All language subtitles for Britains.Bloodiest.Dynasty.The.Plantagenets.S01E04.Tyranny.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-NTb

Out of the chaos,
darkness, and violence

of the middle ages,

one family rose to seize control
of England.

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.

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 tyrannized their way

to spectacular success.

For better and for worse,

the Plantagenets forged England
as a nation.

This time,

the golden boy
who single handedly

ended the Peasants' Revolt.

But Richard II became the most
vicious Plantagenet of them all.

And his reign of terror brought
the whole Plantagenet dynasty

crashing down.

June 11, 1381.

Two 14-year-old boys
are taking refuge

here at the Tower of London

as murderous rebels
stalk the streets outside.

The first of the boys
is the king himself,

Richard II --

eighth in the unbroken line
of Plantagenet kings.

The second is his cousin,
Henry Bolingbroke,

son and heir of
the Duke of Lancaster.

They will change
the face of England.

But first they have to survive

this bloody crisis, and that's
not exactly guaranteed.

The only thing

on the king's side
is that it's not him

the rebels are after.

Richard II has been king since
he was ten --

since then, his realm has been
ruled by counselors.

Now, in the eyes
of the peasants,

these counselors are greedy
and evil.

And how do you fix
a problem like that?

Well, you kill them,
obviously.

Richard's counselors are the
most senior nobles in the land.

Most of them have fled London.

The rest are hiding in
the Tower with the king.

As the situation deteriorates,

the most hated
of Richard's counselors

hatch a desperate plan.

They send the young king with
an entourage out of the Tower

and through the streets
to create a distraction.

They're hoping
the mob will follow

so they can make
their escape.

But their cowardice very quickly
comes back to haunt them...

The rebels simply
let Richard pass.

He's not their target.

His evil counselors are.

Unfortunately for young
Henry Bolingbroke,

his dad, John of Gaunt,
the king's uncle,

is one of those
evil counselors --

which puts Henry directly in
the firing line.

And worse than that,
he's stuck up in the Tower

with the two most hated men
in England,

the king's chancellor
and his treasurer.

And the rebels,
massed outside these walls,

can smell blood.

It was probably only
the king's presence

that was holding them back.

But he's gone now.

The mob storms the gates.

The rebels tear through
the Tower,

going from room to room

looking for the men
they hate.

They find the treasurer,
Sir Robert Hales...

...and then in this chapel
they find the chancellor,

Archbishop Sudbury,

cowering in prayer
in front of the altar --

but God's not going to
save him.

Both men are dragged
out into the street

kicking and screaming
in terror.

While all this
is going on,

Henry's hiding
in a cupboard.

And you can imagine him
alone in the darkness,

barely daring to breathe,

waiting for the rebels
to find him.

But they never do.

They have their victims.

Sudbury and Hales
are beheaded in the street.

Sudbury's head is stuck on
a spike on London Bridge,

his archbishop's miter
nailed to his head

so there's no doubt about
who they've killed.

England is on the brink of
full-blown anarchy.

It's the greatest crisis
the country has faced

in more than 100 years.

Richard could lose his crown.

In desperation, his ministers
start issuing

charters of freedom
to the rebels,

but it doesn't work --

they've just murdered
two of his top ministers

and got away with it.

A few bits of parchment aren't
going to stop them now.

The 14 year old king has one
last throw of the dice,

to ride out again through
the blood-frenzied mob

and confront the rebel leaders.

For his whole life,
Richard's been told

that he alone
can save England.

Now, he's about to find out
if it's true.

The whole future of England

is now in the hands of
a 14 year old boy.

He meets the rebels outside
the city walls at Smithfield,

open countryside near where
the meat market is today.

Wat Tyler,
the fearsome rebel leader,

comes across
to make his demands.

They are extraordinary.

What he's asking for is
completely outrageous --

no more bishops,
no more nobles,

common ownership
to all lands --

seven centuries later,
you'd call it communism.

In medieval England
it's just bonkers.

And it leads to a standoff.

There are conflicting accounts
about exactly

what happens next.

What we do know is
a scuffle breaks out

between Tyler
and one of Richard's men.

Weapons are drawn.

In the struggle,

Richard's man cuts the leader
hard across the face

and neck
with his sword.

Tyler is mortally wounded.

When Tyler's army of Kentish
rebels see what's happening,

they draw back their bows,
ready to fire.

And in that instant, the whole
future of the English monarchy

hangs in the balance.

Faced with
certain death,

the king's terrified men

turn to flee --

but Richard doesn't.

Instead, the young king does
something astonishing.

The 14 year old charges alone,

straight toward
the rebel ranks.

He cries out, in English,
that he is their leader,

their captain,
and their king.

He commands them
to lower their weapons.

And, incredibly, they do.

It's always been seen as
an astonishing act of bravery

by the young king.

But I think there's more to it
than that.

For Richard's whole life,
he's been told

that he's the man to save
England from terminal decline.

All he's ever known
is adulation --

"You are God's anointed king.

Your people adore you,
you will be mighty."

After a while, that sort of
thing can go to a kid's head.

So, when Richard rides out
to meet the rebels,

that's what's going
through his mind.

"My people love me,
God will protect me."

And when the rebels
kneel before him,

it just confirms everything he's
ever believed about himself.

From this moment on,

nothing will ever shake
Richard's belief

that God is on his side.

He is the king, he is right,
and he is invincible.

When Richard orders
the peasants home,

they go happily,

clutching their
charters of freedom,

safe in the knowledge that
Richard is their man,

their captain, their king.

They are wrong.

The following week,

Richard meets
the rebels again.

They've come to seal the deal
with their new champion.

But Richard's got
a new deal in mind.

A firsthand account
of the meeting

still exists here in
the British Library.

This is the chronicle
of Thomas Walsingham,

who was an eyewitness
to many of the events

of the Peasants' Revolt.

And he records
Richard's reaction,

but it's not what the peasants
were expecting at all.

It's in Latin --
Richard says,

"peasants you are,
and peasants you remain,

in permanent bondage,

not as you were before,

but in an incomparably
harsher state."

Then Richard goes on to say

he's going to devote
the rest of his life

to tormenting the rebels

so much that no one in England
will ever dare to rise up again.

So much for being
their captain and their leader.

Richard's going to be
their hangman.

In the months that follow,

hundreds, possibly thousands,
of peasants

are strung up by
the king's men.

His people

never dare rise up
against him again.

Richard's terrifying ordeal at
the hands of the rebels

has taught him a lesson.

A king doesn't need
to be loved,

he needs to be feared.

By 1385, even the country's
senior nobles

are starting to become nervous.

It's four years since Richard
crushed the Peasants' Revolt,

but he's no longer
a child.

He's 19, he's married
to Anne of Bohemia,

daughter of
the Holy Roman Emperor,

and he's fed up with people
telling him what to do.

He decides to take the lead,
and from this point on

Richard's reign will be
dominated by his struggle

to do things his way.

Richard and Anne
are a great match,

and the queen is clearly
a good influence on him.

A young court of nobles
springs up around them,

led by the king's favorite,
Robert de Vere.

Like the king,
his young court

have little time for
the old guard --

men like his uncle, Gloucester,

and the Archbishop of
Canterbury.

But Richard's under 21,

so they can legitimately control
his council --

the equivalent of cabinet.

They still think of him
as a child.

But he's not.

When the Archbishop

criticizes Richard
for keeping bad company,

the king makes it crystal clear

that he's not interested
in his opinion anymore.

Then he drums his point home
by attacking the old man.

He's only stopped from doing

serious harm by the intervention
of his uncle, Gloucester.

This time Richard climbs down.

But egged on by de Vere
and the others,

the split between the king
and his old counselors

is only going to get worse.

One important young noble

is missing from
the king's entourage --

his cousin, Henry Bolingbroke,
so far best known

for hiding in a cupboard.

Because while Richard is
swanning about at court

with his new pals,

Henry's off fighting
in tournaments

and learning
the business of war.

And Bolingbroke
stands to inherit

the most powerful duchy
in Richard's kingdom.

So, despite his absence,

Henry will have far more
influence on the king's reign

than any of his new friends.

But while Bolingbroke
is away,

Richard's new pals

are still making
all the running.

The king is wrestling control
away from the old guard

by replacing them
on his council

with his new friends,
like de Vere.

But a crisis in the never-ending
war with France

is about to undo
all Richard's plans.

By the autumn of 1386,

the French are poised to launch
an invasion.

De Vere and the others
do nothing to prevent it.

The old guard
have had enough.

They go to Parliament
and get them onside

against the king
and his young allies.

The king's uncle is the man
charged with telling Richard

to get rid of them,

or the old guard will.

Gloucester delivers
the ultimatum to Richard

here at Eltham Palace.

And given the king's tendency
to blow his top

at even the slightest attempt to
curb his behavior,

Gloucester must have realized

his nephew was never going to
take this well.

All the same, Richard's reaction
absolutely floors him.

He accuses his council

and Parliament of treason

and threatens to seek help
from the French.

If the old guard
don't yield,

he'll invite in

the country's deadliest enemy
to destroy them.

Gloucester doesn't rise
to the bait.

He simply asks Richard to think
about his great-grandfather,

Edward II.

It's an explicit threat.

Gloucester has called
the king's bluff.

In a bloodless coup,

all Richard's ministers
are removed.

Gloucester and the old guard
retake control

of the council
and the country.

But if they think they've got
Richard under control,

they're dead wrong --

because the king is more
devious, more cunning,

and more ruthless than anyone
has dared to imagine.

Richard and de Vere
organize

a secret meeting
of judges.

The king sees the actions of
the old guard as treason.

Unfortunately, that's not
what the law says.

Richard has

a simple solution to that --

change the law.

No sane judge would ever agree,

but then, it all depends on
how you ask them.

The judges rule that any
opposition to the king

is equivalent to treason.

It's basically
a tyrant's charter --

do what I say
or you'll be strung up.

Richard thinks he's cracked it.

This judgment
threatens everyone.

And to Richard, that's what
being a king is all about --

intimidation.

The old guard
have a stark choice.

They can let Richard's
treason law stand,

in which case the king can kill
them whenever he likes.

Or they can raise an army
against him.

Unsurprisingly,
Gloucester and his allies

go for the second option.

In response,

de Vere, Richard's best pal,

raises an army
to defend the king.

With the situation escalating,

all the leading nobles
have to choose a side --

and that brings a decisive
new player into the game...

the king's cousin,
Henry Bolingbroke.

Until now, Henry's been pretty
loyal to Richard

even if the deal with the judges
was quite hard to swallow.

But he can't stand de Vere.

Not only has de Vere
chucked his wife,

who is Henry's cousin,

he's also been poaching
Henry's lands.

Now, Henry knows de Vere
couldn't have done any of this

without Richard's approval,

and an attack on de Vere

is effectively an attack
on the king.

But he's had enough.

And so as de Vere tries to cross

Radcot Bridge
here in Oxfordshire,

Henry Bolingbroke
is waiting for him.

Henry is
a battle-hardened veteran,

so when de Vere's army run into
Henry's troops,

they basically
run for the hills.

De Vere flees to France.

He never returns.

Settling his score
with de Vere

means that Henry has now
sided with the barons

against the king.

And with de Vere gone
nothing stands between them

and Richard.

The king is forced
to offer peace talks

at the Tower of London.

Along with four other
senior nobles --

Gloucester, Arundel,
Warwick, and Mowbray,

Henry heads to the tower
where Richard is waiting.

They take 500 soldiers with them
just in case the king

gets the mistaken idea
that this is a friendly chat.

On top of twisting
the treason laws,

they've discovered that
Richard has been

negotiating for peace
with the French

without Parliament's knowledge.

They enter the Tower
to confront the king.

And locked the doors
behind them.

For three days Richard is
locked up in the Tower

with his enemies,

and forced to watch as
the five of them

decide what to do with him.

Deposing the king is undoubtedly
on the table.

After all,

Gloucester has already
threatened Richard with it once.

When the doors finally open,

the king is sent to Parliament
to await his fate.

It's a packed house as the five
lords return from the Tower

to deliver their verdict.

Everyone is expecting them

to force Richard to abdicate.

But they don't.

Instead, all five bow low

and swear allegiance
to the king.

Despite everything
he's done,

Richard survives.

It's an astonishing turnaround.

No one knows exactly what
happened in that tower,

but I think Henry
and the others

were actually going to
depose Richard

and in the end the only thing
that stopped them

was the fear of
civil war.

The chaos and slaughter
of the inevitable fight

over who should be king instead

would tear the country apart.

The reality is,
leaving Richard in place

is simply the least-worst
option.

So, how does Richard feel?

Grateful? Lucky?
Humbled?

No.

In Richard's mind,
this is further proof that,

whatever he does,
God will protect him.

After the Tower
Richard keeps a low profile,

but he's just biding his time.

He's now 21 -- theoretically,
he can take full control

of the country

anytime he likes --

and then God help
the men who stood against him.

With Richard in charge,

the old guard probably
fear the worst.

But getting the power
he's always craved

seems to calm him down.

Astonishingly, peace breaks out.

The king agrees
a truce with France,

and in Henry's absence

he even makes up with Gloucester
and the others.

It looks like Richard has grown
out of his youthful malice.

But he hasn't.

While all this public
peace and reconciliation

is going on,

Richard's quietly
doing something

that will completely alter

the balance of power
in the kingdom.

He's raising a private army
in the north of England.

But this isn't an army paid for
or approved by Parliament,

it's a band of private
mercenaries

with no loyalty to anyone but
Richard himself.

The emblem he chooses for his
soldiers is the white hart.

Strange, isn't it?

This is more like the behavior
of a warlord than a king.

So, what's he up to?

Well, incredibly,

more than six centuries on,

there is a way to peer inside
the mind of Richard II.

And it's here,
at the National Gallery.

This is the Wilton Diptych.

It's a portrait
painted for Richard

at around this time.

And everything you see in it,

every aspect of the symbolism,
is here

because Richard
wants it here.

But even though this was painted
when he was a fully grown man,

he's presented here as though

he was still 14 years old --

the age of his greatest triumph
in the Peasants' Revolt.

Behind him we have the saints,

St. Edmund,
Edward the Confessor,

John the Baptist.

And here we have the Virgin Mary
and the baby Jesus,

both looking adoringly
down at Richard,

giving him their blessing.

What's most interesting are
these eleven angels,

all wearing the symbol of
the white hart.

It's the symbol of Richard's
private army.

It's saying, even the angels
wear my badge --

God is on my side.

This is a painting of a man

who truly believes he can do
whatever the hell he wants.

Three years after
leaving England,

Henry Bolingbroke returns.

The kingdom has changed --
a lot.

Richard may have brought peace
to the country,

but the white hart,
symbol of his personal power,

is everywhere --
on flags,

buildings, statues,
windows,

and, of course,
on the king's private soldiers.

And they're everywhere, too.

It seems threatening --
with good reason.

Henry must have been
sweating it --

the last time he saw his cousin
he all but deposed him.

But Richard graciously welcomes
him back.

The nasty business
in the Tower of London

seems forgotten.

He even makes Henry a trusted
counselor and diplomat.

After all,
they are cousins.

Despite Richard's disturbing
track record,

he's now ruled his country in
his own right peacefully

for more than five years.

But all that's about to change.

Richard's queen,
Anne of Bohemia,

dies suddenly
at just 28.

The king is utterly inconsolable
and properly unhinged.

I think Anne was some sort of
stabilizing influence on him.

Now she's gone, there's nothing
holding him back.

And that's apparent straightaway
when Arundel,

one of the five
from the Tower,

turns up late
to her funeral.

The peace-loving image

the king has cultivated
is ripped away.

Here, in Westminster Abbey,
there's direct evidence

of the real Richard
that emerges.

This is an incredible
piece of history.

It's the earliest surviving
portrait of a British monarch

to be taken from life,

and it was painted around the
time of Richard's wife's death.

And it shows you the king not
only as he wanted to be seen,

but as his subjects
really did see him.

Because the Richard
that's shown here

was a seriously nasty
piece of work.

He really did

sit like this on a high throne
above his court, staring around.

It sort of feels like
his gaze is on me now.

And if he looked at you,

you were supposed to throw
yourself to the ground

or face his wrath.

This was a really
dangerous atmosphere.

But I don't think this is
a new personality.

Richard's always
had this in him --

think about his bloody crushing
of the Peasants' Revolt,

his attack on
the Archbishop,

his abuse of the treason laws,

his buildup of a private army.

I think Richard
has always been a tyrant.

Backed by his private army,

the king reinstates his version
of the treason law --

anybody who opposes him
now faces death.

The monster
has been unleashed.

Ten years earlier,
in that tower over there,

five men humiliated the king

and threatened to
rip his crown away from him.

Now, one way or another,
Richard's going to crush them.

This is a vendetta,
pure and simple.

Richard's tried being
a nice guy -- he didn't like it.

As one chronicler
of the time wrote,

"This is the year that
Richard's tyranny began."

The Earl of Warwick
was one of the five

who humiliated Richard
in the Tower.

He should probably have
thought better

of going back there for dinner
with the king.

When the meal is finished,
so is Warwick.

And Richard's just
warming up.

Gloucester was the ringleader
of the five

who threatened him --

now, Richard rides
through the night

to return the favor.

Ah, mon cher uncle.

The king greats him
as fair uncle...

and has him arrested

on the spot.

Gloucester is packed off into
the custody of Thomas Mowbray,

another of the five.

To atone for his sins,

he's now the king's
hatchet man.

The fourth man, Arundel, is
arrested and imprisoned as well.

He, too, was charged
with treason.

Gloucester, Warwick,
and Arundel

have their trials set for
a parliament in Westminster.

Just like today, Westminster
Hall was under construction,

so parliament is held in
a wooden hall next door.

It opens with a sermon
from Ezekiel,

"There'll be one king
over them all."

And indeed there is --

because, towering above them

on a specially built
high throne

is Richard, with 300 of his
white hart archers at his back.

The message is simple --
you're either with the king

or you're against him.

There is no politics now --
just life or death.

Graphic proof of this comes
when Mowbray reports that

unfortunately, Gloucester
can't stand trial...

on account of being dead.

Luckily, before he died,

he made a full confession

admitting to all
Richard's charges.

In reality,
of course,

Richard has had him
tortured to death.

Henry Bolingbroke was the fifth
man in the Tower,

and not for the first time

he has to choose
a side.

Join with the king

or share Gloucester's fate.

Henry chooses life.

He makes a speech condemning
his old ally, Arundel.

Arundel is sentenced to death.

Warwick, banished for life.

Of the five who stood
against the king,

only Henry and Mowbray remain.

And they must know
they're not safe.

The king has just murdered
his own uncle, a royal duke --

anybody could be next.

Three months later, as fear
and paranoia stalk the land,

Henry is called to
a secret meeting.

Mowbray tells him that the king
is plotting against them.

Mowbray may well be
telling the truth,

but this could
easily be a trap.

Henry can't risk it.

He goes straight to the king
and denounces Mowbray.

But since it was
a private conversation,

there are no witnesses to prove
who was telling the truth.

This is perfect
for the king.

He declares the case can't be
proven and exiles them both.

Henry for 10 years,
Mowbray for life.

In one fell swoop,

the last two of the five
from the Tower are gone.

Richard's revenge
is complete.

He believes no one
can challenge him.

But Henry Bolingbroke will now
be watching

the king's every move
from exile in France.

Richard should have
killed him.

What happens next shows

just what a ruthless tyrant
Richard has become.

With Bolingbroke and Mowbray
out of the way,

Richard sends his thugs round
to the houses

of all the other nobles
he suspects

and forces them
to put their seals

on pieces of blank parchment.

Once he has those,

he can write on them pretty much
anything he wants.

"I'll give the king
£10,000."

"I'll leave the king my lands
and all my castles."

"I am a traitor."

If anyone puts a foot
out of line,

or even if they don't,
Richard can destroy them.

A year later, Richard's tyranny
is in full swing

when Henry Bolingbroke's father,
the Duke of Lancaster, dies.

This is what remains

of Pontefract Castle
in Yorkshire --

just one of more than 30 castles

Henry Bolingbroke
should now inherit

as part of the largest Duchy
in the kingdom.

It will make Henry

the most powerful noble
in England.

But given the history between
the king and his cousin,

there's no way Richard
can allow that to happen.

So, with Henry still banished,

Richard just takes the lot
for himself.

But in doing so he undermines

the whole basis of law and order
in England --

the right to property
and inheritance.

And he's given
Henry Bolingbroke

the excuse
he's been waiting for

to take the king down.

May 1399,
Richard is in Wales.

He's got exactly

what he always wanted.

Everyone in his kingdom
fears him.

But even that's not enough.

So, Richard is heading for
Ireland to extend

his tyranny there.

It's a massive miscalculation.

There's a fundamental flaw

in Richard's whole idea
of kingship.

He doesn't understand that
the strongest kings

have always governed
by consent --

iron-fisted consent, maybe,
but consent all the same.

If you rule by fear,
like Richard,

the moment you leave
the country,

what is there for your enemies
to be afraid of?

What's there to stop them
moving against you?

As soon as Richard's gone,

Henry Bolingbroke
seizes his moment.

He races back across the Channel
with one thing on his mind.

Regime change.

By stealing
his inheritance,

Richard has created an enemy
with nothing to lose

and alienated every single
landholder

in the kingdom.

The nobles of England
flock to Henry's side.

Richard's white hart army
is no match for

the combined might of
the enraged English barons.

By the time Richard makes it
back from Ireland,

his army is gone.

He's friendless
and exposed.

If you're expecting a war,
forget it --

it's over before
it's even begun,

and Richard has lost.

The king is forced to surrender
to his cousin.

Henry takes him to London,

bangs him up
in the Tower.

12 years before,

Henry Bolingbroke
was one of the five nobles

who backed away from
deposing Richard.

He won't make
the same mistake again.

This time, he's going to
take the throne.

According to one chronicler,
the king was so enraged

that he could hardly speak.

And when he did,
it was to make a threat.

This is pretty funny, really.

If there's one thing Richard
isn't, it's physically brave.

And even if he were,

Henry's been a crusader,
a tournament champ --

he'd toast Richard
on his own.

All Richard knows
is fear.

But without the men
or the authority to back him up,

he's nothing.

He's reduced to shouting --
it's a temper tantrum.

The next day in Parliament,

250 years after the first
Plantagenet king

claimed and won
the English crown,

Henry Bolingbroke formally
claims his cousin's throne.

I, Henry of Lancaster,

challenge this realm
of England,

and the crown,

with all the members
and the impertinencies,

that I am descendant,
by the right line of blood,

coming from the Good Lord,
King Henry III.

By claiming the throne not in
Latin or French but in English,

the first king to do so since
the Norman conquest,

Henry's sending
a very clear message --

"I am not like Richard.

His tyranny is over."

There's just one problem --
Richard is still alive.

And as long as he is,
he remains a dangerous threat.

No one knows for sure
how Richard II died,

but what we do know is that

he was being held in a room
in this tower

on January 6, 1400,

when the last plot to spring him
was foiled.

By February 17,

he's already dead.

Given the stakes involved,

I think it's safe to assume that
Henry is behind it.

What he needs is
plausible deniability --

it can't look like he's murdered
the ex-king.

So, knowing just how fast
Richard dies,

I think it's pretty obvious
what really happens.

Richard II,

the boy king who crushed
the Peasants' Revolt,

was simply left in a room with
no food and no water

and allowed to die
of thirst.

It's a grim way to die.

As his kidneys shut down,
his blood thickens,

and ear-splitting
headaches set in.

Richard would have had
plenty of time

to think about his mistakes.

The king dies
without a mark on him.

So, technically, no one,

especially not the new king,
has blood on their hands.

Richard II is dead --

it's the end of one of
the greatest periods

in British history.

The crown of England had passed
down legitimately

through eight generations,

since Henry II established
the Plantagenet dynasty

two and a half centuries
earlier.

Henry IV's coronation ends that.

From now on, anyone with a drop
of royal blood

can theoretically
claim the throne,

and that possibility
will plunge England into

the Wars of the Roses
and half a century of civil war.