PREVIEW： Epochs #255 ｜ Henry VI - Part 4
Episode Stats
Words per minute
176.04185
Harmful content
Misogyny
3
sentences flagged
Toxicity
22
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Hate speech
8
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Summary
After the Battle of St Albans, the fortunes of the Yorkist faction swung wildly back and forth in favor of Richard, Duke of York and Warwick the kingmaker, until finally the whole thing was decided in favour of the House of Lancaster and Margaret of Anjou.
Transcript
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Hello and welcome back to Epochs where I shall be continuing my story of the Wars of the Roses
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or the story of the whole of the English monarchy, British monarchy ultimately in the end.
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But we're talking about Henry VI right now, aren't we?
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The son of Henry V, who's very, very weak and quite possibly suffering from mental health, genuine mental health problems.
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And that the Hundred Years' War has come to an ignominious end, as far as the English are concerned.
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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.
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Particularly the House of York and the House of Lancaster, descended from the second and third son of John of Gaunt.
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I'll keep talking about the John of Gaunt and the Lionel, Duke of Clarence.
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And last time we got up to the Battle of St Albans, which was really the first.
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It's not really, it's almost a battle, not quite a big proper battle.
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But I think maybe if you were there, it would seem quite battle-like.
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But it wasn't a full-blown pitched battle out on the field with thousands of men lining up
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and loads and loads of massed archery units and a cavalry charge apiece and all that sort of thing.
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Margaret of Anjou and all the various people in that orbit
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And if you remember last time I talked about how the pendulum swings back and forth wildly during the Wars of the Roses
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You know, when you look at big wars from the 20th century
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Quite often it becomes clear long before the end who's going to win, doesn't it?
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So at this particular point, i.e. straight after the Battle of St Albans
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And it's already swung, what, three or four times, hasn't it? Already
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Winston Churchill, The History of the English-speaking Peoples
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about things so he says this quote historians have shrunk from the wars of the roses and most
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of those who have catalogued their events have left us only a melancholy and disjointed picture
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we are however in the presence of the most ferocious and implacable quarrel of which there
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is a factual record in other words in other words he's saying it's actually a complicated picture
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the amount that it swings back and forth is crazy uh the record isn't a hundred percent complete
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we're still in the 15th century, remember? It's still a very long time ago. And just simply that,
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the record isn't 100% complete. When you get up to the 18th, 19th, 20th century,
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it's an embarrassment of riches as far as a historian is concerned. There's far too much
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documentary evidence. There's too much. You could never get through it all. If you wanted to read
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everything that there was to read about World War I, say, it's not possible in a lifetime.
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All the papers across all of Europe or across all of the world, for a start,
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it would take a lifetime to read those, just that.
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Whereas if you go back to the 15th century, if you talk about the Wars of the Roses,
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And so sometimes, well, often, we just don't know exactly what happened.
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Why is this person now suddenly switched camps or something like that?
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and there's so many characters so many personages that are of some importance to keep track of them
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all unless you're a professional historian and you spend a lifetime on this stuff again it can
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get very very confusing very very quickly and that's why when I'm telling this story I'm going
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to I will keep it to just the the key key players and keep reminding you who's who right hopefully
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i've put in your mind the idea that richard duke of york the father of edward the fourth to be um
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richard duke of york is like a tywin lannister character he's like charles dance type figure
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that's that's how i have him in mind maybe that will help you sort of uh anchor at least that
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character you know um and you've got you've got the the super weak king and his evil wife i was
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gonna call her margaret von joux evil i mean i don't know if she is particularly she's called
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the bad queen or something like that wouldn't she and um it's easy to think of her as foreign
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and French and evil in some way it's easy but whether she really was it's not quite that simple
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but um Churchill just saying here that it is a complicated story and there's no two ways about it
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you know if I have to keep mentioning the family tree I have to keep mentioning that you've got
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Edward III and all his children, and the second son, well, the first son, the Black Prince, who
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died, and then his son died, was killed, and then Lionel, Duke of Clarence, and the third son,
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John of God, I have to keep telling you that, and all those descendants. There's actually much more
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to it than that, the Mortimers and the Beauforts and so on and so on. So Churchill says, goes on
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to say here, the individual actors were bred by generations of privilege and war, into which the
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feudal theme had brought its peculiar sense of honor and to which the papacy contributed such
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spiritual sanction as emerged from its rivalries and intrigues it was a conflict in which personal
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hatreds reached their maximum and from which mass effects were happily excluded yeah personal
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hatreds reached their maximum just to let you know towards the end of the wars of the roses
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what quite often happened is one side would win a battle and they would and any of the leadership
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on the other side that didn't die in the battle but were captured they just all get executed
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because it's the only way to end a blood feud you know what in a way right the only way to end a
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blood feud is to just kill all the other side kill them all now that's brutal even for the 15th
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century in england anyway perhaps in the east it's a bit different but the idea that you would
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kill loads and loads of members of your own family loads and loads of your own cousins
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or all your own cousins you'd kill them all or you felt like you had to that was the only way
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to sort of bring it to an end so yeah it gets it gets really bloody and as Churchill said their
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personal hatreds reach their maximum we talked yesterday didn't we about that famous quote
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that you killed my father and now I'm going to kill you and your father that you know vendetta
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it's the nature of vendetta Churchill says there must have been many similar convulsions in human
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history none however has been preserved with characters at once so worldly and so expensively
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chiseled needless causes of confusion may be avoided towns must not be confused with titles
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this is a good point it's about to make the mortal struggle of York and Lancaster did not
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imply any antagonism between the two well-known English counties right yeah so the Yorkist family
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their strongholds weren't necessarily up and around York, the city of York, and the Duchy of
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Lancaster, the family, the Lancastrian family, weren't necessarily all that strong in Lancaster.
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So yeah, just be careful about that. York has in fact, this is Churchill again, York was in fact
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the stronghold of the Lancastrians, and the Yorkists founded their strength upon the Midlands
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and the south of England. The ups and downs of fortune were so numerous and startling,
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the family feuds so complicated the impact of national feeling in moments of crisis so difficult
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to measure because of like the incomplete record basically that it has been the fashion to
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disparage this period i think it's one of the most fascinating bits of english history in in all
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personally only shakespeare this is church again only shakespeare basing himself largely upon
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hall's chronicle has portrayed his savage yet heroic liniments he does not attempt to draw
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conclusions, and for dramatic purposes, telescopes, events, and campaigns. Let us now set forth the
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facts as they occurred. And then Churchill picks up the story again from the Battle of St. Albans,
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saying this. St. Albans was the first shedding of blood in strife. Well, remember the story,
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not quite. I mean, maybe in something approaching a battle, but it's not the first blood, is it?
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Gloucester was murdered, and Suffolk was murdered. So there has been blood, and you could draw
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all of this back to Henry IV, Henry the Boninbroke's usurpation of Richard II, you know, that
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blood, whether he was just smothered or, you know, whether he was actually murdered or
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not, we don't know, whether he was just starved to death or smothered or something, but, you
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know, it's not really the first shedding of blood, but, okay, the Battle of St. Albans,
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I guess what Churchill's saying is in some sort of open conflagration. He says, St. Albans
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was the first shedding of blood in strife. The Yorkists gained possession of the king,
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you know they were able to take him into their power and he's so weak and feeble that you can
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then claim that you're the whether he signs off on it or not you can just claim you're the government
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now you've got the you've taken the king prisoner that means you're the government now okay sort of
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like that but soon we see the inherent power of Lancaster i.e the faction that's just been defeated
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at the battle of St Albans basically they had the majority of the nobles on their side and the
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majesty of the crown because the king even though being taken prisoner hostage by the yorkists he
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is a lancastrian though isn't he right so nothing will change that in a few months they the
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lancastrians were as strong as ever continual trials of strength were made there were risings
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in the country and grim assemblies of parliament legality constitutionalism and reverence for the
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crown were counted but not yet overthrown by turbulent and bloody episodes the four years
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from 1456 to 1459 were a period of uneasy truce all seemed conscious of the peril to themselves
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and to their order but fate lay heavy upon them there were intense efforts at reconciliation
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the spectacle was displayed to the Londoners of the king being escorted to Westminster by a
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procession in which the duke of york and queen margaret walked side by side arch enemies remember
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the duke of york is that they've got the blood royal if the king and now his little baby edward
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if they were to die he would just be the king he's literally the next in line to the throne
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um margaret of onjou knows that and so they're just arch enemies the duke of york richard duke
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of york and margaret of onjou would kill each other if they could right so it's okay but they
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walked side by side followed by the Yorkist and Lancastrian lords the most opposed in pairs you
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know trying to heal this rift solemn pledges of amity were exchanged the sacrament was taken in
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common by all the leaders you know they're all catholic still the reformation hasn't the uh yeah
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the reformation hasn't happened yet so they're all still good catholics the sacrament was taken
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in common by all the leaders all sought peace where there was no peace the type of thing you
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know it's just simmering under the surface you know nothing has truly been resolved everyone
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still got their ambitions and their grudges even when a kind of settlement was reached in london
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it was upset by violence in the north in 1459 fighting broke out again a gathering near worcester
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of armed yorkists dispersed in the presence of the royal army and their chiefs scattered york
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returned to ireland richard duke of york returned to ireland and warwick to his captaincy of calais
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Somerset who was killed at the Battle of St Albans
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Decided to start doing the business of government
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And lots of various other very very powerful magnates
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and turned Duke Richard's friends out of office.
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Richard Duke of York's foe Somerset was now dead,
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York was fairly contented to leave matters in the king's own control.
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between the friends of the king and the friends of York.
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She feared for her infant son's right of succession to the throne
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And was determined to crush York to make his path clear
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Because again, should the mentally ill king, Henry VI
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Then the crown will either pass to his tiny little son, Edward
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That we're talking about here, little baby son, Edward
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it's relatively easy just to make a baby disappear or an infant if you really wanted to if an entire
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kingdom realm was at stake you only need to make one infant disappear and you're a badass dude like
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Richard Duke of York you've been in all sorts of wars in France and in Ireland and even like members
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of your own family and things have already been killed and murdered and you're already in a blood
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feud of some type, right? You can see why Margaret of Anjou might fear for her position and that of
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her little baby, because it's not that far away from some sort of situation where, well, she's one
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heartbeat away, the king's heartbeat, away from being in a position where Richard, Duke of York
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will just kill her baby, and maybe her. So you can see why, even though Richard, Duke of York, at this
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stage, has shown no real interest in doing something like that, he's very, very clement, if
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anything for the 15th century, for the 15th century. But nonetheless, you could see why
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Margaret of Anjou would be paranoid. Except that's what I'm saying, it's not really paranoia,
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it's sort of a reasonable fear, a reasonable worry. Okay, so because of that worry, she's
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determined to crush York to make her baby's path clear to the throne. Throughout the years 1457 to
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58, while her precarious peace was still preserved, Margaret was journeying up and down the land,
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enlisting partisans in her calls and giving them her son's badge of the white swan to wear in token
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of promised fidelity so while there's a bit of peace between them both sides are still really
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marshalling their forces and you know getting ready for if and when more likely when hostilities
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break out again and livery has a fair bit to do with all of this i.e what you wear if you wear a
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certain badge the red or the white rose or in this case the white swan letting the world know
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which side you're on, heraldry and livery. Okay, Oman continues saying this. The inevitable renewal
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of war came in 1459. Its immediate cause was an attempt by some of the Queen's retainers to slay
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the young Earl of Warwick. Warwick being a staunch Yorkist. That's one of the things you should have
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pinned in your mind, that you've got Richard Duke of York. He's got three sons, the sons in splendour,
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these sons of York. And Warwick. So in the Yorkist party, you've got Tywin Lannister,
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Charles Dance, he's got three sons, and Warwick. Warwick the Kingmaker. He's really, really super
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important to this whole story. Warwick. And the Queen tried to slay him, or her retainers did.
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Oman describes the young Earl of Warwick as York's ablest and most energetic supporter.
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then salisbury warwick's father raised his yorkshire tenants in arms the queen sent against
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them a force under lord audley whom the elder neville defeated and slew at bloreheath after
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this skirmish all england flew to arms to aid one party or the other york salisbury and warwick
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met in ludlow on the welsh border while the king gathered a great army at worcester taking the
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field himself remember it's just you know the king is a puppet the fact that he took the field
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himself it's not like Henry V taking the field it's not like Edward I or Edward III taking the
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field he's just a figurehead but okay he himself took the field with a vigor which he never before
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or afterwards displayed he didn't get involved in any sort of swordplay like his father Henry V
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Henry V literally involved in melee fighting hand-to-hand combat in Agincourt at Agincourt
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It seems that York's adherents were moved by the vehement appeals
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and cowed by the superior forces that he mustered.
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At the rout of Ludlow, they broke up without fighting,
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leaving their leaders to escape as best they might.
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York fled to Ireland, Salisbury and Warwick to Calais,
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of which the younger Neville, Warwick, was governor.
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That's a classic Edward Gibbon turn of phrase there
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The queen and her friends ruled harshly and unwisely
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and confiscation against all who had favoured Duke Richard.
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Or be extremely kind and forgiving and put massive amounts of effort into reconciliation.
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But to do a halfway house, I mean, you're quite strict on them.
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But you're not going the full bore nuclear option.
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OK, bills of attainder and confiscation against all who favor Duke Richard.
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They sacked the open town of Newbury because it was supposed to favor York
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So the halfway house of, you know, just executing seven people here
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Confiscating the property and estates of a small number of people here or there
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Well, some of the country, half the country anyway
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Warwick and Salisbury suddenly made a descent from Calais
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I.e. that the country turned against Margaret and the king
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Warwick decides oh maybe we can just bounce back across the channel try our luck again
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and they landed at Sandwich and pushed boldly inland the whole of Kent rose to join them
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and they were able to march on London that pendulum swinging again we hope you enjoyed
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that video and if you did please head over to lotusseaters.com for the full unabridged video