The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - PREVIEW： Epochs #257 ｜ Henry VI

00:00:00.000 Hello and welcome back to Epochs where I shall be continuing the story all about the life and

00:00:25.920 career of King Henry VI and now King Edward IV because their reigns effectively overlap or do

00:00:33.580 overlap. The Wars of the Roses. We're talking about the Wars of the Roses. So just to recap you where

00:00:38.340 we were last time, the Yorkists, Edward IV, the son in splendour, this son of York had basically

00:00:44.500 won. There was a battle of Tewkesbury, which was a decisive Yorkist victory. So we've had that.

00:00:49.160 And then over the next two, three, four years, even, Warwick, the arch Yorkist kingmaker, Warwick,

00:00:55.240 puts down all sorts of final pockets of Lancastrian revolt and rebellion all over the country.

00:01:01.760 Sometimes they flip back to the Lancastrians. It's far from straightforward, but it's basically

00:01:05.960 a full Lancastrian victory. Sorry, a full Yorkist victory. Edward IV is the king,

00:01:13.520 sort of completely undisputed king. Even the old king, Henry VI, is just in prison. He's in the

00:01:18.720 tower. They haven't executed him or anything yet, but he's in the tower. He's completely

00:01:24.180 under their power and the queen, the bad queen, Margaret of Anjou and the Prince of Wales and

00:01:30.560 Edward are just in exile in France, licking their wounds, hoping to not get murdered or

00:01:35.980 assassinated. So full Yorkist victory at this point. We left off last time when I was talking

00:01:40.200 about Edward's marriage to Elizabeth Woodville, where Warwick and the whole court really had

00:01:45.420 expected the unmarried King Edward IV, young, still in his early 20s, to marry a French princess

00:01:51.580 or some sort of European princess or duchess

00:01:54.020 but he revealed that actually he was already married

00:01:56.560 to a minor Lancastrian woman, Elizabeth Woodville

00:02:00.140 who's already got two kids, her husband's a widow

00:02:02.580 her husband had been killed

00:02:04.320 and apparently she was very, very beautiful

00:02:06.500 and he'd married her and so that's it

00:02:09.520 and Warwick didn't like that

00:02:10.680 Warwick was becoming too overly powerful as far as Edward was concerned

00:02:14.100 too overly powerful and too arrogant and too ambitious

00:02:18.180 so Edward starts putting him aside

00:02:20.460 and putting the Woodville family in positions of power.

00:02:24.640 So, in other words, there's quite a large internal power struggle now

00:02:29.360 underneath King Edward, right?

00:02:31.400 The Lancastrians are basically out of the picture for a few years here.

00:02:34.380 They're basically full-blown defeated one way or another,

00:02:38.280 although not entirely defeated, you see?

00:02:40.600 The king, the queen, and the prince of Wales are still alive,

00:02:43.480 but fully defeated, basically.

00:02:45.040 So the Yorkist part itself starts turning on each other one way or another.

00:02:49.340 I shall be reading as always from Professor Sir Charles Oman and Sir Winston Churchill

00:02:53.760 Let's let Churchill continue the story with his chapter all about the adventures of Edward IV

00:03:00.440 That's what the chapter's called

00:03:01.760 And we start with a bit of an overview about Edward and his character

00:03:04.740 And just let Churchill tell a bit of the story

00:03:07.660 He says this, quote

00:03:09.020 King Edward IV had made good his right to the crown upon the field

00:03:12.840 Field of battle

00:03:13.740 He was a soldier and a man of action

00:03:15.920 In the teeth of danger his quality was at its highest

00:03:19.060 in war nothing daunted or wearied him long marches hazardous decisions the marshalling of armies the

00:03:27.200 conduct of battles seems his natural sphere the worse things got the better he became but the

00:03:33.660 opposite was also true he was at this time a fighting man and little more and when the fighting

00:03:39.460 stopped he had no serious zest for sovereignty the land was fair the blood of youth coursed through

00:03:46.240 his veins all his blood debts were paid with ease and goodwill he sheathed his sharp sword

00:03:52.500 it had won him his crown now to enjoy life end quote so in other words when his back's up against

00:03:58.840 the wall and there's battles to be had he comes to life and is a great man of action but when there

00:04:04.620 isn't battles to be had when there is no great power struggle he takes his foot completely off

00:04:09.900 the gas completely he becomes lazy and indolent i mean later in life he doesn't live all that long

00:04:15.360 Spoiler alert, he dies of natural causes

00:04:17.420 But he doesn't live a long, long life

00:04:19.600 But he gets fat, he gets fat

00:04:21.060 He overindulges in food and drink

00:04:23.220 And women to some degree

00:04:25.180 But definitely being lazy and greedy

00:04:28.120 When he doesn't have to do fighting

00:04:29.900 When he doesn't have to run around the country

00:04:31.560 And conduct battles and martial armies

00:04:34.000 He just enjoys himself

00:04:36.000 Okay, Churchill goes on here saying

00:04:37.940 The successes of these difficult years

00:04:40.220 Had been gained for King Edward

00:04:42.380 By the Neville family

00:04:43.700 Warwick and Montague now Earl of Northumberland with George Neville Archbishop of York had the

00:04:49.880 whole machinery of government in their hands as I say complete Yorkist victory at this point

00:04:54.240 the king had been present only at some of the actions he could even be reproached for his

00:04:59.340 misguided clemency because if you remember last time we talked about how he he tried to show mercy

00:05:03.620 and clemency to a few of the uh Lancasterian rebels uh and in the end that bit him in the ass

00:05:10.380 and he had to take them out anyway. But, you know, he tried. Some would say credit for trying.

00:05:15.520 Some would say that was dumb. But nonetheless, he tried it. It sort of failed. Churchill said

00:05:20.500 his misguided clemency, which had opened up again the distresses of civil war, his magnanimity had

00:05:26.600 been at length sternly repressed by his councillors and generals, i.e. reverse course on that. You've

00:05:32.220 got to stamp them out entirely. In the first part of his reign, England was therefore ruled by two

00:05:37.800 brothers Warwick and Northumberland so the king's on top King Edward the Duke of York now king but

00:05:44.000 then under him Warwick and Warwick's brother Lord Montague they're the ones that really do the

00:05:49.080 business of government really wield the power and control policy as long as Edward himself is happy

00:05:55.420 and content and well fed he's happy for others to actually control government Warwick and Lord

00:06:00.260 Montague the Earl of Northumberland they believe that they had put the king on the throne and meant

00:06:04.980 him to remain there while they governed. The king did not quarrel with this. In all his reign he

00:06:10.760 never fought but when he was forced. Then he was magnificent. History has scolded this prince of

00:06:16.140 22 for not possessing immediately the state's craft and addiction to business to which his

00:06:22.800 office called. Edward united contrasting characters. He loved peace, he shone in war, but he loved peace

00:06:29.800 for its indulgences rather than its dignity. His pursuit of women, in which he found no obstacles,

00:06:36.140 combined with hunting, feasting and drinking to fill his life. Were these not the rightful prizes

00:06:41.860 of victory? Let Warwick and Northumberland and other anxious lords carry the burden of state

00:06:47.120 and let the king be merry. That was his thinking. For a while this suited all parties. The victors

00:06:53.480 divided the spoil, the king had his amusements and his lords their power and policy. It should

00:06:59.160 have been all good shouldn't it everyone's happy could have should have worked out well why not go

00:07:03.800 on like that indefinitely well it wasn't to be Churchill continues thus some years slipped by

00:07:09.200 while the king although gripping from time to time the reins of authority led in the main his life of

00:07:14.900 ease his mood towards men and women is described in well-chosen words by the stayed Hume who wrote

00:07:22.180 Churchill's quoting Hume saying during the present interval of peace he lived in the most familiar

00:07:27.660 and sociable manner with his subjects particularly with the Londoners and the beauty of his person

00:07:33.260 as well as the gallantry of his address which even unassisted by his royal dignity would have

00:07:39.060 rendered him acceptable to the fair facilitated all his applications for their favor this easy

00:07:45.580 and pleasurable course of life augmented every day his popularity among all ranks of men he was

00:07:51.640 the peculiar favorite of the young and gay of both sexes happy gay not homosexual gay the

00:07:57.680 disposition of the English little addicted to jealousy kept them from taking umbrage at these

00:08:03.440 liberties and his indulgence in amusements while it gratified his inclination was thus become

00:08:09.540 without design a means of supporting and securing his government i.e let the powerful met a powerful

00:08:15.320 and ambitious men under him let them have their power that's the end of Hume's quote Churchill

00:08:19.220 goes on saying, after these comparatively mild censures, the historian proceeds to deplore the

00:08:25.740 weakness and imprudence which led the king to stray from the broad sunlit glades of royal

00:08:31.740 libertinage onto the perilous precipices of romance and marriage. One day the king of hunting

00:08:37.940 was carried far by the chase. He rested for the night at a castle. In this castle, a lady of

00:08:43.600 quality, niece of the owner, had found shelter. Elizabeth Woodville, or Wigville, was the widow

00:08:50.000 of Lancastrian knight Sir John Grey, and Sir John Grey was, quote, in Margaret's battle at St Albans

00:08:56.020 slain. Her mother, Jacketta of Luxembourg, had been the youthful wife of the famous John, Duke of

00:09:02.840 Bedford, and after his death she had married his steward, Sir Richard Woodville, later created Earl

00:09:08.780 rivers. This condescension so far below her station caused offence to the aristocracy, i.e.

00:09:14.500 Richard Woodville was no Duke of Bedford. That's a massive, massive step down, even though he was

00:09:19.340 created an earl, but okay. She was fined £1,000 as a deterrent to others. She was actually disgraced

00:09:25.680 the aristocracy by marrying a mere knight after being married to a duke. Nevertheless, she lived

00:09:31.520 happily ever after. Yeah, they seemed to have genuinely loved each other. And bore her husband

00:09:35.420 no fewer than 13 children, of whom Elizabeth was one. This is our Elizabeth Woodville, to be queen,

00:09:42.740 to be the white queen of England. There was higher as well as ordinary blood in Elizabeth's veins.

00:09:48.040 She was an austere woman, upright, fearless, chaste and fruitful. She had children, a bunch

00:09:54.340 of children herself. She and her two sons were all under the ban of the attainder, which disinherited

00:10:00.180 the adherents of Lancaster, because her ex-husband had been staunchly Lancastrian. The chance of

00:10:06.260 obtaining royal mercy could not be missed, i.e. the kings come to stay at their home. This is her

00:10:12.120 chance, perhaps her one and only chance, to actually speak to the king himself. And you know, you can

00:10:18.060 only imagine, it's something like, look yeah, we did used to be Lancastrian, sure, but we're sorry

00:10:22.700 now, you know, my husband's dead now, he paid the ultimate price, didn't he? How long were we to be

00:10:27.620 completely um disinherited and punished forever we're on board with the yorkists now we recognize

00:10:33.240 you as king now we're loyal to you now um can you let us off you know is there anything that

00:10:39.000 can be done plus she's extremely beautiful apparently and edward loves the women's okay

00:10:46.160 church says the chance of obtaining royal mercy could not be missed the widow bowed in humble

00:10:50.160 petition before the youthful conqueror and like the tanner's daughter of filets that'll be william

00:10:55.560 the Conqueror's mother. William the Conqueror's mother truly was a bit of a peasant, but she

00:11:00.400 caught the eye of a duke, William of Normandy's father. She just caught his eye and he decided,

00:11:05.380 right, you, I'm marrying you. I don't care that you're a peasant, that you're a tanner's daughter.

00:11:09.440 Like the tanner's daughter of Falaise, made at first glance the sovereign her slave. So he fell

00:11:15.240 in love with her immediately. She was that beautiful. Shakespeare's account, though somewhat

00:11:19.140 crude, does not err in substance. The Lady Elizabeth observed the strictest self-restraint

00:11:24.800 which only enhanced the passion of the king he gave her all his love and when he found her

00:11:30.380 obdurate i she's not immediately returning his affection he besought her to share his crown

00:11:36.000 he spurned the counsels of prudence and worldly wisdom loads of people around him say calm down

00:11:41.580 bro don't don't marry her don't what you're doing that's mad like it's not worth it okay

00:11:46.080 why conquer your battles why be a king if not to gain one's heart's desire that was his that was

00:11:52.380 Edward's response yeah what's the point in being king if you can't do what you want if you can't

00:11:56.760 choose the woman you want to marry what's the point in being at the top of things if you can't

00:12:00.340 even do that but he was well aware of the dangers of his choice his marriage in 1464 with Elizabeth

00:12:06.700 Woodville was a secret guarded in deadly earnest the statesmen at the head of the government while

00:12:12.660 they smiled at what seemed an amorous frolic never dreamed it was a solemn union which must

00:12:18.640 shake the land to its depths end quote because yeah i mean edward was known as a womanizer

00:12:24.840 everyone around him all would have thought elizabeth woodville was just one more of those

00:12:28.400 right um but it wasn't to be churchill goes on saying warwick's plans for the king's future

00:12:33.560 had been different warwick thinks he can control the king now a few years down the line what three

00:12:38.320 four five years after tewksbury warwick thinks he's just so used to wielding power and being

00:12:44.560 extremely popular and powerful in the land he's starting to think he can just tell the king what

00:12:49.560 to do and what to think where to go and all that sort of thing well edward he might be lazy and

00:12:55.200 indolent when there's nothing to do but he's not a fool he's not a pushover at all not at all but

00:13:01.100 warwick starts to think that he might be so okay warwick's plans for the king's future had been

00:13:06.760 different isabella of the house of spain or preferably a french princess were brides who

00:13:12.760 might greatly forward the interests of England. A royal marriage in those days might be a bond of

00:13:17.960 peace between two neighbouring states or the means of successful war. Warwick used grave arguments

00:13:23.600 and pressed the king to decide. Edward seemed strangely hesitant and dwelt upon his objections

00:13:29.940 until the minister, who was also his master, became impatient. Warwick doesn't know about

00:13:36.760 the secret marriage. No one really does, or not no one. Very, very, very few people know about

00:13:41.000 The secret marriage to Elizabeth Woodville

00:13:42.460 And the kingmaker

00:13:44.160 Warwick himself

00:13:44.900 Is not in on it

00:13:45.880 And he doesn't get why

00:13:47.200 Edward is sort of umming and ahhing

00:13:49.240 Being like

00:13:49.660 Oh I might marry a French princess

00:13:51.280 I might not

00:13:51.980 I don't know

00:13:52.720 There's no need to right now

00:13:53.780 Is there

00:13:54.240 And in the end

00:13:54.980 Warwick starts

00:13:55.580 Churchill just said there

00:13:57.200 Starts becoming impatient

00:13:58.060 Starts trying to tell Edward

00:13:59.820 What to do

00:14:00.440 Like explicitly

00:14:01.280 It's like

00:14:01.900 Okay you are doing this now

00:14:03.380 Okay I am just going to arrange

00:14:05.060 For you to go and meet

00:14:06.060 A French princess

00:14:06.740 Or bring a Spanish princess

00:14:08.160 Over here for you to meet

00:14:09.340 Or whatever

00:14:09.740 I'm going to start

00:14:11.000 putting putting things in motion for you to get married okay and edward's like it's just not he's

00:14:16.400 not playing along with it okay the minister started to become impatient then at last the truth was

00:14:22.360 revealed to all he had for five months been married to elizabeth woodville here then was the occasion

00:14:28.100 which sundered him from the valiant kingmaker 14 years older but also in the prime of life warwick

00:14:35.000 had deep roots in england and his popularity whetted by the lavish hospitality which he

00:14:40.800 offered to all classes upon his great many estates was unbounded the londoners looked to him he held

00:14:48.080 the power but no one knew better than he that there slept in edward a tremendous warrior

00:14:53.800 skillful ruthless and capable when roused of attempting and of doing all end quote yeah so

00:15:00.780 edward you know again when it comes to remember the tewksbury and all the battles before that

00:15:04.360 if and when it came to it um he is probably a better general than you almost certainly a better

00:15:10.340 general than you probably a better organizer than you definitely a better warrior an actual fighter

00:15:16.240 in actual combat probably got more energy than you probably more wily than you he might seem like a

00:15:22.120 a little puppy at the moment he just all he wants to do is eat and drink and fornicate but if it

00:15:28.020 comes to it and and utterly ruthless again after a battle he will just more or less in cold blood

00:15:33.960 execute everyone right he's a badass individual you know don't be mistaken just because at the

00:15:39.900 moment he likes to spend his days doing nothing really that doesn't mean he's not extremely

00:15:46.160 capable all right so Churchill continues here saying the king too for his part began to take

00:15:51.460 more interest in affairs the the affairs of government that is Queen Elizabeth had five

00:15:56.640 brothers seven sisters and two sons by royal decree he raised them to higher rank by all these

00:16:03.560 rivers the rivers family the Woodville family same thing all these brothers they all get given higher

00:16:09.260 jobs and even her two sons once they grow up a bit. They're given high rank or married them

00:16:13.840 into the greatest families. He went so far as to marry his wife's fourth brother at 20

00:16:18.980 to the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, aged 80. Eight new peerages came into existence in the Queen's

00:16:27.260 family. Her father, five brothers-in-law, her son and her brother Anthony. Her brother Anthony

00:16:33.440 becomes an important player in all of this. This was generally thought excessive. Oh yeah, most

00:16:38.040 people watching this, all the aristocracy, you know, everyone in and around the court,

00:16:42.260 they see this lowly Rivers family, the Woodville family, they see them, they're ex-Lancastrians,

00:16:49.540 and just not very important at all, suddenly made into one of the most important families

00:16:56.260 in the country, arguably second, third, fourth most important family, in terms of pure patronage

00:17:02.480 and influence over the king, the most powerful family outside of the Yorks themselves.

00:17:08.040 Well, even above them, right?

00:17:09.820 The Neville's, the Warwick, the kingmaker,

00:17:13.600 they're cousins of Edward, Duke of York,

00:17:16.660 and all his brothers and his immediate family.

00:17:18.640 They're cousins.

00:17:19.520 But the Neville's, now the Rivers,

00:17:21.260 they've been placed, starting to be placed above them even.

00:17:25.500 They've gone from nowhere.

00:17:26.680 And just because Edward wants to,

00:17:27.880 he's made them the most powerful family in the country,

00:17:30.900 more or less, one way or another, could be argued.

00:17:33.580 Okay, that's not going to sit well with everyone else.

00:17:36.260 It's a zero-sum game, right?

00:17:37.560 There's only a certain amount of power and positions to go around

00:17:41.020 A finite number, very small number really

00:17:43.700 And he's given it all to these upstarts

00:17:46.180 Well, nobody other than them is happy with that

00:17:49.600 Particularly the Neville's and Warwick the Kingmaker himself

00:17:53.340 Churchill says, all this patronage was generally thought excessive

00:17:57.480 It must be remembered that at this time there were but 60 peers

00:18:01.900 Of whom not more than 50 could ever be put to Parliament on one occasion

00:18:06.460 All these potentates were held in a tight and nicely calculated system

00:18:11.420 The arrival of a new nobility who had done nothing notable in the war

00:18:15.600 And now, other than nominally be on the Lancastrian side

00:18:19.200 And now surrounded the indolent king

00:18:21.820 Was not merely offensive

00:18:23.220 But politically dangerous to Warwick and his proud associates

00:18:27.080 But the clash came over foreign policy

00:18:29.320 In this sad generation, England, lately the master

00:18:32.780 Had become the sport of neighbouring states, remember?

00:18:36.460 the Hundred Years' War is still almost just about in living memory. The campaigns, the wonderful,

00:18:41.920 brilliantly successful campaigns of Henry V is only like a generation ago, getting on to sort of

00:18:47.300 two generations ago. It's still just about within living memory. And now we're completely,

00:18:52.140 completely foiled and reversed in France. So it's like an embarrassment for us, foreign policy,

00:18:58.880 at least as far as France is concerned on the French front. Okay. On the foreign policy,

00:19:03.120 Churchill said we'd become the sport of neighbouring states. Her titled refugees from one faction or

00:19:09.160 the other beset the courts of Western Europe. The Duke of Burgundy had been shocked to learn one

00:19:13.840 morning that a Duke of Exeter and several other higher English nobles were actually begging their

00:19:19.880 bread at the tale of one of his progresses. Ashamed to see a slight upon his class, he provided them

00:19:26.820 with modest dwellings and allowances. Similar charities were performed by Louis XI to the

00:19:33.180 unhappy descendants of the victors of Agincourt, i.e. the sort of the Lancastrians, exiled

00:19:38.680 Lancastrians that have completely lost really in England, in mainland England, Wales and Scotland.

00:19:44.080 A lot of them fled to France or Burgundy and the French sort of take pity on them in some way.

00:19:50.120 Well, they know that it's a thorn in England's side. They're an annoying loose end as far as

00:19:56.400 England is concerned so help them give them succour why not if it undermines England that's

00:20:02.040 always good for France isn't it kind of as simple as that. Churchill says Margaret with her retinue

00:20:06.940 of shadows was welcomed in her pauper stateliness both in Burgundy and in France at any moment

00:20:13.600 either power now become formidable as England had waned might support the exiled faction in good

00:20:19.880 earnest and pay back the debts of 50 years before an invasion of England. We hope you enjoyed that

00:20:26.340 video and if you did please head over to lotusseaters.com for the full unabridged video.

The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - April 05, 2026

PREVIEW： Epochs #257 ｜ Henry VI - Part 6

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