Original subtitles

God will protect you, Mary.

Previously in The Real War of Thrones.

In Europe, the son of Holy Roman Emperor Philip of Fane had married the Catholic

Queen of England, Mary Tudor.

You look splendid, madam. It has been too long since I was at your side. In

name of their faith, they had persecuted the English Protestants.

But Mary had failed to give her kingdom an heir.

And she could not prevent her half -sister Elizabeth from ascending to

power. I promise to govern according to my conviction.

Her coronation triggered the fury of the King of France.

By marrying his son to the young Queen of Scotland, Mary Stuart, Henry II had

claimed the crown of Scotland.

and hoped to one day reign over England, for the young Mary Queen of Scots also

laid claim to the English crown.

Our niece is the true successor of the throne of England.

They will not get away with it.

In the second half of the 16th century...

Religion was the law.

England had a new Protestant queen.

The Queen of Scotland, now Queen of France, was on the point of losing

everything.

The King of France had a hard time ensuring peace in his kingdom.

But an event was about to reshuffle the cards and redeal the throne.

In the spring of 1559, the court followed the King of France to visit his

mistress, Diane de Poitiers, at the Chateau d 'Arnette, to the west of

Diane was once the governess of Henry II.

During his adolescence, she became his great lover.

Dion was 60 years old, 20 years older than the king, but she was still

celebrated as the most beautiful woman in the kingdom.

A beauty she retained, they say, from drinking concoctions of gold.

The king was crazy about her.

At the Chateau d 'Arnette, which Diane de Poitiers had built to her glory and

that of her king, there is a love letter from Henry II to his mistress, a letter

in which one can sense his passion for her.

He writes, Good evening, my dear love.

Should I sleep, I shall dream of you.

Should I lie awake, I shall dream of you too.

Please receive, therefore, one million kisses from me. And it's sign H for

Henry, surrounded by the barred S's, the sign of loyalty.

This letter is proof that King Henry of France cannot live without Dion, either

romantically or politically.

A penny for your thoughts?

No, it's nothing.

Just thinking of my hopes.

What hopes?

To see my children in the biggest royal houses.

My son as husband of the Queen of Scots.

And my daughter the future Queen of Spain.

Love and politics, two sides of the same coin, my friend.

Nobody knows that better than me.

The love affair with Dion was heartbreaking.

Since her marriage to Henry at 19 years old, Catherine's main role had been to

provide children for the crown.

She was pregnant ten times.

At 40, her beauty had faded, but the queen still loved her husband

Catherine de' Medici raised her children at the Chateau de Blois.

Through her superstition, she has an observatory built there.

In the 16th century, they are convinced that the stars determine the course of

events.

Here, Catherine is visited by astrologers, such as the Italian Cosimo

the famous Nostradamus.

But their predictions are often more harrowing than heartening.

On the last night of June 1559, Catherine de' Medici had a nightmare.

After reading the prophecies of Nostradamus, she saw her husband, King

bathed in his blood.

The next day, a celebration chased the bad dream away.

The king of France had organized a tournament in Paris to celebrate the

of his daughter to the king of Spain.

King Henry II was a skilled jouster and a keen performer.

The king saw off one opponent after the next. He was tired after a long day.

But he insisted on one final tilt.

His next adversary was a young captain from the king's Scottish guard, Gabriel

the Count of Montgomery.

When his opponent's lance broke, it exploded into a massive splinter.

Five of them went through his eye and his temples.

When Montgomery begged the king's forgiveness, Henry II uttered these

I don't blame... I don't blame you.

I... You... You are following orders.

I've nothing to forgive.

King Henry II was taken to the Hotel de Tournelle, where his physician

Ambroise Paré tended to his wounds.

The splinters of wood were removed, but an abscess soon formed.

Queen Catherine de' Medici was devastated. Her bad dream had turned out

prediction.

But the queen's deep sorrow didn't allow her to put aside her rivalry with Diane

de Poitiers.

How dare you!

Leave us!

As revenge, she refused her access to the king's bedside.

Henry II's mistress would never see her royal lover again.

She left the French court.

and never return.

King Henry II died in Paris on July 10, 1559, at the age of 40.

His reign had lasted just over 12 years.

His life was worthy of a novel with an unhappy childhood in prison,

a burning passion until his dying breath, and a tragic end.

To everyone, except the Protestants he persecuted, Henry II was a good king who

extended his country's borders and made peace with his enemies.

The announcement of his death sent shivers throughout Europe.

Across the Channel, the succession of the French crown sent ripples.

through the court of England.

Madame, on the 18th of September in the year of our Lord, 1559, His Majesty the

King of France, Francois, succeeded his father and was crowned in Reims

Cathedral.

His wife, your cousin, Mary Stuart, has been proclaimed Queen of France,

Scotland, England and Ireland.

The French.

saw Mary Stuart as the true Queen of England.

Reading these words, Elizabeth's anger grew.

She knew that if she didn't provide her country with an heir, her legitimate

successor would be Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots.

The reason why the new Queen of France had designs on Elizabeth's throne was

that the two queens shared the same ancestor, Henry VII, the first of the

kings.

But while Mary was Catholic, Elizabeth was Protestant.

At 26, Elizabeth I was a determined woman of exceptional intelligence.

Long regarded as illegitimate, the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn

become a woman king in a world dominated by men.

From the moment of her accession, Elizabeth's succession was a major worry

her government.

Her advisors often suggested the names of princes or monarchs who would make a

suitable husband.

But Elizabeth refused them all.

This is how she justified her decision to reject marriage.

I am already married to the Kingdom of England, and that will have to suffice.

Do not reproach me for my lack of child.

All of you, and all the subjects of this realm, are my children.

For the memory and for the glory of my name, when I have exhaled my last

I want written in marble, here lies Elizabeth, who, having reigned such a

lived and died a virgin.

Elizabeth preferred to remain single rather than marry a man who would take

crown.

The first to ask for her hand was the widower of her dead sister Queen Mary

Tudor King Philip the second proposed to Elizabeth hoping to continue the

alliance between England and Spain

But

she refused his offer This was a grave mistake

as the Catholic King of Spain would devote his reign to eliminating

from Europe.

Protestants also risked being burned at the stake in the Catholic Kingdom of

France.

But in the name of God, the Huguenots, as they were called, would stop at

nothing to practice their religion.

Among commoners and the aristocracy, the Geneva Bible translated into French in

part by the leader of the reformers, John Calvin, could easily be slipped

a coat.

Now everyone could read the Bible without needing a priest as middleman.

This seriously upset the clergy.

In Catholic France during the Renaissance, the hunt for heretics was

In Paris, a huge network of spies bent on unmasking Protestants was at work.

All were in the pay of the two most powerful men in the kingdom, the Guise

brothers, closest advisors to the King of France.

These ultra -Catholics had sworn to burn all heretics.

Francis of Lorraine, Duke of Guise, and his brother, Cardinal Charles of

Lorraine, were now the uncontested masters of the kingdom.

The Guise brothers, as they were known, took advantage of their close

relationship with the new Queen of France to influence the king. After all,

was none other than their niece, Mary, Queen of France.

Francois.

Francois, sit down.

Breathe.

Breathe.

At 15, the young King Francis was a listless, fragile adolescent.

But he listened to his wife.

I need to see my counsel.

You're too weak.

Rest and leave the thorny details to my uncle.

His health seriously worried the young queen.

She was not in love with Francis, but they had been friends since childhood.

Mary knew that her husband listened favorably to her advice.

No doctor knew what really ailed Francis.

As winter approached, they prescribed fresh air.

So the whole court decamped to the Chateau d 'Amboise in the Loire Valley,

stronghold known for its security.

But Francis II didn't suspect that another threat hung over him.

In the middle of the night, On February 22nd, 1560, in the grounds of the

Chateau d 'Amboise, the young King Francis and Queen Mary of France were

to the Royal Lodge.

Stay there, Your Majesty.

Are you going to finally tell us what is going on?

There are heretics at the gates of the town. We need to get you to safety.

This removed them from the Guise influence.

Protestant conspirators had tried to kidnap the King and Queen of France.

But the plot, known as the Ombois Conspiracy, was a failure.

On March 19,

The Huguenot plotters were arrested by the Duke of Guise men.

The rebels were then tortured.

The Duke of Guise wanted them to divulge the names of the other conspirators

involved in the plot.

After hours of torture, the prisoners died without naming their leader.

Their bodies were then thrown into the Loire.

The head conspirators, all noblemen, were beheaded.

Others were hanged from here, now known as the balcon des pendus, the hanged

man's balcony.

These executions traumatized the young Mary Stuart and her royal court.

But to the Guises, they were a source of pride.

While the Guises continued their investigation to find the brains behind

Amboise conspiracy, a rumor reached them that Queen Elizabeth of England, had

been aware of the plot.

Rumors also circulated that England was planning to support European Protestants

against the Catholics.

Queen Elizabeth had forbidden Mass and the raising of the Eucharist in churches

throughout her kingdom.

Everywhere, relics and other Catholic symbols had been removed.

English Catholics now had to celebrate Mass in strict secrecy.

Madam, the Catholics will rebel.

You need to make an example of them. Burn them.

For the love of God, be quiet, man.

During my sister's reign, too many people died for their faith.

While I am queen, no one will die for their religious convictions.

Elizabeth was what one might call a moderate Protestant.

Though she did not hesitate to blaspheme through the many curses she uttered,

for her private prayers, she kept the crucifix and the candles.

Her advisors were much more radical.

They were obsessed with preventing Mary, Queen of Scotland and France, from ever

taking the crown of England.

They needed to convince Elizabeth to help the Protestants of Scotland take

throne.

Cecil, I'm waiting.

Your thoughts on Scotland?

As I have said a hundred times, Your Majesty, we need to drive the French

Scotland and place a Protestant on the throne.

They do not like war.

Pressured by her advisors, Elizabeth eventually agreed to their demands.

She begrudgingly agreed to send troops to help the Protestants take the

Regency by force.

In April 1560, 7 ,200 horsemen arrived to the south of Edinburgh.

Facing them were 6 ,000 Frenchmen, allies of the Scots.

Not many, but enough to wipe out Elizabeth's English army.

Elizabeth was crushed when she heard of her troops' defeat in Scotland.

This defeat is not worthy of a Tudor.

Worse still, a furious France threatened to declare war.

But one piece of news changed everything.

Madam, the Scottish Regent Mary de Guise has died in Edinburgh.

Francois' ambassador wishes to discuss peace with you, Majesty.

The death of the Catholic Mary of Guise in Edinburgh Castle on June 10th, 1560

opened the door for Scottish Protestants.

This was also a catastrophe for the King of France, because his wife, Mary,

Queen of Scots, could now lose her Scottish crown.

So Francis II negotiated and agreed to recognize Elizabeth as the Queen of

England, on condition his wife, Mary, was recognized as Queen of Scotland.

Elizabeth agreed.

But when the so -called Treaty of Edinburgh finally arrived in France,

refused to sign it.

Because Elizabeth was still supporting the Protestants against him.

In Fontainebleau, not far from Paris, the Guise were still trying to find and

unmask the mastermind behind the Amboise conspiracy.

They now had a very serious lead.

If you want to live, pull.

Put it near the fire.

A secret message written in invisible ink revealed that a Bourbon was behind

plot to kill the king.

Antoine de Bourbon, king of Navarre, and his brother, Louis de Bourbon, prince

of Condé.

were descendants of the sainted King Louis IX.

Princes of the blood, they belonged to a junior branch of the House of France

and could lay claim to the throne if the Valois were to die out.

A spy named Lassague admitted that the Prince of Condé was one of the leaders

the Protestant rebellion.

And that his plan was to eliminate the Guises' influence on the king.

The Guises finally had proof that the leader of the Protestant rebellion was a

Bourbon.

Now all they had to do was convince King Francis II to arrest their avowed

enemy.

On October 30, 1560, Antoine de Bourbon and his brother, the Prince of Condé,

arrived in Orléans.

They had been summoned by the king.

Let's go.

The two brothers were aware that their future would be played out behind the

walls of the Hotel Gros Lot in Orléans.

If they failed to prove their innocence before King Francis, they would be

arrested and possibly executed.

According to eyewitnesses, the scene apparently proceeded like this.

In the king's chamber, The king's mother and the Guise brothers attended the

decisive meeting.

A pale -faced King Francis appeared cold and distant to his cousins, treating

them as if they were mere vassals.

The scene had been carefully staged by the Guise brothers.

The brothers left the room to avoid compromising themselves and so the king

could play the part they had written for him.

Sir, I've called you here because you have been implicated in a plot against

person and the state.

I want the truth.

Sire, everything I'm accused of is nothing more than lies.

Just as the geezers planned, the king informed them of Lesage's confession and

the accusations leveled against them regarding the ombroir's conspiracy.

Condé denied taking up arms against the king, but he admitted wanting to

overthrow the geezers.

Sire, I do admit I have links to the court.

But only with the aim to maintain the rights to my family's land.

Because that land was stolen.

Spoiled. By the ambitions of the Lorraines.

Guard.

Arrest this man.

Dyer, Dyer.

I'll answer for him all my life.

But Antoine de Bourbon realized that the arrest of his brother, Condé, had been

planned by the king and the guises well before their arrival.

Go, my brother.

Obey our king.

The Hotel Grosleau in Orléans, where this scene unfolded, was completely

redecorated in the 14th century.

It was here that the health of King Francis declined alarmingly.

King Francis was suffering from a tumor behind the ear, from which pus flowed

continuously.

Queen Mary was so worried she didn't leave his bedside.

She knew that if the king died without an heir, then she too would lose the

crown of France.

Rumors circulated that Francis had been poisoned by the Huguenots.

the Guise reinforced the king's guard.

In a bid to save him, Ambroise Paré, the world's leading physician, was called

to his bedside.

After

diagnosing

the abscess in his ear, the doctor warned the Duke of Guise that the king

only days to live.

It was known throughout the kingdom that King Francis' brother was still too

young to succeed him and that a regency council would be set up.

But who between Francis of Guise and Antoine de Bourbon had the most

claim on the regency of France?

One night in December 1560, Antoine de Bourbon was invited to the apartments of

the king's mother, Queen Catherine de' Medici.

Enter, my friend.

To his great surprise, the queen had also summoned the guises.

Majesty.

Antoine felt that as cousin to the king and a prince of royal blood, He had the

most legitimate claim on the regency, should King Francis die.

For the peace of the kingdom, I am asking of you, my cousin, Antoine de

Bourbon, to formally renounce any intentions you have to the regency.

Even if the Estates General are encouraging you.

And if my son Francois dies, I ask you to support his brother, the Duke of

Anjou.

Is this clear, my cousin?

Catherine de' Medici was as distrustful of the Bourbons as she was the Guises.

Weary of their rivalry, she appointed herself regent and insisted that Antoine

de Bourbon and the Guises make friends in front of her.

And now, reconciled, I ask for your signature.

This was an utter humiliation for the geezers. She also obtained assurances

the Bourbon prince that he would renounce all claim to the throne of

To complete her coup d 'etat, Catherine de' Medici had her dying son sign a

decree announcing the accession to the throne of his younger brother Charles,

Duke of Anjou, and the confirmation of Catherine's appointment as regent of the

kingdom until Charles came of age.

The Guises had lost.

Catherine was a decisive and ambitious woman.

But since her coronation, she had always been pushed into second place, both as

a wife by Dion de Poitiers and as a politician by the Guises.

Now, revenge was within her grasp.

On December 5, 1560, at the Hotel Gros -Lau, in this room, which was once

Francis's bedchamber, the king lay dying.

This painting by Dupuis, painted in the nineteenth century, shows him surrounded

by his young wife Mary Stuart, the Guises, and his mother, Queen Catherine

Medici.

Legend has it that before his death, Dr. Ambroise Paré suggested trepanning the

king.

But Catherine de' Medici refused, saying that only God had the right to look

inside a king's head.

Francis II died in excruciating pain. He was 16 years old.

He will forever be remembered as the husband of Mary Stuart.

She now had no choice but to try and reclaim her Scottish crown.

For months following the death of her husband, Mary locked herself away to

mourn. She wore all white, the French tradition at the time.

Pupil and muse to Pierre Ronsard since her childhood, she wrote poems suffused

with her sincere sorrow.

My heart feels endless grief for his loss.

Sometimes in such a place his image comes to me.

I see his sweet smiling face upon a cloud.

At the announcement of her widowhood, many of Europe's kings proposed marriage

to her in order to annex Scotland.

But Mary paid them no heed.

At 17, Mary Stewart saw that she was no longer welcome in the court of France.

After hesitating for seven months, Mary decided to set out for Scotland, a

country she didn't know, having left aged five, and whose language she hadn't

spoken in several years.

Mary's return would prove to be very unexpected.

She cried throughout the crossing.

Could she sense already that the land she once loved would once again descend

into bloody war?

And that a tragic fate awaited her in Scotland?