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00:00:001953, a coronation fit for a king, but it's a young queen who's about to be crowned, and
00:00:23the crowd roars its approval. The fact that she's a woman attracts no comment, and she
00:00:31will go on to reign over us for six decades. But England's queens haven't always been greeted
00:00:38with such adoration. The first woman who sought to be crowned queen in her own right here in
00:00:46Westminster, 800 years earlier, received a very different response. She wasn't met by
00:00:53cheering crowds. Instead, she was chased away from the capital by an angry mob.
00:01:02That's because throughout our history, women and power have made an uneasy combination.
00:01:10Never more so than in the Middle Ages, when a king was a warrior who had to fight to win
00:01:15power, then battle to keep it. But despite everything that stood in their way, a handful of extraordinary
00:01:26women did attempt to rule medieval England. This series is about the queens who challenged
00:01:33male power, and the fierce reactions they provoked. When they pursued power like kings, these royal
00:01:43women were criticized and condemned. Most graphically of all, they'd been vilified as she-wolves.
00:01:50These are the stories of the she-wolves of England, and to explore them is to realize just how far
00:01:57how we've come, and how little has changed.
00:02:00or the anne goes.
00:02:05or the love of England, a few of them were created.
00:02:06In the first few years, the woman's selection of the symbols began to hear both the
00:02:12traveling and how horrible the powers of England. The Study of England You�� in the
00:02:14ốm jeopardy is the ultimate belief in theiff fixed by as he-wolves of England. Constructions
00:02:15while in England which that thebild you were told the ability of the queen still
00:02:21is the most than-formed incident of the germ of England. So under the Allies, they leave the
00:02:23Ideally-only orjal SDK. In the name of England, 1480 a thousand years, two years ago, she made the
00:02:24plus three yearsooo was taken away from England. In the first întrld2020s, a 12-year-old girl is being
00:02:29of france became queen of england when she married the english king a century and a half later
00:02:36another young french girl margaret of anjou followed in her footsteps these are the stories
00:02:42of two women who were thrust into a violent and dysfunctional foreign country and as their new
00:02:50lives unfolded they each felt driven to take control of the kingdom themselves
00:02:55at their weddings isabella and margaret were little more than pawns in the power play between
00:03:03england and france but as they grew into women they became queens who dominated the board
00:03:10it was margaret's violent pursuit of power that inspired shakespeare to name her the she-wolf of
00:03:16france another poet thomas gray later gave isabella the same title
00:03:26but there was no hint of the she-wolf when isabella first arrived in england at the age of 12.
00:03:35today this seems an extraordinarily young age to be married off
00:03:39but as a princess isabella had been prepared from the cradle for such a royal match
00:03:49as the daughter of the king of france isabella came to her marriage as the living embodiment
00:03:53of an anglo-french alliance she had grown up amid the sophistication of the parisian court
00:03:59watching her mother act as consort to one of the most powerful kings in europe
00:04:03she had a keen sense of her own majesty and she knew exactly what should await her as queen of england
00:04:10what she found was quite different
00:04:16the signs were there from her very first public appearance the royal couple's coronation
00:04:24isabella should have been center stage but her place was taken by a handsome young man named piers gaveston
00:04:33he carried the king's crown into the abbey and sat with edward at the coronation banquet
00:04:40gaveston was so magnificently dressed one observer noted that he more resembled the god mars than an
00:04:46ordinary mortal isabella was only 12 but she knew how a king's wife should be treated
00:04:53and it was clear that her rightful place at edward's side had already been taken by gaveston
00:04:59isabella wasn't the only one who noticed the relationship between edward and piers
00:05:08her french uncles went home in a rage insulted that edward had given some of their wedding presents to
00:05:14gaveston
00:05:17a chronicler of the time wrote
00:05:20i do not remember to have heard that one man so loved another
00:05:29not only was isabella finding that there were three people in her marriage
00:05:33but gaveston's preening and waspish presence was having an equally corrosive effect on the king's
00:05:39relationship with his nobles
00:05:40a king couldn't rule without the support of his powerful nobles
00:05:48they would help him keep order in the kingdom and defend it from attack
00:05:53while the king himself offered leadership and security
00:05:58but that's just what the nobles thought edward wasn't doing
00:06:02his father the great warrior king edward the first had defended the country and earned the title
00:06:09the hammer of the scots for his ferocious attempt to conquer scotland
00:06:15but these hard-won gains were now being lost by his son
00:06:20and the nobles laid the blame on his obsession with gaveston
00:06:27eventually seeing no other option a group of nobles came to parliament armed and angry
00:06:34they demanded that gaveston be banished and forced edward to agree that 21 of them should rule on his behalf
00:06:46this was not what isabella had signed up for when she married the king of england
00:06:51but she was still little more than a child and she was powerless to stop the conflict
00:06:56and to make matters worse edward wouldn't accept gaveston's exile within two months they were back together again
00:07:12isabella had though clearly spent at least one night with her husband
00:07:16by the spring of 1312 she was 16 and pregnant for the first time
00:07:25but instead of relishing her new status as the future mother of england's heir
00:07:29she found herself following edward and gaveston round the north of england with a hostile army of lords in hot pursuit
00:07:36isabella was dragged around the country as edward tried to keep his lover safe
00:07:49but the group of lords chasing them led by the earl of lancaster
00:07:53were determined to capture gaveston and end this destructive relationship forever
00:07:58they got their chance when the royal party was separated gaveston took refuge in scarborough and edward
00:08:08and isabella alone for once headed for the fortified city of york
00:08:16they were here at york castle when they heard the dramatic news that gaveston had been starved out
00:08:21of the fortress at scarborough and was now a prisoner of the lords edward was consumed with anxiety
00:08:28about the fate of his favorite isabella's reaction isn't recorded but we might assume it was rather different
00:08:37isabella thought gaveston's removal might allow her to take her rightful place at her husband's side
00:08:43but it was becoming clear that only death would separate gaveston from edward once and for all
00:08:51isabella was still here at york with her husband
00:08:55when word came of a bloody drama that had played itself out a hundred miles further south
00:09:02some of the lords led by the powerful earl of lancaster had seized gaveston and sentenced him to death
00:09:09in a show trial
00:09:13gaveston was taken out onto a sunny hillside near warwick and his head hacked from his body
00:09:19isabella's rival was gone and now her position was about to become even stronger
00:09:32on the 12th of november 1312 isabella went into labor shortly before six the next morning she gave birth to a boy
00:09:39the 17 year old queen kept her own counsel but she'd already learned a great deal her husband she now
00:09:47knew had much passion and little judgment his nobles were men to be reckoned with and now with her son in
00:09:54her arms isabella herself held the key that would transform her power as queen
00:10:05as a young bride she'd been little more than a decorative accessory to a diplomatic alliance
00:10:12but as the mother of the future king of england she had the possibility of real power
00:10:17isabella was seeking at this time was no more than the conventional role of a queen
00:10:25not power for herself but to support her husband
00:10:33tradition gave the queen a formal role as a peacemaker even a warrior king could show mercy
00:10:39if his consort knelt before him in public to beg for peace
00:10:42isabella's husband was no warrior king but she was a peacemaking queen
00:10:48and now she helped to forge a brittle truce between edward and his nobles
00:10:55but almost immediately her husband undermined her efforts
00:11:01in 1314 the army he led suffered the most humiliating defeat of any english king at the hands of the scots
00:11:13at bannockburn robert bruce routed edward's army
00:11:20england had lost its hold on scotland its borders were now overrun by scots raids
00:11:28and they couldn't be defended without the help of the earl of lancaster
00:11:32the man who had murdered edward's beloved gaveston
00:11:35the threat of the scots and the rift between edward and lancaster made england a profoundly
00:11:43dysfunctional kingdom and for isabella it was a thankless task to be its queen
00:11:49but her unhappy situation was about to become much worse
00:11:53a new favorite was emerging at edward's court who would be more of a threat to isabella than gaveston
00:11:58had ever been
00:12:04hugh dispenser was a political predator
00:12:09he had known edward since his teens
00:12:11but unlike gaveston dispenser doesn't seem to have been the king's lover
00:12:17but this was small comfort to isabella
00:12:20while she was still loyally performing her royal duty by giving birth to two more children
00:12:28she watched as dispenser set about using his influence with the king
00:12:33to build up his own wealth and power to dizzying heights
00:12:37no matter how illegal his methods or who stood in his way
00:12:45by 1321 the lords had had enough they marched on london and threatened violence against edward and his new
00:12:54favorite
00:12:54in the attempt to prevent civil war isabella took action to support her husband in the way only a queen could
00:13:10isabella had just given birth to her fourth child and yet again she had to go down on her knees in the
00:13:15ritual of queenly intervention to persuade edward to banish dispenser she won a temporary truce but
00:13:23little more than two months later with terrible irony it was isabella herself who precipitated the country into civil war
00:13:37in october 1321 isabella was on her way to canterbury on pilgrimage
00:13:46at the end of a hard day's ride she found herself at the gates of leeds castle
00:13:52a mighty stronghold built near the kent coast seeking shelter for the night
00:13:59to welcome the queen as a guest would normally be an honor
00:14:03but the castle's lord bartholomew battlesmere was one of the rebels who had marched on london
00:14:10his wife left to keep the castle in his absence was alarmed by isabella's sudden arrival
00:14:17and refused to let her in isabella was left out in the cold and she was furious she never lacked a
00:14:26sense of her own majesty and now she ordered her men to force their way in
00:14:31in response the archers on the castle walls began to shoot
00:14:34and within minutes six of isabella's soldiers lay dead
00:14:42isabella's confrontation at leeds gave her husband the chance to send a message to all the rebel lords
00:14:48the violent reception of his queen edward said was treason and he sent troops and siege engines
00:14:57to attack the castle and when lady battlesmere threw open the gates to appeal for mercy
00:15:04she and her young children were dispatched as prisoners to the tower while her men were hanged from the castle walls
00:15:11from this moment the lords who opposed edward could be in no doubt that the king intended the conflict to be a fight to the death
00:15:23and in march 1322 at boroughbridge in yorkshire edward finally got his revenge for the years of humiliation
00:15:30when his army defeated and captured the earl of lancaster
00:15:41as the greatest chronicler of the reign recalled
00:15:45the earl of lancaster once cut off piers gabberston's head
00:15:49and now by the king's command the earl himself had lost his head
00:15:54thus perhaps not unjustly the earl received measure for measure
00:16:00his abella's husband was making very clear the dreadful penalties that now faced anyone who dared to oppose him
00:16:13england's prisons filled with the wives and children of the rebels
00:16:17while aristocratic corpses were left to rot on gallows across the country
00:16:21with the ruthless dispenser at his side edward had found a way to eradicate all opposition
00:16:35by turning his rule into a grasping and paranoid tyranny isabella had done everything she could to be the
00:16:41perfect queen but now to her horror she found that she too would be a victim of the new regime
00:16:52and it was isabella's french heritage which left her acutely vulnerable
00:16:58in the summer of 1324 a crisis erupted between england and france
00:17:07england still held gascony in the south of the country but isabella's brother the french king
00:17:13was threatening to take it it seemed war with france was imminent
00:17:21edward ordered that all french men and women living in england should be arrested
00:17:26as enemy aliens and his favorite dispenser seized on the opportunity to take isabella's possessions
00:17:35in turn her french servants and separate her from her children
00:17:42now isabella's feelings for her husband and dispenser turned from mistrust to loathing
00:17:50but there was one glimmer of hope the french king was willing to negotiate
00:17:55so isabella cleverly put herself at her husband's disposal as the perfect emissary to her brother
00:18:04the king of france she had been so patient in the face of provocation that edward and dispenser
00:18:10seized on this solution believing she could be trusted to return like a loyal lap dog
00:18:14and so on the 9th of march 1325 isabella left england for paris
00:18:28isabella successfully negotiated a truce between england and france
00:18:33then she persuaded edward that their 12 year old son the heir to the throne should be sent to paris
00:18:40to seal the agreement by paying homage to the french king
00:18:47this was the moment isabella had been waiting for when her son arrived on french soil her position
00:18:53was transformed as edward's consort there'd been little she could do but with her son beside her
00:18:59she could speak and act as the mother of the heir to the throne in the face of her husband's tyranny
00:19:05she'd been waiting for her chance and now she took it
00:19:11with his son edward sent an instruction that his wife should return home
00:19:17but isabella had no intention of doing any such thing and we know exactly the reason she gave
00:19:25the manuscript of the greatest chronicle of the reign the vita edwardi secundi is long lost but its text
00:19:33has been passed down through the centuries and here in this modern translation we can hear isabella's
00:19:39voice speaking for the first time until now she'd been a supporting player in the unfolding drama
00:19:46but now she moved to the center of the stage as she replied to her husband with open defiance
00:19:53i feel that marriage is a union of a man and a woman and someone has come between my husband and
00:19:58myself and is trying to break this bond i declare that i will not return until this intruder is removed
00:20:05isabella's game plan was to present herself to the world as a wronged wife and until now she'd seemed
00:20:16more than justified in doing so but another player was about to enter the scene who would change forever
00:20:24the picture the world would have of isabella
00:20:31roger mortimer was 38 years old a soldier and a politician of skill and experience
00:20:38he had joined the rebels against edward in 1321 and escaped into exile in france
00:20:47and within weeks of isabella and mortimer's meeting in paris
00:20:51rumors circulated that their partnership was more than political
00:20:58there's tantalizingly little evidence of the private dynamics of isabella and mortimer's relationship
00:21:04but it was clearly an all-consuming passion not least because of the danger into which they precipitated
00:21:11themselves adultery for a queen was sin and treason combined but for isabella there were no longer
00:21:19any safe options with her knight at her side and the most valuable pawn of all her son under her control
00:21:27what move would the queen make
00:21:33isabella took a momentous decision it was no longer enough to remove dispenser she needed to remove her
00:21:41her husband too she intended to do something unprecedented in english history depose an anointed king
00:21:50could she as a woman achieve this she certainly couldn't do it alone she needed an army
00:21:58and how she got one reveals a great deal about the woman she'd become
00:22:02now she was an independent player on the european stage and she arranged the marriage of her son to
00:22:11philippa daughter of the count of a no who brought troops and ships as her dowry
00:22:18on the 22nd of september 1326 at the head of a hundred ships filled with soldiers
00:22:25isabella mortimer and prince edward set sail for england
00:22:37when isabella stepped onto the suffolk coast she was taking up arms against her king and husband
00:22:43with her lover at her side she could hardly have been more openly defying the conventions of female
00:22:50virtue and yet she wasn't met with outrage and vilification instead she was greeted with open arms
00:23:01while there was no alternative to edward's rule his people hadn't known how to resist
00:23:07isabella wasn't challenging him in her own name she after all had no right to the throne but in the name
00:23:14of their 13 year old son prince edward he was too young to act alone and so isabella acted for him
00:23:24and with the promise of a new young king and his capable mother her husband's power simply melted away
00:23:35isabella might have been an unfaithful wife and a rebel queen but she was also england's champion
00:23:41against edward's tyranny no she-wolf but the savior of her adopted country
00:23:49when news of the queen's triumphal progress reached edward and dispenser they were gripped with panic
00:23:57they packed their saddlebags with gold and fled west where they were captured bedraggled figures in
00:24:03the welsh reign isabella had dispenser brought before her there's no question that she relished her
00:24:13moment of revenge dispenser was hanged then disemboweled and castrated when he was still alive
00:24:22the supportive queen had been transformed into a very different figure now isabella was acting as if
00:24:29she were a king inflicting brutal punishments on her enemies which of course raised the question of what
00:24:37she would do with her own king in january 1327 in a carefully stage managed piece of political theater
00:24:49it was declared in parliament that edward had forfeited the allegiance of his people
00:24:54and that now his son should wear the crown in his place
00:25:01in just four short months isabella had achieved the unthinkable she a queen had seized power to
00:25:08depose a crowned and anointed king for the first time in english history to undo a coronation was no
00:25:15easy task parliament had given the act a legal gloss but to make doubly sure
00:25:20edward was forced to sign his own abdication here at kenilworth now the deed was done
00:25:26but could isabella rule in her son's name while her husband still lived
00:25:35the new king edward iii was still just a teenager so isabella was running his government for him
00:25:42but never before had england had to contend with the existence of an ex-king alive and well while a new
00:25:51king or in this case a king's mother ruled the country isabella had edward imprisoned in barclay
00:26:00castle in gloucestershire but she knew that while he remained alive he was the obvious focus for any
00:26:07rebellion
00:26:11within a year three plots to liberate him had already been uncovered
00:26:21these documents here in barclay castle give us a sense of the extraordinary difficulty of keeping
00:26:26an ex-king in custody we can see here from the provisions bought for him which included 280 eggs
00:26:33or over in latin in just three months but at first he was kept in some comfort
00:26:39but this account tells us of the reinforcement of the castle with bolts and great bars and other iron
00:26:45work after edward escaped from his guards in the summer of 1327 it was obvious how dangerous his
00:26:53continued existence was to the new regime
00:26:55we can't know just how closely isabella was involved in planning edward's murder
00:27:07by its very nature his end was a grim business done in secrecy and shadows
00:27:16his death was announced but not explained and in the absence of an explanation rumor and speculation took its
00:27:24place legend has it that he was killed with a red hot poker thrust into his anus to burn his intestines from the inside
00:27:37this violent detail was immortalized more than 200 years later by christopher marlowe
00:27:43in his play of edward's life when he called isabella that unnatural queen false isabel
00:27:50what's certain is that it was edward's death a murder that supposedly took place in this room
00:27:57at barclay that sealed isabella's reputation as a she-wolf just 30 years later the chronicler
00:28:04jeffrey le baker portrayed edward as a christ-like figure betrayed and destroyed by a wife who was
00:28:10like the biblical jezebel a tyrannical and sexually corrupt queen manipulating her husband and
00:28:16son to impose evil on the kingdom but these opinions were formed in hindsight when isabella knelt in prayer
00:28:30at her husband's funeral she was still seen as the savior of the nation
00:28:35but though isabella was a political animal through and through there were limits to her political understanding
00:28:47and now her overwhelming sense of entitlement began to blunt her vision
00:28:56like so many rulers before and since she started to run the country for her own enrichment
00:29:05so very few of the objects that isabella owned still survive but one that does is this exquisite casket
00:29:14it's delicately engraved with the arms of england and france and it may have been a wedding present
00:29:20from her mother-in-law it gives us a tiny glimpse of the extraordinary luxury with which isabella surrounded
00:29:27herself that of course was appropriate for a queen but the problem was that isabella didn't know where to stop
00:29:35her mother-in-law at the helm of english government isabella and mortimer rewarded themselves not just
00:29:45with silver trinkets but with vast estates and the contents of the royal treasury
00:29:55but now they were behaving exactly like edward and dispenser before them
00:29:59for two years isabella and her lover ruled the country with a vice-like grip meeting opposition
00:30:07with brutal suppression and all the time isabella kept her son king edward iii closely by her side
00:30:17monitoring his friends and allowing him no freedom to act alone
00:30:21marlow would later describe isabella's son as a lamb encompassed by wolves
00:30:31but by 1330 edward was 17 and the she-wolf was about to discover that her offspring had claws of his own
00:30:39isabella's day of reckoning came at nottingham castle she had already become suspicious that her son was
00:30:55beginning to resist her control so when the royal party took up residence here they had the guards
00:31:02redoubled about them but edward's plans had been well laid under cover of darkness a group of young knights
00:31:15made their way through these secret tunnels into the castle
00:31:25mortimer and isabella were surrounded before they knew what was happening
00:31:28isabella was forced back into her bedchamber and mortimer was disarmed and overpowered in a matter of
00:31:34moments after three years the rule of isabella and her consort was over
00:31:45there was no doubt about mortimer's fate he was sentenced to a traitor's death for killing the last king
00:31:52and usurping the power of the new one he was hanged at tyburn like a common thief
00:32:01more than 20 years of brutal political experience told isabella that mortimer's fate was inevitable
00:32:07but what would hers be she was after all the king's mother and once mortimer was dead the story could
00:32:14be spun that she had been diverted from her royal duty by his machinations presumably she mourned for him
00:32:22but she'd always been a realist and she took care to leave no public traces of her grief
00:32:30her son might have acted against her because of the way she'd ruled but isabella was still his mother
00:32:38she had to surrender her vast estates but edward gave her an income of three thousand pounds a year
00:32:43she could no longer intervene in politics but she would have a sumptuous if compulsory retirement
00:32:58isabella had an extraordinary life she showed for a brief moment that female leadership could represent
00:33:06the legitimacy of the crown forcefully enough to depose an anointed king but the exercise of power by a
00:33:13woman turned out to be a different matter and particularly a woman like isabella who enriched herself rather
00:33:19than nurturing her people in retrospect the death of her husband came to define isabella not as the savior of
00:33:27england but in the words of the poet thomas gray as the she-wolf of france with unrelenting fangs that tears
00:33:35the bowels of thy mangled mate this is how isabella has been remembered certainly many of her actions
00:33:43were violent and self-serving but then so were those of the men around her and the vitriol heaped on her by
00:33:52history draws on an image of female power as grotesque savage and immoral
00:34:07over the next hundred years england and france were almost constantly at war
00:34:14and out of this conflict emerged the woman that shakespeare dubbed a she-wolf
00:34:18by 1444 the english were on the back foot and ready to make a truce
00:34:27all hopes for peace rested on the young shoulders of margaret daughter of the duke of anjou
00:34:34she would marry the english king henry vi and seal a treaty between the warring countries
00:34:40margaret grew up in this impressive castle in angers and her childhood here gave her a useful lesson in
00:34:50the limitations of royal power
00:34:55margaret's father had many grand titles in theory he was king of sicily naples and jerusalem
00:35:01and he spent most of her childhood fighting to turn those paper crowns into real power
00:35:07in the meantime margaret here in anjou was brought up by her formidable mother and grandmother
00:35:15the message to margaret was clear royal power had to be fought for and a woman could rule if a man was
00:35:23absent when margaret left angers at the age of 15 to marry a man she'd never met
00:35:30she couldn't have known how valuable these lessons would prove to be
00:35:3723 year old henry probably struck margaret as a reassuring presence he had an unworldly childlike
00:35:44air more a naive innocent than a grim-faced soldier but if that made him a gentle husband
00:35:51margaret was about to discover that it also made him a disastrous king
00:36:00henry vi had come to the throne as a nine-month-old baby and england had been governed by a council of
00:36:06noblemen but now at the age of 23 henry seemed no more capable of ruling than he had as a baby
00:36:15it's not clear exactly when margaret realized how utterly incapable her husband was but what
00:36:25happened seven years into their marriage left no room for doubt
00:36:31to margaret's delight in 1453 she gave birth to her first child a healthy boy named edward
00:36:39but henry took no part in the celebrations 10 weeks before the birth his fragile mental faculties
00:36:49had disintegrated completely and he'd fallen into a catatonic trance
00:36:57henry was oblivious to their son's arrival but margaret had good reason to be jubilant
00:37:03with the heir to the throne in her arms she discovered just like isabella before her
00:37:07that she had a direct stake in the power play that surrounded her the question now was how far she
00:37:13would go in using it the answer wasn't slow in coming just three months after her son's birth
00:37:23a well-informed observer in london reported that the queen desires to have the whole rule of this land
00:37:30as well as the right to appoint all other officers that the king should make
00:37:37infusion for her son's birth to be abode the current of her sisterhood in the world
00:37:41i think that allowed her to have the first day in the world to be the first step on a road
00:37:47that would eventually lead to shakespeare's lacerating portrait of margaret as the she-wolf
00:37:53of france but if we look behind the caricature there was much more to margaret's position than
00:37:59unthinking aggression the times invited her to act margaret stepped onto the political stage
00:38:07as the country stood on the brink of civil war after years without royal leadership english
00:38:15politics was in the grip of a destructive rivalry between the two most powerful nobles in england
00:38:21this was the beginning of what would become known thanks to shakespeare and later art and literature
00:38:30as the wars of the roses margaret watched as the nobles divided on one side was the duke of york
00:38:40the king's cousin who claimed to speak for the good of the whole country on the other was the duke of
00:38:47somerset who acted for the house of lancaster the line from which henry descended both claimed the
00:38:54right to rule in the king's absence and now their rivalry threatened to spill onto the battlefield
00:39:02it was amid this tension and fear that margaret made her bid to rule from margaret's own perspective
00:39:10she was the obvious candidate to safeguard her husband's kingdom just as her mother had governed
00:39:15anjou in her father's absence but henry was only mentally not physically absent and to the english
00:39:21nobles it seemed as though their french-born queen was trying to exceed her proper powers
00:39:29to margaret's distress the nobles turned to a council of their own under the leadership of the duke
00:39:34of york on his orders his rival the duke of somerset was confined to the tower of london
00:39:45but on christmas day 1454 margaret was suddenly presented with a way forward
00:39:53sixteen months after he had last shown any sign of knowing who or where he was
00:39:59king henry suddenly returned to his senses such as they'd ever been
00:40:06as margaret introduced her toddling son to his astounded father for the first time
00:40:11the duke of york's caretaker regime fell apart somerset was released from the tower and it
00:40:17seemed as though the political merry-go-round was turning once again
00:40:23but by this time york and somerset's rivalry had become a deadly enmity
00:40:31margaret believed that somerset supported her husband and for the moment he had the king by his side
00:40:37but york was intent on having the king under his control
00:40:47and now the other great noble families were taking sides
00:40:53and in may 1455 when the two armies came face to face in the unassuming market town of
00:40:59st albans political confrontation finally became civil war
00:41:10the first battle of the wars of the roses was fought through the streets and houses of the town
00:41:15in these confined spaces probably a hundred men died
00:41:24king henry took no part in the battle of st albans
00:41:28he just sat under his banner in the market square while his greatest nobles fought to the
00:41:32death in these streets all around him nothing could have made it clearer that he was only a pawn
00:41:38in this increasingly brutal and dangerous game when the fighting was over it became clear that the duke
00:41:47of york's army had won the day and his enemy the duke of somerset was dead
00:41:56henry was now in york's control the battle changed everything and for margaret it was a turning point
00:42:05york still claimed to be henry's loyal subject but in margaret's view loyal subjects didn't set out to
00:42:15capture their king in battle and york's closeness to the royal line of succession now made him a threat
00:42:21to her son if henry wasn't able to fight for their son's future then margaret would do it for him
00:42:27but margaret knew that her next move would have to be made carefully for now she left london for
00:42:41her castle at tutbury in staffordshire but this wasn't a retreat from the political front line
00:42:50instead it was an attempt to match the duke of york with a territorial power base of her own
00:42:58margaret had the castle at tutbury enlarged and improved it was an imposing residence for an
00:43:04increasingly imposing queen
00:43:09margaret was clearly demonstrating to anyone who cared to look
00:43:13that she was prepared to fight to defend her husband and son
00:43:19but in doing so she provoked a reaction
00:43:22and as ever a woman in power was vulnerable to sexual as well as political slurs rumors began to
00:43:31speak of the little prince as a bastard or a changeling and to suggest that in private henry's
00:43:36queen might not be as loyal as she seemed the implication was that unnatural impulses were at work both
00:43:43inside and outside the royal bedchamper margaret knew that york's supporters were taking every
00:43:50opportunity to slander her but she was made of stern stuff it would take more than words to defeat her
00:43:58by the summer of 1456 it was clear where the fulcrum of power now lay
00:44:06a contemporary wrote my lord of york waits on the queen and she upon him
00:44:12despite attempts to find a lasting peace the country divided behind margaret and york
00:44:25for margaret this meant raising an army in the name of her husband and son
00:44:32this beautiful object known as the dunstable swan jewel probably dates from about 1400
00:44:39the swan was one of the emblems of the prince of wales and so it was a badge with this image
00:44:45of a swan with a crown around its neck that margaret began to distribute to her loyal supporters
00:44:50in the name of her small son she was determined to defend the rights of her husband and son by any
00:44:57means necessary margaret saw no middle ground in this conflict anyone who wasn't with her she believed
00:45:07was an enemy of the crown but that didn't mean her task would be easy
00:45:14in september 1459 the two sides met at blore heath in staffordshire
00:45:23after four hours of bloody fighting 2 000 men lay dead on the battlefield
00:45:29the yorkists had defeated an army which was supposedly king henry's but everyone knew where the power
00:45:39really lay one chronicler described it as an army of the queen's gallants
00:45:47but three weeks later the two sides met again and this time it was york's army that was defeated
00:45:54margaret's enemies the duke of york his son edward and nephew the earl of warwick scattered to ireland
00:46:03and france
00:46:06in their absence margaret seized her moment to declare her enemies guilty of treason
00:46:12but they were not yet destroyed in person and margaret now found that the power base she built for
00:46:17herself in the north had alienated her husband's subjects in the south and in july 1460 when york's
00:46:25son edward and nephew warwick returned with troops to face her army at northampton the result for
00:46:30margaret was a calamity she lost both the battle and the person of the king
00:46:39margaret was left helpless as the duke of york took her husband as a prisoner to london
00:46:44the pope later observed that the king was more timorous than a woman utterly devoid of wit and spirit
00:46:55the contrast with his forceful wife was obvious
00:47:01news reached margaret that york was now claiming the crown for himself he argued that his royal line
00:47:08of descent made him the rightful king rather than henry it was a convenient version of history but for
00:47:16the moment he couldn't get the nobles to back him instead a compromise was reached henry would keep his
00:47:25crown but when he died york would succeed him
00:47:29for margaret this was no settlement but a nightmare her son for whose rights she'd fought since the
00:47:38moment of his birth would be disinherited she threw herself into the task of raising support from scotland
00:47:46and the english lords still loyal to her now this was a fight to the death
00:47:51success for margaret came much more swiftly than she could ever have hoped when the duke of york was
00:48:00ambushed and killed by margaret's troops at wakefield in yorkshire in december 1460.
00:48:10she ordered that his head be set on a spike on micklegate bar in york dressed in a paper crown
00:48:16to mock his pretensions of majesty now margaret's greatest enemy was dead but victory was not yet
00:48:26hers there were still men prepared to fight for the yorkist cause and york's son edward and nephew warwick
00:48:34wanted revenge it was once again at st albans that the two sides met
00:48:41while margaret's army fought warwick's the queen waited impatiently for news here in the abbey
00:48:56the outcome was a triumph the yorkists were defeated
00:49:01and their prisoner king henry was released and reunited with margaret
00:49:11husband and wife were back together but this was hardly a romantic reunion
00:49:17margaret's triumph lay in the fact that the power of the royal triumvirate
00:49:21king queen and prince was once again at her disposal but the war wasn't yet won
00:49:31margaret had now been fighting for eight long years
00:49:35she a woman alone had kept the royal cause alive henry might be a hopeless case but if she could
00:49:45keep fighting then surely their son would one day get his chance to become a glorious king
00:49:55but even though her greatest enemy the duke of york was dead
00:49:59it turned out that she now faced an even greater threat his 18 year old son edward
00:50:08edward was tall handsome charismatic and precociously able he looked more like a king than anyone had seen
00:50:16in years and a king was exactly what he was claiming to be just as his father had done before him he argued
00:50:25that his royal descent trumped henry's own the difference was that this time london agreed
00:50:32and rapturously acclaimed him as king edward the fourth
00:50:39nine days later his forces set out to defeat margaret once and for all
00:50:45the two sides met at towton in yorkshire and margaret henry and their seven-year-old son took refuge
00:50:53behind the city walls at york
00:51:01this 15th century screen at york minster shows all the kings of england from william the conqueror
00:51:06to margaret's husband henry the sixth for margaret the last eight years had been devoted to securing
00:51:12her son's place in this unbroken line and now she could do nothing but pace restlessly here at york
00:51:20while her soldiers did their work eight hours later thousands upon thousands of men were dead
00:51:27and it was margaret's army that had shattered
00:51:34as the light began to fade on this bloodiest of battlefields edward of york stood unchallenged
00:51:41now king of england in fact as well as name
00:51:47and margaret her husband and son fled north no longer the royal family but hunted fugitives
00:51:55it was the bitterest of blows margaret had invested every ounce of her strength to animate
00:52:09the cause of an inert king but as a woman she couldn't simply inhabit the role her husband had
00:52:14left so damagingly vacant now she had to watch as edward a golden boy in a golden crown occupied the
00:52:22throne as if he'd been born to it but still she wouldn't give in she tried to raise support from
00:52:31the scots and the french but in england as a foreign-born queen margaret was damned twice over
00:52:38for the country of her birth and her sex according to a poem of the time she and her wicked affinity
00:52:47she would be certain intend utterly to destroy this region
00:52:54nor would she capitulate when her husband was finally captured and imprisoned in the tower of
00:52:59london in the summer of 1465. with nowhere else to turn margaret and her son fled across the channel
00:53:12where the king of france allowed her to set up a tiny and impoverished court in an obscure corner of his
00:53:18kingdom margaret's son was 10 when they moved to france and as he grew into manhood margaret doggedly
00:53:28fought on in the attempt to secure his future as king of england she watched hawkishly for any chink in
00:53:36the yorkist regime and constantly petitioned the crowned heads of europe for help but it was a fruitless
00:53:43task for margaret and her little band of loyalists the outlook was bleak margaret never gave up but
00:53:53well-informed observers knew her cause was hopeless that however was to reckon without the yorkist
00:53:59regime's extraordinary capacity for self-destruction edward's cousin the earl of warwick is known to
00:54:09history as the kingmaker and that it turned out was how he saw himself he had been the driving force
00:54:18behind edward's campaign for the throne but now edward was king warwick discovered he couldn't control him
00:54:25and they'd fallen into a bitter rivalry to bring down this yorkist king warwick needed another candidate
00:54:33to wear the crown and the only viable alternative was the house of lancaster margaret her husband and son
00:54:45this was the moment for which margaret had been waiting nine long years but it came at a terrible price
00:54:51to seize this chance to regain her son's inheritance margaret had to take the hand of the earl of warwick
00:54:57a man she despised and mistrusted
00:55:04for margaret this was an agonizing decision warwick had been one of the architects of her husband's fall
00:55:12and the disinheritance of her son he'd led armies against her on bloody battlefields
00:55:20but now he offered margaret her only chance to ensure her son's future
00:55:27on the 22nd of july 1470 here at angers margaret came face to face with warwick
00:55:34warwick they were enemies divided by a river of blood but now they were about to become allies
00:55:42margaret's distaste was such that she kept warwick on his knees in front of her
00:55:47for 15 minutes but the deal was done
00:55:50it was a treaty sealed with a kiss when margaret's 17 year old son married warwick's daughter
00:56:03in return for this stake in the royal dynasty warwick set sail for england
00:56:08to challenge edward and restore henry to the throne
00:56:11margaret stayed in france waiting to hear that england was won before she or her son stepped on english soil again
00:56:26and good news reached her startlingly quickly edward was surprised by warwick's attack
00:56:33with his forces unprepared he fled to the netherlands leaving warwick to free the bewildered king henry
00:56:40from the tower
00:56:50with her husband back on the throne and her son ready to step into his shoes
00:56:54england was once again within margaret's grasp so on easter sunday the 14th of april 1471
00:57:02after a difficult voyage margaret and her son at last set foot on the english coast
00:57:07and at that moment their world fell apart
00:57:17their timing was disastrous
00:57:20edward too had returned to england with a small band of soldiers
00:57:25and just hours before margaret landed in a bitterly fought battle at barnet north of london edward defeated
00:57:33and killed warwick
00:57:41suddenly margaret found herself exposed and vulnerable
00:57:45all her carefully laid plans were falling apart and now once again the future would be decided on a battlefield
00:57:55margaret had support and reinforcements in the west of the country and she made her way to join them
00:58:03edward set out to intercept her
00:58:06warning that death would be the penalty for anyone who helped margaret
00:58:11everything now depended on this race across the country
00:58:14the two armies met at tewkesbury and it was here in this beautiful abbey that margaret was once again
00:58:27left to wait for news but this time she was alone for the very first time at the age of 17 her son was on
00:58:36the battlefield today he would either win his father's crown or lose his life
00:58:45the end when it came was quick margaret's son died where he fell in the route of the lancastrian army
00:58:56margaret didn't try to run she had nowhere to go and no one left to fight for
00:59:06and when edward made his victorious entry into london the captive queen followed in a chariot
00:59:13straight-backed and blank-faced staring at nothing
00:59:21the following day king henry's body was brought out of the tower
00:59:26the londoners were told he had died of pure displeasure and melancholy
00:59:30at the news of his son's death but few doubted that edward had ordered his killing
00:59:39margaret was 41 and without her husband and son her life was over
00:59:46she was no longer a threat to edward so he had no need to kill her
00:59:52instead he imprisoned her for four years in england
00:59:56before allowing her to return to france penniless and purposeless
01:00:03and when she died at the age of 51 her death went unnoticed by the crowned heads of europe
01:00:12margaret and isabella had each stepped forward to become a queen who dominated the political chessboard
01:00:18their forceful leadership shaped the power play around them but it also exposed them to vitriolic criticism
01:00:26their self-assertion that would have seemed natural in a man was deemed unnatural even monstrous in a woman
01:00:33as a result they've gone down in history condemned as she wolves
01:00:47walk down in history
01:01:08so
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