Britain's Bloodiest Dynasty: The Plantagenets - (Watch Full Series Below) https://dailymotion.com/playlist/x8qybs
Britain's Bloodiest Dynasty: The Plantagenets:
Out of the chaos, darkness, and violence of the Middle Ages, one family rose to seize control of England. Generation after generation, they ruled the country for more than three hundred years, ruthlessly crushing all competition to become the greatest English dynasty of all time. They were The Plantagenets.
Episode 1 - Betrayal:
From the very beginning, the story of the Plantagenets is astonishing. Historian Dan Jones opens the series with the first king of the dynasty, Henry II. A dashing and energetic warrior, Henry transformed England from a violent and lawless state into the heart of an empire that would become one of the greatest that Europe has ever seen. However, his success was undone by a series of bitter betrayals - first by his best friend, Thomas Ă Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, and then by his wife and sons, who raised armies against him.
Britain's Bloodiest Dynasty: The Plantagenets:
Out of the chaos, darkness, and violence of the Middle Ages, one family rose to seize control of England. Generation after generation, they ruled the country for more than three hundred years, ruthlessly crushing all competition to become the greatest English dynasty of all time. They were The Plantagenets.
Episode 1 - Betrayal:
From the very beginning, the story of the Plantagenets is astonishing. Historian Dan Jones opens the series with the first king of the dynasty, Henry II. A dashing and energetic warrior, Henry transformed England from a violent and lawless state into the heart of an empire that would become one of the greatest that Europe has ever seen. However, his success was undone by a series of bitter betrayals - first by his best friend, Thomas Ă Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, and then by his wife and sons, who raised armies against him.
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00:00Out of the chaos, darkness and violence of the Middle Ages, one family rose to seize
00:13control of England.
00:19Generation after generation, they ruled the country for more than 300 years, ruthlessly
00:27crushing all competition to become the greatest English dynasty of all time, the Plantagenets.
00:42What I love about the Plantagenet story is that it's more shocking, more brutal and more
00:47astonishing than anything you'll find in fiction.
00:51I want to show you the Plantagenets as I see them, real, living, breathing people, driven
00:57by ambition, jealousy, hatred and revenge.
01:02These kings murdered, betrayed and tyrannised their way to spectacular success.
01:08For better and for worse, the Plantagenets forged England as a nation.
01:12This time, the founder of the dynasty, Henry II, warrior and empire builder.
01:19He transformed England from a war zone into a European superpower, but murder and betrayal
01:25by his own family threatened to tear apart everything he had achieved.
02:20In 1153, Henry Plantagenet sails to England with an invasion force, aiming to seize back
02:29the throne.
02:30He's only 20, but he's already an experienced soldier.
02:31He's been fighting in France since he was a kid, and his mother's drilled into him the
02:40idea that the crown of England is rightfully his.
02:44So as Henry approaches these shores, he's convinced he has a date with destiny.
02:57Henry's a powerhouse with a fiery temper, bursting with raw energy and ambition.
03:05Within a year, Stephen is dead, and Henry is crowned Henry II, the first Plantagenet
03:12king.
03:13Of course, he doesn't speak a word of English, but after 90 years of Norman French rule in
03:24England, no one does except the peasants.
03:29And it's not them that Henry's here to pick a fight with.
03:34It's the barons.
03:37For a generation, the barons have been fighting vicious turf wars, burning, looting, raping,
03:43killing.
03:44If you lived here, you could come home any day to find your house on fire, your crops
03:48destroyed, your animals taken, or your family murdered.
03:52And this has been going on for nearly 20 years, as long as the new king has been alive.
04:03Henry's future, and the future of England, depends on bringing the barons to heel.
04:08He could simply destroy them, his army's big enough.
04:11But instead, he does something totally unexpected.
04:17High on the Welsh borders is Wigmore Castle, once one of England's greatest fortresses.
04:24It's the power base of Hugh Mortimer, toughest of the barons, and the last to hold out against
04:29the new king.
04:34No one defies Henry and gets away with it, so he turns up here at Wigmore with an army
04:39and lays siege to the castle.
04:46Henry's got Hugh surrounded, but he's not here to destroy him.
04:50He just sits outside.
04:53Here I am, here's my army, what are you going to do about it?
04:57Surprisingly, Hugh folds, but it's what Henry does next that marks him out as a king to
05:02watch, because he takes Hugh's castle away from him, then gives it straight back.
05:08He's saying you can have your power, but only because I say so.
05:12I'm the king, I'm in control, and you work for me.
05:20One reason Henry has the confidence to take on such powerful men is because he has a formidable
05:25ally.
05:29Henry's queen is Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine.
05:32Ten years his senior, she's such a famous beauty, students across Europe sing bawdy
05:37songs about bedding her.
05:41She shot the continent by divorcing the king of France in 1152, and marrying Henry just
05:47two months later.
05:50They're a good match.
05:52By the time Henry takes the throne, she's already produced their first son.
05:57But this queen is far more than a baby machine.
06:01As Duchess of Aquitaine, she's a serious political player in her own right.
06:08Henry brings muscle, Eleanor brings prestige.
06:11Together, they're a match for anyone.
06:17And their union creates a plantagenet empire that stretches from the borders of Scotland
06:22to the Pyrenees.
06:27But to keep control of such vast territory, Henry has to do something radical.
06:35Control is everything to Henry.
06:36The question is, how does he maintain it?
06:40He could use his barons to rule the different regions, that's standard medieval practice.
06:45But as far as Henry can see, the barons will only do things his way as long as it suits
06:50them.
06:51To get what he wants, Henry's going to have to do things a little bit differently.
06:59Henry's genius is to create a new army, not of soldiers, but of clerks, educated commoners.
07:08Unlike the barons, they'll do exactly what he wants.
07:12What Henry invents is the basis of the civil service that still runs the country today.
07:24Here at the National Archives, 900-year-old documents reveal the full extent of Henry's
07:29control.
07:36So this is a writ from the second year of Henry's reign.
07:40It's an official instruction from the king.
07:42We can see the king, Rex here, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, and he's sending an instruction
07:47to the sheriff of Dorset, ordering him to give back a farm in the village of Rampersham
07:52to its rightful owner.
07:54That might sound mundane, but hundreds of these survive, and what they show you is Henry's
07:59interest in every last field and pasture of his kingdom.
08:03And this isn't everything Henry's doing.
08:05He's also rebuilding royal finance through the Exchequer.
08:08He's sending his justices roving about the country to re-establish law and order.
08:13What it all adds up to is Henry's complete obsession with stamping his control over every
08:18area of his new kingdom.
08:25The mastermind pulling the administrative strings for Henry is commoner Thomas Becket,
08:31the son of a merchant.
08:34He may be low-born, but Becket's such a brilliant operator that Henry makes him chancellor.
08:42It's Becket who makes sure the king's grip on England is rock solid, and there's clearly
08:48some kind of spark between them.
08:52They quickly become drinking buddies, hunting partners, and best mates.
09:10But because of Becket, everything Henry's achieved is about to come under threat.
09:17Trouble begins here at Canterbury, the seat of power of the one part of England that remains
09:23beyond Henry's control, the church.
09:32One Englishman in five is a cleric, and they're effectively above the law.
09:37Whatever crime they commit, even rape or murder, only church courts can try them.
09:44The worst punishment they can give out is a fine.
09:48The king can't touch them.
09:55So in 1161, when the archbishop of Canterbury dies here, Henry thinks, excellent, I'll appoint
10:01my mate Thomas as archbishop.
10:03He can knock some sense into the church.
10:06And even though Thomas has never been a priest, Henry bullies the monks at Canterbury until
10:10they agree to elect him.
10:12So you can see why Henry thinks he's got the church problem sewn up.
10:16After all, Becket's his best mate.
10:18He owes his career to him.
10:20What could possibly go wrong?
10:28Henry's failed to spot a massive problem.
10:32In the medieval world, there is a higher power than the king.
10:38Becket finds God.
10:44Pretty much the first thing he does is hang the king out to dry by resigning as chancellor.
10:50He's sending a very blunt message.
10:53I'm not going to do what you say anymore.
10:55I have a new boss now.
10:59With God in his corner, Becket now defies every command the king makes to bring the
11:04church to heel.
11:06Unsurprisingly, it doesn't go down very well with Henry.
11:12This is a king famous across Europe for his uncontrollable temper.
11:16A man who once got so furious during an argument that he rolled around on the floor, pulling
11:22the straw out of his mattress, stuffing it into his mouth.
11:25So it's fair to say that Henry wasn't just angry, he was apoplectic.
11:32And this rage, combined with Henry's intense desire for control, will lead to murder and
11:37betrayal that threatens to destroy everything he's achieved.
12:02Westminster, July 1170.
12:12Henry II is having his eldest son, young Henry, crowned king of England, effectively king
12:18in waiting.
12:28It should secure Henry's legacy.
12:31But the king is going to tear his world apart, because there's one man who really should
12:37be there that Henry hasn't invited.
12:43Thomas Becket.
12:47Crowning kings of England is the Archbishop of Canterbury's gig, and it always has been.
12:52So when Becket finds out about the young king's coronation, he explodes with fury and he does
12:57something utterly reckless.
13:03Becket excommunicates every single cleric involved.
13:14As far as he's concerned, they're quite literally going to hell.
13:21When the news reaches Henry, out comes his plantagenet rage again, and he says something
13:27he'll come to regret for the rest of his life.
13:52Henry's just venting, but that's not how it looks to his knights.
13:58What they hear is a direct order from their king.
14:06This simple misunderstanding sets up a disaster, and here in Canterbury, it all comes crashing
14:15down.
14:18Hours later, four knights burst through these doors, and they march into the cathedral to
14:28confront Becket here.
14:34He's unarmed in his archbishop's robes, and they're in armour with swords by their sides.
14:43Furious words are exchanged, and they try and drag Becket out of the cathedral, but
14:53he resists.
14:54And it's at this point one of the knights draws his sword and brings it down on Becket's
15:16head, chopping off part of his skull.
15:23Becket falls, and one of the knights scoops his brains onto the floor with the tip of
15:29his sword.
15:30But they're not alone, because hiding in doorways and behind pillars are Becket's friends and
15:39supporters, bearing witness to an event that'll shock Christendom.
15:45Every single good thing that Henry II has done in his career until now may as well be
15:50wiped out, because this is what he'll be remembered for.
16:03The fact that his words were taken out of context is neither here nor there.
16:08As far as everyone's concerned, Henry ordered Becket's murder.
16:14Outrage at this sacrilege goes viral.
16:18Across Europe, people begin to question whether Henry is really fit to be a king.
16:28Henry realises straightaway how damaging this will be.
16:31This is the first time since his meteoric rise that he's been vulnerable.
16:35But I think it would have hurt him personally as well.
16:38He and Becket may have been knocking lumps out of each other for years, but this is still
16:42a man who was once his closest friend, who understood him better than anyone else.
16:51The humiliated king makes himself scarce and goes to Ireland on campaign.
17:02In a crisis on this scale, the one group he should be able to count on are his own family.
17:08But now they turn on him too, and it's all Henry's fault.
17:18Henry's eldest son, Henry the Young King, is a chip off the old block, ambitious, power-hungry
17:24and impatient.
17:25As king-in-waiting, he should be taken to Ireland so Henry can teach him how to exert
17:32iron-fisted control, but he isn't.
17:36Instead, the young king is left behind, festering in the aftermath of his father's disgrace.
17:44And whilst he's away, the king leaves control in the hands of his slick bureaucrats.
17:53Powerless and isolated, resentment at his father starts to eat away at him.
18:04Another surviving document reveals just how humiliating life is for the young king.
18:17This is a record of royal accounts from 1172, when Henry was off beating up the Irish.
18:22On the face of it, it's pretty dry.
18:24It's a long list of payments made, but throughout, there are records of money paid out to the
18:30young king.
18:31What's interesting is they're all quite small.
18:33Let's have a look.
18:34There's one here from Berkhamstead, and it says, for the works, Regis Fili Regis, of
18:40the king, the son of the king, XXX, that's 30 shillings.
18:44Well, today, that's a few thousand pounds, which might sound like a lot, but to the eldest
18:49son of a king, it's chicken feed.
18:51Now, the normal way that things would work is that a king would give his eldest son a
18:56block of lands from which to draw his revenue, but Henry hasn't done that.
19:01He's kept everything to himself, to keep control, so the picture you get reading this
19:06is of the old king, one of the richest, most powerful men in Europe, while his eldest son
19:11is going around, cap in hand, begging money from royal officials.
19:14Wouldn't make you very happy, would it?
19:29Resentment is spreading through the rest of the family, too.
19:41The year before Beckett's murder, Henry's wife, Queen Eleanor, had returned to her homeland
19:46in Aquitaine, and she bases herself here at Poitiers, where this hall is what remains
19:50of her magnificent ducal palace.
19:54After years living in a foreign country, Eleanor's come back with her favourite son,
20:00Richard, to train him to take over her lands there when she dies.
20:07Finally she's back where she belongs.
20:09This is where she was born, this is where she was raised, and frankly, the food and
20:15the weather are better here, too.
20:20Eleanor's about to find that her Aquitaine is now a very different place.
20:27A spanking new cathedral is being built in the town centre.
20:34This is more than just a church, it's a PR statement designed to sell the Plantagenet
20:39dynasty to the people.
20:42And the banner headline of this message is a spectacular window.
20:47Incredibly, it's survived intact for nearly nine centuries.
20:55If you look at this stained-glass window high up in the cathedral, you can see Henry, Eleanor
21:00and their four sons.
21:02It's like a snapshot of a united family, ruling together over England and half of France.
21:10Except it isn't really like that, because in Aquitaine, Eleanor finds it's Henry's men
21:15collecting the taxes, Henry's men controlling the barons.
21:20Even when her husband's hundreds of miles away, it's obvious that he's the one who's
21:24in control.
21:25Now, Eleanor might have brought Aquitaine to Henry in marriage, but that doesn't mean
21:30it's his.
21:33Then Eleanor discovers something Henry's done that, to her, is unforgivable.
21:39With her back, Henry has mortgaged off part of her Aquitaine to secure a political alliance.
21:47This is like coming home one day to find your husband's changed the locks, sold all your
21:51stuff and invited a whole bunch of other people to live there.
21:58It's not just Eleanor who's fuming.
22:03Richard is spitting blood about his lost inheritance too.
22:08At one stroke, Henry has created two powerful new enemies, and he probably doesn't even realise it.
22:23Henry's blindness to his family's feelings is a ticking time bomb.
22:29Here in Chinon, 175 miles south-west of Paris, in the very heart of Henry's French lands,
22:36it finally explodes.
22:43Chinon Castle has enormous strategic importance.
22:46If you want to rule the Plantagenet Empire, controlling it is absolutely essential.
22:51And that's exactly why Henry the Young King expects that one day this castle will be his.
23:00Then one night, Henry announces he's giving Chinon Castle, the jewel in the Plantagenet
23:05crown, to John, the Young King's six-year-old brother.
23:14Think what it would have been like here that night.
23:17This is one of the angriest families in history.
23:20Try and imagine all that Plantagenet rage just boiling up.
23:23I don't think there'd have been much pleasant chit-chat over dinner.
23:31Chinon!
23:34The loss of the castle is more than the Young King can bear.
23:40True to form, Henry's completely dismissive.
23:43He's utterly incapable of seeing things from his son's point of view.
23:47But the Young King is adamant.
23:50For 18 years, he's had to suffer his father's obsessive control.
23:55Now he's drawing a line in the sand.
24:00The Young King should have known better.
24:05Henry was never going to give up control without a fight.
24:09Chinon teaches the Young King a harsh lesson.
24:12His father is never going to give him real power, and he's sick of being strung along.
24:20But if Henry thinks he's got the Young King where he wants him, he's dead wrong.
24:25His eldest son is now hell-bent on taking the old man down.
24:55Spring 1173, the Young King steals out of his father's custody and flees to Paris.
25:12Straight into the arms of Louis VII, King of France.
25:18This is out-and-out betrayal.
25:21The Young King is planning to use King Louis to help seize his father's throne.
25:27But why does the King of France get involved in such a dangerous game?
25:34To Dr Julie Barrault, an expert in the medieval French court, it makes perfect sense.
25:40Louis hates Henry.
25:42Well, they had many reasons not to like each other.
25:46Maybe the first one is that they embody completely opposite ideas of what it is to be a king.
25:51On the one hand you have, you know, Henry, macho, warrior, and on the other hand you
25:57had Louis, who was anything but.
25:59And the other thing is that Henry was much, much wealthier than Louis and never wasted
26:04an opportunity to show it very clearly.
26:07But it's more than just political, isn't it?
26:09Well, yes. What makes the story unusual is that you have a very deep personal aspect
26:14to it.
26:15A mere two months after Louis separated from his wife Eleanor, she married Henry.
26:21And she didn't just marry him, but she started having one baby boy after the other, when
26:26Louis and Eleanor had really tried for a son four years before that.
26:30So that must have been really, really painful for poor Louis.
26:34So all those aspects together explain why you have such a deep and long animosity between
26:41those two men.
26:46The young king rocking up in Paris is no surprise to Louis.
26:51This is more than just a spur-of-the-moment betrayal by a petulant son.
26:56Because Henry the young king isn't acting alone.
27:00His brothers are in on this too.
27:01And so is the one person who's vital to making the whole betrayal possible.
27:06Eleanor.
27:07The queen's been plotting with her ex-husband to replace Henry II with a young king.
27:16She immediately sends Richard to join his older brother in Paris.
27:28A few days later, Eleanor follows.
27:31She makes a mad dash across France on horseback, disguised in men's clothing.
27:41But she doesn't make it.
27:44She's caught on her way to Paris by Henry II's men.
27:48And brought to Chinon Castle, not as a queen, but as a prisoner.
27:57Your own son's rebelling against you is pretty much as bad as it gets.
28:02Your queen masterminding the whole plot with her ex?
28:06That's off the chart.
28:14The scandal rocks medieval Europe.
28:21But there's no stopping the betrayal Eleanor has set in motion.
28:28In Paris, Louis, Richard and the young king are mobilising to attack Henry from all sides.
28:36And not just in France.
28:38They're going to hit him where it hurts the most.
28:41England.
28:44Plenty of the English barons are still pretty sore about having their wings clipped by Henry II.
28:50The young king promises to give them everything back.
28:54The last time the English barons had that sort of power, they basically destroyed the country.
28:59So this is a pretty reckless promise. It's not careful strategy.
29:04But that's the young king for you.
29:06He's good at betrayal, but he lacks his father's political savvy.
29:12He just wants to win, whatever the cost.
29:16He even cuts a deal with Henry's other mortal enemy, the king of Scotland.
29:21The young king promises him big chunks of England if he attacks Henry from the north.
29:27For a king of England-in-waiting, this is a dangerous game.
29:31But it works.
29:35By the spring of 1174, Henry faces a perfect storm.
29:41A baron revolt is spreading across his empire, all sparked by his family's betrayal.
29:47And whilst Henry's fighting in France, England is turning into a disaster zone.
29:53The king of Scotland has invaded the north,
29:56and foreign mercenaries are flooding across the Channel to support the baron's revolt.
30:02If Henry doesn't do something drastic, England will be lost.
30:11Most kings crossing the Channel to face a rebellion would be thinking the same thing.
30:16Raise an army, crush them by force.
30:18But Henry's got something else up his sleeve,
30:20because he realises it isn't his barons or even his sons who are threatening his empire.
30:25It's the dead hand of Thomas Becket, rising up from beyond the grave.
30:33It's more than three years since Becket was killed in Canterbury Cathedral.
30:39In that time, Henry's troubles have gone from bad to worse.
30:50On 12th July 1174, Henry II heads to Canterbury.
30:55What he does in the next 24 hours will shock the world
30:58and decide the future of the entire Plantational dynasty.
31:04Just outside the city walls, he stops, removes his boots
31:08and begins to walk barefoot along the road.
31:13People watching must be wondering if the desperate king has lost his mind.
31:18The streets here in Canterbury are full of people all nudging each other,
31:22pointing, maybe even trying to grab him.
31:25They know it's the king because behind him the royal standards fluttering.
31:30They know it's the king because behind him the royal standards fluttering.
31:33But he's dressed as an ordinary pilgrim in rough woolen clothes.
31:37And he's barefoot.
31:39And the roads aren't nice and clean and smooth.
31:42They're muddy, they're filthy,
31:44they're full of broken pots and sharp stones that cut his feet to shreds.
31:48This isn't just physically painful, it's humiliating.
31:51The king of England is dragging himself through the mud,
31:55leaving bloody footprints behind him.
32:00Henry's performing the most public act of penance imaginable,
32:04begging God and Becket to forgive him.
32:08This can only end in one place, Canterbury Cathedral.
32:15This wretched three-mile walk is actually propaganda dynamite.
32:19Every person who sees it will spread the news of the scale of the king's penance.
32:24But Henry isn't finished yet.
32:27He knows he has one chance to win back the hearts and minds of his kingdom,
32:31and he's planning something spectacular.
32:42The stage for his grand finale is the shrine of the once best friend
32:46he accidentally murdered, Thomas Becket.
32:51When Henry enters the cathedral, dirty, bloody and drained,
32:56Thomas' shrine isn't up there.
32:58It's down these stairs in the crypt.
33:09It's down here in the dark among the columns
33:12that Henry does something absolutely extraordinary.
33:16In front of Becket's tomb, Henry kneels down
33:19and commands the monks to whip him.
33:28100 of them take turns to beat his back up to five times each
33:33with a birching rod.
33:37Henry is spilling his own blood
33:39to atone for the spilling of Becket's in the cathedral above.
33:44These are the same monks who cowered behind the pillars in horror back then.
33:51Now they are striking the blows, beating the sin out of the king.
33:57In all, Henry receives more than 300 flesh-lacerating lashes.
34:14There may be far fewer people down here than up there,
34:17but these are the men who will write about what they've seen,
34:20who will tell the world.
34:22They may be Henry's punishers, but they're also his propagandists.
34:26It's a masterstroke of charismatic kingship.
34:32This is Henry's best shot at quashing the whispering campaign against him.
34:38But there's no guarantee it will save him.
34:43Then something extraordinary happens.
34:54The next morning, a messenger arrives.
34:57He bears explosive news.
35:00The king of Scotland has been captured by the British.
35:05The king of Scotland has been captured.
35:08The invasion of the north is over.
35:15It must have seemed like some kind of miracle,
35:18but the timing's just too perfect,
35:20and it feeds directly into Henry's own propaganda.
35:23Ever since the time of Becket's death,
35:25he's been describing himself in documents as king by the grace of God,
35:29and now he has unarguable proof that God is on his side.
35:35Henry's miracle rips the heart out of the rebellion in England.
35:40The barons fold without a fight.
35:44Henry's back in control.
35:53In less than a month, he's free to head back to France
35:57and take the fight to his traitorous sons.
36:01Henry's on a roll.
36:03When he gets back to France, the rebellion melts away before him.
36:07First he persuades the flaky young king to switch sides,
36:11and that leads Richard to fold as well.
36:15Their rebellion is snuffed out.
36:17For Henry's family, it's a catastrophe.
36:20They gambled everything and lost.
36:23The king has crushed them.
36:27But he now faces a dilemma.
36:29What to do with his treacherous family?
36:37The one family member Henry can't forgive is Eleanor,
36:40because as a wife rebelling against her husband,
36:43she's committed one of the worst forms of treachery
36:46and she can never be trusted again.
36:48And here in this chapel near Chinon Castle, her fate is recorded.
36:54In this incredible fresco.
36:58So, at the front, you can see her husband, Henry.
37:01Eleanor's in the middle, and behind her are two of her sons.
37:07This might look like a nice, touching, plantagenet family portrait,
37:11but it actually shows Eleanor being led off into captivity.
37:16Henry may not need Eleanor any more.
37:27But he does need his sons to carry on the plantagenet dynasty after him.
37:34So, in a public ceremony of reconciliation, he forgives them.
37:39He even gives them money and castles.
37:47They may have been forgiven, but both boys must know
37:51that the one thing he'll never give them after this is any real power.
37:58Henry simply can't stand the sight of his sons.
38:03Henry simply can't see that his obsession with control
38:07might be the root cause of all his family's betrayals.
38:11And this blindness to his own faults will ultimately destroy him.
38:33CHANTING
38:48In the summer of 1183,
38:50an unexpected event throws Henry II's world into turmoil.
38:55His eldest son, the young king, dies,
38:58not by the sword, but of dysentery.
39:03An inglorious death for an inglorious son.
39:08HE SPEAKS IN FRENCH
39:25Henry's grief isn't just a father's,
39:28although it's clear he's personally devastated.
39:31The death of the young king has destroyed all his plans for his legacy.
39:36As his remaining sons begin to jockey for position,
39:39Henry is losing control again.
39:44Just two of Henry's sons remain alive.
39:47Only one can become his heir.
39:50Richard, the eldest surviving son, is expecting to be named.
39:56But Henry's favourite has always been his youngest son, John.
40:01He, at least, has never betrayed his father.
40:06Even so, Henry doesn't dare name either of them.
40:12Henry drags his heels.
40:14Last time he named his son, he said,
40:17Henry drags his heels.
40:19Last time he named a successor, it was disaster.
40:22This time he thinks by stalling,
40:24he can keep Richard obedient and under control.
40:27What he doesn't know is someone's been stoking up resentment in Richard,
40:32whispering ideas of betrayal in his ear yet again.
40:37The man doing the whispering is the new king of France, Philip II.
40:43He plays on Richard's fears,
40:45persuading him that his father intends to name John as heir.
40:57Richard demands that Henry formally names him as his successor.
41:04And, of course, Henry refuses.
41:06That would mean giving up control.
41:09So, with Philip by his side,
41:11Richard once again goes to war against his father.
41:17In less than a month, they tear through the heart of Henry's French lands,
41:22winning every battle.
41:27It's not long before a defeated Henry finds himself holed up again
41:32back here at Chinon Castle
41:34with his son and the king of France at the gates.
41:38They're young, ambitious and aggressive.
41:41Henry's old and tired.
41:43The one thing he could never control has finally caught up with him.
41:47Time.
41:51Outside, his plantagenet heartland is collapsing.
41:56The empire he built and has ruled over for more than 30 years
42:00is being ripped from him by his own son.
42:04It's a final, total defeat.
42:10On 3rd July 1189, Henry rides out from Chinon to meet Richard.
42:16A man who spent so much of his life on horseback
42:19that his legs are physically bowed
42:22now has to be strapped into the saddle to stop him from falling off.
42:27Richard's demands are read out.
42:29He wants land. He wants money.
42:33More than anything else, he wants to be the next king.
42:36It's all Henry can do to nod his head weakly and agree.
42:42At the end, he leans in for one last embrace
42:46and he whispers to Richard,
42:48God grant that I may not die until I've had my revenge on you.
42:54Somewhere in this broken old man
42:57is still Henry II, King of England.
43:03But this act of defiance is Henry's last hurrah.
43:11God doesn't grant his wish.
43:13Henry II, the first plantagenet King of England, dies two days later.
43:33Here, less than 20 miles from Chinon,
43:36in the family shrine at Fontecvaux Abbey,
43:39Henry II lies buried.
43:42Beside him were buried the bodies of his wife, Eleanor,
43:45and his successor, Richard.
43:48But not his favourite son, John.
43:55For his whole reign, Henry kept a close grip on his kingdom.
43:58He never allowed his sons real control
44:02because, fundamentally,
44:03he didn't think they could do as good a job as he could.
44:06And when Richard and then John become king, they prove him right.
44:10Within 15 years, the Plantagenet Empire is collapsed,
44:13torn apart by rebellion and war.
44:16And that's why John's not buried here at Fontevaux
44:19with his mother and his father,
44:21because by the time John dies, this place is ruled by France.
44:32Next time, the collapsing friendship of Henry III and Simon de Montfort
44:37plunges the country into bloody slaughter and civil war,
44:42changing England and the monarchy forever.