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Friends, you've made it. Thank you for listening to another season of this Is History, A dynasty to die for and for sticking through all the blood and gore Henry and the French have thrown our way. Now, if you stick around at the end of this episode, you'll learn more about next season's big Plantagenet reveal. But while I've got you, I thought I'd tell you about what's coming after this season ends. The because I've been working on a delightfully irreverent three part miniseries on the Nativity, just in time for Christmas. If you want to delve deeper into the history of the Nativity, subscribe and you'll receive bonus episodes with me and Professor Helen Bond, an expert in all things early Christianity and co host of the podcast Biblical Time Machine. Together we'll dissect the myths of a story that changed the world for forever. It'll be a fun romp and I can't wait to share it with you this time next week. To get those bonus episodes, subscribe@patreon.com thisishistory in the meantime, here's the season finale after this short break.

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Hi everyone, it's JVN from Getting Better with Jonathan Van Ness. This season we've been talking a lot about hope. Not the fluffy kind, but the grounded, gritty. We're actually doing something kind. One of the places I term for that is Americans United for Separation of Church and State. They're this quiet and mighty force that's been working to keep religion and government separate so all of us can live as ourselves and believe as we choose as long as we don't harm others. Church, state separation touches so many of the things we care about. LGBTQI plus rights, marriage equality, reproductive freedom, and abortion access. Americans United is out here being one of the vital voices of reason, fighting in the courts and in Congress and pushing back against Christian nationalist efforts to force everyone to live by one narrow set of beliefs. You can learn so much more about what AU does and how to support their work@au.org getting better. Your support, no matter the amount, helps to safeguard our freedoms. Americans United is fighting for freedom without favor and equality without exception. You can start a chapter in your hometown today. You can volunteer money or time. Get involved in your community. Learn more@au.org Better we find Vecna.

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We end this once and for all together on December 25th. We have a plan. It's a bit insane. Everyone in he knows where we are. Watch out. Get ready for one last adventure. We stay true to ourselves Stay true to our friends, no matter the cost.

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Found you.

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Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 2 begins December 25th only on Netflix the hungry Parisians gathered outside the little boulangerie pull up their hoods and shiver. They stamp their feet to keep their blood flowing, trying to ignore the bitter cold of the December dawn and the pinch. They're hungry for bellies. All eyes are on the boulangerie door when it opens. You have to be quick. It's a few days before Christmas in 1420 and Paris is in a terrible state. Thanks to the long running French civil war and the recent invasion of English armies, there are severe food shortages. At night, bone thin children scavenge the city's rubbish heaps like starving dogs. Every morning when bakeries like this one open, they're mobbed by customers after what little produce goes on sale. In that respect, today is no different. When the store owner opens the wooden door, the crowd surges and people fight over little loaves and thin pastries. There's pushing and arguments, even punch ups. In another respect though, today is different. Because later, once the morning rush for food is done, Henry V of England is going to make his formal entry to the city along with his new wife, the French princess Catherine de Valois. A few months ago, Henry became heir and regent of the crown of France and marry Catherine, the youngest daughter of the mad French king Charles vi. Despite the acute shortages, the royal party expects entertainment. The city's authorities have scraped together whatever they can to lay on pageants, prayers, the whole nine yards. Someone has found enough booze stashed in a cellar to get the obligatory wine fountain going. Crowds dressed in all red for Christmas throng the couple. They summon enough energy to shout Noel. Henry accepts the greeting. Then he takes his new father in law, Charles VI to Notre Dame Cathedral to pray. They stop en route to take in a passion play that's a street performance of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ in Jerusalem. As they watch, Henry may feel someone has been reading his mind because he's been thinking a lot about Jerusalem lately. And he's decided that once he's sorted out starving, war ravaged France, taking back the Holy Land is the next item on his bucket list. The highest goal for a Christian warrior king is. Is a crusade. It won't be easy, but Henry's thoughts are turning east. And it seems increasingly obvious that for this king, the world is not enough. I'm dan jones and from sony music entertainment. This is history. Season 8 of a dynasty to die for. Episode 12 to Jerusalem. If you want to know what's on someone's mind, where would you look first? My guess is that if you're any kind of snooper, you'd go for their online search history. If you see a long series of hits for travel agent sites, cheap flights and string bikinis, chances are they're thinking of taking a holiday. LinkedIn and recruitment websites getting a lot of screen time. They're shaping up for a career move. Rate my latex sites be bulk retailers of baby oil and buildyourowncustomballgag.com hey, what happens between consenting adults is no business of mine. My point is, we can infer a lot about what people are thinking from their browsing habits. And although the 15th century didn't have smartphones and browsers, the principle still stands. Want to dig into someone's psyche? Ask what they're reading. That's something I want to come back to with Henry V. Now we've reached the season finale. First, though, let's catch up with Henry in the winter of 1420 as he settles into his new dual role as King of England and heir and regent of the crown of France. Because this guy has a hell of a to do list, and superhuman as Henry seems, it's hard to know where he's going to begin in France alone. There's a massive task ahead. In last week's bonus episode, producer Al and I got into the weeds of what Henry's new responsibilities are as heir and regent do. Check out that discussion if you get a chance. Suffice to say here that after the Treaty of Troyes, which makes Henry a dual monarch in waiting, France is basically split in half. Henry and his ally Philip the good Duke of Burgundy control most of the north, everything below the Loire and a fair amount besides is holding out for the Dauphin. Paris is starving because many towns around it are stubbornly loyal to the Dauphin's cause and the countryside is too dangerous to be farmed. Henry's going to have to go around these towns one by one, besieging them and prizing out anyone who won't bow to his new regime. But he can't keep besieging towns forever. Henry's got to run the place. He has to get Normandy running as a self funding occupied territory, raising its own taxes to pay for its own defense. He needs to sort out the French coinage, which needs reforming so he can try to kick start the economy. He has to start legal proceedings to try and bring the Dauphin to justice for murdering John the Fearless. Really? That means he has to come up with a grand military strategy to either defeat the Dauphin in battle and start a military conquest of the southern half of France, or strike a political deal to partition the kingdom. And that's only half the task, because as Henry starts giving France CPR back in England, people are starting to ask polite but urgent questions. Like can we have our king back, please? Henry hasn't been seen across the channel since 1417. That's nearly four years. The dual reality of the Treaty of Troyes has to be explained and ratified by an English parliament. More tax and loans have to be raised to support the next phase of the war. It's tiring to even think about. Which reminds me, this week over on Patreon, I want the royal favourites to tell me, do you think Henry was too ambitious for his own good? For now, Henry's mantra seems to be one I hear a lot on my peloton bike. If you can't get out of it, get into it. He works through Christmas, then in the new year sets out from Paris and heads to London. He leaves his brother Thomas, Duke of Clarence, to hold the fort in France while he's away. He plans on being back in person ASAP when he makes his formal entry into London. There's pageantry and cheering to match his return from Agincourt all those years ago. Henry makes sure that the greatest cheers are reserved for for his new wife and queen, Catherine de Valois. She has a full coronation at the end of February, parading magnificently from the Tower of London to Westminster before being crowned then fated at a fine feast. Point of trivia. Since Catherine is crowned in Lent when no meat is eaten, the whole feast is one gigantic fish supper. Crab, shrimp, trout, salmon. And it's not technically a fish, but it's quite impressive, a roasted porpoise. Henry then takes Catherine on a walk around of her new kingdom. He zips through the Welsh borders and stops by Shrewsbury where he copped that fateful arrow in the face as a teenager. Then he and Catherine go to Kenilworth Castle where Henry was staying when he took delivery of those fate fateful tennis balls from Catherine's now dead brother Louis, in what I suppose you could see as revenge served incredibly cold. It's likely at Kenilworth, where Catherine falls pregnant with an heir in the making. Henry next goes off on a high octane tour of his major towns, pressing the wealthiest citizens for donations to the next phase of his military campaign. He has a funny feeling that when Parliament meets, he might get cold feet about funding a French civil war. And a possible permanent union of the English and French kingdoms. Henry wants to try and make the argument to England's high rollers first. It's a tough sell. No matter how successful Henry's been, the country is getting war weary. People are wondering where this is all going to end up. But then, in late March, news arrives that casts a different mood over everything. As Henry is traveling through Yorkshire, messengers catch up with him on the road and drop a bombshell. A few days ago, there was a battle at Beaujer, just north of the River Loire on the frontier between Henry's France and the Dauphin's territories. It's the first time an English army has been defeated in the field by the French for decades. 10% of the fighting men of Normandy have been lost in the battle. And in the fighting, Henry's brother, Thomas, Duke of Clarence, was killed. This eliminates any doubts about the future of the war. Thomas has to be revenged. The war needs full face financing and Henry has to go back pronto. If he doesn't, everything he's fought for could evaporate in a blink. Hello, Dan Jones here. And as a medievalist, trust me, finding the right person for the right job is a really important skill. Back in the Middle Ages, the job market was packed full of Nepo babies. Sometimes literally. If only they had Hiring websites like Indeed. Indeed puts your job in front of the best candidates who will excel and be the kind of people you love to work with day in, day out. So spend more time interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Less stress, less time, more results. Now with Indeed Sponsored Jobs and listeners to this show will get a £100 sponsored job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves@ Indeed.com dynasty. Just go to Indeed.com dynasty right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com dynasty terms and conditions apply. Hiring do it the Right Way with Indeed. Now the holiday season is upon us, which means that you and everyone else is trying to find the best gift for your nearest and dearest. May I suggest a simple solution? What about gifting? Well, you with an aura frame. It's a digital picture frame that hosts an unlimited amount of photos and videos thanks to one handy app. And you get to control everything that goes on it. Meaning that you, your family or your four legged friends can all be framed beautifully on one high resolution screen for a limited time. Save on the perfect gift by visiting auraframes.com to get $35 off Aura's best selling Carver mat frames named number one by Wirecutter by using promo code Dan Jones at checkout. That's auraframes.com promo code Dan Jones. This deal is exclusive to listeners and frames sell out fast, so order yours now to get it in time for the holidays. Support the show by mentioning us at checkout. Terms and conditions apply. It's mid June 1421, when Henry steps aboard his flagship, sitting at anchor in Dover with his sailors making their final preparations to sail. It was less than six months ago that he was coming ashore here for his homecoming. And now here he is on deck, preparing to go again for God knows how long. Henry's only 34 years old, but he's done enough sailing, marching, commanding and fighting for several lives, lifetimes. As the vessel sets off, he may well wonder when he'll see England again. Or then again. Maybe he doesn't. Henry has packed thoughtfully for the journey and here's where we get an insight into what's on his mind at this time. He's brought the musical instruments, as usual, but also a stack of books. He's got volumes on hunting and meditative Christian texts. And he's got a big book he's borrowed especially from one of his aunts, Joe Neville, Countess of Westmoreland. It's a history of Jerusalem which splices together tales of King Arthur with a chronicle of the deeds of Godfrey of Buion. Godfrey was one of the leaders of the First Crusade who led the armies that besieged and conquered Jerusalem in 1099. Godfrey stuck around becoming advocate of the Holy Sepulchre by any other name, the first Crusader king of the Holy Land. And that's not all. Just before leaving England, Henry also commissioned a Burgundian adventurer, Gilbert Lanois, to head off on a fact finding diplomatic mission to the Holy Land. Gilbert sets out with a huge baggage train of gifts and trinkets designed to charm leaders on a likely marching route to the east. He's been told to survey towns, ports and rivers in Egypt and Syria and to write a practical handbook on how one might go about taking an army there. If we piece these things together, it looks like Henry, for all that lies ahead of him in France, is casting his eye several years ahead. His old mate, the German emperor Sigismund, has broken a deal to end the papal schism, which has divided the Catholic Church in Europe for a generation. The stage is set for someone to lead a united army of the faithful to take back Christ's city, which has been in infidel hands for nearly 200 years. You know what they say, if you Want a job done, give it to a busy person. Before all that, though, Henry has business to attend to in France. With his brother Thomas dead and in his tomb back in Canterbury Cathedral, there's plenty of work to do restoring the swagger of the English and Burgundian armies. That means the same old, same old guns, sieges and plenty of brutality. For those who don't bow to Henry's threats, Henry does now have a couple of advantages, at least in theory. He can bring to his sieges King Charles of France and a guy who's been a captive of the English for years, King James I of Scotland. When a town is garrisoned by French troops or their Scottish allies and Henry wheels out Charles or James to formally demand surrender, that means disobedience, is treachery and can be punished with instant death. It ought, in theory, to make Henry's task a lot quicker. Nevertheless, there are some towns where not even the direst threats can persuade the defenders to give up. One of these is the town of Mountain, northeast of Paris. Henry begins the siege of Meaux in October 1421, expecting a relatively quick victory. But Christmas comes and goes, and Mo holds out. The siege lasts all the way to the spring of 1422, by which stage the English are almost as knackered as the garrison inside the town. Disease has started to whip around the besieging army, just as it did at harfleur back in 1415. Dysentery is very hard to control once it starts, and the best Henry can hope for is that Mo capitulates before it takes too big a chunk out of his forces. Amid all this, there are reasons to be optimistic. Around Christmas 1421, news arrives from England that Queen Catherine has been safely delivered of her baby. She gives birth to a little boy at Windsor, and, unsurprisingly, he's christened Henry. Once the Queen has recovered from the birth in February 1422, she comes out to France and Henry has a special house built for her at a safe distance from the filthy, diseased siege camp. Every morning and evening, he has musicians come and play for her. And when the siege finally ends in May, Mo surrenders and Henry has the leader of the the garrison executed. Henry and Catherine travel the short distance to Paris. There's a fine palace in forest land just outside the city walls, known as Bois de Vincennes, where they can relax for a few weeks. It'll be a good chance for Henry to formulate a strategy for the war that doesn't depend on taking more than six months to defeat every town that won't surrender. And who knows, maybe. Maybe they can even get working on a brother or sister for little baby Henry back in England. But when they leave Mo, Henry starts feeling a bit unwell. His guts are all over the place. And it's been too long since Catherine's coronation to put this down to a plate of dodgy porpoise. Within a couple of days, the awful realization has dawned on them. In the last days at mountain, Henry has caught dysentery. Needless to say, the war doesn't stop, even for a king's lower intestine. And as Henry lies in his sickbed, he hears that the Dauphin is moving his armies around further south, looking very much like he's spoiling for a battle. Sick or not, Henry can't pass up this opportunity. It could be a second Agincourt, his chance to crush the Dauphin and settle all his problems in one go. He can't ride, but he orders an army to saddle up ready to fight in the field. By the end of July, his men are ready to go. The only place Henry is ready to go, however, is to the royal privy. He's so weak now that when it's time for him to travel from Paris and take charge of his army, he has to be carried in a litter. Picture a carriage with people instead of wheels. Then even that becomes unbearable. After a few horrible days trying to travel, Henry bows to the inevitable. His brother John is in France. As his lieutenant, he sends word that John should command the army against the Dauphin. The Dauphin never shows up for the battle. But by that time, Henry is on his way back to the chateau at Bois de Vincennes. As he travels, he's thinking about his will. He knows he's going to die, but dying's the easy part. Soon everyone else will have to fill in the blanks. When I was a little boy in.