How Edward II’s Revenge Tore Apart England | Britain's Bloodiest Dynasty | Timeline

out of the chaos darkness and violence of the Middle Ages one family rose to seize control of England generation after generation they ruled the country for more than 300 years ruthlessly crushing all competition to become the greatest English dynasty of all time the Plantagenet what I love about the Plantagenet story that it's more shocking more brutal more astonishing than anything you'll find in fiction I want to show you the fantastic as I see we live really driven by ambition jealousy hatred and revenge these Kings murdered betrayed and tyrannized their way to spectacular success the better and for worse the Plantagenets forged England the nation's this time edward ii was the king most famous for the story of his agonizing death but the story of his life is even more extraordinary one of obsession bloodless political savagery and above all revenge [Music] [Music] - my xi 1307 Prince Edward the 20 year old heir to the throne is near London's word of his father's death races sound Commission what's in your love I am off [Music] this is the news that Prince Edward's been waiting for all his life so the very first thing you'd expect him to do is to saddle up ride north claim his birthright and save his country but he doesn't in fact the first thing he does is to issue orders for the recall of the most divisive man in the kingdom over a lungful of horse that's what am I forgetting [Music] [Music] he is Gaveston Edwards best friend and one of the finest nights around but he's been banished to France by the old king for being a bad influence on the prince gaveston's insufferable arrogance and his hold over edward mean he's hated by every noble in the land jamison doesn't have much time for them either he's famous for making up rude nicknames for them he calls one [ __ ] son another burst belly in a third of Black Dog of course that just makes them hate him even more gaveston's return will clearly be nothing but trouble but Edward can't see it all he cares about is getting his mate back Edward is the sort of guy who could only see one step ahead he wants what he wants now no matter what cost he's utterly incapable of seeing that all his actions have consequences most of them bad ones this blindness will ultimately lead both Edward and his kingdom not to ruin and disaster looms right from the start [Music] Edward marries twelve-year-old Isabella daughter of the King of France a match designed to shore up relations with the kingdom's biggest enemy their joint coronation should be a moment of triumph and unity but it isn't the sea this is the Great Hall at the Palace of Westminster where Edward and Isabella's coronation feast takes place there's lavish decorations fountains flowing with wine but there's one problem this looks less like a coronation feast for Edward and his Queen and more like a party to Edward and Gaveston Edouard and Isabella's coats of arms should be on the walls instead it's Edward knee gaveston's worse Gaveston swans around it Imperial purple a color only Kings should wear worse still the king and his friend talk to no one but each other throughout isabella is stovic for the rest of the French Nobles are so incensed a storm out with them goes all the goodwill the marriage was designed to create the English nobles are hacked off to not least Edwards cousin Thomas of Lancaster the most powerful Earl in England Lancaster hates Gaveston and to him the whole event is an outrage it's preached Edward can't see past his obsession with his friend to the far more important job of being King and if Edward can't says that Lancaster's going to make him sit just three months later at Edwards first Parliament Lancaster and a group of other leading Nobles turn up arms through San Ysidro Sutherland Kiefer lufia boomers their message to Edward is simple Gaveston must go what was off Edward responds by accusing them of treachery he gets a chilling reply not little lawyers they are vehicle of fees to work in opava Creek ETR settle feast it's an explicit threat if you don't get rid of him we'll get rid of you what they've dug all along but whatever Lancaster threatens inward on galliston Edward won't budge and Lancaster can't make him yet but the battle lines have been drawn the bitter hatred between Edward and his cousin and this fight over Gaveston will define the whole future of the kingdom and bloody murder will now stalk England and the rest of Edmund train [Music] with gaveston's help Edward is very quickly run the country into the ground the finances security and political stability have all gone to the dogs by 1310 Lancaster's patience is exhausted he comes up with a plan to tear Edward and Gaveston apart Lancaster's been conducting a whispering campaign against the king using popular hatred of Gaveston to help sell his case he claims that gaveston's been lining his pockets at the Kings expense now annoying as Gaveston is has probably one of the few things he hasn't been doing but the mud sticks from by February 13 10 Lancaster has a committed group of nobles ready to stand up to the king and that allows him to do something extraordinary and the evidence exists here in the National Archives he's going to crush Edward and destroy Gaveston at the same time these are the ordinances 41 articles which Lancaster claims will bring stability and reform to the kaydn sounds great but taken as a whole they actually do something very different they strip Edward at pretty much all his powers as king it's an unprecedented attack the ordinances take away the Kings right to impose taxation raise armies dispense justice and make law all these rights are now rest with the nobles Lancaster will be far more powerful than the king but even that's not enough for lancaster because this is personal and there's a clause here that proves it it's not stiff right supports to do capsule this is it clause 20 even got gaveston's name decider [Music] it says he has mal many misled and Malkin say LLL counseled not senior Lua our Lord the king it orders his immediate exile also says that if Gaveston returns is be treated as a traitor and the penalty for traitors is death so what does Edward do he should fight Lancaster to protect his basic rights as king doesn't he seems perfectly happy to let his enemies strip away his right to make peace or war dispense justice to collect taxation so long as they drop clause 20 leave his name alone but Lancaster has Edward over a barrel if he doesn't agree to all the ordinances then Lancaster and his new allies will go to war against him the King has no choice he turns his back on his friend he accepts the ordinances and Gaveston is banished forever on pain of death it beggars belief that Edward would be willing to give up all his power just to save his friend that's led people to suspect that Edward and Gaveston were more than just friends but they were lovers and that ed was desired for galliston outweighed everything else so is it true well possibly I don't think we'll ever really know what went on behind the closed doors of the Royal bedchamber but frankly it didn't really matter to the people at the time Edward could have been bedding his priest his pageboy and his horse so long as he was governing the kingdom properly to the nobles minds Gaveston stopped Edward from doing that and that's why Gaveston had to go [Music] Lancaster may think he's finally got the King under control but he hasn't because when it comes to Gaveston edward is literally a law unto himself just three months later defying Lancaster and all sense it would cause Gaveston back again and if that wasn't crazy enough what Edward does next is utter insanity the King sends letters out across the country announcing gaveston's return and adding that he overturning the ordinances all [Music] well it was letters read out in town squares like this it does two things first it brings England to the brink of Civil War and second obtains a pretty big target on gaveston's back she be forgiven for thinking this is just the start of some much bigger plan but you'd be wrong because actually this is the plan it was just going to overturn the ordinances and see what happens and that Edward all over is so fixated on what he wants today simply can't see what's obviously going to happen next Lancaster's response there's no surprise to anyone except the king Gaveston is hunted down and brought here to Warwick Castle home of one of Lancaster's allies [Music] the next day he's hauled up in front of a court organized by Lancaster it's composed entirely of nobles who detest him Gaveston isn't even allowed to speak in his defense it's a kangaroo court pure listen [Music] make no mistake Lancaster's crossing a line here he's trying Gaveston under article 20 of the ordinances which make it very clear if Gaveston comes back to England he dies problem is Edward's overturned the ordinances so this Court held here at Warwick Castle has about as much authority as a lynch mob piers Gaveston best friend and trusted advisor to the King of England is convicted of treason and sentenced to death however they want to dress it up this isn't justice it's political murder on the 19th of June 1312 Lancaster's men marched piers Gaveston out of Warwick Castle all the way to black low Hill for execution [Music] this monument marked the lonely spot but Gaveston was killed [Music] if brought here because unlike Warwick Castle this land belongs to Lancaster and he wants to send the King a message he wants him to know who's doing this to him this is personal [Music] [Music] when anyone hears about gaveston's death he goes half crazy with grief first he blames Gaveston for getting caught then more reasonably he blames Lancaster interestingly any person he doesn't blame is himself that he's the one who brought Gaveston back again and again despite being warned very clearly what would happen if he did he's the one who put his friend in danger he might not want to admit it for the buck stops with him Edward swears revenge on Lancaster but with the ordinances reissued and everyone against him the king is in no position to revenge himself on anyone and things are about to get even worse [Music] Hayward's been neglecting the never-ending war with Scotland by 1314 it's reached crisis point he has to March an army north immediately or the war will be lost now for Edward this is actually an opportunity winning in Scotland could really help turn things around for him but as ever disaster is about to strike and as ever Edward can't see it coming [Music] in the crucial battle that decides the war Edwards army is Mexican and it's all Lancaster's spot [Applause] when Edward led his troops to Scotland Lancaster was legally obliged to bring his forces to support them last thing Lancaster wants is to see Edward succeed so when the time came to march north Lancaster and his cronies simply didn't turn up the King suffers a historic defeat most of his army is slaughtered Edward is lucky to escape with his life and there is now only one thing in his mind he will do absolutely anything to get revenge on Lancaster amna Bannockburn Edward is humiliated financially ruined and friendless he desperately needs strong new allies to help him [Music] and here at a Philly castle in the Wild West of medieval Britain his way finds them they called the dispensers this castle tells you everything you need to know about the dispensers in a place where neighbors are constantly a war of a money and power the dispensers have the biggest fattest castle of the mall they return them both calls you dad is a long time supporter of Edward but it's his son he's the driving here together soon Hugh Despenser jr. is as ruthless as he is ambitious he's not afraid to take on anyone and he's got the brains and muscle to back it up life's a big one the dispensers help Edward drag himself out of the mire restoring the Royal finances and getting the country up and running again in return they get to do whatever the hell they like as soon as they've gained the Kings confidence the dispensers start snatching things for themselves over the next three years they grab territory after territory in the Welsh borders trampling on anyone who gets in their way Haywood must realize the dispensers are massively destabilizing the balance of power in the kingdom it must be obvious they're only out for themselves but I think as long as they ultimately serve up revenge on Lancaster doesn't care who they upset the process you can't see how the effect of the Despenser's Welsh power grab to possibly turn out badly for him but it does because Edward backing the dispensers creates a new and very dangerous enemy Roger Mortimer one of the most powerful Baron's in the kingdom up to this point it's actually been enabled sighs but when the dispensers grab a chunk of his turf and the king does nothing Mortimer turns on it and leads a popular uprising against the dispensers and King Mortimer's men kick the Despenser's out of Wales then they march on London like Mortimer demands that the dispensers are banished and that puts Edward in a hopeless position if the King cannot be seen to back down so he has to refuse I do too but with Mortimer's army ready to sack London his refusal could easily get him killed salvation comes from an unlikely source no longer a helpless child 25 year old Queen Isabella falls to her knees in front of the court and begs Edward to reconsider for her sake where is the villa so just as Mortimer demanded Edward banishes the Despenser's but crucially he's able to claim he's doing it for his queen she's given her husband a face-saving way out of a no-win situation and it finally spurs him into action in the monkey elephanta in Tamla life with Isabella by his side the king is finally going to take the fight to his enemy in October 13:21 Queen Isabella makes a surprise stop here at Leeds Castle in Kent seeking shelter on her way to Canterbury Leeds Castle is the stronghold of Bartholomew badlesmere one of Mortimer's most prominent allies unsurprisingly when she gets to these gates battles news men refuse to let her in Isabella insists it turns nasty then the milady follows six of her people killed now clearly his Abele's got a tour of Steel but why would she come to this castle owned by one of her husband's enemies well in reality this is just a pretext Isabella's putting her life on the line to give her husband an excuse to start a fight just days later Edward turns up with an army and siege engines and Leeds Castle surrenders Edward and Isabella look on as thirteen of battles news defenders are executed for resisting watching with them are the dispensers Edwards ruthless enforces brought back from exile to manage his campaign because this is just the start for the first time in his entire life Edward has a well-thought-out strategic plan with the dispensers secretly recalled and Isabella by his side he's going to pick off his enemies one by one first badlesmere then Mortimer and finally the real prize Lancaster Edward heads to Wales kicking off Mortimer's allies on the way the offensive catches Mortimer off-guard and quickly captured him and bangs him up in the Tower of London the momentum is now with the king but Lancaster has a big army and powerful allies in the north he'll be a much tougher proposition to take down then something extraordinary happens that absolutely no one saw coming one of it and supporters the Archbishop of York receives a series of damning letters and they're here copied into the government archives the letters are between two Scottish Ministers here you can see the name of one of them Sir James Douglas and they refer to an agreement with an English noble who's named as King Arthur what he's doing is guaranteeing he won't support any English invasion of Scotland there's only one person that King Arthur could be that Kings cousin Thomas of Lancaster so this is a smoking gun it's proof the Lancaster's been colluding with the enemy and that is treason ever since panic burn Edwards suspected that Lancaster is embedding it's Scott now he can prove it the King immediately publishes the Lancaster letters then marches his arms north as Edward approaches Lancaster support melts away no one wants a battle traitor the Earl is captured Liam this is what remains of Lancaster's favorite castle Pontefract and it's here that he's brought in Chains to face Edward in a bitter irony it would locks him up in a tower that Lancaster had himself built specifically in anticipation of imprisoning the king the next day Lancaster's hauled from his tower to face the court and it's in the Kings big chance to restore the rule of law to England by giving his cousin a fair trial after all the evidence is overwhelming Lancaster has committed treason and he would be found guilty but as ever this is personal Edwards not interested in justice he wants what he's always wanted revenge Lancaster is tried by a jury of his enemies no defense no right to speak and sentenced to death I'm a judicial murder exactly what he did to Gaveston [Music] it takes three blows of the soldiers to kill Lancaster at the last blow lands on Lancaster's neck Edward finally has his revenge on the man who killed his friend but at what price the king of England has committed the political murder of the country's premier Earl his first cousin a man with Plantagenet royal blood in his veins Pandora's Box is open and no one is safe on the day of Lancaster's execution six of his supporters follow him to the gallows another three are executed the next day in the months that follow the executions continue no trial no evidence just the word of the king 117 rebels have their lands confiscated in the least fifteen others join Roger Mortimer in the tower it must look to the whole kingdom like Edwards bloodlust is insatiable but in reality behind the scenes the dispensers are pulling the strings it's payback time the humiliation of their exile édouard makes you dispense ergenia Chamberlin of the royal household giving the dispensers complete control of the machinery of government and the country's finances soon all access to Edward has to go through them the dispenser regime makes them hated right across the kingdom but the dispensers don't care the king is now their puppet and they're not done yet two years later in autumn 1324 war breaks out with France and the Despenser's get an opportunity to move on the one person who could still interfere with their control of the king Queen Isabella the king of France is Isabella's brother technically she's an enemy alien that's having spent lost freaking evidently on national security ground they purge her household of French people confiscate her Lana sick ruling is a heartbeat Wow Wow I did I draw the children a ritual we looked after by defenses wife [Music] Edouard does nothing to help [Music] you imagine how isabella must feel she put up with the humiliation of Gaveston when they didn't went after Lancaster she was right behind him she even put her own life on the line at Leeds Castle she done everything Edward could have asked of a queen and more and this is her reward Edward can't know it but this is the beginning of the end of his rule [Music] six months later Edward and the dispensers are here in Dover the war with France is going disastrously wrong the King has no choice but to turn to his wife to help defend Isabella to France to negotiate a truce with her brother King Charles when Isabella sells of France she does so knowing the Despenser's have her children and that's why they're pretty confident she'll have to behave but they massively underestimated her because this is a woman who one day become known as the she-wolf and Edward and the Despenser's are about to find out why in France Isabella's influence with her brother does the trick she gets him to agree to a treaty but there's a catch the French King demands that Edward comes to France to seal the deal Edward going to France is something the Despenser's simply can't allow their control over the country to tens of having the King in their clutches without it the whole thing could unravel in desperation the Despenser's persuade Edward to send a message claiming to be ill so they must be delighted when the reply comes back expressing sympathy and saying that under the circumstances the French King would be happy to accept the homage of Edward son 12 year old Prince Edward instead sounds reasonable so edward sends the heir to the throne to france along with a message telling Isabella to return in medium it's a massive miscalculation Prince Edward safely biocide in Paris here at the French Court in the Conciergerie Isabella makes a move and it's extraordinary can you tell my stepmother more money an essay on the one courtyard yep corporate personhood hope you'll take back who's got the call that he landed me on a soul level samanya this organ is stripped off commissioner observable by city as far as isabella is concerned until the Despenser's had gone her husband is as good again neither the king or the dispenser has appreciated the danger of losing control of both the Queen and the heir to the throne but with Isabella declared against them she quickly becomes the focus for opposition Edward and Hugh might have thought that by snatching her children they could force her to toe the line but they've no idea who they're dealing with Isabella's opposition doesn't stop speeches a month later she's wearing her black roads of mourning when she meets a rich powerful and charismatic man just escaped in the Tower of London Roger Mortimer her husband's bitterest enemy the attraction within weeks their lovers in Paris is shot if a fella the she-wolf and Roger Mortimer sworn enemy of the king the red were the second they are a very dangerous combination in the autumn of 1326 Isabella and Mortimer head back to England with one simple a regime change da said ten minutes 24 1326 and even with multiplier size for Isabella this is a hell of a gamble I mean let's face it she's an adulterous foreign queen who escaped convict lover backed by a handful of mint closer in number to a moderate house party and a proper invasion post this has all the hallmarks of a suicide mission but Isabella and Mortimer have called it right popular hatred of the dispensers and the king is so deep and so widespread that his wife and her lover right through the Shires supporters flock to their side in less than a month the Queen takes the country the king is forced to flee that's life Edwards running out of options fast he's supposed to be the anointed king of England and now he's reduced to a man on the run his only remaining supporter is a man who have it's possible to hate it even more than his instead he tried to get a message to his Abela if only they could talk maybe they could smooth things over time for talking long gone but as usual Edward can't sail Edward and Heuer captured running scared on a forest path in the Welsh mountains isabella bangs edward up in Kenilworth Castle she hasn't decided what to do with him yet but she's got big plans to humour Spencer the Spencer senior has already been beheaded and fed to the dogs and he's the lucky one when he the Younger arrived here inherited and see the 50-foot gallows being erected over the town it only begins to suspect the trial is about to receive even going to be entirely fair and he's right like Gaveston and Lancaster before him he's not allowed to speak in his own defense and he's tried by people who hate him and the sentence he receives is so spectacularly vicious and inhuman he actually tries to starve himself to death just to avoid it he's landed a huge crowd if Spencer is hung almost to the point of death but he's not getting off that lightly because isabella has a pond to prune this is a very personal execution and a very public statement isabella has a ringside seat as dispenser is strapped to a ladder for the next part of this ordeal the Queen wants everyone to know the dispensers come between her and her husband he's damaged her marriage and this is her revenge dispensers Jenna sort of cut off and burned in front of it [Music] incredibly isabella is eating that she wanted an apple even more incredible throughout all of this Hugh Despenser never makes a sound but Isabella hasn't done this gives us entrails have called out and shunned [Applause] finally almost mercifully he's beheaded murderous personal vindictiveness has become the defining characteristic of Edward the second reign the only person who could have stopped it was Edward instead he embraced it now it's coming for him Edwards he's being held here at Kenilworth Castle is Isabella and Mortimer's last remaining problem he may be a defeated tyrant but he's still the rightful king of England anointed by God on the other hand they've been so blatant about their adultery they can hardly just give him his crown back so Edwards wife and her lover having declared incorrigible and he's deposed by Act of Parliament once King of England is now just plain included canal the place of his birth the first times of the Dark Ages a reigning monarch has been forced from the throne England had a new King Edward the third but if Isabella as regent he's really snatched the crown the she-wolf had earned her name this is Berkeley castle in Gloucestershire and it's here the end games played out whilst he's still alive the King remains a threat there already been three attempts to spring him from prison and restore him to power in truth you can a dead man walking since his wife's master throne [Music] publicly it will be claimed that Edward has died of natural causes but as news of his death spreads suspicion of murder grows the story we're told is that he's tortured and murdered by having a red-hot poker inserted by a trumpet device placed and drowned [Music] even after everything Edward had done how would a king be tortured and killed in such a horrific fashion the answer of course he wasn't [Music] this is the room where Edward the second was murdered not killed with a poker most probably smothered in his bed poker story only came about about 60 years after Edward was killed but it's become the standard version and that's because the idea of a humiliated emasculated possibly homosexual king being buggered to death is too good a story to be troubled by the truth you

Channel: Timeline - World History Documentaries

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Keywords: britain's bloodiest dynasty, plantagenet documentary bbc, the plantagenets, game of thrones, full length documentaries, documentary movies - topic, bbc documentary, history documentary, the real game of thrones, thomas becket, 2017 documentary, documentary history, full documentary, britain's bloodiest dynasty part 2, bloodiest dynasty, britain's bloodiest dynasty part 3, anne boleyn, dan jones documentary, england's bloodiest dynasty

Id: iYBZVSShBIE

Length: 44min 28sec (2668 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 07 2017