Original subtitles

[Music]

the story of the kings and queens of

England is more surprising than you

might think it's a fine drama a thousand

years of tales of lust and betrayal of

heroism and cruelty of mysteries murders

tragedies and triumphs but there's more

than that for example one of the most

reliable chronicles describes how a king

of england proposed adopting islam as

the national religion this episode the

first of six includes that tale it tells

the story of the English crown from 1066

to 1216 from one French invader William

to the next Louis yes Louis another

surprise a king of England who's pretty

much disappeared from history it's

easier to say where the history of the

English monarchy ends than where it

begins it ended on the 14th of October

1066 here at what became battle a beyond

cent Lac hill near Hastings

we all know that this was where Harold

was killed and replaced by William the

conquerer and Harold was the last

Englishman to be crowned king from then

on the sovereign would always be from a

foreign family right down to Queen

Elizabeth the second

so a history of the kings and queens of

England isn't like the history of kings

and queens anywhere else in the world

what happened here on that October day

started a completely new history which

is why it's the one dating history that

everybody knows 1066 the story of that

day was spelled out in a strip cartoon

the Bayeux Tapestry probably stitched

for Williams brother odo here's our

heroes first appearance in the story

that's William Duke of Normandy about 37

years old in 1064 he's being told that

Harold Godwinson Earl of Wessex at the

time has been shipwrecked on the French

coast one of these guys is Godwinson I

think it's the chap with the handlebar

moustache he's about six years older

than William and the most powerful man

in England after King Edward these are

both pretty hard men survivors in a very

tough world Williams spent his whole

life fighting for survival and was good

at it by the time he was 20 he de

stablished complete control over

Normandy from then on he was fighting

hang on to what he had he got Harold to

help him in one of those battles

capturing Mulsanne Michell and then

apparently as the price of letting and

go home had Harold swell to support him

in becoming the next king of England

which as the tapestry very clearly shows

is not what happened

[Applause]

[Music]

when old King Edward died Harold as we

all know had himself crowned instead

actually to be a bit more precise he had

himself elected King the crown of

England in those days was not inherited

but awarded in Williams view this had

all gone very badly wrong so he set

about putting it right the Norwegian

ruler Harald Hardrada

took a similar view there was an old

Norwegian claim to England which he

decided to revive by launching an

invasion of his own their two fleets

arrived within a few days of each other

one in the north of England one in the

south both fleets were probably about

the same size about 500 ships King

Harald rushed north and destroyed hard

Ryder's army only about 34 ships made it

back to Norway then he rushed south at

this time of course he failed to pull it

off we don't know for sure that the man

with the arrow in his eye is Harald but

he certainly died at the battle

he and his axe wielding spear carrying

army of Danish and anglo-saxon noblemen

was simply swept away in their place

were the new rulers of England Normans

on horseback and William was their

master master of the country he owned it

he was not an elected King when he went

to London to be crowned on Christmas Day

the population thinking that was their

duty now tried to elect him there

claimed him with loud shouts the Normans

not knowing what was going on thought

this was some kind of uprising

they rushed out of Westminster Abbey and

burned London down England had become a

new kind of Kingdom one which was owned

lock stock and barrel by its King the

story were telling through this series

the story of a thousand years of English

history is the story of this alien

Conqueror and his successors to the

throne it's the story of how they

changed England and changed with it

eventually turning into puppet rulers

symbols of power they cannot wield and

how in that transformation they survived

through tides of revolution and

republicanism so that today while

they're not quite the only surviving

Royals in Europe they alone still they

claim to majesty now how did that happen

the story of Williams rain is really the

story of a warrior Lord taking all power

into his hands he confiscated all the

privately-owned land in the country its

new occupiers were tenants of the king

bound to him people of the north of

England with their Viking capital at

York were much more bound to Scandinavia

than to Normandy they refused to submit

he punished them by destroying all

animals and all crops between York and

Durham according to the Chronicles he

celebrated Christmas 1070 in the ruins

of York the inhabitants were reduced to

starvation even cannibalism 16 years

later when all the land in England was

accounted for and valued in his doomsday

survey there were places in Northumbria

that were still utterly worthless the

church too was made Norman and old

anglo-saxon waves crushed at Glastonbury

archers were stationed inside the abbey

and orders given that the old chants

should be replaced by new ones from

France

twenty-one monks was shot and yet there

were limits to his power

a few thousand Norman's most of them not

even understanding the language of their

new country couldn't run the place they

needed the English to keep everything

working and William understood that

perfectly well his coronation he made an

oath to uphold the laws of King Edward

to uphold good law and renounce bad the

old courts would continue to function

and old traditions would normally be

respected this oath would become

fundamental to the coronation of any

King the question though would be who

got to wear the crown when william died

bloated and exhausted at the ripe age of

sixty his attendants stripped his body

and scattered what mattered now was who

would hold the land he'd conquered and

how it had all been his and it was he

who decided on his deathbed in Normandy

he handed out the spoils he gave his

eldest surviving son Robert his Duchy of

Normandy but it was the younger son the

red-haired William William Rufus who the

Conqueror willed should be acclaimed

King of England and the youngest Henry

was told he would have to be content

with five thousand pounds but Henry

pounds was that likely the key to the

plotting that followed was that of

course none of the brothers was content

Henry stirred the brew of resentment

that made Robert try to take the kingdom

of England from William and William try

to take the Duchy of Normandy from

Robert and Henry was always changing

sides weakening them both eventually

Robert tiring of the whole struggle

decided it would be more satisfying to

fight Saracens than his brothers and

went off and crusade William was now

secure and powerful and Henry changed

his policy he was now William Rufus his

very best best friend the Bishop of

Lincoln later said that when Henry

praised anyone he was sure to be

plotting that person's destruction it

does seem as though Henry concentrated

on quietly stirring up discontent among

churchmen and Barons in England which

was not hard as William Rufus needed

their money and had little to offer in

return except to give to some what he'd

taken from others and besides William

Rufus wasn't their kind of chap he

didn't marry he had no children and as

one Chronicle puts it

all things that are loathsome to God and

to earnest men were customary in this

land in his time and therefore he was

loathsome to all nigh all his people and

abominable to God

which is of course homophobic chronicles

speak for being gay on the 2nd of August

in the air 1100 both William and Henry

were hunting separately in the new

forest it was the last day of William

Rufus's life no one knows who fired the

arrow that ended the reign of William

Rufus his companion Terrell immediately

fled and disappeared abroad

Williams body was abandoned where it lay

but a spot still marked by the stone the

next day local peasants took hit in a

car to Winchester Henry had arrived

before them Winchester was where the

Royal treasure was kept he demanded the

treasury keys from the guards they

refused to hand them over

saying that Robert his elder brother was

the rightful heir henry drew his sword

and declared that no one should stand

between him and his father's sceptre

resistance collapsed and when the

peasants arrived with their cart the

Lords of England were busy electing

Henry as their King the first elected

ruler of England since Harold Godwinson

[Music]

the Bishop of Winchester refused to give

the corpse a Christian burial out of

respect for his royal status William

Rufus was nevertheless interred under

the cathedral tower and when that

collapsed a few years later everyone

said told you sir

Henry's coronation Westminster was an

attempt to ensure his authority to rule

he was 32 years old

his father had won the country by force

of arms and his barons backed him for

rich rewards but why would anyone want

to King now alongside his sanctification

by the church he issued a charter

promising that he would not overtax the

church or his tenants in chief and that

they must treat their tenants as he

treated them he claimed that the crown

changed his nature he was no longer an

ordinary human being as the anointed

king he held special divinely granted

powers his touch was supposed to cure

scrofula swollen neck glands from

tuberculosis this magic power which

became known as touching for the Kings

evil was practiced by English monarchs

for the next 700 years as proof of their

divine authority he also quite smartly

understood that it was a good idea to

promote new people to positions of power

those who were already great barons

didn't need a king but men on the make

would support him

by the time Robert was able to mount a

challenge to Henry it stood no chance he

agreed to recognize Henry as King of

England in exchange for pension because

it didn't last henry ended up invading

Normandy in 1106 and imprisoning his

brother for the rest of his life

this is his tomb in Gloucester Cathedral

the question of who was entitled to

succeed to the crown was still when you

came down to it a matter of brute force

but Henry's victory had a profound

symbolic meaning because it changed the

status of the English crown under his

father England had been a property

seized and owned by the Duke of Normandy

now Normandy was a property seized and

owned by the King of England Henry was a

naturally cheery person just after his

coronation he married Edith the daughter

of an English woman and of the king of

Scotland and he encouraged Normans he

was promoting to marry english women the

great barons regarded this with contempt

and referred to their king and queen as

Godric and Godiva a style statement

which roughly translates as CID and

Gladys as 30 warriors they also didn't

appreciate the fact that he was literate

in three languages his other nickname on

the boat clip means Henry the swot but

those great barons were having their

power undercut as Henry recruited his

government officers and judges from the

church he supervised his kingdom by

moving his court from one Center to

another it was a great traveling

performance like a circus with no

permanent home he spent half his time in

Normandy but when he was away the

kingdom was run by a totally reliable

civil servant Roger the Bishop of

Salisbury who was called the Justitia

the idea of government by a system

rather than by a man was beginning to

take shape

he sent judges on their own tours of the

country and enforced the laws harshly

which seems to have been quite popular

according to the chronicler z'm but his

punishments were often based on the idea

that people were guilty until proved

innocent and there was no time to do

that

we're England's lanes really full of

blinded and mutilated men muttering firm

but fair you'd think so from the sources

we have they liked a strong King and he

managed to keep the Treasury well

stocked with money which meant he could

file oil tea when he needed to

the key to this was his system for

checking his income twice a year

sheriffs and royal officials from all

over England had to bring their money to

be counted by being shunted around in

piles on the checkered cloth like a

chessboard checked it was called the

Exchequer the system worked so well that

the cabinet minister in charge of the

nation's finances is still called the

Chancellor of the Exchequer and we still

use paper chitti's called checks by a

combination of force and diplomacy he

controlled and to some extent colonized

Wales relations with Scotland were fine

three of his wife's brothers became

kings their England was becoming a

peaceful stable and successful Kingdom

Henry sent his young daughter Matilda to

Germany to marry the Holy Roman Emperor

and in 1116 he held a great assembly at

Salisbury where all the Barons nobles

and bishops swore homage to his son

William as his successor to the crown in

1120 young William was a star an

enthusiastic warrior a keen Huntsman and

the heir apparent

he'd been in Normandy with his father

fighting the King of France and the

whole party was returning to England

William and his pals were travelling in

a brand new ship the white ship they

were the 12th century English jet-set

the millionaire Knightly lads who were

heirs to most of England and Normandy

once they got on the ship there was a

terrific party alcohol was taken and how

soon it became really rowdy the hooray

Henry is yelling at one another and

throwing off a bunch of priests who'd

come to bless the voyage William's

cousin Stephen of Guam had an upset

stomach and he felt he needed a bit of

peace and quiet so he decided to go

ashore and take a later ship by the time

they got to see it was already dark and

the other ships were way ahead the wind

was light William decided to catch up

with the king and ordered the chaps to

start rowing the master was as drunk as

anyone else so they began to speed into

the duck fifty oars pushing this

state-of-the-art longboat at a terrific

lick that was when they sailed straight

into a rock and smashed the shipment

The Rock of Buffalo was a well-known

hazard to navigation the cries of the

drowning company were heard on shore and

on the Kings ship but everyone thought

the party was still in full swing in

fact the future of England had just been

destroyed in the equivalent of a drunken

car crash it said that Henry never

smiled again you can see why six years

after the fatal crash not knowing what

else to do

Henry obliged the barons nobles and

bishops of England to swear fealty to

his daughter Matilda as his successor

just as he'd had them swear to his son

but there was of course a huge

difference no woman had ever ruled in

her own right in either England or

Normandy her husband the Emperor was

dead but for strategic reasons he had

Matilda marry the son of the count of

Anjou this was not a family with a power

base in England

Henri's sleep was filled with nightmares

of peasants and barons complaining that

he'd failed them all and then Henry went

and died of a surfeit of Lamprey's how

does that happen

a lamprey is a parasitic fish that looks

as if it belongs in a bush tucker trial

Henry loved him his doctor had put him

on a diet that involved not eating

lampreys and he got a fever and died

after ignoring the advice and the doctor

said as doctors do I warned him by the

time Henry died in 1135 in Basel falling

apart he was 67 years old and he'd gone

a long way towards defining the job of

the King of England but the fundamental

problem who was entitled to that job had

still not been solved Matilda was in

Anjou her husband and then up upon

Stephen evoi who sailed from Normandy to

England and claimed the crown Stephen

who'd been saved from drowning on the

white ship by an urgent need for a

lavatory he was the son of Henry's

sister a legitimate grandson of William

the Conqueror he'd also been the leading

Baron to swear fealty to Matilda as the

heir apparent but that was then and this

was now he was 38 years old backed by

his very tough mother and one of his

brothers was the Bishop of Winchester

with the keys to the royal treasury the

wife of the count of Anjou was not a

popular choice with the Barons Stephen

was a normal this side's he seemed a

malleable sort of chap brave enough and

high-spirited he was also generous

courteous and affable and would probably

do as he was told which was of course a

recipe for disaster than was crowned by

the Archbishop of Canterbury at

Westminster on Christmas Day 1135 he

issued what was now the traditional

coronation oath promising to respect the

old laws and be nice to everyone

according to the anglo-saxon Chronicle

when they saw that the king was a

good-natured and kindly man who

inflicted no punishment they committed

all kinds of terrible crimes

all the done homage and sworn oaths of

fealty but none were kept

meanwhile matilda was enraged and of

course had her own supporters england

was moving rapidly to civil war stephen

was insecure he surrounded himself with

people from near Brooke Fleming's who

didn't go down well with the Barons he

bought loyalty until it emptied the

Treasury and then began confiscating

property so that he could pay his

supporters by the time Matilda landed to

claim her throne in 1141 Stephen was

trying to put down rebellion after

rebellion he was a brave even ferocious

fighter but his support melted away and

he was captured in a battle at Lincoln

Stephen was Matilda's prisoner a church

council declared that he was deposed by

the manifest judgment of God and

recognized Matilda as Queen

Mathilda proceeded to Westminster and

was all set to be crowned and then

something went peculiarly wrong

something that carries an

extraordinarily clear message about the

job of being the monarch of England all

the Childers understanding of monarchy

had been learned in Germany where she'd

been Empress since she was 12 years old

she had been popular and successful

there after the Emperor's death when

Henry the first had brought her back to

England some German princes of the

Empire followed her to demand her back

as their sovereign but the sovereignty

she had learned was absolute power

the Emperor's will was law the only

possible higher law was the church that

was not how it worked in England even

the Conqueror had promised at his

coronation to respect the laws of

England but Matilda flatly refused she

didn't need a coronation to be Queen in

her view she already was she behaved

imperiously which might mean

magnificently in German but meant

intolerably in English and when the

citizens of London petitioned her for a

renewal of King Edward's laws she not

only refused to listen but demanded a

heavy tax from them so they threw her

out Stephen was released from prison and

resumed his battered kingship in fact he

had a second coronation Matilda roamed

around the Midlands in the West country

fighting for a throne that she was

entitled to but could never have

in 1140 3 just before Christmas Stephen

finally had her trapped and starving in

Oxford castle but unbelievably Matilda

and three Knights got away it had snowed

and that night dressed entirely in white

they dropped over the walls to the

frozen water below they moved silent and

invisible in the fresh snow right

through Stephens cam

[Music]

it was another five years before

Mathilda gave up and returned to

Normandy but she simply handed the torch

to her son Henry who came to England

when he was 16 to carry on the struggle

so the fighting went on year after year

and the country was in effect without

law and without government but the

anglo-saxon Chronicle said castles were

filled with devils and evil men Christ

and all his sense to his sleeve Stephen

naturally intended his own son Eustace

to succeed him but in 1153 both Eustace

and Stephens wife fell ill and died

Stephen but had enough at the end of the

year Stephen and Henry wrote together

and to London there the King proclaimed

a new foundation for the kingdom Henry

was now his own adopted son and would be

his successor as king of England

although Stephen would remain King for

life Henry would take over the

government immediately

the next year utterly worn out King

Stephen retired to his grave on the 19th

of December 11:54 there was a double

coronation in Westminster Abbey the 21

year old henry ii was crowned King and

his 33 year old wife Eleanor was crowned

queen consort Eleanor Duchess of

Aquitaine knew all about being a queen

when she was 15

orphaned and the richest damsel in

France she was married to the heir to

the French throne and a few days later

the pair became king and queen of France

the King of France was a saintly figure

with perhaps a rather low sex drive

Eleanor came from a family of lordly

troubadours whose court was dedicated to

interesting love affairs she later said

that she thought she'd married a man but

had married a monk she had a series of

affairs including one with Matilda's

husband Geoffrey of Anjou he rather

dashingly wore a sprig of broom planters

in Easter in his hat so people called

him Plantagenet

eventually all the ovens the whole

family line wore it on their crest she

then had an affair with Geoffrey's son

the attractive young Henry a bright

well-educated athlete with vitality

intelligence freckles and money

according to a contemporary chronicler

and his father had warned his son offer

saying that she had been his lover and

she was the wife of Henry's overlord

Henry was Duke of Normandy but Geoffrey

died in 1151 and in 1152 Andrew got

Elinor pregnant

lui who probably didn't know that detail

had their marriage annulled and she

married her toy boy of course she did

all she could to encourage his efforts

to become King of England and make her a

queen again the coronation of 1154 must

have been most satisfying for her he

didn't make his mother's mistake of

claiming to be above the law instead

maintaining proper form he issued a

charter confirming all the liberties

that were enforced under his grandfather

Henry the first the combination of his

lands and Elinor's meant that this King

of England ruled more than half of

though as the vassal of the French King

it would have been too much for almost

anyone but Henry was a man of

extraordinary Restless energy who

traveled vigorously around his realms

and would order his court to hit the

road with no notice whatever he got

England up and running with astonishing

speed he had all newly built castles

destroyed so that individual Lords could

not stand against him and got the law

functioning again he organised

government into ministries with the

Chancellor of the Exchequer playing the

role we would now recognize as Prime

Minister the chap in question was the

son of a London merchant he was Henry's

closest friend and colleague they joked

and drank together and he lived as the

greatest Lord in the country Thomas

Becket between them they reformed the

currency financed government and began

the changes in the judicial system that

would lead to the system of trial by

jury England was beginning to develop a

commercial life towns were growing the

population was becoming better educated

the new system for running Royal Courts

asked groups of local people often

peasants to report and decide the facts

of the case the system that had worked

for the Conqueror allowing the people to

run their own country was at the heart

of Enron's way of getting everything up

and running again perhaps that was why

he needed a Londoner at the heart of his

government the next stage in his reforms

was to reduce the power of the church

which had become the only functioning

judicial institution during the chaos of

Stephens Wars anyone accused of a crime

who could read a line of Latin was

deemed to be a church man that made them

immune from the royal court they could

only be judged and punished by the

church of course the church wouldn't

agree to give up its privileges so when

the Archbishop of Canterbury died in

1162 it seemed a smart idea to install

Thomas as the new Archbishop then he

would deliver the church to Henry

actually it seemed a pretty terrible

idea to Matilda

who

and Henry not to do it what did his

mother know look what a mess she'd made

of things Elinor was also against it and

she hadn't made a mess of anything she'd

been a very competent Regent when Henry

had been abroad and must have seen what

Henry had not seen that Thomas Beckett's

driving force was not loyalty to Henry

Oh surely not she was just jealous that

Henry spent more time with Thomas than

with her

Henry was sure it was a really good idea

of course it was a really bad idea why

did Becky to become fanatically

committed to the church as soon as he

got the job why did he wear Hessian

underwear with lice and lash his body

why did he oppose the Kings plans more

fiercely than any other Bishop he ended

up excommunicating the bishops of London

and Salisbury and sacking the Archbishop

of York for not opposing the king he'd

already acquired all the earthly power

and wealth possible now he had a bigger

ambition he was arguing that the church

must rule everyone including the king

this was especially dangerous as Becket

was hugely popular Henry was given two

rages and the situation was bound to

enrage him who will rid me of this

turbulent priest on the 29th of December

1174 of Henry's loyal Knights did just

that

slicing off the top of his head at the

altar of his Cathedral in the words of

an eyewitness the red of the blood mixed

with the white of the brains like white

of the lily and the rid of the roots

this was shocking

Henry had to distance himself from

Beckett's murder and win the hearts and

minds of his subjects

[Music]

Beckett was immediately the most popular

martyr in the country a hundred thousand

pilgrims flock to the site of his death

he would obviously be made a saint as

soon as possible the danger of course

was that the Pope would excommunicate

Henry and pronounced an anathema against

him as the murderer of England's primate

the population would turn against him in

England and the King of France would

seize his vast lands across the channel

Henry immediately fasted went into

extravagant mourning and then did

penance prostrating himself before the

Canterbury altar he was publicly lashed

by a monk it worked he saved his kingdom

from the Pope saving it from Eleanor was

much more difficult Eleanor and Henry

had drifted apart partly because of his

love affairs and partly because she

feared that Henry's adventure with

Becket threatened her own beloved

Aquitaine she had gone back there she

set up her own courts the court of love

and that was where she raised her sons

as romantic warriors and plotted against

him Henry imprisoned her there for 16

years but her plots continued unabated

she supported her older sons in

rebellion against Henry trying not only

to ensure her control over her own land

but to take over from him the only one

who remained loyal was John the youngest

in 1189 the oldest surviving son Richard

inflicted a major defeat on his father

Henry met Richard near the Loire to

arrange peace terms but when they

publicly embraced Henry quietly growled

may the Lord

spare me until I've taken vengeance on

you the second had been defeated in

battle by his own eldest surviving son

Richard only one of his sons had

remained loyal the youngest John back in

his own Chateau Henry asked for all

Richard's supporters to be read out the

first name on the list

was John's Henry was heartbroken

he died in delirium a few days later

[Music]

Elinor's imprisonment was over

Henry had recognized Richard as his heir

and Richard intended Elinor to rule

England he had more important things to

do

crusade

[Music]

Eleanor had been on crusade when she was

young as the wife of the King of France

but also as the leader of her own feudal

Army and now the Saracens had recon for

Jerusalem Richard the romantic Richard

the Lionheart was a totally fearless

warrior whose whole upbringing had been

based on Eleanor's idea of chivalry poet

and swordsman Christian Knight and

tournament hero a handsome and dashing

leader of armies Richard tried to live

out the fantasy life of one of the

heroes of our theory and literature from

the stories told and sung in the court

of love he came to London for his

coronation but only so that he could

collect the funds to pay for his great

crusade to recover Jerusalem from

Saladin he went off on his crusade

declaring that he would sell London if

he could find a buyer

[Music]

the crusade itself the Third Crusade was

a sequence of great heroic and daring

actions that completely failed to

conquer Jerusalem associated with bursts

of extreme brutality Saladin quite

rightly pointed out that while Richard

might be able to get an army into the

city if he wanted to hold on to it he

would have to spend the rest of his life

there the two men never met but they

fascinated and respected each other when

Richard was ill Saladin sent his doctor

the final truce ensured that Christian

pilgrims would be free to visit the holy

city but that had actually been

Saladin's policy before the crusade even

began Richard typically decided to make

the journey home in 1192 into an

adventure traveling alone and in

disguise that was how he got captured

and ended up imprisoned by Duke Leopold

of Austria a man he'd repeatedly

insulted during the Crusade the king of

England had been found in an inn in

Vienna unconvincingly disguised as a

kitchen knave the Ransom Leopold

demanded was a hundred thousand pounds

about eight years income to the exchange

rate lessness was crippling for the

kingdom and eventually fatal for him as

a storybook hero he always seems to

expected a happy ending and would

sometimes even forget to put on armor

and that was how he got killed in the

end taking a stupid chance at an

unimportant siege in 1199 a crossbow

bolt wound became infected while he was

dying the man who'd loosed the shot was

captured and delivered to him and

Richard carried on behaving as they was

in a storybook making a great gesture of

releasing the man and giving him money

Richard had no heir he named his brother

the 32 year old John as his successor

Richard age 41 died in his mother's arms

England's hero king who detested the

country and had spent six months of his

reign there and the man who'd killed him

was really delighted

his little brother John was never meant

to be king his father had called him

John Lackland because there was

originally no part of the huge on driven

Empire left for him and the three

problems that lurked at the core of

monarchy in England now became crises

how did succession work what was the

balance between the king of the church

and what legal limits existed on royal

power especially when it came to taxes

to begin with was he really Richard's

proper successor one of his elder

brothers Geoffrey had died leaving a son

Arthur and there were barons in our Zoo

and Maine who argued that this thirteen

year old was the proper successor they

were supported by philip king of france

the only way to settle a succession

dispute was by violence so John went to

war his men captured the boy and he was

never seen again it was generally

believed that John drowned him which was

the wrong way to solve the problem

he'd guaranteed that Arthur would not be

king but it left a very nasty smell it

didn't stop the King of France from

keeping the war going

and by 1205 John was driven out of most

of France including Aquitaine and even

Normandy the issue of church power also

came up again it was John's bad luck to

be confronted by an exceptionally

militant and aggressive Pope Innocent

the third innocent maintained that Kings

had to submit to Pope's when the

Archbishop of Canterbury died innocent

announced that Stephen Langton who

happened to be English was the new

Archbishop John refused to accept the

Pope's man

Rome wouldn't give ground and neither

would John in 1209 the Vatican

excommunicated the king of England and

his whole kingdom back in England John

attempted to carry on regardless the

Pope declared John deposed and that

anyone who even spoke to him was

excommunicated according to one

chronicler John decided at this point to

join the enemy in 1213 he sent a

delegation to the Emer of Morocco

offering to adopt Islam and turn England

into an Islamic country in return for

protection that would have turned

history upside-down is it true the M

here according to the story told the M

voice not to be so silly in fact John

was reduced to total surrender the Pope

demanded that he submit himself as a

facile of the church and that England

should become a papal fief instead of a

sovereign Kingdom

so in 1213 Stephen Langton the new

Archbishop of Canterbury took up his

post as a representative of the new

overlord of England in that capacity he

decided to sort out the third issue the

limits of the Kings power over his

subjects

barons were now virtually an organized

political party this is the seal of the

barons of London Langton presented them

with the Charter issued by Henry the

first and suggested that they demand

something along the same lines but a bit

clearer the Magna Carta this famous

document was signed in June 1215 John

and Richard had both tried to meet their

costs by massive increases in feudal

dues and legal charges and most of the

Magna Carta is an effort to reverse

these

but there are also other clauses that

show that Langton and the Barons thought

that laws must bind the king himself as

well as everyone else there was a notion

of proper kingship in England and the

Magna Carta tried to spell out what that

meant

if Langton had not been an Englishman

the Magna Carta would probably have

looked very different and it was

certainly incomprehensible to Pope

Innocent who saw it as a baffling and

immoral limitation on the absolute power

of the feudal lord of england who was of

course himself so innocent issued a

papal bull excommunicating anyone who

stood by or tried to carry out Magna

Carta and Stephen Langton found himself

suspended from his job and recalled to

Rome and John marched through England at

the head of an army composed largely of

foreign troops crushing the Barons and

destroying their property and that's why

the Barons went to France and got a new

king of their own Louis the son of the

King of France

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and so came the second French invasion

of England in 1216 it was about the same

size as the invasion of 1066 and Louie

landed unopposed he was greeted with

general enthusiasm and was hailed as

king of England in a high-mass at some

Paul's Cathedral he set up his own

government and his army began its

pursuit of John's dwindling forces John

was assembling an army to stage the

great final battle and was travelling

along the seashore from Lynne to

Lincolnshire a miscalculation of the

tide was all he needed his whole

baggage-train was washed away including

his treasure and the crown jewels

distraught broken he made his way to an

abbey at swine's Head where he was

comforted with the monks latest

experiment in beer-making which seems to

have brought on dysentery fever and

death Louie the first and last the King

no one's ever heard of now controlled

most of the country but the story of

what happened to him and how his memory

was erased has to wait for the next

episode

the story continues with the medieval

kings and queens of England tonight at

10:00 and to find out more about Thomas

Beckett's life and murder sky digital

viewers press read coming up on UK TV

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