PREVIEW： Epochs #256 ｜ Henry VI - Part 5
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176.04185
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Summary
Continuing my story of the Wars of the Roses, I look at how the House of York and House of Lancaster came to power in the early 17th century, and how they fought each other to the bitter end. I read from Winston Churchill's The History of the English Speaking Peoples and the History of England.
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