PREVIEW： Epochs #254 ｜ Henry VI - Part 3
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Summary
In Epochs we continue the story of the Wars of the Roses, starting with King Henry VI and the fall of the Lancastrian dynasty, and the rise of the Yorkist faction. We also hear from Professor Sir Charles Oman and Winston Churchill.
Transcript
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Hello and welcome back to Epochs where I shall be continuing the story of the Wars of the Roses
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We left off talking all about that sort of stuff
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Where there'd been some blood drawn on both sides
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Henry V's younger brother, they'd humiliated his wife and then they'd arrested him and then he died
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very shortly after being arrested. That was sort of first blood, sort of, it goes back before that
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of course but let's say that sort of first blood. Then they struck back, Suffolk himself was a
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disgrace to the people who didn't like him and in the end the king, he was going to be executed,
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a bit of a tinder from parliament but the king just exiled him and then while he was going to
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exile literally while he was on the ship crossing the channel into exile he was captured by another
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ship another royal navy ship and executed so he's gone right and then you remember we talked a bit
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about the rebellion of jack cade just some random normal soldier dude who tried to rise up against
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the lancastrians and then that's where we were that's sort of basically where we got to and let's
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professor charles oman talk all about the different sides you know laying out basically who was in the
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Yorkist camp and who's in the Lancastrian camp and all that sort of thing I'll continue reading
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from Professor Sir Charles Oman an early 20th century Oxford professor of history one of the
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very best to ever do it as well as Winston Churchill in his history of the English-speaking
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peoples I'll just give you a quick super quick recap about Jack Cade what Churchill says about
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Jack Cade it's literally one short paragraph so I'll read that and then we'll continue the story
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on from there with completely new and fresh things okay Churchill says in June and July a
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Rising took place in Kent, which the Lancastrians claimed to bear the marks of Yorkist support.
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Jack Cade, a soldier of capacity and bad character, home from the wars, gathered several thousand men,
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all summoned in due form by the constables of the district, and marched on London.
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He was admitted to the city, but on his executing Lord Say, the treasurer, in Cheapside, after a mob trial,
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the magistrates and citizens turned against him, his followers dispersed under terms of pardon,
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This success, for the Lancastrians basically, restored for the moment the authority of the
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government and Henry, that's King Henry VI, the feeble-minded king, and Henry enjoyed a brief
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interlude in which he devoted himself anew to his colleges at Eton and Cambridge and Margaret,
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his wife, Margaret of Anjou, who had gained his love and obedience. But it doesn't last long,
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let Churchill continue with what's happening in France, because if you remember the whole,
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especially the beginning part of the wars of the roses is very very very much wrapped up in the
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story of england finally finally losing the hundred years war in france finally getting
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entirely kicked out of france other than calais it's all wrapped up in the same thing a lot of
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the reasons why henry vi why his reign was so troubled is because we were just kind of endlessly
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losing in france if you're endlessly winning like his father henry vi then everything's good and
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rosy and no one dares challenge you or question your authority or anything. If it's the other way
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around, yeah. And if you're weak and feeble, doubly so. Okay, let's listen to Churchill talk
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about what was going down in France around this time. And we're talking the very, very late 1440s,
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early 1450s at this point, around the year 1450-51. So Churchill says, quote,
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as the process of expelling the English from France continued, fortresses fell,
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towns and districts were lost and their garrisons for the most part came home the speed of this
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disaster contributed powerfully to shock English opinion and to shake not only the position of
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individual ministers but the very foundations of the Lancastrian dynasty i.e there was always the
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old argument that the Lancastrians were usurpers that the first of the Lancastrian kings Henry
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the fourth Henry Bolingbroke had basically illegal according to the their enemies had illegally
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arrested, imprisoned and quite possibly murdered his own cousin, Richard II, the true heir,
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the true Plantagenet heir, the son of the Black Prince, who was the son of Edward III.
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And at that point, everything that happened since then, the whole reign of Henry IV and
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Henry V and now Henry VI, all of that was wrong and illegal, say their enemies, say
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And that argument had never ever disappeared or gone away.
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Well now it's coming out in force, as you can imagine, with us, the English, doing so
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terribly in france you know god wants it that way if we're losing it's god because god wants it it
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works the other way as well right if you keep winning it's because because god wills it god's
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on your side well if you're losing he he's displeased with you perhaps your entire monarchy
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your entire dynasty okay church will continue saying with incredible folly and bad faith
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the english broke the truce at four garez in march 1449 by august 1450 the whole of normandy
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was lost. By August 1451 the whole of Gascony which had been English for three centuries had
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been lost as well and all of the conquests of Henry V which had taken England 11 years of toil
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and blood to win and only Calais remained. Edmund Beaufort the king's commander friend and Lancastrian
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cousin bore the blame for unbroken defeat and this reacted on the king himself. England became full
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of what we should call ex-servicemen who did not know why they had been beaten but were sure that
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they had been mishandled and had fought in vain the nobles in the increasing disorder were glad
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to gather these hardened fighters to their local defense all the great houses kept bands of armed
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retainers sometimes almost amounting to private armies so that's a big thing end quote me again
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and so that's a really important element to all of this to remember i said it in the last couple
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of episodes a couple of times i have to keep repeating it that the wars of the roses are born
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out of the hundred years war the hundred years war peters out and ends essentially but it's a
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militarized age and churchill talks about them being ex-servicemen yeah so there's loads of
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soldiers veteran soldiers that are now just in england twiddling their thumbs so it's a martial
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age and they're expected to fight they know nothing other than fighting so their energies
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have to go somewhere well in in a sense you can say the energy the military energy of the hundred
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years war transfers over into the cousins war the wars of the roses okay let's let church will
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continue he says they the noblemen the noble people of england they gave them the the ex-servicemen
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gave them pay and land or both and uniforms or liveries bearing the family crest the earl of
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Warwick, perhaps the greatest landowner, who aspired to a leading part in politics,
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had thousands of dependents who ate what was called his bread.
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And of these, a large proportion were organised troops
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proud to display the badge of the Bear and the Ragged Staff,
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the House of Warwick, one branch of the Neville's.
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Other magnates emulated this example according to their means.
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cash and ambition ruled and the land sank rapidly towards anarchy the king was a helpless creature
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this is a key key line here key bit of historical data the king was a helpless creature respected
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even beloved but no prop for any man parliament both lords and commons was little more than a
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clearing house for the rivalries of nobles end quote now that says a lot right there and bear
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that in mind because if if if that wasn't the case that last sentence there the last two sentences
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there from Churchill if that wasn't the case the wars of the roses wouldn't have been possible
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if there'd been a strong government a strong king a strong parliament it wouldn't have happened but
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it's individual nobles like Richard Duke of York like the Earl of Warwick if they weren't powers
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true powers in and of themselves in their own right completely independent of the crown completely
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independent of parliament if that wasn't the case then the wars of the roses wouldn't have happened
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but it is the case it's like a perfect storm of various things happened right the the hundred years
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was petering out and there's there's endless soldiers now just all across the country the
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king is completely feckless and inept there's various nobles that have got similar levels of
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power again if there was one overarching over powerful earl then maybe the wars of the roses
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wouldn't have happened because okay the king isn't in control of policy the king doesn't control
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government okay this other guy does you know someone like Godwin in the age of Edward the
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Confessor say one overarchingly powerful magnate but it's not there's a there's all sorts of them
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loads of them and they're all they're rivals blood rivals and ambitious for power in their own right
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so yeah a number of things came together to make this happen Churchill goes on saying a statute of
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1429, i.e. a while before this, had fixed the country franchise at the 40 shilling freeholder,
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i.e. there was a money property qualification before you were allowed any sort of say in
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politics. It is hard to realise that this arbitrarily contracted franchise ruled in
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England for 400 years, and that all the wars and quarrels, the decision of the greatest causes,
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the grandest events at home and abroad, proceeded upon this basis until the Reform Bill of 1832.
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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.
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So was a backward but endearing step taken in parliamentary representation.
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Yet never for centuries had the privilege of Parliament stood so high.
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Never for centuries was it more blatantly exploited.
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So Churchill just telling us there a little bit about Parliament.
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that's what he does in in the history of the english-speaking peoples he quite often takes a
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moment out just to give you uh just to just to touch base with parliament what's going on with
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the history of parliament so there he tells us a little bit about what it meant that it's sort of
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important if there's not a super strong king that can just override it entirely like edward the third
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maybe although he didn't override it entirely go back and watch my videos about edward the third
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But if you've got someone like Henry V or Edward I or even someone like Charles I when he had his personal rule,
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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,
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But then sometimes if you've got a super weak king like this, Henry VI, Parliament may well come into its own.
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But at least in the middle of the 15th century, it's just completely exploited.
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I mean, Churchill called it, what, little more than a clearinghouse for the rivalries of nobles.
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Churchill says, the force of law was appropriated by intrigue, baronial violence, used or defied legal forms with growing impunity.
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I mean, these nobles like Richard, Duke of York, are a law unto themselves.
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Or their retainers, their men can go around doing rapes and murders and things, whatever, whatever.
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Except through the protection of his local chief
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and they talk all about everyday things sometimes it's sort of everyday things they certainly talk
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about what's going on in the country and it's a remarkable piece of evidence because for one of
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the first times it's sort of relatively normal people i mean the pastons are not poor peasants
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at all they're firmly what we might call now middle class or upper middle class something
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like that but they're not the actual lancastrian or yorkish families they're sort of effectively
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normal people kind of normal people and so their letters many many many many letters they talk
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about all different things writing to their other relatives and friends and things and it's just a
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great insight a great window into what was really going on and what normal people might have thought
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and felt about it again from earlier times from earlier centuries we have nothing like it there's
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nothing like it from the 11th century right so for example or earlier of course very rarely very
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really. That's why something like Cicero's letters, the first century B.E.C., Marcus
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Julius Cicero writing letters to his friends, some of those survive. That's why that's so
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incredible. You have to go nearly 1,500 years later, a millennium and a half later before you
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get something along those lines, with some other exceptions along the way. But okay, the church
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says, the celebrated Paston letters show that England, enormously advanced as it was in
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comprehension character and civilization was relapsing from peace and security into barbaric
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confusion the roads were insecure that's a classic thing all through the centuries is it safe to go
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on the public highways is it safe to travel around between towns and cities particularly at night is
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it safe or not it's just it's quite a simple litmus test isn't it well at this stage we're told
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it seems that it's not it well it's becoming less safe the roads were insecure Churchill said the
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king's writ was denied or perverted the royal judges were flouted or bribed the rights of
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sovereignty were stated in the highest terms but the king was a weak and handled fool the powers
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of parliament could be turned this way and that according to the factions that gripped it yet the
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suffering toiling unconquerable community had moved far from the days of Stephen and Mould
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i.e. the anarchy of the 12th century had moved far from the days of Stephen and Mould and Henry
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the second and thomas beckett and of king john and the barons there was a highly complex society
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still growing in spite of evils in many regions the poverty of the executive the king the
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difficulties of communication and the popular strength in bills and bows bills like hooks
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the popular strength in weapons all helped to hold it in balance there was a public opinion
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there was a collective moral sense there were venerated customs above all there was a national
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spirit and so Churchill painting a picture there of an England with a relatively as he says it for
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the for the 15th century relatively complex civil society that's sort of what he's describing isn't
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it a civil society you know if you believe the pastor letters and there's absolutely no reason
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not to believe them to be right so it's not a really simple feudal society like the 11th century
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12th century um there's it's it's more complex so so okay so something like private armies the
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private armies of warwick say are possible if the king isn't strong enough to keep the kingdom in
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check someone else will do it all right let's flip over to sir charles oman where he starts telling
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us about we've got a bit here about the general character of the wars of the roses oman in the
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early 20th century or very very very late 19th century wrote this quote the wars of the roses
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as historians have chosen to name them from the the white rose which was the badge of york and
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the red rose which was assumed long after as the emblem of lancaster were much more than a faction
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fight between two rival coteries of peers at the first they were the attempt of the majority of
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the english nation to oust an unpopular minister from power by force of arms suffolk talking about
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there, William de la Pole. There is no doubt that the greater part of England sided with York in
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this endeavour against the King and Margaret von Joux and Suffolk. The citizens, a reference to
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maybe Jack Cade's rebellion as well perhaps, the citizens and freeholders of London, Kent and South
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and the Midlands, where lay all the wealth and political energy of the nation, were strongly
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Yorkist. Henry, on the other hand, obviously Lancastrian, the head, the titular head, the
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nominal head of the Lancastrians. Henry, on the other hand, got his support from a group of great
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nobles who controlled the wild west and north, and the still wilder Wales. Unfortunately for the
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nation, the constitutional aspect of the struggle was gradually obscured by the increasing bitterness
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of family blood feuds. Thy father slew mine, and now will I slay thee, was the cry of the
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Lancastrian noble to the enemy who asked for quarter. And it expresses well enough the whole
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aspect of the later years of the struggle, i.e. blood for you, blood vendetta, that regardless
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of anything, at some point when civil wars happen, things like this, at some point, regardless of
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politics, regardless of how doomed your cause is or anything, regardless of the justice of it,
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you killed my dad, so I'm going to kill your dad now. You killed my brother, so I'm going to kill
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your brother now. You stole my estates, raped my womenfolk, so I'm going to kill you now. It just
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boils down to that, you know, quite quickly. Or in this case, not quite quickly. Over a number of
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years it played out, but there you go. Thy father slew mine, and now I will slay thee. There you go,
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in a nutshell. Okay, Oman continues saying this. The war commenced with an attempt to set right by
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force the government of the realm, but it ended as a mere series of bloody reprisals for slain
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kinsfolk. It left England in a far worse state from the political and constitutional point of
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view than it had known since the days of John, you know, King John in the very, very early 13th
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century, late 12th century, early 13th century. Again, a type of civil war, social, political
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collapse, really. Something close to an anarchy, if not actual anarchy. So bad times. It began with
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the comparatively small affliction of a weak, well-intentioned king who persisted in retaining
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an unpopular minister in power. Again, Suffolk, you know, the one that was trying to cross the
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channel, got caught, got got, and then got beheaded. It ended by leaving the realm in the hands of an
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arbitrary, self-willed king who ruled autocratically for himself, with no desire or intention of
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consulting the nation's wishes as to how it should be governed, end quote. So just to let you know,
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just to jump ahead a bit here, to let you know what was being said there, and to keep it in mind,
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because it will help you understand everything that's going on because the Wars of the Roses
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really is complicated it really really is there's so many characters in it so many people in it so
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many back and forth so many battles that if you don't pin certain characters in your mind who they
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are then it will just be too confusing I'll just keep naming these people and you won't know who's
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who and you forget so now let me introduce arguably the most important figure in this
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Let's say the most important figure is King Henry VI
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So the second most important figure in all of this
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With no desire or intention of consulting the nation's wishes
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Okay, so let's talk a little bit about Edward IV
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so I've talked a fair bit about Richard Duke of York he is one of the cousins you know he's Henry
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the sixth cousin I really his line has got a better claim to the throne than the Lancastrian
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family he's descended of the Edward III's second son the Duke of Clarence whereas the Lancastrians
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are descended from the third son John of Gaunt so Richard Duke of York is a middle-aged man he's
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already been in wars in Ireland and in France he's a middle-aged very very competent man Richard Duke
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of York if anyone was to take over the crown from the feeble King Henry VI it would be him okay now
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we'll talk all about exactly what happens to him and his fate and why he doesn't end up becoming
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king we'll talk all about that when the time comes but just to mention he had three sons the eldest
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one is called Edward that kid still a kid at this point when the wars of the roses break out is like
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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
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man he can go and fight in battles he's a full-grown man he's not a child but still he's
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young 17 18 19 odd the eldest of these sons of York Edward he's the one that goes on to ultimately
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become King Edward IV right so we're not going to talk about him much for a while maybe an episode
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or two. He won't really come into the story much for a while yet. It was all about his dad, Richard,
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Duke of York. It's all about him still for a long time. But just bear in mind, the Duke of York's
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eldest son, Edward, ends up the ultimate, ultimate victor of it all. OK, well, not the ultimate,
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ultimate victor. Henry Tudor is the ultimate, ultimate victor at the Battle of Bosworth Field
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in 85, in 1485. He's the ultimate winner, isn't he? But nonetheless, remember this Edward and all
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the boys these these sons of york okay these sons in splendor okay let's let oman tell us a bit more
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then he goes on to say quote we might place the beginning of the wars of the roses at the moment
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of cade's insurrection remember jack cade that wannabe soldier who marched on london and killed
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the treasurer lord say in the cheap side and then himself got thrown out of london and eventually
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killed, Cade's insurrection, but it was not until five years later that the struggle broke out in
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its bitterer form. Strangely enough, the commencement of the strife was preceded by a time in which it
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seemed almost certain that the troubles of the realm would blow over. Remember Churchill talking
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about how there was an interlude there where King Henry V, sorry, King Henry VI could just spend his
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time building his colleges at Eton and Cambridge and spending time with his wife. That's that time,
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these five years or so it seemed like maybe the country wouldn't descend into some form of civil
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war but Omar says in 1453 the king went mad if you remember I talked all about how he would his
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his madness his his you know what today we would call mental illness it would come and go when he
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was young it often wasn't too bad but it seemed to get worse as he got older or the periods of it
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lasted longer sometimes he was fine I mean even when he was completely lucid and fine and not
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suffering from any sort of episode even then he was weak-willed and weak-minded but then he would
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have I mean can we call them episodes sometimes he would have episodes where he would just selective
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mutism just stare at the wall not say anything not respond to anyone he would still eat you could
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sort of move him around put him in a chair and he'd just sit there in complete silence just staring
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into space could put him in bed and he'd fall asleep put food in his mouth and he'd chew and
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he'd swallow it but but nothing beyond that as he got older that started to happen and as the years
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went by it got worse and worse and worse lasted longer and longer and longer you know and so and
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then he'd just snap out of it sometimes you know sometimes towards the end or from years from now
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sometimes it would last weeks and weeks if not months months he was in that state and then one
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day like one moment he would snap out of it just be like oh wait what's going on what's happened
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now like that and pretend or not pretend he's suffering from a man's wings he would say he
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didn't know anything that happened in the last few months like one time his wife was pregnant
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he has starts one of these episodes the kid is born and then he snaps out of it months later
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he's like what i've got a baby well how did that happen where did that come from sort of thing
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so it's yeah there's no other way to describe it than true mental illness so okay the last thing
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you need in a king in a martial age terrible thing all right oman says in 1453 the king went mad
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the peers and commons unanimously called upon york that is richard duke of york the father of
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the one day king edward the fourth so they called upon york richard duke of york as the first prince
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of the blood i.e he was a very very senior member of the royal family arguably a better claimant to
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the throne than the king himself the first prince of the blood to take up the place of protector of
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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
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you've got a tiny baby is like henry vi used to be you need a protector a protector of the realm
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to actually govern to actually do the business of government so the commons the peers and commons
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wanted richard duke of york to do that but remember margaret of anjou and the whole faction
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etc etc he's the obvious choice but the lancastrians are not gonna like that oman continues
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saying he did so i richard duke of your taking up the the role of being protector of the realm he
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did so to the general satisfaction of the nation again like you know he's a competent man and he
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cast somerset into the tower somerset one of the leading men in the in the lancastrian faction
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he cast him into the tower and replaced the old ministers with more capable men i hear a lot of
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the men that Henry VI had picked or had picked on his behalf were running the country into the
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ground apparently according to Yorkists you know they'd lost everything in France it was their
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fault so once Richard Duke of York gets his chance at running government because the king's gone mad
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he gets rid of them all puts them in the tower or and or just simply replaces them Oman goes on
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saying but just as it all seemed settled and York's ultimate succession to the crown appeared
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inevitable you know like at what point will you just say the king's mad he can't do anything i am
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king now you know do a bowling broke pull a bowling broke just put the king himself in the tower and
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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
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altered by the Queen Margaret of Anjou a French woman of Anjou the weak-minded Henry VI's wife
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the whole aspect of affairs was altered by the queen giving birth to a son after nine years of
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unfruitful wedlock so that does change everything because if henry the sixth the weak-minded king
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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
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If that happened, well, it all would be quite neat
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Or the Yorkists wanted to do something like that
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Well, they'd have to kill this baby as well now
1.00
00:28:41.660
Because that's, he's the legit heir, isn't he?
0.99
00:28:46.900
And so you'd have to murder him as well, wouldn't you?
1.00
00:28:49.700
or at least just keep him a prisoner forever.
0.99
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Very, very powerful Lancastrian magnates might say,
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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But after 18 months, Henry VI suddenly and unexpectedly recovered his sanity.
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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.
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So that's a classic thing that characterises the Wars of the Roses.
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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.
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Suddenly, 18 months later, the king snaps out of it. Boom, the Yorkists are out of power.
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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
00:31:16.960
They're not going to be happy with the way they were treated
00:31:23.100
Richard Duke of York didn't just have them all murdered, did he?
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
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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