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July 6th, 1483, and Westminster Abbey was packed tight
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for the coronation of one of England's
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most controversial kings, Richard III.
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His name and the battles of his violent era
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are familiar parts of our history.
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Towton, Bosworth, the Wars of the Roses
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when the rivalry between two great dynasties tore the nobility apart.
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But my story is not about kings and their great power struggles,
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it's about the remarkable women
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whose stories have been hidden
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by these tales of conflicts and alliances.
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Almost by accident, I have spent my working life
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researching and writing the secret histories
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of virtually unknown women
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who appear as the wife or mother of a more famous man.
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Three of them in particular have fascinated me for years.
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They are at the heart of our story.
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And on the day that Richard was crowned,
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they could all be found here in Westminster.
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The first is Anne Neville.
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At this extravagant ceremony,
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she was transformed into the leading woman in the realm.
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As Richard's wife, she was the new queen.
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She brought with her the love and loyalty of the north of England.
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She was so important that Richard honoured her
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with a joint coronation.
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As the daughter of the most powerful noble in the realm,
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Anne was destined for greatness from birth.
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And by her side was another extraordinary woman.
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Dressed in scarlet, carrying the queen's train
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was Margaret Beaufort,
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the second most important woman in the country.
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She had deliberately placed herself at the heart of this new court.
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Margaret's ambitions were bound up with her only son, Henry Tudor.
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Never far from the centre of power,
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the Margaret I know was a skilled politician
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who believed herself guided by God.
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And out of sight at this great occasion was the third woman.
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Hidden in the sanctuary of the abbey in fear of her life
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was Elizabeth Woodville
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the former Queen of England and Richard's declared enemy.
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She had risen the furthest and fallen the hardest.
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Elizabeth was the commoner queen.
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An English beauty who enchanted a king.
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This is my chronicle of these three women.
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The former queen, the new queen
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and the woman who planned to be greater than them both.
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We call this conflict the Wars of the Roses,
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but they called it the Cousins' War.
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A war between kin, not countries.
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And that is why the women really matter.
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They had to survive a violent family feud and utterly ruthless men.
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But women were actors on their own account,
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capable of fierce loyalty and shocking treachery.
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Living in a world where women's roles were strictly limited
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and their behaviour judged as good or bad
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by a misogynistic church,
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they had to exercise their power in hiding.
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In a time of bloodshed, these three tenacious women
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would become canny allies
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and grow into calculating adversaries.
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Here in windswept Wales,
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30 years before the Cousins' War met its bloody climax,
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a fragile 12-year-old girl was facing a new life,
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a new home and a new husband.
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A man twice her age who she barely knew.
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Margaret Beaufort was an heiress to valuable lands,
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but that gave her no power over her own life.
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Margaret would have known that as a young woman from a noble family,
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she would never have had any choice over her husband.
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She probably would not even have been consulted.
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The medieval marriage was to forge family alliances.
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It was nothing to do with love.
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With no control over her own destiny,
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Margaret turned to God at a young age.
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Later in her life, this devotion would earn her respect and status.
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But as a child, Margaret's fate had been decided
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by no less than the King of England, Henry VI.
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He had given her in marriage to his half-brother, Edmund Tudor.
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The aristocracy in the late Middle Ages
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were a social and political elite.
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And they were always seeking to increase their landholdings
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and increase their status.
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So they did this by securing desirable marriages
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to other aristocratic families.
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Margaret Beaufort was a very desirable commodity
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in the late medieval marriage market.
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Margaret and all her possessions were transferred to Edmund Tudor
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and she was brought here, to his estates in Wales.
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At 12 years old, Margaret was old enough to marry,
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but she was small for her age and still a little girl.
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Even her contemporaries would have thought that she was too young
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and too physically undeveloped for the marriage to be consummated.
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Her 24-year-old husband had different ideas.
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He wanted a son to inherit his property and title
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and would not delay.
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He took young Margaret into the marital bed
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and just months after marrying Edmund Tudor, Margaret was pregnant.
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Even by the standard of the time, this was a selfish, brutal act.
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But Edmund was so determined to secure Margaret's estates
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and the all-important heir,
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that he risked both her life and that of the unborn child.
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Margaret might have been forgiven for cursing the man
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who had ordered her into this frightening life, but she didn't.
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She remained fiercely loyal to Henry VI,
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the King, who was now her brother-in-law.
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Henry VI had reigned for over 30 years.
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He sat on the throne alongside his wife,
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the formidable Margaret of Anjou,
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not only as ruler of England,
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but as head of a great dynasty, the House of Lancaster.
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But Henry's reign was troubled.
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His nobles thought him feeble and unstable.
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His weakness encouraged disagreement
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at the highest levels of English society.
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And strengthened the ambitions of another English noble line,
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the House of York.
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Lancaster against York would scar England for decades to follow.
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And overshadow the lives of our three young women,
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Margaret Beaufort, Anne Neville and Elizabeth Woodville.
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Safely distant from the troubled royal court,
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leading the quiet life of an English country lady,
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was the beautiful wife of a mid-ranking English knight.
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Elizabeth Woodville was a mother of two boys
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living in rural Leicestershire,
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but her family was extraordinarily well connected.
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Elizabeth's parents were leading lights at the court of Henry VI
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because her mother, Jacquetta,
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was born into the Royal House of Luxembourg,
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an ancient European family who could trace their lineage back
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through recorded history into myth.
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The family seat was a fairytale castle
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that dominated the roads and rivers
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between France, Germany and the Low Countries.
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And as a child, Elizabeth must have heard
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the whole family story from her mother, Jacquetta.
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A story wrapped in magic and mystery.
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Jacquetta's ancestor, Count Siegfried,
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was said to have married a water goddess, Melusina,
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a being half-woman, half-fish, rather like a mermaid.
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She made the family castle of Luxembourg
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magically appear on her wedding night.
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And their marriage was a happy one,
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until the count broke his vow
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of giving her absolute privacy once a month,
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and she flew away with her daughters and was never seen again.
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This was an age when people believed in the power of the supernatural.
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Their connection with the water witch
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would have given the Woodville women a strange and mysterious allure.
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But more vital than their European heritage
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were their English allegiances.
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Known as the Rivers Family, they were Lancastrian loyalists,
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steadfast followers of the king, Henry VI.
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So when the tension between the houses of Lancaster and York
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broke into open conflict,
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they were quick to rally to Henry's cause.
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The men in Elizabeth's family all readied themselves for war
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against the Yorkist rebels.
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The House of York had a new young champion
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and claimant to the throne, Edward of York.
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His family had long coveted the kingdom,
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and in 1461, he was ready to fight for the prize.
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The noble families of England
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were divided behind the banners of York and Lancaster.
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But one family would matter more than any other
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in this great struggle.
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The family of Anne Neville.
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Her childhood was one of opulence and privilege
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beyond the dreams of anyone else in the country.
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She was the youngest daughter of Richard Neville,
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the wealthiest noble in England,
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with a fortune that put him at the centre of English power politics.
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Anne was born here, in Warwick Castle,
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the main powerbase of her spectacular father,
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Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick.
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He was, without question, the supreme noble in England,
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and starting to be thought of as greater than the king himself.
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Warwick controlled lands from the south of England
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all the way up to the border with Scotland.
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Mostly concentrated in the north and the Midlands,
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but there were some quite powerful estates down in the south, too.
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So, effectively, you could draw a line from London to Berwick,
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which would always go through lands owned by him.
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Warwick's standard, the bear and ragged staff,
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would have been known to almost everyone in the country.
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A symbol of his unrivalled power and influence.
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Effectively, the Neville family were princes in their own kingdom.
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They could raise armies, they could fight their own private wars.
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They effectively owned the lives of the men
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who lived and worked on their lands.
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So they had enormous influence, and especially in the north country,
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which was outside of the diaspora of royal power,
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they were the rulers.
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For young Anne, it all meant a gilded life,
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but there was a price to be paid for luxury and security.
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She may have been his daughter, but for Warwick,
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she was also a valuable piece to be played
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in the complex game of aristocratic alliance.
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Anne had no brothers. She and her sister would inherit everything.
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Even when they were tiny, the entire nobility could see
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their unequalled marriage potential
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and eyed them up as valuable wives for their sons.
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Anne was one of the two most desirable heiresses in England.
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And making a good marriage alliance for her
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was one of the principal political decisions for Warwick.
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He had aspirations to be as close as possible to the throne.
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And in an age when all politics was family politics,
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dynastic politics, it was clear that his two young daughters
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were going to be very important parts of that strategy.
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But right now, the Earl of Warwick
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was engaged in a different strategy, how to topple a king.
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His sympathies and ties were with the House of York.
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And he threw his considerable powerbase behind Edward,
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backing his challenge against the Lancastrian King Henry VI.
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War was now inescapable.
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And taking sides, as the violence escalated,
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were our three young women.
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Anne Neville, daughter of the mighty Earl of Warwick
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and Elizabeth Woodville,
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the beautiful young wife of a Lancastrian knight,
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each had a life-changing stake in the outcome of these troubles.
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For Margaret Beaufort, the pious child bride,
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life had taken a menacing turn.
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A long way from family and friends and with war looming,
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Margaret Beaufort had endured terrible suffering.
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The husband who had forced her into pregnancy was dead.
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A victim of the plague.
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And she had another great burden.
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Aged 13, she was now a mother.
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In the cold gloom of Pembroke Castle,
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Margaret had faced the most dangerous moment
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of any medieval woman's life, the ordeal of childbirth.
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Childbirth was much more dangerous in the 15th century than it is now.
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We estimate that about one in ten women died in childbirth.
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There was nothing they could do about very common complications
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like eclampsia and haemorrhaging.
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If you haemorrhaged, you died.
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If the baby got stuck in the birth canal or was a breech presentation,
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there was almost nothing they could do.
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They could do a caesarean, but only after the mother had died
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because they understood that it would be fatal.
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So if you think about the number of things we've got an answer to now,
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and think about the fact that they didn't have any answer to them then,
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you can understand what a dreadfully frightening experience
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it would have been for women.
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Margaret would have been acutely aware of the fatal dangers
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facing her as she went into labour.
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And because of her size, she was greatly at risk.
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The birth was long and difficult.
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Both she and the baby were expected to die.
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Margaret, small, still a child herself,
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was probably permanently physically damaged.
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She would never bear another child.
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Against all the odds,
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Margaret survived this agonising childbirth and delivered a son.
256
00:16:42,480 --> 00:16:45,320
Unusually, she didn't christen him for his father,
257
00:16:45,320 --> 00:16:47,680
but chose instead a royal name.
258
00:16:47,680 --> 00:16:49,240
She called him Henry,
259
00:16:49,240 --> 00:16:53,680
after the child's uncle, the king, who Margaret revered as a saint.
260
00:16:53,680 --> 00:16:57,880
Perhaps she felt as she emerged from the ordeal of childbirth,
261
00:16:57,880 --> 00:17:00,680
that this baby who had caused her so much pain
262
00:17:00,680 --> 00:17:03,440
was destined for greatness.
263
00:17:04,720 --> 00:17:08,800
Why did this vulnerable young woman have such a determined belief
264
00:17:08,800 --> 00:17:12,120
that she and her child could rise so far?
265
00:17:12,120 --> 00:17:14,960
Her background was noble, but tainted.
266
00:17:14,960 --> 00:17:19,320
Just like the king, she was descended from Edward III
267
00:17:19,320 --> 00:17:21,640
through his third surviving son,
268
00:17:21,640 --> 00:17:24,120
John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster.
269
00:17:26,400 --> 00:17:30,920
But there was one major difference between her and Henry VI.
270
00:17:30,920 --> 00:17:34,280
The Beaufort line was a bastard line.
271
00:17:34,280 --> 00:17:36,520
Like many men of the time,
272
00:17:36,520 --> 00:17:39,720
John of Gaunt fathered illegitimate children.
273
00:17:39,720 --> 00:17:42,800
Unusually, he later married his mistress
274
00:17:42,800 --> 00:17:47,400
and had his bastards legitimised by an Act of Parliament.
275
00:17:48,640 --> 00:17:50,440
But it was clearly agreed,
276
00:17:50,440 --> 00:17:52,800
the Beaufort line could never take the throne.
277
00:17:55,520 --> 00:17:58,120
So the Beauforts were of the Royal Family,
278
00:17:58,120 --> 00:18:01,280
but also not of the Royal Family.
279
00:18:01,280 --> 00:18:03,320
And from a Beaufort point of view,
280
00:18:03,320 --> 00:18:05,600
I think that must have really rankled.
281
00:18:05,600 --> 00:18:08,840
They would have seen that as a considerable injustice.
282
00:18:08,840 --> 00:18:12,960
That we've been legitimated, we're part of the Royal Family,
283
00:18:12,960 --> 00:18:15,400
we're very, very close to the Royal Family,
284
00:18:15,400 --> 00:18:19,920
so why are we being excluded from succession to the throne?
285
00:18:19,920 --> 00:18:24,480
Bastards or not, Margaret knew she was close to the throne.
286
00:18:24,480 --> 00:18:27,520
But she saved her greatest ambitions, however unlikely,
287
00:18:27,520 --> 00:18:31,800
for the son that she insisted would carry the royal name, Henry.
288
00:18:36,000 --> 00:18:38,360
As the war between the cousins started,
289
00:18:38,360 --> 00:18:42,280
our women stood on different sides of the conflict.
290
00:18:42,280 --> 00:18:44,760
For the House of Lancaster,
291
00:18:44,760 --> 00:18:47,560
Margaret Beaufort remained devoted to Henry VI.
292
00:18:49,000 --> 00:18:51,320
The family of Elizabeth Woodville
293
00:18:51,320 --> 00:18:53,640
were also aligned with King Henry
294
00:18:53,640 --> 00:18:57,800
as he stood against the Yorkist Edward's forces.
295
00:18:58,720 --> 00:19:02,120
But on the other side of the conflict was Anne Neville.
296
00:19:02,120 --> 00:19:06,800
Her father, the Earl of Warwick was Edward of York's main ally.
297
00:19:07,800 --> 00:19:09,800
All three women had to watch anxiously
298
00:19:09,800 --> 00:19:13,160
as the war that was going to determine the rest of their lives
299
00:19:13,160 --> 00:19:17,840
escalated from early skirmishes to its pivotal moment.
300
00:19:17,840 --> 00:19:19,520
Towton.
301
00:19:22,320 --> 00:19:24,960
Edward quickly gathered all his forces together
302
00:19:24,960 --> 00:19:28,560
and they met on the battlefield of Towton in South Yorkshire.
303
00:19:28,560 --> 00:19:33,280
And Towton was the bloodiest battle of the civil wars,
304
00:19:33,280 --> 00:19:35,920
of the whole of the Wars of the Roses.
305
00:19:38,200 --> 00:19:41,200
The Lancastrians and Yorkists probably put
306
00:19:41,200 --> 00:19:44,200
between 20,000 and 30,000 men in the field.
307
00:19:44,200 --> 00:19:48,440
Significantly, most of the English nobility was present at Towton.
308
00:19:48,440 --> 00:19:53,400
That's what really singles out Towton as a very special battle.
309
00:19:53,400 --> 00:19:56,800
This was the battle that was going to decide the Wars of the Roses.
310
00:19:58,800 --> 00:20:01,440
The Earl of Warwick had attracted the best soldiers and gunners
311
00:20:01,440 --> 00:20:02,880
to the Yorkist banner,
312
00:20:02,880 --> 00:20:05,760
greatly boosting their chances of success.
313
00:20:07,520 --> 00:20:10,000
Edward, who had been Warwick's military pupil,
314
00:20:10,000 --> 00:20:12,480
fought, as always, in the middle of his men.
315
00:20:12,480 --> 00:20:14,520
And he was a fantastic symbolic figure.
316
00:20:14,520 --> 00:20:16,400
Tall, very good looking.
317
00:20:16,400 --> 00:20:19,520
And he fought with an axe, with his standard behind him.
318
00:20:19,520 --> 00:20:22,480
A really inspiring figure to his troops.
319
00:20:26,160 --> 00:20:27,680
There was a high death rate,
320
00:20:27,680 --> 00:20:30,760
although no-one knows exactly what the death rate was,
321
00:20:30,760 --> 00:20:34,120
but the word went round 25,000 people died in the battle.
322
00:20:35,720 --> 00:20:39,360
Almost every great northern family lost a son.
323
00:20:39,360 --> 00:20:43,880
It was said that all the fields from Tadcaster to Towton,
324
00:20:43,880 --> 00:20:46,200
a distance of more than two miles,
325
00:20:46,200 --> 00:20:49,520
were filled with the bodies of dead men.
326
00:20:49,520 --> 00:20:53,640
It was a bloody, but decisive victory for Edward.
327
00:20:55,520 --> 00:21:00,960
Towton was the moment, the battle that secured Edward on the throne.
328
00:21:00,960 --> 00:21:02,720
It established the House of York.
329
00:21:05,360 --> 00:21:09,240
The slaughter at Towton toppled the House of Lancaster and King Henry.
330
00:21:10,320 --> 00:21:13,560
He fled into exile with his wife and son.
331
00:21:13,560 --> 00:21:16,880
But England had not heard the last of him or his cause.
332
00:21:18,440 --> 00:21:22,440
Young Edward of York was triumphantly crowned Edward VI.
333
00:21:22,440 --> 00:21:26,480
And our three young women experienced dramatic upheaval.
334
00:21:29,600 --> 00:21:34,000
Anne Neville's status rose with that of her powerful father, Warwick.
335
00:21:34,000 --> 00:21:36,280
He had made Edward's victory possible
336
00:21:36,280 --> 00:21:39,800
and people now called him the Kingmaker.
337
00:21:44,640 --> 00:21:47,560
Anne's good fortune was in sharp contrast
338
00:21:47,560 --> 00:21:50,840
to the new life facing Elizabeth Woodville.
339
00:21:50,840 --> 00:21:53,440
Her side had lost and her husband had died
340
00:21:53,440 --> 00:21:55,840
fighting for the Lancastrian cause.
341
00:21:57,760 --> 00:22:00,840
It was a terrible blow for Elizabeth.
342
00:22:00,840 --> 00:22:05,280
She had lost her husband and she was now a widow with two little boys.
343
00:22:06,520 --> 00:22:08,760
To make matters worse, her mother-in-law
344
00:22:08,760 --> 00:22:10,960
was refusing to pay her the allowance
345
00:22:10,960 --> 00:22:14,800
that she was owed under her marriage contract.
346
00:22:14,800 --> 00:22:18,880
With no source of income, Elizabeth's future looked bleak.
347
00:22:20,280 --> 00:22:21,920
THUNDERCLAP
348
00:22:25,800 --> 00:22:29,160
Also facing anxious times was the 17-year-old Margaret Beaufort.
349
00:22:31,440 --> 00:22:35,520
The king she worshipped almost as a saint had been deposed.
350
00:22:35,520 --> 00:22:38,960
Many of her family and allies were dead.
351
00:22:38,960 --> 00:22:43,160
Even worse, the future for the son she adored looked uncertain.
352
00:22:44,720 --> 00:22:46,680
The new king would control the destiny
353
00:22:46,680 --> 00:22:49,160
of wealthy, young, fatherless heirs.
354
00:22:49,160 --> 00:22:52,920
And Henry Tudor was a valuable prize.
355
00:22:54,280 --> 00:22:58,720
If a boy's father was dead, then care and custody of him,
356
00:22:58,720 --> 00:23:03,120
guardianship if you like, wardship, could be given or sold,
357
00:23:03,120 --> 00:23:06,680
because again, this was big business, to another noble.
358
00:23:06,680 --> 00:23:10,760
The noble would then be able to administer the boy's lands
359
00:23:10,760 --> 00:23:13,760
and also to dispose of him in marriage,
360
00:23:13,760 --> 00:23:16,400
which could be an advantageous business.
361
00:23:16,400 --> 00:23:20,000
In return, he was supposed to protect the boy's interests
362
00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:22,280
and teach him everything he should know.
363
00:23:22,280 --> 00:23:25,440
See that he was taught a certain amount of book learning, perhaps,
364
00:23:25,440 --> 00:23:26,920
everything to do with the estate,
365
00:23:26,920 --> 00:23:30,480
but also, and most importantly, the art of war.
366
00:23:34,480 --> 00:23:39,640
Margaret Beaufort was powerless to prevent her son Henry from being moved
367
00:23:39,640 --> 00:23:44,480
into the home of one of the York King Edward's strongest supporters,
368
00:23:44,480 --> 00:23:47,920
the experienced soldier, William, Lord Herbert.
369
00:23:49,680 --> 00:23:53,160
In Herbert's household, Henry would have been given
370
00:23:53,160 --> 00:23:55,400
a basic military training.
371
00:23:55,400 --> 00:23:59,480
And we know that certainly from the age of nine, if not earlier,
372
00:23:59,480 --> 00:24:04,360
there was a regular exercise routine where these children were drilled,
373
00:24:04,360 --> 00:24:10,560
first of all with wooden toy replica, um...spears,
374
00:24:10,560 --> 00:24:14,800
swords, shields, and then the real thing.
375
00:24:19,400 --> 00:24:22,440
From now on, if Margaret wanted to see Henry,
376
00:24:22,440 --> 00:24:25,160
she would have to make the long journey to Raglan
377
00:24:25,160 --> 00:24:28,960
Lord Herbert's magnificent castle in Wales.
378
00:24:28,960 --> 00:24:32,360
And she would have to accept hospitality from a Yorkist.
379
00:24:35,400 --> 00:24:39,600
Although wardship was a normal part of medieval aristocratic life,
380
00:24:39,600 --> 00:24:42,520
Margaret must have found it very hard to bear.
381
00:24:42,520 --> 00:24:45,280
Her son had been taken from her and placed with her enemy
382
00:24:45,280 --> 00:24:47,640
and there was nothing she could do about it.
383
00:24:49,400 --> 00:24:51,920
But in taking Henry out of Margaret's hands
384
00:24:51,920 --> 00:24:54,160
and putting him with one of his favourites,
385
00:24:54,160 --> 00:24:58,400
the king had merely underlined how important he was.
386
00:25:02,400 --> 00:25:06,440
We know that Margaret visited Henry at least once.
387
00:25:06,440 --> 00:25:09,680
She stayed with her son in Raglan Castle for about a week
388
00:25:09,680 --> 00:25:13,280
before she had to face the pain of separation once again.
389
00:25:16,840 --> 00:25:20,120
I think it did affect her very strongly.
390
00:25:20,120 --> 00:25:25,000
He was her only child, she was not able to have another one.
391
00:25:25,000 --> 00:25:27,720
And their relationship had been forged
392
00:25:27,720 --> 00:25:29,960
in this time of terrible danger.
393
00:25:29,960 --> 00:25:34,760
First of all, she'd learned that her husband had succumbed to the plague,
394
00:25:34,760 --> 00:25:37,000
she was alone and vulnerable,
395
00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:40,360
and that gave an intensity to their relationship.
396
00:25:40,360 --> 00:25:45,200
And I think when they were separated, it impacted on her a lot.
397
00:25:55,320 --> 00:25:57,000
It must have been terribly hard
398
00:25:57,000 --> 00:26:00,360
for Margaret to leave her son in the hands of the enemy,
399
00:26:00,360 --> 00:26:03,800
even if she knew that he was being raised as a nobleman
400
00:26:03,800 --> 00:26:06,240
in the house of a favourite of the king.
401
00:26:06,240 --> 00:26:08,560
Worse for her must have been the fear that the Yorks
402
00:26:08,560 --> 00:26:11,800
would be turning him to their side,
403
00:26:11,800 --> 00:26:14,480
That the boy she had named for the Lancastrian king
404
00:26:14,480 --> 00:26:16,840
was becoming a Yorkist.
405
00:26:22,400 --> 00:26:23,880
Margaret had dreams for her son
406
00:26:23,880 --> 00:26:27,960
that could only be realised through years of patient scheming.
407
00:26:27,960 --> 00:26:29,720
But immediate action was needed
408
00:26:29,720 --> 00:26:32,760
to save the children of the widow Elizabeth Woodville.
409
00:26:36,520 --> 00:26:39,720
Her husband was dead, she had no source of income
410
00:26:39,720 --> 00:26:41,880
and she and her boys were facing ruin.
411
00:26:45,440 --> 00:26:48,720
To save her family, she was forced to turn to the man
412
00:26:48,720 --> 00:26:50,560
who had brought this misery on them.
413
00:26:50,560 --> 00:26:53,560
Edward, the newly-crowned king.
414
00:26:56,680 --> 00:26:58,800
According to the traditional story,
415
00:26:58,800 --> 00:27:01,680
Elizabeth waited for Edward under an oak tree
416
00:27:01,680 --> 00:27:04,120
with her two fatherless boys.
417
00:27:04,120 --> 00:27:09,160
When the king appeared, she stepped forward and begged him to help her.
418
00:27:09,160 --> 00:27:11,640
Edward, a notorious womaniser,
419
00:27:11,640 --> 00:27:17,360
was so struck by Elizabeth's beauty that he fell for her at once.
420
00:27:17,360 --> 00:27:21,160
Edward did just fall hard for Elizabeth.
421
00:27:21,160 --> 00:27:24,920
It was love or lust, whichever way you care to look at it.
422
00:27:24,920 --> 00:27:27,480
She was beautiful, all reports say,
423
00:27:27,480 --> 00:27:29,800
and in the way that the age most admired.
424
00:27:29,800 --> 00:27:32,600
I mean, the age admired a willowy figure,
425
00:27:32,600 --> 00:27:36,480
golden hair, white skin, perhaps grey or blue eyes.
426
00:27:39,680 --> 00:27:43,400
Apparently powerless, without friends or family
427
00:27:43,400 --> 00:27:47,520
who could help her, Elizabeth's situation had seemed hopeless.
428
00:27:47,520 --> 00:27:51,720
But she still had one powerful tool available to her.
429
00:27:55,000 --> 00:28:00,240
In many ways, Elizabeth was trading her beauty,
430
00:28:00,240 --> 00:28:03,720
her sexual appeal, for great position.
431
00:28:03,720 --> 00:28:05,400
And good on her, really.
432
00:28:05,400 --> 00:28:08,920
Because a women didn't necessary have very many weapons
433
00:28:08,920 --> 00:28:10,520
in the 15th century.
434
00:28:10,520 --> 00:28:14,680
And if she was going to try and carve her own place in the world,
435
00:28:14,680 --> 00:28:17,400
her looks and her allure
436
00:28:17,400 --> 00:28:20,640
were really one of the strongest tools she had.
437
00:28:24,400 --> 00:28:28,600
The young king may have assumed that he could have a secret affair.
438
00:28:28,600 --> 00:28:32,600
He'd had many lovers. Other women were happy to be his mistress.
439
00:28:34,760 --> 00:28:38,120
It was said that he went for women of all sorts.
440
00:28:38,120 --> 00:28:42,120
Noble, lowly, married, unmarried.
441
00:28:42,120 --> 00:28:45,840
I mean, the Chronicler does say, rather nicely,
442
00:28:45,840 --> 00:28:47,360
with, you know, some admiration,
443
00:28:47,360 --> 00:28:50,400
that nonetheless, he overcame none by force.
444
00:28:50,400 --> 00:28:53,160
He did all by, you know, money and promises.
445
00:28:53,160 --> 00:28:55,960
But that having won them, he then dismissed them.
446
00:28:59,720 --> 00:29:02,800
Elizabeth resisted Edward's advances.
447
00:29:02,800 --> 00:29:05,800
Chroniclers at the time reported that she was so determined,
448
00:29:05,800 --> 00:29:09,200
she held him off with his own dagger.
449
00:29:09,200 --> 00:29:13,320
There's stories that he held a knife to her throat,
450
00:29:13,320 --> 00:29:15,880
that she held a knife to his throat,
451
00:29:15,880 --> 00:29:19,880
but that either way, she said if she was too low to be his wife,
452
00:29:19,880 --> 00:29:22,800
she was too high to be his concubine.
453
00:29:22,800 --> 00:29:25,240
And that might have appealed to Edward.
454
00:29:25,240 --> 00:29:29,360
In Elizabeth, he'd met a woman who was not prepared to be dismissed.
455
00:29:37,200 --> 00:29:39,840
Elizabeth left the completely love-struck king
456
00:29:39,840 --> 00:29:42,920
with only one option.
457
00:29:42,920 --> 00:29:46,640
One morning, he rode to the Rivers' home for a secret ceremony
458
00:29:46,640 --> 00:29:50,840
that would change the fortunes of the House of York and of the nation.
459
00:29:54,120 --> 00:29:58,160
According to chroniclers, Jacquetta was the only family member present
460
00:29:58,160 --> 00:30:01,880
when Edward and Elizabeth were married on May Day.
461
00:30:01,880 --> 00:30:06,880
A day for lust, for love and for the celebration of life.
462
00:30:06,880 --> 00:30:09,880
The marriage was consummated immediately.
463
00:30:09,880 --> 00:30:13,200
For the next few weeks, the handsome young king of the House of York
464
00:30:13,200 --> 00:30:15,160
was creeping every night
465
00:30:15,160 --> 00:30:20,200
into a staunchly Lancastrian home to be with his bride.
466
00:30:24,920 --> 00:30:28,560
Elizabeth's mother must have encouraged this secret passion
467
00:30:28,560 --> 00:30:30,440
because she knew that their marriage
468
00:30:30,440 --> 00:30:33,240
could reap enormous benefits for the Woodville family
469
00:30:33,240 --> 00:30:38,400
and pave the way to Elizabeth's role as the first woman of England.
470
00:30:38,400 --> 00:30:41,520
If Edward could keep his throne, she would be queen.
471
00:30:45,160 --> 00:30:47,240
But Elizabeth's new husband, the king,
472
00:30:47,240 --> 00:30:51,280
had underestimated the outrage his marriage would cause.
473
00:30:51,280 --> 00:30:54,440
Especially amongst powerful nobles like the Earl of Warwick.
474
00:30:56,360 --> 00:31:00,000
When the news escaped, when Edward told the council,
475
00:31:00,000 --> 00:31:04,720
they and his family were absolutely horrified.
476
00:31:04,720 --> 00:31:08,720
Kings were supposed to make a big public marriage
477
00:31:08,720 --> 00:31:12,280
with a foreign princess for the advantage of the country,
478
00:31:12,280 --> 00:31:15,240
not make a love match.
479
00:31:15,240 --> 00:31:16,920
And indeed, it was even said
480
00:31:16,920 --> 00:31:20,160
that Edward was proving himself to be no true monarch
481
00:31:20,160 --> 00:31:23,760
in doing something so undignified and extraordinary.
482
00:31:27,920 --> 00:31:31,520
In the eyes of the English nobility, she was wrong on practically every count.
483
00:31:31,520 --> 00:31:34,920
The fact she was a widow really meant she was tarnished
484
00:31:34,920 --> 00:31:38,920
by this previous relationship. They did call her a bigamist.
485
00:31:38,920 --> 00:31:42,280
And the fact that she had children by this previous marriage
486
00:31:42,280 --> 00:31:44,200
made it considerably worse.
487
00:31:44,200 --> 00:31:46,800
She was so much the wrong person for him to have married.
488
00:31:48,720 --> 00:31:51,400
Edward's choice of bride was not just scandalous,
489
00:31:51,400 --> 00:31:56,400
it was deeply offensive to the man who had made him king,
490
00:31:56,400 --> 00:31:57,920
Warwick the Kingmaker.
491
00:31:59,920 --> 00:32:02,720
For a start, Elizabeth Woodville's family
492
00:32:02,720 --> 00:32:05,200
had been traditional Lancastrians,
493
00:32:05,200 --> 00:32:08,240
so what was a Yorkist king doing marrying her?
494
00:32:08,240 --> 00:32:12,520
For another, Warwick was in the middle of negotiating
495
00:32:12,520 --> 00:32:16,800
a diplomatic, advantageous, continental alliance for Edward.
496
00:32:16,800 --> 00:32:19,800
So he looked a fool when he was suddenly told,
497
00:32:19,800 --> 00:32:20,960
no, no, Edward was married already.
498
00:32:23,240 --> 00:32:25,680
Edward had forgotten his duties as king
499
00:32:25,680 --> 00:32:31,760
and recklessly chosen his own bride for no other reason than blind love.
500
00:32:33,400 --> 00:32:35,640
Or was it even worse than love?
501
00:32:35,640 --> 00:32:38,840
No other English king had married for love before.
502
00:32:38,840 --> 00:32:41,960
Was young Edward in the grip of intemperate lust?
503
00:32:43,000 --> 00:32:45,800
Suspicious rumours began to circulate
504
00:32:45,800 --> 00:32:47,360
that would have dangerous repercussions.
505
00:32:47,360 --> 00:32:50,800
Perhaps some malign influence was at work.
506
00:32:50,800 --> 00:32:56,280
Some people even suggested Edward had been seduced by witchcraft.
507
00:33:01,320 --> 00:33:04,960
Belief in witchcraft was universal in the 15th century.
508
00:33:04,960 --> 00:33:10,280
In the power of spells, incantations, charms and herbs.
509
00:33:10,280 --> 00:33:13,440
What's more, it was one of the few accusations
510
00:33:13,440 --> 00:33:16,760
from which even royal rank couldn't protect a woman.
511
00:33:16,760 --> 00:33:18,880
There'd already been, in that century,
512
00:33:18,880 --> 00:33:21,400
two royal women imprisoned for it.
513
00:33:24,480 --> 00:33:28,720
But the enchanted Edward was sure of his choice.
514
00:33:28,720 --> 00:33:31,840
And Elizabeth's transformation was complete.
515
00:33:31,840 --> 00:33:37,840
From obscure country lady, she had emerged as the new Queen of England.
516
00:33:42,120 --> 00:33:46,760
And in May 1465, Edward officially confirmed her status
517
00:33:46,760 --> 00:33:50,960
with a highly glamorous and lavish ceremony in Westminster Abbey.
518
00:33:57,240 --> 00:33:59,280
Elizabeth entered the abbey barefoot,
519
00:33:59,280 --> 00:34:03,720
dressed in purple, followed by the lords and ladies of the court.
520
00:34:03,720 --> 00:34:05,440
She passed through the choir,
521
00:34:05,440 --> 00:34:08,440
knelt and prostrated herself before the high altar
522
00:34:08,440 --> 00:34:11,120
while the archbishop conducted the service,
523
00:34:11,120 --> 00:34:14,880
anointing her on her forehead and her breast.
524
00:34:14,880 --> 00:34:18,200
Then, after receiving the coronation ring on her finger
525
00:34:18,200 --> 00:34:20,240
and the crown on her head,
526
00:34:20,240 --> 00:34:23,200
she was solemnly led to the throne itself.
527
00:34:31,160 --> 00:34:33,120
In the magnificent abbey,
528
00:34:33,120 --> 00:34:36,600
Edward paraded his new queen in a dazzling show
529
00:34:36,600 --> 00:34:39,240
attended by the most important nobles of Europe.
530
00:34:43,200 --> 00:34:45,680
The public spectacle of her coronation
531
00:34:45,680 --> 00:34:50,440
could not have been more unlike the secret wedding at the Rivers' family home.
532
00:34:50,440 --> 00:34:53,840
That had been a private, personal affair.
533
00:34:53,840 --> 00:34:57,360
This was a matter of international politics.
534
00:34:59,840 --> 00:35:02,200
As Queen of England, Elizabeth Woodville
535
00:35:02,200 --> 00:35:05,920
was the first of our women to win the highest position in the realm.
536
00:35:07,200 --> 00:35:11,840
Margaret Beaufort seemed further from achieving her aspirations than ever before.
537
00:35:13,440 --> 00:35:16,600
And Anne Neville had seen her father the Kingmaker
538
00:35:16,600 --> 00:35:18,280
sidelined by the new king.
539
00:35:20,320 --> 00:35:23,560
But he wouldn't take this treatment lightly.
540
00:35:23,560 --> 00:35:26,400
He was still the richest noble in the land.
541
00:35:26,400 --> 00:35:28,120
And he set out to prove it,
542
00:35:28,120 --> 00:35:31,520
with flamboyant demonstrations of his wealth.
543
00:35:35,960 --> 00:35:38,560
Entertaining, giving large banquets and parties
544
00:35:38,560 --> 00:35:41,200
was a way of showing off your wealth, your power
545
00:35:41,200 --> 00:35:42,920
and also of networking.
546
00:35:42,920 --> 00:35:45,360
So, Warwick, yes, he did entertain lavishly,
547
00:35:45,360 --> 00:35:47,000
he did give very large parties
548
00:35:47,000 --> 00:35:49,160
and even as he moved about the countryside,
549
00:35:49,160 --> 00:35:51,720
he would have a large retinue of men at arms,
550
00:35:51,720 --> 00:35:54,800
he would have his banners, his emblems with him,
551
00:35:54,800 --> 00:35:58,760
so that every stage of his life was a carefully choreographed ballet
552
00:35:58,760 --> 00:36:01,560
to manifest his power upon the world.
553
00:36:04,120 --> 00:36:07,000
When his brother was promoted to Archbishop of York,
554
00:36:07,000 --> 00:36:09,720
the second most powerful position in the church,
555
00:36:09,720 --> 00:36:13,400
Warwick the Kingmaker threw an enormous feast.
556
00:36:16,520 --> 00:36:18,520
We have the menu of the feast
557
00:36:18,520 --> 00:36:21,920
and it shows that the Nevilles would go to extraordinary lengths
558
00:36:21,920 --> 00:36:23,560
to demonstrate their wealth.
559
00:36:23,560 --> 00:36:25,920
The feast lasted several days
560
00:36:25,920 --> 00:36:31,720
and 2,000 guests drank their way through 25,000 gallons of wine
561
00:36:31,720 --> 00:36:33,840
and ate, among other things,
562
00:36:33,840 --> 00:36:38,120
4,000 mallard and 500 buck and stag.
563
00:36:40,680 --> 00:36:43,800
One table at this great Neville dinner
564
00:36:43,800 --> 00:36:45,320
was reserved for the young people,
565
00:36:45,320 --> 00:36:48,000
the royal kinsmen and women of the House of York.
566
00:36:49,800 --> 00:36:53,200
Seated together, with some ladies of the royal court,
567
00:36:53,200 --> 00:36:55,560
were Anne Neville and Richard of Gloucester,
568
00:36:55,560 --> 00:36:57,800
the king's younger brother.
569
00:36:57,800 --> 00:36:59,160
She was nine and he was thirteen.
570
00:36:59,160 --> 00:37:03,600
And he was invited to the feast because he was her father's ward.
571
00:37:03,600 --> 00:37:06,760
So Anne and Richard were growing up in the same household.
572
00:37:08,120 --> 00:37:11,320
It was a mark of Anne's high status that she was living
573
00:37:11,320 --> 00:37:14,840
under the same roof as the king of England's own brother.
574
00:37:14,840 --> 00:37:18,000
The boy who would become Richard III.
575
00:37:19,480 --> 00:37:22,720
Anne Neville was brought up, if not to think of herself quite as a princess,
576
00:37:22,720 --> 00:37:25,800
then certainly something close to it.
577
00:37:25,800 --> 00:37:27,720
She knew that her father had great wealth, great influence
578
00:37:27,720 --> 00:37:29,720
and very important political connections
579
00:37:29,720 --> 00:37:34,160
and I think this must have informed her sense of self, of who she was
580
00:37:34,160 --> 00:37:36,960
and what her expectations of her life might be.
581
00:37:39,120 --> 00:37:41,880
Anne's father, Warwick the Kingmaker,
582
00:37:41,880 --> 00:37:46,200
was becoming more and more resentful of the new Queen of England,
583
00:37:46,200 --> 00:37:50,320
the former loyal Lancastrian and commoner Elizabeth Woodville.
584
00:37:51,360 --> 00:37:54,520
As Queen, Elizabeth could use pillow talk
585
00:37:54,520 --> 00:37:57,160
to influence her husband the king.
586
00:37:57,160 --> 00:38:00,680
And this was of huge benefit to her family.
587
00:38:00,680 --> 00:38:03,720
She had five brothers and seven sisters
588
00:38:03,720 --> 00:38:08,560
who were found excellent marriages and great positions in the realm.
589
00:38:10,360 --> 00:38:15,360
The Woodvilles were a large, extensive, enthusiastic
590
00:38:15,360 --> 00:38:18,400
and some said rapacious family,
591
00:38:18,400 --> 00:38:24,560
who very quickly began snapping up the available positions,
592
00:38:24,560 --> 00:38:27,800
awards, heirs to marry.
593
00:38:27,800 --> 00:38:29,360
It did look to their enemies
594
00:38:29,360 --> 00:38:32,280
as though the Woodvilles were staging a takeover of the country.
595
00:38:35,360 --> 00:38:38,360
But not even the Earl of Warwick could deny
596
00:38:38,360 --> 00:38:41,440
that in her most important duty to king and country,
597
00:38:41,440 --> 00:38:44,800
Elizabeth exceeded expectations.
598
00:38:46,480 --> 00:38:50,640
As Queen, Elizabeth's main job was to produce heirs.
599
00:38:50,640 --> 00:38:52,560
Making the dynasty secure
600
00:38:52,560 --> 00:38:55,800
and proving that it was blessed by God.
601
00:38:55,800 --> 00:39:00,600
Elizabeth was expected to be fertile, and she didn't disappoint.
602
00:39:00,600 --> 00:39:03,400
Within the first five years of her marriage to Edward,
603
00:39:03,400 --> 00:39:05,520
she gave birth to three daughters.
604
00:39:08,520 --> 00:39:10,680
The birth of royal heirs was attended
605
00:39:10,680 --> 00:39:12,640
by much ritual and superstition.
606
00:39:14,640 --> 00:39:18,800
Each time Elizabeth had a baby, she had to follow a strict protocol.
607
00:39:21,840 --> 00:39:25,400
When the queen was expecting to give birth,
608
00:39:25,400 --> 00:39:28,480
she would effectively retire from the court.
609
00:39:28,480 --> 00:39:30,360
There would be a ceremonial mass
610
00:39:30,360 --> 00:39:33,720
that was attended by a lot of people as a farewell,
611
00:39:33,720 --> 00:39:36,400
and then she retired into a suite of rooms
612
00:39:36,400 --> 00:39:38,400
that had been specially prepared for her.
613
00:39:39,800 --> 00:39:43,840
At this point, women of her household would take on roles
614
00:39:43,840 --> 00:39:48,000
that had previously been fulfilled by men, and deliver what was needed.
615
00:39:50,560 --> 00:39:53,000
The queen passed the last few weeks of her pregnancy
616
00:39:53,000 --> 00:39:55,560
served exclusively by women.
617
00:39:57,800 --> 00:40:01,000
There's a wonderful description of the inner sanctum,
618
00:40:01,000 --> 00:40:03,480
the room where she was actually going to give birth.
619
00:40:03,480 --> 00:40:04,840
It's very dark and warm.
620
00:40:04,840 --> 00:40:08,120
There's got to be carpets on the floor, on the ceiling and the walls,
621
00:40:08,120 --> 00:40:11,400
it's got to be blue with fleur-de-lis.
622
00:40:11,400 --> 00:40:13,600
Blue, of course was the colour of the Virgin Mary
623
00:40:13,600 --> 00:40:18,800
and so, fleur-de-lis was her symbol, so it's connecting in with this.
624
00:40:18,800 --> 00:40:20,560
There's a sumptuous main bed,
625
00:40:20,560 --> 00:40:24,360
which the bedspread would be edged in velvet and ermine,
626
00:40:24,360 --> 00:40:26,240
but then, there was a pallet bed,
627
00:40:26,240 --> 00:40:28,600
which had a big canopy over it in crimson
628
00:40:28,600 --> 00:40:30,480
with gold crowns all over it.
629
00:40:33,520 --> 00:40:38,360
After giving birth, the Queen was expected to rest for two months
630
00:40:38,360 --> 00:40:41,920
before she ceremoniously re-entered public life.
631
00:40:43,200 --> 00:40:47,600
There was a long procession to the chapel and that's where she would be churched,
632
00:40:47,600 --> 00:40:51,680
the ceremony of purifying, which had a bishop putting holy water over her
633
00:40:51,680 --> 00:40:54,600
and then, after that, they went in for mass.
634
00:40:59,920 --> 00:41:03,480
All of this ritual was designed to celebrate the arrival
635
00:41:03,480 --> 00:41:05,560
of what might be the future king.
636
00:41:06,840 --> 00:41:09,640
For Edward, a usurper of the throne,
637
00:41:09,640 --> 00:41:14,160
these customs were a very public way to reaffirm his dynasty.
638
00:41:19,360 --> 00:41:22,840
This contemporary image of Elizabeth with her three daughters
639
00:41:22,840 --> 00:41:25,800
is not just a reminder of her fertility.
640
00:41:25,800 --> 00:41:30,640
It demonstrates how unusual she was as a royal, medieval mother.
641
00:41:30,640 --> 00:41:32,880
She has her children by her side.
642
00:41:34,280 --> 00:41:36,960
She didn't farm them out to aristocratic connections,
643
00:41:36,960 --> 00:41:38,920
as other high-status mothers did.
644
00:41:38,920 --> 00:41:40,800
She kept them by her.
645
00:41:40,800 --> 00:41:44,280
She was a devoted mother in a way that we can understand today.
646
00:41:46,800 --> 00:41:49,760
But she had failed in one key duty -
647
00:41:49,760 --> 00:41:53,640
Elizabeth hadn't yet produced the all-important son and heir.
648
00:41:53,640 --> 00:41:58,400
And as each daughter arrived, the Earl of Warwick's resentment grew.
649
00:42:01,600 --> 00:42:04,240
Eight years after putting Edward on the throne,
650
00:42:04,240 --> 00:42:09,400
Warwick the Kingmaker could no longer tolerate the grasping Rivers family
651
00:42:09,400 --> 00:42:13,800
and his relationship with Edward collapsed completely.
652
00:42:13,800 --> 00:42:17,480
Warwick was deeply resentful that he had been replaced
653
00:42:17,480 --> 00:42:20,280
in the central councils of the King,
654
00:42:20,280 --> 00:42:22,640
indeed as the most principal supporter
655
00:42:22,640 --> 00:42:25,360
and subject...minister of the crown,
656
00:42:25,360 --> 00:42:30,000
by, in particular, Earl Rivers, Queen Elizabeth Woodville's father.
657
00:42:33,880 --> 00:42:37,400
The Kingmaker began to enact his rebellion.
658
00:42:37,400 --> 00:42:38,640
Against the King's wishes,
659
00:42:38,640 --> 00:42:40,200
he married his eldest daughter
660
00:42:40,200 --> 00:42:41,840
to the King's brother,
661
00:42:41,840 --> 00:42:43,400
George, Duke of Clarence,
662
00:42:43,400 --> 00:42:45,240
cementing a dangerous alliance
663
00:42:45,240 --> 00:42:47,360
in opposition to Edward.
664
00:42:47,360 --> 00:42:50,640
Together, Warwick and George issued a proclamation
665
00:42:50,640 --> 00:42:54,560
against certain "seditious persons" in court.
666
00:42:57,680 --> 00:43:00,880
Warwick the Kingmaker declared that the King was being misled
667
00:43:00,880 --> 00:43:02,240
by these evil ministers,
668
00:43:02,240 --> 00:43:04,920
the government of the kingdom was falling into rack and ruin
669
00:43:04,920 --> 00:43:08,160
and he, Warwick the Kingmaker, was going to put it right.
670
00:43:09,760 --> 00:43:14,640
After eight peaceful years in England, war was looming once more.
671
00:43:14,640 --> 00:43:17,800
Having installed Edward on the throne,
672
00:43:17,800 --> 00:43:19,360
Anne Neville's all-powerful father
673
00:43:19,360 --> 00:43:22,520
now set out to remove him and seize control.
674
00:43:24,320 --> 00:43:27,880
When the Kingmaker took up arms against the King at Edgecote Moor,
675
00:43:27,880 --> 00:43:31,680
England was pitched into the most unstable time in its history.
676
00:43:33,720 --> 00:43:38,240
Once again, the families of these three women went to war.
677
00:43:38,240 --> 00:43:40,400
Anne Neville saw her father
678
00:43:40,400 --> 00:43:43,120
boldly turn against the King he'd once served.
679
00:43:43,120 --> 00:43:46,560
Elizabeth Woodville was about to pay an awful price
680
00:43:46,560 --> 00:43:49,280
for her meteoric rise to power.
681
00:43:49,280 --> 00:43:52,560
And Margaret Beaufort's adored son,
682
00:43:52,560 --> 00:43:55,800
who had been growing up in the house of a Yorkist noble,
683
00:43:55,800 --> 00:43:58,240
was about to come under terrible threat.
684
00:44:04,440 --> 00:44:07,240
On the eve of battle, Margaret would have been at her home,
685
00:44:07,240 --> 00:44:09,320
praying for a York defeat.
686
00:44:09,320 --> 00:44:11,600
But her loyalties would have been divided,
687
00:44:11,600 --> 00:44:16,320
because fighting for the enemy was her 12-year-old son Henry.
688
00:44:16,320 --> 00:44:18,920
He'd been led into his first battle by his guardian,
689
00:44:18,920 --> 00:44:21,960
the Yorkist commander William Herbert.
690
00:44:21,960 --> 00:44:24,520
Margaret must have been beside herself,
691
00:44:24,520 --> 00:44:26,200
praying for a York defeat,
692
00:44:26,200 --> 00:44:28,320
hoping for the safety of her son.
693
00:44:36,480 --> 00:44:39,920
The battle was a disaster for York.
694
00:44:39,920 --> 00:44:43,480
Henry's protector, William Herbert, suffered an awful fate.
695
00:44:44,760 --> 00:44:46,520
He was overwhelmed by rebels,
696
00:44:46,520 --> 00:44:49,640
dragged away and executed by Warwick the Kingmaker.
697
00:44:53,400 --> 00:44:55,960
The boy, Henry, who must have seen all this happen,
698
00:44:55,960 --> 00:44:57,960
was abandoned on the battlefield.
699
00:45:00,760 --> 00:45:02,800
Margaret sent out frantic messages
700
00:45:02,800 --> 00:45:05,560
to try and find out what had happened to her son.
701
00:45:05,560 --> 00:45:08,760
She must have feared he was captured or dead.
702
00:45:15,720 --> 00:45:18,480
But the boy had been escorted from the battlefield
703
00:45:18,480 --> 00:45:20,640
in a state of terror.
704
00:45:20,640 --> 00:45:24,560
He and Herbert's widow had found safety in a house nearby.
705
00:45:24,560 --> 00:45:28,240
Margaret sent a party of trusted servants to find him
706
00:45:28,240 --> 00:45:31,640
and generously rewarded those who had saved her son.
707
00:45:31,640 --> 00:45:34,600
For Henry himself, she sent a gift,
708
00:45:34,600 --> 00:45:40,120
a reminder of his inescapable destiny - a bow and arrows.
709
00:45:42,880 --> 00:45:46,600
Without her son, Margaret's ambitions would come to nothing
710
00:45:46,600 --> 00:45:50,640
and this battle had come close to taking him from her.
711
00:45:50,640 --> 00:45:54,920
But Elizabeth Woodville would suffer devastating, permanent loss
712
00:45:54,920 --> 00:45:57,200
with Warwick the Kingmaker's victory.
713
00:46:03,440 --> 00:46:06,920
Warwick's triumph meant that he became England's ruler.
714
00:46:08,240 --> 00:46:10,560
He captured Elizabeth's husband, the King,
715
00:46:10,560 --> 00:46:12,480
and imprisoned him in his castle.
716
00:46:14,760 --> 00:46:18,840
But his treatment of the Woodville family was much more savage.
717
00:46:20,160 --> 00:46:22,880
He seized the Queen's father and brother
718
00:46:22,880 --> 00:46:26,200
and, without trial or charge, had them beheaded.
719
00:46:27,880 --> 00:46:33,480
This was an act of pure revenge, driven by hatred and jealousy.
720
00:46:33,480 --> 00:46:35,560
Having dealt with the men of the family,
721
00:46:35,560 --> 00:46:39,280
Warwick turned his attention to the matriarch - Jacquetta.
722
00:46:39,280 --> 00:46:42,320
He sent an armed guard to snatch her from her home
723
00:46:42,320 --> 00:46:45,240
and imprisoned her here, in Warwick Castle.
724
00:46:55,400 --> 00:46:59,520
Grief-stricken, having just lost her husband and her son,
725
00:46:59,520 --> 00:47:01,720
Jacquetta now faced their murderer
726
00:47:01,720 --> 00:47:05,480
as he accused her of a crime punishable by death.
727
00:47:06,840 --> 00:47:08,200
Capitalising on rumours
728
00:47:08,200 --> 00:47:12,400
circulating from the marriage of King Edward and Elizabeth,
729
00:47:12,400 --> 00:47:14,920
Warwick claimed that Jacquetta had used magic
730
00:47:14,920 --> 00:47:18,000
to bewitch the King into marrying her daughter.
731
00:47:23,680 --> 00:47:30,400
Witchcraft in the 15th century is the ability to influence
732
00:47:30,400 --> 00:47:34,120
what happens to another person
733
00:47:34,120 --> 00:47:36,600
either by making them sick,
734
00:47:36,600 --> 00:47:39,200
making them love you or hate you,
735
00:47:39,200 --> 00:47:42,360
making them lucky or unlucky by cursing them.
736
00:47:45,520 --> 00:47:47,720
Fear of the power of the witch
737
00:47:47,720 --> 00:47:50,680
tapped into fear of woman's power in general.
738
00:47:50,680 --> 00:47:54,720
I mean, a witch could be this old crone over a cauldron,
739
00:47:54,720 --> 00:47:57,720
but she could also be young and beautiful,
740
00:47:57,720 --> 00:48:00,640
wielding a dangerous sexual magic
741
00:48:00,640 --> 00:48:04,600
and, of course, that very much ties in all too neatly
742
00:48:04,600 --> 00:48:07,560
with the story of Elizabeth Woodville's marriage
743
00:48:07,560 --> 00:48:09,000
and how it was made.
744
00:48:11,600 --> 00:48:14,800
Jacquetta's fate was in the hands of her sworn enemy
745
00:48:14,800 --> 00:48:18,400
and the murderer of her husband and son.
746
00:48:18,400 --> 00:48:22,920
As she waited in this castle, the odds were stacked against her.
747
00:48:22,920 --> 00:48:26,400
One word from the Earl of Warwick was enough
748
00:48:26,400 --> 00:48:28,600
to condemn her to death by strangulation.
749
00:48:32,800 --> 00:48:35,360
Warwick didn't just want Jacquetta dead,
750
00:48:35,360 --> 00:48:39,400
he wanted to prove her malign influence on the young King
751
00:48:39,400 --> 00:48:43,320
and he staged a full show trial with witnesses.
752
00:48:43,320 --> 00:48:45,560
He even produced two little figures -
753
00:48:45,560 --> 00:48:48,960
one representing the King and one the Queen,
754
00:48:48,960 --> 00:48:51,680
which he claimed Jacquetta had bound together
755
00:48:51,680 --> 00:48:54,400
"with witchcraft and sorcery."
756
00:48:57,560 --> 00:49:01,200
But, incredibly, Jacquetta escaped her punishment.
757
00:49:01,200 --> 00:49:05,480
The Kingmaker realised he had over-reached himself.
758
00:49:05,480 --> 00:49:08,200
He didn't have the support of England's political elite
759
00:49:08,200 --> 00:49:10,840
and he was forced to set the King free.
760
00:49:10,840 --> 00:49:14,480
Edward intervened and cleared his mother-in-law's name,
761
00:49:14,480 --> 00:49:19,000
but the Kingmaker's accusations would have permanent consequences.
762
00:49:24,720 --> 00:49:28,400
Jacquetta was publicly named as a witch,
763
00:49:28,400 --> 00:49:32,600
the royal wedding condemned as the product of witchcraft.
764
00:49:32,600 --> 00:49:36,320
A slur was laid on Jacquetta, and on her daughter Elizabeth,
765
00:49:36,320 --> 00:49:38,880
that would follow them throughout their lives,
766
00:49:38,880 --> 00:49:43,480
even to the grave and beyond - into the records of history.
767
00:49:45,760 --> 00:49:48,200
After a brief period of imprisonment,
768
00:49:48,200 --> 00:49:50,280
Edward IV was back in power.
769
00:49:50,280 --> 00:49:54,400
In March 1470, he forced Warwick the Kingmaker
770
00:49:54,400 --> 00:49:56,720
and his own brother, George, Duke of Clarence,
771
00:49:56,720 --> 00:49:59,000
into exile as traitors.
772
00:50:00,440 --> 00:50:02,960
The rebels took their wives and children
773
00:50:02,960 --> 00:50:05,440
and fled across the Channel.
774
00:50:05,440 --> 00:50:07,280
Unable to find a safe port,
775
00:50:07,280 --> 00:50:10,200
they were nearly wrecked in stormy seas.
776
00:50:13,200 --> 00:50:15,000
The Kingmaker's thirst for power
777
00:50:15,000 --> 00:50:17,800
had brought his family into terrible danger.
778
00:50:17,800 --> 00:50:21,800
This was a far cry from Anne Neville's life of luxury in England.
779
00:50:24,800 --> 00:50:28,400
They're really fleeing for their lives, and as this is happening,
780
00:50:28,400 --> 00:50:29,840
as if that wasn't traumatic enough,
781
00:50:29,840 --> 00:50:32,800
her sister Isabel has gone into premature labour
782
00:50:32,800 --> 00:50:35,760
with her first child. There's no-one on the ship to help them,
783
00:50:35,760 --> 00:50:38,640
they've got no medicine, there is certainly no question of a doctor
784
00:50:38,640 --> 00:50:41,160
so the only people who would have been able to help Isabel
785
00:50:41,160 --> 00:50:44,960
were her mother, her sister, Anne, and their very few maids.
786
00:50:44,960 --> 00:50:48,960
This must have been a terrifying experience for Anne,
787
00:50:48,960 --> 00:50:52,480
and a very traumatic one because Isabel, although she survived,
788
00:50:52,480 --> 00:50:54,800
lost her baby.
789
00:51:10,440 --> 00:51:13,960
Anne's life of privilege was completely torn from her.
790
00:51:13,960 --> 00:51:18,000
Her father, who had seemed invincible, had been defeated.
791
00:51:18,000 --> 00:51:20,800
Her sister had lost the heir,
792
00:51:20,800 --> 00:51:23,240
they were in exile from their castles and lands,
793
00:51:23,240 --> 00:51:27,200
and there was no way of knowing how they would ever get back to England.
794
00:51:32,280 --> 00:51:35,800
Having dragged his family into this situation,
795
00:51:35,800 --> 00:51:38,240
Warwick needed a drastic plan to save them.
796
00:51:38,240 --> 00:51:39,840
And he found it.
797
00:51:39,840 --> 00:51:42,400
He would switch sides
798
00:51:42,400 --> 00:51:45,880
and forge an alliance with his enemies in the House of Lancaster.
799
00:51:47,160 --> 00:51:49,600
Warwick went to Margaret of Anjou -
800
00:51:49,600 --> 00:51:53,280
wife of the deposed Lancastrian king Henry VI -
801
00:51:53,280 --> 00:51:56,400
with an astounding proposal.
802
00:51:56,400 --> 00:51:59,400
Warwick's strength was always as a diplomat.
803
00:51:59,400 --> 00:52:01,200
He was brilliant at manipulating people,
804
00:52:01,200 --> 00:52:05,240
he was brilliant at making implausible alliances cement.
805
00:52:05,240 --> 00:52:10,560
And the idea he came up with in France was absolutely preposterous!
806
00:52:10,560 --> 00:52:13,280
He planned to marry his younger daughter, Anne Neville,
807
00:52:13,280 --> 00:52:19,200
to Prince Edward, the son and heir of Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou.
808
00:52:19,200 --> 00:52:22,680
Warwick managed to convince Margaret that the only future
809
00:52:22,680 --> 00:52:26,120
for the Lancastrian cause lay in this marriage.
810
00:52:26,120 --> 00:52:27,760
She didn't let him off lightly.
811
00:52:27,760 --> 00:52:30,800
He had to grovel on his knees for a good 15 minutes,
812
00:52:30,800 --> 00:52:35,160
but Warwick pulls it off, this incredible, improbable alliance,
813
00:52:35,160 --> 00:52:38,760
and his daughter is betrothed to the Prince of Wales,
814
00:52:38,760 --> 00:52:41,680
which means, potentially, that she will be Queen of England.
815
00:52:49,600 --> 00:52:52,400
It was an extraordinary turn of events.
816
00:52:52,400 --> 00:52:56,440
Warwick was prepared to trade a lifetime of loyalty to York
817
00:52:56,440 --> 00:52:59,720
to see his daughter, Anne, on the Lancaster throne.
818
00:53:03,800 --> 00:53:07,480
Of course, nobody thought to ask Anne's opinion of this plan.
819
00:53:07,480 --> 00:53:09,240
It was not her choice.
820
00:53:09,240 --> 00:53:12,720
Her marriage was the key to reversing her family's fortunes
821
00:53:12,720 --> 00:53:14,880
and saving the House of Lancaster.
822
00:53:16,600 --> 00:53:20,200
The betrothal made, Anne's father left her in Normandy
823
00:53:20,200 --> 00:53:25,200
and returned to England, raising a huge army to destroy King Edward.
824
00:53:28,600 --> 00:53:31,800
Edward is completely caught unawares.
825
00:53:31,800 --> 00:53:32,520
It's one of those rare moments
826
00:53:32,520 --> 00:53:33,920
in Edward's career
827
00:53:33,920 --> 00:53:36,280
where he has been unable to second-guess his opponent.
828
00:53:36,280 --> 00:53:41,760
Luck has run out for him, and faced with his inability to put an army
829
00:53:41,760 --> 00:53:45,680
together in a short period of time, he and his closest advisors
830
00:53:45,680 --> 00:53:48,720
decide that flight is really the only option.
831
00:53:51,520 --> 00:53:55,600
Edward IV was forced to abandon his throne and the Yorkist cause,
832
00:53:55,600 --> 00:53:57,960
and flee England.
833
00:53:57,960 --> 00:54:02,200
The Lancastrian king Henry VI was restored in his place.
834
00:54:05,800 --> 00:54:07,960
With her husband on the run, Elizabeth Woodville,
835
00:54:07,960 --> 00:54:11,960
the former Queen of England, was now in grave danger.
836
00:54:11,960 --> 00:54:16,800
Anne Neville's life had returned to its former glory.
837
00:54:16,800 --> 00:54:17,480
Her father, the Kingmaker,
838
00:54:17,480 --> 00:54:21,520
was once again the most powerful noble in England.
839
00:54:21,520 --> 00:54:25,120
For Margaret Beaufort, seeing her hero restored to the throne
840
00:54:25,120 --> 00:54:28,160
was reward for years of patient scheming.
841
00:54:29,760 --> 00:54:34,680
BELLS TOLL
842
00:54:34,680 --> 00:54:37,800
When her husband Edward escaped abroad,
843
00:54:37,800 --> 00:54:42,400
Elizabeth Woodville was left powerless, with nowhere to turn.
844
00:54:42,400 --> 00:54:45,920
Pregnant once again, she sought sanctuary with her mother
845
00:54:45,920 --> 00:54:47,920
and daughters in Westminster Abbey.
846
00:54:50,560 --> 00:54:53,920
The concept of sanctuary was a kind of right of asylum,
847
00:54:53,920 --> 00:54:58,360
whereby if a fugitive won their way to a church or monastery
848
00:54:58,360 --> 00:55:01,280
or a place of sanctuary, they could claim that right
849
00:55:01,280 --> 00:55:05,240
and, for as long as they stayed there, the law couldn't touch them.
850
00:55:05,240 --> 00:55:08,920
The authorities could not come in and haul them out by force
851
00:55:08,920 --> 00:55:12,400
so it gave, at the very least, a breathing space.
852
00:55:13,400 --> 00:55:14,960
As a devout man,
853
00:55:14,960 --> 00:55:18,800
Henry VI would not breach Elizabeth's right to protection.
854
00:55:20,800 --> 00:55:24,160
This must have been a terrible time for Elizabeth.
855
00:55:24,160 --> 00:55:27,720
Her husband was far away, perhaps never to return, and she was
856
00:55:27,720 --> 00:55:32,840
entirely reliant on the kindness and generosity of the Abbey's staff.
857
00:55:32,840 --> 00:55:36,640
Her only contact with the outside world were messages
858
00:55:36,640 --> 00:55:39,800
smuggled in by loyal Londoners.
859
00:55:39,800 --> 00:55:42,560
And, in stark contrast to her previous royal births,
860
00:55:42,560 --> 00:55:46,960
she faced delivering this new baby in cramped, cold surroundings.
861
00:55:51,520 --> 00:55:56,840
On November 2nd, 1470, in the sanctuary of Westminster Abbey,
862
00:55:56,840 --> 00:55:59,560
with her mother and three young daughters present,
863
00:55:59,560 --> 00:56:03,800
Elizabeth Woodville gave birth to a boy -
864
00:56:03,800 --> 00:56:05,840
Edward IV's all-important male heir.
865
00:56:09,800 --> 00:56:13,160
Elizabeth named him Edward, for his father, and had him baptised
866
00:56:13,160 --> 00:56:15,560
in the Abbey like a poor man's son,
867
00:56:15,560 --> 00:56:19,480
not like a future king for the House of York at all.
868
00:56:19,480 --> 00:56:22,800
What should have been a moment of great rejoicing was actually a time
869
00:56:22,800 --> 00:56:27,000
of great anxiety. What would the future hold for this little boy?
870
00:56:33,200 --> 00:56:36,600
But Elizabeth Woodville's anxiety for her child,
871
00:56:36,600 --> 00:56:41,200
the exiled King's son, was in stark opposition to the opportunities
872
00:56:41,200 --> 00:56:44,680
Margaret Beaufort now saw for her boy.
873
00:56:45,800 --> 00:56:51,400
The child's uncle, the ailing king Henry VI, was back on the throne,
874
00:56:51,400 --> 00:56:54,240
and Margaret immediately arranged for the two to meet.
875
00:56:54,240 --> 00:56:57,160
It was an encounter that would have lasting significance
876
00:56:57,160 --> 00:56:58,520
for the young mother.
877
00:57:02,000 --> 00:57:07,200
Henry Tudor's official historian later reported that the frail king
878
00:57:07,200 --> 00:57:09,800
had met the boy and said,
879
00:57:09,800 --> 00:57:15,200
"This is he unto whom both we and our adversaryes must yeald
880
00:57:15,200 --> 00:57:17,800
"and geave of over the dominion.
881
00:57:17,800 --> 00:57:23,560
"Yt woold come to passe that Henry Showld in time enjoy the kingdom."
882
00:57:25,160 --> 00:57:27,400
We know that they met,
883
00:57:27,400 --> 00:57:32,800
but this premonition was probably claimed by Margaret after the event.
884
00:57:32,800 --> 00:57:36,680
She believed that her son was the Lancastrian king's rightful heir,
885
00:57:36,680 --> 00:57:41,400
and that one day, Henry Tudor would sit on the throne of England.
886
00:57:43,880 --> 00:57:46,400
This was not yet Margaret's moment.
887
00:57:46,400 --> 00:57:49,400
Her ambitions for her son could wait.
888
00:57:49,400 --> 00:57:54,720
Her side, the House of Lancaster, was strengthened by a new alliance -
889
00:57:54,720 --> 00:57:59,200
the marriage between Anne Neville, the Kingmaker's daughter,
890
00:57:59,200 --> 00:58:03,640
and the king's son and heir, Edward Prince of Wales.
891
00:58:05,520 --> 00:58:09,200
At this moment, it was Anne who seemed to have it all.
892
00:58:09,200 --> 00:58:12,480
Her father's plan to put his daughter on the throne of England
893
00:58:12,480 --> 00:58:14,240
was coming together.
894
00:58:14,240 --> 00:58:17,760
She was Princess of Wales, married to Henry VI's son,
895
00:58:17,760 --> 00:58:20,800
and if the king could just hold onto his crown,
896
00:58:20,800 --> 00:58:23,720
one day she would be queen of England.
897
00:58:27,520 --> 00:58:32,480
Next time, Anne Neville emerges from the shadow of her Kingmaker father.
898
00:58:34,200 --> 00:58:37,840
Elizabeth Woodville fights for survival.
899
00:58:37,840 --> 00:58:42,000
And Margaret Beaufort sees her way clear to power.
900
00:59:07,800 --> 00:59:09,960
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