The Search for a Queen

Hello friends, we're back for the final chapter of the Plantagginates. Buckle up for a wild, bumpy, Bloody ride Now, for those of you new to, this is History, this is a gentle reminder that everyone who subscribes to the show gets episodes one and two straight into their feed at the start of every season That means subscribers stay a week ahead Subscribers, also known as my Royal favorites, also get ad free listening to hundreds more main and bonus episodes stretching right back to Henry II's day It's all there for you to discover on patreon. com forward slash This is History And now Let's season ten Begin Summer weekends are all about family, sunshine, and making memories together. Before everyone arrives, I stop on my local tootal wine and more to pick up a great bottle, maybe a favorite we already love or something new to enjoy dinner on the patio With so many bottles to choose from, it's easy to discover something amazing. And with the lowest prices, it's easy to grab an extra bottle for the table. Not sure what to pick up. Their friendly guides are always there to help. Find what you love and love what you find only at Total Wine and More. Curbside pickup and delivery available in most areas. visit tootalwine dot com to learn more. Spirit's not sold in Virginia and North Carolina, drrink resesponsibly must be twenty one Study and play. Come together on a Windows eleven PC. And for a limited time, college students get the best of both worlds. Get the unreal college deal, everything you need to study and play with select Windows eleven PCs. Eligible students get a year of Microsoft three hundred sixty five premium and a year of Xbox GamePass ultimate with a custom color Xbox wireless controller. Learn more at windows dot com slash student offer Whw supppplies last ends june thirtieth turnerms at aka. mS slash collllege PC Pembroke Castle is a grey, forbidding fortress which sits by the water on the southwest tip of Wales, whipped by the gales that blow in from the Atlantic Ocean In late january fourteen fifty seven, it's as bleak as it gets. Not only is this the coldest time of the year Today, the castle is also taught with the tension of a young woman giving birth She's a very young woman. Margaret Beaufort is thirteen and a half. That's perilously young to be laboring a child in any age. And Margaret isn't just young. She's also physically tiny The rooms she's lodged in at the castle have been comfortably set up for childbirth, the fires stoked and the windows and doors sealed to prevent dangerous vapourors from getting in There's a full staff of female midwives and attendants on hand to help Margaret through her ordeal But there's no ignoring the fact that her body and even her life are in real danger Not that Margaret's panicking. She's a determined girl and she's putting on a brave face. Others may worry about her safety, but she's only concerned for one thing, her child In the nine months that she's been carrying this baby, plague has been sweeping around Southwest Wales It killed her husband, Edmund Tudor striking him down last November t the age of twenty six. plague gets into the birthing chamber All Margaret's toil is going to be in vain. canan't let that happen Why not as well as the fierce maternal instinct that's alive in young Margaret, Baby will have royal blood in its veins Margaret is a granddaughter of John of Gaunt, legendary prince of the Plantagena dynasty That means she's a member of the Lancastrian clan headed by the useless shambling king, Henry VI. The child's late father, Edmund Tudor, was also part of the royal family So the child about to be born will join the small inner circle of the Lancastrian Royal house Which is good Because right now family could use a bit of freshening ar As the pangs of childbirth grip Margaret's little body, all thoughts of family trees are forgotten The women of the chamber gather round to help her through a very long and difficult labour When the baby is eventually delivered, it seems like a miracle. Margaret has suffered so much that she'll never have another child, but she's alive. And so is her son There's some debate about what to call him, but Margaret is in no doubt. This boy is going to be named Henry Henry Tudor And though the circumstances of his birth are not very promising teenage widow for a mum, a remote Welsh coastal castle for a home Fate has decided that he's destined for a very big future indeed Because outside these castle walls, the pllantagenates have entered the first spasms of a war that's going to burn the whole dynasty to the ground Out of the ashes will rise a new family the tutors And in this, the explosive final season of our Pantagenate saga We're going to follow the astonishing story of their rise to power I'm Dan Jones and from Sony Music Entertainment This is history seeason ten of a Dynasty to die for Soode what you hope? Whether you've been following this podcast since the beginning orr you're just joining us for the first time today I want to remind you Golden rule of Pantagenate history Anything can happen In the three centuries we've covered, we've seen kings rise from total obscurity to absolute power And we've seen rulers who seemed untouchable. hurtling down to earth with a splat Pays to remember one of my favorite medieval chronicler' quotes byy good old Gerald of Wales. Back in the twelfth century Gerald wrote, A sensible man ought to consider Fortune's favor is variable And her wheel is ever turning Although the merciful creator is long suffering and patient He is likewise severe in executing punishment and vengeance upon the stubborn willful and usually begins to exact that punishment Here on earth And yes, sure, I don't think we're going to squeeze that down to fit it on a slogan t shirt. but It seems to capture beautifully the topsy turviness of the Pantagenate cinematic universe One minute world is eating out of your hand The next It's sinking its fangs into a gluteyi maximi brings us to where we left our story last season In season nine We heard how England went from the triumphs of Henry V's reign to the Nadeer of Henry VI After a promising start, the king went mad, the nobles went feral, and eventually, after much tussling and some truly savage battles, an eighteen year old giant called Edward Earl of March, slashed his way to the top. Edward destroyed his enemies at the monstrous Battle of Toughton crushing a massive Lancastrian army. Seemingly from nowhere, he then took the throne as Edward IV, becoming the first king of the House of York If you're a newbie or want to recap, there's all that and more than two hundred other episodes available in our archive. To get them ad free, sign up at patreon d. com forward slash this is History The trouble is It isn't easy at the top So that's where we're going to pick up our story At the start of this episode, we are with Margaret Beaufort as she gave birth to Henry Tudor in fourteen fifty seven Now I promise we're going to come back to Margaret and Baby Henry as this season goes on But right now We're going to fast forward four and a half years to join Edward IV in the summer of fourteen sixty one. He's proven himself on the battlefield at Toughton suggesting that God is down with his claim to kingship In June, he's been crowned in London. Battle and now by coronation England has a new king But if Edward wants to hang on to his crown He's going to have an almighty struggle So to get our story going, to know Edward He was born in april fourteen forty two in Rouen, in Normandy. Dad, Richard Duke of York was in charge of what was then an English ruled chunk of Northern France. Richard fathered a big brood of children And at the time of Edward's coronation, he has three sisters and two brothers A lot more on them shortly In person, Edward's mighty impressive. He stands well over six feet tall And as well as being a handy warrior, he's a handsome chararming young man He's got the characteristic Long plantagenate nose piercing eyes and a small mouth that seems to have a smile playing at its corners. He also has quite a fancy for the ladies. fact The guy sniffs out hot damsel like a wild hog rooting for acorns traits that will cause him Quite a lot of trouble time goes by, but more of that to now Edward's charm is a positive virtue. A propaganda song composed in the aftermath of the Battle of Toughton Hils Edward as the Rose of Ruin That refers not only to his birthplace and his incredible Riz but also to his heraldic batch One of the symbols of Edward's rooyal House of York is a white rose And the song makes great play on this It goes, That rose stands alone, the chief flower of this land Blessed be the time that ever God spread that flower. Maybe that's laying it on a bit thick. Whichever way you look at it, Edward the Fth is an upgrade on Henry V six In the aftermath of Touton The old King is in exile in Scotland And many people would agree that England has traded up Those who would agree most strongly with that assessment peopleople who' helped Edward win his crown Chief among them is Edward's right hand man, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick. At thirty three years old in fourteen sixty one, Marwick has plenty of military experience and no shortage of ambition He's been at Edward's side for several years, and he fancies himself, with some justification, as the power behind the throne Yorkist P propaganda, produced around the same time as the Rose of Rong, calls Warwick the flower of Mannod. So clearly there's a general horticultural theme at play But more important than flower power are the lands and titles that Warwick accrs as a result of betting L on the House of York After Edward's coronation Warwick is showered with rewards. He already holds four yes four noble titles. On top of that, he gets renewed in his post as capaptain of Calais, that's the English military garrison in Northern France, which he made his stronghold during the wars in Henry VI's reign And on top of that, he pockets a whole portfolio of new offices Edward makes him Cstable of Dover Castle and warden of the sink ports Those are the most important trading towns on England's southeast coast Effectively, This means Warwick owns the whole English channel key military and trade seaway with Europe It's just the beginning also is appointed as warden of the North meananing he has oversight of the turbulent Scottish border He's put in charge of the Duchy of Lancaster and the Duchy of York Those are the two huge private estates owned by the crown then, there's a massive tranche of land confiscated from nobles who sided with Henry VI that Toughton especially the Percy family with the long term opponents. Warwick's Neville family in Northern England The financial value of all this makes Warwick the richest non royal noble of all time The political heft puts him virtually on a par with the king. Foreign diplomats describe him as being the governor of all England One French observer writes to the King of France that the English have but two rulers. Monsieur L Waric And another one is name I've forgotten Obviously that's a joke. The French can be amusing sometometimes But like all good one liners It's got a sharp sting of truth to it Warwick is more than a decade older than Edward And he's been around the block He reckons, with some justification that if it wasn't for him Be no House of York. So if the world wants to see him as a second king That suits Warwick downown to the ground But if Warwick is going to enjoy all the riches and the influence that being a kingmaker brings And it's going to fall on him to make sure Edward stays secure in his crown But it's not law Before he has to do Exactly that. because Within two years of Edward's coronation, There's a serious assault on the kingdom Royal spies find out that a plot is being hatched between renegade Lancastrians in England and foreign enemies outside Pulling the strings is a person who's nursed more hatred towards the House of York than anyone else The old Queen of England Mal This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome, that's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a fifty page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online makes sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responssees set upp required compatibility and availability varies eighteen plus What does it mean to be alive It means feeling deeply joy, sorrow, love, loss I'm Dacer Keltenner, a psychologist and host of the Science of Happiness Join me to explore research backed strategies to navigate life's ups and downs. Listen to the science of happiness and discover How to live a more connected, fulfilling life. An ill and tired sixty year old shuffles towards the chopping block An expectant crowd gathers around They've all made it to Tower Hill, the area immediately surrounding the Tower of London It's London's top spot to go and see a lively show, assuming you're into public executions In late february fourteen sixty two, it's John DeVre's turn The Earl of Oxford has been around the political scene in England for decades But it's a wonder the guy hasn't already died from a bad case of splinters in the backside, given how much of his life he's spent sitting on the fence For most of the wars between the Lancastrians and the Yorkists, Oxford avoided committing to either side But then, with incredibly bad timing, just before the Battle of Towon, he did pick a team, and unfortunately, it was the wrong one. He went for Queen Margaret and King Henry, and that decision has now come back to haunt him Oxford survived the accession of the new king, Edward IV But he forgot to update his settings to political reality Having chosen the Lancastrian side, he stuck with it got himself caught up in a web of intrigue, aimed bringing down the new King The plot that Oxford's got himself mixed up in has more moving parts than a swinger' party. The schemas include a hotch potch of exiled Lancastrian aristocrats They're backed with varying degrees of seriousness by foreign royals, including the rulers of Scotland, France, Brittany, Aragon Portugal and Denmark Putting it all together is Queen Margaret of Anjou who's been shuttling between Scotland and the courts of Europe trying to whip up support for a comeback for her and old King Henry Yorkist's propaganda accuses Margaret of wanting to destroy the realm To pervert the royal succession and bring Robbery and vengeance She would say she's just trying to get back what's hers by right The plan is, or rather was to launch a three pronged invasion with armies hitting the Yorkist regime from Wales, Southern England while insurgents within the realm rose up to create civil disturbance, overwhelming the new king's capacity to resist On Well, self evidently, the whole thing has. Raffle. Lse lips of sunk ships Key figures in England, like Oxford, have been betrayed Six days ago, Oxford's eldest son was divorced from his head on this very spot outside the Tower of London Now it's the older man's turn If anyone thinks there might be mercy, given Oxford's obvious ill health They're dead wrong The old gezer is brought forward, offered any last words Then made to kneel down and It's Syanara, suunshine The wars of the Roses claimed their latest noble head As the axe comes down on Oxford, the heat goes out of the wider plot he was party to Smelling failure the foreign backers mostly lose interest mostly Totally. Queen Margaret trying to salvage something from the mess She keeps on lobbying foreign rulers to help her out In the autumn of fourteen sixty two, she manages to scrape together enough donations and troops to take a few dozen ships and eight hundred mercenaries to Northern England where her men invade the coast of Northumbria and take control of a few castles. This isn't enough to threaten to collapse Edward's rule completely But it is still a bloody nuisis So now is the moment that Edward's heavily rewarded right hand man The Earl of Warwick has to step up and show his worth Across the winter of fourteen sixty two to sixty three. works his way around the castles Margaret's men are holding and kicks the rebels out of them. By march fourteen sixty three He seems to have got the job done And although he can't lay his hands on Queen Margaret herself or the feeble old Henry VI He manages to split them up. When it becomes clear that their plot has fizzled out Margaret h tails it into to France taking with her her nine year old son Will she ever see old Henry again Does she ever want to She's got to have mixed feelings about that one Either way This is very much round one to King Edward IV and the Earl of Warwick. And they follow up round one by taking rounds two three In the spring of fourteen sixty four, There's another attempt by renegade Lancastrian nobles to incite rebellion in the North The instigator this time is one of Queen Margaret's closest allies. Henry Beaufort, Duke of Somerset. He gets around five thousand men together and starts raising hell in Northern England. once again Edward and Warwick. respond They do They're already working hard through diplomatic channels to persuade the French and Scots to stop backing their enemies And when it seems like diplomacy isn't getting the message through to the Lancastrians in England They send an army out into the north It's led by Warwick's brother John Another old school veteran of England's civil wars whichich, by the looks of things are still Very much on John Neville wastes no time. He runs the Lancastrian rebels to ground engaging them in two battles known as the Battle of Hedgeley Moor and the Battle of Hexham At Hexham, in may fourteen sixty four, John Neville scores a crushing victory He buts the Lancastrian army to flight and kills its leader, the Duke of Somerset With that, the last embers of Lancastrian Rebellion in the North of England Finally, snuffed out Queen Margaret has no chance of rallying another insurgency anytime soon And though King Henry is still a free man Duffer isn't much of a threat to anyone on his own It's taken three years By the summer of fourteen sixty four Edward and Warwick look like they've survived The Lancastrian threat has been reduced to Margaret de Mjou fuming with her son somewhere on the continent Henry theI whoses AWL but not considered a very active threat and some minor characters who don't seem very threatening to anyone L the seven year old Henry Tudor But he and his mother, Margaret Beaufort been placed under genteel house arrest with a loyal Yorkist family in South Wales And honestly They don't seem like a big problem. So now, Edward and Warwick can pour themselves a drink Take a deep breath Start to think about plans for the rest of Edward's reign When they do that There seems to be one issue that matters above all others. securing the succession. They need to take a grip the long term future of the family For that Edward needs to get married makeake a sensible foreign alliance and get to work on producing some Yorkist princes princesses. The last bit, at least. feels like a job he's up to So, Warwick adds a new job to his ever lengthening resume as the king's right hand man and puppet master He's now a matchmaker Time to find the Rose of Rouen, a hot piece of medieval marriage material to make into the first ever Yorkist Qeen For years, a deranged man in Wichita known as the poet, stalked Ruth Finley. He sent her letters, gifts, and poems. The Wichita police put everything they had into Ruth's case, but got nowhere. The port was always two steps in front of us and we just didn't know why And the city was already living in fear under the watch of another monster who called himself BTK And he also had a thing for poetry Could we really have two different people? But no one could have guessed how this would end. That's one of those hitchcock endings that we did not expect From Sony Music, Entertainment and New Metric Media, this is the poet. I'm Rachel Brown Coming july first to the binge, search for the poet wherever you get your podcast to start listening today. Subscribers to the binge can listen to all episodes, all at once, ad free. The ammbassadors from Castile have been hangg around in the chamber in Westminster Palace For some time They've been waiting and waiting and waiting. Then England's charming young king Edward IV. B the room He seems a little out of breath, and when he has time to sit and everyone has a drink in their hands, he explains that he's just dashed sixty miles from Cambridge to meet them being the king business. What a job You need to be everywhere all at once But Edward's very glad the ambassadors waited becausecause he's been told I have quite a proposal for him Which is right The ambassadors explain they've been sent to England Make Edward the offer of a wife And not just any wife The king of Castile is Enrque IV He wants to suggest that Edward marries his sister Isabella That's not bad offer. Castile is a major kingdom. Isabella is just approaching her thirteenth birthday But as Margaret Beauford could have told them medieval marriage market takes a remarkably liberal view. That sort of thing And she is assuredly an princess Edward listens to the ammbassador's proposal and then makes a big show of rewarding them for their generosity in even delivering this wonderful message He gives them a free pass to bring some trading ships to England under his protection anytime in the next year trade as much wine as they like in exchange for as much English produce as they can carry It's a nice little sweetener. then again It needs to be Because actually, for all Edward's enthusiastic demeanor He's already decided that he isn't going to take them up on this marriage offer There are a few reasons One Is it this something of a stain hanging over Isabella's family. Her brother King Enrique who's making the offer is nicknamed Enrique the impmotent That's a direct reference to his own first marriage, which Eennrique found himself unable to consummate despite years of trying. Enrique claims that someone had to know how to phrase this politely. laid a curse on his Royal Wener This was a special sort of curse that only affected his ability to get it on with his wife and not with any number of mistresses and sex workers. several of whom were called to give evidence to that effect in a court case to annull his marriage Anyway The ins and outs or not. Of that episode They't need to concern us here The fact is that marrying the sister of Enrique the impmotent It doesn't fill Edward with much confidence. And more to the point, He has other irons in the fire. Or rather, his concilieri, the Earl of Warwick, does For the past three years, Warwick's been putting feelers out around Europe for potential wives for Edward And there are a number of plausible candidates The Duke of Burgundy as a sister She's one possibility. Then There's Mary of Geilders the widow of James II of Scotland, who's been sheltering Queen Margaret of Anjou and Henry VI Mary of Gilders is older than Edward And although there are many rumors about her exciting love life since she's been widowed The Scottish alliance might not be the worst idea in the world. Eespecially given Mary's current Lancastrian inclinations se his Fs Warwick has put a word in with the recently crowned French king, Louis XI Wondering if he has any daughters who might make a suitable English queen Since Louis's daughter is only three He's nixed that idea but he's offered up another option. His sister in law, Boner of Savoy On the grounds of her name alone, O Bona is the opposite of Enrique the Imotent sister And a French alliance has been a reliable route in international marriage diplomacy for generations stretching all the way back to Edward the first's day For more on, Edward I, listen back to season four of A Dynasty to die for. I'd start with episode four, A New Arthur The point is, Warwick has plenty of options If anything, the problem is choosing which of these eligible young European princesses is going to be the match most fitting for King Edward and the House of York Now that their problems with the Lancastrians are starting to recede. By the end of summer, fourteen sixty four, Warwick is leaning towards a French match and he's about to send a diplomatic delegation to the town of Sant O Mer, south of Calais, to get serious about thrashing out details It looks like Warick's first big coup on the international stage is about to materialize, and all he needs is for Edward to sign off on it The House of York will be properly up and running as a royal dynasty. A meeting is fixed for september fourteen sixty four there Edward and Warwick can do the big reveal and tell the rest of the English nobility Just which lucky lady, is going to be England's new queen But as the date for the public announcement approaches, starts to get a funny feeling that not everything is as it should be For the first time, There seems to be a distance between what he's thinking and what the king is doing Edwards Not exactly leaving Warwick on red But he's not responding with the same gusto he used to Is Warrick imagining it Or could the king really be getting cold feet Either way Wry is right to be worried What he doesn't know is that his protege Edward has indeed been up to something. It's a plan utterly of his own devising. and so audacious that when he reveals what it is It's worthy of its own reality TV show doneone is I'll save that for next time To find out just what Edwards got on his mind, Warwick has now got on his political plate. Stick around and listen to our next action packed episode of this is history Well, if I've told you once, I've told you a hundred times. There are few more potent moving forces in history than boners And if you want to find out whether it is Boner of Savoy or someone else entirely, who's caught Edward's roving eye and you can listen to episode two. Now. by signing up to become a royal favorite as well as getting every episode a week early and ad free You'll have access to lively chat rooms, discounts on my books, and video updates from me every week. So go on Join the royal courourt at patreon. com Forward slash This is history