Original subtitles

DAN JONES: Out of the chaos, darkness, and violence

of the Middle Ages,

one family rose to seize control of England.

[Shouting]

Generation after generation,

they ruled the country for more than 300 years,

ruthlessly crushing all competition,

to become the greatest English dynasty

of all time.

The Plantagenets.

[Shouting]

What I love about

the Plantagenets' story

is that it's more shocking,

more brutal,

and more astonishing

than anything you'll find in fiction.

I want to show you the Plantagenets

as I see them --

real living, breathing people,

driven by ambition, jealousy,

hatred, and revenge.

These kings murdered, betrayed, and tyrannized their way

to spectacular success.

For better and for worse,

the Plantagenets forged England as a nation.

This time, Edward II was the king

most famous for the story of his agonizing death.

But the story of his life is even more extraordinary,

one of obsession, bloodlust, political savagery,

and above all, revenge.

[Screams]

July 11, 1307.

Prince Edward, the 20-year-old heir to the throne,

is near London as word of his father's death

races south to meet him.

[Speaking French]

This is the news that Prince Edward

has been waiting for all his life,

so the very first thing you'd expect him to do

is to saddle up, ride north,

claim his birthright, and save his country.

But he doesn't.

In fact, the first thing he does

is to issue orders for the recall

of the most divisive man in the kingdom.

Piers Gaveston, Edward's best friend

and one of the finest knights around.

But he's been banished to France by the old king

for being a bad influence

on the prince.

Gaveston's insufferable arrogance

and his hold over Edward mean he is hated

by every noble in the land.

Gaveston doesn't have much time for them, either.

He's famous for making up rude nicknames for them.

He calls one "whoreson," another "burst-belly,"

and a third "the black dog."

And of course that just makes them hate him even more.

Gaveston's return will clearly be nothing but trouble,

but Edward can't see it.

All he cares about is getting his mate back.

Allez.

Edward is the sort of guy who can only see one step ahead.

He wants what he wants now,

no matter what the cost.

He's utterly incapable of seeing

that all his actions have consequences --

most of them bad ones.

This blindness will ultimately lead

both Edward and his kingdom to ruin.

And disaster looms right from the start.

Edward marries 12-year-old Isabella,

daughter of the king of France, a match designed

to shore up relations with the kingdom's biggest enemy.

Their joint coronation should be a moment of triumph and unity,

but it isn't.

This is the Great Hall at the Palace of Westminster,

where Edward and Isabella's coronation feast takes place.

There's lavish decorations,

fountains flowing with wine,

but there's one problem --

this looks less like a coronation feast

for Edward and his queen

and more like a party for Edward and Gaveston.

Edward and Isabella's coats of arms should be on the walls.

Instead, it's Edward and Gaveston's.

Worse, Gaveston swans around in imperial purple,

a color only kings should wear.

Worse still, the king and his friend

talk to no one but each other throughout.

Isabella is stoic,

but the rest of the French nobles

are so incensed they storm out.

With them goes all the good will

the marriage was designed to create.

The English nobles are hacked off, too,

not least Edward's cousin, Thomas of Lancaster,

the most powerful earl in England.

Lancaster hates Gaveston,

and to him, the whole event is an outrage.

It's proof Edward can't see past his obsession with his friend

to the far more important job of being king.

And if Edward can't see it,

then Lancaster is going to make him see it.

Just three months later,

at Edward's first parliament, Lancaster

and a group of other leading nobles turn up armed.

[Speaking French]

Their message to Edward is simple --

Gaveston must go.

Edward responds by accusing them of treachery.

He gets a chilling reply.

It's an explicit threat.

"If you don't get rid

of him, we'll get rid of you."

[Speaking French]

But whatever Lancaster threatens him with,

on Gaveston Edward won't budge.

And Lancaster can't make him... yet.

But the battle lines have been drawn.

The bitter hatred between Edward and his cousin

and this fight over Gaveston

will define the whole future of the kingdom.

And bloody murder will now stalk England

for the rest of Edward's reign.

With Gaveston's help, Edward has very quickly

run the country into the ground.

The finances, security,

and political stability have all gone to the dogs.

By 1310, Lancaster's patience is exhausted.

He comes up with a plan to tear Edward and Gaveston apart.

Lancaster has been conducting a whispering campaign

against the king, using popular hatred of Gaveston

to help sell his case.

He claims that Gaveston has been lining his pockets

at the king's expense.

Now, annoying as Gaveston is, that's probably

one of the few things he hasn't been doing.

But the mud sticks.

And by February 1310, Lancaster has a committed group of nobles

ready to stand up to the king.

And that allows him to do something extraordinary.

And the evidence exists here

in the National Archives.

He's going to crush Edward

and destroy Gaveston at the same time.

These are the Ordinances --

41 articles which Lancaster claims will bring

stability and reform to the kingdom.

Sounds great, but taken as a whole,

they actually do something very different.

They strip Edward of pretty much all his powers as king.

It's an unprecedented attack.

The Ordinances take away the king's right

to impose taxation, raise armies, dispense justice,

and make law.

All these rights will now rest with the nobles.

And Lancaster will be far more powerful than the king.

But even that's not enough for Lancaster,

because this is personal,

and there's a clause here that proves it.

It's nought to do with rights or laws.

It's to do with Gaveston.

This is it, clause 20.

It's even got Gaveston's name beside it.

It says he has "malmenez," misled,

and "malconseillez," ill-counseled,

"nostre seigneur le roi," our lord the king.

It orders his immediate exile.

It also says that if Gaveston returns,

he is to be treated as a traitor.

And the penalty for traitors is death.

So what does Edward do?

He should fight Lancaster

to protect his basic rights as king,

but he doesn't.

He seems perfectly happy to let his enemies

strip away his right to make peace or war,

to dispense justice, to collect taxation,

so long as they drop clause 20 and leave his mate alone.

But Lancaster has Edward over a barrel.

If he doesn't agree to all the Ordinances,

then Lancaster and his new allies

will go to war against him.

The king has no choice.

He turns his back on his friend.

He accepts the Ordinances,

and Gaveston is banished forever,

on pain of death.

It beggars belief that Edward would be willing

to give up all his power just to save his friend.

That's led people to suspect that Edward and Gaveston

were more than just friends, that they were lovers

and that Edward's desire for Gaveston

outweighed everything else.

So, is it true?

Well, possibly.

I don't think we'll ever really know what went on

behind the closed doors of the royal bedchamber,

but frankly, it didn't really matter.

To the people of the time, Edward could have been bedding

his priest, his pageboy, and his horse,

so long as he was governing the kingdom properly.

To the nobles' minds, Gaveston stopped Edward from doing that.

And that's why Gaveston had to go.

Lancaster may think he's finally got the king under control,

but he hasn't, because when it comes to Gaveston,

Edward is literally a law unto himself.

Just three months later,

defying Lancaster and all sense,

Edward calls Gaveston back... again.

And if that wasn't crazy enough,

what Edward does next is utter insanity.

The king sends letters out across the country

announcing Gaveston's return

and adding that he's overturning the Ordinances --

all of them.

When Edward's letter is read out in town squares like this,

it does two things.

First, it brings England to the brink of civil war.

And second, it paints a pretty big target on Gaveston's back.

So you'd be forgiven for thinking this is just the start

of some much bigger plan, but you'd be wrong,

because actually this isthe plan.

Edward is just going to overturn the Ordinances

and see what happens.

And that's Edward all over.

He's so fixated on what he wants today,

he simply can't see what's obviously going to happen next.

Lancaster's response is no surprise to anyone --

except the king.

Gaveston is hunted down and brought here

to Warwick Castle, home of one of Lancaster's allies.

The next day, he's hauled up

in front of a court organized by Lancaster.

It's composed entirely of nobles who detest him.

Gaveston isn't even allowed to speak in his defense.

It's a kangaroo court, pure and simple.

Make no mistake -- Lancaster is crossing a line here.

He's trying Gaveston under article 20 of the Ordinances,

which make it very clear --

if Gaveston comes back to England,

he dies.

The problem is, Edward has overturned the Ordinances,

so this court held here at Warwick Castle

has about as much authority as a lynch mob.

Piers Gaveston, best friend and trusted adviser

to the king of England, is convicted of treason

and sentenced to death.

But however they want to dress it up,

this isn't justice.

It's political murder.

On the 19th of June, 1312,

Lancaster's men march Piers Gaveston

out of Warwick Castle

all the way to Blacklow Hill

for execution.

This monument marks the lonely spot

where Gaveston was killed.

He's brought here because, unlike Warwick Castle,

this land belongs to Lancaster,

and he wants to send the king a message.

He wants him to know who's doing this to him.

This is personal.

When Edward hears about Gaveston's death,

he goes half crazy with grief.

First he blames Gaveston for getting caught.

Then, more reasonably, he blames Lancaster.

Interestingly, the only person he doesn't blame is himself.

But he's the one who brought Gaveston back again and again,

despite being warned very clearly

what would happen if he did.

He's the one who put his friend in danger.

He might not want to admit it, but the buck stops with him.

Edward swears revenge on Lancaster.

But with the Ordinances reissued

and everyone against him,

the king is in no position to revenge himself on anyone.

And things are about to get even worse.

Edward has been neglecting the never-ending war with Scotland.

By 1314, it's reached crisis point.

He has to march an army north immediately,

or the war will be lost.

Now, for Edward, this is actually an opportunity.

Winning in Scotland could really help turn things around for him.

But as ever, disaster is about to strike,

and as ever, Edward can't see it coming.

In the crucial battle that decides the war,

Edward's army is massacred.

And it's all Lancaster's fault.

When Edward led his troops to Scotland,

Lancaster was legally obliged to bring his forces to support him.

The last thing Lancaster wants is to see Edward succeed,

so when the time came to march north,

Lancaster and his cronies simply didn't turn up.

The king suffers a historic defeat.

Most of his army are slaughtered.

Edward is lucky to escape with his life.

And there is now only one thing in his mind --

he will do absolutely anything

to get revenge on Lancaster.

After Bannockburn, Edward is humiliated,

financially ruined, and friendless.

He desperately needs strong new allies to help him.

And here at Caerphilly Castle

in the wild west of medieval Britain

is where he finds them.

They're called the Despensers.

This castle tells you everything

you need to know about the Despensers.

In a place where neighbors are constantly at war

over money and power,

the Despensers have the biggest, baddest castle of them all.

There are two of them, both called Hugh.

Dad is a longtime supporter of Edward.

But it's his son who's the driving force.

[Speaking French]

Hugh Despenser Jr. is as ruthless as he is ambitious.

He's not afraid to take on anyone,

and he's got the brains and muscle to back it up.

[Speaking French]

The Despensers help Edward drag himself out of the mire,

restoring the royal finances

and getting the country up and running again.

In return, they get to do whatever the hell they like.

As soon as they've gained the king's confidence,

the Despensers start snatching things for themselves.

Over the next three years, they grab territory after territory

in the Welsh borders,

trampling on anyone who gets in their way.

Edward must realize the Despensers

are massively destabilizing the balance of power in the kingdom,

and it must be obvious they're only out for themselves.

But I think as long as they ultimately

serve up revenge on Lancaster,

he doesn't care who they upset in the process.

He can't see how the effects of the Despensers' Welsh power grab

could possibly turn out badly for him.

But it does, because Edward backing the Despensers

creates a new and very dangerous enemy.

Roger Mortimer, one of the most powerful barons in the kingdom.

Up to this point,

he's actually been on Edward's side.

But when the Despensers grab a chunk of his turf

and the king does nothing,

Mortimer turns on him

and leads a popular uprising

against the Despensers and the king.

[Shouting]

Mortimer's men kick the Despensers out of Wales.

Then they march on London.

[Speaking French]

Mortimer demands that the Despensers are banished,

and that puts Edward in a hopeless position.

The king cannot be seen to back down,

so he has to refuse.

[Speaking French]

But with Mortimer's army ready to sack London,

his refusal could easily get him killed.

Salvation comes from an unlikely source.

No longer a helpless child,

25-year-old Queen Isabella falls to her knees

in front of the court and begs Edward

to reconsider, for her sake.

So, just as Mortimer demanded, Edward banishes the Despensers,

but crucially, he's able to claim

he's doing it for his queen.

She's given her husband a face-saving

way out of a no-win situation.

And it finally spurs him into action.

JONES: With Isabella by his side,

the king is finally going to take the fight

to his enemies.

[Shouting]

In October 1321, Queen Isabella makes a surprise stop

here at Leeds Castle in Kent,

seeking shelter on her way to Canterbury.

Leeds Castle is the stronghold of Bartholomew Badlesmere,

one of Mortimer's most prominent allies.

Unsurprisingly, when she gets to these gates,

Badlesmere's men refuse to let her in.

Isabella insists.

It turns nasty.

In the melee that follows, six of her people are killed.

Now, clearly, Isabella's got a core of steel,

but why would she come to this castle

owned by one of her husband's enemies?

Well, in reality, this is just a pretext.

Isabella is putting her life on the line

to give her husband an excuse to start a fight.

Just days later, Edward turns up with an army and siege engines,

and Leeds Castle surrenders.

Edward and Isabella look on

as 13 of Badlesmere's defenders are executed for resisting.

Watching with them are the Despensers,

Edward's ruthless enforcers, brought back from exile

to manage his campaign, because this

is just the start.

For the first time in his entire life,

Edward has a well-thought-out, strategic plan.

With the Despensers secretly recalled

and Isabella by his side,

he's going to pick off his enemies one by one.

First Badlesmere, then Mortimer,

and finally the real prize, Lancaster.

Edward heads to Wales, picking off Mortimer's allies

on the way.

The offensive catches Mortimer off guard.

Edward quickly captures him

and bangs him up in the Tower of London.

The momentum is now with the king.

But Lancaster has a big army

and powerful allies in the north.

He will be a much tougher proposition to take down.

Then something extraordinary happens

that absolutely no one saw coming.

One of Edward's supporters,

the Archbishop of York, receives a series of damning letters,

and they're here, copied into the government archives.

The letters are between two Scottish ministers.

Here you can see the name of one of them -- Sir James Douglas.

And they refer to an agreement with an English noble

who's named as "King Arthur."

What he's doing is guaranteeing he won't support

any English invasion of Scotland.

There's only one person that "King Arthur" could be --

the king's cousin, Thomas of Lancaster.

So this is a smoking gun.

It's proof that Lancaster has been colluding with the enemy.

And that is treason.

Ever since Bannockburn, Edward has suspected

that Lancaster is in bed with the Scots.

Now he can prove it.

The king immediately publishes the Lancaster letters,

then marches his army north.

As Edward approaches, Lancaster's support melts away.

No one wants to back a traitor.

The earl is captured, fleeing for his life.

This is what remains of Lancaster's favorite castle,

Pontefract, and it's here

that he's brought in chains to face Edward.

[Bell ringing, man murmuring]

JONES: In a bitter irony, Edward locks him up

in a tower that Lancaster had himself built

specifically in anticipation

of imprisoning the king.

The next day, Lancaster is hauled from his tower

to face the court.

Now, this is the king's big chance

to restore the rule of law to England

by giving his cousin a fair trial.

After all, the evidence is overwhelming.

Lancaster has committed treason,

and he would be found guilty.

But as ever, this is personal.

Edward is not interested in justice.

He wants what he's always wanted --

revenge.

Lancaster is tried by a jury of his enemies,

no defense, no right to speak,

and sentenced to death.

Amen.

JONES: Judicial murder --

exactly what he did to Gaveston.

It takes three blows of the sword to kill Lancaster.

[Sword strikes neck]

As the last blow lands

on Lancaster's neck,

Edward finally has his revenge

on the man who killed his friend.

But at what price?

The king of England has committed the political murder

of the country's premier earl, his first cousin,

a man with Plantagenet royal blood in his veins.

Pandora's box is open,

and no one is safe.

On the day of Lancaster's execution,

six of his supporters follow him to the gallows.

Another three are executed the next day.

In the months that follow, the executions continue.

No trial, no evidence, just the word of the king.

117 rebels have their lands confiscated,

and at least 15 others join Roger Mortimer in the Tower.

It must look to the whole kingdom

like Edward's bloodlust is insatiable.

But in reality, behind the scenes,

the Despensers are pulling the strings.

It's payback time for the humiliation of their exile.

Edward makes Hugh Despenser Jr.

Chamberlain of the Royal Household,

giving the Despensers complete control

of the machinery of government

and the country's finances.

Soon, all access to Edward has to go through them.

The Despenser regime makes them hated

right across the kingdom.

But the Despensers don't care.

The king is now their puppet.

And they're not done yet.

Two years later, in autumn 1324,

war breaks out with France,

and the Despensers get an opportunity

to move on the one person who could still

interfere with their control of the king -- Queen Isabella.

The king of France is Isabella's brother.

Technically, she's an enemy alien.

And that's how the Despensers treat her.

[Isabella speaking French]

On national security grounds,

they purge her household of French people,

confiscate her lands...

[Despenser shouting in French]

JONES: And her younger children are ripped from her,

to be looked after by Despenser's wife.

-[Children crying] -Non!

JONES: Edward does nothing to help her.

Imagine how Isabella must feel.

She's put up with the humiliation of Gaveston.

When Edward went after Lancaster,

she was right behind him.

She even put her own life on the line

at Leeds Castle.

She's done everything Edward could have asked of a queen

and more, and this is her reward.

Edward can't know it, but this is

the beginning of the end of his rule.

Six months later, Edward and the Despensers

are here in Dover.

The war with France is going disastrously wrong.

The king has no choice but to turn to his wife for help.

He sends Isabella to France

to negotiate a truce with her brother, King Charles.

When Isabella sails for France, she does so

knowing the Despensers have her children.

And that's why they're pretty confident she'll have to behave.

But they've massively underestimated her,

because this is a woman who'll one day

become known as "the She-Wolf,"

and Edward and the Despensers are about to find out why.

In France, Isabella's influence with her brother does the trick.

She gets him to agree to a treaty.

But there's a catch.

The French king demands that Edward comes to France

to seal the deal.

Edward going to France is something

the Despensers simply can't allow.

Their control over the country

depends on having the king in their clutches.

Without him, the whole thing could unravel.

In desperation, the Despensers persuade Edward

to send a message claiming to be ill.

So they must be delighted when the reply comes back

expressing sympathy and saying that, under the circumstances,

the French king would be happy to accept the homage

of Edward's son, 12-year-old Prince Edward, instead.

Sounds reasonable.

So Edward sends the heir to the throne to France

along with a message telling Isabella to return immediately.

It's a massive miscalculation.

With Prince Edward safely by her side in Paris

here at the French court in the Conciergerie,

Isabella makes her move, and it's extraordinary.

JONES: As far as Isabella is concerned,

until the Despensers are gone,

her husband is as good as dead.

Neither the king nor the Despensers

has appreciated the danger of losing control

of both the queen and the heir to the throne.

But with Isabella declared against them,

she quickly becomes the focus for opposition.

Edward and Hugh might have thought

that by snatching her children,

they could force her to toe the line,

but they've no idea who they're dealing with.

Isabella's opposition doesn't stop at speeches.

A month later, she's wearing her black robes of mourning

when she meets a rich, powerful, and charismatic man

who's just escaped from the Tower of London.

Roger Mortimer, her husband's bitterest enemy.

The attraction is immediate.

Within weeks, they're lovers.

Even Paris is shocked.

Isabella, "the She-Wolf,"

and Roger Mortimer, sworn enemy of the king.

For Edward II, they are a very dangerous combination.

In the autumn of 1326,

Isabella and Mortimer head back to England

with one simple aim --

regime change.

D-Day, September 24, 1326.

And even with Mortimer by her side,

for Isabella this is a hell of a gamble.

I mean, let's face it.

She's an adulterous foreign queen

with an escaped-convict lover,

backed by a handful of men

closer in number to a moderate house party

than a proper invasion force.

This has all the hallmarks

of a suicide mission.

But Isabella and Mortimer have called it right.

Popular hatred of the Despensers and the king is so deep

and so widespread that, as his wife and her lover

ride through the shires, supporters flock to their side.

In less than a month, the queen takes the country.

The king is forced to flee for his life.

Edward is running out of options fast.

He's supposed to be the anointed king of England,

but now he's reduced to a man on the run.

His only remaining supporter is a man who, if it's possible,

is hated even more than he is.

It's said he tried to get a message to Isabella --

if only they could talk, maybe they could smooth things over.

The time for talking is long gone,

but as usual, Edward can't see it.

Edward and Hugh are captured,

running scared on a forest path in the Welsh mountains.

[Shouts]

Isabella bangs Edward up in Kenilworth Castle.

She hasn't decided what to do with him yet.

But she's got big plans for Hugh Despenser.

Despenser Sr. has already been beheaded and fed to the dogs.

And he's the lucky one.

When Hugh the Younger arrives here in Hereford

and sees a 50-foot gallows being erected over the town,

he probably begins to suspect

that the trial he's about to receive

isn't going to be entirely fair.

And he's right.

Like Gaveston and Lancaster before him,

he's not allowed to speak in his own defense,

and he's tried by people who hate him.

And the sentence he receives

is so spectacularly vicious and inhuman,

he actually tries to starve himself to death

just to avoid it.

[Crowd shouting]

[Shouts]

JONES: In front of a huge crowd,

Despenser is hung almost to the point of death.

But he's not getting off that lightly,

because Isabella has a point to prove.

This is a very personal execution

and a very public statement.

Isabella has a ringside seat as Despenser

is strapped to a ladder for the next part of his ordeal.

[Crowd cheers]

JONES: The queen wants everyone to know

the Despenser has come between her and her husband.

He's damaged her marriage,

and this is her revenge.

Despenser's genitals are cut off...

[Crowd cheering]

...And burned in front of him.

Incredibly, Isabella

is eating as she watches it happen.

Even more incredibly,

throughout all of this,

Hugh Despenser never makes a sound.

But Isabella isn't done.

Despenser's entrails are pulled out

and shown to him.

Then he screams.

[Despenser screaming]

JONES: Finally, almost mercifully,

he is beheaded.

Murderous personal vindictiveness has become

the defining characteristic of Edward II's reign.

The only person who could have stopped it was Edward.

Instead, he embraced it.

And now it's coming for him.

Edward, who's being held here at Kenilworth Castle,

is Isabella and Mortimer's last remaining problem.

He may be a defeated tyrant,

but he's still the rightful king of England,

anointed by God.

On the other hand, they've been so blatant about their adultery,

they can hardly just give him his crown back.

So Edward's wife and her lover

have him declared incorrigible, and he's deposed

by act of Parliament.

Once king of England,

he's now just plain Edward of Caernarfon,

the place of his birth.

For the first time since the Dark Ages,

a reigning monarch has been forced from the throne.

England has a new king, Edward III,

but it's Isabella as Regent who's really snatched the crown.

The She-Wolf has earned her name.

This is Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire, and it's here

the end game is played out.

Whilst he's still alive, the king remains a threat.

There have already been three attempts

to spring him from prison

and restore him to power.

In truth, he's been a dead man walking

since his wife snatched the throne.

Publicly, it will be claimed that Edward

has died of natural causes,

but as news of his death spreads,

suspicion of murder grows.

The story we're told is that he's tortured and murdered

by having a red-hot poker inserted

via a trumpet device placed in rectum.

[Screaming]

Even after everything Edward had done,

how could a king be tortured and killed

in such a horrific fashion?

The answer, of course -- he wasn't.

This is the room where Edward II was murdered.

Not killed with a poker.

Most probably smothered in his bed.

[Muffled screaming]

The poker story only came about

about 60 years after Edward was killed.

But it's become the standard version.

And that's because the idea of a humiliated,

emasculated, possibly homosexual king

being buggered to death is too good a story

to be troubled by the truth.

Non! Non!

Non!

[Screaming]

JONES: Next time...

the Plantagenet story reaches its catastrophic climax

as Richard II, the boy king

who crushed the Peasants' Revolt,

turns monstrous tyrant

and Henry Bolingbroke rises up

to bring the whole dynasty crashing down.