Loading summary
Transcript3 lines
- [00:00]
A
Well, my friends, you're about to have a night on the town in medieval London. But before you do, a quick reminder that you've got friends in our royal court over on Patreon. These friends, or royal favourites we like to call them, are passionate about the Middle Ages and help all of us delve deeper into the history behind every this is History episode. It's also a space where you can chat with me and my team and next month I'll be doing a special Ask Me Anything just just for the royal favourites. So don't miss out, get ad free listening bonus episodes and all that other Fun stuff on patreon.com thisishistory now on with the show. I'm going to let you in on a secret. My life began toiling away in a field, battling for scraps with fellow peasants. Then I convinced my feudal overlords to teach me how to read and write. Then I wrote some books and and then this podcast. But to impress my new overlords, there's a lot of work that needs doing. I wish I'd had Shopify when I first started out back in the Middle Ages. This commerce platform has been a game changer for millions of guilds, leagues and businesses around the world like Mattel and Heinz. To brands just getting started. You can pick from thousands of ready made templates to start an online store, get help writing product descriptions and to launch marketing campaigns within minutes. It's like having the Hanseatic League at the touch of a button. So turn your big business idea into With Shopify on your side, sign up for your 1 pound per month trial and start selling today at shopify.co.uk thisishistory Go to shopify.co.uk thisISHistory shopify.co.uk thisIShistory in the middle Ages, when the French king is captured and put into the Tower of London, France goes into full blown anarchy. If only this they'd had access to Indeed, they could have found the perfect replacement king straight away and saved the country from total meltdown. That's because when it comes to hiring, Indeed is all you need. Indeed Sponsored Jobs help you stand out and hire fast. That makes a huge difference. According to Indeed data, sponsored jobs posted directly on indeed have 45% more applications than non sponsored jobs. So while it's too late for medieval French revolutionaries, it's the perfect time for you to get your job seen by the right people fast. And listeners of this show will get a £100 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility@ 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 Indeed is all you need. It's a balmy midsummer night in London, and though the curfew bell sounded long ago, there are still revellers in the street. England's capital is famous for having a hundred church steeples within the square mile. But for every house of God, there are at least two taverns. And on a night like tonight, those medieval dive bars can get pretty spicy. Take this group of lads. They're stumbling around the taverns of Eastcheap, a street that's a meat market for butchers by day and a meat market for boozehounds by night. It's way past midnight and the guys are looking for somewhere to have one for the road. No matter that they've already had about six for the road. But if London on a summer's night is a good place to find a drink, it's an even better place to find a punch up. And that's what they get. Exactly. What goes down in Eastcheap is now lost to the historical record, but this gang of feisty young rebellers stumble around the wrong corner of the or tread on the wrong toes, or take a leak against the wrong person's front door. Pretty soon there's a brawl. And if there's one thing that hasn't changed throughout history, it's a drunken punch up. Curses and blows are thrown, noses are broken and teeth rearranged. Predictably, it isn't long before the rozzas come wading in to break it up. There's no police force, but the mayor and sheriff's men arrive mob handed and drag a few of the worst offenders off for a night in the cells. When they get them there, they find that one of these lads is none other than the son of Henry IV, King of England. His name is Thomas, he's 21 years old and he's got rocks for fists as well as brains. The mayor leaves Thomas to sleep off the booze, then sends word to King Henry that he needs to have a stern chat with his son. Is the king fed up with Thomas for causing him this aggro? If he is, you'd struggle to know it, because far from punishing Thomas for his troublemaking, King Henry was is about to do something extraordinary for him. For years, Thomas has been the second son, overshadowed in family politics by his elder brother, the golden boy, Henry of Monmouth, Prince of Wales. But within Two years of the east cheap brawl. Everything will be stood on its head. Despite his hot headedness and wayward behavior, Thomas is about to be pushed to centre stage as his father's heir apparent. And unless Prince Henry does something spectacular, his career is heading for the scrap heap. I'm Dan Jones and from Sony Music Entertainment. This is history Season 8 of A Dynasty to Die For. Episode 4 Ballads and Brawls One of the joys and the difficulties of saying anything about the life and times of Prince Henry of Monmouth is that someone else got there first. And not just anyone else. The most famous rendition written of Henry's life comes from the pen of the greatest writer in the history of the English language, Dan Jo. William Shakespeare. Over the course of three plays, Shakespeare gave us his version of Henry, who in his early life he calls Prince Hal. It's a memorable portrait and thanks to performances by Lawrence Olivier, Kenneth Branagh and more besides, it's one of the most memorable in all of Shakespeare's history plays. Hal is a roistering, swaggering, hard drinking, womanizing tavern lizard. He keeps low company, epitomised by his mate John Falstaff. He shows little sign of being a worthy heir to the Plantagenet throne, which his father, Henry IV won for the Lancastrian family at enormous personal and moral cost. In short, this guy's a basket case and it seems vanishingly unlikely that he's ever going to amount to anything. Then comes one of the greatest transformations in England's literary history. As is usual with Shakespeare, it's a masterclass in dramatic structure just in the nick of time. The riotous youth becomes a flinty young man. The trouble is, it's mostly a load of old bollocks. And it's a load of old bollocks because in drawing this portrait of a wayward prince, Shakespeare deftly, perhaps deliberately gets the wrong son. The guy out raising hell in the streets of London During Henry IV's reign wasn't Prince Henry. It was his brother Thomas, joined on occasion by the king's third son, John. At some point around 1410, a gentleman poet called Henry Scogan writes what's called his moral ballad, which he reads to all four of Henry IV's sons. The youngest is called Humphrey in a wine bar one evening. The moral ballad is a bit of a diatribe warning against youthful folly and sluggardry. On the surface it's aimed at all the brothers, but there is, I think, good reason to believe that it's mostly for Thomas and John. In fact, and this is speculation But I don't think wild speculation. It may well be that it's Henry who encourages Scogan to write his moral ballad in the hope of getting his brothers to clean up their acts. Because when we step back and look at what the evidence suggests Henry is actually up to at this point, it's not running about London with a traffic cone on his head and a Mankini on shouting, come on, lads, who wants their face smashed in? I don't want to make our boy sound like a total square, but all the indications are that he's about work, work and more work. Last episode, we heard how in 1410-1411, with King Henry's health on the slide and issues like heresy in England and war in France on the Hurry up, Prince Henry expands his brief from suppressing rebellions in Wales to running the Royal Council. This gets him into a political tug of war with Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury. And though that doesn't always go his way, it means he always has plenty to do. If he's not roasting heretics in barrels, he's wrangling with parliaments for more cash to keep the government afloat. He's all over the details of maintaining the vital English military base at Calais. And he's in the weeds of French policy, where the English have to decide which side to back in the civil war between the Burgundians and the Armagnacs, a conflict you can learn more about in our last miniseries, the Glass King. And when Henry gets a break from work, what's he up to? Well, so far as we can tell, he's reading. Around this time, we know, Henry buys a beautifully illustrated copy of Geoffrey Chaucer's English translation of Troilus and Crusader, one of the most famous tales set in the Trojan War. He also starts casting around for a writer whom he can commission to write the whole history of that war in English. Then Henry's onto the Master of Game, authored by his cousin, the Duke of York. This is full of wholesome advice from the hunting mad York, explaining that hunting is a good way for a man to eschew the seven deadly sins, that it cures illness because it makes you sweat, and that if you go hunting, you probably go to heaven. Finally, Henry also receives a book from a writer called Thomas Hoclave called the Regiment of Princes, which is a handbook for good kingship. In other words, the guy's to be read pile is off the scale, and it's my contention that while his brothers are out smashing skulls in Life London, Henry's working on his Goodreads reviews and wading through briefing notes for the next council meeting. Which brings us back to where we started this episode. What is Henry applying himself so diligently to? He's keeping the English government afloat, educating himself on the finer points of the Trojan War, and grooming himself for the art of kingship. So why is it that his father suddenly decides that it's knucklehead Thomas whom he wants to promote to the position of number one son while Prince Henry gets nothing? Well, like a snooty haired boy who thinks he's got his teachers wrapped around every finger, Prince Henry is about to learn that hubris has limits. And he's going to rouse his decrepit father back into action.
- [13:22]
B
You guessed it. It's me, Jonathan Van Ness from Getting Better with Jonathan Van Ness. Okay, babes, can we just take a moment to talk about how special our dogs are? My babies are not just pets. They're my family. Which is exactly why I switched to Ollie. Ollie delivers fresh, protein packed meals made with real human grade ingredients, backed by vet nutritionists and crafted with culinary experts. And let me tell you, even the pickiest eaters get excited at mealtime. My pups run like the bulls during in Sierra when they hear that Ollie pouch open. Plus the Ollie app offers on demand health screenings so you can actually tap real experts for peace of mind. That's so iconic. Head to ollie.com better tell them all about your dog and use code. Better to get 60% off your welcome kit when you subscribe today. Plus they offer a happiness guarantee on the first box, so if you're not completely satisfied, you'll get your money back. That's O L L I E.com better and enter code. Better to get 60% off your first box. It's Jonathan Van Ness from Getting Better with Jonathan Van Ness. It's easy to feel hopeless, but we don't have to stay there. I'm all about finding places where we can turn that energy into hope and into action. One of those places is Americans United for Separation of Church and State. American United or AU is this quiet but mighty force working every day to preserve freedom without favor and equality without exception. I am so obsessed with that tagline. And let me tell you something, honey, that wall between church and state? Paper thin. It's got a leak, honey. It's one of the last safeguards protecting so many of our rights. So right now, from bodily autonomy to LGBTQ + rights to the future of public schools, to me, this is about creating A world where everyone gets to live as themselves. As long as you're not harming anyone else. Now is not the time to curl up and hide. It's the time to link arms and stand together for a better future. Join Americans United for Separation of Church and State and their growing movement because church, state separation protects us all. Learn more and join the fight@au.org better. Let's go. Americans United.
- [15:34]
A
It's a miserable thing to see King Henry IV eaten. Even trying to get up from his sickbed, Prince Henry and his uncle, the king's half brother, Bishop Henry Beaufort, wince as they watch him try. For five years, the king's health has been on the wane, and though he's still only 44 years old, he moves like an elderly man. Once this guy was Henry Bolingbroke, the most dashing, chivalrous, athletic knight in Europe who rode in the jousting lists with Boucicault and went pagan hunting in the frozen wastes of the Baltic. Now he's like Mr. Burns with a bad hangover. He has trouble walking. Riding is out of the question. He's wasting away from a combination of circulatory issues, strokes and skin complaints. Doctors from from all over Europe visit his chamber, pouring tinctures for him and applying ointments. But nothing seems to do the trick. It surely won't be too long before this old guy is what in my pub we call a non runner. Prince Henry and Bishop Beaufort wait for the king to settle himself for their audience with him. And then they begin. It's kind of awkward, they say, but here goes. What follows is one of the most spectacular misjudgments in the history of the Plantagenet dynasty. Prince Henry and Bishop Beaufort have decided to pitch the king with a radical plan. Given his failing health and the amount of business they need to get through, they want him to abdicate the throne early and hand it over to Prince Henry. The prince tells his dad that it's clear he can no longer apply himself to the honor and profit of the realm. Essentially he's saying, look, dad, it's not your fault, but if I must. The prince doesn't get much further than that, because even if Henry IV is unwell, he still has all his marbles. And now he goes full Logan Roy. We don't know exactly what's said, but we can make an educated guess. If Prince Henry thinks having a king quit is a good idea, he may want to take a look at the entire history of the last 10 years. In 1399, he may recall the King forced his cousin Richard II to resign the throne and took it for himself. Yes, the circumstances were different, but what was the outcome? King Henry has spent his entire reign dealing with the fact that he was never quite king, fair and square. Yes, he was crowned, anointed, acclaimed by the realm, but the stain of usurpation has meant a ridiculous number of rebellions and plots and insults from foreign leaders who refused to recognize his legitimacy. The lesson obviously is that the only way to inherit the crown has to be rightfully. You wait until the guy who has it dies and then you officially designated successor, step up. That's it, end of story. And now we may also speculate, King Henry continues. The prince may think he's been doing a great job running the council, but. But to quote Shania Twain, that don't impress me much. He's pissed off Archbishop Arundel, he's backed the wrong horse in the French wars by falling in with the appalling John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy. He doesn't seem to have solved any of the long running financial issues that have bedeviled English policy for years. And now he comes asking for the crown before his time. There are two words King Henry has for that. The second one is off and the first one is f. So far from abdicating, King Henry says he's going to drag himself off down to Parliament right now to show them that there's life in the old Giza yet. What's more, he's going to make some changes. Henry and Bishop Beaufort are sacked from the council. The policy of supporting the Burgundians in France is to be reversed. From now on, it's Armagnacs all the way. And the next time an English army is sent over to France to get involved in the war, the King is going to lead it himself. Or if he's not up to the job, then it won't be Prince Henry, it'll be his brother Thomas. In fact, Thomas is going to run point on everything from now on. Yes, that's right. Buzz from Home Alone is now essentially deputy dog in the kingdom. The King is going to fix up a super lucrative marriage for him and has given him the fancy noble title of Duke of Clarence. So, dear lad and dear half brother, Bishop Beaufort, you can both suck on that and when you're finished sucking on it, you can have a good long think about exactly what a pair of jumped up little cretins you are. Now, someone get me Thomas. The shock to Prince Henry is staggering. Five minutes ago he was on Top of the world. Now he's got nothing. It's nearly Christmas 1411, and he leaves London for his estates in the Midlands with his head spinning. When he gets gets there, he realizes he has a choice. He can either eat this humiliation and watch his brother receive everything he spent his life working for, or he can fight back, whatever that means and down whatever dark path it's going to lead him. Upgrade your laundry routine with a durable and reliable Maytag laundry pair at Lowe's. Like the new Maytag washer and dryer with performance enhanced stain fighting power designed to cut through serious dirt and grime. And what's great is this laundry pair is in stock and ready for delivery when you need it the most. Don't miss out. Shop Maytag in store or online today. Today at Lowe's, in the summer of 1412, Prince Henry rides towards London with a huge crowd of his retainers. Loyal paid men. Wearing his personal uniform at his back, they kick up some summer dust as they head towards the capital, armed and apparently dangerous. For weeks, an open letter from Henry has been passed from hand to hand in England. In it, he rails against shadowy figures he claims are trying to destroy his reputation. These sons of iniquity, nurslings of dissent, schism, fermenters, sowers of anger and and agents of discord, have been trying to besmirch his good name, he says, by claiming he wants to rise up against my own father at the head of a popular outbreak of violence, supposedly on the grounds that King Henry is an illegal usurper. Not true, says Prince Henry. But the sight of him riding towards London with what looks like an UN army at his back makes his protests hard to swallow. With Thomas preparing to go to France and fight in the civil war on behalf of the Armagnacs, this is a very sensitive time for Henry to be making a move like this. He knows, they all know, that it won't take much to turn this into a full blown political crisis. Someone needs to keep a very cool head if this is going to end peaceably. Fortunately, there is a man in London who has a cool head. His body is wasted and weak. But King Henry IV sees that his eldest son has probably had time enough to think about what he's done. The Prince arrives in London at the end of June. On July 3, King Henry summons him to Westminster palace, ordering him to leave his troops. And outside, Prince Henry comes, dressed magnificently if cryptically, in a blue satin gown decorated with little eyes, each of which has a needle and thread hanging from It. If anyone wants to come up with a theory about what that symbolizes, head on over to our Patreon, where we'll be discussing it this week. When he gets into the chamber where his sickly father is waiting, his head is all over the place. Last time they saw one another, it was a mutual harangue in which Henry told his dad he wasn't up to the job and his dad sacked him on the spot. Now the prince is in defensive mode. Anyone who says I'm disloyal is a liar. He says accusations going around that he mismanaged war funds while he was running the council are nonsense, and he's willing to prove it. If the king doubts his loyalty for even a second, he says he should kill him now. And with that, he thrusts a dagger handle first towards his father, offering him the weapon with which to do the deed. This is all King Henry wants to see. Sure, it's kind of extra, but it's a sign he's jolted the prince out of his complaisance. And a message of some sort seems to have got through. With tears and hugs, the prince gets to his feet and is reconciled with his father. His father tells him to go back to his estates and wait. Thomas will be going to France. Henry just needs to bide his time. That isn't particularly easy. No matter how sick he is, it starts to look like Henry IV might actually be unkillable. He survives the summer and autumn of 1412. He celebrates Christmas in his palace at Eltham. By the time February 1413 rolls around, the king has started to talk about planning a crusade to Jerusalem and having trees felled for the ships he's going to need to take him there. For Prince Henry, this is getting beyond a joke. But then, in March 1413, he receives a summons to go and see his father, who's taken to his bed and seems like he's never going to get out of it. Prince Henry rushes to Westminster to find the king little more than a wizened husk of a man, coming at last to the end of his life. The king recognizes his eldest son, and he gives him one last bit of advice. Be not fond of ease, he says to Prince Henry, but always engaged, either about the things of God or about the good of the kingdom, or about some of those pleasures and excellent sports which have in them nothing of the foulness of vice. He says he's sorry he ever snatched the Plantagenet crown away from Richard. And lastly, he tells Henry that whatever he does, he has to make sure he doesn't fall out with his brother Thomas permanently, for discord between them will spell destruction and misery for England. Henry listens to all this and takes it all in. Then he leaves his father. Will he ever see him again? And will he find a way to make his peace with Thomas, who was the spare then, the heir, and must now resign himself to being the spare again? That's the small stuff, because once Henry leaves the Gothic walls of Westminster, he'll be leaving as England's next monarch to find out where that leads him. Join us in the next episode of this is History. Friends, thank you for listening. Now I'm going to ask you to help me thread a needle. Well, specifically, Henry's cryptic one. So, to my dear royal favourites, I have to ask, what do you think Henry was getting at by donning that strange outfit after he was summoned to Westminster? The blue satin gown decorated with little eyes, each of which had a needle and thread hanging from it. If you're a forensic sartorialist, we'd love to hear from you. Look out for producer Al's discussion post on patreon@patreon.com forward/thisishistory limu emu and Doug, here we have the Limu emu in its natural habitat, helping people customize their car insurance and save hundreds with Liberty Mutual. Fascinating. It's accompanied by his natural ally, Doug. Uh, Limu is that guy with the binoculars watching us? Cut the camera. They see us. Only pay for what you need@libertymutual.com Liberty, Liberty, Liberty. Liberty Savings Fairy, Underwritten by Liberty Mutual Insurance Company and affiliates. Excludes Massachusetts.