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 of

heroism and cruelty of mysteries murders

tragedies and

triumphs

but there's more than that this episode

begins with a king of England who ruled

for over a year but who simply vanished

from the record and it ends with a boy

whose claim to the throne was based on

fictions that became historical

Orthodoxy we begin in the year 1216 in

the reign of King Louie of England yes

King Louie not the most famous King of

England at the request of the Barons and

with the the enthusiastic support of the

population of London he'd come to

England from France to take over the

crown from John and John struggling to

fight back had fallen ill and died Louie

who' been acclaimed King at a mass in s

Paul's cedral now had the throne to

himself he had no coronation as the

Bishops had been excommunicated but

rulers are created in England by

acclamation not coronation which is why

the uncrowned Edward VII was a king and

Lady Jane gray who did have a coronation

was not

Queen and Louie got rubbed out of the

list of England's monarchs because his

acclamation was with hindsight

withdrawn that was because the Barons

had not expected Louie to appoint his

friends from France and Flanders as his

chief counselors they'd expected to be

given much more control over what went

on and then they thought there's a

better option John had a 9-year-old son

Henry of course no child had ever been

King but there's a first time for

everything and if the King was a child

and one of the Barons was Regent then

the Barons really would be running

things of course Louie controlled London

but the child was at cor castle and they

could at least get him to the nearest

Abbey Gloucester to Crown Him of course

they didn't have the crown but they

could use his mother's gold

neckband actually they didn't have an

Archbishop available to do the

coronation never mind the bishop of

Winchester was available and had the

keys to the treasury it wasn't a well

attended ceremony not even all of John's

Executives could get there but it would

have to

[Music]

do naturally little Henry III was not

actually exercising the powers of King

that was the job of a baron the Regent

the chap that got the job was a 17

yearold Earl of Pembrook William

Marshall a safe Pair of Hands if ever

there was one Old Faithful Marshall had

long ago been a bold young Knight in the

days of Henry the the child's

grandfather he'd worked his way up the

greasy pole of advancement by the simple

if very unusual principle of loyalty to

his Lord and total

trustworthiness everyone trusted him and

now the Barons expected him to get rid

of Louie and rule on behalf of little

Henry and Louie was roundly defeated in

the end he agreed to go back to France

and agree he'd never been King of

England at all and all the Barons and

Bishops who declaimed him as king agreed

that they'd never done anything of the

sort everyone became patriotic for the

first time since the Norman Conquest the

French were being described as

foreigners looting the English the

Barons all spoke French and they had

nothing in common with the villains on

their lands

but they were beginning to feel English

and William Marshall reissued Magna

carter and said that all the old laws

and rights of England were exactly what

Henry III wanted to

uphold William Marshall died the grand

old hero of England in 1219 and Henry

was given a proper coronation at

Westminster the following

year as Henry grew up the Barons and

Bishops had no intention of letting him

get away from them he learned to do as

he was told and that pretty much defined

him as a king what the Barons and the

Bishops hadn't thought about was that

one day he would be listening not to

them but to his wife perhaps one of them

should have married him instead in 1236

he married Elena a younger daughter of

the count of provance he was 29 she was

about 19 and she wrapped him round her

finger she arrived with her Uncle who

who immediately started running the

King's life and carted huge amounts of

treasure off to his homeland then she

got another Uncle installed as

Archbishop of Canterbury her physician

became the bishop of Durham and large

sums of money supposedly going to her

mother were actually funding the wars of

her brother-in-law the Duke of

onju she was inevitably staggeringly

unpopular and however little money the

king had he always seemed able to

support her relatives abroad paying for

their courts and their

armies in 1263 the population of London

Rose in Rebellion their targets were

Flemish Bankers Jewish financiers and

queen Elena she was in the Tower of

London London's Royal Palace and got

away from the Watergate to slip down the

TS to Windsor as her boat approached

London Bridge she was pelted with

missiles by a crowd shouting drown the

witch she managed to get back to the

safety of the

tower the kingdom had become

ungovernable at least by this king and

queen this was not the same country it

had been in

1066 towns had grown trade had grown

London had grown with the baron losing

influence and London's angry the crown

itself was in danger England was on the

edge of

Revolution enter the

Revolutionary a Frenchman on the make

the Charming clever younger son of a

powerful and ruthless Norman Lord a

chancer with style Simon De

monford France was now ruled by King

Lou's Widow on behalf of their young son

she was a shrewd woman who decided that

young Simon was dangerous stuff and

forced him to escape abroad he'd come to

England in 1231 when he was about 23

intending to recover land his family had

lost years ago and he was really good at

it he became the best of friends with

the impressionable Henry in no time and

Henry's sister fell for him in 1238 they

were married and he was given back those

lost family lands he was Earl of

Lester the English were suspicious of

foreigners so Simon completely converted

into an

Englishman in 1239 Henry and Elena had a

son Simon sponsored the baptism

they chose the name Edward after the

great Anglo-Saxon King Edward the

Confessor this French royal family had

adopted English

patriotism but as the political crisis

deepened Simon became increasingly

committed to the total reform of

government eventually the crisis became

a full-blooded Civil War and by the time

the war ended in

1264 Henry and his son Edward were Simon

prisoners and he took over the

country Simon Now set about inventing an

entirely new form of government one

which was based on the deeply rooted

English principle of

consent in 1265 he summoned a meeting of

the country a parliament at Westminster

to endorse his government he summoned

not only Barons and Bishops but also two

knights from each sh and most

extraordinary representatives from all

the burough the towns he said he was

acting in the king's name but the king

didn't have much to do with what was

going on in fact Simon had established

what we might see as a modern State

there was a written Constitution a

symbolic King a powerful leading

Minister and there was a parliament with

representatives of the church the

countryside represented by great land

owners and gentry and of towns we might

see it like that they didn't to most

people at the time this was clearly the

tyranny of Simon De monford by now

Prince Edward was a grown man 25 years

old and it was his job to overthrow this

tyranny and restore the

crown first of course he had to escape

imprisonment at heret

Castle the prince was allowed to

exercise his horse on the common so he

wore out his guard's horses racing with

them

and then jumped onto a fresh horse that

had been brought for the purpose and

disappeared into the

distance What followed is known as the

Battle of eam at the end of which Simon

De monford was chopped up into

pieces Henry was back on his throne but

it was Edward who was now running the

country This Tall muscular Warrior he

was called long Shanks had the military

skill to crush the remaining Rebels and

the good good sense not to punish them

afterwards he understood how to make

peace and accepted the proposition that

the king must respect legal limits on

his power and consult with the

nation he also habitually spoke English

the first Royal to do so since

1066 Parliament made him the steward of

England deont for's Revolution had left

its

mark

the Old King died in 1272 having reigned

for 56

years Edward's main interest in life was

chivalry and warfare his natural costume

was armor it had been since he was a

child when Henry Died Edward was out of

the country on

Crusade he came home to be crowned with

his Queen yet another Elena in

1273 the daughter of the king of Castile

she'd already borne Edward six

children they would have 10

more England now had something like a

settled system of government Edward

confirmed the existing Charters

including Magna carter and was able to

leave the business of government and

Justice to his Council and judges his

main concern was how to gather the money

to conduct his military interests

without provoking more rebellions he hit

on a brilliant policy he invented

nationalism to demonstrate that his

kingship was rooted in English tradition

he and Ellena conducted the most

remarkable ceremony at glastenbury in

1278 90 the monks of glastenbury had

found Graves which were believed to be

those of King Arthur and queen

gwi the bones had been placed in the

lady Chapel

now 88 years later King Edward carried

the bones of Arthur and queen Elena

those of Quin they put the legendary

remains in a magnificent tomb in the

main Church Edward presented himself as

a new

Arthur all this was part of a wider

campaign to give his kingship the power

of myth and so unite the country behind

him this Unity was going to be needed

when he claimed Supremacy over all Wales

it worked when the Welsh princes

rejected his claim he was able to raise

the money to make an enormous military

effort he became the first English king

to totally conquer this mountainous

territory one of its princes thellin was

killed in battle his head was mounted on

the Tower of

London the other David was put on trial

for treason before Parliament and

sentenced to be drawn hanged beheaded

and

quartered this was a savagery previously

unknown in English

law the English system of shes and

hundreds was now extended to cover all

Wales and the conquest was emphasized by

huge state-of-the-art royal castles like

this one at

canavan Edward's warchest was based on a

new source of Royal Finance in

1275 Parliament granted him the right to

charge Customs d ities on wool see how

useful it was having a parliament with

Merchants to agree to

taxes nevertheless popular Rhymes

suggested trouble was brewing the king

he wants to get our gold the queen would

like our lands to

hold his War chest had come from Jewish

money lenders but now they had no more

to give never mind the Jews could serve

another purpose Italian Bankers would

provide advances on the customs duties

and collect the taxes themselves and

Edward could unite the country behind

him in persecuting the

Jews 650 years later the Third Reich

would adopt his entire

program first Edward decreed that they

were a threat to the country their

movements and activities were restricted

to identify them easily all Jews were

obliged to wear a yellow patch in the

shape of a star next here arrested all

the heads of Jewish households over 300

were taken to the Tower of London and

executed While others were murdered in

their

homes finally in 1290 the king banished

all Jews from the country by now the

armored Overlord was a national hero

when his wife Queen Elena died in the

same year worn out by childbirths his

own grief was turned into a major

display of national mourning her her

body was ceremonially carried from

Lincoln to Westminster and a memorial

cross erected at every one of the 12

resting places including here at sharing

in London sharing

cross it was time to enlarge the kingdom

again in 1296 he led an army to enforce

his claim to Scotland Edinburough was

seized and the King of Scotland stripped

of his crown was imprisoned in the Tower

of London Scottish kings were crowned

enthroned on the stone of schoon or

stone of

Destiny Edward had it moved to London

and put in the coronation chair in

Westminster

Abbey Edward appointed a trio of

Englishmen to run the

country actually his rule in Scotland

was not noticeably harsh or unjust but

that was beside the point his own

Conjuring of the demon of nationalism

was turning against him ordinary Scots

began to discover a feeling of national

identity a popular Scottish resistance

movement grew led by William Wallace

better known nowadays outside Scotland

at least as

Braveheart most of Scotland had broken

free before he was

defeated and then in 1306 Rebellion

began again and Robert the Bruce was

crowned King of

Scotland by now Edward the Hammer of the

Scots was old and sick he tried to lead

an army back into Scotland but it became

obvious he'd never get there a few miles

north of carile on his deathbed he gave

instructions to his 23-year-old Heir

Edward Prince of Wales a 100 Knights

were to Crusade carrying his heart the

Army should carry his bones to defeat

Scotland and the prince was not to have

anything further to do with his very

very close friend Piers

gaveston the King was dead Edward

II was ready to party Edward was

physically tall and muscular but his

similarity to his father ended there he

had no interest in being a

warlord his father had taken him on

campaign but the prince traveled with a

pet lion and a troop of genoise

Fiddlers Edward the first had tried to

change his character by assigning him a

charismatic Squire who was good at

tournaments this had backfired

spectacularly Edward and Pier

gavon had fallen in

love gavon was banished but obviously he

was now coming back gavon was an elegant

Charming artistic Man Who Loved showing

off his power over Edward and could

still easily beat more Macho men in

tournaments this was a recipe for a

short

life before his coronation Edward

married Isabella the sister of the king

of France then gaveston was seen wearing

Isabella's wedding

jewelry at the coronation he showed up

carrying the crown wearing royal purple

and Pearls some of the Barons wanted to

kill him on the

spot eventually of course they did kill

him here at black low Hill in warshire

having chased the king and peers round

the country and then Robert Bruce

Renegade King of Scotland set about

completing his war of independence he

captured Edinburgh and besieged the last

English stronghold

Sterling in 1314 Edward II set out to

relieve the

city the battle at vanern just outside

the castle was a total disaster for the

English Edward's troubles were made

worse by the fact that the climate which

had been benign for about a 100 years

took a dramatic and long-term turn for

the worse in

1315 as harvests failed and cattle died

the Barons said that his extravagance

and lack of Direction was intolerable so

the grown-ups took

over the Earl of Lancaster head of the

council was now acting as king keeping

Edward on a daily allowance of

£10 but he still had friends he turned

to Hugh dispenser and his son dispenser

was the only nobleman who had supported

gaveston eventually they managed to help

him break free of the power of Lester

and the other great Nobles but no one

had a solution to the unending run of

bad harvests and the apparent enthusiasm

of the dispensers to enrich themselves

made Edward's rule deeply unpopular

especially with his Queen Isabella in

1325 she got away to France and refused

to come home unless the dispensers were

thrown

out worse she'd Fallen passionately in

love with an ally of lesters who was

hiding out in France Roger

Mortimer Isabella and Mortimer gathered

an army and invaded England in September

1326 as homophobia turned into mob rule

Isabella and Mortimer were joyously

welcomed to

London in a few months it was all over

the Elder dispenser almost 90 years old

was hanged without being given time to

take off his armor the younger had his

genitals cut off then he was

disembed the object was for Isabella and

Mortimer to rule in the name of her

14-year-old son but the boy refused to

accept the crown without his father's

consent so Edward dressed in black was

deposed in a solemn ceremony the steward

of his household broke his staff of

office he he broke down and

cried he was eventually moved to Barkley

castle where he was encouraged to die as

soon as possible he was denied

sufficient food and clothing he was

prevented from sleeping he was crowned

with a crown of hay and shaved with

Ditch waterer Isabella generally known

as the She Wolf of France reproved the

guards for their mild treatment since he

would not die by himself he was murdered

in his bed on the 2st of September it

said that he was raped with a red hot

poker his dying shrieks were heard

throughout the castle a homophobia had

allowed Isabella and her lover Mortimer

to brutally and illegally depose Edward

II that didn't make them Heroes for long

Edward III in whose name they ruled was

their prisoner but in 1320 when he was

18 he broke free they were staying in

Nottingham and he put together a plot to

lead a band of armed men into the castle

through an underground passage They

seized Mortimer and Isabella Mortimer

was hanged Isabella shut away in Castle

rising in

[Music]

Norfolk and England had a king again law

and proper government would be resumed

under a handsome young man properly

entitled to the throne who also happened

to be a fine chivalrous Knight who spoke

English French and German and who was

already married with a baby son what

could be better than

that how about a good War Edward decided

on the most extraordinary and

significant military campaign since the

Norman

Conquest he announced that by the laws

of inheritance he was the rightful

successor to the throne of

France it was rubbish he wasn't but he

certainly meant to be and in 1337 he

began preparing his

invasion actually there were two genuine

reasons for this and neither had

anything to do with the law of

succession one was that the French were

supporting the Scots and so long as that

continued the king of England would

never be master of

Scotland and Northern England would be

constantly threatened by Raiders looters

and Scottish

armies the other was that England was

now a busy commercial country selling

wool to Flemish Weavers in

1336 Philip of France decided to take

control of this trade he arrested all

English merchants in Flanders and took

away the Privileges of the Flemish towns

and the craft guilds English merchants

pointed out that they lost their income

the king had lost his customs duties the

kingdom had lost its foreign

trade the coast on the far side of the

channel was vital to English security

and prosperity whatever the the cost it

must be kept

open the same imperative would force

Britain to war against Napoleon against

the Kaiser against Hitler Edward was the

first to have to face it his solution

was to claim France and break

it this little campaign is known to

history as the 100 Years

War but this war actually changed the

nature of the king's job because it

acquired a new kind of army ever since

William the Conqueror the idea had been

that in exchange for their landholdings

Lords and knights were supposed to turn

up in arms and fight for the king when

they were needed but this didn't work

very well for a war overseas firstly a

knight's service was only meant to be

for 40 days at a time that doesn't work

with a 100 Years War secondly many

Knights felt that they shouldn't be

obliged to go overseas at all they were

probably right and thirdly they weren't

necessarily fighting men anymore so

Edward needed to have a professional

Army Knights who didn't want to serve

didn't have to they could pay a tax

called scoot that would allow Edward to

hire professionals mercenaries were

quick to see the opportunity for plunder

and Ransom and joined up and freed from

the need to Pander to Nightly good

manners on the battlefield Edward hired

thousands of effective deadly archers

from the lower classes instead of being

a feudal Warlord the King was now a

professional

Commander he invaded Normandy in 1346

and his professionals destroyed the

old-fashioned feudal Knights of France

at cresi opening up that vital

Coast Cal held out and when it

eventually surrendered Edward announced

that it must be

punished the city Keys must be handed

over by Six leading Burgers Barefoot

with nooses around their necks to be

hanged when they arrived the queen

publicly fell on her knees and pleaded

for the Burger's lives which of course

Edward

granted this Splendid pantomime was part

of the theater of royalty which Edward

was now developing to a magnificent art

the life of the King was being turned

into a public performance his court was

the home of chivalry and his Lords and

knights were given Parts in the drama it

was a brilliant device for Binding

Together War Taxation and

loyalty the queen was as important in

this as the king she led the ladies of

the Court the judges of chivalric

behavior and she was the source of Mercy

tempering her husband's

Justice this was a religious image

people were encouraged to show Devotion

to the Virgin Mary the Queen of Heaven

who would intercede and offer protection

against Divine

judgment intercession was desperately

needed by people who believed that God

punished them with

death death arrived at Waymouth in June

1348 Black Death in less than a year the

whole country was stricken no one could

have understood what was happening once

a person was infected large foul

smelling swellings developed in the

groin neck and armpit death followed

within 2 or 3

days the disease killed more than a

third of the population and by 1350 the

population of England was half that of

1315 in the midst of the dying the

theater of royalty grew grander Edward

created the order of the gter where two

tournament teams played out in Arthurian

drama based on St George's Chapel at

Windsor the the castle was rebuilt for

the

show with the nobility bound to him by

chivalric dreams and the shes and towns

granting funds for the war in Parliament

the French War could still go

on another decisive victory at puer in

1356 brought France to the point of

disintegration but by now the war

couldn't be ended the nobility and

troops saw endless V of plunder while

the king's only chance of income came

not from his withered population but

from Rich ransoms this war would last

100

years by the time Edward died in 1377 65

years old the townsmen and peasants of

England were sick of the whole thing the

king's oldest son Edward the black

prince had been the flower of chivalry

and hugely popular but he died a year

before the

king the successor to the throne was the

Black Prince's 10-year-old son

Richard real power though lay with

Richard's Uncle John of

[Music]

gaunt the war had by now turned against

England the French were ravaging the

English Coast the shrunken working

population demanded proper wages they

had no interest in performing feudal

duties on the land while desperate land

owners needed more than ever to enforce

them gaunt's government needed money and

tried to raise it from a pole tax not

understanding that the population was

Far smaller than before when they failed

to raise the money they'd expected they

tried again and England erupted Lords

Nobles bishops get rid of them all who

needs them when Adam delved and Eve span

who was then the gentle

man the so-called peasants Revolt of

1381 was actually an uprising of the

respectable people of towns and Villages

across England its aim at least for the

rebels that captured London was an end

to lordship in church and state just one

Archbishop and a king

specifically not they added a king

called John they detested John of gaunt

who went into

Heidi the dramatic moment of course was

the meeting of Richard and the rebels at

Smithfield on the 14th of June the rebel

leader wat Tyler was talking to the king

when the mayor of London cut him down

the rebels immediately Drew their bows

and the King now 14 years old rode

forward to calm

them

I will be your captain come with me into

the fields and you shall have all you

ask and they dispersed as he told them

it was an astonishing lesson in the

mysterious power of

kingship the rebels should never have

trusted him of course once the danger

was passed the ring leaders were hunted

down and

killed villain ye are and villains ye

shall remain

remain you later when Richard would need

popular support he would find he had

none but Richard had been given a

dramatic vision of himself he seems to

have been convinced that the basis of

his power lay in the special authority

of

sovereignty he was the first English

king to have portraits made instead of

Wars he offered tournaments accompanied

by music and dancing with the ladies of

the

court but Richard's choice of companions

were not the kind of men that most

Barons approved of and above all Richard

abandoned the war with France leaving

France in control of

Flanders unpleasant references were made

to Edward II and look what happened to

him he found himself up against a group

of noblemen who called themselves the

Lord's appellant appealing to have his

closest advisor removed and take over

the government which is what happened

Richard was effectively de throned he

was able to recover power in 1397 as

part of his efforts to secure his throne

he exiled Henry Bolingbrook John of

gun's son but Bolingbrook came back with

a vengeance and Richard found that

wherever he turned for support it simply

wasn't there balling Brook captured him

demanded his voluntary abdication and

then sat on his throne Richard

disappeared into a prison in pontif

castle where he was murdered Richard had

no children the line of the black prince

Edward III's eldest son had come to an

end the proper heir to the throne was an

8-year-old boy called Edmund living in

Ireland the great grandson of King

Edward's Second

Son Henry's father was the third son so

Henry was certainly not heir to the

throne

[Music]

but he was a big man with a big red

beard and a big army and he was sitting

right there in England on the throne not

in Ireland not 8 years old so Parliament

decided that he was very definitely

fully entitled to be king of England oh

yes Edmund spent the whole of Bing

Brook's reign as a well-maintained

prisoner

Henry was the first king to speak

English as his native tongue he was

personable Brave and a very capable

leader in battle but without legitimacy

he was clinging to Power by his

fingernails anyone who doubted Bing

Brook's right to be king of England

could expect to be part hanged and then

have their intestines pulled out before

being

killed his regime became ever more

repressive as he became more worried

there was an uprising in the north which

he put down with real ferocity it was

said that he personally killed 30 men in

battle and the air hung heavy with the

smoke of burning flesh as the English

church under this new regime began

burning

Heretics the usurper needed to rule by

fear but the most frightened person in

England was him who'd seized the throne

and killed King Richard was a frightened

man he made himself sick with worry

sometimes he sank into a coma people

said he had leprosy government was taken

over by his son also called Henry a

young man who'd grown up fighting on his

father's behalf in fact Parliament

suggested that the king abdicate in his

son's favor which he refused to do in

1413 the Grim Reaper came with a more

convincing offer he was only 45 years

old and the 26-year-old Henry V was

crowned in April in a

[Music]

snowstorm Henry VI did all he could to

get the country back onto a stable

footing he gave Richard II's remains a

proper burial and of course he got back

to the important business of invading

France France was still in a state of

disintegration ruled by Charles V 6th a

man with a severe mental disturbance

in a fit of derangement he'd slaughtered

his own attendance now he believed that

he was made of glass and about to break

he actually had iron rods stitched into

his clothing it was easy meet and

Henry's overwhelming victory at ainor in

1415 destroyed much of France's

aristocracy the English king was now in

control of Paris Charles very fragile

agreed to acknowledge Henry as air to

the French throne this meant

disinheriting his own son the Doan and

Henry took Charles's sister Catherine de

valo as his

bride what a great place to end the

story England safe Edward III's plan to

take over France brought to fruition a

genuinely popular King and they all

lived happily ever

after not in

1422 Henry theth

not yet 35 years old contracted dentry

and died England had a new King Henry

and Katherine's son Henry V 6 6 weeks

later the king of France also died and

Henry VI 6th became king of France just

one problem his majesty King Henry V 6

was only 10 months old the Duke of

Bedford was appointed Regent of France

and the Duke of Gloucester Regent of

England and and the baby's kingdoms

especially France were in serious

[Music]

trouble the DOA wanted his kingdom back

and everything the English had done

ravaging the countryside destroying all

authority and stability could have been

calculated to create a passionate

nationalism it was entirely natural for

people to believe that jonov AR was on a

divine mission to drive the English out

of France and give it its rightful

King under her inspirational leadership

the doans forces took over oon and Reams

and he was crowned King of France in

Reams in

1429 little Henry had still not been

crowned King Of

Anything something obviously had to be

done about that so later the same year

now 7 years old he had a coronation in

Westminster Abbey the idea was then to

get him to Reams where kings of France

are supposed to be crowned but that just

wasn't safe so he ended up being crowned

King of France in Paris it was all a

mess in fact English forces were now

fighting a losing battle the new factor

in the equation was Gunpowder Cannon and

hand guns changed the whole nature of

warfare and Henry did not grow up to be

a warrior a quiet studious young man he

never felt it was his job to lead the

English forces in battle

they were finally destroyed at Cason in

1453 the 100 Years War was

over England was left with no

possessions in France except

C but Henry's problems had barely begun

the taxes needed to fight the war and

Corruption among Royal officials meant

the country was disheartened and angry

and the issues of legitimacy that had

Lain pretty dormant in England since

Henry Bolingbrook usurped the throne

were now coming out of the

woodwork Richard II had been the last

legitimate King of England if there was

such a thing he'd been succeeded by his

murderer Henry Bolingbrook the father of

Henry V the grandfather of Henry V 6th

they were all descended from John of

gaun dukee of Lancaster but that wasn't

the legitimate line of descent John of

gaun had an elder brother whose

descendants were still alive alive the

rightful King of England had not been

Henry IV but Edmund the Earl of March

and now that Edmund was dead it was his

nephew Richard Duke of

York Edmund had carefully and probably

wisely never made a point of making his

claim Henry IV and Henry V had been

seriously powerful men but Henry VI 6

wasn't in the same league his interest

was not in war but in learning he

founded Eaton and King's College

Cambridge and he was a gentle Pious man

there were many who believed that he was

more a saint than a king Richard Duke of

York now 40 years old decided that it

was time for the crown to fall into his

hands his claim was supported by most of

the Barons of Southern England the

northern Barons felt all this was

codswallop they had the right to choose

their King not be passed like slaves to

whoever inherited them and then quite

suddenly in the summer of

1453 the king went mad he'd probably

inherited the strain of Madness in his

mother's family the illness that had

racked Charles I 6 the True Legacy of

ainor was not the crown of France but a

recurring disease that would afflict

members of the English royal family for

centuries he lost his memory he lost

control of his body he lost the ability

to speak coherently or understand what

was said to him his wife gave birth to

their only son but he knew nothing about

it with the King incapacitated

government needed to be handed to a

regent and the man with the backing in

the South to take over the Reigns was

Richard Duke of York the inevitable and

disastrous outcome was Civil War

Lancaster against York their badges the

red rose of Lancaster and the white rose

of York gave history the wars of the

Roses to begin with it was a war for

control not of the Crown but of the King

Richard didn't want to be crowned while

Henry was still alive nor did he want to

kill him but he did want to control the

government and be recognized as Henry's

successor the king made a partial

recovery but was quite incapable of

taking charge of his own defense his

Queen made an impressive effort to do it

for him Margaret commanded in the Battle

of Wakefield in 1460 when Richard of

York was

killed Richard's son Edward of York had

none of his father's qualms about taking

the crown in March 1461 Edward without

any parliamentary approval had himself

crowned Edward

[Music]

IV Henry was still alive a husk

and became a refugee with his Queen the

deposed royal family hid in Scotland

then Henry was captured and became a

prisoner in

London in 1470 an extraordinary upheaval

backed by the king of France drove

Edward IV from London and Henry was

rescued from prison and restored to his

throne it's said that while Edward

plotted his return from Exile in Holland

Henry had a curious interview with one

of his distant relatives a boy of 14

Henry

tuder after the death of his father

Henry VI 6's mother Katherine de valois

had an affair with one of her servants a

Welshman Owen marad upud it was probably

King Henry who arranged the marriage of

their son Edmund Tudor to Margaret bord

a great grandchild of John of gaunt

Margaret became pregnant immediately but

the bord family were disbarred by

ancient Royal Charters from ever

succeeding to the throne so why did she

call her baby Henry no bord had ever

been called Henry no chudah had ever

been called Henry it was a king's name

it suggests that Owen had great plans

for the boy and that was obviously what

Edward of York thought as soon as he had

Owen chudder in his power in 1461 he had

his head chopped off his head was

displayed lit up with a 100 candles

Henry Tuda aged four had been taken

prisoner but now young chuda was free

and according to later stories was

looked on as an important figure in the

line of succession according to

Shakespeare Henry V 6 looked at the boy

and said Lo surely This Is He To whom

both we and our adversaries shall

Hereafter give place

the following year Edward IV made his

Counterstrike King Henry's son was

killed at the Battle of chesy and Henry

V 6 himself was captured a few days

later he was murdered in the Tower of

London the wars of the Roses were over

the competition between England's Barons

for control of the Kingdom had ground to

a bloody end with most of the great

families of nobles having been

slaughtered Henry tud

was now head of the House of

Lancaster he had no claim to the throne

of course coming from the debard bowett

family so Edward should not have

regarded him as a threat in

theory just to be on the safe side he

fled to Britany but Henry chuda would be

back and he would make sure he

controlled how the story was written in

the next program we'll see how Henry

chuda shaped our know of what followed

creating the story of the most evil King

in history and setting the stage for the

most heroic

Queen how much do you know about Henry V

Sky digital viewers press red and take

our test the turbulent rains of the

tuders tonight at 10 coming up next

protecting us bombers from German attack

the P-51 Mustang decisive weapon