Why Henry II Murdered Archbishop Thomas Becket | 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 is more shocking more brutal more astonishing than anything you'll find in fiction I want to show you the plantations as I see we live in freedom people driven by ambition jealousy hateful and revenge these Kings murdered betrayed and tyrannized their way to spectacular success the better and for worse the Plantagenets forged England as a nation this time the founder of the dynasty Henry the second 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 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 is in fighting for answers he was a kid and his mother's drilled into him the idea that the crown of England is rightfully his so Henry approaches these saws he's convinced here the face with definite 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 a second the first Plantagenet King of course he doesn't speak a word of English after 90 years of Norman French rule in England no one does except the peasants and it's not then that Henry's here to pick a fight with it's the Barents for generation that barons 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 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 armies 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 human toughest of the barons and the last to hold out against a new king Owen defies Henry and gets away with it she turns up here at Wigmore with an army and lay siege to the castle Henry's got Hugh surrounded but he's not here to destroy him it just sits outside here I am is my army what are you going to do about it unsurprisingly Hugh fold that is what Henry does makes that marks him out as a king to watch because he takes Hugh's Castle away from them that gives it straight back you're 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 had the confidence to take on such powerful men he clearly has a formidable arm henry's queen is Eleanor Duchess of Aquitaine 10 years is senior she's such a famous beauty students across Europe seeing 40 songs about bedding up she shocked 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 and litical player in her own right Henry brings muscle Eleanor brings prestige together there are many meals and the union creates a Plantagenet empire that stretches from the borders of Scotland to the tyranny but to keep control of such vast territory Henry has to do something radical controlled everything - Henry the question is how does he maintain it it could use it barons to rule the different regions that standard medieval practice but as far as Henry can see the Barons are lonely 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 fine in Nostrum quotidianum da nobis oh yes Henry's genius is to create a new honour not of soldiers but of clans 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 nine hundred year old documents revealed a full extent of Henry's to throw [Music] so this is a writ from the second year of Henry's reign it's an official instruction from the king you can see the king Rex here Duke Normandy Duke of Aquitaine sending instruction to the sheriff of Dorsett ordering him to give back a farm in the village of RAM pushing to its rightful owner that might sound mundane but hundreds of these survived 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 it's also rebuilding royal finance through the exchanges justices raving about the country to reestablish law and order what it all adds up to is Henry's complete obsession with stamping is control of every area who is New Kingdom [Music] the mastermind pulling the administrative strings for Henry is commoner Thomas Becket the son of a merchant he may be lowborn the Becket such a brilliant operator the Henry makes him Chancellor it's Beckett he makes sure the Kings grip on England is rock-solid and it'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 a Canterbury seat of power of 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 the fine the king can't touch them 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 of Canterbury until they agree to elect him so you can see why Henry thinks he's got the church problem sewn up after all Becket is best mate he owes his career to ins 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 either Beckett now defies every command the King makes to bring the church to heel 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 he rolled around on the floor pulling the straw out of his mattress stuffing it into his mouth it's fair to say that Henry wasn't just angry he's up lected 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 [Music] [Music] Westminster July 11 17 henry ii is having his eldest son young Henry crowned King of England effectively king in waiting it should secure Henry's legacy instead is going to tear his world apart because there's one man he really should be there the Henry has an advantage Thomas Beckett's crowning kings of England the Archbishop of Canterbury's gig and it always has been so when Beckett finds out about the young Kings coronation he explodes with fury it does something utterly reckless Becket excommunicated every single clerical in in that morning then it amen 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 you'll come to regret for the rest of his life back act he's about to turn mailmen colors and yours what Mike and ago me please your door Monty Oh Henry's just Bentley but that's not how it looks to his nice 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 all right pass through these doors and then march into the Cathedral to confront Becket here he's unarmed and dance bishops robes and they're in our mo its sword by this furious words are exchanged they try and drag back it back to the cathedral here's a pitch and it's at this point one of the Knights draws his sword and brings it down Beckett's head shopping off part it's gone Beckett Falls one of the Nights skips his brains onto the floor with the tip of his sword but they're not alone because hiding in doorways and behind pillars but Beckett's friends and supporters bearing witness to an event that'll shock Kristensen 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 them [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 of this sacrilege goes viral across Europe people begin to question whether Henry has really fit to be a king Henry realizes straightaway how damaging this'll be this is the first time since his meteoric rise that he's been vulnerable I think I would have hurt him personally as well in Becket may have been knocking lumps out of each other for years this is still a man who is once its closest friend who understood him better than anyone else the humiliated King makes himself scarce and goes to Ireland on campaign and the crisis on this scale the one group he should be able to count on her 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 slick Bureau powerless and isolated resentment as father starts to feast waiting another surviving document reveals just how humiliating life is for the young king this is a record of royal accounts from 1170 to when Henry is off beating up the Irish on the face of it it's pretty dry as 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 Berkhamstead and it says for the works radius Philly radius 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 it's chicken feed now the normal way that things would work is that a king would give it the 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 where the richest most powerful men in Europe while his eldest son it's going around cap in hand begging money for Royal officials [Music] resentment is spreading through the rest of the faculty too a year before Beckett's murder Henry's wife Queen Eleanor had returned to her homeland in Aquitaine and she faced us up here at poitiers where this Hall is what remains of a magnificent ducal palace after years living in a foreign country Eleanor's 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 frankly food and weather are better here too but Ellen is about to find that her Aquitaine is now a very different place a spanking new cathedral has been built in the town center 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 survived intact 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 the United family reeling together over England and half of France except it isn't really like that because in a curtained Eleanor finds as Henry's men collecting the taxes Henry's men controlling the balance even when our husbands hundreds of miles away it's obvious that he's the one is in control now Eleanor might have brought Aquitaine to Henry in marriage but that doesn't mean it's his then Ellen to discover 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 they've had a whole bunch of other people to live them it's not just any nice view me Richard is spitting blood about his lost encourages two at one stroke Henry has created two powerful new enemies and he probably doesn't realize henry's blindness to his family's feelings is a ticking time bomb here Moschino 175 miles southwest of Paris in the very heart of Henry's French lands and finally explodes [Music] chignon castle has enormous strategic importance you want to rule the Plantagenet Empire controlling it is absolutely essential that's exactly why Henry the young king expects that one day this castle with his then one night Henri announces he's giving chignon castle the jewel in the Plantagenet crown to John a young King 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 to imagine all that Plantagenet rage just boiling up they think there have been much Pleasant chitchat with a dinner here [Music] see the loss of the castle is more than the young king prepare true to form Henry is completely dismissive he's utterly incapable of seeing things from my son's point of view but the young king is adamant for 18 years he's had to suffer his father's excessive control now he's drawing a line in the sand had a backup there the young king should have known better Henry was never gonna give up controls without a fight chignon 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 [Music] [Music] spring 1173 but the young king steals out of his father's custody who flees the palace straight into the arms of Louis the seventh King of France this is out-and-out betrayal the young king is planning to use King Louie to help save his father throne but why does the King of France get involved in such a dangerous game two doctors really borrow an expert in the medieval French Court it makes perfect sense Lois hates Henri well they had many reasons not to like each other maybe the first one is that the embody completely opposite ideas of what it is to be a king on the one hand you have you know Henri macho warrior and on the other hand you had Louis was anything but and the other thing is that Henry was much much wealthier than Louis and never wasted an opportunity to do sure very clearly but it's more than just political isn't it well yes what makes this story unusually 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 you Ian Eleanor has really tried for a song for years before that so that must have been really really painful for for 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 Louie 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 whose vital to making the whole betrayal possible Eleanor the Queen's been flossing with her ex-husband to replace Henry at secondary and she immediately sends Richard to join the old brother a few days later Eleanor's policies she makes a mad dash across France on horseback going immense and but she doesn't make it she's caught on her way to Paris by only two seconds men and brought to chignon castle not as a queen but as a prison your own sons rebelling against you is pretty much as bad as it gets your queen masterminding the whole plot with their ex that's off the chart the scandal rocks medieval Europe but there's no stopping the betrayal Eleanor has set in motion in Paris Louie Richard and young King immobilizing to attack Henri 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 the second 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 relax 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 turning into a disaster zone the King of Scotland invaded the north as foreign mercenaries are flooding across the channel to support the Barons revolves if Henry doesn't do something drastic England which is lost most Kings crossing the channel to face a rebellion will be thinking the same thing raise an army crush them by force the Henry's got something else up it's me because he realizes it isn't his barons or even his sons or threatening his empire if the dead hand of Thomas Becket rising up from beyond the grave it's more than three years since Becket was killed and Canterbury Cathedral in that time Henry's troubles have gone from bad to worse on the 12th of July 1174 henry ii heads to countable 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 begins to walk barefoot along the road people watching must be wondering if the desperate king has lost his mind the streets here in Cantabria full of people nudging each other pointing maybe even trying to grab it then I was the king because behind him the Royal standards fluttering these dressed as an ordinary pilgrim roughed woolen clothes and he's barefoot and the roads aren't nice and clean and smooth they're muddy they're filthy the full of broken rocks and sharp stones that cut his feet of shreds this isn't just physically painful it's humiliating the King of England is dragging himself through the mud leaving bloody footprints behind Henri'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 it's wretched three-mile walk is actually propaganda dynamite every person who sees it will spread the news with a scale of the Kings penance Henry hasn't finished yet he knows he has one chance to win back the hearts and minds of his kingdom and he's planning something [Music] the stage miss grand finale is the shrine of the once best friend Natalie be murdered Thomas Beckett when Henry entered the cathedral dirty bloody and drained Thomas's shrine isn't up there down these stairs the Crypt [Music] down here the dark among the columns the Henry does something absolutely extraordinary in front of Becket's tomb Henry kneels down the commands the monk stood weapon [Music] 100 of them take turns to beat his bash up to 5 times each with a virgin Henry is spilling his own blood to atoned the spilling of Becket's and Cathedral above these are the same monks he cowered behind the pillars in horror back there now they striking the flows beating the sin of fashion in all penniless leaves more than 300 flesh laceration lashes [Music] there may be far fewer people down here than up there but these are the men who write about all those scene who'll tell the world they may be Henry's Punishers but they're also propagandists it's a masterstroke of charismatic kingship this is Henry's best shot at quashing a whispering campaign against him [Music] but there's no guarantee of saving then something extraordinary happens the next morning a messenger arrives he bares explosive news the King of Scotland has been captured the invasion of the north is over not a theme of some kind of miracle timings just to 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 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 Henry's backing control [Music] in 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 he gets back to France the rebellion melts away before him first he persuades a flaky young Caine to switch sides that leads Richard Bowles 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 of what to do with his treacherous family one family member Henry can't forgive his Eleanor because as a wife rebelling against a husband she's committed one of the worst forms of treachery and should he never be trusted again and here in this chapel near chignon Castle her fate is recorded in this incredible fresco so the front you can see her husband Henry Ellen is in the middle and the behind her are two of her sons this might look like a nice touching Plantagenet family portraits it actually shows Ellen are being led off into captivity [Music] Henry may not need Eleanor anymore he dare fermitas proponent I divide this class yet to us but he does need his sons to carry on the Plantagenet dynasty after him so in a public ceremony of reconciliation who said Gibson even given money castles they may have been forgiven but both boys must know the one thing you'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 to all his family's betrayals and this blindness to his own fault will ultimately destroy him [Music] in the summer of 1183 an unexpected event froze Henry the second world into terminal the eldest son the young king dies not by the sword but if dysentry an inglorious death for an inglorious son living the long-term mm to do Henri's grief isn't just a father's what was clear he's personally devastated the death of the young king had 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 you 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 this the man doing the whispering is the new king of France fill it the second he plays on Richards fears persuading him that his father intends to name John there Richard demands that Henry formally names him as his successor and of course and reviews that would be giving up control [Music] so with Philip V aside Richard once again goes to war against his father in less than a month they clear to the part of Henry's French lands winning a deal not long before a defeated Henry find himself holed up again back here at chignon castle with his son and the king france the gates their 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 as ruled over for more than thirty 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 scheana to meet Richard a man who spent so much of his life on horseback his legs are physically bold now has to be strapped into the saddle stop him from falling off ridges demands are read out he wants land he wanted money more than anything else he wants to be the next king is 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 the second King of England [Music] but this act of defiance is Henry's last hurrah [Music] God doesn't grant his wish n read a second the first Plantagenet King of England died two days later [Music] here less than 20 miles from Sheena in the family shrine at Santiago Abbey Henry the second lies buried beside him were buried the bodies of his wife Eleanor and his successor Richard but not his favorite son John [Music] 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 when Richard and then John become King they prove him right within 15 years the Plantagenet Empire has collapsed torn apart by rebellion war and that's why John's not buried here at font of Oh with his mother his father because by the time John dies this place is ruled by France you [Music] you

Channel: Timeline - World History Documentaries

Views: 3,518,033

Rating: 4.826776 out of 5

Keywords: Full length Documentaries, game of thrones, Documentary Movies - Topic, GoT, BBC documentary, history documentary, the real game of thrones, Thomas Becket, real, 2017 documentary, Plantagenets, stories, Documentaries, Kings, documentary history, History, Full Documentary, Documentary, Game of Thrones, TV Shows - Topic, Channel 4 documentary, real game of thrones, real game of thrones history

Id: SV__onzXDIU

Length: 44min 56sec (2696 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 01 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/Logical_Lefty]

Was just watching this last week. It is superb! Very interesting, very well narrarated.

[u/OmicronPerseiNothing]

"Henry Fitz-Empress. First Plantaganet. A king at 21, the ablest soldier in an able time. He led men well, he cared for justice when he could, and ruled for 30 years a state as great as Charlemagne's. He married out of love, a woman out of legend! Not in Alexandria or Rome or Camelot has there been such a queen! She bore him many children, but no sons. King Henry had no sons..." - Henry II in The Lion in Winter

[u/bharrison22]

And then look up on William Marshall the knight that basically kept the line running after Henry 2nd lost to his son

[u/cha0sss]

"William Wallace is seven feet tall!"

Wait, wrong story...

[u/bridwats]

I just read a book by Dan Jones on this and it was most excellent. I highly recommend it to anyone. Looking forward to watching this.

[u/MurphyFtw]

I have recently found this channel myself. The documentaries on this channel are some of the best I've ever watched. Binge them now! Hannibal and Rasputin ones are my personal favourite!

[u/nazispaceinvader]

the coat of arms of that family has erect lion dicks on it.

[u/Giant_Enemy_Cliche]

You can actually visit the place Edward II was killed in my city. It's called mortimers hole and is now part of the beer cellar of The Olde Trip to Jerusalem. It's wierd to be drinking so close to something so historical.

[u/KevinUxbridge]

Part of why, though everyone seems enamoured of 'Game of thrones', I can't bear to watch it, is that you can recognise that every theme and element is taken from real history, itself far more interesting, useful and didactic etc. to know ... even without dragons.