The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - PREVIEW： Epochs #254 ｜ Henry VI

00:00:00.000 Hello and welcome back to Epochs where I shall be continuing the story of the Wars of the Roses

00:00:24.900 Beginning with basically Henry VI

00:00:27.640 So if you remember last time

00:00:29.540 We left off talking all about that sort of stuff

00:00:32.000 Let's just carry on straight away

00:00:33.460 If you remember last time

00:00:34.460 We'd got to the point roughly

00:00:36.060 Where there'd been some blood drawn on both sides

00:00:39.900 The Lancastrian side

00:00:41.740 With King Henry VI

00:00:43.560 Who's infirmed and feeble-minded

00:00:45.580 And his wife Margaret of Anjou

00:00:48.000 And the various people around him, Suffolk

00:00:50.140 They'd got rid of the Duke of Gloucester

00:00:52.140 The King's uncle

00:00:53.760 Henry V's younger brother, they'd humiliated his wife and then they'd arrested him and then he died

00:00:58.800 very shortly after being arrested. That was sort of first blood, sort of, it goes back before that

00:01:03.840 of course but let's say that sort of first blood. Then they struck back, Suffolk himself was a

00:01:09.600 disgrace to the people who didn't like him and in the end the king, he was going to be executed,

00:01:13.920 a bit of a tinder from parliament but the king just exiled him and then while he was going to

00:01:18.400 exile literally while he was on the ship crossing the channel into exile he was captured by another

00:01:24.300 ship another royal navy ship and executed so he's gone right and then you remember we talked a bit

00:01:29.080 about the rebellion of jack cade just some random normal soldier dude who tried to rise up against

00:01:35.380 the lancastrians and then that's where we were that's sort of basically where we got to and let's

00:01:40.140 professor charles oman talk all about the different sides you know laying out basically who was in the

00:01:45.560 Yorkist camp and who's in the Lancastrian camp and all that sort of thing I'll continue reading

00:01:49.820 from Professor Sir Charles Oman an early 20th century Oxford professor of history one of the

00:01:55.380 very best to ever do it as well as Winston Churchill in his history of the English-speaking

00:01:58.900 peoples I'll just give you a quick super quick recap about Jack Cade what Churchill says about

00:02:03.440 Jack Cade it's literally one short paragraph so I'll read that and then we'll continue the story

00:02:07.700 on from there with completely new and fresh things okay Churchill says in June and July a

00:02:12.500 Rising took place in Kent, which the Lancastrians claimed to bear the marks of Yorkist support.

00:02:17.800 Jack Cade, a soldier of capacity and bad character, home from the wars, gathered several thousand men,

00:02:23.060 all summoned in due form by the constables of the district, and marched on London.

00:02:28.280 He was admitted to the city, but on his executing Lord Say, the treasurer, in Cheapside, after a mob trial,

00:02:34.880 the magistrates and citizens turned against him, his followers dispersed under terms of pardon,

00:02:39.400 and he himself was pursued and killed.

00:02:41.440 This success, for the Lancastrians basically, restored for the moment the authority of the

00:02:46.840 government and Henry, that's King Henry VI, the feeble-minded king, and Henry enjoyed a brief

00:02:52.580 interlude in which he devoted himself anew to his colleges at Eton and Cambridge and Margaret,

00:02:58.620 his wife, Margaret of Anjou, who had gained his love and obedience. But it doesn't last long,

00:03:04.360 let Churchill continue with what's happening in France, because if you remember the whole,

00:03:08.160 especially the beginning part of the wars of the roses is very very very much wrapped up in the

00:03:13.220 story of england finally finally losing the hundred years war in france finally getting

00:03:19.880 entirely kicked out of france other than calais it's all wrapped up in the same thing a lot of

00:03:24.420 the reasons why henry vi why his reign was so troubled is because we were just kind of endlessly

00:03:31.360 losing in france if you're endlessly winning like his father henry vi then everything's good and

00:03:36.640 rosy and no one dares challenge you or question your authority or anything. If it's the other way

00:03:42.140 around, yeah. And if you're weak and feeble, doubly so. Okay, let's listen to Churchill talk

00:03:47.760 about what was going down in France around this time. And we're talking the very, very late 1440s,

00:03:52.380 early 1450s at this point, around the year 1450-51. So Churchill says, quote,

00:03:57.660 as the process of expelling the English from France continued, fortresses fell,

00:04:01.860 towns and districts were lost and their garrisons for the most part came home the speed of this

00:04:07.740 disaster contributed powerfully to shock English opinion and to shake not only the position of

00:04:13.780 individual ministers but the very foundations of the Lancastrian dynasty i.e there was always the

00:04:19.260 old argument that the Lancastrians were usurpers that the first of the Lancastrian kings Henry

00:04:24.500 the fourth Henry Bolingbroke had basically illegal according to the their enemies had illegally

00:04:30.000 arrested, imprisoned and quite possibly murdered his own cousin, Richard II, the true heir,

00:04:36.540 the true Plantagenet heir, the son of the Black Prince, who was the son of Edward III.

00:04:41.520 And at that point, everything that happened since then, the whole reign of Henry IV and

00:04:45.260 Henry V and now Henry VI, all of that was wrong and illegal, say their enemies, say

00:04:51.280 the Yorkists.

00:04:52.280 And that argument had never ever disappeared or gone away.

00:04:54.820 Well now it's coming out in force, as you can imagine, with us, the English, doing so

00:04:59.380 terribly in france you know god wants it that way if we're losing it's god because god wants it it

00:05:04.720 works the other way as well right if you keep winning it's because because god wills it god's

00:05:08.360 on your side well if you're losing he he's displeased with you perhaps your entire monarchy

00:05:15.120 your entire dynasty okay church will continue saying with incredible folly and bad faith

00:05:19.720 the english broke the truce at four garez in march 1449 by august 1450 the whole of normandy

00:05:27.040 was lost. By August 1451 the whole of Gascony which had been English for three centuries had

00:05:33.400 been lost as well and all of the conquests of Henry V which had taken England 11 years of toil

00:05:39.140 and blood to win and only Calais remained. Edmund Beaufort the king's commander friend and Lancastrian

00:05:45.920 cousin bore the blame for unbroken defeat and this reacted on the king himself. England became full

00:05:52.360 of what we should call ex-servicemen who did not know why they had been beaten but were sure that

00:05:58.060 they had been mishandled and had fought in vain the nobles in the increasing disorder were glad

00:06:04.380 to gather these hardened fighters to their local defense all the great houses kept bands of armed

00:06:09.880 retainers sometimes almost amounting to private armies so that's a big thing end quote me again

00:06:15.660 and so that's a really important element to all of this to remember i said it in the last couple

00:06:20.580 of episodes a couple of times i have to keep repeating it that the wars of the roses are born

00:06:25.460 out of the hundred years war the hundred years war peters out and ends essentially but it's a

00:06:32.360 militarized age and churchill talks about them being ex-servicemen yeah so there's loads of

00:06:37.920 soldiers veteran soldiers that are now just in england twiddling their thumbs so it's a martial

00:06:43.380 age and they're expected to fight they know nothing other than fighting so their energies

00:06:48.660 have to go somewhere well in in a sense you can say the energy the military energy of the hundred

00:06:54.620 years war transfers over into the cousins war the wars of the roses okay let's let church will

00:07:00.380 continue he says they the noblemen the noble people of england they gave them the the ex-servicemen

00:07:07.680 gave them pay and land or both and uniforms or liveries bearing the family crest the earl of

00:07:14.080 Warwick, perhaps the greatest landowner, who aspired to a leading part in politics,

00:07:19.420 had thousands of dependents who ate what was called his bread.

00:07:23.220 Quote, his bread. He paid for them, basically.

00:07:25.720 So they're loyal to him, personally.

00:07:27.080 And of these, a large proportion were organised troops

00:07:30.120 proud to display the badge of the Bear and the Ragged Staff,

00:07:34.340 the House of Warwick, one branch of the Neville's.

00:07:37.320 Other magnates emulated this example according to their means.

00:07:40.820 cash and ambition ruled and the land sank rapidly towards anarchy the king was a helpless creature

00:07:47.060 this is a key key line here key bit of historical data the king was a helpless creature respected

00:07:54.400 even beloved but no prop for any man parliament both lords and commons was little more than a

00:08:01.100 clearing house for the rivalries of nobles end quote now that says a lot right there and bear

00:08:06.540 that in mind because if if if that wasn't the case that last sentence there the last two sentences

00:08:12.980 there from Churchill if that wasn't the case the wars of the roses wouldn't have been possible

00:08:16.540 if there'd been a strong government a strong king a strong parliament it wouldn't have happened but

00:08:22.260 it's individual nobles like Richard Duke of York like the Earl of Warwick if they weren't powers

00:08:28.860 true powers in and of themselves in their own right completely independent of the crown completely

00:08:34.440 independent of parliament if that wasn't the case then the wars of the roses wouldn't have happened

00:08:38.560 but it is the case it's like a perfect storm of various things happened right the the hundred years

00:08:44.460 was petering out and there's there's endless soldiers now just all across the country the

00:08:49.260 king is completely feckless and inept there's various nobles that have got similar levels of

00:08:54.540 power again if there was one overarching over powerful earl then maybe the wars of the roses

00:09:00.800 wouldn't have happened because okay the king isn't in control of policy the king doesn't control

00:09:05.820 government okay this other guy does you know someone like Godwin in the age of Edward the

00:09:10.760 Confessor say one overarchingly powerful magnate but it's not there's a there's all sorts of them

00:09:15.500 loads of them and they're all they're rivals blood rivals and ambitious for power in their own right

00:09:21.060 so yeah a number of things came together to make this happen Churchill goes on saying a statute of

00:09:26.820 1429, i.e. a while before this, had fixed the country franchise at the 40 shilling freeholder,

00:09:33.560 i.e. there was a money property qualification before you were allowed any sort of say in

00:09:37.580 politics. It is hard to realise that this arbitrarily contracted franchise ruled in

00:09:42.180 England for 400 years, and that all the wars and quarrels, the decision of the greatest causes,

00:09:47.920 the grandest events at home and abroad, proceeded upon this basis until the Reform Bill of 1832.

00:09:54.520 In the preamble to the original act, it was alleged that the participation of elections of too great a number of people of little substance or worth, quote, had led to homicides, riots, assaults and frauds.

00:10:06.440 So was a backward but endearing step taken in parliamentary representation.

00:10:11.240 Yet never for centuries had the privilege of Parliament stood so high.

00:10:14.540 Never for centuries was it more blatantly exploited.

00:10:17.600 So Churchill just telling us there a little bit about Parliament.

00:10:21.100 that's what he does in in the history of the english-speaking peoples he quite often takes a

00:10:24.440 moment out just to give you uh just to just to touch base with parliament what's going on with

00:10:29.420 the history of parliament so there he tells us a little bit about what it meant that it's sort of

00:10:34.660 important if there's not a super strong king that can just override it entirely like edward the third

00:10:41.380 maybe although he didn't override it entirely go back and watch my videos about edward the third

00:10:45.720 But if you've got someone like Henry V or Edward I or even someone like Charles I when he had his personal rule,

00:10:53.340 if you've got a strong enough king who, for whatever reason, doesn't want to or doesn't need to really listen to Parliament much in the Middle Ages,

00:10:59.560 then they don't have to.

00:11:01.020 But then sometimes if you've got a super weak king like this, Henry VI, Parliament may well come into its own.

00:11:06.220 But at least in the middle of the 15th century, it's just completely exploited.

00:11:11.480 I mean, Churchill called it, what, little more than a clearinghouse for the rivalries of nobles.

00:11:16.880 OK, another paragraph here.

00:11:18.520 Churchill says, the force of law was appropriated by intrigue, baronial violence, used or defied legal forms with growing impunity.

00:11:28.340 I mean, these nobles like Richard, Duke of York, are a law unto themselves.

00:11:33.200 They really are.

00:11:34.320 Or their retainers, their men can go around doing rapes and murders and things, whatever, whatever.

00:11:39.100 And there's no repercussions

00:11:41.420 The law of the land

00:11:42.580 The writ of the king

00:11:44.000 Doesn't have any power

00:11:45.460 So they're truly laws unto themselves

00:11:47.740 The constitution was turned against the public

00:11:50.920 No man was safe in life or lands

00:11:53.940 Or even in the humblest right

00:11:55.840 Except through the protection of his local chief

00:11:58.840 The celebrated Paston letters

00:12:01.160 And there was a family, the Pastons

00:12:03.380 Who wrote loads of letters

00:12:05.100 And they survived, remarkably

00:12:07.300 and they talk all about everyday things sometimes it's sort of everyday things they certainly talk

00:12:11.160 about what's going on in the country and it's a remarkable piece of evidence because for one of

00:12:16.780 the first times it's sort of relatively normal people i mean the pastons are not poor peasants

00:12:21.300 at all they're firmly what we might call now middle class or upper middle class something

00:12:26.680 like that but they're not the actual lancastrian or yorkish families they're sort of effectively

00:12:32.060 normal people kind of normal people and so their letters many many many many letters they talk

00:12:37.740 about all different things writing to their other relatives and friends and things and it's just a

00:12:42.760 great insight a great window into what was really going on and what normal people might have thought

00:12:48.820 and felt about it again from earlier times from earlier centuries we have nothing like it there's

00:12:53.340 nothing like it from the 11th century right so for example or earlier of course very rarely very

00:12:59.900 really. That's why something like Cicero's letters, the first century B.E.C., Marcus

00:13:04.620 Julius Cicero writing letters to his friends, some of those survive. That's why that's so

00:13:09.280 incredible. You have to go nearly 1,500 years later, a millennium and a half later before you

00:13:14.620 get something along those lines, with some other exceptions along the way. But okay, the church

00:13:18.380 says, the celebrated Paston letters show that England, enormously advanced as it was in

00:13:23.900 comprehension character and civilization was relapsing from peace and security into barbaric

00:13:29.900 confusion the roads were insecure that's a classic thing all through the centuries is it safe to go

00:13:35.520 on the public highways is it safe to travel around between towns and cities particularly at night is

00:13:40.980 it safe or not it's just it's quite a simple litmus test isn't it well at this stage we're told

00:13:45.880 it seems that it's not it well it's becoming less safe the roads were insecure Churchill said the

00:13:52.380 king's writ was denied or perverted the royal judges were flouted or bribed the rights of

00:13:58.580 sovereignty were stated in the highest terms but the king was a weak and handled fool the powers

00:14:04.840 of parliament could be turned this way and that according to the factions that gripped it yet the

00:14:10.200 suffering toiling unconquerable community had moved far from the days of Stephen and Mould

00:14:15.680 i.e. the anarchy of the 12th century had moved far from the days of Stephen and Mould and Henry

00:14:21.280 the second and thomas beckett and of king john and the barons there was a highly complex society

00:14:26.560 still growing in spite of evils in many regions the poverty of the executive the king the

00:14:32.660 difficulties of communication and the popular strength in bills and bows bills like hooks

00:14:38.300 the popular strength in weapons all helped to hold it in balance there was a public opinion

00:14:43.700 there was a collective moral sense there were venerated customs above all there was a national

00:14:49.920 spirit and so Churchill painting a picture there of an England with a relatively as he says it for

00:14:56.780 the for the 15th century relatively complex civil society that's sort of what he's describing isn't

00:15:01.280 it a civil society you know if you believe the pastor letters and there's absolutely no reason

00:15:05.760 not to believe them to be right so it's not a really simple feudal society like the 11th century

00:15:13.580 12th century um there's it's it's more complex so so okay so something like private armies the

00:15:20.640 private armies of warwick say are possible if the king isn't strong enough to keep the kingdom in

00:15:26.400 check someone else will do it all right let's flip over to sir charles oman where he starts telling

00:15:31.800 us about we've got a bit here about the general character of the wars of the roses oman in the

00:15:38.000 early 20th century or very very very late 19th century wrote this quote the wars of the roses

00:15:43.620 as historians have chosen to name them from the the white rose which was the badge of york and

00:15:48.900 the red rose which was assumed long after as the emblem of lancaster were much more than a faction

00:15:54.880 fight between two rival coteries of peers at the first they were the attempt of the majority of

00:16:00.420 the english nation to oust an unpopular minister from power by force of arms suffolk talking about

00:16:05.800 there, William de la Pole. There is no doubt that the greater part of England sided with York in

00:16:11.000 this endeavour against the King and Margaret von Joux and Suffolk. The citizens, a reference to

00:16:16.480 maybe Jack Cade's rebellion as well perhaps, the citizens and freeholders of London, Kent and South

00:16:21.660 and the Midlands, where lay all the wealth and political energy of the nation, were strongly

00:16:26.720 Yorkist. Henry, on the other hand, obviously Lancastrian, the head, the titular head, the

00:16:32.160 nominal head of the Lancastrians. Henry, on the other hand, got his support from a group of great

00:16:37.240 nobles who controlled the wild west and north, and the still wilder Wales. Unfortunately for the

00:16:43.300 nation, the constitutional aspect of the struggle was gradually obscured by the increasing bitterness

00:16:49.280 of family blood feuds. Thy father slew mine, and now will I slay thee, was the cry of the

00:16:56.880 Lancastrian noble to the enemy who asked for quarter. And it expresses well enough the whole

00:17:01.940 aspect of the later years of the struggle, i.e. blood for you, blood vendetta, that regardless

00:17:06.980 of anything, at some point when civil wars happen, things like this, at some point, regardless of

00:17:12.000 politics, regardless of how doomed your cause is or anything, regardless of the justice of it,

00:17:18.040 you killed my dad, so I'm going to kill your dad now. You killed my brother, so I'm going to kill

00:17:22.940 your brother now. You stole my estates, raped my womenfolk, so I'm going to kill you now. It just

00:17:28.920 boils down to that, you know, quite quickly. Or in this case, not quite quickly. Over a number of

00:17:33.920 years it played out, but there you go. Thy father slew mine, and now I will slay thee. There you go,

00:17:39.840 in a nutshell. Okay, Oman continues saying this. The war commenced with an attempt to set right by

00:17:46.000 force the government of the realm, but it ended as a mere series of bloody reprisals for slain

00:17:52.260 kinsfolk. It left England in a far worse state from the political and constitutional point of

00:17:57.660 view than it had known since the days of John, you know, King John in the very, very early 13th

00:18:02.760 century, late 12th century, early 13th century. Again, a type of civil war, social, political

00:18:07.900 collapse, really. Something close to an anarchy, if not actual anarchy. So bad times. It began with

00:18:14.060 the comparatively small affliction of a weak, well-intentioned king who persisted in retaining

00:18:20.380 an unpopular minister in power. Again, Suffolk, you know, the one that was trying to cross the

00:18:25.000 channel, got caught, got got, and then got beheaded. It ended by leaving the realm in the hands of an

00:18:31.380 arbitrary, self-willed king who ruled autocratically for himself, with no desire or intention of

00:18:37.620 consulting the nation's wishes as to how it should be governed, end quote. So just to let you know,

00:18:42.620 just to jump ahead a bit here, to let you know what was being said there, and to keep it in mind,

00:18:49.660 because it will help you understand everything that's going on because the Wars of the Roses

00:18:53.620 really is complicated it really really is there's so many characters in it so many people in it so

00:18:58.520 many back and forth so many battles that if you don't pin certain characters in your mind who they

00:19:05.320 are then it will just be too confusing I'll just keep naming these people and you won't know who's

00:19:09.420 who and you forget so now let me introduce arguably the most important figure in this

00:19:15.320 Second most important

00:19:16.360 Let's say the most important figure is King Henry VI

00:19:20.020 The feeble-minded king

00:19:21.760 The feeble-minded Lancastrian king

00:19:23.700 Okay

00:19:24.260 He's the most important figure

00:19:25.940 You can use him as an anchor point

00:19:28.540 Of where he is

00:19:29.620 Who controls him

00:19:30.560 What's he doing

00:19:31.360 Okay

00:19:31.900 So the second most important figure in all of this

00:19:35.240 Will be the next king after him

00:19:38.160 Who is Edward IV

00:19:39.840 Introducing King Edward IV

00:19:42.780 Okay

00:19:43.400 That's who Oman was referring to there

00:19:46.020 When he said the whole Wars of the Roses

00:19:47.860 Ended with an arbitrary self-willed king

00:19:51.300 Who ruled autocratically for himself

00:19:53.180 With no desire or intention of consulting the nation's wishes

00:19:55.860 And how it should be governed

00:19:57.020 Edward IV

00:19:58.120 Okay, so let's talk a little bit about Edward IV

00:20:01.040 So that you can have him in your mind

00:20:03.040 That person, that figure

00:20:04.180 And you can anchor various things around him

00:20:07.020 Various events around him

00:20:08.760 He's like the Arch Yorkist

00:20:10.360 Okay

00:20:10.860 so I've talked a fair bit about Richard Duke of York he is one of the cousins you know he's Henry

00:20:16.980 the sixth cousin I really his line has got a better claim to the throne than the Lancastrian

00:20:23.780 family he's descended of the Edward III's second son the Duke of Clarence whereas the Lancastrians

00:20:30.220 are descended from the third son John of Gaunt so Richard Duke of York is a middle-aged man he's

00:20:35.580 already been in wars in Ireland and in France he's a middle-aged very very competent man Richard Duke

00:20:41.340 of York if anyone was to take over the crown from the feeble King Henry VI it would be him okay now

00:20:48.780 we'll talk all about exactly what happens to him and his fate and why he doesn't end up becoming

00:20:53.500 king we'll talk all about that when the time comes but just to mention he had three sons the eldest

00:21:00.120 one is called Edward that kid still a kid at this point when the wars of the roses break out is like

00:21:06.080 17 years old 18 years old he's young old enough in these in these days he's a man he's a full-grown

00:21:12.120 man he can go and fight in battles he's a full-grown man he's not a child but still he's

00:21:16.260 young 17 18 19 odd the eldest of these sons of York Edward he's the one that goes on to ultimately

00:21:24.060 become King Edward IV right so we're not going to talk about him much for a while maybe an episode

00:21:29.760 or two. He won't really come into the story much for a while yet. It was all about his dad, Richard,

00:21:36.080 Duke of York. It's all about him still for a long time. But just bear in mind, the Duke of York's

00:21:40.480 eldest son, Edward, ends up the ultimate, ultimate victor of it all. OK, well, not the ultimate,

00:21:47.100 ultimate victor. Henry Tudor is the ultimate, ultimate victor at the Battle of Bosworth Field

00:21:51.420 in 85, in 1485. He's the ultimate winner, isn't he? But nonetheless, remember this Edward and all

00:21:58.800 the boys these these sons of york okay these sons in splendor okay let's let oman tell us a bit more

00:22:07.440 then he goes on to say quote we might place the beginning of the wars of the roses at the moment

00:22:12.320 of cade's insurrection remember jack cade that wannabe soldier who marched on london and killed

00:22:17.720 the treasurer lord say in the cheap side and then himself got thrown out of london and eventually

00:22:23.260 killed, Cade's insurrection, but it was not until five years later that the struggle broke out in

00:22:29.460 its bitterer form. Strangely enough, the commencement of the strife was preceded by a time in which it

00:22:35.800 seemed almost certain that the troubles of the realm would blow over. Remember Churchill talking

00:22:40.660 about how there was an interlude there where King Henry V, sorry, King Henry VI could just spend his

00:22:46.420 time building his colleges at Eton and Cambridge and spending time with his wife. That's that time,

00:22:52.560 these five years or so it seemed like maybe the country wouldn't descend into some form of civil

00:22:58.120 war but Omar says in 1453 the king went mad if you remember I talked all about how he would his

00:23:05.680 his madness his his you know what today we would call mental illness it would come and go when he

00:23:11.820 was young it often wasn't too bad but it seemed to get worse as he got older or the periods of it

00:23:17.940 lasted longer sometimes he was fine I mean even when he was completely lucid and fine and not

00:23:23.920 suffering from any sort of episode even then he was weak-willed and weak-minded but then he would

00:23:30.120 have I mean can we call them episodes sometimes he would have episodes where he would just selective

00:23:35.820 mutism just stare at the wall not say anything not respond to anyone he would still eat you could

00:23:40.200 sort of move him around put him in a chair and he'd just sit there in complete silence just staring

00:23:44.480 into space could put him in bed and he'd fall asleep put food in his mouth and he'd chew and

00:23:48.800 he'd swallow it but but nothing beyond that as he got older that started to happen and as the years

00:23:54.540 went by it got worse and worse and worse lasted longer and longer and longer you know and so and

00:23:59.060 then he'd just snap out of it sometimes you know sometimes towards the end or from years from now

00:24:04.040 sometimes it would last weeks and weeks if not months months he was in that state and then one

00:24:09.360 day like one moment he would snap out of it just be like oh wait what's going on what's happened

00:24:13.900 now like that and pretend or not pretend he's suffering from a man's wings he would say he

00:24:17.900 didn't know anything that happened in the last few months like one time his wife was pregnant

00:24:21.420 he has starts one of these episodes the kid is born and then he snaps out of it months later

00:24:26.580 he's like what i've got a baby well how did that happen where did that come from sort of thing

00:24:30.220 so it's yeah there's no other way to describe it than true mental illness so okay the last thing

00:24:37.760 you need in a king in a martial age terrible thing all right oman says in 1453 the king went mad

00:24:46.180 the peers and commons unanimously called upon york that is richard duke of york the father of

00:24:52.500 the one day king edward the fourth so they called upon york richard duke of york as the first prince

00:24:59.320 of the blood i.e he was a very very senior member of the royal family arguably a better claimant to

00:25:05.320 the throne than the king himself the first prince of the blood to take up the place of protector of

00:25:10.220 the realm i.e to be a king in all but name to be a lord protector to be a regent you know like say

00:25:17.240 you've got a tiny baby is like henry vi used to be you need a protector a protector of the realm

00:25:23.620 to actually govern to actually do the business of government so the commons the peers and commons

00:25:29.540 wanted richard duke of york to do that but remember margaret of anjou and the whole faction

00:25:34.480 The whole Lancastrian faction around the king

00:25:36.900 They're not going to like that

00:25:38.080 They're not going to be happy with that

00:25:39.380 They won't really accept that

00:25:40.560 Because he's their arch enemy

00:25:41.800 Already the two sides have bumped off

00:25:45.340 Someone or other from the other side's faction

00:25:47.500 Already it's something close to all out war

00:25:50.580 One way or another

00:25:51.620 So the fact that the peers and the commons

00:25:54.640 Wanted the Duke of York

00:25:56.320 Which is the obvious choice

00:25:57.400 It would have been the obvious choice

00:25:58.920 He's a senior statesman

00:26:00.180 He's a tried and tested military commander

00:26:02.460 He's the first prince of the blood

00:26:04.300 etc etc he's the obvious choice but the lancastrians are not gonna like that oman continues

00:26:09.620 saying he did so i richard duke of your taking up the the role of being protector of the realm he

00:26:15.080 did so to the general satisfaction of the nation again like you know he's a competent man and he

00:26:20.380 cast somerset into the tower somerset one of the leading men in the in the lancastrian faction

00:26:26.400 he cast him into the tower and replaced the old ministers with more capable men i hear a lot of

00:26:32.460 the men that Henry VI had picked or had picked on his behalf were running the country into the

00:26:39.360 ground apparently according to Yorkists you know they'd lost everything in France it was their

00:26:43.660 fault so once Richard Duke of York gets his chance at running government because the king's gone mad

00:26:48.480 he gets rid of them all puts them in the tower or and or just simply replaces them Oman goes on

00:26:53.060 saying but just as it all seemed settled and York's ultimate succession to the crown appeared

00:26:58.420 inevitable you know like at what point will you just say the king's mad he can't do anything i am

00:27:03.640 king now you know do a bowling broke pull a bowling broke just put the king himself in the tower and

00:27:09.640 then he'll probably die one way or another quickly no one just no one ever hears from him again

00:27:14.100 the crown is vacant and it's now the duke of york who is just the king now he would be richard the

00:27:19.500 third wouldn't he we do have a richard the third in uh not too long in this story but it's not this

00:27:24.740 one it's his son his second son well actually sorry the third son Richard III is this Richard

00:27:30.220 Duke of York's third son but we'll get on to that already I'm confusing matters we'll get on to that

00:27:34.640 we'll leave that for later okay but this Richard Duke of York it was thought at this point that

00:27:38.580 his ultimate succession to the crown appeared inevitable the whole aspect of affairs was

00:27:43.920 altered by the Queen Margaret of Anjou a French woman of Anjou the weak-minded Henry VI's wife

00:27:51.140 the whole aspect of affairs was altered by the queen giving birth to a son after nine years of

00:27:57.000 unfruitful wedlock so that does change everything because if henry the sixth the weak-minded king

00:28:03.040 if he had for whatever reason been put in some remote castle somewhere like pembroke castle or

00:28:08.740 something and then just never seen never seen again like six months a year later the news comes

00:28:14.060 out oh he yeah he died he died of natural causes yeah he's dead anyway here's the new king right

00:28:19.700 Things like that had already happened before

00:28:21.900 Richard II, Edward II

00:28:24.100 Things like that had happened

00:28:25.920 If that happened, well, it all would be quite neat

00:28:28.420 And squared away

00:28:30.960 But now he's got a son

00:28:32.500 Well, if you want, if Richard, Duke of York

00:28:34.700 Or the Yorkists wanted to do something like that

00:28:37.460 Usurp the crown, just take the crown

00:28:39.140 Well, they'd have to kill this baby as well now

00:28:41.660 Because that's, he's the legit heir, isn't he?

00:28:44.440 Henry VI is the king

00:28:45.440 Now he's got a little baby boy

00:28:46.900 And so you'd have to murder him as well, wouldn't you?

00:28:49.700 or at least just keep him a prisoner forever.

00:28:52.060 So it just complicates matters.

00:28:53.760 It makes it more difficult.

00:28:55.040 And the Queen, even if you did imprison,

00:28:57.600 even if you did arrest and imprison the King,

00:29:00.280 but the son is still at large, at liberty,

00:29:03.540 even if he's a baby,

00:29:04.560 a faction, a Lancastrian faction,

00:29:06.680 can be built up and around him.

00:29:09.140 Very, very powerful Lancastrian magnates might say,

00:29:12.540 oh, well, you've captured Henry VI.

00:29:15.000 You've got him in your power.

00:29:16.420 He's in the tower under your lock and key.

00:29:18.540 Or he's even dead.

00:29:19.700 Well, now this new baby is the king, though, and we recognize him,

00:29:24.700 and he will be the leader of our faction, even as a child.

00:29:28.120 So, in other words, the fact that the queen finally gave birth to particularly a son

00:29:32.900 means that the whole aspect of everything does sort of change.

00:29:36.200 Omar says, this completely cut away York's prospect of succession,

00:29:40.320 because if Henry VI did die for whatever reason, without any issue,

00:29:44.840 then the legit next in line would be Richard, Duke of York.

00:29:49.700 But not, you know, not now, exactly as Oman says.

00:29:52.780 But he, Richard, Duke of York, accepted the situation with loyalty

00:29:56.080 and swore allegiance to the infant Prince of Wales.

00:29:59.160 But after 18 months, Henry VI suddenly and unexpectedly recovered his sanity.

00:30:05.700 As I said, just snapped out of it, literally.

00:30:08.200 One day, snapped out of it.

00:30:10.740 Oman tells us that at once, at Queen Margaret's behest,

00:30:14.420 he, the king, dismissed York and his friends from office

00:30:17.500 and drew Somerset out of the tower to make him minister once more.

00:30:22.080 So that's a classic thing that characterises the Wars of the Roses.

00:30:26.200 A massive amount of volatility, a swing back and forth between the two sides.

00:30:31.740 One moment, it looks like one of the sides, the Lancastrians or the Yorks,

00:30:35.780 have got complete dominance and completely won it.

00:30:38.780 And then suddenly, very suddenly, something happens, some event happens,

00:30:42.720 usually a battle, but not always, which just completely flips the script.

00:30:46.720 I mean, here, there you go. The king and Margaret of Anjou and someone like Somerset were just completely in control for five straight years there.

00:30:54.420 Just no problems. And then the king goes insane, flipped York's in control, flipped York's in charge.

00:31:00.140 Suddenly, 18 months later, the king snaps out of it. Boom, the Yorkists are out of power.

00:31:05.000 The Lancastrians are back in the seat. And I mean, could it swing more violently one way than the other?

00:31:10.300 Okay, but the Yorkists have had a taste of power now

00:31:13.280 And people like Somerset and Margaret of Anjou

00:31:15.740 Are going to hold a grudge

00:31:16.960 They're not going to be happy with the way they were treated

00:31:19.880 Even though it wasn't too bad

00:31:21.340 Considering how bad it gets

00:31:23.100 Richard Duke of York didn't just have them all murdered, did he?

00:31:27.760 He put Somerset in the tower

00:31:28.820 But he didn't kill him, didn't torture him

00:31:30.420 Didn't have Margaret of Anjou killed or exiled or anything

00:31:32.860 Well, it gets as bitter as it could possibly get later

00:31:36.200 But they're not going to forget

00:31:37.800 Margaret Rongeau is not going to forget how she was treated we hope you enjoyed

00:31:42.120 that video and if you did please head over to lotus eaters.com for the full

00:31:46.020 unabridged video

The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - March 15, 2026

PREVIEW： Epochs #254 ｜ Henry VI - Part 3

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