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- [00:00]
Dan Jones
Now, just before we get into this episode, I thought I'd better warn you. There will be a vivid description of a stench that probably isn't best paired with breakfast. But if you want the specifics behind the medieval scent I'm about to describe, join the royal favourites over on our Patreon. It's where you get bonus episodes and extra delectable tidbits from the show, including evidence of my one time attempt at jousting. I'd love to see you there. Now, on with the episode. It's a damp day in early February 1399, and a draft moves through Leicester Castle. Doctors pace the chilly corridors, their faces etched with worry. Servants scurry about carrying trays laden with tinctures and potions. The mood in the castle is sombre because in the grandest bedchamber, propped up on beautifully embroidered cushions, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, lies dying. He's been ill for months, growing frailer and weaker each day. He's only 58, but the strain of a hard life on the frontline of politics and warfare has filled, finally caught up with him. Gaunt is too ill to receive many visitors. But today, footsteps in the corridor announce the arrival of someone who can't be kept away. It's gaunt's nephew, the 32 year old Plantagenet King of England, Richard II. He arrives with a look of syrupy sympathy on his face and a sheaf of government papers under his arm. The chamber door opens and Richard sits down at his uncle's bedside, handing him the documents. Just a bit of light reading, he says, to help keep your mind active. Exactly, how happy Gaunt is to see Richard is moot. Four months ago, the King sent Gaunt's beloved son, Henry Bolingbroke, into exile for 10 years. Now the little bastard is visiting his deathbed to bring him treasury accounts. According to a scurrilous story told later, Gaunt shows Richard exactly what he thinks of this sort of caper. In the spirit of end of life, man to man advice, he lifts up the bedsheets and invites Richard to look and learn. A rank smell wafts out, making the King gag. Gaunt presents his penis rotten from a lifetime of heavy and widespread use. Let that be a warning to you, he says. Actions have consequences. Richard is in no sense a master swordsman, so if true, this is less a bit of practical advice from Gaunt and more a last gasp attempt to make his nephew feel queasy. Ultimately, it's a futile gesture, because shortly after, Richard leaves with the stench of decaying D lingering in his royal nose Word follows that Gaunt is dead. This is the news Richard has been waiting months to hear. All of Gaunt's valuable lands in the Duchy of Lancaster are now up for plunder. So even if Richard's last memory of his uncle alive is the reek of poxy Ducal Johnson, his first thought on hearing of his uncle's death is that he's just hit the jackpot. I'm Dan Jones and from Sony Music Entertainment. This is history Season 7 of A Dynasty to Die For Episode 11 who Dares Wins 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 what? 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. If you're ever in London with an hour to spare and you feel a need to go and stare into the cold, dead shark eyes of a bona fide tyrant, you could do worse than buy a ticket for Westminster Abbey and stand face to face with King Richard ii. The portrait of Richard that hangs in Westminster, large as life and twice as terrifying, is one of the most extraordinary artistic renderings I've ever seen of pure lust for power. Richard sits enthroned on the wooden coronation chair that's still used to crown British monarchs today. He has a gold crown on his head and his slender fingers hold the orb and scepter which symbolize his royal authority. He wears a luxurious red ermine lined cloak over an underrobe of brilliant blue. He's wearing red stockings and a pair of natty pointed slippers. There's gold everywhere, a huge gold collar around his neck, gold embroidery on his clothes, and a golden background for the portrait itself. But for me, it's the eyes that do it. This image was painted in 1395, a generation before the Revolution in oil painting that produced what we think of as lifelike Renaissance portraiture. But the anonymous artist has captured in Richard's gaze a frightening sense of what majesty meant to him. The King glares past his long, thin nose with his lips pursed, eyebrows arched and eyes severe and black. His look is not out towards the viewer, but down, as though every mortal who will ever set their eyes on him is quite literally beneath him. With his right hand, Richard clutches that royal orb towards his armpit, guarding it jealously, as if to say, the whole world belongs to me and me alone. Woe and death to anyone who might dare to contradict me.
- [07:38]
Unknown
Foreign.
- [07:44]
Dan Jones
This is Richard as we find him. As the last year of the 14th century dawns, he's cleaned out his closet big time. Anyone who ever stood up to him, challenged his authority or just outright made him feel bad has been banished or murdered. He has a private army of Cheshire archers on permanent speed dial, including a sort of Varangian guard of 300 close protection officers who watch over him 24 7. He's at peace with France, he's wildly rich and he's married to a child who can't cause him any grief, either by disagreeing with him or, perversely, by bearing him children who might dilute his own royal magnificence. What more could he possibly want? Well, as it turns out, quite a lot more. Which is what makes John of gaunt's death on February 3 such a huge deal. Gaunt is, by a serious margin, the richest noble in England, the lord of a vast network of estates which sprawl across the country. Those lands bring in thousands of pounds of revenue per year and, in theory, command the allegiance of thousands of troops. Now Gaunt is gone. Richard can't help but look at all that and think it might look rather good in his own hands. Of course, even as King, Richard isn't supposed to just snatch every nice thing he sees. England has property, laws and political conventions, a little thing known as the rule of law, codified in Magna Carta. What's more, when Richard exiled Gaunt's heir, Bolingbroke, four months earlier, he explicitly said that he wouldn't stand in the way of Bolingbroke inheriting the Duchy of Lancaster when the time came. In fact, he did more than say it. He issued formal letters, authenticated with his privy seal, confirming that he was definitely, absolutely, in no way whatsoever or at all thinking of snagging Gaunt's lands when the old goat finally croaked. But now Gaunt is dead, Richard's at pains not to pass up the opportunity. Because in his view, why not? Richard's goal as king has never been to share the love around and nurture an aristocratic back band of brothers. Like his granddad Edward III did. He prefers a game where he is the only winner. And not only is he the winner, he's also hidden all the pieces, snapped the board in half, stolen the money and eaten the dice. On March 16, 1399, John of Gaunt's body arrives in London from the Leicester to be buried. This is quite a gap between death and burial, but that's deliberate. His will says he should lie unembalmed for 40 days so that his sinful body might decay. There's a penitential reason for this nastiness and I'll be delving into the weird and wonderful details of Gaunt's burial on this week's bonus episode of this Is History. Hit us up on Patreon if you want to listen to that. For now, all I'll say is that if the dong of Gaunt wasn't putrefying before he died, it surely is by the time he's buried. Strange to say, though, when Gaunt is buried at St. Paul's Cathedral on March 16, the state of his carcass isn't on everyone's mind. It's his estates. Two days after Gaunt's funeral, Richard summons the English lords to Westminster. And there he lays out his latest dastardly plan. His officials explain that there's been a little bit of a processing snafu with some paperwork issued the previous autumn. To be precise, the Royal declaration that under no circumstances would Richard be laying his filthy paws on the Duchy of Lancaster. That was a little clerical error. What the King meant to say was that Bolingbroke's right to inherit his dad's estates was null and void as long as he was in exile for the next nine and a half years, Richard will be having them for himself. And if Bolingbroke's exile should, for some weird reason, turn out to be forever, well, the King would just have to keep the lands. And that would be a great shame, wouldn't it? It? This isn't a matter that's up for discussion. The lords reeling from Richard's assault on his own kingdom and brain fried from the almost daily issuance of new batshit mental things the King has just decided to do, because he can have to suck it up. And that's not all. Richard also lets them know that in a few weeks time, he's planning to take a little trip out of his kingdom and to Ireland to give the unruly lords of that province a taste of his royal lash. In late May, he expects everyone to show up at Milford Haven on the southwest coast of Wales to join his expedition. Anyone who doesn't like it can take the matter up with the Cheshire Archers, who'll be very happy to deal with their complaints in their own unique way. As spring 1399 arrives, Richard's kingship is now unquestionably a full blown tyranny. Everything in England is subject to his whim. He bullies people with his private militia, he kills or disappears all political opponents. And now, in confiscating the lands and diverting the inheritance of the greatest nobleman in England, Richard has demonstrated concern conclusively that the rule of law is dead. His revenge, as he sees it, is complete. His mastery, as he sees it, is total. Right now, it's hard to see how anyone can stop him.
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Unknown
When we first launched my podcast this.
- [14:12]
Dan Jones
Is History, back in what now actually.
- [14:14]
Unknown
Feels like the Middle Ages, the 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 sell23try Go to shopify.co.uk sell2 3try.
- [15:09]
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- [16:42]
Dan Jones
Paris is a fine place to be in the springtime. And in 1399, Henry Bolingbroke is enjoying the luxuries of one of the smartest palaces in the French capital. He's staying at the Hotel de Clisson, which you can still visit today. It's a building clad in warm Parisian limestone, topped by two turrets with conical roofs. Back in the 14th century, it was the Parisian residence of the famous war veteran Olivier de Clisson, constable of France. On the surface of things, it's not a bad place to be in exile. The parties are tres jolie, and Henry is constantly hobnobbing with French high society. He's doing that because. Because he's made a very influential patron. It's the powerful Duke of Orleans, younger brother of King Charles vi. That's a very useful alliance to have. France and England are at peace, sure, and it might seem strange for the French to be harboring Bolingbroke. But Orleans isn't very impressed with the peace treaty and likes the idea of having Henry Bolingbroke up his sleeve in case the chance should arise to make some mischief. So with Orleans backing formalized in a personal alliance pact, Bolingbroke is sitting pretty, or as pretty as it's possible to be given the circumstances. Which is not to say that he's very happy. Bolingbroke is a family man, and for the most part, he's completely separated from his nearest and dearest. The only one of his close relatives who's come to Paris with him is his second son, Thomas, who's 10 years old. It's nice to have at least one kid around, but that still leaves five. Back in England, Bolingbroke's eldest son, Henry, who's 12, has been taken into royal protection, for which Reid custody. Richard pays him a small stipend to maintain a little group of servants and. But he has to show up to court whenever the King wants to see him. Bolingbroke's other kids are elsewhere. His third son, John, is in London living with relatives. The youngest Three children, Humphrey, Blanche and Philippa, are lodged with a trusty family friend in a secluded country house in the Welsh Borders. And then there's his dad. When he said goodbye to John of Gaunt before leaving England, both of them knew that this was likely to be the last time they saw one another. In normal circumstances, Bolingbroke would be around for the old man. As he declines, Richard has denied him that which is more than just a political blow. It's a personal affront. In Paris, Bolingbroke gets regular updates about his dad's health, and they are, of course, all bad. Early in 1399, he gets the news that Gaunt is laboring under so dangerous a disease, it must soon cause his death. And so it proves, when the news comes that Gaunt has passed. Henry has to process this on his own. He can't attend the funeral in London. He can only hold a requiem mass in Paris. The fact that King Charles VI attends, along with a whole bevy of other French bigwigs, can hardly ease the sting. And nothing at all can soften the blow that lands a few days later when further news reaches Paris that Richard has done the unthinkable, yet somehow predictable, and blocked Bolingbroke from inheriting the Duchy of Lancaster. Popular opinion in Paris is that Bolingbroke has been treated very rough indeed. He's widely liked, even beyond the Duke of Orleans circle. A chronicler describes him as an amiable knight, courteous and pleasant to everyone. And the shocking way he's been treated by his cousin, King Richard, is seen as a great shame and disgrace. Yet it's not just Bolingbroke that society gossipers worry for when they hear about Richard's land grab. It's the English King himself. The King of England was very ill advised not to recall Bolingbroke, writes a chronicler. To say the truth, if the King had wisely considered the consequences, he would not have done it. What are those consequences? Well, in the spring of 1399, that's up to Bolingbroke. He has options before him. He can accept that his time in England is done, give the whole thing up as a bad job and take up his old role of a knight errant. There are crusades to join and adventures in foreign fields he could hop on. Or Bolingbroke can step up. In the aftermath of Richard's daylight robbery, the mood music coming out of England starts very subtly to shift. The fact is that though Richard thinks he's untouchable, there are a few people who are starting to see him as dangerously out of control. The job of a king is to protect property, not to steal it. And there are nobles, even those currently in favor with the king, who are privately starting to wonder whether any of them can ever be truly safe. If the Duchy of Lancaster can simply be snatched from its rightful heir, how can anyone ever feel secure? And if they have no security, what's the point of Richard? In June 1399, Bolingbroke receives a couple of surprising visitors in Paris. Thomas Arundel, brother of the executed Earl of Arundel, pitches up in the early summer. Thomas had been Archbishop of Canterbury, but was banished from the kingdom as part of Richard's revenge on his brother. With him comes the murdered Earl of Arendelle's young son, a teenager who's legged it from England. Neither of these two have especially warm feelings towards Bolingbroke. After all, he played a pivotal role in getting the old earl beheaded at the revenge parliament. But at this point, King Richard is a bigger bogeyman than Bolingbroke. So they arrive, break bread and agree that they all deserve better treatment than this. If the Duke of Orleans could be persuaded to back them, then they might have a chance of challenging the tyrant Richard and saving England from his villainy. There isn't much of a window to do it, but there is a window, because the news from England is that Richard, in his wisdom, has decided that he's going to leave the kingdom for a few months to go and stamp his jackboot on the Irish. He's taking his Cheshire archers with him and leaving some very second rate toadies in charge of the kingdom during his absence. The King is departing, leaving the side gate and the kitchen door wide open. If Bolingbroke is up for it, the Duchy of Lancaster, even the kingdom itself, is his for the taking.
- [24:29]
Unknown
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- [25:07]
Dan Jones
A fleet of ships creeks out of harbor in Milford haven on the first day of June 1399. Richard II is leading an army out of his kingdom, accompanied by almost the entire English court. As the ship sails below and sailors call cheerfully to one another, Richard feels like he's hashtag winning. He's so confident that behind him he's left his somewhat useless uncle, the Duke of York, in charge of the kingdom. As for the land he's approaching, Richard has a very low opinion of the Irish. He has visited once before, in 1394-95, in the months after his first wife, Anne of Bohemia, died. On that occasion, he satisfied himself that he pretty much had the measure of the people across the Irish Sea. They could be divided into three groups, in his words, Irish savages, Irish rebels and the obedient English. His aim on this trip is to turn the first two of these groups into something resembling the third. Considering how effectively he strangled the life out of savages and rebels in England, he's got to be figuring that Ireland will be a doddle on arrival. It seems for a hot minute that Richard is right. The English ships disembark at Waterford, where some of Richard's courtiers sneer at the disheveled appearance of the stevedores who work there. Then the army sets out cross country in pursuit of a chieftain called Art McMurro, who's been blowing raspberries and at the English authorities. McMurro isn't terribly easy to track down, but Richard sets his men to work burning down a few villages. He also takes a moment to knight a few young lads he's brought with him on the campaign. Among them is one lad Richard was very insistent on having among his army. It's his cousin, Bolingbroke's eldest son, Henry. Henry is coming up for his 13th birthday, and being knighted on campaign is kind of a big deal. But he's got to have some very mixed feelings about the whole thing. On the one hand, Richard is showing him a lot more kindness than he might have expected, given the way his dad, Bolingbroke, has been treated. On the other hand, there's a very obvious reason why he's in Ireland, and it's not for his military prowess. He's there as insurance. Richard has just confiscated all his family's lands and Henry is now basically a hostage in case any Lancastrian die hards should get any funny ideas about taking revenge. One false move by anyone and. And young Henry could end up being fed to Richard's pet greyhound, a new toy which follows the king around everywhere. For the time being, though, everything is quiet. The English army spend a couple more weeks looking for Art McMurro, but give it up as a bad job and head to Dublin to assess their next move. When they get to Dublin, there's a fierce storm blowing and they have to hunker down for a few days, sheltering from the atrocious weather. Eventually, though, the gales blow through. There's a supply of fresh wine that comes in and a lot of the troops take the opportunity to have a party. Some of them drink far too much and fight each other. That's not especially dignified, but it's probably to be expected. Then, as now, a group of English lads on the tear in Dublin will generally revert to exactly this sort of behaviour. When the ordinary grunts have stopped smashing each other's teeth in, however, another ship limps into Dublin Harbour. This one brings something far more dangerous than cases of wine. Aboard it comes a messenger with a very worried look on his face and a letter in his hand. The letter brings news that rocks Richard to his core. Henry Bolingbroke has left Paris. In fact, Henry Bolingbroke has left France. With the backing of the French king's brother, he's chartered ships at Boulogne and sailed back to England, where he's landed at Ravenspur in Yorkshire. Bolingbroke says he's come back to take what's rightfully his. What he means by that is not entirely clear. Richard needs to get back to England pronto. But before he does, he needs to respond to Bolingbroke's crime in breaking his sentence of exile. Richard knows that Bolingbroke is a family man, so before doing anything else, he sends for Bolingbroke's eldest son, the kid he just knighted, Henry. Find out what he does with him next time in our season seven finale of this Is History. Friends, we're almost at the close of this season and this is the first one where we've had our royal favourites listening along with us. You know who you are. I've loved reading all of your contributions to the chat rooms and the discussion posts so far. Now for the penultimate question. If you were in Henry Bolingbroke's position right now, would you fight Richard or continue to live comfortably in Paris? Join the discussion@patreon.com thisishistory.