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In the summer of 1348,
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the English could be forgiven for
thinking themselves unconquerable.
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They had vanquished the old enemies,
the Scots and the French.
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Their king, Edward III, seemed
the most powerful ruler in Europe.
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But they would be conquered,
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and by a king
against whom neither longbows
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nor warships offered any defence...
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King Death.
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His weapon was plague, and by the end
of his terrible campaign,
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almost half the people of Britain
would be dead.
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The country would survive the trauma,
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but first it had to undergo
a purgatory of unimaginable misery,
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because hard on the heels
of pestilence
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would come rebellion and civil war.
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The century of plague
was a pilgrimage through pain,
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and this is the story
of that journey.
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Yersinia pestis, the germ of plague,
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came to Britain
in the guts of infected fleas.
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They were hidden away
in cargoes of grain,
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bales of cloth
and in the fur of black rats.
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The most probable point of entry
was Melcombe Regis, near Weymouth.
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By the time it got to the great ports
of Southampton and Bristol,
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there were already stories
from traumatised cities of Italy
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as to how and where it had begun -
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in the East,
on the plains of central Asia,
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another of the horrors carried
on the backs of the Mongol hordes.
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The plague cut a swathe
of destruction
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eastwards to China and India
and westwards into Crimea and Turkey.
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At Caffa, the Tartars had thrown
infected bodies over the city walls
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to hasten the surrender
of the defending Genoese,
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a first in the annals
of biological warfare.
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Once it arrived by sea in Italy,
it spread quickly into mainland Europe.
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There had been devastating calamities
before visited on Britain -
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countless numbers died
in the apocalyptic famine of 1315 -
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but it was the merciless, indiscriminate
swiftness of the plague's progress
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which so unhinged the cities
and villages caught in its onslaught.
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No one, rich or poor, could escape.
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This is how Welsh poet
Jeuan Gethin saw it,
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waiting for his own infection,
which, sure enough, came in 1349.
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We see death coming
into our midst like foul smoke.
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A plague which cuts off the young,
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a rootless phantom
which has no mercy.
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Woe is me
of the shilling in the armpit.
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It is of the form of an apple,
like the head of an onion.
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Great is its seething,
like a burning cinder.
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A grievous thing of ashy colour.
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It is an ugly eruption
that comes with unseemly haste.
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They are like a shower of peas,
the early ornaments of Black Death.
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It took about six days
from the bite of an infected flea
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for the tell-tale swellings,
the buboes,
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to appear on a victim's neck,
groin or armpit,
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accompanied by violent fever
and agonising pain.
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The immune system
would be overwhelmed within a week.
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If the infection reached the lungs,
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death came after just a couple
of days of bloody coughing.
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Anyone who inhaled
even the tiniest droplets of mucus
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would be doomed
to suffer in their turn.
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No one knew it at the time,
but the tightly-packed streets, alleys
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and houses of a place like Bristol
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made a perfect factory farm
for the bacillus.
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Vermin, crawling with fleas,
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lived alongside the crowded
population of people and animals.
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The nibble of a flea
was a common irritation
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in this lousy, ant-heap world.
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And even when the buboes appeared,
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there was no reason to suppose
that fleas or rats were responsible.
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But there was no doubt
about what would happen next.
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The youngest,
the oldest and the poorest -
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those with least resistance -
would be taken first...
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but then everyone else, too.
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In a town this ripe for infection,
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almost half the population would
have perished in the first year.
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Among them,
15 of Bristol's 52 city councillors,
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their names struck through
as they died.
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Terrified and bewildered, the healthy
abandoned the sick to their fate.
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Whole towns, villages, even families,
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were cruelly divided
into the living and the dying.
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Husbands
would have shunned their wives,
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fathers and mothers recoiled
from contact with their children.
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It's almost impossible to imagine
the utter desolation and terror,
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the complete collapse of everything
you've taken for granted.
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How do you find bread
now the bakers are all dead?
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How do you find a physic
now that none work?
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And, at last, how do you find someone
to cart away the bodies
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that have to be
disposed of... somewhere?
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The bigger the city,
the greater the shock.
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In 1348, London had a population
of close to 100,000.
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In the first wave of the plague,
300 died every day.
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At Spitalfields,
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there had long been a medieval
hospital with a cemetery attached.
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Within its walls,
the dead were dutifully laid to rest
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in their individual graves,
pointing east,
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so that come the Day of Judgement,
they would rise facing Jerusalem.
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But in the grip of the epidemic,
there was no time for such pieties.
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Recent excavations
have turned up mass pits
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where bodies
were pitch-forked into the dirt
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in obvious haste and desperation.
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Unearthed now
the way they were dumped in,
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they look as if they're protesting
at the indignity.
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By the summer of 1349,
the plague had spread
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to the furthest corners
of England, Wales and Scotland.
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Now it travelled
across the sea to Ireland.
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According to John Clynn,
a Franciscan friar writing at Kilkenny,
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14,000 had perished in Dublin alone.
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Since the beginning of the world,
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it has been unheard of for so many
people to die in such a short time.
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This pestilence was so contagious
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that those
who touched the dead or the sick
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were immediately infected
themselves.
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I, seeing these many ills
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and that the whole world
is encompassed by evil,
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waiting among the dead
for death to come,
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have committed to writing
what I truly have heard and examined,
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and I leave parchment
for continuing this work
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if, perchance, any man survive,
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and any of the race of Adam
escape this pestilence
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and carry on the work
which I have begun.
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At this point,
another hand has written,
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"Here it seems the author died."
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When the survivors recovered from
the first brutal shock of the Black Death,
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they asked, inevitably,
"Why us? Why now?"
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The best guess
was that the plague was caused
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by a corruption of the atmosphere -
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putrefaction -
the mark of men and beasts
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rising from lakes, swamps and chasms.
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This dank smog
even had a name - miasma.
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If sickness grew in stench, then
sweet smells were an obvious remedy.
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Physicians
and herbalists lost no time
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in devising recipes
for pomanders and potions
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to guard against infection, or even
to act as an antidote for the stricken.
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(MAN) Five cups of rue
if it be a man.
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If it be a woman, leave out the rue.
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Five little blades of columbine.
A great quantity of marigold flowers.
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An egg that is newly laid,
and make a hole in one end
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and blow out all that is within,
and lay it to the fire
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and roast it till ground to powder,
but do not burn it.
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And brew all these herbs with good ale,
but do not strain them.
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And make the sick drink it
for three evenings and mornings.
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If they hold it in their stomach,
they shall have life.
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But if God decided otherwise,
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all the potions in the world
would be of no avail.
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The inescapable conclusion
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was that the pestilence
was laid on mankind
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as a chastisement
for its manifold sins.
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Lewd necklines, lascivious dancing
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and shameless adultery
had brought on the plague.
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It would end
when the world was contrite,
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but it never seemed contrite enough.
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In the meantime,
the country was laid waste.
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Farms were abandoned,
whole villages deserted.
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The accounts
for the Bishop of Winchester's lands
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at Farnham in Surrey tell the story
of a rural society in shock.
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In the first year of the Black Death,
52 households -
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a third of the villagers -
were wiped out,
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given the mark
"defectus per pestilentum".
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The Farnham rolls
put names to the numbers,
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names like Matilda Stikker.
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She died,
together with her entire family.
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Or a servant girl, Matilda Talvin,
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who saw her master and his entire
household succumb to the plague.
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By the time it ebbed away in 1350,
1,300 had died in Farnham.
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While the plague took,
it could also give.
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In the first year of the Black Death,
John Crudchate, a minor,
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became an orphan,
but an orphan with assets,
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because he could now inherit
the lots left to him
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by his father and another relative.
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This must have been the making
of a small but serious village fortune.
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In another place in the rolls,
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we learn that the harvest had become
twice as expensive to gather in.
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Twelve pence,
written in Roman numerals, per acre,
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because, the rolls say, of the plague
and the scarcity of labour.
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Workers, it seems,
were thin on the ground
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and were beginning
to charge accordingly.
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Farnham's story could be repeated
all through Britain.
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The countryside after the Black Death
was an irreversibly altered world.
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For one thing,
there were no more serfs.
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For centuries,
being a serf meant being tied
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by custom and by birth
to your local lord.
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He gave you a tiny spot of land
on which you could farm,
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and in return,
you put in hours of grinding toil,
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unpaid, on his very big farm.
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There were other ways, too,
in which you were not free.
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You had to ask
his permission to marry,
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and you were not, repeat not,
ever to leave...
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until, that is, the Black Death.
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Now there was
a desperate labour shortage,
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and the simple operation
of the laws of supply and demand
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meant that for the first time,
you could set the terms of the deal.
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He wanted labour out of you,
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well, you could say, "Why not start
by paying me something?"
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He wants you to move into land
which otherwise would go to rack and ruin,
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you respond by saying,
"OK, cut the rent."
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And if the lord says, "No chance,
you impertinent so-and-so,"
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well, you up sticks and find someone
who's got a more secure grip
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on the new economic facts of life.
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Well, hundreds of thousands
of peasants must have done just that,
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and there was nothing
anybody could do about it.
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It was not just the social order
that the plague shook loose.
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It also ate away at the sense
of security offered by the Church,
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especially since the regular clergy
seemed powerless
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00:16:12,146 --> 00:16:16,981
to provide help for the afflicted...
or even for themselves.
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00:16:20,546 --> 00:16:23,504
In 1349,
the Bishop of Bath and Wells,
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00:16:23,666 --> 00:16:26,419
seeing that there was a serious
shortage of priests,
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00:16:26,586 --> 00:16:30,215
authorised laymen
to hear the confession of the dying.
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00:16:30,386 --> 00:16:34,459
"Or," he wrote, "even a woman,
if no man is available."
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00:16:37,226 --> 00:16:40,616
The most daring took matters
into their own hands,
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00:16:40,786 --> 00:16:44,779
seeking redemption
directly from the Scriptures.
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00:16:45,386 --> 00:16:47,661
The Lollards- or Mumblers -
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00:16:47,826 --> 00:16:51,296
took their name from
their mouthing out loud of the Bible,
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and encouraged others to do the same
by translating it into English,
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liberating it
from the obscurity of Latin.
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As few as they were,
the Lollards were a dramatic threat
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00:17:06,466 --> 00:17:08,536
to the authority of the Church.
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They were only saved from persecution
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00:17:11,026 --> 00:17:13,665
by the protection
of their most powerful patron,
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00:17:13,826 --> 00:17:18,661
King Edward III's son John of Gaunt,
the Duke of Lancaster.
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00:17:18,826 --> 00:17:22,785
Men like him were drawn to new forms
of piety and penance
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00:17:22,946 --> 00:17:25,335
because the plague
made them acutely aware
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that King Death
was no respecter of rank or wealth...
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00:17:30,706 --> 00:17:35,336
and that should he strike,
they had better be ready for a reckoning.
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They all knew the cautionary tale
of the three living and the three dead.
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A trio of handsome young kings
out for a decent day's sport
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00:17:51,346 --> 00:17:56,579
suddenly find themselves confronted
by three not-so-handsome cadavers,
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each in a different state
of decomposition -
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00:18:00,186 --> 00:18:02,381
the Marx Brothers from hell.
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00:18:04,666 --> 00:18:08,944
The three living pipe up -
"I'm afraid," "Lo, what I see"
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and "Methinks these devils be."
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Back come the other three -
"Such shall you be,"
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"I was well fair"
and "For God's love, beware."
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The furthest gone of the gruesome
threesome then makes a little speech.
231
00:18:29,706 --> 00:18:34,541
"Know that I was head of my tribe,
princes, kings and nobles,
232
00:18:34,706 --> 00:18:37,618
"royal and rich, rejoicing in wealth,
233
00:18:37,786 --> 00:18:44,578
"but now I am so hideous and bare
that even the worms disdain me."
234
00:18:51,386 --> 00:18:56,141
This was an invasion that Plantagenet
England had not prepared for -
235
00:18:56,306 --> 00:19:00,458
the invasion of the space
of the living by the dead.
236
00:19:00,626 --> 00:19:04,858
The sense that the borders between
backyards and boneyards had collapsed
237
00:19:05,026 --> 00:19:07,221
produced a sudden nervousness.
238
00:19:07,386 --> 00:19:11,425
In the face of King Death,
neither riches nor earthly fame
239
00:19:11,586 --> 00:19:16,341
could buy salvation
or guarantee immortality.
240
00:19:20,266 --> 00:19:25,898
This insecurity found expression
in a very peculiar kind of tomb -
241
00:19:26,066 --> 00:19:31,220
the transi, which means,
appropriately enough, "gone off".
242
00:19:32,266 --> 00:19:35,463
In transi tombs, like this one
at Canterbury Cathedral,
243
00:19:35,626 --> 00:19:37,742
you got remembered twice over.
244
00:19:37,906 --> 00:19:39,897
They were double-decker affairs.
245
00:19:40,106 --> 00:19:44,258
In the top deck, you were seen
in the guise the world expected,
246
00:19:44,426 --> 00:19:48,977
as a knight in armour
or a bishop in full Episcopal rig.
247
00:19:51,346 --> 00:19:55,658
In the lower deck, though,
there you were, a naked skeleton,
248
00:19:55,866 --> 00:20:00,542
the flesh fallen away from the bone.
249
00:20:19,186 --> 00:20:24,340
The mindset that produced the transi
tomb was a kind of reverse envy;
250
00:20:24,506 --> 00:20:27,703
a determination
to fall behind the Joneses,
251
00:20:27,866 --> 00:20:31,654
to bow to no one
in your painful awareness
252
00:20:31,826 --> 00:20:34,977
that however grand you were,
pretty soon you'd be reduced
253
00:20:35,146 --> 00:20:37,660
to a heap of dust and maggots.
254
00:20:39,786 --> 00:20:43,017
The idea was to contrast,
as shockingly as possible,
255
00:20:43,186 --> 00:20:45,859
two sorts of self-consciousness.
256
00:20:46,026 --> 00:20:52,420
On one hand, how we'd like to be
remembered - in splendour and piety.
257
00:20:52,586 --> 00:20:57,296
And on the other hand,
the way we really are -
258
00:20:57,466 --> 00:21:01,425
pathetic in our cadaverous mortality.
259
00:21:05,386 --> 00:21:07,377
"I was pauper-born,"
260
00:21:07,546 --> 00:21:11,505
reads the inscription
on Archbishop Chichele's tomb,
261
00:21:11,666 --> 00:21:14,305
"then to primate raised.
262
00:21:14,466 --> 00:21:18,505
"Now I am cut down
and served up for worms.
263
00:21:19,186 --> 00:21:20,824
"Behold my grave."
264
00:21:26,386 --> 00:21:31,665
Only the highest office in the land
seemed to have survived unscathed.
265
00:21:31,826 --> 00:21:35,535
Edward III, once the glamorous,
invincible warrior,
266
00:21:35,706 --> 00:21:38,698
was now an ageing father
to a fragile nation.
267
00:21:40,826 --> 00:21:43,738
Still, the royal succession
seemed secure.
268
00:21:43,906 --> 00:21:47,216
Edward's son, the Black Prince,
the heir to the throne,
269
00:21:47,386 --> 00:21:49,456
was already a legendary hero.
270
00:21:50,746 --> 00:21:54,341
But then, against all expectation,
the picture changed.
271
00:21:55,306 --> 00:21:58,423
The Black Prince succumbed
to dysentery in 1376,
272
00:21:58,626 --> 00:22:04,064
and a year later,
the old king himself finally expired.
273
00:22:06,066 --> 00:22:11,060
And so the crown passed to Edward's
grandson, Richard of Bordeaux.
274
00:22:11,226 --> 00:22:17,938
A boy-king, called upon before his time,
Richard was ruler in name only.
275
00:22:18,106 --> 00:22:23,499
Everyone knew that his uncle,
John of Gaunt, worked the levers of power.
276
00:22:28,306 --> 00:22:31,981
Richard's coronation
was orchestrated by John of Gaunt
277
00:22:32,146 --> 00:22:34,376
as a festival of loyalty,
278
00:22:34,546 --> 00:22:38,585
a statement of faith in the undimmed
future of England's glory.
279
00:22:42,066 --> 00:22:45,183
There had been no coronation
for half a century,
280
00:22:45,346 --> 00:22:47,735
but the mix
of solemnity and festivity
281
00:22:47,906 --> 00:22:50,181
never failed to work its spell.
282
00:22:50,346 --> 00:22:53,463
Knights of the shire rode in
from all over England
283
00:22:53,626 --> 00:22:55,617
to witness the spectacle.
284
00:23:00,106 --> 00:23:02,097
The next day in the Abbey,
285
00:23:02,266 --> 00:23:05,656
little Richard had his shirt taken
off him behind a golden screen
286
00:23:05,866 --> 00:23:10,462
and his face, hands
and chest touched with the holy oil.
287
00:23:12,466 --> 00:23:15,424
As they listened to him
in his little boy's voice
288
00:23:15,586 --> 00:23:19,340
promise to protect the Church,
do justice
289
00:23:19,506 --> 00:23:22,657
and respect the laws and customs
of his ancestors,
290
00:23:22,826 --> 00:23:27,377
the assembly of nobles and priests
must have imagined him growing
291
00:23:27,546 --> 00:23:33,735
to fit the huge throne of his ferocious
great great grandfather Edward I.
292
00:23:34,786 --> 00:23:38,540
Inevitably, as the long ceremony
droned on in the darkness,
293
00:23:38,706 --> 00:23:40,856
Richard fell asleep.
294
00:23:42,906 --> 00:23:46,342
As he was carried from the Abbey,
his legs dangling,
295
00:23:46,506 --> 00:23:48,974
one of his oversized slippers
fell off,
296
00:23:49,146 --> 00:23:51,262
but who'd think that an ill omen?
297
00:23:51,426 --> 00:23:53,986
He was, after all, only ten.
298
00:23:58,186 --> 00:24:02,976
How was the child marked by all this?
22 years later,
299
00:24:03,146 --> 00:24:07,936
did he remember this moment
of anointing as a kind of apotheosis,
300
00:24:08,106 --> 00:24:12,577
a magical transformation
from a little man into a little god?
301
00:24:15,186 --> 00:24:20,101
Perhaps it was as well that Richard
mistook himself for a messiah,
302
00:24:20,266 --> 00:24:23,417
since only someone with that kind
of innate self-confidence
303
00:24:23,586 --> 00:24:26,942
could have faced down,
at the tender age of 14,
304
00:24:27,106 --> 00:24:30,940
the most violent upheaval
in the history of medieval England.
305
00:24:33,666 --> 00:24:36,783
It happened with astounding,
terrifying swiftness,
306
00:24:36,946 --> 00:24:40,097
and it started
where you'd least expect it -
307
00:24:40,266 --> 00:24:43,338
not some destitute mud-hole
in the back of beyond,
308
00:24:43,506 --> 00:24:47,181
but in the most economically
developed region of rural England,
309
00:24:47,346 --> 00:24:50,895
the belt of rich, fertile country
stretching from Kent,
310
00:24:51,066 --> 00:24:55,218
over the Medway and Thames,
to Essex and southern East Anglia.
311
00:24:55,426 --> 00:24:57,417
The thing about the Peasants' Revolt
312
00:24:57,586 --> 00:25:01,465
is that the people who started it
weren't really peasants at all.
313
00:25:01,626 --> 00:25:04,902
At any rate, they certainly weren't
the straw-chewing,
314
00:25:05,066 --> 00:25:08,217
pitchfork-waving yokels of legend.
315
00:25:08,386 --> 00:25:11,901
No, they were people with something
to lose - the village elite,
316
00:25:12,066 --> 00:25:16,184
men who'd served as constables
and stewards and jurors,
317
00:25:16,346 --> 00:25:19,065
men who'd moved
into those vacant lots
318
00:25:19,226 --> 00:25:22,775
that had been left behind
by victims of the plague.
319
00:25:22,946 --> 00:25:27,497
They'd made some money and weren't
about to see it go down the drain
320
00:25:27,666 --> 00:25:32,262
to line the pockets
of some pen-pusher in Westminster.
321
00:25:36,146 --> 00:25:39,218
What's more,
they knew how to make an army
322
00:25:39,386 --> 00:25:43,379
out of those one rung down
on the social ladder,
323
00:25:43,586 --> 00:25:46,146
families just above the poverty line,
324
00:25:46,306 --> 00:25:50,618
who had to sell their labour
to make ends meet.
325
00:25:50,786 --> 00:25:53,346
They were already angry
at government attempts
326
00:25:53,506 --> 00:25:58,136
to peg back their steadily rising
wages to pre-plague levels.
327
00:25:58,306 --> 00:26:01,457
The balance had tipped
in favour of the survivors
328
00:26:01,626 --> 00:26:05,255
and they were determined
to keep it that way.
329
00:26:06,626 --> 00:26:09,424
In their different ways,
all these people were -
330
00:26:09,586 --> 00:26:12,225
or thought they were -
up-and-comers.
331
00:26:12,386 --> 00:26:15,025
They would fight, if necessary,
to prevent themselves
332
00:26:15,186 --> 00:26:17,984
from sinking
into the down-and-outers.
333
00:26:18,146 --> 00:26:20,376
Was this a class war, then -
334
00:26:20,546 --> 00:26:24,824
a phrase we're not supposed to use
since the official burial of Marxism?
335
00:26:25,826 --> 00:26:27,896
Yes, it was.
336
00:26:29,626 --> 00:26:34,859
The suspicion in village England was
that the real power behind the throne -
337
00:26:35,066 --> 00:26:37,626
John of Gaunt,
the Queen Mother, the Chancellor -
338
00:26:37,786 --> 00:26:42,541
were gathering in fresh taxes,
not to finance a patriotic war in France,
339
00:26:42,706 --> 00:26:47,860
but to lavish on their own palaces
and private estates.
340
00:26:48,026 --> 00:26:52,941
So when, in November 1380,
parliament approved a new poll tax,
341
00:26:53,106 --> 00:26:57,099
one which for the first time
took no account of individual wealth,
342
00:26:57,266 --> 00:27:00,497
the yeomen farmers
must have imagined the awful prospect
343
00:27:00,666 --> 00:27:06,184
of all their hard-won gains being
snatched back by a greedy government.
344
00:27:07,666 --> 00:27:11,181
There was outrage,
bloody-minded fury and mass evasion,
345
00:27:11,346 --> 00:27:15,100
which quickly escalated
into outright rebellion.
346
00:27:16,786 --> 00:27:21,814
Tax collectors and sheriff's men
were attacked, a few killed.
347
00:27:25,146 --> 00:27:27,785
In Maidstone, they elected Wat Tyler,
348
00:27:27,946 --> 00:27:31,256
a yeoman craftsman,
as their general and captain,
349
00:27:31,466 --> 00:27:34,344
and freed a Lollard anti-cleric
called John Ball,
350
00:27:34,506 --> 00:27:37,100
who'd been imprisoned
in the bishop's palace.
351
00:27:38,946 --> 00:27:42,905
John Ball is a recognisable type,
a preaching friar
352
00:27:43,106 --> 00:27:47,145
who pushes Black Death radicalism
to its logical extreme.
353
00:27:47,306 --> 00:27:50,935
"Get rid of the priesthood
and the property owners," Ball argued,
354
00:27:51,106 --> 00:27:56,055
"and Christ's embrace of the poor
will once again be honoured."
355
00:27:57,106 --> 00:28:01,338
Are we not descended
from the same parents, Adam and Eve?
356
00:28:01,506 --> 00:28:07,024
What reason can they give why they
should be more masters than we?
357
00:28:07,186 --> 00:28:09,700
They are clothed
in velvet and rich ermine,
358
00:28:09,866 --> 00:28:12,824
while we are forced
to wear poor clothing.
359
00:28:12,986 --> 00:28:16,058
They have wines
and fine spices and fine bread,
360
00:28:16,226 --> 00:28:19,582
while we have only rye
and the refuse of the straw,
361
00:28:19,746 --> 00:28:23,455
and when we drink it must be water.
362
00:28:23,626 --> 00:28:25,617
We are called slaves,
363
00:28:25,786 --> 00:28:28,937
and if we do not perform
our services, we're beaten.
364
00:28:29,106 --> 00:28:32,860
Let us go to the king
and remonstrate with him.
365
00:28:33,026 --> 00:28:35,859
We may obtain a favourable answer.
366
00:28:36,026 --> 00:28:42,101
And if not, we must seek
to amend our conditions ourselves.
367
00:28:45,466 --> 00:28:47,457
And so they marched,
368
00:28:47,626 --> 00:28:51,619
the levelling fever of the Black Death
buzzing in their brains,
369
00:28:51,826 --> 00:28:56,217
slogans of equality
and retribution in their mouths.
370
00:28:56,386 --> 00:28:59,856
After all,
who were Wat Tyler, John Ball
371
00:29:00,026 --> 00:29:02,062
and Robert Cave
of the Dartford Baker
372
00:29:02,226 --> 00:29:06,742
but the three dead confronting
the spoiled, rich and mighty
373
00:29:06,906 --> 00:29:09,466
with their day of judgement.
374
00:29:13,386 --> 00:29:18,380
On the morning of the 12th June, 1381,
an enormous army, at least 5,000,
375
00:29:18,546 --> 00:29:20,741
perhaps as many as 10,000 strong,
376
00:29:20,906 --> 00:29:23,579
was camped here
on the fields of Blackheath,
377
00:29:23,746 --> 00:29:25,737
right on the edge of London.
378
00:29:25,906 --> 00:29:28,659
Below them, they could see the city -
379
00:29:28,826 --> 00:29:33,377
old St Paul's, the bridges crowded
with shops and Westminster beyond,
380
00:29:33,546 --> 00:29:36,936
all seemingly at their mercy.
381
00:29:40,626 --> 00:29:44,096
This was not a rabble.
From the outset of the revolt,
382
00:29:44,266 --> 00:29:48,145
its targets had been selected
carefully to make a point -
383
00:29:48,306 --> 00:29:51,821
rich abbeys,
estates belonging to tax collectors.
384
00:29:51,986 --> 00:29:54,580
Any document
bearing the seal of the Exchequer
385
00:29:54,746 --> 00:29:57,340
was marked out for destruction.
386
00:29:57,506 --> 00:30:00,498
Manorial accounts
were thrown on the fire.
387
00:30:00,666 --> 00:30:03,738
They knew what they were doing.
388
00:30:03,906 --> 00:30:08,104
Paradoxically, the rebels remained
fervently loyal to the Crown.
389
00:30:08,266 --> 00:30:10,336
Though
they had made themselves outlaws,
390
00:30:10,506 --> 00:30:14,181
they were fired by the certainty
that their cause was just.
391
00:30:14,346 --> 00:30:17,622
Surely it would be seen
that they were not mobilised
392
00:30:17,786 --> 00:30:20,380
to threaten the king,
but to rescue him,
393
00:30:20,546 --> 00:30:22,537
and through him, themselves.
394
00:30:26,466 --> 00:30:28,900
The discipline of the march, however,
395
00:30:29,066 --> 00:30:32,342
did not survive contact
with the big city.
396
00:30:32,506 --> 00:30:38,945
Prisons were broken open, churches
looted, palaces put to the torch.
397
00:30:39,106 --> 00:30:43,224
Thirty-five Flemish merchants
were decapitated on the same block,
398
00:30:43,386 --> 00:30:45,377
one after the other.
399
00:30:48,386 --> 00:30:51,617
Archbishop of Canterbury
Simon Sudbury was captured
400
00:30:51,786 --> 00:30:55,176
while at his prayers
in the Chapel of St John.
401
00:30:55,346 --> 00:30:57,735
The rampaging rebels
hacked his head off,
402
00:30:57,906 --> 00:31:03,026
stuck it on a spike and paraded it
triumphantly through the streets.
403
00:31:07,906 --> 00:31:10,978
On the evening
of Thursday 13th June,
404
00:31:11,146 --> 00:31:14,741
the teenage king climbed
one of the turrets in the tower,
405
00:31:14,906 --> 00:31:18,660
and what he saw ought to
have broken him in terror...
406
00:31:21,106 --> 00:31:27,215
the sky red with flames,
London crumbling into smoking ruins.
407
00:31:31,786 --> 00:31:36,223
But hostage to a nightmare, Richard
doesn't seem to have panicked.
408
00:31:36,466 --> 00:31:39,299
When counsellors asked him
to negotiate with the rebels,
409
00:31:39,466 --> 00:31:42,185
he evidently showed no hesitation.
410
00:31:42,346 --> 00:31:46,817
It was the boy
who was the man of the hour.
411
00:31:49,026 --> 00:31:52,098
It was a brave front.
For Richard must have thought
412
00:31:52,266 --> 00:31:54,700
there was a chance
he might not survive.
413
00:31:54,866 --> 00:31:58,939
Before the meeting, he prayed
at the shrine of Edward the Confessor,
414
00:31:59,106 --> 00:32:03,418
the patron saint
of all the Plantagenet kings.
415
00:32:04,106 --> 00:32:06,779
Then he rode
through the jostling crowds
416
00:32:06,946 --> 00:32:11,736
to meet Wat Tyler and the rest
of the leaders at Smithfield.
417
00:32:16,546 --> 00:32:19,583
When he got to Smithfield,
the king could see the rebels
418
00:32:19,746 --> 00:32:24,103
camped on the west side
and the royal party on the east.
419
00:32:24,266 --> 00:32:28,225
Wat Tyler rode over to Richard,
got off his little horse,
420
00:32:28,386 --> 00:32:31,617
knelt very briefly,
not very convincingly,
421
00:32:31,786 --> 00:32:35,222
but then shakes his hand
and calls him brother.
422
00:32:35,386 --> 00:32:39,061
"Why will you not go home?"
Asked the king, plaintively,
423
00:32:39,226 --> 00:32:44,095
to which Tyler responded with
a loud curse and a set of demands.
424
00:32:44,266 --> 00:32:47,338
The most important
was for a new Magna Carta,
425
00:32:47,506 --> 00:32:49,895
this time for the ordinary people.
426
00:32:50,066 --> 00:32:54,059
It would abolish serfdom, it would
liquidate the property of the Church,
427
00:32:54,226 --> 00:32:57,662
it would offer
a general pardon to all outlaws,
428
00:32:57,826 --> 00:33:00,499
and if all this
wasn't radical enough,
429
00:33:00,666 --> 00:33:06,104
it would make every man equal
below the level of the king.
430
00:33:06,266 --> 00:33:09,224
Now, to all this,
Richard answered, "Yes,"
431
00:33:09,386 --> 00:33:11,854
perhaps crossing his fingers
behind his back,
432
00:33:12,026 --> 00:33:15,257
and maybe Wat Tyler
was so amazed by the concession,
433
00:33:15,426 --> 00:33:17,894
he didn't quite know what to do next.
434
00:33:18,066 --> 00:33:22,457
So an eerie silence settles over
everybody on the field,
435
00:33:22,626 --> 00:33:26,585
broken only by Tyler
asking for a flagon of ale.
436
00:33:26,746 --> 00:33:30,978
He gets it, he downs it,
he gets back onto his mount -
437
00:33:31,146 --> 00:33:33,899
a big man on a little horse -
438
00:33:34,066 --> 00:33:36,899
and at that moment, history changed.
439
00:33:40,666 --> 00:33:45,182
There was someone on the king's side
who had not been reading the script,
440
00:33:45,346 --> 00:33:49,180
or perhaps was just unable
to take the humiliation any longer.
441
00:33:51,346 --> 00:33:54,497
It was a young esquire,
someone Richard's own age,
442
00:33:54,666 --> 00:33:57,897
who shouted at Tyler
that he was a thief.
443
00:33:59,626 --> 00:34:02,186
It broke the strange spell.
444
00:34:03,426 --> 00:34:06,543
Walworth, the mayor,
who had always taken a hard line,
445
00:34:06,706 --> 00:34:08,901
tried to arrest Tyler.
446
00:34:12,466 --> 00:34:14,138
There was horseback fighting,
447
00:34:14,306 --> 00:34:17,059
Walworth getting in
the decisive blow,
448
00:34:18,266 --> 00:34:20,655
cutting Tyler
through the shoulder and neck.
449
00:34:22,466 --> 00:34:27,540
As soon as he was down, the king's
men surrounded him, finishing him,
450
00:34:27,706 --> 00:34:32,905
but making sure the rebel camp
could not see what was going on.
451
00:34:36,946 --> 00:34:40,575
One way or another,
this was the moment of truth.
452
00:34:40,746 --> 00:34:43,863
It was also the moment
when Richard himself acted,
453
00:34:44,026 --> 00:34:47,257
decisively and with amazing courage.
454
00:34:47,426 --> 00:34:51,419
He rode straight at the rebels,
shouting famously,
455
00:34:51,586 --> 00:34:54,464
"You shall have no captain but me."
456
00:34:57,386 --> 00:34:59,377
The words were brilliantly chosen
457
00:34:59,546 --> 00:35:02,618
and were, of course,
deliberately ambiguous.
458
00:35:02,786 --> 00:35:06,495
To the rebels, it seemed that Richard
himself was now their leader,
459
00:35:06,666 --> 00:35:08,657
just as they'd always wanted.
460
00:35:08,826 --> 00:35:11,215
But the words could have been meant
461
00:35:11,386 --> 00:35:15,345
as the first reassertion
of royal authority.
462
00:35:16,066 --> 00:35:19,263
Either way,
it defused the immediate crisis
463
00:35:19,426 --> 00:35:23,544
and gave Mayor Walworth
the opportunity to get back to London
464
00:35:23,706 --> 00:35:25,822
and mobilise armed men.
465
00:35:27,306 --> 00:35:31,504
Now the process of breaking up
the leaderless rebellion could begin -
466
00:35:31,666 --> 00:35:34,817
cautiously at first,
with offers of pardons and mercy,
467
00:35:34,986 --> 00:35:38,376
but then with implacable resolution.
468
00:35:38,546 --> 00:35:41,663
Just a week after the apparent
concessions at Smithfield,
469
00:35:41,826 --> 00:35:45,535
another group of rebels met
with Richard at Waltham in Essex,
470
00:35:45,706 --> 00:35:48,664
but they found a very different king.
471
00:35:52,946 --> 00:35:56,700
You wretches,
detestable on land and sea,
472
00:35:56,866 --> 00:36:00,700
you who seek equality with lords,
are unworthy to live!
473
00:36:00,866 --> 00:36:03,426
Give this message
to your colleagues.
474
00:36:03,586 --> 00:36:07,420
Rustics you were
and rustics you are still.
475
00:36:07,586 --> 00:36:12,102
You will remain in bondage not
as before, but incomparably harsher.
476
00:36:12,266 --> 00:36:16,305
For as long as we live,
we will strive to suppress you,
477
00:36:16,466 --> 00:36:20,903
and your misery will be an example
in the eyes of posterity.
478
00:36:21,066 --> 00:36:25,218
However, we will spare your lives
if you remain faithful.
479
00:36:25,386 --> 00:36:29,584
Choose now
which course you want to follow.
480
00:36:31,066 --> 00:36:35,264
The rebels took the only option
that was realistically open to them.
481
00:36:35,426 --> 00:36:38,657
They fell to their knees.
It was all over.
482
00:36:38,826 --> 00:36:43,342
The king was literally
the only one left standing.
483
00:36:43,506 --> 00:36:47,101
But what was the effect
of all this on Richard?
484
00:36:47,266 --> 00:36:50,224
What did he now think
he was capable of?
485
00:36:51,466 --> 00:36:54,822
My master, God omnipotent,
486
00:36:54,986 --> 00:36:59,901
is mustering in his clouds
on our behalf armies of pestilence,
487
00:37:00,066 --> 00:37:04,298
and they shall strike your children
yet unborn and unbegot
488
00:37:04,466 --> 00:37:07,538
that lift your vassal hands
against my head
489
00:37:07,706 --> 00:37:11,745
and threat the glory
of my precious Crown.
490
00:37:13,586 --> 00:37:17,545
Though Shakespeare's tragedy starts
years after the Peasants' Revolt,
491
00:37:17,706 --> 00:37:21,494
it's hard not to believe
that in his portrait of a petulant,
492
00:37:21,666 --> 00:37:23,782
self-admiring Richard II,
493
00:37:23,946 --> 00:37:26,460
there is the sense of someone trapped
494
00:37:26,626 --> 00:37:30,096
in an adolescent fantasy
of indestructibility.
495
00:37:31,306 --> 00:37:34,378
There's no denying that,
especially at times of crisis,
496
00:37:34,546 --> 00:37:38,095
he was subject
to unpredictable mood swings,
497
00:37:38,266 --> 00:37:44,182
between adrenaline-rush feelings
of omnipotence and abject fatalism.
498
00:37:44,346 --> 00:37:49,215
But it is easy
to exaggerate his unfitness to rule,
499
00:37:49,386 --> 00:37:52,264
as though he were somehow
suspiciously unsound.
500
00:37:55,786 --> 00:37:58,346
He was built
the usual Plantagenet way,
501
00:37:58,506 --> 00:38:02,135
six foot tall,
with long, flowing, blond hair.
502
00:38:02,306 --> 00:38:05,616
But unlike his grandfather,
he failed to keep mistresses
503
00:38:05,786 --> 00:38:10,735
and seemed, oddly enough, to want
to be faithful to his wife Anne.
504
00:38:11,266 --> 00:38:15,464
Real Plantagenets tore at their meat
and slurped the drippings.
505
00:38:15,626 --> 00:38:18,094
Richard not only insisted
on using a spoon,
506
00:38:18,266 --> 00:38:20,985
but inflicted it
on the rest of the court.
507
00:38:21,146 --> 00:38:24,343
Real Plantagenets
brought you blood-soaked victories
508
00:38:24,506 --> 00:38:27,225
over the ancestral enemies
in France and Scotland,
509
00:38:27,386 --> 00:38:30,935
Richard brought England
the pocket handkerchief.
510
00:38:32,706 --> 00:38:35,504
Real Plantagenets built fortresses.
511
00:38:35,666 --> 00:38:40,421
Richard instead wanted a great
ceremonial space in Westminster Hall
512
00:38:40,586 --> 00:38:43,464
with a spectacular hammer beam roof.
513
00:38:45,506 --> 00:38:50,739
The rows of angels symbolised
the king's divine right to rule.
514
00:38:58,026 --> 00:39:01,939
The angels, in turn,
are supported by carved stone plinths
515
00:39:02,106 --> 00:39:07,305
bearing Richard's own emblem,
the white hart.
516
00:39:07,506 --> 00:39:10,498
But the alien strangeness
attributed to Richard
517
00:39:10,666 --> 00:39:15,262
seems a lot less strange if you think
of him as a Renaissance prince
518
00:39:15,426 --> 00:39:17,417
for whom the civilised life
519
00:39:17,586 --> 00:39:21,499
was not necessarily
a mark of being un-English.
520
00:39:23,306 --> 00:39:26,537
The Wilton diptych
is the clearest illustration
521
00:39:26,706 --> 00:39:29,664
of his exalted vision of kingship.
522
00:39:31,026 --> 00:39:35,542
Richard instinctively felt
he belonged in the company of saints,
523
00:39:35,706 --> 00:39:38,618
so here he is with three of them:
524
00:39:39,946 --> 00:39:42,665
John the Baptist,
Edward the Confessor
525
00:39:42,826 --> 00:39:45,579
and the Saxon martyr king Edmund.
526
00:39:50,866 --> 00:39:55,735
The other panel shows him in the
even more exalted company of angels,
527
00:39:55,906 --> 00:39:58,784
the Christ child and the Virgin.
528
00:40:01,786 --> 00:40:04,346
He is her appointed lieutenant.
529
00:40:04,506 --> 00:40:07,623
She is receiving his kingdom
as her dowry
530
00:40:07,786 --> 00:40:13,019
and in return will bestow on it
her special protection and favour.
531
00:40:15,266 --> 00:40:19,259
Ceremonial style was not, the king
decided, just an affectation -
532
00:40:19,426 --> 00:40:21,576
the window dressing of power -
533
00:40:21,746 --> 00:40:26,695
it was at the heart of its mystery,
its capacity to make men obey.
534
00:40:28,906 --> 00:40:30,897
Richard had this in mind
535
00:40:31,066 --> 00:40:35,821
when, for the first time in the history
of the British monarchies,
536
00:40:35,986 --> 00:40:40,582
the king asked to be addressed
as "Majesty" and "Highness",
537
00:40:40,746 --> 00:40:43,385
a kind of mystical elevation.
538
00:40:47,106 --> 00:40:49,904
But what seemed
like refinement to Richard,
539
00:40:50,066 --> 00:40:53,775
to the barons was evidence
that the king had lost touch
540
00:40:53,946 --> 00:40:56,380
with their common interests.
541
00:41:00,586 --> 00:41:03,703
Richard's refusal
to continue the war with France
542
00:41:03,866 --> 00:41:07,256
was an obvious source of irritation
for the nobility.
543
00:41:07,466 --> 00:41:10,538
They had positively prospered
from foreign campaigns
544
00:41:10,706 --> 00:41:13,937
and built spectacular castles,
like this one at Bodiam,
545
00:41:14,106 --> 00:41:16,540
to guard against a French invasion.
546
00:41:17,666 --> 00:41:22,137
But it was the king's high-handedness
that finally stung them into action.
547
00:41:23,586 --> 00:41:27,135
By issuing royal decrees,
Richard could bypass parliament,
548
00:41:27,346 --> 00:41:32,659
and he went out of his way to lavish
favours on friends and advisers,
549
00:41:32,826 --> 00:41:35,784
men like Sir Simon Burley
and Robert de Vere,
550
00:41:35,946 --> 00:41:39,700
who was absurdly promoted
to be Duke of Ireland.
551
00:41:40,546 --> 00:41:44,903
The lords retaliated with their only
available weapon - parliament.
552
00:41:45,066 --> 00:41:48,695
In February 1388,
five of the king's favourites
553
00:41:48,866 --> 00:41:51,699
were charged with
abusing his youth and innocence
554
00:41:51,866 --> 00:41:54,175
to promote their own ambitions.
555
00:41:55,306 --> 00:41:57,297
All were found guilty of treason
556
00:41:57,466 --> 00:42:00,139
by what became known
as "the Merciless Parliament".
557
00:42:01,466 --> 00:42:04,663
Robert de Vere, the most hated
of the king's confidants,
558
00:42:04,826 --> 00:42:08,296
escaped before sentence
of execution could be carried out,
559
00:42:08,466 --> 00:42:11,299
but Simon Burley was not so lucky.
560
00:42:12,866 --> 00:42:19,180
Richard's queen pleaded on her knees
for Burley's life, but to no avail.
561
00:42:21,706 --> 00:42:24,379
Richard may have crushed
the Peasants' Revolt,
562
00:42:24,546 --> 00:42:27,106
but peers of the realm
were another matter.
563
00:42:27,266 --> 00:42:29,257
Chastened by the humiliation,
564
00:42:29,466 --> 00:42:33,505
the king withdrew
into autocratic solitude,
565
00:42:33,666 --> 00:42:36,863
and yet he had enough
of the Plantagenet about him
566
00:42:37,026 --> 00:42:39,938
to harbour desires for retribution.
567
00:42:40,106 --> 00:42:42,540
He held his peace
for nearly ten years,
568
00:42:42,706 --> 00:42:45,266
but when his beloved Anne
died of plague,
569
00:42:45,426 --> 00:42:48,418
Richard lost
his only restraining influence
570
00:42:48,586 --> 00:42:54,297
and he reasserted himself
in an extraordinary storm of revenge.
571
00:42:56,706 --> 00:42:59,618
Using the pretext
of an aristocratic plot,
572
00:42:59,826 --> 00:43:02,101
he brutally disposed
of the ringleaders
573
00:43:02,266 --> 00:43:05,702
of the Merciless Parliament
a decade earlier.
574
00:43:07,586 --> 00:43:10,658
The Earl of Arundel was executed.
575
00:43:10,826 --> 00:43:13,021
The Earl of Warwick was exiled,
576
00:43:13,226 --> 00:43:17,219
and the Duke of Gloucester,
Richard's own uncle, was murdered,
577
00:43:17,386 --> 00:43:20,378
smothered in his bed
on the king's orders.
578
00:43:22,546 --> 00:43:25,982
The old scores
had been settled at last.
579
00:43:27,226 --> 00:43:32,664
Well, you would think, that Richard
could contain his sense of triumph,
580
00:43:32,826 --> 00:43:35,784
if only in the interests
of self-preservation.
581
00:43:35,946 --> 00:43:40,417
But now that Richard II discovered
that people were, for the first time,
582
00:43:40,586 --> 00:43:44,625
frightened of him, he also discovered
he rather liked it.
583
00:43:44,786 --> 00:43:50,144
He drank it in and lashed out
at anybody he thought to be disloyal,
584
00:43:50,306 --> 00:43:53,935
replacing them with yes-men
and toadies,
585
00:43:54,106 --> 00:43:57,382
eating, sleeping and travelling
surrounded by a private army,
586
00:43:57,546 --> 00:44:00,379
as if he were some Roman emperor.
587
00:44:02,226 --> 00:44:04,979
Beneath these delusions
of omnipotence, though,
588
00:44:05,146 --> 00:44:08,616
Richard remained neurotically insecure.
589
00:44:09,146 --> 00:44:11,296
On the merest suspicion of treason,
590
00:44:11,466 --> 00:44:14,902
he rashly condemned John of Gaunt's
son, Henry Bolingbroke,
591
00:44:15,066 --> 00:44:20,140
to ten years in exile without
even the pretence of a show trial.
592
00:44:20,866 --> 00:44:24,381
If such summary justice
made the English nobility uneasy,
593
00:44:24,586 --> 00:44:27,623
what happened next left them stunned.
594
00:44:29,146 --> 00:44:31,262
When John of Gaunt finally died,
595
00:44:31,426 --> 00:44:33,781
Richard decided
to increase Bolingbroke's sentence
596
00:44:33,986 --> 00:44:38,696
to banishment for life, and seized
the young Duke's inheritance,
597
00:44:38,866 --> 00:44:43,178
the valuable Lancastrian estates,
in the name of the Crown.
598
00:44:45,826 --> 00:44:49,899
The magnates of England
must have looked at this and said,
599
00:44:50,066 --> 00:44:54,059
"He's got to be stopped
or it's my turn next."
600
00:44:55,586 --> 00:44:59,374
Richard was one blunder
away from disaster.
601
00:44:59,546 --> 00:45:03,141
The final,
fatal distraction was Ireland.
602
00:45:04,786 --> 00:45:08,335
He had decided
to bring the Irish princes to heel,
603
00:45:08,506 --> 00:45:12,863
but he took just enough soldiers
to leave himself defenceless at home
604
00:45:13,026 --> 00:45:16,496
and not enough
to cow the Irish nobles.
605
00:45:17,546 --> 00:45:20,299
And before he could finish
his business there,
606
00:45:20,466 --> 00:45:25,779
he heard that Bolingbroke had landed
with an army on the Yorkshire coast,
607
00:45:25,946 --> 00:45:30,861
and the alienated English lords
had flocked to his banner.
608
00:45:32,306 --> 00:45:35,662
By the time Richard returned,
Bolingbroke was already in command
609
00:45:35,826 --> 00:45:39,262
of the southern
and eastern heartland of England.
610
00:45:40,506 --> 00:45:43,225
The odd thing
is that Richard actually seemed
611
00:45:43,386 --> 00:45:47,857
to be one step ahead of his enemies
in fatalistic pessimism,
612
00:45:48,026 --> 00:45:50,586
so that when he got the bad news
613
00:45:50,746 --> 00:45:53,579
that many of his most trusted
supporters and allies
614
00:45:53,746 --> 00:45:55,737
had switched to the other side,
615
00:45:55,906 --> 00:46:00,582
his reaction was not to dig
in his heels, make a fight of it,
616
00:46:00,746 --> 00:46:03,704
but rather to flee at night
across the country,
617
00:46:03,866 --> 00:46:07,142
disguised as a priest,
bewailing his misfortunes
618
00:46:07,306 --> 00:46:11,299
and as usual blaming them
on everybody else.
619
00:46:11,466 --> 00:46:15,345
At some point in his uncontested
march towards Richard,
620
00:46:15,506 --> 00:46:19,215
Bolingbroke's aims changed,
from simply getting his lands back
621
00:46:19,386 --> 00:46:22,184
to overthrowing the king.
622
00:46:22,346 --> 00:46:26,658
"Now I can see my end,"
Shakespeare has Richard say -
623
00:46:26,826 --> 00:46:29,738
a neat little piece
of Lancastrian propaganda,
624
00:46:29,906 --> 00:46:33,945
which solved the embarrassing problem
of a deposition
625
00:46:34,106 --> 00:46:38,497
by making Richard seem
as though he had resigned the crown,
626
00:46:38,666 --> 00:46:43,217
rather than having it snatched
from his desperate grip.
627
00:46:46,306 --> 00:46:50,743
In fact, it took a month of painful
negotiations to get Richard,
628
00:46:50,906 --> 00:46:54,535
now a prisoner in the Tower,
to give up the throne.
629
00:46:54,706 --> 00:46:59,143
Three times they asked him
to surrender, three times he refused,
630
00:46:59,306 --> 00:47:03,094
before finally bowing
to the inevitable.
631
00:47:03,746 --> 00:47:05,737
On 30th September,
632
00:47:05,906 --> 00:47:09,615
a report of the king's renunciation
was read to parliament,
633
00:47:09,786 --> 00:47:13,904
gathered under the angels
of Richard's magnificent roof.
634
00:47:14,106 --> 00:47:16,859
The lords were asked
to acclaim Henry Bolingbroke,
635
00:47:17,026 --> 00:47:20,701
Earl of Hereford,
Duke of Lancaster, as King Henry IV,
636
00:47:20,866 --> 00:47:25,337
which they did to cries
of, "Yes, yes, yes."
637
00:47:36,506 --> 00:47:40,977
Richard, the divine prince no longer,
was spirited away
638
00:47:41,146 --> 00:47:43,614
and imprisoned in Pontefract Castle.
639
00:47:43,786 --> 00:47:47,984
Most likely he was starved to death,
a horrible way to end,
640
00:47:48,146 --> 00:47:52,856
but one which ensured no compromising
marks of assault on his body
641
00:47:53,026 --> 00:47:55,221
when it was given a public burial.
642
00:47:55,386 --> 00:48:00,540
Now, oddly enough, it was Henry
who orchestrated this big funeral,
643
00:48:00,706 --> 00:48:04,221
a pre-emptive strike
against any conspirators out there
644
00:48:04,386 --> 00:48:07,139
who might imagine that Richard
could be rescued
645
00:48:07,306 --> 00:48:09,297
and restored to the throne.
646
00:48:11,386 --> 00:48:13,820
It was Bolingbroke's son, Henry V,
647
00:48:13,986 --> 00:48:18,138
who had the body of King Richard
buried in Westminster Abbey.
648
00:48:18,946 --> 00:48:21,824
Perhaps Henry wanted
to put the charge of murder,
649
00:48:21,986 --> 00:48:24,546
as well as its victim, to rest.
650
00:48:24,706 --> 00:48:27,425
He must have hoped that in his reign,
651
00:48:27,586 --> 00:48:31,704
the wounds of the contending parties
might be healed,
652
00:48:31,866 --> 00:48:34,983
but it was not to be.
653
00:48:36,226 --> 00:48:38,786
Despite his famous victory
at Agincourt,
654
00:48:38,946 --> 00:48:41,221
Henry V remains a might-have-been,
655
00:48:41,386 --> 00:48:44,105
dead at 35 from dysentery.
656
00:48:44,266 --> 00:48:46,860
So neither he nor his son, Henry VI,
657
00:48:47,026 --> 00:48:51,178
could prevent what the stealing of
Richard's crown had made inevitable -
658
00:48:51,346 --> 00:48:56,739
a long, bloody war between competing
wings of the Plantagenet family.
659
00:48:58,666 --> 00:49:02,659
For 30 years, the houses
of York and Lancaster slogged it out
660
00:49:02,866 --> 00:49:08,304
in a roll call of battles
we know as the Wars of the Roses.
661
00:49:12,066 --> 00:49:15,263
There are only two ways
to feel about them.
662
00:49:15,426 --> 00:49:18,623
Either the endless chronicle
of violent seizures of the Crown
663
00:49:18,786 --> 00:49:21,778
makes you thrill
to a great English epic,
664
00:49:21,946 --> 00:49:25,302
or else it leaves you
feeling slightly numbed.
665
00:49:27,226 --> 00:49:29,820
If you're in
the dazed and confused camp,
666
00:49:29,986 --> 00:49:33,456
the temptation
is to write off the whole sorry mess
667
00:49:33,626 --> 00:49:36,299
as the bloody bickering
of overgrown schoolboys,
668
00:49:36,466 --> 00:49:38,457
whacking each other senseless
669
00:49:38,626 --> 00:49:42,062
on the fields
of Towton, Barnet and Bosworth.
670
00:49:44,626 --> 00:49:48,141
But there was something
at stake in all the mayhem,
671
00:49:48,306 --> 00:49:52,663
and that was the need to make
the English monarchy credible again;
672
00:49:52,826 --> 00:49:55,021
to re-solder the chains
of allegiance,
673
00:49:55,186 --> 00:49:58,064
which had once stretched
all the way from Westminster
674
00:49:58,226 --> 00:50:01,741
out to the constables
and justices in the shires,
675
00:50:01,906 --> 00:50:06,855
and which had been so badly broken
by the fate of Richard II.
676
00:50:09,826 --> 00:50:13,296
To understand the way in which
lawlessness, violence and chaos
677
00:50:13,466 --> 00:50:18,381
did make an impact on the not-so-rosy
world of 15th-century England,
678
00:50:18,546 --> 00:50:20,935
we have something incomparably richer
679
00:50:21,106 --> 00:50:23,540
than the list
of battlefields and barons,
680
00:50:23,706 --> 00:50:26,174
kings and kingmakers.
681
00:50:26,746 --> 00:50:30,261
We have, in the letters
of the Paston family of Norfolk,
682
00:50:30,466 --> 00:50:33,219
the very first
private correspondence in English,
683
00:50:33,386 --> 00:50:36,059
the authentic voice
of middling folk -
684
00:50:36,266 --> 00:50:40,464
farmers, lawyers,
would-be gentry, social climbers.
685
00:50:40,626 --> 00:50:43,220
Like many an anxious wife and mother,
686
00:50:43,386 --> 00:50:46,105
the Wars of the Roses
worried Margaret Paston
687
00:50:46,266 --> 00:50:48,780
because they were making England
a bad place
688
00:50:48,946 --> 00:50:51,938
to make and keep a little fortune.
689
00:50:52,586 --> 00:50:55,180
(WOMAN) God, for his mercy, give grace,
690
00:50:55,346 --> 00:50:58,622
for I never heard say
of so much robbery and manslaughter
691
00:50:58,786 --> 00:51:01,016
in this country as is now.
692
00:51:01,186 --> 00:51:06,180
And as for gathering of money,
I never saw a worse season.
693
00:51:07,626 --> 00:51:11,744
Seen through Margaret's eyes,
England might be up for grabs,
694
00:51:11,906 --> 00:51:14,374
but the real disaster was shopping.
695
00:51:15,666 --> 00:51:17,657
As for cloth for my gown,
696
00:51:17,826 --> 00:51:21,421
I pray that you will buy for me
three yards and a quarter
697
00:51:21,586 --> 00:51:24,305
of such as it pleaseth you
that I should have.
698
00:51:24,466 --> 00:51:27,776
For I have done all the drapers
shops in this town,
699
00:51:27,946 --> 00:51:30,460
and here is right feeble choice.
700
00:51:31,746 --> 00:51:34,897
The founder
of the Paston dynasty was Clement.
701
00:51:35,346 --> 00:51:38,338
Clement's described
as a plain husbandman,
702
00:51:38,506 --> 00:51:40,542
which is to say a peasant,
703
00:51:40,706 --> 00:51:43,903
but a peasant
who took advantage of the Black Death
704
00:51:44,066 --> 00:51:47,854
to scramble right up
the social ladder of the village.
705
00:51:48,026 --> 00:51:53,305
Clement Paston was shrewd enough
to send his son William to law school,
706
00:51:53,466 --> 00:51:58,665
clever enough to understand
that it was going to be through learning,
707
00:51:58,826 --> 00:52:02,375
as much as through land,
that the fortunes of the Pastons
708
00:52:02,546 --> 00:52:05,014
would be utterly transformed.
709
00:52:07,026 --> 00:52:11,417
Clement's son did indeed become
a lawyer and married into money.
710
00:52:11,586 --> 00:52:15,659
So did his grandson John,
who acquired Caister Castle,
711
00:52:15,826 --> 00:52:18,784
completing the meteoric rise
of the Pastons
712
00:52:18,946 --> 00:52:22,655
from peasantry to landed gentry
in just two generations.
713
00:52:25,706 --> 00:52:29,824
(MAN) John Jenney informed me,
and I've verily learned since,
714
00:52:29,986 --> 00:52:32,705
you're to be made a knight
at this coronation.
715
00:52:32,866 --> 00:52:35,460
Considering the comfortable
tidings aforesaid,
716
00:52:35,626 --> 00:52:39,335
to attain the necessary gear
be prayed for.
717
00:52:40,066 --> 00:52:43,217
But nothing's ever this easy, is it?
718
00:52:43,386 --> 00:52:46,537
As the Pastons became
influential and rich,
719
00:52:46,706 --> 00:52:50,096
so they also were bound
to attract enemies.
720
00:52:50,266 --> 00:52:52,860
As long
as they were obscure nobodies,
721
00:52:53,026 --> 00:52:57,622
the bloody tides of the Wars of the
Roses would happen somewhere else.
722
00:52:57,786 --> 00:53:01,620
But now that they became owners
of lands and manors and castles,
723
00:53:01,786 --> 00:53:05,256
they also became prime targets
for the heavies,
724
00:53:05,426 --> 00:53:08,896
and no one was heavier
than the Duke of Norfolk.
725
00:53:09,066 --> 00:53:13,264
He'd always coveted Caister Castle,
and now, in September 1469,
726
00:53:13,426 --> 00:53:15,496
he came to get it.
727
00:53:15,666 --> 00:53:19,545
Margaret wrote
in some anguish to her son...
728
00:53:19,706 --> 00:53:24,097
"I greet you well, letting you know
that your brother and his fellowship
729
00:53:24,266 --> 00:53:27,781
"stand in great jeopardy at Caister."
730
00:53:27,946 --> 00:53:32,497
Well, she was clearly desperate,
but she was also extremely angry,
731
00:53:32,666 --> 00:53:38,184
and she lets her son John
feel the rough edge of her tongue,
732
00:53:38,346 --> 00:53:40,382
which is extremely rough indeed.
733
00:53:41,306 --> 00:53:44,662
Every man in this country marvels
that you suffer them
734
00:53:44,826 --> 00:53:47,863
to be for so long in great jeopardy.
735
00:53:48,026 --> 00:53:51,575
They be like to lose
both their lives and the place,
736
00:53:51,746 --> 00:53:56,342
the greatest rebuke to you
that ever came to any gentleman.
737
00:53:57,546 --> 00:54:00,060
John immediately writes back.
738
00:54:01,066 --> 00:54:04,581
Mother, if I had need
to be woken up by a letter,
739
00:54:04,746 --> 00:54:07,306
I would indeed be a sluggish fellow.
740
00:54:07,466 --> 00:54:10,902
I have heard ten times worse tidings
since the siege began
741
00:54:11,066 --> 00:54:13,421
than any letter that you wrote me,
742
00:54:13,586 --> 00:54:18,421
but I assure you that those within
have no worst rest than I have,
743
00:54:18,586 --> 00:54:20,941
nor fear more danger.
744
00:54:25,866 --> 00:54:29,017
Faced with the might
of the Duke of Norfolk's army,
745
00:54:29,186 --> 00:54:32,861
the Pastons had no choice
but to surrender their castle.
746
00:54:34,386 --> 00:54:38,299
But once again, the law
would transform their fortunes.
747
00:54:40,226 --> 00:54:44,185
It took a seven-year legal battle
and an appeal to the king,
748
00:54:44,346 --> 00:54:48,498
but they were, eventually,
rightfully reinstated at Caister,
749
00:54:48,666 --> 00:54:53,820
although for the eldest of Margaret's
brood, the triumph was short-lived.
750
00:54:53,986 --> 00:54:58,741
Three years later,
John Paston died of the plague.
751
00:55:01,586 --> 00:55:04,544
The Pastons got over
these bumps in the road
752
00:55:04,706 --> 00:55:08,062
to become a settled presence
in their county,
753
00:55:08,226 --> 00:55:12,697
and that would be true for countless
other English people just like them.
754
00:55:12,866 --> 00:55:15,096
Essentially, they were survivors.
755
00:55:15,266 --> 00:55:18,064
They'd survived the plague,
they'd survived dethronement,
756
00:55:18,226 --> 00:55:20,217
they'd survived civil war.
757
00:55:20,386 --> 00:55:23,344
Kings came and went,
but the village men -
758
00:55:23,506 --> 00:55:27,385
the same sort of men who'd marched
on London in 1381,
759
00:55:27,546 --> 00:55:30,504
who'd been revolutionaries
and desperados -
760
00:55:30,666 --> 00:55:34,056
were now on their way
to becoming squires of the village.
761
00:55:34,226 --> 00:55:36,615
These people
knew what the worst could be.
762
00:55:36,786 --> 00:55:40,665
They knew that the plague
could carry off babies and children.
763
00:55:40,826 --> 00:55:44,296
They knew that local knights
might go on a rampage,
764
00:55:44,466 --> 00:55:49,221
but they also knew that with an equal
measure of prudence and prayer,
765
00:55:49,386 --> 00:55:51,854
they would get through it.
766
00:55:57,026 --> 00:56:01,417
So come to an English village
like this, far from the mayhem,
767
00:56:01,586 --> 00:56:05,340
say around 1480,
and you'd see what you'd expect -
768
00:56:05,506 --> 00:56:08,657
a church built in the economic
elegance of the perpendicular style...
769
00:56:10,826 --> 00:56:15,695
For the first time, an ale house
called "The Swan" or "The Frog".
770
00:56:16,426 --> 00:56:19,304
And at the heart, a handsome dwelling
771
00:56:19,466 --> 00:56:22,936
for the biggest tenant farmer
in the area.
772
00:56:23,106 --> 00:56:26,621
No longer just a wattle and daub
single-roomed glorified hut,
773
00:56:26,826 --> 00:56:29,863
but a miniature manor
with its own hall
774
00:56:30,026 --> 00:56:32,904
and servants
to wait on the master and mistress.
775
00:56:33,706 --> 00:56:37,858
A buttery, a cellar
and private retiring chambers.
776
00:56:43,026 --> 00:56:46,939
One shouldn't be too complacent
about the condition of Britain
777
00:56:47,106 --> 00:56:50,337
at the end
of its first century of plague.
778
00:56:50,506 --> 00:56:54,704
The end of the road through trauma
was not all buttercups and beer.
779
00:56:54,866 --> 00:56:59,098
There was still grinding poverty
alongside plenty.
780
00:56:59,266 --> 00:57:02,497
But all the same,
the improbable had happened.
781
00:57:02,666 --> 00:57:06,181
Out of the fires
of pestilence and bloodshed
782
00:57:06,346 --> 00:57:10,578
had emerged that most unlikely
example of survivor -
783
00:57:10,746 --> 00:57:13,544
the English country gent.