Margaret Beaufort's Yorkist Strategy

Hello friends, just a quick one from me about what's in this week's bonus episode. And this time, it's all about two figures who are on different ends of the thespian spectrum First, producer Al and I discuss Edward IV's bad Henry the Fth cosplay, and then we get into Margaret Beaufort's Oscar worthy performance of piety and patience in the face of absolute Iidiocy Plus Yet another update from the on again, off again romance between England and Burgundy You can watch all of that ad free over at our royal courourt. hit patreon dot com forward slash. This is history to subscribe But for now, It's time for the pllantagenate's best H Tribute act Summer is for spending time with friends and family, whether it's dinner on the patio, a girls night, or a last minute get together. It feels like there's always something on the calendar Total wine and more is always part of my plans. I'll usually pick up a couple of wines I love, maybe a ready to serve cocktail and something new to try. With the lowest prices, I can say yes to every summer get together, shop, total wine and more and get ready for your next summer gathering. Spirits are not sold in Virginia and North Carolina, drink responsibly be twenty one Good sleep is everything That's why Oie's science backack support is made with a blend of melatonin and LDNine for both kids and grownups So when your mind won't switch off, you've got something that can help E racing thoughts and restless nights won't stand a chance Find Ollie sleep solutions for the whole family at Oie. com That's O L L Y dot com The yard outside Knoseley Hall is busy with men preparing to go to war. Horses are being groomed and attack checked over. Bows and arrows are packed, along with foodstuffs that won't perish on the long journey overseas. Banners are stitched and tents rolled up. pieces of steel armour are buffed until they're gleaming It won't be long until this roads show rumbles out of Knoseley and makes the long trip south to London From there, the Lord of the Mor, Thomas Lord Stanley, will take his men on to Canterbury, where a massive army is mustering under the Plantagenate king, Edward IV drrums of war are beating. And for once, it's not civil war. Edward IV is planning a huge invasion of France, bigger than anything seen since the legendary campaigns of Henry V more than half a century ago Stanley is going to serve as one of his top advisors It makes a big change for the English to be banding together to fight someone else The whole country is crackling with excitement Stanley's wife, thirty one year old Margaret Beaufort watches the war preparations in their courtyard with interest It's fourteen seventy five, four years on from the last round of bloodleting in the Wars of the Roses Since then, plenty has changed for her For a start, Margaret has been widowed for the third time and married for the fourth Her most recent husband, Henry Stafford, died in fourteen seventy one after wounds he sustained fighting for King Edward at the Battle of Barnet So now she's married to forty year old Stanley the most powerful lord in Northwest England, as well as steward of the Royal household close connection with the Yorkist King. keeping Margaret immune from suspicion that she's a closet supporter of the Lancastrian faction Edward recently destroyed. And that's just as well It's true that the Lancastrians were crushed in fourteen seventy one. Henry VI murdered, Warwick the Kingmaker slain in battle, Margaret of Anjoux arrested, and her son killed. that makes Margaret little more vulnerable Because it may be that her only son, Henry Tudor, is now the last heir to the Lancastrian cause Aged eighteen Henry's living in exile across the channel on the assumption that England and Wales aren't safe for him anymore B One of Edward's side quests in his military expedition to France might be to get Henry back in his clutches. Margaret has to assume it might be So as she watches her husband Stanley, with the final touches to his war preparations She knows her entire family survival hinges What happens next I'm Dan Jones and from Sony Music Entertainment, This is history Season ten of A Dynasty to die for Episode seven Tribute act twentyenty five years ago, or thereabouts, when I was a student and forever on the lookout for high jins and entertainment I would often go on a Monday night to an Irish pub To watch a singer, we used to call Fat Elvis. Fat Elvis probably had a name, one that wasn't Fat Elvis, I mean. But the fact was, he was an Elvis Presley impersonator, and even by late period Elvis standards, the guy was carrying some timber So fat Elvis was the name we gave him, although never to his face What was the appeal of Fat Elvis Honestly, the same as pretty much every musical tribute act from Guns notot Roses to the Australian Pink Floyd to Ron Jovy. It was an exercise in hearing the greatest hits belted out and not worrying too much about the dodgy wig, cheap plastic sunglasses, an exceptionally tight fitting rhinestone jumpsuit You know how it is? Some nights you just want to hear hound doog and unchained melody howled in the direction of the moon And you don't care who it is that's doing Why am I telling you about fat Elvis Well, because in fourteen seventy five, Edward IV who by this stage has piled on a few pounds himself. has decided to perform a tribute act of his own It's more than twenty years since the last English land holdings in France, other than Calais. Well lost It's coming on for half a century since anyone over in the land of the long white Baguette was genuinely scared by the prospect of an English invasion Edward has decided that in the aftermath of his dire trouble with Warwick and the Lancastrians What England needs to lighten the mood is to turn the clock back and party like it's fourteen twenty nine. It's the Hundred Years War reeductx When in doubt Go give the French a good kicking In fourteen seventy five, that means raising a massive army and shipping it across the channel, with the intention of causing some good old fashioned mayhem It means allying with the Duke of Burgundy to batter the King of France It means Edward, squeezing his rapidly expanding ass into his armor and making like he's fat Henry V, or indeed making like he's fat any of the other Plantagenate kings who went to war back in the day. Which to be fair Edward. freely acknowledges When he's in the planning stages of his campaign, He gets one of his flunkies to stand up in Parliament and make a speech. asking Parliament to grant a war tax That speech directly references the foreign campaigns of Henry I second, Richard the Lionhart Edward the first and Edward III. and it mentions them all most approvingly It's a fact of English policy, says the Flunky. But it is not well possible, nor has been since the conquest that justice, peace and prosperity have continued any while in this land in any king's day, except in such as have made war outward War is peace, you see Allr war on the Fromage guzlers have been England's enemies since time immemorial is at any rate So even though the Hundred Years War wrapped up with a comprehensive French victory at the Battle of Castillon in fourteen fifty three Edward now wants to stir things up again He says he wants the old Plantagenate heirlooms back, Normandy and Gascony thingsings will get nasty And while this war is definitely in retro It's not going off half cop. Because the military mobilization that takes place in fourteen seventy five involves Edward assembling the biggest army in living memory. thirteen thousand hard bastards, tough from decades of civil strife at home He hires artillery manufacturers to make him some ridiculously huge cannon Big guns include a franklin monstrous bombard named The Great Edward of Calais It's the size of sixty or more regular cannons If war is on some level a pintal waving contest, Edward is determined to have the biggest swinging bombard on the block The upshot is that when Edward set sail across the channel in fourteen seventy five, backed by loyal lieutenants like his best mate Lord Hastings and Margaret Beauford's husband Thomas Stanley, it may be a throwback But it's definitely not a joke So what's Edward's intended strategy? Well, that's pretty retro too. After shipping his men and guns to English held Calais, Edward makes it known that he'll march on Paris via towns held by the Burgundians Working with Burgundy was a mainstay of Henry V's successes back in the day, and Edward has spent his whole reign cultivating the Duke who's married to Edward's sister Under the terms of fourteen seventy four's Treaty of London The Duke of Burgundy is on a bound to support Edward in his war. If things go Edward's way. This little setup tasty campaign Except W There's a catch Even though no one can doubt the scale of Edward's military preparations, French diplomats at the court of the fifty two year old Louis XII. Reckon they have the Yorkis King's measure They don't doubt his ambition or his military resume Do see? that Edward is only a Henry V. Tribute act and not the real deal. Because that beer belly Edward's carrying, now he's in his mid thirties? It tells a story of its own King has a reputation for enjoying the finer things in life With more stamina for sinking pints and chirpsing winches than for long grueling months on foreign campaign The smart money says past the big guns and the Lgions of Doom Ignore the white noise about having Normandy and Gascony back. Edward probably has a price Give him enough gold and a few tasty treats And this war could be over without a shot being fired in anger So while Edward disembarks his troops at Calais in july fourteen seventy five, and goes on a little march, which includes camping two nights at Ajencour and shouting, Yahaboo sucks at a few minor nearby cities There's not a chance of a real set to on the scale of Henry V's great battle In fact, right from the start, messengers are running back and forth between Edward's camp and Paris. asking how much it would cost for him to go away On august twenty ninth, that question is answered After just a few weeks of haggling Edward meets Louis XleI of France at the town of Piekiny bridge over the Rriver Son. F There, they shake hands on a treaty which gives Edward a large payment in gold up front and a regular pension worth ten thousand pounds a year thereafter English troops are allowed to drink for free for five days in the nearby pubs In return, Edward agrees to drop once and for all, the English claims to Normandy Anne Gascy An eyewitness who sees the meeting recalls the two monarchs embracing each other through a safety barrier erected on the bridge to prevent any funny business He recalls Edward wearing A black velvet cap on his head, decorated with a large fleuur de lie of precious stones He was a very good looking prince. he was beginning to get fat and I had seen him on previous occasions looking more handsome The same chronicler also overhears Louis offering to host Edward in Paris where he'll give him a table of ladies to dine with and a confessor to absolve him from sin afterwards behind Edward's back. He later jokes that he's driven the English out of his country with wine and venison pasties It's fair to say that Louis has Edward's number. Or is great. But have you ever tried eating a deer pie off a naked French girl's back while rolling in a bed full of money Five days later the English army' back in Calais By the end of September, the Army is back in London Word gets out of the debuck There's a widespread public disbelief that such a huge army came back, having seen virtually no action, except what they found in the taverns and bathhouses Among the ordinary people Edward's approach to international diplomacy is met with a mixture of scorn and hilarity One person isn't laughing. That's Margaret Beaufort becausecause she knows Treaty Edward has struck with the French king but her son, Henry Tudor in considerable danger Henry isn't mentioned in the Treaty of Piciny. but with Louis bending over backwards to offer Edward bribes to stay at home He could very well be next year's venisant pasty In the Middle Ages, history turned on making the unthinkable possible tobbling a king Or finally making that leap to go from being a hobby blacksmith to opening your first ever metalwork market stall Now if I was setting up my first ever metal workork shop today I'd look no further than Shopify caters to everyone from metal workers to metal heads. Shopify has templates and AI tools that give your business a professional site Plus returning customers can purchase in a single click And when questions come up, Shopify's built in AI assistant sidekick is right there. All you need is the idea. Shopify handles the rest Start your free trial at shopify. co. uk forward slash dynasty That's shhopify. co. uk slash dynasty. Start your free trial at shhopify. co. uk slash dynasty This summer, Prime Video takes you back before legally blonde, before law school and into the world of Elle Woods in high school. Set in nineteen ninety five, this Gemini vegetarian knows exactly who she is until her family moves from Belair to Seattle. Packed with iconic fashion, nineties nostalgia, and a throwback soundtrack, Elle proves one thing Law school was hard. High school was harder. From the world of legally blonde, watch L, a new original series only on Prime videoide. Watch now. The guards lead Henry Tudor up the stairs of the huge octagonal keep of a castle in Brittany known as the Chateau L Goyill It's a hell of a slog The Keep, or Central Tower, stands forty five meters tall, which makes it one of the biggest in Brittany or anywhere else in Greater France And Henry is being taken almost to the top, to rooms in the sixth of its seven stories Blinks as they trudge up the endless flights of steps, trying to adjust his eyes to the gloom The tower gets barely any natural light beyond what trickles through tiny windows, barely bigger than arrow slits Dinginess is a reminder, just in case Henry needed one, that now he's inside the chateau He isn't going anywhere which is both a relief bit of a worry Henry first arrived in Brittany in fourteen seventy one washed up near the little fishing port of Leconquet after he and his uncle Jasper Tudor fled Wales in the aftermath of the collapse of Henry VI's readaption Packs in It was just a relief to be out of Wales, where they were being pursued by Edward IV's men, determined to round up anyone who might be a threat to the throne, Edward had come so close to losing Since then Henry and Jasper have been the honourable guests of the Duke of Brittany, Francis II Fold Francis is a canny fellow And he's been a generous host When the Tudors first arrived, they were fated as though they were members of Francis's own family He's made sure they've been well fed and watered and kept in a keeping that befits their noble status. which is only right. After all Jasper Tudor is a half brother of poor old Henry VI As was Henry's father, Edmund Not that he ever met the guy. That said, You get nothing for free in this life And what's been clear from the get go is that Francis of Brittany has a very good ulterior motive in being nice to Jasper and Henry Tudor He's a smart politician with one main goal in life to stop his Duchy from being absorbed into the Kingdom of France. So from the moment he clapped eyes on them Francis has viewed the Tudors as pawns in that Bigger game of diplomatic chess Since fourteen seventy one, he's moved them several times on each occasion confessing to have their best interests at heart reallyally guarding his own He had them at his duucal court in Vanne. then in a remote castle called Susino near the coast then in the city of Nont And now Henry is here at the Chateau de laa Goyill Jasper is somewhere else entirely. thirty miles away at the Chateau Josin being split up for a reason and Henry can guess what it might be. He's aged eighteen. A young man with a long face with dark hair and one eye a little higher than the other He's old and gnarly enough to understand that somewhere outside this tower diplomatic game is moving along It's very possible that Francis is considering swapping him out for someone more valuable Henry's right. In Fing seventy five, as we've just heard Edward IV has swept over to France mob handed and come back having changed the whole complexion of European diplomacy The Treaty of Piciny has put him on friendly terms with the French crrown And that has implications for Brittany and the Tudors. For one thing, it means that Henry and his uncle Jasper have lost an insurance policy While they're in Brittany from fourteen seventy one They could rely on the fact that Louis XI of France was guaranteed to intervene to prevent them from being extradited to England Jasper is one of the French King's cousins through his mother, Catherine de Valois. Besides which Having a potential rival claimant to the English crrown would be a thing too tempting for Louis to resist when England and France were officially enemies But now they're officially friends Louis has far less incentive to interfere with any attempts the English might make to bargain with Duke Francis to get the Tudors back In fact, Louis is more likely to actively push for Francis to send the tudors back Slitting Henry and Jasper up theia sign that this is now a realistic possibility And so it comes to pass. Throughout fourteen seventy five and fourteen seventy six, Henry Tudor lives in the Chateau de La Goille have not very much to do, except stare out of the tiny windows at the miles of surrounding woodland But in late fourteen seventy six, after a long period of lobbying from England, guards come to tell him that he's been taken to Sain Malao on the coast There English ships are waiting to bring him in This is crisis time But Henry knows it. Edward has promised Duke Francis a lot of gold to hand Henry back and assured him that he' be treated respectfully in England and married off to some pretty young bride Henry's filing that one under te for total horssehit. There's no doubt in his mind as to what'll happen to him if he's loaded. ono those ships. Word has now got around Europe of what happened to another enemy of Edward IV's when he was on a ship crossing the channel last year In fourteen seventy five Henry Holland, Duke of Exeter, a troublesome nobleman Edward never liked, was tralling with the rest of the army by ship home from Edward's aborted military invasion of France. On the way, he very strangely happened to slip overboard and drown in the sea Officially, it was an accident What are the chances Gossips all over Europe have agreed on the story that he was thrown overboard on Edward's orders Good for the Duke of Exeter will be more than good enough for Henry Tudor So when he reaches Sammelo Henry does the only thing he can think of try and save his own skin Pulls a sicki, claiming to be far too ill to travel anywhere Henry's a good enough actor to win himself a delay During that delay Duke Francis has a change of heart One of his leading advisors, who's been responsible for guarding Henry for the last few years, tells the Duke that if he lets Henry be sent back to England He'll have blood on his hands He'll be giving innocent young man to butchers for the rending, the tormenting, and finally the killing Francis he is this and has a change of heart He arranges for Henry to take sanctuary in a local church at Saint Mao, guarded by an angry mob of townsfolk. You warn the English. But if they try to get him out, they'll have their balls on a stick. By Christmas, Edward's men have realized They're not leaving Brittany with Henry. Bye Christmas. The young man is back at Van reunited with his uncle Jasper This is the sort of tiny event on which history turns. And there's only one person more delighted at Henry's escape from extradition than Henry himself That's his dear old mum Margaret Beauford But Margaret knows She can't rely on good luck to save her lad every time She needs to step up. Fast. Your summer weekends fill up fast, but Crocx has your back. Road trips, beach days, last minute getaways, whatever's on the agenda, swing by your local store and find your new goat too Try it, style it, make it yours. Because the right pair doesn't just show up. it shows off. Wock out ready for whatever's next. Visit your nearest crox store today The solemn parade of Yorkists files into the grand church at Fotheringay in the Midlands, accompanied by churchmen and a crowd of respectful onlookers This is a service of the utmost solemnity And everyone is on their most sombber and magnificent behaviour Margaret Beaufort stands among the women playing her own part in the service. She watches as two coffins are drawn into the church and lifted into splendid tombs built to house them The remains within the coffins are many years dead But they're afforded as much respect as any of the living because they belong to the Yorkist patriarch, Richard Duke of York and his second son Edmund Earl of Rutland Those two lost their lives at the Battle of Wakefield in fourteen sixty after which Richard was beheaded and his head stuck on the city gates in York The hat pinned mockingly on it For a rerun of that battle, go back to episode twelve of season nine of A Dynasty to Die for, Rise of the Yorks Since then they've lain in a monastery in Ponterfractt But now King Edward has decided to give them the posthumous respect they deserve So here are the whole extended family circle. pouring some out for the OGs. The chief mourner is King Edward's youngest brother, Richard Duke of Gloucester and standing alongside him Right beside the coffins is Margaret's husband, Thomas Stanley And here's Margaret herself keeping the Yorkist Noblewomen company after they lay their offerings on the church's highigh altar There could be no more visible association with the king's inner circle than this And however hard Margaret has to bite her tongue, as she stands there, she's going to bite it. Because you know what they say If you can't beat him. Join them Ever since Margaret's son, Henry Tudor narrowly escaped a permanent dunking in the English channel That's been her policy. Rather than trying to fight against the regime, she's cementing her position inside it. to hope is that she can build the influence she needs to either secure a peaceful life for Henry abroad or bring him home with a genuine promise of safety. pragmatic enough to know that this is the only realistic aim every further year that Edward IV sits fat and happy on the throne makes the likelihood of one last Lancastrian revolution more unlikely And he's not short on airs either His eldest son, Edward, born during the crisis of the readeption is about to turn six years old. He and Queen Elizabeth Woodville also have a younger boy called Richard, who's two Then there's George Duke of Clarence. idiotic virile enough to have fathered several kids, including a boy called Edward Earl of Warwick And the king's youngest brother, Richard Duke of Gloucester also has a son had a conservative estimate That makes a royal succession of five males in the immediate Yorkist family There's been no healthier line of succession since Edward IId's days a hundred years ago This family is going nowhere The key to survival is going to have to be going nowhere with them. And that's why Margaret is here at Fotheringay paying her respects to the guy who arguably started the Wars of the Roses It's also why In fourteen seventy eight, she'll be at Westminster beaming with the rest of the congregation When the king's youngest son, Richard gets married, aged four to a six year old noble heiress from East Anglia It's why two years later When Edward and Elizabeth Woodfille have yet another child, a daughter called Bridget Margaret will be given the honour of carrying the baby to the font for her baptism Since she was thirteen years old, giving birth to Henry Tudor in Pembroke Castle Margaret has been a survivor Nothing's changed. What's more She has a game plan suucking up to the Royal House of York isn't an end in itself She wants ultimately is to convince the king to sign off on a deal that brings her son back from Brittany gets him out of the politics of France hands him his late father's noble title. Once upon a time before he died of plague Edmund's tudor was Earl of Richmond a wealthy area in North Yorkshire The title comes with lands, prestige and money If Margaret can persuade King Edward that Henry Tudor should get it in right of his father That would be a pretty good outcome Of course, Gting it. is easier said than done because there's one particular roadblock standing in Margaret's way which is that someone else already holds the title of Earl of Richmond. been in his hands since the days of the readaption. Dithering old Henry VI gave it. to the useful idiots. George, Duke of Clarence. At that hot moment, Clarence was a turncoat who lined up with the Lancastrians and the re adaption Now, of course, he's back on the Yorkist side But he's still clinging on to the Eldom Among his many other lands and titles Clarence is a tricky opponent For all that he's a snake, a backstabber, and a low down grifter Clarence seems to have a mental hold over his brother the King, Unlike anyone else Margaret is going to have to use all her powers of cunning to put one over on this guy Unless that is Clarence manages to screw things up for himself But that's never gonna happen, is it Is it? find out. comeome back next time for another episode of This is History Friends at the end of last episode, I said this season was beginning to sound a lot like a true crime podcast Now we have an augmented Edward IV, the alleged cold blooded killer beginning to appear and act, a lot more like fogghorn legghorn There'll be more opportunity to see Edward fail upward But in the meantime It's time for the discussion starter for this episode. So o my dear royal favorites, It's time to get your inner Tribute act out If you could cosplay any plantaginate king or queen Who would it be And what would your on stage outfit be like Let's get the band going on patreon. com forward slash This is history Athletic Brewing Company crafts award winning non alcoholic beers for those who want to be part of every round. With over one hundred and eighty five flavor awards, they're exceptional NA beers that fit your lifestyle and any social occasion Summer' full of good times and athletic fits right in. Go to athleticbrewing. com to have brews delivered to your door, or find them at a bar, restaurant, or store near you