Original subtitles

- [Narrator] Our history is no more than a series

of incredible events.

Each one of us can influence its course.

The tiniest of our decisions

can influence the future of mankind.

To know the past, you need to anticipate the future.

1152, the middle ages, and a young and beautiful woman

hitherto Queen of the Francs,

has just married the Count of Anjou.

1199, during the siege of the castle,

a defender shoulders his crossbow

and with one bolt slays a legendary king.

15 years later, in the midst of battle,

loyal knights rushed to save their king

thrown from his horse and surrounded by enemies.

These three intimately connected events

will lead to the emergence of one of the most powerful

kingdoms the Western world has ever seen,

the Kingdom of France.

France, England, and Germany are three countries

with clearly defined territories.

With a strong identity, specific language and customs.

In general, an Englishman speaks English,

and lives in England.

It has not always been so.

Our story takes place in the 12th century,

in the middle of the Middle Ages.

This is the period of crusades, castles, and knights.

(dynamic music)

Europe has lived through centuries of darkness.

At the end of the Roman Empire

every town, village, or hamlet was isolated.

One part of the population organized defense

for the protection of all,

so that others could farm in safety.

Ramparts were thrown up,

pacts and alliances of mutual support were agreed,

chiefs were recognized.

A new organization was established.

Each leader became the vassal of a suzerain

and therefore, under his authority.

Each suzerain was himself the vassal of a more powerful

suzerain, all the way up to the king at the top

of the pyramid.

The feudal system system was born.

- [Narrator] Welcome to the memory of humanity.

Here, we can control time, analyze and compare

billions of events and alter them

to rewrite history endlessly.

For example, let us imagine for a moment that our current

democratic system was replaced by a feudal system.

A country where we no longer spoke of a president,

but of suzerain.

Power would be highly decentralized, granted to cities,

departments, and regions.

Each city would have its own law enforcement

and local administration services.

It could raise taxes, certain sections of the population

would work more than others and a minority of people

would own the majority of wealth.

A gain of alliances, pacts, and betrayals

would be common place at the heart of power,

as would corruption and embezzlement.

There would be no national army.

The population would not be able to choose its

representatives, who would preciously guard power

from one generation to another, from father to son.

No elections, no consulting the people.

The right to vote is what distinguishes

democracy from feudalism.

- [Narrator] Feudalism possess an extremely strong

and interlinked social fabric.

It is difficult to destroy.

However, this also makes it highly complex

and different to shift.

Through the mechanism of alliances,

a father might well be forced to fight his own son

on the field of battle.

The period we are focused on is dominated by three realms,

the Kingdom of England, the Holy Roman Empire,

and the Kingdom of France.

France is more of a mosaic of counties and duchies

than a true country.

Through alliances and marriages,

kings must constantly seek to impose their authority

over the feudal chess board.

In this complex game there appears a queenly peace

of irresistible power.

Eleanor of Aquitaine, wife of the King of the Francs,

she is also heir to the duchy of Aquitaine,

one of the most powerful in the kingdom.

However, the spouses do not see eye to eye

and their marriage is annulled.

A young and beautiful woman of thirty,

incredibly rich and cultivated to boot,

does not remain single for long.

Six weeks later she finds a husband equal to her status,

the heir to the thrown of England.

Through this union, Eleanor offers England a quarter

of the territory of France.

King of England, Duke of Normandy, and Count of Anjou,

her husband also becomes Duke of Aquitaine,

and equal to the King of France, he is also his vassal.

Richer and more powerful, he nevertheless,

owes him obedience.

The kings are in check.

- [Narrator] Nothing is ever simple in medieval politics.

In the 12th century,

the notions of what is English or French are vague.

Ever since it was invaded by William the Conqueror,

Duke of Normandy, England has been ruled by Norman kings

speaking old French.

The two kingdoms have become cousins.

The nobles of each country hold fiefs in the other.

However, William on becoming King of England,

did not renounce his title of Duke of Normandy

so he remains a vassal of the King of the Francs.

And so, the famous Richard never called himself Lion heart,

but Coeur de Lion.

He did not speak English, but French.

King Richard spent a mere two months in England,

and was also, through his titles,

a vassal of the King of Francs.

He was buried in France, his maternal land.

The motto of the English monarchy, Dieu and Mon Droit,

goes back to this period,

as does the proliferation of words of French origin

in the language of Shakespeare.

English, the language of the people,

will not be definitely adopted until the 15th century,

on the battlefields of the middle ages

as on that of Waterloo.

The allies communicated between each other in French

to fight the French.

Powers are made and unmade.

- [Narrator] In this particular context,

it takes a strong man to ignite the gun powder.

In this period, there happens to be two.

Phillip Augustus, King of the Francs,

a skillful politician and a fine strategist.

Richard the Lion heart, King Knight and fearless tactician.

Phillip has a political vision

that Richard is rendering impossible,

to transform a collection of disparate counties and duchies

into a true, unified kingdom,

bound together under one flag.

This resolutely modern vision of the state,

would make it the most powerful kingdom in Europe,

and that is not what Richard wants.

Through his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine,

Richard has legitimate claims on a part of the kingdom

that Phillip wants to create,

and he's utterly determined to defend his lands.

1199, the Siege of Chalus.

Richard the Lion heart, himself, commands operations.

Fired from the keep a crossbow bolt strikes him full on.

Richard pulls out the bolt himself, though within 10 days,

gangrene carries him off.

Our story has changed course.

The balance is upset.

The game is unlocked.

John Lackland, Richard's brother,

succeeds him and becomes King of England.

He is also the son of Eleanor and can lay claim to the

same rights over the lands of Aquitaine.

However, he has neither the charisma nor the military skills

of his elder brother.

Now faced with a weakened opponent,

Phillip can finally create the France of his ambitions.

One by one, he conquers the lands of the King of England.

Alone, John can do nothing to prevent him.

To defeat Phillip, he needs Otto.

Otto the fourth, Holy Roman Emperor does not need

to be asked twice.

When one succeeds, it is often at the expense of another,

and Phillip has made as many enemies as friends.

Two vast armies are raised.

The invasion will be a combined encircling operation.

In the west, John will land at Lauershell

to draw Phillip away.

In the northeast, Otto will seize the occasion

for rapid march on Paris.

It's a trap.

When he learns of John's landing,

Phillip Augustus orders the oriflamme,

the royal standard to be raised while he speeds

to confront John.

However, his instinct tells him to be cautious.

John is not the sort of man to confront him in person

and he is now far from Paris.

Too far.

The north is without defense.

He now holds the most crucial counsel of war of his reign.

The survival of the kingdom turns on his decision.

On the throw of a dice, he sends his son to confront

John while he himself will go to defend the north.

Two armies, one led by the father, the other by the son,

hold the fate of a realm.

Neither of the two can fail.

The first act is played out at the

Fortress of the Roche Homeone.

John besieges the fort but resistance is so high

that the relieving army has time to arrive.

Seized with panic, and without even engaging in battle,

John flees.

The King of England will have a hard time explaining

this lack of courage to his barons, which leaves Otto.

Otto and his knights.

- [Narrator] You are not born a knight.

You become one.

Equipped with armor and a charger,

a knight is first and foremost, a warrior,

but a warrior who has adopted a code of conduct.

Once recognized by another knight

during the dubbing ceremony,

he earns the right to wear his coat of arm,

the sign of identification, and to fight with a sword,

the most noble of weapons.

Unlike a soldier, who receives a pay,

or a mercenary, who sells his service to the highest bidder,

the knight pledges allegiance to a suzerain

and swears to defend his cause and his honor.

These elite warriors are the spearhead of medieval armies.

In battle, men sometimes forge values

that bind them together.

From the samurai, who observed the code of bushido,

to the semper fidelis of the American Marine,

by way of the grenadier of the Napoleonic Old Guard,

the commitment goes beyond the field of battle

and determines the lives of these warriors.

Sometimes criticised and often labeled obsolete,

this spirit has slowly been abandoned

in favor of a colder,

more pragmatic approach to war.

- [Narrator] On July 27, 1214, the two armies

are no more than a few miles from each other.

The coaliltion army includes a large number

of German pike men in heavy armor.

Otto the fourth can also count on a heavy cavalry

made up of English and Flemish nobles,

and also a few French traitors.

Redoubtable English archers and toughened mercenaries

complete the numbers.

The army of the Francs consist, for a large part,

of elite calvary, Arctic knights from all four corners

of the realm, well-equipped veterans of the crusades

and loyal to their king.

Numerically inferior, Phillip has turned to the free

communes of the kingdom, who have dispatched considerable

numbers of their own militias.

(steps plodding)

After several days of maneuvering, Otto has engaged

in the pursuit of the army of the Francs.

Confident in his strategy,

his objective is to catch up with it and destroy it.

Suddenly, Phillip's army turns about.

While they imagined they would annihilate abandoned flight,

the Germans find themselves faced with an army

of knights in battle order.

In the center is Phillip Augustus, the absolute enemy.

This is the day, this is the hour.

It is noon.

The heat of oppressive.

Somebody cries, "Death to the French!"

and the battle commences.

In the center, the German juggernaut,

the terrible heavy pikeman, advance directly on the

King of the Francs.

The mission is to demolish the French ranks

and kill the king as quickly as possible.

The Francs struggle to contain the German monster.

The town militias cannot withstand the assault.

On the German's left flank the Flemish nobles are

engaged in ferocious hand to hand combat,

when suddenly above the clash of arms,

the terrifying sounds of war trumpets rings out.

The spearhead of the French cavalry charges

fiercely into the heart of the enemy troops.

There's a mighty shock.

The heavy cavalry sweeps all before it.

Disorganized, the Flemish can do nothing against

the Frankish knights who break through the ranks

in several places, turn around, and attack from the rear.

The whole of the German left flank soon collapses.

To the west, the very opposite is about to happen.

The Francs are within an inch of collapse,

but then, the Bishop of Beauvais hurls his whole weight

into the fray, hacks a path through to the English chief,

and with a spectacular blow of his mace,

shatters his helmet.

Seized with panic, the English take flight.

With their wings secure, the situation appears to swing

in favor for the Francs,

but in the center, the German foot soldiers are nearly

within striking distance of King Phillip.

These 3,000 redoubtable elite soldiers have one singe order.

Kill the King whatever the cost.

(clanking)

Exhausted, decimated, the militias finally give way.

The Germans drive deep into the French ranks.

The King's guard charges to slow the advance,

the situation is grave.

Phillip, at the heart of the battle,

is rapidly surrounded by enemies and is under attack

from all sides.

His guard, far forward, is unaware of the danger.

Suddenly, a spear hurdles through the air

and strikes Phillip full on.

The King's armor deflects the blow and saves his life,

but he's unable to pull out the spear.

The German soldiers heave with all their might.

Off balance, isolated, the king of the Francs is thrown

to the ground.

The Germans rush forward.

Their daggers at the ready.

They must kill the King.

Dazed, Phillip tries to get to his feet to defend himself.

His knights form a bulk work with their bodies

and wage a desperate battle.

The Germans are everywhere and they outnumber them.

Desperately, they wave the oriflamme to call for help.

The King is about to die.

The Royal Guard is hacking a path through to him,

but is still far away.

Laying down their lives, the last of the Frankish knights

are true to their oaths,

but the Germans are too numerous.

(thuds)

Maces smash through shields, swords pierce armor.

Arriving just in time, the Royal Guard, in fury,

slaughters the Germans and places the King

back in his saddle.

Phillip Augustus is saved.

He should take shelter, flee far from the battle, now.

But a King is a knight.

His honor commands him to remain and face the foe.

The army reforms.

Swords unsheathed, shields raised.

The Frankish knights, thirsty for revenge,

charge the Emperor Otto.

Opposite them, they can only prepare and wait.

The German ranks fly apart.

The knights charge upon Otto.

Surrounded by a pack of furious hounds,

he is now the one in danger.

To save his life, he flees.

The enraged Francs pursue him.

Now it's the turn of the German knights to intervene.

They narrowly manage to throw the Francs to the ground.

Contrary to Phillip Augustus, Otto desserts the battle field

in order to save his own life.

1199, Richard dies at the Siege of Chalus,

whereas Phillip Augustus survives

the Battle of Bouvines in 1214.

- [Narrator] We have just reached a turning point.

A turning point is a key event, a cross roads in our history

where the world swings one way or the other.

Phillip Augustus has just come within inches of death.

If Otto soldiers had succeeded in killing the King,

their emperor would not only have won a battle,

he would also have broken a kingdom.

If King Phillip had died at Bouvines, France,

carved up into tiny duchies, would probably have been

absorbed by a French speaking England.

For France, this was a unique opportunity

to become a true kingdom.

The right leader, the right moment,

surrounded by good people.

A very brief window opened.

Phillip Augustus was able to see it,

seize it, and defend it.

With the King killed at Bouvines, the duchies and counties

would have remained independent.

France would never have come into existence.

On a battle field, the chief is the one who coordinates

the efforts of all.

He is the focal point, the keystone.

A King, head of the army, but also of the country,

cannot die or flee the fight without leaving his men

to their own resources and demoralized.

But during this period, a King is also a knight.

If he wants to be chief, he must fight

and be the first to do so.

When he decides to go to war, he knows he may die,

as may his sons.

That is the difference.

Let's now fast forward to the Napoleonic Wars.

The Empire's marshals still fight at the head of their men.

Like Lam killed by a cannonball,

or Udanal with his 34 wounds,

however Napoleon stays in the rear.

Forward even further to Verdun in 1916,

700,000 dead, 80% from artillery shelling,

the generals are no longer at the front.

The second world war, Stalingrad.

Stalin gives the order, not one step back,

one million dead.

The Soviet leader, himself, is hundreds of miles

from the city.

Truman is even further away when he gives the order

to drop two atomic bombs on civilians.

In our own times, an American, comfortably seated in Texas,

uses a joystick and a real time video link

to pilot a predator drone to strike down a target

anywhere in the world.

- [Narrator] A chief who flees a battlefield

is never a good sign.

Demoralized, the German troops abandon the fight,

one after another.

Phillips Augustus's victory is total.

The two allied armies are defeated.

In the heart of the battle, the King proved his valor.

At the pinnacle of his glory, and freed of his enemies,

he has the means to impose his vision on his vassals.

France will become progressively more important

to the hearts of it's people than their own duchies

and counties.

In the fields of Bouvines, the King of the Francs

becomes a King of France.

Other kingdoms will take the same road.

The power of the barons will gradually decline

in favor of the central power.

(dramatic music)

However, a terrible evil lurks in the shadows of this

dazzling victory.

A time bomb.

In becoming of England, Eleanor of Aquitaine

granted her son John and all his descendants

legitimate claims to the lands conquered by Phillip.

Ironically, now through another France,

the English will rally around a unifying principle.

They are English and gradually

they will turn to speaking English.

The rivalry between the two countries will not end there,

which all leads to the terrible Hundred Years War,

but that is another story.

- [Narrator] Who are we?

Are you English because you speak English?

Richard the Lion heart, King of England, spoke French.

Are you German because you were born in Germany?

Hitler, the German chancellor, was born in Austria.

What is a nation?

Until the Middle Ages, the concept has no meaning.

England, for instance, does not exist.

It is simply a territory in which the English people live.

They talk of the kingdom of the English

and not of the Kingdom of England.

What is a French person?

In the beginning, a Celt.

Romanized, he becomes a Gallo Roman,

and starts speaking Latin.

Then come the Francs, but also the Burgundians,

the Visigoths, and other Germanic peoples

who settle on the territory of present day France,

bringing their blood and their culture.

France and a new language are born out of this mix.

The French person today is the foreigner of yesterday.

The idea of France as a nation was born in a stew

of different cultures and languages,

on a soil claimed by other kings.

The idea germinated slowly and crept into the hearts

of those who would defend it till death in 1914

with the cry, "For my Country".

Never before Bouvines would a Burgundian ever have

imagined being anything other than a Burgundian.

So what of Europe?

In the beginning, just an idea.

Nothing more than an idea born of the vision

of a handful of men,

but it is ideas that lead the world.

(dramatic music)