Transcript
Dan Jones (0:00)
Friends, I can hardly believe I'm saying this, but it's time for the finale of season nine of this Is A Dynasty to Die For. If you've been here from the beginning, salute. It's been quite the ride. If you're joining us for the first time. Well, there's a few things you need to catch up on. 119 episodes of Plantagenet Mayhem, to be precise. Fortunately, it's all in our archive and if you sign up as a royal favourite on Patreon, you can you get access to those ad free and fully bingeable. And if you're a royal favourite, I've got some more good news. You can now order signed special editions of my books, the Plantagenet and the Hollow Crown via Millennia Books. Purchase links are in the show notes and head to our Patreon for a code that'll get you a 10% discount on the COVID price. For now, though, it's time to get back to the chaos of the 15th century, where the wars of the Roses are on, the wheel of fortune is spinning faster than my peloton bike's pedals and someone is going to end this episode with their head on a spike. Who? Well, I'm about to tell you after this short break. You know what? You got to feel sorry for King Henry vi because he wouldn't be anybody's personality hire and he was just as bad at HR as at kingship. He's the guy who forced all his warring nobles to hold hands in the Love Day Parade. If only Plantagenet England had indeed sponsored jobs. With Indeed, you can spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all the right boxes. Less stress, less time, more results when you need the right person to cut through the chaos. This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs and listeners of my show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves. Indeed.com thisishistory just go to Indeed.com thishi this is history right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.comthisishistory Terms and conditions apply. Need a hiring hero? This is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. Ever wondered what it feels like to be a gladiator facing a roaring crowd and potential death in the coliseum? Find out on the Ancients Podcast from History Hit twice a week. Join me, Tristan Hughes, as I hear exciting new research about people living thousands of years ago, from the Babylonians to the Celts to the Romans, and visit the ancient sites which reveal who and just how amazing our distant ancestors were. That's the ancients from history hit. The gates of Harlech Castle in North Wales swing open to admit the messenger. Its November 1460 and he's ridden hard through the early winter's storms all the way from the south of England to bring this note. He hands the letter to the men guarding the gate who invite him to come inside and warm his bones. But the messenger demures. It's been a long ride here. Now he has a long ride home. The gatekeepers shrugged and watch as the messenger wheels and heads off again into the gloomy countryside. One of them takes the letter into the castle to deliver it to its addressee, Margaret of Anjou. Margaret is Queen of Plantagenet, England, but only just. In the last year, the wheel of fortune has lurched. Just a few months ago she was riding high, ruling the country from Coventry in the name of her hopeless husband, Henry VI, the 39 year old Lancastrian king. Their enemies, Richard, Duke of York and his pals, were scattered, exiled from the realm. But now, less than six months later, everything has changed. Margaret and her seven year old son, Prince Edward are disinherited. Her allies were slaughtered by York's allies at the Battle of Northampton. And then Richard himself struck a deal with Parliament making him the next king. So now Richard, Duke of York, is back on top, ruling the realm with Henry vi, more or less his prisoner. Margaret is brooding on all this when the letter is brought to her chamber. She inspects it carefully, then breaks the seal, opens it and reads. The letter is from her husband. He greets her, says he misses her and begs her to leave North Wales and come to London, bringing their son with her. You know how it is. Long distance relationships are never easy. Margaret finishes the letter and gives a scornful snort, crumples it up and throws it into the fire. You have to get up earlier in the morning than that to fool this queen. Before she and Henry were separated, she told him that if he wanted to write to her, they would use a code word. If it was in his letters, she would take them seriously. Otherwise send to junk mail and block. This letter lacked the code word, so she won't be taking little Edward anywhere near London. All the same, Margaret realizes that that you can't just sit in Harlech Castle forever. Sooner or later it won't just be notes the Yorkists send, but troops. So in late November, she takes Edward and her servants down to Harlech's Watergate and boards a ship bound for Scotland. There she takes refuge with Mary of Gelders, Regent of the nine year old Scottish King James iii. The two women have plenty to talk about, but Margaret only has one big question on her mind. How is she going to get the troops together to ride back into England and take her revenge? I'm dan jones and from sony music entertainment. This is history season 9 of a dynasty to die for. Episode 12 rise of the yorks. If you thought public discourse was uncivil in the age of the Internet, well, you're right. People really get on each other's cases online. And public figures, or even medieval historians routinely get it in the neck. Only the other day, a complete stranger wrote to me with a long note castigating me for being too scruffy for history, not understanding that all my tweed jackets with elbow patches and professorial dicky bows are in the dry cleaner. But I think it's worth remembering that flame wars were just as, well, flaming back in the Middle Ages, maybe even more so. And when our medieval forebears were rage baited, they really knew how to let fly. Case in point, Margaret of Anjou in 1460. She really feels like she's been done over by the Yorkists and she wants everyone to know it. So once she set up camp in Scotland in early December, she writes an open letter in the name of her son, Prince Edward, addressed to the citizens of London. In it, she absolutely drags Richard, Duke of York, calling him a horrible and false forsworn traitor, a mortal enemy to my lord, to my lady and to us. She adds that York has an untrue pretensed claim to the crown. And she finishes it by adding that York's mama is so ugly that when they laid her on the plague cart, the rats ran away screaming. Well, maybe not that last bit. But Margaret doesn't hold back and it's very clear that she hasn't given up. By the way, if you want to have a bit of end of season fun and engage in a medieval roast war, producer Al is going to start a new medieval themed insults bank on Patreon, royal favourites. The floor is open. Back in the 15th century. Meanwhile, Margaret is letting loose on York. What's more, she reckons she has the stones to back it up. Because Margaret and little Prince Edward weren't the only ones feeling very sore. After the Battle of Northampton, England's nobles are out for each other. In the north of England, the Percy family, allies of the Queen, are on the rampage. They're looking to avenge their kinsman, Thomas Percy. Lord Egremont who was slaughtered in the battle. They're riding around raising hell, burning estates of the Neville family, who were the Yorkists tightest allies. Down south, the Beaufort family are also on the warpath. And in Wales, the King's half brother, Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke, is making trouble too. Margaret figures that there are enough angry men in England that if they all get together they can kick York and his cronies out of power for what would be the third time. So she writes to them all and suggests they muster in the east coast town of Kingston upon Hull, combine their armies and give the Yorks the hiding they so rich deserve. This has the makings of a plan, but it's not a secret one. So it doesn't take long for alarm bells to start ringing. In Yorkist hq, Richard, Duke of York, and his most senior Neville ally, the Earl of Salisbury, swing into action. They march north to try and head off this rebellion before it gets going. York's strapping great strongman of a son, 18 year old Edward, Earl of March, heads to Wales to deal with Jasper Tudor. It looks like another great showdown is on. Christmas is coming, but peace and goodwill towards all men is rather hard to come by. By December 21st, Richard, Duke of York, has arrived in Yorkshire, where he has plenty of military bases. He heads to Sandal Castle, West Yorkshire. This is a pretty secure stronghold with huge walls and a great keep on top of a mound. What it doesn't have is a great garrison of troops inside or much by way of supplies. Given the speed with which York has had to hightail it up to Yorkshire, there hasn't been much time for him to raise the army he'd have liked or lay down the food stores to sustain a protracted military campaign. But that can all be solved. All he has to do is sit tight and wait for reinforcements to arrive, provided as usual by the Neville family. So for a week, York hunkers down in Sandal Castle and waits. Christmas comes and goes. He monitors the news from outside the castle walls, which is very much a mixed bag. The city of York itself is in the command of royal forces. The that's bad. Pontefract Castle is also held by the enemy. That's also bad. The Queen has more troops in the area than he does and the southern armies of the Beauforts have arrived. That's bad too. So maybe not so much a mixed bag as a bag of fertiliser grade horseshit. Bags or no bags, York has to keep the men in Sandal Castle going. So he sends out regular foraging parties to fetch food from the surrounding area. It's not the easiest task in the dead of winter, and it's made all the harder by the presence of hostile troops all over the countryside. On December 30, one of York's foraging parties comes under attack from men loyal to the Duke of Somerset, and York decides he's had enough. He rides out of Sandal Castle accompanied by the Earl of Salisbury and York's own second son, Edmund, Earl of Rutland. They have a few dozen men with them, tops, and it's a great historical mystery as to why York feels he needs to leave the safety of his castle. Probably he's looking to relocate rather than pick a fight. But a fight is what he gets. He's barely out of the castle when he's ambushed near Wakefield by some of his greatest enemies, Henry Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, and Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, and a lot of Lancastrian soldiers. A later chronicler writes that York is environed on every side like a fish in a net. There's a skirmish with heavy fighting that lasts for about an hour. York is heavily outnumbered and realizes this is going to be ugly. He tells his son Edmund to run for his life and the 17 year old charges off towards Wakefield Bridge, trying to get to a church where he can seek sanctuary. He never makes it. On the bridge, young Edmund is cut off by a nobleman called Lord Clifford. Clifford is only a few years older and he has major beef with the Yorkists because his dad was killed at the Battle of St Albans. That's exactly what he reminds Edmund of. When he catches him on Wakefield Bridge, he curses him, steps forward and stabs the lad through the heart. Back at the battle, things are not going any better for York. The fighting is raging on, but eventually his men are overwhelmed and York is captured. He's stripped of his armor and bound and a paper crown is placed on his head. Then the Duke of York, self appointed heir to the throne and long standing agitator against Henry Henry VI's rule, is paraded before the assembled enemy troops before being roughly beheaded. The Earl of Salisbury, head of the Neville clan, manages to flee the battle, but he doesn't get very far. The next day he's captured and brought to Pontefract Castle where he too has his head cut off. One of his sons, Thomas Neville, is also taken and killed. Not long after, in the city of York, four heads are taken to the Mickle Gate, one of the fortified gates that leads into the walled city. They're impaled on spikes and so Everyone who leaves or enters the gate is watched by the cold, dead eyes of the Earl of Salisbury, Thomas Neville, Edmund, Earl of Rutland, and Richard, Duke of York. The news is taken to Scotland, to Queen Margaret. She must be absolutely delighted. Revenge is hers. Her arch enemy is dead. But Margaret isn't stupid. She will know as well as anyone that the war isn't over yet. In fact, it's barely even begun.