All language subtitles for Britains Bloodiest Dynasty s01e01.eng

Out of the chaos,
darkness and violence of the Middle Ages,

one family rose to seize
control of England.

(Roars)

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.

(Cheering)

What I love about the Plantagenet 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
tyrannised their way to spectacular success.

For better and for worse, the
Plantagenets forged England as a nation.

This time: The founder of the dynasty,

Henry II, warrior and empire builder.

He transformed England from a war zone
into a European superpower.

But murder...and betrayal by his own family

threatened to tear apart
everything he had achieved.

(Plainsong)

Ripped By mstoll

In 1153, Henry Plantagenet sails to
England with an invasion force,

aiming to seize back the throne.

He's only 20 but he's already
an experienced soldier.

He's been fighting in
France since he was a kid

and his mother's drilled into him the idea
that the Crown of England is rightfully his.

So as Henry approaches these shores,
he's convinced he has a date with destiny.

Henry's a powerhouse, with a fiery temper,
bursting with raw energy, and ambition.

Within a year, Stephen is dead and Henry is
crowned Henry II - the first Plantagenet king.

Of course, he doesn't
speak a word of English.

But after 90 years of Norman French rule in
England, no one does, except the peasants.

And it's not them
that Henry's here to pick a fight with.

It's the barons.

For a generation, the barons have been
fighting vicious turf wars,

burning, looting, raping, killing.

If you lived here, you could come home
any day to find your house on fire,

your crops destroyed,
your animals taken or your family murdered.

And this has been going on for nearly 20
years, as long as the new King has been alive.

Henry's future, and the future of England,
depends on bringing the barons to heel.

He could simply destroy them -
his army's big enough.

But instead, he does something
totally unexpected.

High on the Welsh borders is Wigmore Castle,
once one of England's greatest fortresses.

It's the powerbase of Hugh Mortimer,
toughest of the barons.

And the last to hold out
against the new King.

No one defies Henry and gets away with it,

so he turns up here at Wigmore with an army
and lays siege to the castle.

Henry's got Hugh surrounded.

But he's not here to destroy him.

He just sits outside.

"Here I am. Here's my army.
What are you gonna do about it?"

Unsurprisingly, Hugh folds.

But it's what Henry does next
that marks him out as a king to watch.

Because he takes Hugh's castle away from
him... and then gives it straight back.

He's saying, "You can have your power,
but only because I say so.

I'm the King. I'm in control.

And you work for me."

One reason Henry has the confidence
to take on such powerful men

is because he has a formidable ally.

Henry's queen is Eleanor,
Duchess of Aquitaine.

Ten years his senior,
she's such a famous beauty,

students across Europe
sing bawdy songs about bedding her.

She shocked the continent
by divorcing the King of France in 1152

and marrying Henry just two months later.

They're a good match.

By the time Henry takes the throne,
she's already produced their first son.

But this queen is far
more than a baby machine.

As Duchess of Aquitaine, she's a serious
political player in her own right.

Henry brings muscle,
Eleanor brings prestige.

Together, they're a match for anyone.

And their union creates
a Plantagenet Empire

that stretches from the borders of Scotland
to the Pyrenees.

But to keep control of such vast territory,
Henry has to do something radical.

Control's everything to Henry.

The question is, how does he maintain it?

He could use his barons to rule the different
regions, that's standard medieval practice.

But as far as Henry can see, the barons will
only do things his way as long as it suits them.

To get what he wants, Henry's going to have
to do things a little bit differently.

(Recites in Latin)

Henry's genius is to create a new army...
not of soldiers...but of clerks.

Educated commoners.

Unlike the barons,
they'll do exactly what he wants.

What Henry invents is the basis of the Civil
Service that still runs the country today.

Here at the National Archives,

900-year-old documents
reveal the full extent of Henry's control.

So this is a writ from
the second year of Henry's reign.

And it's an official instruction from the
King - we can see the king, Rex here,

Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine,

and he's sending instruction to
the Sheriff of Dorset

ordering him to give back a farm in the
village of Rampisham to its rightful owner.

That might sound mundane
but hundreds of these survive,

and what they show you is Henry's interest in
every last field and pasture of his kingdom.

And this isn't everything Henry's doing.

He's also rebuilding royal finance
through the Exchequer,

he's sending his justices roving about
the country to re-establish law and order.

What it all adds up to
is Henry's complete obsession

with stamping his control
over every area of his new kingdom.

The mastermind pulling the
administrative strings for Henry

is commoner Thomas Becket,
the son of a merchant.

He may be low born, but Becket's such a
brilliant operator, Henry makes him chancellor.

It's Becket who makes sure the King's
grip on England is rock solid.

And there's clearly some kind of spark
between them.

They quickly become drinking buddies,
hunting partners, and best mates.

(Speaks French)

(Chuckles)

- Ssh.
- Ssh.

But because of Becket, everything Henry's
achieved is about to come under threat.

The trouble begins here at Canterbury,

seat of power of the one part of England
that remains beyond Henry's control -

the Church.

One Englishman in five is a cleric,
and they're effectively above the law.

Whatever crime they commit, even rape
or murder, only Church courts can try them.

The worst punishment
they can give out is a fine.

The King can't touch them.

So in 1161, when the Archbishop
of Canterbury dies here,

Henry thinks, "Excellent, I'll appoint
my mate Thomas as Archbishop.

He can knock some sense into the Church."

And even though
Thomas has never been a priest,

Henry bullies the monks at Canterbury
until they agree to elect him.

So you can see why Henry thinks
he's got the Church problem sewn up.

After all, Becket's his best mate,
he owes his career to him.

What could possibly go wrong?

Henry's failed to spot a massive problem.

In the medieval world,
there is a higher power than the king.

Becket finds God.

Pretty much the first thing he does is hang the
King out to dry by resigning as chancellor.

He's sending a very blunt message:

"I'm not going to do what you say any more,
I have a new boss now. "

With God in his corner,

Becket now defies every command
the King makes to bring the Church to heel.

Unsurprisingly,
it doesn't go down very well with Henry.

This is a king famous across Europe
for his uncontrollable temper,

a man who once got so furious
during an argument

that he rolled around on the floor,

pulling the straw out of his mattress
and stuffing it into his mouth.

So it's fair to say that Henry wasn't
just angry, he was apoplectic.

And this rage, combined with
Henry's intense desire for control,

will lead to murder and betrayal that threatens
to destroy everything he's achieved.

(Reciting in Latin)

Westminster, July 1170.

Henry II is having his eldest son,
Young Henry, crowned King of England,

effectively King in waiting.

(Exclamations in Latin)

It should secure Henry's legacy.

Instead it's going to tear his world apart.

(Exclamations in Latin)

Because there's one man who really
should be there that Henry hasn't invited -

Thomas Becket.

Crowning Kings of England is the Archbishop
of Canterbury's gig and it always has been.

So when Becket finds out about the Young
King's coronation, he explodes with fury,

and he does something utterly reckless.

(Recites in Latin)

Becket excommunicates
every single cleric involved.

(Recites in Latin)

- Amen.
- Amen.

As far as he's concerned,

they're quite literally going to hell.

When the news reaches Henry,

out comes his Plantagenet rage again,

and he says something he'll come
to regret for the rest of his life.

Becket.

Becket!

Henry's just venting
but that's not how it looks to his knights.

What they hear is a direct
order from their king.

This simple misunderstanding
sets up a disaster.

And here, in Canterbury,
it all comes crashing down.

Days later,
four knights burst through these doors.

And they marched into the cathedral
to confront Becket here.

He's unarmed in his archbishop's robes,

and they're in armour with
swords by their sides.

Furious words are exchanged,

and they try and drag Becket out
of the cathedral but he resists.

(Curses them in French)

Aargh!

And it's at this point,
one of the knights draws his sword

and brings it down on Becket's head,
chopping off part of his skull.

Becket falls.

And one of the knights scoops his brains
onto the floor with the tip of his sword.

But they're not alone,

because hiding in doorways and behind pillars
are Becket's friends and supporters,

bearing witness to an event
that'll shock Christendom.

Every single good thing that Henry II
has done in his career until now

may as well be wiped out, because
this is what he'll be remembered for.

The fact that his words were taken out
of context is neither here nor there.

As far as everyone's concerned,
Henry ordered Becket's murder.

Outrage at this sacrilege goes viral.

Across Europe, people begin to question
whether Henry is really fit to be a king.

Henry realises straightaway
how damaging this will be.

This is the first time since his
meteoric rise that he's been vulnerable.

But I think it would have
hurt him personally, as well.

He and Becket may have been knocking lumps
out of each other for years,

but this is still a man
who was once his closest friend,

who understood him better than anyone else.

The humiliated King makes himself scarce
and goes to Ireland on campaign.

In a crisis on this scale,

the one group he should be able
to count on are his own family.

But now they turn on him, too.

And it's all Henry's fault.

Henry's eldest son, Henry the Young King,

is a chip off the old block -

ambitious, power hungry and impatient.

As King in waiting,
he should be taken to Ireland,

so Henry can teach him
how to exert iron-fisted control.

But he isn't.

Instead, the Young King is left behind,

festering in the aftermath
of his father's disgrace.

And whilst he's away, the King leaves control
in the hands of his slick bureaucrats.

Powerless and isolated,

resentment at his father
starts to eat away at him.

Another surviving document reveals just how
humiliating life is for the Young King.

This is a record of royal
accounts from 1172,

when Henry was off beating up the Irish.

On the face of it, it's pretty dry.

It's a long list of payments made.

But throughout, there are records
of money paid out to the Young King.

What's interesting is,
they're all quite small.

Let's have a look.
There's one here from Berkhamsted.

And it says, for the works "Regis
fili Regis" - "the son of the King".

"XXX" - that's 30 shillings.

Well, today that's a few thousand pounds,
which might sound like a lot,

but to the eldest son of a
king, it's chicken feed.

Now the normal way that things would work

is that a king would give his eldest son a
block of lands from which to draw his revenue.

But Henry hasn't done that.

He's kept everything to
himself, to keep control.

So the picture you get,
reading this, is of the old king,

one of the richest, most
powerful men in Europe,

while his eldest son is going round, cap in
hand, begging money from royal officials.

Wouldn't make you very happy, would it?

Resentment is spreading through
the rest of the family, too.

The year before Becket's murder,
Henry's wife, Queen Eleanor

had returned to her homeland in Aquitaine,
and she bases herself here at Poitiers,

where this hall is what remains
of her magnificent ducal palace.

After years living in a foreign country,

Eleanor's come back,
with her favourite son, Richard,

to train him to take over
her lands there when she dies.

Finally, she's back where she belongs.

This is where she was born,
this is where she was raised.

And frankly, the food and weather
are better here, too.

But Eleanor's about to find that her
Aquitaine is now a very different place.

A spanking new cathedral
is being built in the town centre.

This is more than just a church,
it's a PR statement,

designed to sell
the Plantagenet dynasty to the people.

And the banner headline of this
message is a spectacular window.

Incredibly, it's survived intact
for nearly nine centuries.

If you look at this stained-glass
window high up in the cathedral,

you can see Henry, Eleanor
and their four sons.

It's like a snapshot of a united family,

ruling together over England
and half of France.

Except it isn't really like that,
because in Aquitaine,

Eleanor finds it's Henry's men collecting the
taxes, Henry's men controlling the barons.

Even when her husband's
hundreds of miles away,

it's obvious that he's the
one who's in control.

Eleanor might have brought
Aquitaine to Henry in marriage,

but that doesn't mean it's his.

Then Eleanor discovers something
Henry's done that to her is unforgivable.

Behind her back, Henry has mortgaged off part of
her Aquitaine to secure a political alliance.

And this is like coming home one day

to find your husband's changed the locks,
sold your stuff

and invited a bunch of other
people to live there.

And it's not just Eleanor who's fuming.

Richard is spitting blood
about his lost inheritance, too.

At one stroke, Henry has created
two powerful new enemies.

And he probably doesn't even realise it.

Henry's blindness to his family's feelings
is a ticking time bomb.

Here in Chinon, 175 miles south-west of Paris,
in the very heart of Henry's French lands,

it finally explodes.

Chinon Castle has enormous
strategic importance.

If you want to rule the Plantagenet Empire,
controlling it is absolutely essential.

And that's exactly why Henry the Young King
expects that one day this castle will be his.

Then, one night, Henry announces
he's giving Chinon Castle,

the jewel in the Plantagenet crown,

to John, the Young King's
six-year-old brother.

Think what it would've
been like here that night.

This is one of the angriest
families in history.

Try and imagine all that
Plantagenet rage just boiling up.

I don't think there'd have been
much pleasant chit-chat over dinner.

Chinon!

Chinon!

The loss of the castle is more
than the Young King can bear.

True to form, Henry's
completely dismissive.

He's utterly incapable of seeing
things from his son's point of view.

But the Young King is adamant.

For 18 years, he's had to suffer
his father's obsessive control.

Now he's drawing a line in the sand.

(Speaks French)

The Young King should've known better.

Henry was never gonna give up
control without a fight.

Chinon teaches the Young
King a harsh lesson.

His father is never gonna
give him real power,

and he's sick of being strung along.

But if Henry thinks he's got the Young King
where he wants him, he's dead wrong.

His eldest son is now hell bent
on taking the old man down.

Spring 1173.

The Young King steals out his father's
custody and flees to Paris...

...straight into the arms of Louis Vll,
King of France.

This is out and out betrayal.

The Young King is planning to use King
Louis to help seize his father's throne.

But why does the King of France get
involved in such a dangerous game?

To Dr Julie Barrau, an expert in the medieval
French court, it makes perfect sense.

Louis hates Henry.

Well, they had many reasons
not to like each other.

Maybe the first is that they embody completely
opposite ideas of what it is to be a king.

On the one hand, you have Henry,
macho, warrior.

And on the other hand,
you had Louis, who was anything but.

And the other thing is that Henry was much,
much wealthier than Louis

and never wasted an opportunity
to show it very clearly.

But it's more than just
political, isn't it?

Well, yes. What makes this story unusual

is that you have a very deep
personal aspect to it.

A mere two months after Louis
separated from his wife Eleanor,

she married Henry,
and she didn't just marry him,

but she started having
one baby boy after the other,

when Louis and Eleanor had really tried
for a son for years before that.

So that must've been really,
really painful for poor Louis.

So all those aspects together

explain why you have such a deep
and long animosity between those two men.

The Young King rocking up in Paris
is no surprise to Louis.

This is more than just a spur-of-the-moment
betrayal by a petulant son.

Because Henry the Young King
isn't acting alone.

His brothers are in on this, too,

and so's the one person who's vital to making
the whole betrayal possible... Eleanor.

The Queen's been plotting with her ex-husband
to replace Henry II with the Young King.

(Speaks French)

She immediately sends Richard
to join his older brother in Paris.

A few days later, Eleanor follows.

She makes a mad dash across France
on horseback disguised in men's clothing.

But she doesn't make it.

She's caught on her way to Paris
by Henry II's men,

and brought to Chinon Castle,
not as a queen but as a prisoner.

Your own sons rebelling against you
is pretty much as bad as it gets.

Your queen masterminding
the whole plot with her ex...

that's off the chart.

The scandal rocks medieval Europe.

But there's no stopping the betrayal
Eleanor has set in motion.

In Paris, Louis, Richard and the Young King are
mobilising to attack Henry from all sides.

And not just in France.

They're going to hit him
where it hurts the most...England.

Plenty of the English barons are still pretty sore
about having their wings clipped by Henry II.

The Young King promises
to give them everything back.

The last time the English barons had that sort
of power, they basically destroyed the country.

So this is a pretty reckless promise.

It's not careful strategy.

But that's the Young King for you.

He's good at betrayal,
but he lacks his father's political savvy.

He just wants to win - whatever the cost.

He even cuts a deal with Henry's
other mortal enemy, the King of Scotland.

The Young King promises him big chunks of
England if he attacks Henry from the north.

For a King of England in waiting,
this is a dangerous game.

But it works.

By the spring of 1174,
Henry faces a perfect storm.

Full-on revolt is spreading
across his empire,

all sparked by his family's betrayal.

And whilst Henry's fighting in France,

England is turning into a disaster zone.

The King of Scotland has invaded the North.

And foreign mercenaries are flooding across
the Channel to support the barons' revolt.

If Henry doesn't do something drastic,
England will be lost.

Most kings crossing the Channel to face a
rebellion would be thinking the same thing:

Raise an army, crush them by force.

But Henry's got something
else up his sleeve,

because he realises it isn't his barons, or
even his sons who are threatening his empire.

It's the dead hand of Thomas Becket
rising up from beyond the grave.

It's more than three years since
Becket was killed in Canterbury Cathedral.

In that time, Henry's troubles
have gone from bad to worse.

On 12th July, 1174,
Henry II heads to Canterbury.

What he does in the next 24 hours
will shock the world

and decide the future
of the entire Plantagenet dynasty.

Just outside the city walls, he stops,

removes his boots and begins
to walk barefoot along the road.

People watching must be wondering
if the desperate King has lost his mind.

The streets here in Canterbury
are full of people,

all nudging each other, pointing,
maybe even trying to grab him.

They know it's the King because behind him,
the Royal Standard's fluttering.

But he's dressed as an ordinary pilgrim,
in rough, woollen clothes.

And he's barefoot, and the roads
aren't nice and clean and smooth.

They're muddy, they're filthy,

they're full of broken pots and sharp
stones that cut his feet to shreds.

This isn't just physically
painful, it's humiliating.

The King of England is dragging
himself through the mud,

leaving bloody footprints behind him.

Henry's performing the most
public act of penance imaginable,

begging God - and Becket - to forgive him.

This can only end in one place,
Canterbury Cathedral.

This wretched three-mile walk
is actually propaganda dynamite.

Every person who sees him will spread the
news of the scale of the King's penance.

But Henry isn't finished yet.

He knows he has one chance to win back
the hearts and minds of his kingdom,

and he's planning something spectacular.

The stage for his grand finale is the shrine of
the once best friend he accidentally murdered...

Thomas Becket.

When Henry enters the cathedral,
dirty, bloody and drained,

Thomas's shrine isn't up there,
it's down these stairs in the crypt.

And it's down here,
in the dark, among the columns,

that Henry does something
absolutely extraordinary.

(Monk reciting Latin)

In front of Becket's tomb, Henry kneels
down and commands the monks to whip him.

(Whip cracking)

100 of them take turns to beat his back
up to five times each with a birching rod.

Henry is spilling his own blood to atone for the
spilling of Becket's in the cathedral above.

These are the same monks who cowered
behind the pillars in horror back then.

Now they are striking the blows,
beating the sin out of the King.

In all, Henry receives more than
300 flesh-lacerating lashes.

There may be far fewer people
down here than up there,

but these are the men who will write about
what they've seen, who will tell the world.

They may be Henry's punishers
but they're also his propagandists.

It's a masterstroke of
charismatic kingship.

This is Henry's best shot at quashing
the whispering campaign against him.

But there's no guarantee it will save him.

Then something extraordinary happens.

The next morning, a messenger arrives.

He bears explosive news.

The King of Scotland has been captured.

The invasion of the North is over.

It must have seemed like
some kind of miracle.

The timing's just too perfect.

And it feeds directly
into Henry's own propaganda.

Ever since the time of Becket's death,

he's been describing himself in documents
as "King by the grace of God",

and now he has unarguable proof
that God is on his side.

Henry's miracle rips the heart
out of the rebellion in England.

The barons fold without a fight.

Henry's back in control.

In less than a month,
he's free to head back to France

and take the fight to his traitorous sons.

Henry's on a roll.

When he gets back to France,
the rebellion melts away before him.

First he persuades the flaky
Young King to switch sides,

and that leads Richard to fold as well.

The rebellion is snuffed out.

For Henry's family, it's a catastrophe.

They gambled everything and lost.

The King has crushed them.

But he now faces a dilemma -

what to do with his treacherous family.

The one family member
Henry can't forgive is Eleanor,

because as a wife rebelling
against her husband,

she's committed
one of the worst forms of treachery,

and she can never be trusted again.

And here in this chapel near Chinon Castle,

her fate is recorded in
this incredible fresco.

At the front, you can
see her husband, Henry,

Eleanor's in the middle,
and behind her are two of her sons.

This might look like a nice,
touching Plantagenet family portrait,

but it actually shows Eleanor
being led off into captivity.

Henry may not need Eleanor any more...

(Reciting in Latin)

...but he does need his sons,

to carry on the Plantagenet
dynasty after him.

So in a public ceremony of reconciliation,
he forgives them.

He even gives them money and castles.

They may have been forgiven,

but both boys must know that the one thing he'll
never give them after this is any real power.

Henry simply can't see
that his obsession with control

might be the root cause
of all his family's betrayals.

And this blindness to his own faults
will ultimately destroy him.

In the summer of 1183,

an unexpected event throws
Henry ll's world into turmoil.

His eldest son, the Young King, dies,

not by the sword but of dysentery.

An inglorious death for an inglorious son.

Henry's grief isn't just a father's, although
it's clear he's personally devastated.

The death of the Young King
has destroyed all his plans for his legacy.

As his remaining sons
begin to jockey for position,

Henry is losing control again.

Just two of Henry's sons remain alive.

Only one can become his heir.

Richard, the eldest surviving son,
is expecting to be named.

But Henry's favourite has always
been his youngest son, John.

He, at least, has never
betrayed his father.

Even so, Henry doesn't dare
name either of them.

Henry drags his heels. Last time
he named a successor, it was a disaster.

This time he thinks, by stalling,

he can keep Richard obedient
and under control.

What he doesn't know is someone's been
stoking up resentment in Richard,

whispering ideas of betrayal
in his ear yet again.

The man doing the whispering is
the new King of France, Philip II.

He plays on Richard's fears,

persuading him that his father
intends to name John as heir.

(Speaks French)

Richard demands that Henry
formally names him as his successor.

And, of course, Henry refuses.

That would mean giving up control.

So with Philip by his side, Richard once
again goes to war against his father.

In less than a month, they tear through the heart
of Henry's French lands, winning every battle.

It's not long before a defeated Henry

finds himself holed up again,
back here, at Chinon Castle,

with his son and the King
of France at the gates.

They're young, ambitious and aggressive.

Henry's old and tired.

The one thing he could never control
has finally caught up with him... time.

Outside, his Plantagenet
heartland is collapsing.

The empire he built
and has ruled over for more than 30 years

is being ripped from him by his own son.

It's a final total defeat.

On 3rd July, 1189, Henry rides
out from Chinon to meet Richard.

A man who spent so much of his life on
horseback that his legs are physically bowed,

now has to be strapped into the saddle
to stop him from falling off.

Richards demands are read out.

He wants land, he wants money.

More than anything else,
he wants to be the next king.

It's all Henry can do
to nod his head weakly and agree.

At the end, he leans in for one last
embrace, and he whispers to Richard,

"God grant that I may not die
until I've had my revenge on you."

Somewhere, in this broken old man,
is still Henry II, King of England.

But this act of defiance
is Henry's last hoorah.

God doesn't grant his wish.

Henry II, the first Plantagenet King
of England, dies two days later.

Here, less than 20 miles from Chinon,
in the family shrine at Fontevraud Abbey...

Henry II lies buried.

Beside him were buried the bodies of his
wife, Eleanor, and his successor, Richard.

But not his favourite son, John.

For his whole reign,
Henry kept a close grip on his kingdom.

He never allowed his sons real control,

because fundamentally, he didn't think
they could do as good a job as he could.

And when Richard and then John
become king, they prove him right.

Within 15 years, the Plantagenet Empire has
collapsed, torn apart by rebellion and war.

And that's why John's not buried here at
Fontevraud with his mother and his father,

because by the time John dies,
this place is ruled by France.

Next time...

the collapsing friendship of
Henry III and Simon de Montfort

plunges the country into
bloody slaughter and civil war,

changing England and the monarchy forever.

(Cheering)

Ripped By mstoll

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Easy Subtitles Synchronizer 1.0.0.0