The Rise Of The Plantagenets | Britain's Bloodiest Dynasty | Chronicle

[Music] out of the chaos darkness and violence of the middle ages one family rose to seize control of england generation after generation they ruled the country for more than 300 years ruthlessly crushing all competition to become the greatest english dynasty of all time the plantagenets what i love about the plantagenet story is that it's more shocking more brutal and more astonishing than anything you'll find in fiction i want to show you the plantagenets as i see them real living breathing people driven by ambition jealousy hatred and revenge these kings murdered betrayed and tyrannized their way to spectacular success for better and for worse the plantagenets forged england as a nation this time the founder of the dynasty henry ii warrior and empire builder he transformed england from a war zone into a european superpower but murder and betrayal by his own family threatened to tear apart everything he had achieved foreign in 1153 henry plantagenet sails to england with an invasion force aiming to seize back the throne he's only 20 but he's already an experienced soldier he's been fighting in france since he was a kid and his mother's drilled into him the idea that the crown of england is rightfully his so as henry approaches these shores he's convinced he has a date with destiny henry's a powerhouse with a fiery temper bursting with raw energy and ambition within a year stephen is dead and henry is crowned henry ii the first plantagenet king of course he doesn't speak a word of english but after 90 years of norman french rule in england no one does except the peasants and it's not them that henry's here to pick a fight with it's the barons for a generation the barons have been fighting vicious turf wars burning looting raping killing if you lived here you could come home any day to find your house on fire your crops destroyed your animals taken or your family murdered and this has been going on for nearly 20 years as long as the new king has been alive henry's future and the future of england depends on bringing the barons to heel he could simply destroy them his army's big enough but instead he does something totally unexpected high on the welsh borders is wigmore castle once one of england's greatest fortresses it's the power base of hugh mortimer toughest of the barons and the last to hold out against the new king [Music] no one defies henry and gets away with it so he turns up here at wigmore with an army and lays siege to the castle [Music] henry's got hughes surrounded but he's not here to destroy him he just sits outside here i am here's my army what are you going to do about it unsurprisingly hugh folds but it's what henry does next that marks him out as a king to watch because he takes hugh's castle away from him then gives it straight back he's saying you can have your power but only because i say so i'm the king i'm in control and you work for me [Applause] one reason henry has the confidence to take on such powerful men is because he has a formidable ally [Applause] henry's queen is eleanor duchess of aquitaine 10 years his senior she's such a famous beauty students across europe sing bawdy songs about bedding her she shot the continent by divorcing the king of france in 1152 and marrying henry just two months later they're a good match by the time henry takes the throne she's already produced their first son but this queen is far more than a baby machine as duchess of aquitaine she's a serious political player in her own right henry brings muscle eleanor brings prestige together they're a match for anyone and their union creates a plantagenet empire that stretches from the borders of scotland to the pyrenees but to keep control of such vast territory henry has to do something radical controls everything to henry the question is how does he maintain it it could use his barons to rule the different regions that standard medieval practice but as far as henry can see the barons will only do things his way as long as it suits them to get what he wants henry's going to have to do things a little bit differently henry's genius is to create a new army not of soldiers but of clerks educated commoners unlike the barons they'll do exactly what he wants what henry invents is the basis of the civil service that still runs the country today [Music] here at the national archives 900 year old documents reveal the full extent of henry's control [Music] so this is a writ from the second year of henry's reign and it's an official instruction from the king we can see the king rex here duke normandy duke of aquitaine he's sending instruction to the sheriff of dorset ordering him to give back a farm in the village of rampushim to his rightful owner and that might sound mundane but hundreds of these survive and what they show you is henry's interest in every last field and pasture of his kingdom and this isn't everything henry's doing he's also rebuilding royal finance through the exchequer he's sending his justices roving about the country to re-establish law and order what it all adds up to is henry's complete obsession with stamping his control over every area of his new kingdom the mastermind pulling the administrative strings for henry is commoner thomas beckett the son of a merchant he may be low-born but beck is such a brilliant operator that henry makes him chancellor it's beckett who makes sure the king's grip on england is rock solid and there's clearly some kind of spark between them they quickly become drinking buddies hunting partners and best mates but because of beckett everything henry's achieved is about to come under threat the trouble begins here at canterbury seats of power at the one part of england that remains beyond henry's control the church one englishman in five is a cleric they're effectively above the law whatever crime they commit even rape or murder only church courts can try them the worst punishment they can give out is a fine the king can't touch them [Music] so in 1161 when the archbishop of canterbury dies here henry thinks excellent i'll appoint my mate thomas as archbishop he can knock some sense into the church and even though thomas has never been a priest henry bullies the monks at canterbury until they agree to elect him so you can see why henry thinks he's got the church problems sewn up after all beckett's his best mate he owes his career to him what could possibly go wrong henry's failed to spot a massive problem in the medieval world there is a higher power than the king beckett finds god pretty much the first thing he does is hang the king out to dry by resigning as chancellor he's sending a very blunt message i'm not going to do what you say anymore i have a new boss now with god in his corner beckett now defies every command the king makes to bring the church to heal unsurprisingly it doesn't go down very well with henry this is a king famous across europe for his uncontrollable temper a man who once got so furious during an argument that he rolled around on the floor pulling the straw out of his mattress stuffing it into his mouth so it's fair to say that henry wasn't just angry he was apoplectic and this rage combined with henry's intense desire for control will lead to murder and betrayal that threatens to destroy everything he's achieved that great westminster july 1170 henry ii is having his eldest son young henry crowned king of england effectively king in waiting it should secure henry's legacy instead it's going to tear his world apart because there's one man who really should be there that henry hasn't invited thomas beckett crowning kings of england is the archbishop of canterbury's gig and it always has been so when beckett finds out about the young king's coronation he explodes with fury and he does something utterly reckless [Music] as far as he's concerned they're quite literally going to hell when the news reaches henry out comes his plantagenet rage again and he says something he'll come to regret for the rest of his life henry's just venting but that's not how it looks to his knights what they hear is a direct order from their king this simple misunderstanding sets up a disaster and here in canterbury it all comes crashing down days later four nights burst through these doors and they march into the cathedral to confront beckett here he's unarmed in his archbishop's robes and they're in armor with swords by their sides [Music] furious words are exchanged they try and drag beckett out of the cathedral but he resists and it's at this point one of the knights draws his sword and brings it down on beckett's head chopping off part of his skull beckett falls and one of the knights scoops his brains onto the floor with the tip of his sword but they're not alone because hiding in doorways and behind pillars are beckett's friends and supporters bearing witness to an event that'll shock christendom [Music] every single good thing that henry ii has done in his career until now may as well be wiped out because this is what he'll be remembered for [Music] the fact that his words were taken out of context is neither here nor there as far as everyone's concerned henry ordered beckett's murder outrage at this sacrilege goes viral across europe people begin to question whether henry is really fit to be a king henry realizes straight away how damaging this will be this is the first time since his meteoric rise that he's been vulnerable but i think he would have hurt him personally as well he and beckett may have been knocking lumps out of each other for years but this is still a man who was once his closest friend who understood him better than anyone else [Music] the humiliated king makes himself scarce and goes to ireland on campaign in a crisis on this scale the one group he should be able to count on are his own family but now they turn on him too and it's all henry's fault henry's eldest son henry the young king is a chip off the old block ambitious power hungry and impatient as king in waiting he should be taken to ireland so henry can teach him how to exert iron fisted control but he isn't instead the young king is left behind festering in the aftermath of his father's disgrace and whilst he's away the king leaves control in the hands of his slip bureaucrat powerless and isolated resentment of his father starts to eat away at him another surviving document reveals just how humiliating life is for the young king this is a record of royal accounts from 1172 when henry is off beating up the irish on the face of it it's pretty dry it's a long list of payments made but throughout the records of money paid out to the young king what's interesting is they're all quite small let's have a look there's one here from birkenstone and it says for the works regis philly regis of the king the son of the king xxx that's 30 shillings well today that's a few thousand pounds which might sound like a lot but the eldest son of a king is chicken feed now the normal way that things would work is that a king would give his eldest son a block of lands from which to draw his revenue but henry hasn't done that he's kept everything to himself to keep control so the picture you get reading this is of the old king with the richest most powerful men in europe while his eldest son is going around cap in hand begging money from royal officials wouldn't me very happy would [Music] resentment is spreading through the rest of the family too the year before beckett's murder henry's wife queen eleanor had returned to her homeland in aquitaine and she based herself here at poitiers where this hall is what remains of her magnificent duke or palace after years living in a foreign country ellen has come back with her favorite son richard to train him to take over her lands there when she dies finally she's back where she belongs this is where she was born this is where she was raised and frankly the food and the weather are better here too but ellen is about to find that her aquitaine is now a very different place [Music] a spanking new cathedral is being built in the town center [Music] this is more than just a church it's a pr statement designed to sell the plantagenet dynasty to the people and the banner headline of this message is a spectacular window incredibly it's survived intact for nearly nine centuries if you look at this stained glass window high up in the cathedral you can see henry eleanor and their four sons it's like a snapshot of a united family ruling together over england and half of france except it isn't really like that because in aquitaine elena finds it's henry's men collecting the taxes henry's men controlling the barons even when her husband's hundreds of miles away it's obvious that he's the one who's in control now eleanor might have brought aquitaine to henry in marriage but that doesn't mean it's his then elena discovers something henry's done that to her is unforgivable behind her back henry has mortgaged off part of her aquitaine to secure a political alliance this is like coming home one day to find your husband's change the locks sold all your stuff invited a whole bunch of other people to live there it's not just eleanor who's fuming richard is spitting blood about his lost inheritance too at one stroke henry has created two powerful new enemies and he probably doesn't even realize blindness to his family's feelings is a ticking time bomb here in chinon 175 miles southwest of paris in the very heart of henry's french lands it finally explodes [Music] shinon castle has enormous strategic importance if you want to rule the plantagenet empire controlling it is absolutely essential and that's exactly why henry the young king expects that one day this castle will be his then one night henry announces he's giving shinon castle the jewel in the plantagenet crown to john the young king's six-year-old brother [Music] think what it would have been like here that night this is one of the angriest families in history try and imagine all that plantagenet rage just boiling up i don't think there'd been much pleasant chit chat over dinner the loss of the castle is more than the young king can bear true to form henry is completely dismissive he's utterly incapable of seeing things from his son's point of view but the young king is adamant for 18 years he's had to suffer his father's obsessive control now he's drawing a line in the sand the young king should have known better henry was never going to give up control without a fight shinon teaches the young king a harsh lesson his father is never going to give him real power and he's sick of being strung along but if henry thinks he's got the young king where he wants him he's dead wrong his eldest son is now hell bent on taking the old man down spring 1173 the young king steals out of his father's custody and flees to paris straight into the arms of louis vii king of france this is out and out betrayal the young king is planning to use king louis to help seize his father's throne but why does the king of france get involved in such a dangerous game to dr julie barrow an expert in the medieval french court it makes perfect sense louis hates henry well they had many reasons not to like each other maybe the first one is that they embody completely opposite ideas of what it is to be a king on the one hand you have you know henry macho warrior and on the other hand you had louis was anything bad and the other thing is that henry was much much wealthier than louis and never wasted an opportunity to do shirts very clearly but it's more than just political isn't it well yes what makes this story uh unusual that you have a very deep personal aspect to it a mere two months after louis separated from his wife eleanor she married henry and she didn't just marry him but she started having one baby boy after the other when louie and elena had really tried for a song for years before that so that must have been really really painful for poor louis so all those aspects together explain why you have such a deep and long animosity between those two men the young king rocking up in paris is no surprise to louis this is more than just a spur of the moment betrayal by a petulant son because henry the young king isn't acting alone his brothers are in on this too and so is the one person who's vital to making the whole betrayal possible eleanor the queen's been plotting with her ex-husband to replace henry ii for the young king she immediately sends richard to join his older brother in paris a few days later elena follows she makes a mad dash across france on horseback disguised in men's clothing [Music] but she doesn't make it she's caught on her way to paris by henry ii's men and brought to chinon castle not as a queen but as a prisoner your own son's rebellion against you is pretty much as bad as it gets you're queen masterminding the whole plot with her ex that's off the chart the scandal rocks medieval europe [Music] but there's no stopping the betrayal elena has set in motion in paris louis richard and the young king are mobilizing to attack henry from all sides and not just in france they're going to hit him where it hurts the most england plenty of english barons are still pretty sore about having their wings clipped by henry ii the young king promises to give them everything back now the last time the english barons had that sort of power they basically destroyed the country so this is a pretty reckless promise it's not careful strategy but that's the young king for you he's good at betrayal but he lacks his father's political savvy he just wants to win whatever the cost he even cuts a deal with henry's other mortal enemy the king of scotland the young king promises him big chunks of england if he attacks henry from the north for a king of england in waiting this is a dangerous game but it works by the spring of 1174 henry faces a perfect storm full-on revolt is spreading across his empire all sparked by his family's betrayal whilst henry's fighting in france england is turning into a disaster zone the king of scotland has invaded the north and foreign mercenaries are flooding across the channel to support the barons revolt if henry doesn't do something drastic england will be lost most kings crossing the channel to face a rebellion will be thinking the same thing raise an army crush them by force but henry's got something else up his sleeve because he realizes it isn't his barons or even his sons who are threatening his empire it's the dead hand of thomas beckett rising up from beyond the grave it's more than three years since beckett was killed in canterbury cathedral in that time henry's troubles have gone from bad to worse on the 12th of july 1174 henry ii heads to canterbury what he does in the next 24 hours will shock the world and decide the future of the entire plantation dynasty just outside the city walls he stops removes his boots and begins to walk barefoot along the road people watching must be wondering if the desperate king has lost his mind the streets here in canterbury are full of people all nudging each other pointing maybe even trying to grab him they know it's the king because behind him the royal standard's fluttering but he's dressed as an ordinary pilgrim rough woolen clothes and he's barefoot and the roads aren't nice and clean and smooth they're muddy they're filthy they're full of broken pots and sharp stones that cut his feet to shreds this isn't just physically painful it's humiliating the king of england is dragging himself through the mud leaving bloody footprints behind them henry's performing the most public act of penance imaginable begging god and beckett to forgive him this can only end in one place canterbury cathedral this wretched three-mile walk is actually propaganda dynamite every person who sees it will spread the news of the scale of the king's penance but henry isn't finished yet he knows he has one chance to win back the hearts and minds of his kingdom and he's planning something spectacular the stage for his grand finale is the shrine of the once best friend he accidentally murdered thomas beckett when henry enters the cathedral dirty bloody and drained thomas's shrine isn't up there it's down these stairs in the crypts it's down here in the dark among the columns that henry does something absolutely extraordinary [Music] in front of beckett's tomb henry kneels down and [Music] with a birching mud henry is spilling his own blood to atone for the spilling of becketts in the cathedral above these are the same monks who cowered behind the pillars in horror back then now they are striking the blows beating the sin in all henry receives more than 300 flesh lacerating lashes there may be far fewer people down here than up there but these are the men who write about what they've seen who will tell the world they may be henry's punishers but they're also his propagandists it's a masterstroke of charismatic kingship this is henry's best shot at quashing the whispering campaign against him [Music] but there's no guarantee it will save him then something extraordinary happens [Music] the next morning a messenger arrives he bears explosive news the king of scotland has been captured the invasion of the north is over it must have seemed like some kind of miracle the timing's just too perfect and it feeds directly into henry's own propaganda ever since the time of beckett's death he's been describing himself in documents as king by the grace of god and now he has unarguable proof that god is on his side henry's miracle rips the heart out of the rebellion in england the barons fold without a fight [Music] henry's back in control less than a month he's free to head back to france and take the fight to his traitorous sons henry's on a roll when he gets back to france the rebellion melts away before him first he persuades the flaky young king to switch sides and that leads richard to fold as well their rebellion is snuffed out for henry's family it's a catastrophe they gambled everything and lost the king has crushed them but he now faces a dilemma what to do with his treacherous family the one family member henry can't forgive is eleanor because as a wife rebelling against her husband she's committed one of the worst forms of treachery and she can never be trusted again and here in this chapel near shinon castle her fate is recorded in this incredible fresco so the front you can see her husband henry ellen is in the middle and behind her are two of her sons this might look like a nice touching plantagenet family portrait but it actually shows eleanor being led off into captivity henry may not need eleanor [Music] but he anymore need his sons to carry on the plantagenet dynasty after him so in a public ceremony of reconciliation he forgives them he even gives them money and castles they may have been forgiven but both boys must know that the one thing he'll never give them after this is any real power [Music] henry simply can't see that his obsession with control might be the root cause of all his family's betrayals and this blindness to his own faults will ultimately destroy him so in the summer of 1183 an unexpected event throws henry ii world into turmoil his eldest son the young king dies not by the sword but of dysentery and in glorious death for an inglorious song henry's grief isn't just a father's although it's clear he's personally devastated the death of the young king has destroyed all his plans for his legacy as his remaining sons begin to jockey for position henry is losing control again just two of henry's sons remain alive only one can become his heir richard the eldest surviving son is expecting to be named but henry's favorite has always been his youngest son john he at least has never betrayed his father even so henry doesn't dare name either of them henry drags his heels last time he named a successor it was disaster this time he thinks by stalling he can keep richard obedient and under control what he doesn't know is someone's been stoking up resentment in richard whispering ideas of betrayal in his ear yet again [Music] the man doing the whispering is the new king of france philip ii he plays on richard's fears persuading him that his father intends to name john as heir richard demands that henry formally names him as his successor and of course henry refuses that would mean giving up control [Music] so with philip by his side richard once again goes to war against his father in less than a month they tear through the heart of henry's french lands winning every battle it's not long before a defeated henry finds himself holed up again back here at shinon castle with his son and the king of france at the gates they're young ambitious and aggressive henry's old and tired the one thing he could never control has finally caught up with him time outside his plantagenet heartland is collapsing the empire he built and has ruled over for more than 30 years is being ripped from him by his own son it's a final total defeat on the 3rd of july 1189 henry rides out from chinon to meet richard a man who spent so much of his life on horseback his legs are physically bowed now has to be strapped into the saddle to stop him from falling off richard's demands are read out he wants land he wants money more than anything else he wants to be the next king it's all henry can do to nod his head weakly and agree at the end he leans in for one last embrace and he whispers to richard god grant that i may not die until i've had my revenge on you somewhere in this broken old man is still henry ii king of england [Music] but this act of defiance is henry's last hurrah [Music] god doesn't grant his wish henry ii the first plantagenet king of england dies two days later [Music] here less than 20 miles from shino in the family shrine at fontevo abbey henry ii lies buried beside him were buried the bodies of his wife eleanor and his successor richard but not his favorite son john [Music] for his whole reign henry kept a close grip on his kingdom he never allowed his sons real control because fundamentally he didn't think they could do as good a job as he could and when richard and then john become king they prove him right within 15 years the plantagenet empire has collapsed torn apart by rebellion of war and that's why john's not buried here at fontvo with his mother and his father because by the time john dies this place is ruled by [Music] france next time the collapsing friendship of henry iii and simon de montfort plunges the country into bloody slaughter and civil war changing england and the monarchy forever

Channel: Chronicle - Medieval History Documentaries

Views: 56,885

Rating: 4.8904109 out of 5

Keywords: history documentary, medieval history documentary, middle ages, medieval history, the middle ages, plantagenets, the plantagenets, dan jones documentary, dan jones history documentary, henry ii, henry ii murder, british history documentary series, eleanor of aquitaine, lionheart documentary

Id: 6Km_DsttzMw

Length: 44min 53sec (2693 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 04 2021