

children and as one Chronicle puts it

all things that are loathsome to God and

to earnest men were customary in this

land in his time and therefore he was

load some dwell my all his people and

abominable to God

which is of course homophobic chronicles

speak for being gay on the 2nd of August

in the air 1100 both William and Henry

were hunting separately in the new

forest it was the last day of William

Rufus's life no one knows who fired the

arrow that ended the reign of William

Rufus his companion Terrell immediately

fled and disappeared abroad

Williams body was abandoned where it

laid but a spot still marked by this

stone the next day local peasants took

it in a cart to Winchester Henry had

arrived before them Winchester was where

the Royal treasure was kept he demanded

the treasury keys from the guards they

refused to hand them over

saying that Robert his elder brother was

the rightful heir Henry drew his sword

and declared that no one should stand

between him and his father's scepter

resistance collapsed and when the

peasants arrived with their cart the

Lords of England were busy electing

Henry as their King the first elected

ruler of England since Harold Godwinson

[Music]

the Bishop of Winchester refused to give

the corpse a Christian burial out of

respect for his royal status William

Rufus was nevertheless interred under

the cathedral tower and when that

collapsed a few years later everyone

said Henry's coronation Westminster was

an attempt to ensure his authority to

rule he was 32 years old his father had

won the country by force of arms and his

barons backed him for rich rewards but

why would anyone want to King now

alongside his sanctification by the

church he issued a charter promising

that he would not overtax the church or

his tenants in chief and that they must

treat their tenants as he treated them

he claimed that the crown changed his

nature he was no longer an ordinary

human being as the anointed king he held

special divinely granted powers his

touch was supposed to cure scrofula

swollen neck glands from tuberculosis

this magic power which became known as

touching for the Kings evil was

practiced by English monarchs for the

next 700 years as proof of their divine

authority he also quite

smartly understood that it was a good

idea to promote new people to positions

of power those who were already great

barons didn't need a king but men on the

make would support him by the time

Robert was able to mount a challenge to

Henry it stood no chance he agreed to

recognize Henry as King of England in

exchange for pension of course it didn't

last henry ended up invading Normandy in

1106 and imprisoning his brother for the

rest of his life

this is his tomb in Gloucester Cathedral

the question of who was entitled to

succeed to the crown was still when you

came down to it a matter of brute force

but Henry's victory had a profound

symbolic meaning because it changed the

status of the English crown under his

father England had been a property

seized and owned by the Duke of Normandy

now Normandy was a property seized and

owned by the king of England Henry was a

naturally cheery person just after his

coronation he married Edith the daughter

of an English woman and as the king of

Scotland and he encouraged Normans he

was promoting to Mary English women the

great barons regarded this with contempt

and referred to their king and queen as

Godric and Godiva a style statement

which roughly translates as CID and

Gladys as sturdy warriors they also

didn't appreciate the fact that he was

literate in three languages his other

nickname on the book click means Henry

the SWOT but those great Baron's were

having their power undercut as Henry

recruited his government officers and

judges from the church he supervised his

kingdom by moving his court from one

Center to another it was a great

traveling performance like a circus with

no permanent home he spent half his time

in Normandy but when he was away the

Kingdom was run by a totally reliable

civil servant Roger the Bishop of

Salisbury who was called the Justitia

the idea of government by a system

rather than by a man was beginning to

take shape

he sent judges on their own tours of the

country and enforced the laws harshly

which seems to have been quite popular

according to The Chronicle ISM but his

punishments were often based on the idea

that people were guilty until proved

innocent and there was no time to do

that

where England's lanes really full of

blinded and mutilated men muttering but

fair you'd think so from the sources we

have they liked the strong King and he

managed to keep the Treasury well

stocked with money which meant he could

spy loyalty when he needed to the key to

this was his system for checking his

income twice a year at sheriffs and

royal officials from all over England

had to bring their money to be counted

by being shunted around in piles on a

checkered cloth like a chessboard

checked it was called the Exchequer the

system worked so well that the cabinet

minister in charge of the nation's

finances is still called the Chancellor

of the Exchequer and we still use paper

chitti's called checks by a combination

of force and diplomacy he controlled and

to some extent colonized Wales relations

with Scotland were fine three of his

wife's brothers became kings their

England was becoming a peaceful stable

and successful Kingdom

Henry sent his young daughter Matilda to

Germany to marry the Holy Roman Emperor

and in 1116 he held a great assembly at

Salisbury where all the Barons nobles

and bishops swore homage to his son

William as his successor to the crown in

1120 young William was a star an

enthusiastic warrior a keen Huntsman and

the heir apparent

he'd been in Normandy with his father

fighting the King of France and the

whole party was returning to England

William and his pals were travelling in

a brand new ship the white ship they

were the 12th century English jet-set

the millionaire Knightly lads who were

heirs to most of England and Normandy

once they got on the ship there was a

terrific party alcohol was taken and how

soon it became really rowdy the hooray

Henry's yelling at one another and

throwing off a bunch of priests who'd

come to bless the voyage William's

cousin Stephen of Guam had an upset

stomach and he felt he needed a bit of

peace and quiet so he decided to go

ashore and take a later ship by the time

they got to see it was already dark and

the other ships were way ahead the wind

was light William decided to catch up

with the King and ordered the chaps to

start rowing the master was as drunk as

anyone else so they began to speed into

the duck 50 oars pushing this

state-of-the-art longboat at a terrific

link that was when they sailed straight

into a rock and smashed the ship

The Rock of Buffalo was a well-known

hazard to navigation the cries of the

drowning company were heard on shore and

on the Kings ship but everyone thought

that party was still in full swing in

fact the future of England had just been

destroyed in the equivalent of a drunken

car crash it said that Henry never

smiled again you can see why six years

after the fatal crash not knowing what

else to do

Henry obliged the barons nobles and

bishops of England to swear fealty to

his daughter Matilda as his successor

just as he'd had them swear to his son

but there was of course a huge

difference no woman had ever ruled in

her own right in either England or

Normandy her husband the Emperor was

dead but for strategic reasons he had

Matilda marry the son of the count of

Anjou this was not a family with a power

base in England

Henri's sleep was filled with nightmares

of peasants and barons complaining that

he'd failed them all and then Henry went

and died of a surfeit of Lamprey's how

does that happen

a lamp tree is a parasitic fish that

looks as if it belongs in a bush tucker

trial Henry loved him his doctor had put

him on a diet that involved not eating

lampreys and he got a fever and died

after ignoring the advice and the doctor

said as doctors do I warned him by the

time Henry died in 1135 in Basel falling

apart he was 67 years old and he'd gone

a long way towards defining the job of

the King of England but the fundamental

problem who was entitled to that job had

still not been solved Matilda was in

Anjou her husband and then up on Stephen

wah who sailed from Normandy to England

and claimed the crown Stephen who had

been saved from drowning on the white

ship by an urgent need for a lavatory he

was the son of Henry's sister a

legitimate grandson of William the

Conqueror he'd also been the leading

Baron to swear fealty to Matilda as the

heir apparent but that was then and this

was now he was 38 years old backed by

his very tough mother and one of his

brothers was the Bishop of Winchester

with the keys to the royal treasury the

wife of the count of Anjou was not a

popular choice with the Barons Stephen

was a normal besides he seemed a

malleable sort of chap brave enough and

high-spirited he was also generous

courteous and affable and would probably

do as he was told which was of course a

recipe for disaster than was crowned by

the Archbishop of Canterbury at

Westminster on Christmas Day 1135 he

issued what was now the traditional

coronation oath promising to respect the

old laws and be nice to everyone

according to the anglo-saxon Chronicle

when they saw that the king was a

good-natured and kindly man who

inflicted no punishment they committed

all kinds of terrible

crimes ordered an homage and sworn oaths

of fealty but none were kept

meanwhile matilda was enraged and of

course had her own supporters england

was moving rapidly to civil war stephen

was insecure he surrounded himself with

people from near broth Fleming's which

didn't go down well with the Barons

he fought loyalty until it emptied the

Treasury and then began confiscating

property so that he could pay his

supporters by the time Matilda landed to

claim her throne in 1141 Stephen was

trying to put down rebellion after

rebellion he was a brave even ferocious

fighter but his support melted away and

he was captured in a battle at Lincoln

Stephen was Matilda's prisoner a church

council declared that he was deposed by

the manifest judgment of God and

recognized Matilda as Queen

Mathilda proceeded to Westminster and

was all set to be crowned and then

something went peculiarly wrong

something that carries an

extraordinarily clear message about the

job of being the monarch of England all

the Childers understanding of one if he

had been learned in Germany where she'd

been Empress since she was 12 years old

she had been popular and successful

there after the Emperor's death when

Henry the first had brought her back to

England some German princes of the

Empire followed her to demand her back

as their sovereignty but the sovereignty

she had learned was absolute power

the Emperor's will was law the only

possible higher law was the church that

was not how it worked in England even

the Conqueror had promised a dis

coronation to respect the laws of

England but Matilda flatly refused she

didn't need a coronation to be queen in

her view she already was she behaved

imperiously which might mean

magnificently in German but meant

intolerably in English and when the

citizens of London petitioned her for a

renewal of King Edward's laws she not

only refused to listen but demanded a

heavy tax from them so they threw her

out Stephen was released from prison and

resumed his battered kingship in fact he

had a second coronation Matilda roamed

around the Midlands in the West country

fighting for a throne that she was

entitled to but could never have

in 1143 just before Christmas Stephen

finally had her trapped and starving in

Oxford castle but unbelievably Matilda

and three Knights got away it had snowed

and that night dressed entirely in white

they dropped over the walls to the

frozen water below

they moved silent and invisible in the

fresh snow right through Stephens can

[Music]

it was another five years before

Mathilda gave up and returned to

Normandy but she simply handed the torch

to her son Henry who came to England

when he was 16 to carry on the struggle

so the fighting went on year of the year

and the country was in effect without

law and without government but the

anglo-saxon Chronicle said castles were

filled with Devils

and evil men Christ and all his sense

were asleep

Stephen naturally intended his own son

Eustace to succeed him

but in 1153 both Eustace and Stephens

wife fell ill and died Stephen had had

enough at the end of the year Stephen

and Henry wrote together into London

there the King proclaimed a new

foundation for the kingdom Henry was now

his own adopted son and would be his

successor as King of England

although Stephen would remain King for

life Henry would take over the

government immediately the next year

utterly worn out King Stephen retired to

his grave on the 19th of December 11:54

there was a double coronation in

Westminster Abbey the 21 year old henry

ii was crowned King and his 33 year old

wife Eleanor was crowned queen consort

Eleanor Duchess of Aquitaine knew all

about being a queen when she was 15

orphaned and the richest damsel in

France she was married to the heir to

the French throne and a few days later

the pair became king and queen of France

the King of France was a saintly figure

with perhaps a rather low sex drive

Eleanor came from a family of lordly

troubadours whose Court was dedicated to

interesting love affairs she later said

that she thought she'd married a man but

had married a monk she had a series of

affairs including one with Matilda's

husband Geoffrey of Anjou he rather

dashingly Waris

brigov broom planter janista in his hat

so people called him

Plantagenet eventually all the ovens the

whole family line wore it on their crest

she then had an affair with Geoffrey's

son the attractive young Henry a bright

well-educated athlete with vitality

intelligence freckles and money

according to a contemporary chronicler

Henry's father had warned his son offer

saying that she had been his lover and

she was the wife of Henry's overlord

Henry was Duke of Normandy but Geoffrey

died in 1151 and in 1152 Andra got

Eleanor pregnant lui who probably didn't

know that detail had their marriage

annulled and she married her toy boy of

course she did all she could to

encourage his efforts to become king of

England and make her a queen again the

coronation of 1154 must have been most

satisfying for her he didn't make his

mother's mistake of claiming to be above

the law instead maintaining proper form

he issued a charter confirming all the

liberties that were enforced under his

grandfather Henry the first the

combination of his lands and Eleanor's

meant that this King of England ruled

more than half of France though as the

vassal of the French King it would have

been too much for almost anyone but

Henry was a man of extraordinary

Restless energy who travelled vigorously

around his realms and would order his

court to hit the road with no notice

whatever

he got England up and running with

astonishing speed he had all newly built

castles destroyed so that individual

Lords could not stand against him and

got the law functioning again he

organised government into ministries

with the Chancellor of the Exchequer

playing the role we would now recognize

as Prime Minister the chap in question

was the son of a London merchant he was

Henry's closest friend and colleague

they joked and drank together and he

lived as the greatest Lord in the

country Thomas Becket between them they

reformed the currency finance government

and began the changes in the judicial

system that would lead to the system of

trial by jury England was beginning to

develop a commercial life towns were

growing the population was becoming

better educated the new system for

running Royal Courts asked groups of

local people often peasants to report

and decide the facts of the case the

system that had worked for the Conqueror

allowing the people to run their own

country was at the heart of Henry's way

of getting everything up and running

again perhaps that was why he needed a

Londoner at the heart of his government

the next stage in his reforms was to

reduce the power of the church which had

become the only functioning judicial

institution during the chaos of Stephens

Wars anyone accused of a crime who could

read a line of Latin was deemed to be a

church man that made them immune from

the royal court they could only be

judged and punished by the church of

course the church wouldn't agree to give

up its privileges so when the Archbishop

of Canterbury died in 1162 it seemed a

smart idea to install Thomas as the new

Archbishop then he would deliver the

church to Henry actually it seemed a

pretty terrible idea to Matilda who

warned Henry not to do it

what did his mother know look what a

mess she'd made of things Elinor was

also against it and she hadn't made a

mess of anything she'd been a very

competent regent when Henry had been

abroad and must have seen what Henry had

not seen that Thomas Beckett's driving

force was not loyalty to Henry Oh surely

not she was just jealous that Henry

spent

time with Thomas than with her Henry was

sure it was a really good idea of course

it was a really bad idea

why did Becket become fanatically

committed to the church as soon as he

got the job why did he wear Hessian

underwear with lice and lash his body

why did he oppose the king's plans more

fiercely than any other bishop he ended

up excommunicating the bishops of London

and Salisbury and sacking the Archbishop

of York for not opposing the king he'd

already acquired all the earthly power

and wealth possible now he had a bigger

ambition he was arguing that the church

must rule everyone including the king

this was especially dangerous as Becket

was hugely popular Henry was given two

rages and the situation was bound to

enrage him who will rid me of this

turbulent priest on the 29th of December

11:17 four of henry's loyal Knights did

just that slicing off the top of his

head at the altar of his Cathedral in

the words of an eyewitness the red of

the blood mixed with the white of the

brains like white of the lily and the

rid of the Rose this was shopping

Henry had to distance himself from

Beckett's murder and win the hearts and

minds of his subjects

[Music]

Beckett was immediately the most popular

martyr in the country a hundred thousand

pilgrims flock to the site of his death

he would obviously be made a saint as

soon as possible the danger of course

was that the Pope would excommunicate

Henry and pronounced an anathema against

him as the murderer of England's primate

the population would turn against him in

England and the King of France would

seize his vast lands across the channel

Henry immediately fasted went into

extravagant mourning and then did

penance prostrating himself before the

Canterbury altar he was publicly lashed

by a monk

it worked he saved his kingdom from the

Pope saving it from Eleanor was much

more difficult

Eleanor and Henry had drifted apart

partly because of his love affairs and

partly because she feared that Henry's

adventure with Becket threatened her own

beloved Aquitaine she had gone back

there she set up her own Court the court

of love and that was where she raised

her sons as romantic warriors and voted

against him

Henry imprisoned her there for sixteen

years but her plots continued unabated

she supported her older sons in

rebellion against England trying not

only to ensure her control over her own

land but to take over from him the only

one who remained loyal was John the

youngest in 1189 the oldest surviving

son Richard inflicted a major defeat on

his father Henry met Richard near the

Loire to arrange peace terms but when

they publicly embraced Henry quietly

growled

may the Lord spare me until I've taken

vengeance on you ii had been defeated in

battle by his own eldest surviving son

richard only one of his sons had

remained loyal the youngest john back in

his own chateau Henry asked for all

Richard's supporters to be read out the

first name on the list was John's Henry

was heartbroken he died in delirium a

few days later

[Music]

Elinor's imprisonment was over

Henry had recognized Richard as his heir

and Richard intended Elinor to rule

England he had more important things to

do

crusade

[Music]

Eleanor had been on crusade when she was

young as the wife of the King of France

but also as the leader of her own feudal

Army and now the Saracens had recon for

Jerusalem Richard the romantic Richard

the Lionheart was a totally fearless

warrior whose whole upbringing had been

based on Eleanor's idea of chivalry poet

and swordsman Christian Knight and

tournament hero a handsome and dashing

leader of armies Richard tried to live

out the fantasy life of one of the

heroes of Arthurian literature from the

stories told and sung in the court of

love he came to London for his

coronation but only so that he could

collect the funds to pay for his great

crusade to recover Jerusalem from

Saladin he went off on his crusade

declaring that he would sell London if

he could find a buyer

[Music]

the crusade itself the Third Crusade was

a sequence of great heroic and daring

actions that completely failed to

conquer Jerusalem associated with bursts

of extreme brutality Saladin quite

rightly pointed out that while Richard

might be able to get an army into the

city if he wanted to hold on to it he

would have to spend the rest of his life

there the two men never met but they

fascinated and respected each other when

Richard was ill Saladin sent his doctor

the final truce ensured that Christian

pilgrims would be free to visit the holy

city but that had actually been

Saladin's policy before the crusade even

began Richard typically decided to make

the journey home in 1192 into an

adventure traveling alone and in

disguise that was how he got captured

and ended up imprisoned by Duke Leopold

of Austria a man he'd repeatedly

insulted during the Crusade the king of

England had been found in an inn in

Vienna unconvincingly disguised as a

kitchen knave the Ransom Leopold demand

it was a hundred thousand pounds about

eight years income to the exchange rate

lessness was crippling for the kingdom

and eventually fatal for him as a

storybook hero he always seems to have

expected a happy ending and would

sometimes even forget to put on armor

that was how he got killed in the end

taking a stupid chance at an unimportant

siege in 1199 a crossbow bolt wound

became infected while he was dying the

man who'd loosed the shot was captured

and delivered to him and Richard carried

on behaving as they was in a storybook

making a great gesture of releasing the

man and giving him money Richard had no

heir he named his brother the 32 year

old John as his successor Richard age 41

died in his mother's arms

England's hero king who detested the

country and had spent six months of his

reign there and the man who'd killed him

was really delighted

his little brother John was never meant

to be king his father had called him

John Lackland because there was

originally no part of the huge on driven

Empire left for him and the three

problems that lurked at the core of

monarchy in England now became crises

how did succession work what was the

balance between the king of the church

and what legal limits existed on royal

power especially when it came to taxes

to begin with was he really Richard's

proper successor one of his elder

brothers Geoffrey had died leaving a son

Arthur and there were barons in our shoe

and Maine who argued that this thirteen

year old was the proper successor they

were supported by Philip king of France

the only way to settle a succession

dispute was by violence so John went to

war his men captured the boy and he was

never seen again

it was generally believed that John

drowned him which was the wrong way to

solve the problem

he'd guaranteed that Arthur would not be

king but it left a very nasty smell it

didn't stop the King of France from

keeping the war going and by 12:05 John

was driven out of most of France

including Aquitaine and even Normandy

the issue of church power also came up

again it was John's bad luck to be

confronted by an exceptionally militant

and aggressive Pope Innocent the third

innocent maintained that Kings had to

submit to Pope's

when the Archbishop of Canterbury died

innocent announced that Stephen Langton

who happened to be English was the new

Archbishop John refused to accept the

Pope's man

Rome wouldn't give ground and neither

would John in 1209 the Vatican

excommunicated the king of England and

his whole kingdom back in England John

attempted to carry on regardless the

Pope declared John deposed and that

anyone who even spoke to him was

excommunicated according to one

chronicler John decided at this point to

join the enemy in 1213 he sent a

delegation to the Emir of Morocco

offering to adopt Islam and turn England

into an Islamic country in return for

protection that would have turned

history upside down is it true the air

according to the story told the envoy's

not to be such silly in fact John was

reduced to total surrender the Pope

demanded that he submit himself as a

vassal of the church and that England

should become a papal fief instead of a

sovereign Kingdom so in 1213 Stephen

Langton the new Archbishop of Canterbury

took up his post as a representative of

the new overlord of England in that

capacity he decided to sort out the

third issue the limits of the Kings

power over his subjects

barons were now virtually an organized

political party this is the seal of the

barons of London Langton presented them

with the Charter issued by Henry the

first and suggested that they demand

something along the same lines but a bit

clearer the Magna Carta this famous

document was signed in June 1215 John

and Richard had both tried to meet their

costs by massive increases in feudal

dues and legal charges and most of the

Magna Carta is an effort to reverse

these

but there are also other clauses that

show that Langton and the Barons thought

that laws must bind the king himself as

well as everyone else there was a notion

of proper kingship in England and the

Magna Carta tried to spell out what that

meant

if Langton had not been an Englishman

the Magna Carta would probably have

looked very different and it was

certainly incomprehensible to Pope

Innocent who saw it as a baffling and

immoral limitation on the absolute power

of the feudal lord of england who was of

course himself so innocent issued a

papal bull excommunicating anyone who

stood by or tried to carry out Magna

Carta and Stephen Langton found himself

suspended from his job and recalled to

Rome and John marched through England at

the head of an army composed largely of

foreign troops crushing the Barons and

destroying their property and that's why

the Barons went to France and got a new

king of their own Louis the son of the

King of France and so came the second

French invasion of England in 1216 it

was about the same size as the invasion

of 1066 and Louie landed unopposed he

was greeted with general enthusiasm and

was hailed as King of England in a

high-mass at some Paul's Cathedral he

set up his own government and his army

began its pursuit of John's twinkling

forces John was assembling an army to

stage the great final battle and was

travelling along the seashore from Lynne

to Lincolnshire a miscalculation of the

tide was all he needed his whole

baggage-train was washed away including

his treasure and the crown jewels

distraught broken he made his way to an

a Viet swine's head where he was

comforted with the monks latest

experiment in beer-making which seems to

have brought on dysentery fever and

death Louis the first and last the king

no one's ever heard of now controlled

most of the country but the story of

what happened to him and how his memory

was erased as to wait for the next

episode the story continues with the

medieval kings and queens of England

tonight at 10:00 and to find out more

about Thomas Beckett's life and murder

sky digital viewers press read coming up

on UK TV history decisive weapons what a

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