Original subtitles

The world we live in was shaped by war.

For hundreds of years, power -hungry families fought for the right to rule

Europe transformed.

For the glory of England!

I, Philip de Valois, am the only king of France.

These rivalries shifted borders.

Curse me, the French king!

Destroyed cities.

and brought populations to their knees.

A war of thrones. Don't touch me! A tale of murder, sex, and betrayal.

Greatness, madam, that is what France needs.

Those not crowned in glory were brutally slaughtered or condemned to rot in the

shadows.

This woman is a heretic. I must perish in the flames.

In the merciless game of war and ambition, anything goes.

At the dawn of the 15th century, dramatic events shook an already

France.

A king went mad.

A queen sided with the enemy.

The English took advantage of the confusion to invade France.

A peasant girl sent by God came to the aid of a prince.

The Hundred Years' War took a radically different turn.

In the spring of 1392, the young king of France, Charles VI, was hunting in the

forest of Le Mans.

Suddenly, he was overcome by a strange feeling of dizziness.

Then, for no apparent reason, he erupted into a fit of violence.

Calm yourself!

Calm yourself!

Charles attacked his attendant and even tried to kill his younger brother, Louis

the Duke of Orléans.

Stop it!

Hold it!

Calm down!

The young king had probably inherited his madness from his mother, Jeanne de

Bourbon, the result of several centuries of inbreeding between kings and queens

of France.

In 1380, at his coronation in Reims Cathedral, he was known as Charles the

Beloved.

But now, he will forever be remembered as Charles the Mad.

Charles VI was taken back to the Chateau of Le Mans, where his 21 -year -old

wife, Queen Isabel, rushed to his bedside.

She was devastated to see him in such a state.

Unlike so many arranged royal marriages, the queen was deeply in love with her

king.

Their engagement seven years earlier had been, according to the usual Middle

Ages custom, by an exchange of portraits.

But these miniatures were not very good likenesses.

This portrait is terrible.

I want to see it.

Bring it to me.

There was no chance that Charles would marry a woman who was not to his liking.

But when they met at Amiens in June 1385, it was love at first sight.

Madame, the miniature does not do you justice.

You flatter me, Thayer.

Enthralled, Charles VI brought forward the wedding and married Isabeau three

days later in Amiens Cathedral.

Isabeau was the daughter of Duke Stephan III of Bavaria, one of the most

powerful German princes.

union brought Charles much -needed support against his English enemy and

-needed air.

Isabeau and Charles would have twelve children.

Sadly, only six survived, of whom three were boys.

But his madness put an end to the couple's happy marriage.

During his bouts of insanity, he sometimes believed he was a wolf.

At other times, he was convinced he was made of glass

and was so terrified that he would shatter. Nobody was allowed near him.

Sire, please, sire.

Isabeau desperately tried to find a cure for Charles' madness, including some

that were supernatural.

But it was all in vain.

Drink, Your Majesty.

Drink.

Get well.

Get well for me and your kingdom.

As Charles' illness grew more severe, he sometimes didn't even recognize his

wife.

Unable to put up with his fits any longer, Isabelle chose a mistress for

husband, a Burgundian lady called Odette Chandiver.

A royal favorite, she had such an influence on the king that she was

the Little Queen.

During one of his rare moments of sanity, Charles VI appointed his wife,

Isabeau, as regent of France.

But his enemies were watching from the shadows.

On the one side was his brother, Louis I, Duke of Orléans.

On the other side, his cousin, John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, one of

France's richest regents.

You know only how to increase taxes.

Both were ambitious for the crown.

What do you think taxes are for to wage war? Don't you understand?

King Charles' madness provided the perfect opportunity to win over the

gain control of the kingdom.

The two cousins hated each other, and every meeting ended in an argument.

But I'm telling you, such was the will of my brother, the king. You know

nothing.

The king is not capable of imposing the least of his wishes.

Poor kingdom.

On November the 23rd, 1407, at around 8 in the evening, Louis d 'Orléans

returned home from Queen Isabeau's palace.

When suddenly... Kill him! Kill him!

He was ambushed.

One of the men cut off the duke's hand.

The king's brother was brutally murdered.

The assassination would plunge France and then Europe into war.

At Louis d 'Orléans' funeral, the Duke of Burgundy, John the Fearless, couldn't

hold back his fear.

But two days later, he made an extraordinary confession to his uncle

cousin.

My uncle, we must speak.

The devil tempted me.

It was I who ordered his death.

After the confession, and in fear of his life, John the Fearless hightailed it

out of Paris to take refuge in Flanders.

But the assassination of the Duke of Orléans tore France in two.

On one side, the Burgundians, partisans of their duke, John the Fearless. On the

other, the Armagnacs, loyal to Charles d 'Orléans, son of the murdered prince.

Both camps had the same aim, to control Paris and the royal family.

The king, the queen, and the dauphin.

For seven years, the Burgundians and the Armagnacs fought one another.

Both sides took control of Paris and then lost it.

Frenchmen fought Frenchmen, and the losses were heavy.

The kingdom was mired in civil war.

Eventually, Queen Isabeau came to a decision.

To reestablish the authority of the king and of his 16 -year -old son, Louis,

the Dauphin, Isabeau of Bavaria appointed the Armagnacs to keep hosts in

realm.

Completely isolated, the Duke of Burgundy was in dire straits.

He turned to an unlikely ally.

Henry V, King of England.

Henry V was 26 years old. He was tall, athletic, intelligent, but above all,

merciless.

Bring in the Duke of Burgundy, the miseries.

Henry V was just the kind of man that the Duke of Burgundy needed to help out

the Armagnacs from power.

In June 1413, the Duke of Burgundy sent envoys to England to ask for the English

king's support.

Speak.

In exchange for 2 ,000 English soldiers, the Duke of Burgundy's emissaries

promised a great reward.

So you want my men for land and gold.

And what else?

But that wasn't enough for Henry.

He wanted the crown of France.

To secure it, he turned to the Burgundians' archenemy, the Armagnacs.

As well as the crown, Henry demanded restitution of the territories acquired

the Treaty of Bretigny, signed 54 years earlier.

It had never been honoured.

Look at this.

Since 1360, with Guyenne and Calais, we should have authority over Poitou right

up to Béarn.

But the French refused to respect this treaty.

Give me these territories.

I will give you men.

I demand these lands!

But the Armagnacs hesitated in their response.

After several months without a deal, Henry decided to wait no longer.

In November 1414, he prepared to take the crown by force.

The war that started 70 years earlier was ready to begin again in earnest.

Sunday, August 11th, 1415.

1 ,600 English ships crossed the Channel towards Normandy.

Three days later, they arrived at Arfleur.

Henry V wanted the town as his rear base before attacking the capital, Paris.

But Arfleur was far harder to capture than he bargained for.

For nearly six weeks, the English bombarded the port and its 3 ,000

Lower your voices!

Charge!

But the French held out.

The citizens of Arfleur...

Exhausted and starved by the siege, begged the Dauphin Louis for help. He

Queen Isabeau governed France during the king's frequent bouts of insanity.

But paralyzed by the civil war between the Armagnacs and the Burgundians, Louis

refused to send help.

On September 22, 1415, Arfleur finally surrendered.

Henry V had won a precious bridgehead in France, but he had lost a third of his

soldiers.

Undeterred, Henry advanced towards Paris with just 6 ,000 men.

The king of France, Charles VI, had to react.

Confrontation was now inevitable.

Advised by Charles d 'Orléans, the mad king and his son, Louis, wavered.

Should they make peace with the Burgundians to enlarge the royalist

No. The savage assassination of the Duke of Orléans, Charles' father, was still

fresh in all their memories.

The Burgundians have arrived.

They have allied themselves with the English.

Being informed of the advance of the English towards Paris, without

help, the French raised an army of 20 ,000 men to send into battle against the

merciless King of England.

On October the 24th, 1415, the English and French armies arrived here at

Agincourt.

Before night fell, the Armagnacs, in the name of the King of France, sent an

envoy to negotiate with Henry.

My lords have heard that you intend to conquer the villages, the chateaus, and

the towns of the kingdom of France.

It's also rumored that you wish to attack French cities.

Be aware, my lords will not allow you to do so, and they are prepared to fight

to stop you.

Let them.

Whatever happens, I shall follow the will of God.

My men and I will march on Calais.

The message could not have been clearer, even though the English were massively

outnumbered and exhausted.

Henry still believed he could win and he wanted to fight.

Dawn, October the 25th. They were ready to attack.

At 10 a .m., Henry V ordered his archers to advance.

Before the attack, the English fell to their knees, put a pinch of earth into

their mouths like a communion wafer, and

cried,

before releasing their arrows.

Many of the French were wounded before they even reached the English

line.

Against all

odds, and far superior numbers, the King of France's soldiers proved to be their

own downfall.

They got into each other's way, and the wet ground made the battlefield

difficult to navigate.

French tried to attack the English from the rear in vain.

For many of them, the battle raged on in bloody hand -to -hand combat.

By midday, it was all over.

King Henry V of England's victory was total.

The French army had lost around 7 ,000 men.

Among them, the cream of the French nobility lay dead or dying.

The English.

lost no more than 300 men.

Henry V believed that this was a sign from God that he was the rightful king

England and France.

Agincourt cemented Henry's reputation.

With the battle over, The French and English agreed to a truce.

Henry left for England, but he would return.

Then the French court was struck by another dramatic blow.

On December 18, 1415, Louis the Dauphin suddenly died.

He was 17 years old.

May God protect us.

Protect the throne of France.

Louis was replaced by his 16 -year -old brother, Jean.

But he would die just two years later.

So the title passed to Charles and Isbeau's 14 -year -old son, the future

Charles VII.

But the new Dauphin detested his mother. He was convinced she had deserted his

father and taken many lovers.

To defend his father's honor, he banished her from Paris.

Furious, Queen Isabeau took refuge in Troyes, in the Champagne region, and

switched allegiances.

In November 1417, She asked John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, to join her.

Madam, it is an honor to serve you at last.

In less than three months, they formed a government to rival that of the Dauphin

Charles. They took control of the administration and seized Mad King

treasury.

But John the Fearless wanted more.

He wanted the capital.

And he would get it.

The Parisians, tired of the Armagnacs' rule, let the Burgundian soldiers enter

the city.

Over several hours, the loyal supporters of Charles and the Dauphin Louis were

slaughtered in the street.

Terrified, the Dauphin and his supporters ran, taking refuge in

July the 14th, 1418.

The Duke of Burgundy and Queen Isabeau made a triumphant entry into Paris.

Finally, we shall govern this kingdom as it deserves.

Greatness, madam.

That is what is needed to save France.

I place my trust in you, my friend.

John the Fearless now controlled not only the Queen, but the King, too.

Contrary to what he believed, John the Fearless was not the only ruler of

France. His influence only covered the north and the east of the kingdom.

The country was divided and under several rulers.

From his refuge in Bourges, the Dauphin Charles formed his government with the

Armagnacs.

This made him more powerful.

He ruled in Anjou, Berry, Touraine, and all the way down to the south of France.

But there was another king on French soil who still dreamed of wearing its

crown.

After Agincourt, Henry V had set out to conquer Normandy and laid siege to

Rouen.

Once the city fell into his grasp, he moved his troops on towards Paris.

At all costs, John the Fearless wanted to stop Henry V's progress, even if it

meant forming an allegiance with his bitter Armagnac enemy.

the Dauphin Charles.

Royal Highness, it is time to forget our disagreements. The enemy approaches.

We must unite our forces.

To discuss their allegiance, the Burgundians and the Dauphin decided to

another meeting, a more official one.

On September the 10th, 1419,

John the Fearless met with Dauphin Charles and his Armagnac counsellors at

Montereau on the Yonne Bridge.

Yves was entitled to be accompanied by ten men, but the negotiations were to be

between just the two leaders.

Your Royal Highness, be assured of my gratitude.

Thank you, sir.

In fact, John the Fearless had been set up.

But this assassination was a big mistake that would have terrible consequences.

When John the Fearless' son, Philip the Good, learned of his father's murder, he

vowed to destroy the Dauphin.

and all the Armagnacs.

To do that, in partnership with Queen Isabeau, Philip took advantage of the

madness of King Charm and signed an alliance with the King of England.

The Treaty of Troyes, signed May 21, 1420, nearly upset the history of Europe

forever.

In this copy of the treaty, in French, the King of England was named as the

legitimate heir to the crown of France.

And as for the so -called Dauphin, as it was written, he was excluded from the

succession to the throne for his horrible crimes, in particular the

John the Fearless.

For Henry V, this was a stunning victory.

He had been handed France on a platter.

In Bourges, the man everyone now called the so -called Dauphin learned that the

Treaty of Troyes had precluded him forever from sitting on the throne of

Immoral traitors!

That was not all. He learned that his 19 -year -old sister Catherine had married

the King of England.

The heir born to this union would unite the two great nations under a single

crown.

December 6th, 1421, 18 months after her wedding to King Henry V, Catherine went

into labor.

If it was a boy, he would be the future king of England and France.

Henry, a future king,

to join the great dynasties of Valois, and Lancaster.

But in the shadows, conspirators plotted to prevent the young Henry from ever

wearing the French crown.

Charles VI's throne was there for the taking.

Aged 54, the Mad King was at death's door.

He died October 21, 1422.

According to the Treaty of Troyes, the Crown of France should have passed to

Henry V, but the English king had also died seven weeks earlier.

During the summer, Henry V, like many of his soldiers, had contracted dysentery

during the campaign.

He died in Vincennes on August 31, age 34.

So who was now the king of France?

Nine -month -old Henry of Lancaster?

Or Charles de Valois, the so -called Dauphin?

At Chinon, where he had settled with his court, Charles the Dauphin saw this

chaos as an opportunity to recover his birthright and ascend the throne of

France.

On October 30, 1422, he proclaimed himself... Charles VII, King of France,

and renewed combat with his archenemy, the English.

Now he had to convince the French people that he was the rightful king.

He needed a sign that God was on his side.

This divine sign would come in the form of a 17 -year -old girl from Doremi.

in the northeast of France.

From the age of 13, Joan claimed to hear the voices of saints, Michael,

Catherine, and Margaret.

Their message was that she should go and find the Dauphin Charles and have him

crowned at Reims.

February the 22nd, 1429, Joan arrived at the royal court.

Charles was intrigued by the young girl.

He decided to test her powers.

Joan had never seen Charles in person, so he hid among his courtiers.

But the maid recognized him straight away.

Noble Dauphin, I was sent by the kingdom of heaven to drive the English out of

France.

They must go back to their own land.

For the love of God, or they will have to answer to me.

Charles trusted Joan and gave her a mission to fulfill.

Since the Treaty of Troyes, the English had held the north and Paris.

Charles VII was master of the south of the realm.

While in the north and the east, the young Duke of Burgundy played the

In spite of the death of Henry V, his army continued its pitiless march

southwards to take the cities of Charles VII.

But one city held firm, Orléans.

Since September 1428, the English had laid siege to the city, and Charles VII

was desperate it didn't fall into enemy hands.

To stop the English siege of Orléans, Charles VII sent an army led by Joan and

Gilles de Ré.

In early May, Joan's army was at the gates of the city.

She urged the soldiers on and led a series of attacks against the English

had seized the watchtowers on the outskirts of Orléans.

For eight days, the maid's tactic was simple.

Attack the enemy head on.

On Sunday, May 8th, The English were defeated and called off the siege of

Orléans.

Everyone called it a miracle.

Hail Mary, full of grace, our Lord is with thee.

It art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.

The legend of Joan of Arc was born.

News

of

Joan's victory spread like wildfire across the whole of France.

English morale plummeted.

Charles VII and his supporters were now convinced that Joan was invincible and

that, thanks to her, God was at last on their side.

As the maid prophesied, On July the 17th, 1429, Charles VII was

crowned king in Reims Cathedral.

May the messenger of God and men make you the messenger of the clergy and the

people.

The French now had a king, but the English refused to give up.

On May the 24th, 1430, Joan of Arc was captured by John of Luxembourg, a

supporter of Philip the Good.

Vile traitor.

Take her away.

No!

Let me go!

John of Luxembourg sold her to the English for 10 ,000 pounds.

England accused Joan of heresy and demanded that she be tried by the

For three months, Pierre Cochon, Bishop of Beauvais, tried to make Joan confess

that she was an envoy not of God, but of the devil.

When did you hear voices for the first time?

While guarding the animals, I heard a voice.

It said to me, God took pity on the people of France.

The voice said,

Joan, you must go to France.

The voice told me to raise the siege of Orléans.

If the court could prove that Joan was an ally of Satan, the legitimacy of

Charles VII would be overturned, and Henry VI would take the crown of France.

What was the voice like?

It was a very noble voice.

And I knew that it was sent to me by God.

What proof do you have that these revelations were sent to you by God?

All you have to do is believe me.

This woman is a heretic.

She must perish in the flames.

On the morning of May the 30th, 1431, after a 55 -day trial, Joan was taken to

the stake.

in the marketplace at Rouen.

Charles VII did nothing to save the life of the woman who had helped him win the

crown of France.

With Joan of Arc dead, the king of England, ten -year -old Henry VI, came

Paris to be crowned.

But Paris was not France.

And all kings of France must be crowned in Reims.

But the city was held by the Armagnacs.

Everybody considered Charles VII to be the only king of France.

But Charles' subjects were dying of starvation, war, and a bad harvest.

were ruining the country.

For the sake of the people, Armagnacs, English, and the Burgundians agreed to

come together to find a solution.

But in August 1435 at Arras, the English, fearing they were losing their

to the French throne, walked away from the negotiating table.

I'll sign it.

Philip of Burgundy withdrew his support for the King of England and switched

sides. I will not back down.

On September the 21st, he alone signed the Treaty of Arras with a

of the King of France.

After 28 years of bitter struggle, Armagnacs and Burgundians finally agreed

make their peace and to recognize Charles VII as the one true king of

In London, when the news arrived at Westminster, King Henry VI was

He knew the crown of France was lost.

In April 1436, the English were driven out of the capital.

After 15 years of occupation, Paris was finally back in French hands.

In 1449, they launched an attack on Normandy.

Within a few months, all the territories taken by the English were recovered by

the French army, all except for Aquitaine.

It was exactly in the place where the war started nearly 100 years earlier

the final chapter would be written.

Charles VII was determined to drive the English out of France once and for all.

On June 30, 1451, he retook Bordeaux. But the city had been English for 300

years, and the inhabitants didn't want to be ruled by the French.

King Henry VI sent one of his best warlords, John Talbot, Earl of

Shrewsbury.

With a relatively small army, he retook Bordeaux 16 months later.

Charles VII prepared to retaliate.

For the campaign, the King of France employed a new weapon, the bombard,

an early cannon firing large -caliber stone or metal ball.

In July 1453, with 10 ,000 men, Charles VII was ready to retake Aquitaine,

starting by surrounding Castillon.

Three days later, on the morning of July 17th, without waiting for his foot

soldiers and artillery to arrive, Talbot launched the attack.

The French immediately fired on the English, destroying them.

On the fringes of the battle, Talbot was unseated and slaughtered. That day, 4

,000 English soldiers lost their lives at Castillon after just one hour of

combat.

October the 19th, 1453, Bordeaux was retaken.

Aquitaine was once again French.

The war that had started 107 years earlier ended.

France was at last united, but one question remained.

The English still held the vitally important strategic port of Calais.

So was the 100 years war really over?