An English Empire - Ep: 2 | Plantagenets | BBC Documentary

[Music] [Music] Caversham Manor in Berkshire the year is 12 19 William Marshall is the most powerful knight in the land and regent of England the 11-year old boy at his bedside is the fourth Plantagenet King to rule England Henry the third the Plantagenet were a French dynasty who ruled England and much of France for fifty years but Henry's father King John had lost most of their lands in France and when Henry came to the throne at the age of nine half of England was under French occupation William Marshall had sworn to protect the young king even if the whole world abandons the boy he said I will not fail him William Marshall kept his word he defeated the French fought off the rebellious English barons and ensured that the young Plantagenet would hold on to his crown but now William Marshall was dying and the fate of the Plantagenet rested on the shoulders of a child many predicted disaster instead something remarkable happened the Plantagenet dynasty not only survived it grew stronger under their rule over the next hundred and fifty years medieval England reached its peak [Music] Parliament was born in the clear sense of national identity emerged their roots were in France French was their language but the Plantagenet family helped foster a new sense of English nationhood out of their dynastic ambitions would grow an English Empire [Music] for the first 50 years of Plantagenet rule the English Channel acted as a bridge connecting the king and his barons to the lands they owned in France [Music] but by the reign of Henry the third most of their ancestral homelands in France had been lost the English barons were forced to make a commitment to one side of the channel or the other [Music] the kings of England and France presented the Barons with a stark choice give up their lands in England and do homage to the king of France or give up their lands in France and swear allegiance to the king of England the channel was no longer a bridge but a barrier between competing powers possession of French lands always drove the Plantagenet dynasty but for now they turned their energies to the country they still ruled to England [Music] Henry the third was not by nature a warrior the boy king grew up to be a pious ruler devoted to pilgrimage and prayer in 1245 he began rebuilding Westminster Abbey a project that would occupy him for the rest of his life the old romanesque basilica was replaced with an immense gothic structure this was an architecture of light and sophistication the style was French but it was dedicated to the memory of an English king the majesty of Westminster Abbey today is the result of Henry the thirds devotion to Edward the Confessor and his desire to glorify him Henry saw Westminster as the center of the Plantagenet Kingdom and in the heart of the abbey itself he constructed an elaborate new shrine to the saintly anglo-saxon King Edward the Confessor is the only English King to have been canonized Henry was aligning himself with both God and England [Music] Edwards golden coffin sat on a base of Purbeck marble these niches were carved for pilgrims to kneel in prayer but the Abbey also served a worldly purpose henry's piety hadn't extinguished his dynastic ambition he wanted Westminster Abbey to rival the great churches of the French kings his vision of the Abbey was as the place of Coronation and burial for all future Plantagenet kings [Music] Westminster Abbey would be forever associated with Henry as his crowning achievement a Plantagenet ambition came at a price it's rebuilding cost more than twice Henry's annual royal income and he had other expensive plans like all his predecessors Henry was determined to expand his Plantagenet Empire whatever the cost [Music] Henry wasn't a warrior king but he could use the revenues of England to add to the Plantagenet dominions the Pope was inviting Henry to purchase the rights to the kingdom of Sicily and he couldn't refuse the chance to add to the family's lands he accepted on behalf of his younger son Edmund the only snag was the price tag [Music] we know what happened next because of a contemporary account of Henry's reign [Music] kept at Corpus Christi College Cambridge is a manuscript written and illustrated by us and Albans monk Matthew Parris it's called the Kronecker Mayura the great chronicle he tells us Henry agreed to pay the Pope three times his annual income for the chance to secure Sicily as a Plantagenet land it was a huge sum of money and a great risk if Henry defaulted on payment he faced excommunication from the church for a pious man like Henry excommunication would be unbearable but still he pursued the policy even his own brother thought he'd gone mad he compared the Pope's offer to a man saying I sell you the moon now climb up and take it it was an ambitious plan to expand Plantagenet power but it placed royal family interests against those of the Barons and it backfired badly the Barons were the land owning nobility of England they provided the king with armies to fight his Wars and he needed their agreement to raise taxes to fund his ambitions yet Henry was alienating his barons by pursuing Sicily and they held another grievance against the King Henry had filled his court with foreign-born relatives from Savoy and Poitou the Barons bitterly resented them French remained the language of court but there was a growing suspicion of all things foreign plantagenet dynastic ambitions were still international but they increasingly came up against a new force national feeling you can see it in the works of Matthew Parris here he shows a French invasion fleet being defeated by English forces while the bishops bless those who are fighting as it says for the liberation of England and here he praises a patriotic Baron who would struggle to preserve Anglia angley's England for the English national feeling was a growing force Henry couldn't ignore he'd taken a huge risk in mortgaging his kingdom to expand the Plantagenet Empire in the Mediterranean but now he was bankrupt and the English barons were on the point of rebellion [Music] things came to a head one April morning in 1258 seven barons in full armor confronted Henry here in Westminster Hall the King was startled what is this my lord am I your captive they reassured him that they were not rebels but Friends of the crown but they insisted but the king dismisses foreign relatives and take back their castles and lands the King's relatives protested noisily but the Barons warned them know for a fact that you will either return the castles or lose your head Henry had little choice but to agree the King's submission to the Barons triggered a chain of reforming legislation that would transform the way England was governed the reforms would be agreed by a committee of 24 12 chosen by the king and 12 by the Barons for the first time in English history power would be shared by the king with a 15-member Council these historic reforms are known as the provisions of Oxford variable Kings had always claimed to rule by the grace of God but Henry now reluctantly swore an oath to share power with the Barons in the name of Lucca moon donger tear the Community of England provoked by Plantagenet extravagance the provisions of Oxford mark an important moment in the history of England and of the limitation of royal power for 20 years the assemblies where the King consulted with his bishops and barons had been known by a term derived from the French parle to talk this gave us the name of a new institution Parliament [Music] Henry appealed to the Pope to extricate himself from the provisions of Oxford but his own brother-in-law Simon de Montfort condemned Henry as a king who had lost touch with his people de Montfort saw himself as England's Savior [Music] King knew he was in danger he told de montfort I fear thunder and lightning beyond measure but by gods head I dread you more than all the thunder and lightning in the world he was right to be afraid from his base here in Kenilworth Castle de Montfort raised an army against the king in 1264 Simon de Montfort confronted royal troops led by the king and his son Prince Edward outside Louis de Montfort men were outnumbered but they inflicted a humiliating defeat on Henry and chopped Prince Edward prisoner Henry remained King in name only for the next 15 months England was ruled not by a Plantagenet but by Simon de Montfort and he did so through Parliament de montfort spar lament of 1265 is often regarded as the forerunner of the modern Parliament as always it included barons and bishops who sit nowadays as the House of Lords but for the first time knights and Burgesses were sent from the Shires and from the boroughs elected to Parliament by the property owners of England Parliament now had the beginnings of a second house later to be known as the Commons Henry the third seemed to be a spent force but his son Edward was a warrior prepared to defend his Plantagenet birthright to the death with the help of men loyal to his cause Edward escaped his captivity in Erfurt he raised an army and confronted de Montfort at evesham at the Battle of Evesham Edward reasserted Plantagenet rule in England De Montfort supporters were slaughtered and de Montford himself killed in the battle his hands and feets were cut off his testicles severed and hung scornfully over his nose then his head was sent to the wife of one of his chief enemies de montfort rule was over but the English Parliament lived on and future Plantagenet Kings would ignore it at their peril Henry had had a lucky escape he returned to the life of religious devotion and pilgrimage he'd gambled with the Plantagenet crown and his actions have provoked the opening up of Parliament to elected representatives of the English people Henri's England had a growing sense of national spirit but when he died henry revealed his own true allegiance Henry's body was laid to rest in Westminster Abbey to spend eternity alongside his beloved anglo-saxon hero Edward the Confessor but his heart was sent to be buried with his Plantagenet ancestors at the Abbey of Fontevraud in Anjou an English king but a French heart a Plantagenet to the last édouard the warrior Prince now became King Edward the first of England tall and intimidating with a mop of curly hair edward was known as Longshanks he inherited a country recovering from turmoil it would also inherited the famous Plantagenet temper reputedly he once frightened an unfortunate Archbishop of York literally to death but he learned two things from his father's mistakes to keep the Barons happy and not to run out of money and he sought to find ways to attain both those goals medieval England reached its economic peak under Edward the first but there was a darker side to its growing sense of national identity [Music] England's Jewish population had arrived from France shortly after the Norman Conquest the Pope had decreed that lending money at interest was a sin for Christians so the Jews became the chief source of credit for the king and his barons Jews were often resented they were frequently persecuted and attacked and by the reign of Edward the first in this age of Crusades England had become an increasingly militant Christian nation the king himself was a conventional Christian with no sympathy for the plight of the Jews at a time when English national feeling was growing Edwards vision of England was a fiercely Christian one this England had no place for the Jews [Music] with the support of his barons Edward decided to expel the entire Jewish population from his realm some two to three thousand Jews departed from the shores of England there was to be no resident Jewish population in the country for the next 370 years yet Plantagenet ambitions always extended beyond England edward was inspired by King Arthur a popular figure in folklore who was said to have once ruled over a united Britain Edward wanted to align the Plantagenet dynasty with this legendary all-conquering leader and he had the conquest of Wales in his sights [Music] Wales had trouble de Plantagenet Kings for generations its rugged terrain made it hard to conquer and control and they regarded its inhabitants as little more than barbarians but Edward the first was a man who never gave up what he saw as his rights and these included in his eyes overlordship of Wales but a rival dynasty stood in the way of Plantagenet ambition the princes of gwyneth had ruled here for centuries [Music] so well in at Griffith and his younger brother Davis were the latest in a long line of warrior leaders who held a crown said to be King Arthur's Edwards father Henry recognized Fluellen as Prince of Wales as long as he paid homage to the English crown but when Edward took the throne Fluellen refused to pay homage well in a rebel and a disturber of the peace and in 1277 set off westward from Chester are the head of a powerful army of 800 knights crossbowmen from Gascony and 16,000 infantry along the way they were supplied by a fleet of ships sent up from the Royal ports of the south coast like wind Chelsea the Welsh were hopelessly outnumbered [Music] Edwards army captured Anglesey the breadbasket of Wales at a stroke this provided food for his own men and cut off supplies to the Welsh Llewelyn had no choice but to surrender and pay homage to Edward an uneasy truce followed but it was broken when death at Griffith led a new rebellion against English rule for over a year the Plantagenet army clashed with Welsh defenders but in 1282 disaster struck for the Welsh dynasty Llewellyn was killed in battle his head cut off and sent to London deficit griffith held out here at dole badan castle for a few months more finally he was captured and tried by the english condemned to death as the last survivor of a family of traitors he was hanged and then cut down and disemboweled his entrails were burned in front of him his body was quartered and then his head was cut off and sent to the Tower of London to be displayed alongside that of his brother as a final act of ritual humiliation the Welsh surrendered to the English king the crown of King Arthur Wales was now a Plantagenet Dominion Edward had confronted a rival dynasty and emerged victorious now to stamp his authority he began building and repairing a chain of castles across North Wales these fortresses represent the peak of medieval castle building [Music] it looks at one point as though Scotland would go the way of Wales swallowed up by the English Kingdom but a different dynastic problem had arisen there [Music] when the King of Scotland died in 1286 he left no male heir the bloodline of Scottish Kings was broken the dead Kings three-year-old granddaughter Margaret of Norway was next in line for the throne Edward came up with a neat Plantagenet solution Margaret would return to Scotland to marry his own infant son the situation would be resolved by diplomacy and marriage not by war and Britain would be united under the Plantagenet it remains one of the great what-ifs of British history no marriage took place little Margaret died in Orkney on her way to Scotland and with her died Edwards plan for a bloodless Plantagenet takeover of Scotland after the death of Margaret Edward agreed to tolerate a subordinate King in Scotland but as soon as he showed signs of Independence Edward reacted with typical Plantagenet brutality his troops sacked barrack and defeated a Scottish army at Dunbar English Garrison's and officials were installed across Scotland to intimidate and control for Edward the kingdom of Scotland had ceased to exist as he handed the Royal Seal of Scotland to one of his barons he said a man does good business when he rids himself of a turd but Scotland did not go the way of Wales this wasn't a battle between dynasties but between two countries with a growing sense of national identity and pride no one displayed this more than one of the Scottish resistance leaders William Wallace Wallace was a proud and charismatic figure he refused to pay homage to Edward to crush Wallace the English army had to cross the river forth on a 13th century map of Britain by Matthew Paris Scotland is shown dramatically divided by the river forth and the only place to cross was the bridge at Stirling [Music] it was here that William Wallace confronted the English army to preserve Scotland's freedom at this time the bridge here was just wide enough for the English forces to cross two abreast once half the army had crossed the Scots swooped down and cut off the bridge the English stranded on the northern bank were surrounded the result was slaughter [Music] around 5,000 English infantrymen died at Stirling Bridge the battle didn't decide the issue but Wallace's defiance shook Edward international dynasties like the Plantagenet struggled to understand national feeling edward underestimated the strength of resistance it could produce he was riding to confront another Scottish leader Robert Bruce when he died in 1307 Plantagenet determination to subdue Scotland was undiminished but Edward the second defeat by Robert Bruce at Bannockburn seven years later set the limits to Plantagenet ambitions in Britain they would never conquer the Scots and they provoked a deepening of Scottish national pride and a sense of independence that survives to this day [Music] the new Plantagenet King lacked his father's warrior instincts yet with the second preferred gardening to fighting he would fail to build on his father's legacy and his lapses of judgment would threaten to destroy the Plantagenet dynasty [Music] Edwards reign began well he secured a great prize in the marriage market Isabella daughter of the king of France she was just 12 years old but already considered a beauty of beauties and very wise a month after their wedding Westminster Abbey was the setting for Edwards coronation this was his first opportunity to show off his new queen instead Isabella was upstaged as Edward and Isabella walked down the aisle it wasn't the young queen who caught the eye walking just ahead of them and leading the procession was a young man called piers Gaveston he was dressed in clothes of imperial purple studded with pearls and in his hands he cradled the crown of some Edward the Confessor the most sacred of the Royal Regalia there was no more privileged position in the royal procession Gaveston was being honored as the most important Noble in the land [Music] at the banquet that followed Edward and Gaveston shocks the guests with their display of affection for each other Isabella's uncle's walked out in disgust [Music] every medieval King had caught favorites but none had ever achieved the power and influence piers Gaveston exercised over Edward the second the King claimed he loved him like a brother but the support chronicler noted that the King frequented piers his couch more than the Queen's we can never know for sure if there was a sexual relationship between Edward the second and piers Gaveston but we do know that there are no mentions of homosexuality during their lifetimes and they had plenty of enemies who would have brought it up the earliest references come after Edwards downfall and from men who were deeply hostile to him [Music] what can't be doubted is that Edward was infatuated with Gaveston to a degree that compromised his kingship and provoked the Barons hatred the Gaveston displayed no fear of the Barons [Music] famed for his quick and sarcastic tongue Gaveston gave the Barons nicknames the Earl of Lancaster was the fiddler the Earl of Lincoln burst belly and the Earl of Warwick whose seat was here at Warwick Castle was the Black Dog of Arden but this was a dangerous game the black dog could bite once again Plantagenet rule was under threat because of foreign-born caught favorites once again the Barons felt compelled to act Gaveston was captured and put in the custody of the Earl of Pembroke who guaranteed his safety but in his absence the black dog pounced the Earl of Warwick sees Gaveston after a token trial he was led out on the road to Kenilworth [Music] when they reach black low Hill here on the land of the Earl of Lancaster Galveston was first stabbed and then beheaded [Music] his body was left on the hillside until claimed by two Dominican friars and that was the end of peers commented a contemporary chronicler who had risen on high but now fell into nothingness if Edward had now concentrated his energies on being King his infatuation with Gaveston might have been quickly forgotten instead to Isabella's hora he began to shower favors on another young noble Hugh Despenser dispenser and Edward became inseparable angry baron said he'd be witched the Kings mind the dispenser made an enemy yet more dangerous than the Barons Edwards Queen Isabella Isabella came to despise dispenser in the words of a contemporary Chronicle with a more than perfect hatred but Edward still needed Isabella in 1324 the French invaded Gascony the last of the Plantagenet lands in France Isabella's brother was now the king of France so Edward asked his wife to travel to Paris to sue for peace Isabella's brother welcome to a warmly and promised to restore Gascony on condition that Edward did homage for the Duchy with his barons threatening rebellion at home Edward was reluctant to leave England but he sent his son in his place and so here at the chateau de vincennes outside Paris in the company of his mother the young Edward knelt at the feet of Charles the fourth of France but then instead of returning to England he remained in France with his mother when Edward requested their return Isabella refused and she finally revealed her feelings about her husband's relationship with Hugh Despenser I feel that marriage is a joining together of man and woman and someone has come between my husband and me trying to break this bond Edwards letters to his son grow increasingly violent we will take such measures that you will feel it all the days of your life and all other sons will learn what it means to disobey their Lords and fathers [Music] a Plantagenet family crisis was about to turn into a political disaster news reached the king that the rebel Baron Roger Mortimer was now Isabella's lover according to the Bishop of Hereford Edward determined to strike back with true Plantagenet vindictiveness if he had no other weapon he would crush her with his teeth [Music] Isabella and Mortimer landed on the Suffolk coast and quickly found support from disaffected barons [Music] Edwards cause was lost Hugh Despenser paid the price for his closeness to the king he was tied to a ladder and his genitals sliced off his entrails were removed and along with his heart thrown into a fire the King was taken prisoner [Music] according to the English chronicler Geoffrey de Baker the imprisoned King was told that if he refused to abdicate in favor of his son someone other than a Plantagenet would take the throne weeping and barely able to stand Edward eventually agreed to sacrifice himself for his dynasty he stood down in favor of his son the first abdication of a king of England but the Plantagenet bloodline had been protected in the uncertain world of medieval politics people looked to omens and portents for guidance one place they found it was in ancient prophecies about the fates and fortunes of kings the prophecy of the six kings drew on the legend of King Arthur in it Merlin characterized the future Plantagenet Kings as animals Henry the third was a pious lamb Edward the first a battling dragon and with the second was a lascivious goat but his son who would grow up to be Edward the third was a glorious wild boar with the heart of a lion who would conquer more than any of his blood in this world the message was clear England once again had a Plantagenet King to rally behind [Music] Edward the third would not make the mistakes of his father he set out to unify the English barons around him and at his birthplace Windsor Castle he spent a royal fortune transforming it into the heart of his kingdom he turned it from a castle into a palace [Music] it became the most expensive single building project by any Plantagenet King and the perfect setting for royal displays of chivalry under Edward the third the rituals of chivalry became central to the Plantagenet court chivalry was a code of behavior that proudly fused military and Christian ethics the word refers to the customs and values of the chevalier the French term for those who rode into battle the Knights and it demanded that these Knights be brave loyal and devoted to their ladies Edward the third understood the power of chivalry like no one else and he used it to bind together the Knights the nobles and the Plantagenet crown [Music] like his grandfather Edward the first Edward was inspired by the legend of King Arthur [Music] lavish Arthurian tournaments were held in the Quadrangle of Windsor Castle [Music] with staged displays of horsemanship and fighting skills Windsor Castle became the Plantagenet Camelot along with Arthur Edward shows a Christian hero to represent his ambition st. George Sir George was a warrior Saint and he was the patron of knights throughout Christendom but Edwards troops were already marching with the Red Cross of Saint George at their head and it flew also from the mass of his ships it was becoming a symbol of England and the English king and since George would be the war cry of the English armies in Edwards next great conflict he was determined to win back the old Plantagenet dynasty clans in France the French royal family had seen some succeed father for 320 years but in 1328 Charles the fourth of France died without a son to succeed him Edward the third was the dead Kings nephew he believed he had a strong a claim to the French throne as anyone could Edward the 3rd of England become Edward the first of France it wasn't so far-fetched ever since King John had lost their old lands in France over a century before the Plantagenet Kings had nursed the ambition of recovering them to acquire the whole of France would be an even greater glory Edward saw an opportunity to succeed where his Plantagenet forefathers had failed in 1340 he announced his claim to the French throne this began an era of slaughter and bloodshed that went on for generations in july 1346 an army of around 10,000 men led by Edward the 3rd landed in Normandy Edward may have claimed to be King of France but this was clearly an English invasion the battle was no longer just one between dynasties it was now a battle between nations the English rampaged unopposed through Normandy finally the two great armies confronted each other by the forest of Crecy in the Somme the English were drawn up on this Ridge the French advance from that direction as the battle began a great storm broke huge flocks of crows flew into the air above the armies then the English archers stepped forward their long bows had a range of 200 metres and a rate of fire three times that of the crossbow the crossbowmen on the french side were routed and Edward had another shock in store for the French a primitive but spectacular new weapon in his armory for the first time on a European battlefield the English used gunpowder to fire cannon balls at the French forces the French Knights now faced volleys of thousands of arrows and it's the crash of cannon [Music] they had never seen anything like it [Music] the King's sixteen-year-old son Edward Prince of Wales later known as the Black Prince fought his way to the heart of the battle chronic Lafosse are reports that a man was sent back from the black Prince's division to the king to ask for help Edward the third asked him if his son were dead or wounded and when he heard that he was not replied send no more to me today let him earn his Spurs most of the French Knights fought to the death they preferred the glory of being killed in action to the shame of fleeing the battlefield fighting on the French side was John the blind King of Bohemia despite his blindness he wanted to strike at least one blow in the battle his Knights tied the reins of their horses to the reins of his to guide him into the thick of the fighting the Black Prince saw him ride to his death [Music] in order to honor the Kings reckless bravery the Black Prince adopted as his own badge the King's emblem that emblem was the ostrich feather which has been the badge of the princes of Wales ever since around 2,000 French Knights died at crécy a whole generation of French noblemen in contrast it's said that as few as 40 English men-at-arms lost their lives the battle for the French crown would continue but fighting beneath the flag of st. George the English army was now the most feared in Europe at the end of the battle King Edward embraced the Black Prince my son he said you have acquitted yourself nobly you are worthy to rule a kingdom the Black Prince returned to Windsor an English national hero [Music] but he would never become king like many a Plantagenet warrior he was later cut down by dysentery but Cressy marked a high point of the Plantagenet dynasty and it's legacy remains after their triumphant victory at crécy the king and the Black Prince founded the Order of the Garter its origins were in a great tournament at Windsor two teams of 12 knights took part one headed by the King and one by the prince the order was to meet here in its own Chapel every year on st. George's Day the 23rd of April [Music] the structure of the order has remained the same to the present day the monarch the Prince of Wales in 24 nights one set of stalls is designated the Kings the facing set the princes many of the original founding members of the Order of the Garter or companions of arms who had fought together at crécy now every noble in the land wanted to be bound to the king in this most exclusive of clubs [Music] the order of the garter wasn't just another show of pageantry it was also a shrewd Plantagenet tool [Music] 200 years plantagenet in nastic ambition had often clashed with the interests of the English barons now Edward the third had brought the nobleman of England behind him in his campaign to win the throne of France he had harnessed England's growing sense of nationhood to his own Plantagenet dynasty vision to create an extraordinary fighting force [Music] by 1360 the English army had regained large swaths of the Plantagenet lands in France out of dynastic ambition emerged the foundations of an English Empire in 1362 Edward celebrated his 50th birthday he marked the occasion by introducing one of the Plantagenet most significant reforms it was known as the statute of pleading and it formally changed the language spoken in the law courts from French to English [Music] in the same year Parliament was opened for the first time with a speech made not in French but in English when Henry the second the first Plantagenet King took the throne in 1154 he spoke scarcely a word of English two centuries later a dynasty that had regarded England as a possession rather than a nation now saw England as its home and English as its language English was no longer spoken just by the peasants who worked the land the Knights spoke it the nobles spoke it even the King spoke it England and the Plantagenet were united as never before [Music] in the next program the death of Kings royal bloodletting divides the dynasty into the warring houses of Lancaster and York Henry the fifth fulfills the Plantagenet greatest ambition at Agincourt and Richard the third makes the Plantagenet slashed stand [Music] you

Channel: BBC Documentary

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Keywords: bbc documentary, documentary bbc, bbc, bbc plantagenets, the plantagenets bbc documentary, bbc royal documentary, bbc history documentary, history documentary, british documentary

Id: A9-2rFjQA_U

Length: 61min 23sec (3683 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 09 2018