← This is History: History’s Greatest Fails
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Dan Jones
This episode is brought to you by Chevy Silverado. When it's time for you to ditch the blacktop and head off road, do it in a truck that says no to nothing. The Chevy Silverado Trail Boss. Get the rugged capability of its Z71 suspension and 2 inch factory lift, plus impressive torque and towing capacity thanks to an available Duramax 3 liter turbo diesel engine. Where other trucks call it quits, you'll just be getting started. Visit chevy.com to learn more. Hello dear listeners, Dan here and welcome to Season seven of this Is History. Now, starting today, we're launching a this Is History Patreon channel. It comes with a brand new membership tier this Is History Royal Favorite. Subscribers to Royal Favorite will get everything from the this Is History plus subscription as well as access to loads of special new perks, including access to the official this Is History chat room where I and the rest of the team will be popping in throughout the season. You'll get to vote on future episode topics, weigh in on polls and discussions, and unlock exclusive extras throughout the season. To celebrate the launch, I'll be doing a special Ask Dan Anything just for Royal Favourite Subscribers on Patreon next month. If you join today, you can get your questions in and as an extra bonus, the askers of our top five Favourite questions will get a signed copy of my book, Henry v. Head to patreon.com thisishistory to start your free trial of this Is History Royal Favourite today. We can't wait for you to join us. Enjoy the episode. A clamour of angry voices boomed throughout Westminster palace as Edward iii, Plantagenet King of England, staggers painfully along the corridor. The old monarch drags his feet, his breathing is heavy, and every few steps he stops to lean on his attendants. They hold his arms, once so powerful but now wasted by disease. From time to time, the king peers around him, baffled, as though he's never been here before. The angry hubbub is coming from a room known as the Painted Chamber, and when his attendants throw the heavy wooden doors open and there's a fanfare of trumpets, the room falls quiet. The sight of this wizened, decrepit granddad stuns the assembly into silence. It's late April 1376, and Edward has been on the throne for nearly half a century. In his prime, he was handsome, charming and wise, the greatest king the Plantagenet dynasty has ever produced. He gave England stable laws and smashed the stuffing out of the old enemies, France and Scotland. Now, though, he's a pathetic, even tragic sight. He's 63 old by 14th century standards. His beloved wife, Queen Philippa is long dead. He's lapsing into senility and he has been having treatment for an apostomy, probably a cancerous tumor in his bowel. All his triumphs, his his conquests, the wild parties and dress ups at his pleasure filled court, they all seem a lifetime ago. Edward is in terrible shape and his kingdom isn't much better off. I'm Dan Jones and from Sony Music Entertainment. This is history Season 7 of A Dynasty to Die For Episode 1 God Save the Kid when we first launched my podcast, this Is History, back in what now actually feels like the Middle Ages. Naturally, all my accounts were worked out on an abacus, my scripts were written with quill on parchment and I sent them over to my producer on a raven. It was a slow, overwhelming and lonely process with so many different hats to wear and so much to do with so little time. If only I'd had Shopify as my business partner to get me started and help me keep up with the pace. Finding the right tool that not only helps you out, but simplifies everything can be such a game changer for millions of businesses. That tool is Shopify. Turn your big business idea into With Shopify on your side, sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.co.uk sell 23 try go to shopify.co.uk cell 23 try this parliament has been called because England is on the verge of a crisis, and when the king has been helped into his seat, his chief minister stands up to give a speech explaining just how bad things are. He says the government is in danger of losing the war with France that Edward began 40 years ago. Enemies are threatening to invade. The king has run through all his tax revenues and now needs more public money to defend the realm, so everyone needs to cough up. That goes down as well as if he'd asked each man in the room to cut a testicle off and pop it in a bowl. Once Edward is taken out of the chamber, the shouting matches begin. As one chronicler later puts it, the representatives reckon they have been perpetually harassed by many such demands for tax, and they can't pay up without the greatest harm to themselves. Over the days and weeks that follow, they hammer the government, complaining that the king is surrounded by corrupt, incompetent ministers and that he's led astray by his mistress, a courtier called Alice Perez. They might have a point. They invent the process of impeachment and use it against corrupt officials, which gives this meeting the nickname of the Good Parliament. For more on how good the Good Parliament really was, click subscribe to our bonus episode. This is the worst beating dished out to a royal government in decades. And it's horribly clear that Edward III's once glorious reign has run out of road. The day the old King gives up the ghost and hands over to someone younger and more vigorous can't come soon enough. Who is that younger man? Edward's son and heir. The Black Prince used to be the finest warrior in Europe, but in 1376, he's even worse off than Edward. He's on his deathbed with a mystery illness picked up years ago on campaign. He was the future once. But not anymore. The King's ministers need to put a new face on royal government to show the country that brighter days lie ahead. They come up with a radical solution. They decide that face belongs to the Black Prince's nine year old son, Richard of Bordeaux. So in late June, Richard is brought along to Westminster and presented to Parliament. The Chancellor, Archbishop Simon Sudbury, says this young lad, with his shock of reddish brown hair and cherubic little face, is the true image and very figure of his father, the Black Prince. He should be held among them and all other lieges of the King with great honour and reverence. Laying England's destiny on the shoulders of a boy who should still be taking packed lunches to school is a big play. But Parliament, desperate for any good news at all, buys into the hype. They all cheer their acclaim. To any cynical heads in the room, this might all seem like wishful thinking. And probably some of their cheering is dutiful rather than wholehearted. But there's one person who buys into it 100%. That's nine year old Richard. It's his debut on the political stage and he sees hundreds of grown ups falling over themselves to praise him like he's the savior, the Messiah. But Richard of Bordeaux isn't the Messiah. He's a very naughty boy. As he grows up, he'll show himself to be vain, vindictive, shallow, vicious, thin skinned and paranoid. His reign will be one of the most dramatic and shocking in all of English history. At the heart of it will be Richard's struggle to the death with one of his cousins, another grandson of old King Edward, who's also just a little boy. In 1376, their lives will be tangled up and eventually become locked in a dance to the death, with fatal consequences for anyone who gets caught in between them. 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 the 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 pound 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 When I think about all the epic stories that have come down to us from literature, drama, mythology or yes, history, some of the best of them are tales of deadly rivalry. Whether it's Achilles and Hector, Scipio and Hannibal, or Scar and Mufasa, there's something about two sworn enemies locked in an existential struggle for supremacy that just hits different and that's why I've been so excited about getting to this season of this Is History. Because the story I'm going to tell you over the next 12 episodes is one for the books. It's a tale of two cousins, Richard II and Henry Bolingbroke, history's ultimate frenemies. They're born just three months apart. Both are grandsons of Edward iii. Both will grow up to be wealthy, powerful, intelligent Plantagenets. But over the course of their lives, character and circumstance combine first to drive them apart, then to hurl them back together with solid such unstoppable force that only one of them will survive. And he just barely this is a drama that Shakespeare turned into my favourite of all his history plays, Richard ii a tragic meditation on what it means to be a king and what a dreadful thing it is to try and unmake a king. For within the hollow crown that rounds the mortal temples of a king, king keeps death, his court, and all that. I can't promise what I'm going to tell you in the next dozen episodes, and the bonus subscriber episodes which go alongside them is going to be up to the standard of old shaky dog soul shattering iambic pentameter, but I'm going to give it a good go now I realise there'll be one or two of you who've noticed that we closed season six in the 1360s with England enjoying a moment of shining glory. French and Scots humbled Edward and the Black Prince, masters of the Plantagenet universe. Yet here we are, just 16 years later in 1376, with Edward and his eldest son both at death's door, the French war in the toilet and Parliament mutinous. What's gone wrong? Well, I'm going to go into far more detail about what the hell just happened in this week's subscriber episode on this Is History plus, where you can also get episode two a week early. But for now, let's just say in medieval England, the wheel of fortune is ever spinning. A lucky mix of inbred royal jeans made for a half decent Plantagenet ruler in Edward iii. But that's over now. They've had their fun and things are getting dark again. So who are the characters at the heart of this drama? Well, the first is young Richard of Bordeaux. We saw him just briefly at the end of season six. Being born on January 6, 1367, an Epiphany baby who has three kings show up to his baptism. Richard is the son of the mighty Black Prince and his wife and first cousin, Joan, the fair Maid of Kent. Theirs was a scandalous union, with Joan having been married twice already. Already a mother and the happy couple being, well, close cousins. But the heart wants what the heart wants, and in this case, it wanted more royal inbreeding. You know what they say, incest is best. Richard is a striking, handsome lad who grew up to be tall and regal looking, a lover of fine clothes and beautiful things. Physically, he's strong, and the household appointed to look after him is packed with loyal knights and companions of his father, the Black Prince. Chief among them is a tough, dependable soldier called Sir Simon Burley, Richard's tutor, whom he adores. It's Burley's job to raise the boy to be as much of a chivalric hero as as his old dad. But as we'll see along the way, something doesn't go quite right. I think a big part of it is that Richard never actually knows his dad, the chivalric hero. Around the time of Richard's birth, the Black Prince is doing battle on the Spanish peninsula, where he picks up a horrible wasting disease that eventually sees him off. Throughout Richard's childhood, the Black Prince is in terminal decline and he dies in June 1376, just before Richard is first presented to the good Parliament as the Saviour of the world. So Richard has heard a lot about his dad and he knows he's basically supposed to be the Black Prince reincarnated, but that's never more than an abstraction. This lad never has a functioning father. And what's more, he never sees his grandfather, supposedly this legendary warrior king, as anything more than a shambling old man. Richard is a boy with a chronic lack of male role models in his life. And it's really going to tell as he grows up. So who are the other major players in Plantagenet, England? Well, besides the decrepit King and Black Prince, the main man is Richard's 36 year old uncle, John of Gaunt. John of gaunt is the third of Edward III's five sons, and by the time we get to 1376, he's unquestionably the dominant royal prince. As Duke of Lancaster, he holds the biggest, baddest noble title in the land, complete with vast estates, castles and territories. Gaunt has also picked up four, yes, count them, four other noble titles along the way. And he has a claim to be the King of Castile, which he periodically goes off to try and win in battle. Gaunt is a smart, calculating politician, an experienced diplomat and an ambitious soldier, even if he's not in the first rank of warriors like his dad, Edward, or big brother, the Black Prince. But Gaunt also has a habit of rubbing people up the wrong way. The citizens of London hate him. The Church doesn't love him because he has a fondness for oddballs or heretics, they would like to say, like the radical Oxford theologian John Wycliffe. By virtue of being the most senior adult royal noble able to stand up without two people holding him, Gaunt also becomes the de facto fall guy for the government's failings, of which there are many. Some nurse the suspicion that Gaunt isn't content with being the number one landowner in England and possible King of Spain. The rumor mill has it that if things fall the right way, Gaunt wouldn't mind trying his dad's crown on. Because why reach for a pretend crown abroad when there's one right there in your own country crying out for a competent grown up to put it on? Of course, if Gaunt ever did think seriously of nabbing the crown, that would make the next guy in the queue his only son. He's a kid of exactly Richard of Bordeaux's age, by the name of Henry Bolingbroke. And that brings us to the next player in our story. He's the scar to Richard's Mufasa. Or is it the other way round? I don't know. Hakuna matata. It means no worries. What you need to know for now is that Henry Bolingbroke is born in April 1367 at Bolingbroke Castle in Lincolnshire to John of Gaunt's first wife Blanche. He's given a first rate education, learning to read and write in English, French and Latin, as well as full on training in the martial arts, riding, jousting, hunting and fighting. Unlike his cousin Richard of Bordeaux, Henry Bolingbroke seems to take to these from a young age. It'll be a key difference between them as they grow up. Henry isn't groomed to be king, but Gaunt makes sure he has a right royal education all the same. And though he doesn't seem to spend every school holiday hanging out with young Richard, the two of them definitely develop a bond. In fact, the historical record shows them together on several very important occasions when they're youngsters. One of these is in 1377. This year marks the 50th anniversary of Edward III's accession to the throne. It's a huge landmark. No other English king has ever made it to half a century in power. As part of the celebrations in April, there's a St. George's Day feast at Windsor Castle. The night before the big day, the King is wheeled out to make some new knights. He formally dubs Richard of Bordeaux and Henry Bolingbroke. And the next day he goes one better, formally inducting them into the Order of the Garter, his exclusive club for England's creme de la creme. This is quite a moment for the two 10 year olds. They're being fast tracked into the next generation of Plantagenet leaders. But it's also clear that this might be the last time the new boy knights see their grandfather. Even the act of dubbing them is almost too much for old Edward. He's had a series of strokes and most of the time he just sits there, unable to speak and only barely able to move. At the good parliament, the fresh faced Richard of Bordeaux was held up as the future future of the Plantagenet kingdom. Now he and his cousin Henry Bolingbroke are on the verge of being catapulted into the front rank of England's nobility before their voices have even broken. There's a saying that if you're good enough, you're old enough. Will that prove to be true in the case of Richard and cousin Henry? Putting kids in the front line of government is about to be tested by a hard collision with reality. 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 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 at 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 early on the morning of June 22, 1377, there's a pounding at the gates of Kennington palace, the elegant mansion south of the River Thames just outside the bustle of England's capital. A large group of well dressed Londoners are waiting anxiously to be let in. When the gates are unbolted and swing open, they hurry through. The palace staff direct them towards the chamber where they will meet Richard of Bordeaux and his mother Joan, the fair maid of Kent. The staff notice that some of the citizens are sobbing and blowing their noses. They arrive to find the 10 year old and his mum waiting for them. The leader of the delegation bows awkwardly. It's clear he's about to deliver some terrible news. There is no doubt, says the citizen, that death is at hand. Our invincible King Edward, who has governed and ruled us for many decades in unbroken peace, now, with the signs of death clear upon him, ceases to be our ruler. There's a silence, then the whole group fall to their knees and hail young Richard as our next king and the only one we recognize as King. The King is dead. Long live the kid. Understandably, the citizens pay Richard plenty of flattery. They have a good moan about his uncle John of Gaunt, with whom they have long running beef discord, which has brought losses to many and gain to nobody. They ask Richard to see to it that this gets sorted. Then they depart, leaving it all to sink in. For Richard, the moment has come. What exactly the lad is thinking isn't recorded. But the sight of grown men fawning over him, falling to their knees and flattering him. Well, he could get used to that needless to say, the citizens are right. The previous day, June 21, Edward III did indeed die at his palace of shadow. At the end, he was a shattered shell of his once great self. One chronicler says the only person at his bedside when he breathes his last is his mistress, Alice Perez, who nicks the rings off his dead fingers. In fact, the chroniclers really go to town on Alice, an unspeakable whore and a shameless hussy, says one of them, who also manages to slut shame Alice. For Edward being so keen on excessive wanton sexual couplings. It was thought that he ended his life sooner because of this excess, writes the chronicler. That's right. It wasn't the colon cancer or the strokes. It was too much boning that killed the old boy. With Edward's death, England is thrust into a new, uncertain era. But there are some things that have to be done. The first is to arrange a decent funeral for the old king. That takes place on July 5, when Edward's body is paraded through London to Westminster, where he's buried in a tomb he shares with Queen Philippa. The coffin has 400 torchbearers around it and more than 1,000 members of the royal household walk behind it. Londoners cram into the streets to watch the doleful procession go by and there's much wailing and mourning, even as coins are thrown to the poor as a final act of charity on Edward's behalf. On the last stages of the parade to Westminster, the most powerful members of the Plantagenet family join the procession. They're led by the dead king's surviving sons, Edmund Langley, Thomas of Woodstock, and at the head of everyone, John of Gaunt. There's no place among them for the 10 year old old Richard, who days earlier was being flattered by the Londoners who broke the news of his granddad's death. Ostensibly, this is to avoid a conflict of precedence. You can't have the living king walking downwind of the dead one. Richard is probably allowed to watch the funeral, but he's hidden away with the women, including his mum Joan, in a closed viewing gallery at Westminster Abbey. On paper, that's all well and good, but to everyone watching the procession in London's streets and the solemnities in Westminster Abbey, that does look slightly fishy. Since the good Parliament, the government line has been that the future lies in the hands of young Richard, who is the coming man, no matter his age. Yet on this first big state occasion, the kid is nowhere to be seen. Instead, at the forefront of the Procession is his uncle Gaunt. Gossips have been speculating for some time that Gaunt isn't exactly in love with the idea of England being governed by a school child. The practical reality is that as Duke of Lancaster and the premier noble in England, Gaunt is going to be taking a leading role in foreign policy, diplomacy and domestic rule until Richard is old enough to make his own decisions. If you were Gaunt, the rumour mongers whisper, wouldn't you be thinking that King John II has a nice ring about it? And if anything should happen to you, well, there's another 10 year old who'd be just as good at the job as Richard. John of Gaunt is a man with well known designs on a crown of some sorts. He's the most capable politician in England in his opinion. At any rate, he's in the prime of his life and he has a ready made family with a son and heir to succeed him in the form of Henry Bolingbroke. Would it be the worst thing in the world if he was to make the same sort of ruthless decision another Plantagenet John made back in 1199 when he elbowed his nephew Arthur of Brittany aside and took the crown for himself? There's a famous phrase in the Bible that goes, woe unto you, O land, when your king is a child. In the days after Edward III's funeral, John of Gaunt has a little window of opportunity in which he can convince his countrymen that those Old Testament prophets knew what they were talking about. Now is his moment. Is he bold enough to reach out and grab the Plantagenet cr? That's for next time on this is History. We hope you enjoyed this episode, but of course, the story doesn't stop here. We want to hear what you think about the divine right of kings and why you think the realm drunk the Kool Aid about Richard ii. If you're already a this Is History royal favorite on Patreon, get cracking. We're eager to hear what you think. And if you're not a member, now is the perfect time to jump in. You can become a this Is History royal favourite member today to join the discussion, plus get all the other great benefits of being a subscriber. Learn more at patreon. Com thisishistory. We can't wait to read the discussion.