The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - PREVIEW： Epochs #255 ｜ Henry VI - Part 4

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

00:00:25.540 or the story of the whole of the English monarchy, British monarchy ultimately in the end.

00:00:29.120 But we're talking about Henry VI right now, aren't we?

00:00:32.160 The son of Henry V, who's very, very weak and quite possibly suffering from mental health, genuine mental health problems.

00:00:40.540 And that the Hundred Years' War has come to an ignominious end, as far as the English are concerned.

00:00:44.860 And that's morphing now into the Wars of the Roses, where the various cousin branches of the Plantagenets are starting to go to war with each other.

00:00:53.300 Particularly the House of York and the House of Lancaster, descended from the second and third son of John of Gaunt.

00:00:58.200 I'll keep talking about the John of Gaunt and the Lionel, Duke of Clarence.

00:01:04.400 And last time we got up to the Battle of St Albans, which was really the first.

00:01:07.920 It's not really, it's almost a battle, not quite a big proper battle.

00:01:11.780 But I think maybe if you were there, it would seem quite battle-like.

00:01:15.980 But it wasn't a full-blown pitched battle out on the field with thousands of men lining up

00:01:20.480 and loads and loads of massed archery units and a cavalry charge apiece and all that sort of thing.

00:01:26.420 However people did get killed in it

00:01:28.640 People definitely died

00:01:29.640 And the king changed hands

00:01:31.860 You know the king that's a puppet really

00:01:33.560 So that's where we got up to last time

00:01:35.400 Where the Yorkist faction

00:01:37.660 Under Richard Duke of York

00:01:39.520 And Warwick the kingmaker

00:01:41.320 Had just won the Battle of St Albans

00:01:43.400 Taken the king hostage

00:01:45.040 Or they now controlled him one way or another

00:01:47.300 So the fortunes of the Lancastians

00:01:50.500 Are at a low ebb at this point

00:01:52.060 Margaret of Anjou and all the various people in that orbit

00:01:54.280 Are at a low ebb

00:01:55.140 And if you remember last time I talked about how the pendulum swings back and forth wildly during the Wars of the Roses

00:02:01.140 It really does

00:02:02.040 You know, when you look at big wars from the 20th century

00:02:05.420 Quite often it becomes clear long before the end who's going to win, doesn't it?

00:02:10.380 Well, that's not the case here

00:02:12.040 It wildly swings back and forth

00:02:13.900 So at this particular point, i.e. straight after the Battle of St Albans

00:02:17.260 It's back in the Yorkist favour 0.89

00:02:20.440 And it's already swung, what, three or four times, hasn't it? Already

00:02:24.200 So we'll keep doing that

00:02:25.880 So once again I should be reading from

00:02:27.720 Winston Churchill, The History of the English-speaking Peoples

00:02:30.100 And The History of England

00:02:32.220 By Professor Charles Oman

00:02:34.520 One of the very, very best

00:02:35.840 Historians ever to have done it

00:02:38.020 An Oxford historian from the early

00:02:39.960 20th century, very late 19th century

00:02:41.760 Early 20th century, whom Churchill

00:02:44.200 Seems to have drawn upon quite heavily

00:02:45.780 So okay, I want to read a little bit here

00:02:48.000 From Churchill to sort of

00:02:50.040 Ease us into this episode where he talks

00:02:52.060 In a bit more general terms

00:02:54.140 about things so he says this quote historians have shrunk from the wars of the roses and most

00:02:59.600 of those who have catalogued their events have left us only a melancholy and disjointed picture

00:03:05.340 we are however in the presence of the most ferocious and implacable quarrel of which there

00:03:11.100 is a factual record in other words in other words he's saying it's actually a complicated picture

00:03:16.320 the amount that it swings back and forth is crazy uh the record isn't a hundred percent complete

00:03:22.880 we're still in the 15th century, remember? It's still a very long time ago. And just simply that,

00:03:29.580 the record isn't 100% complete. When you get up to the 18th, 19th, 20th century,

00:03:35.360 it's an embarrassment of riches as far as a historian is concerned. There's far too much

00:03:40.200 documentary evidence. There's too much. You could never get through it all. If you wanted to read

00:03:46.140 everything that there was to read about World War I, say, it's not possible in a lifetime.

00:03:51.060 All the papers across all of Europe or across all of the world, for a start,

00:03:55.880 it would take a lifetime to read those, just that.

00:03:59.000 Whereas if you go back to the 15th century, if you talk about the Wars of the Roses,

00:04:03.220 it's still completely incomplete.

00:04:06.080 And so sometimes, well, often, we just don't know exactly what happened.

00:04:11.380 Why did this alliance fall apart?

00:04:14.060 Why is this person now suddenly switched camps or something like that?

00:04:18.760 and there's so many characters so many personages that are of some importance to keep track of them

00:04:27.220 all unless you're a professional historian and you spend a lifetime on this stuff again it can

00:04:32.860 get very very confusing very very quickly and that's why when I'm telling this story I'm going

00:04:37.060 to I will keep it to just the the key key players and keep reminding you who's who right hopefully

00:04:43.420 i've put in your mind the idea that richard duke of york the father of edward the fourth to be um

00:04:50.800 richard duke of york is like a tywin lannister character he's like charles dance type figure

00:04:55.820 that's that's how i have him in mind maybe that will help you sort of uh anchor at least that

00:05:00.520 character you know um and you've got you've got the the super weak king and his evil wife i was

00:05:06.480 gonna call her margaret von joux evil i mean i don't know if she is particularly she's called

00:05:10.300 the bad queen or something like that wouldn't she and um it's easy to think of her as foreign 0.86

00:05:15.520 and French and evil in some way it's easy but whether she really was it's not quite that simple

00:05:21.040 but um Churchill just saying here that it is a complicated story and there's no two ways about it

00:05:27.460 you know if I have to keep mentioning the family tree I have to keep mentioning that you've got

00:05:34.620 Edward III and all his children, and the second son, well, the first son, the Black Prince, who

00:05:40.780 died, and then his son died, was killed, and then Lionel, Duke of Clarence, and the third son,

00:05:45.480 John of God, I have to keep telling you that, and all those descendants. There's actually much more

00:05:49.680 to it than that, the Mortimers and the Beauforts and so on and so on. So Churchill says, goes on

00:05:53.760 to say here, the individual actors were bred by generations of privilege and war, into which the

00:05:59.740 feudal theme had brought its peculiar sense of honor and to which the papacy contributed such

00:06:06.740 spiritual sanction as emerged from its rivalries and intrigues it was a conflict in which personal

00:06:12.920 hatreds reached their maximum and from which mass effects were happily excluded yeah personal

00:06:19.220 hatreds reached their maximum just to let you know towards the end of the wars of the roses

00:06:23.540 what quite often happened is one side would win a battle and they would and any of the leadership

00:06:30.060 on the other side that didn't die in the battle but were captured they just all get executed

00:06:35.120 because it's the only way to end a blood feud you know what in a way right the only way to end a 0.99

00:06:40.840 blood feud is to just kill all the other side kill them all now that's brutal even for the 15th 0.90

00:06:47.400 century in england anyway perhaps in the east it's a bit different but the idea that you would 0.99

00:06:51.520 kill loads and loads of members of your own family loads and loads of your own cousins 0.89

00:06:55.080 or all your own cousins you'd kill them all or you felt like you had to that was the only way 0.99

00:07:00.460 to sort of bring it to an end so yeah it gets it gets really bloody and as Churchill said their 0.95

00:07:05.100 personal hatreds reach their maximum we talked yesterday didn't we about that famous quote 0.99

00:07:09.160 that you killed my father and now I'm going to kill you and your father that you know vendetta 0.71

00:07:15.100 it's the nature of vendetta Churchill says there must have been many similar convulsions in human 0.99

00:07:20.460 history none however has been preserved with characters at once so worldly and so expensively

00:07:28.060 chiseled needless causes of confusion may be avoided towns must not be confused with titles

00:07:34.220 this is a good point it's about to make the mortal struggle of York and Lancaster did not

00:07:38.840 imply any antagonism between the two well-known English counties right yeah so the Yorkist family

00:07:44.900 their strongholds weren't necessarily up and around York, the city of York, and the Duchy of

00:07:50.720 Lancaster, the family, the Lancastrian family, weren't necessarily all that strong in Lancaster.

00:07:57.080 So yeah, just be careful about that. York has in fact, this is Churchill again, York was in fact

00:08:01.760 the stronghold of the Lancastrians, and the Yorkists founded their strength upon the Midlands

00:08:06.400 and the south of England. The ups and downs of fortune were so numerous and startling,

00:08:10.780 the family feuds so complicated the impact of national feeling in moments of crisis so difficult

00:08:17.140 to measure because of like the incomplete record basically that it has been the fashion to

00:08:22.620 disparage this period i think it's one of the most fascinating bits of english history in in all

00:08:27.860 personally only shakespeare this is church again only shakespeare basing himself largely upon

00:08:33.240 hall's chronicle has portrayed his savage yet heroic liniments he does not attempt to draw

00:08:39.580 conclusions, and for dramatic purposes, telescopes, events, and campaigns. Let us now set forth the

00:08:46.580 facts as they occurred. And then Churchill picks up the story again from the Battle of St. Albans,

00:08:51.800 saying this. St. Albans was the first shedding of blood in strife. Well, remember the story,

00:08:56.920 not quite. I mean, maybe in something approaching a battle, but it's not the first blood, is it?

00:09:01.600 Gloucester was murdered, and Suffolk was murdered. So there has been blood, and you could draw

00:09:09.420 all of this back to Henry IV, Henry the Boninbroke's usurpation of Richard II, you know, that

00:09:15.420 blood, whether he was just smothered or, you know, whether he was actually murdered or

00:09:19.540 not, we don't know, whether he was just starved to death or smothered or something, but, you

00:09:22.740 know, it's not really the first shedding of blood, but, okay, the Battle of St. Albans,

00:09:27.220 I guess what Churchill's saying is in some sort of open conflagration. He says, St. Albans

00:09:32.960 was the first shedding of blood in strife. The Yorkists gained possession of the king,

00:09:37.340 you know they were able to take him into their power and he's so weak and feeble that you can

00:09:42.000 then claim that you're the whether he signs off on it or not you can just claim you're the government

00:09:47.060 now you've got the you've taken the king prisoner that means you're the government now okay sort of

00:09:51.860 like that but soon we see the inherent power of Lancaster i.e the faction that's just been defeated

00:09:57.640 at the battle of St Albans basically they had the majority of the nobles on their side and the

00:10:02.900 majesty of the crown because the king even though being taken prisoner hostage by the yorkists he 0.99

00:10:08.820 is a lancastrian though isn't he right so nothing will change that in a few months they the

00:10:14.220 lancastrians were as strong as ever continual trials of strength were made there were risings

00:10:19.440 in the country and grim assemblies of parliament legality constitutionalism and reverence for the

00:10:26.300 crown were counted but not yet overthrown by turbulent and bloody episodes the four years

00:10:33.180 from 1456 to 1459 were a period of uneasy truce all seemed conscious of the peril to themselves

00:10:40.020 and to their order but fate lay heavy upon them there were intense efforts at reconciliation

00:10:45.540 the spectacle was displayed to the Londoners of the king being escorted to Westminster by a

00:10:51.820 procession in which the duke of york and queen margaret walked side by side arch enemies remember

00:10:57.200 the duke of york is that they've got the blood royal if the king and now his little baby edward

00:11:02.140 if they were to die he would just be the king he's literally the next in line to the throne

00:11:05.960 um margaret of onjou knows that and so they're just arch enemies the duke of york richard duke

00:11:11.640 of york and margaret of onjou would kill each other if they could right so it's okay but they

00:11:17.580 walked side by side followed by the Yorkist and Lancastrian lords the most opposed in pairs you

00:11:24.060 know trying to heal this rift solemn pledges of amity were exchanged the sacrament was taken in

00:11:30.860 common by all the leaders you know they're all catholic still the reformation hasn't the uh yeah

00:11:35.180 the reformation hasn't happened yet so they're all still good catholics the sacrament was taken

00:11:39.460 in common by all the leaders all sought peace where there was no peace the type of thing you

00:11:44.480 know it's just simmering under the surface you know nothing has truly been resolved everyone

00:11:49.020 still got their ambitions and their grudges even when a kind of settlement was reached in london

00:11:54.420 it was upset by violence in the north in 1459 fighting broke out again a gathering near worcester

00:12:00.500 of armed yorkists dispersed in the presence of the royal army and their chiefs scattered york

00:12:06.680 returned to ireland richard duke of york returned to ireland and warwick to his captaincy of calais

00:12:12.140 In which he had succeeded Somerset

00:12:14.640 Somerset who was killed at the Battle of St Albans

00:12:17.820 Remember

00:12:18.300 Okay, let's go over to Sir Charles Oman

00:12:21.960 And let him tell us about this period

00:12:23.960 See how he describes it slightly differently

00:12:26.340 Okay, Sir Charles Oman

00:12:27.700 At the very beginning of the 20th century

00:12:29.280 Wrote this, quote

00:12:30.400 The first battle of St Albans

00:12:32.180 Put the control of the king's person

00:12:33.800 Into the hands of York

00:12:34.900 Who again assumed the management of the realm

00:12:37.440 But he only kept it for less than a year

00:12:40.120 So the pendulum swings back within a year

00:12:42.640 In 1456

00:12:43.940 The king asserted his constitutional power

00:12:46.780 Of changing his ministers 0.99

00:12:48.260 He suddenly grew a pair of balls 0.98

00:12:50.020 Out of nowhere 0.98

00:12:51.120 Decided to start doing the business of government

00:12:53.300 Except he didn't

00:12:54.440 It was the people around him

00:12:56.060 Who controlled him really

00:12:57.960 Margaret of Anjou's faction

00:12:59.820 And lots of various other very very powerful magnates

00:13:03.500 But on paper the king

00:13:05.200 Asserted his constitutional power

00:13:07.120 Of changing his ministers

00:13:08.160 and turned Duke Richard's friends out of office.

00:13:11.560 As his foe Somerset was now dead,

00:13:13.920 Richard Duke of York's foe Somerset was now dead,

00:13:16.800 York was fairly contented to leave matters in the king's own control.

00:13:20.720 But after the bloodshed at St Albans,

00:13:22.800 there could be no true reconciliation

00:13:24.420 between the friends of the king and the friends of York.

00:13:28.000 The fierce and active young Queen Margaret

00:13:30.040 put herself at the head of the party

00:13:31.940 which Suffolk and Somerset had formerly led.

00:13:34.980 She feared for her infant son's right of succession to the throne

00:13:38.960 And was determined to crush York to make his path clear 0.97

00:13:42.780 Because again, should the mentally ill king, Henry VI 0.99

00:13:48.120 Should he die, for whatever reason 0.99

00:13:50.120 Then the crown will either pass to his tiny little son, Edward

00:13:54.040 That we're talking about here, little baby son, Edward

00:13:56.820 Or Richard Duke of York, right?

00:13:59.580 The legit heir would be the little baby

00:14:01.440 But, you know how things go in a martial age

00:14:04.880 it's relatively easy just to make a baby disappear or an infant if you really wanted to if an entire

00:14:12.400 kingdom realm was at stake you only need to make one infant disappear and you're a badass dude like

00:14:20.180 Richard Duke of York you've been in all sorts of wars in France and in Ireland and even like members

00:14:26.200 of your own family and things have already been killed and murdered and you're already in a blood 0.89

00:14:30.180 feud of some type, right? You can see why Margaret of Anjou might fear for her position and that of

00:14:36.420 her little baby, because it's not that far away from some sort of situation where, well, she's one

00:14:42.520 heartbeat away, the king's heartbeat, away from being in a position where Richard, Duke of York 0.99

00:14:48.320 will just kill her baby, and maybe her. So you can see why, even though Richard, Duke of York, at this 0.58

00:14:53.060 stage, has shown no real interest in doing something like that, he's very, very clement, if

00:14:57.620 anything for the 15th century, for the 15th century. But nonetheless, you could see why

00:15:01.920 Margaret of Anjou would be paranoid. Except that's what I'm saying, it's not really paranoia,

00:15:07.100 it's sort of a reasonable fear, a reasonable worry. Okay, so because of that worry, she's

00:15:11.420 determined to crush York to make her baby's path clear to the throne. Throughout the years 1457 to 0.84

00:15:19.180 58, while her precarious peace was still preserved, Margaret was journeying up and down the land,

00:15:25.000 enlisting partisans in her calls and giving them her son's badge of the white swan to wear in token

00:15:31.720 of promised fidelity so while there's a bit of peace between them both sides are still really

00:15:37.060 marshalling their forces and you know getting ready for if and when more likely when hostilities

00:15:43.140 break out again and livery has a fair bit to do with all of this i.e what you wear if you wear a

00:15:48.260 certain badge the red or the white rose or in this case the white swan letting the world know

00:15:53.180 which side you're on, heraldry and livery. Okay, Oman continues saying this. The inevitable renewal

00:15:59.560 of war came in 1459. Its immediate cause was an attempt by some of the Queen's retainers to slay

00:16:06.980 the young Earl of Warwick. Warwick being a staunch Yorkist. That's one of the things you should have

00:16:12.120 pinned in your mind, that you've got Richard Duke of York. He's got three sons, the sons in splendour,

00:16:17.860 these sons of York. And Warwick. So in the Yorkist party, you've got Tywin Lannister,

00:16:25.180 Charles Dance, he's got three sons, and Warwick. Warwick the Kingmaker. He's really, really super

00:16:30.920 important to this whole story. Warwick. And the Queen tried to slay him, or her retainers did.

00:16:36.300 Oman describes the young Earl of Warwick as York's ablest and most energetic supporter.

00:16:41.200 then salisbury warwick's father raised his yorkshire tenants in arms the queen sent against

00:16:47.980 them a force under lord audley whom the elder neville defeated and slew at bloreheath after

00:16:54.480 this skirmish all england flew to arms to aid one party or the other york salisbury and warwick

00:17:01.120 met in ludlow on the welsh border while the king gathered a great army at worcester taking the

00:17:07.140 field himself remember it's just you know the king is a puppet the fact that he took the field

00:17:11.920 himself it's not like Henry V taking the field it's not like Edward I or Edward III taking the

00:17:18.080 field he's just a figurehead but okay he himself took the field with a vigor which he never before

00:17:24.140 or afterwards displayed he didn't get involved in any sort of swordplay like his father Henry V

00:17:28.400 Henry V literally involved in melee fighting hand-to-hand combat in Agincourt at Agincourt

00:17:35.040 Henry VI not doing any such thing, of course.

00:17:38.280 Oman continues saying,

00:17:39.480 It seems that York's adherents were moved by the vehement appeals

00:17:43.840 which King Henry made to their loyalty,

00:17:46.420 and cowed by the superior forces that he mustered.

00:17:49.660 At the rout of Ludlow, they broke up without fighting,

00:17:52.880 leaving their leaders to escape as best they might.

00:17:55.320 York fled to Ireland, Salisbury and Warwick to Calais,

00:17:58.880 of which the younger Neville, Warwick, was governor.

00:18:01.580 So, again, the pendulum swings.

00:18:03.600 Now the Lancastrians are at a super high ebb

00:18:06.480 The entire Yorkist party is dispersed

00:18:08.720 Fled in ignominy

00:18:10.180 The king and his party of Lancastrians

00:18:12.260 Complete victory

00:18:13.260 But the surprising and sudden

00:18:16.300 Vicissitudes of fortune

00:18:17.860 That's a classic Edward Gibbon turn of phrase there

00:18:20.480 The vicissitudes of fortune

00:18:22.300 I.e. the pendulum swinging back and forth

00:18:24.480 The vicissitudes of fortune

00:18:26.120 Were the order of the day

00:18:27.660 All through the Wars of the Roses

00:18:29.200 The queen and her friends ruled harshly and unwisely

00:18:32.660 after they had driven York out of the land,

00:18:35.280 they assembled a parliament at Coventry

00:18:37.140 which dealt out hard measures of attainder

00:18:39.920 and confiscation against all who had favoured Duke Richard.

00:18:44.320 A.E. Margaret of Anjou realises,

00:18:46.240 you know, it's a complete victory,

00:18:47.220 Lancashire victory,

00:18:48.160 so she's just gonna, well,

00:18:49.860 she clamped down too harshly, really.

00:18:52.740 Who finds that?

00:18:53.420 Who finds that? 1.00

00:18:54.080 It's either kill all your enemies 1.00

00:18:56.060 like a Turkish sultan, 1.00

00:18:57.900 murder every single last one of them 1.00

00:18:59.820 and all their kin, 0.99

00:19:00.540 Or be extremely kind and forgiving and put massive amounts of effort into reconciliation.

00:19:08.220 But to do a halfway house, I mean, you're quite strict on them.

00:19:11.820 You're quite harsh on them.

00:19:13.280 But you're not going the full bore nuclear option.

00:19:17.280 Well, well, it doesn't work out well.

00:19:19.380 Let's continue reading here.

00:19:20.840 OK, bills of attainder and confiscation against all who favor Duke Richard.

00:19:24.160 They sacked the open town of Newbury because it was supposed to favor York

00:19:28.660 And hung seven citizens of London 0.52

00:19:31.320 Of the Duke's party

00:19:32.740 These cruel actions

00:19:34.360 Turned the heart of the nation from the king

00:19:36.600 And the ruthless Queen Margaret 0.98

00:19:38.060 Just the optics of it don't look good

00:19:40.600 And you're not strong enough

00:19:42.260 To do the nuclear option

00:19:43.520 To do the Mongol option 0.99

00:19:46.540 The Scipio option

00:19:48.200 Of forcing an entire country to your will

00:19:51.100 Regardless of how ruthless or brutal it is

00:19:53.540 They're not capable of that

00:19:54.820 They're not even really trying to do that

00:19:56.540 So the halfway house of, you know, just executing seven people here

00:19:59.860 Sacking a town there

00:20:01.500 Confiscating the property and estates of a small number of people here or there

00:20:05.280 Yeah, the politics, the optics of that

00:20:07.440 Just turned the country against them

00:20:09.760 Well, some of the country, half the country anyway

00:20:12.340 It's the nature of a civil war, Omon continues

00:20:14.660 Hearing of this state of affairs

00:20:16.320 Warwick and Salisbury suddenly made a descent from Calais

00:20:19.600 I.e. that the country turned against Margaret and the king

00:20:22.760 So, you know, the Neville's

00:20:24.260 Warwick decides oh maybe we can just bounce back across the channel try our luck again

00:20:29.300 and they landed at Sandwich and pushed boldly inland the whole of Kent rose to join them

00:20:34.900 and they were able to march on London that pendulum swinging again we hope you enjoyed

00:20:41.240 that video and if you did please head over to lotusseaters.com for the full unabridged video

00:20:54.260 Thank you.

The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - March 22, 2026

PREVIEW： Epochs #255 ｜ Henry VI - Part 4

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