All language subtitles for She Wolves of England - Isabella and Margaret (2 of 3)

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

1953

a coronation fit for a king

but it's a young queen who's about to be

crowned

and the crowd roars its approval

the fact that she's a woman attracts no

comment

and she will go on to reign over us for

six decades

but england's queens haven't always been

greeted with such adoration

the first woman who sought to be crowned

queen in her own right here in

westminster 800 years earlier received a

very different response

she wasn't met by cheering crowds

instead she was chased away from the

capital by an angry mob

[Music]

that's because throughout our history

women and power have made an uneasy

combination

never more so than in the middle ages

when a king was a warrior who had to

fight to win power

then battle to keep it

[Music]

but despite everything that stood in

their way a handful of extraordinary

women did attempt to rule medieval

england

[Music]

this series is about the queens who

challenged male power

and the fierce reactions they provoked

when they pursued power like kings these

royal women were criticized and

condemned

most graphically of all they've been

vilified as she-wolves

these are the stories of the she-wolves

of england

and to explore them is to realize just

how far we've come

and how little has changed

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

in 1308 a 12 year old girl isabella of

france became queen of england when she

married the english king

a century and a half later another young

french girl margaret of anjou followed

in her footsteps

these are the stories of two women who

were thrust into a violent and

dysfunctional foreign country

and as their new lives unfolded they

each felt driven to take control of the

kingdom themselves

[Music]

at their weddings isabella and margaret

were little more than pawns in the power

play between england and france

but as they grew into women they became

queens who dominated the board

it was margaret's violent pursuit of

power that inspired shakespeare to name

her the she-wolf of france

another poet thomas gray later gave

isabella the same title

[Music]

but there was no hint of the she-wolf

when isabella first arrived in england

at the age of 12.

today this seems an extraordinarily

young age to be married off

but as a princess isabella had been

prepared from the cradle for such a

royal match

[Music]

as the daughter of the king of france

isabella came to her marriage as the

living embodiment of an anglo-french

alliance

she had grown up amid the sophistication

of the parisian court watching her

mother act as consort to one of the most

powerful kings in europe

she had a keen sense of her own majesty

and she knew exactly what should await

her as queen of england

what she found was quite different

[Music]

the signs were there from her very first

public appearance the royal couple's

coronation

isabella should have been center stage

but her place was taken by a handsome

young man named piers gaviston

he carried the king's crown into the

abbey and sat with edward at the

coronation banquet

gavston was so magnificently dressed one

observer noted that he more resembled

the god mars than an ordinary mortal

isabella was only 12 but she knew how a

king's wife should be treated

and it was clear that her rightful place

at edward's side had already been taken

by gaviston

[Music]

isabella wasn't the only one who noticed

the relationship between edward and

piers

her french uncles went home in a rage

insulted that edward had given some of

their wedding presents to gaveston

a chronicler of the time wrote

i do not remember to have heard that one

man so loved another

not only was isabella finding that there

were three people in her marriage but

gaveston's preening and waspish presence

was having an equally corrosive effect

on the king's relationship with his

nobles

a king couldn't rule without the support

of his powerful nobles

they would help him keep order in the

kingdom and defend it from attack

while the king himself offered

leadership and security

but that's just what the nobles thought

edward wasn't doing

his father the great warrior king edward

the first had defended the country and

earned the title hammer of the scots for

his ferocious attempt to conquer

scotland

but these hard-won gains were now being

lost by his son

and the nobles laid the blame on his

obsession with gaviston

[Music]

eventually seeing no other option

a group of nobles came to parliament

armed and angry

they demanded that gaviston be banished

and forced edward to agree that 21 of

them should rule on his behalf

this was not what isabella had signed up

for when she married the king of england

but she was still little more than a

child

and she was powerless to stop the

conflict

[Music]

and to make matters worse edward

wouldn't accept gaviston's exile

within two months they were back

together again

isabella had though clearly spent at

least one night with her husband

[Music]

by the spring of 1312 she was 16 and

pregnant for the first time

but instead of relishing her new status

as the future mother of england's heir

she found herself following edward and

gaviston around the north of england

with a hostile army of lords in hot

pursuit

[Music]

isabella was dragged around the country

as edward tried to keep his lover safe

but the group of lords chasing them led

by the earl of lancaster were determined

to capture gaviston and end this

destructive relationship forever

they got their chance when the royal

party was separated

gaviston took refuge in scarborough and

edward and isabella alone for once

headed for the fortified city of york

[Music]

they were here at york castle when they

heard the dramatic news that gaveston

had been starved out of the fortress at

scarborough and was now a prisoner of

the lords

edward was consumed with anxiety about

the fate of his favorite

isabella's reaction isn't recorded but

we might assume it was rather different

[Music]

isabella thought gaviston's removal

might allow her to take her rightful

place at her husband's side

but it was becoming clear that only

death would separate gaviston from

edward once and for all

[Music]

isabella was still here at york with her

husband when word came of a bloody drama

that had played itself out a hundred

miles further south

some of the lords led by the powerful

earl of lancaster had seized gaviston

and sentenced him to death in a show

trial

gaviston was taken out onto a sunny

hillside near warwick and his head

hacked from his body

[Music]

isabella's rival was gone

and now her position was about to become

even stronger

on the 12th of november 1312 isabella

went into labor

shortly before six the next morning she

gave birth to a boy the 17 year old

queen kept her own counsel but she'd

already learned a great deal

her husband she now knew had much

passion and little judgment

his nobles were men to be reckoned with

and now with her son in her arms

isabella herself held the key that would

transform her power as queen

[Music]

as a young bride she'd been little more

than a decorative accessory to a

diplomatic alliance

but as the mother of the future king of

england she had the possibility of real

power

but what isabella was seeking at this

time was no more than the conventional

role of a queen

not power for herself but to support her

husband

[Music]

tradition gave the queen a formal role

as a peacemaker even a warrior king

could show mercy if his consort knelt

before him in public to beg for peace

isabella's husband was no warrior king

but she was a peacemaking queen

and now she helped to forge a brittle

truce between edward and his nobles

but almost immediately her husband

undermined her efforts

in 1314 the army he led suffered the

most humiliating defeat of any english

king at the hands of the scots

at bannockburn robert bruce routed

edward's army

england had lost its hold on scotland

its borders were now overrun by scots

raids

and they couldn't be defended without

the help of the earl of lancaster

the man who had murdered edward's

beloved gaviston

the threat of the scots and the rift

between edward and lancaster made

england a profoundly dysfunctional

kingdom

and for isabella it was a thankless task

to be its queen

but her unhappy situation was about to

become much worse

a new favorite was emerging at edwards

court who would be more of a threat to

isabella than gaviston had ever been

[Music]

hugh dispenser was a political predator

he had known edward since his teens

but unlike gaviston dispenser doesn't

seem to have been the king's lover

but this was small comfort to isabella

while she was still loyally performing

her royal duty by giving birth to two

more children

she watched as dispensers set about

using his influence with the king to

build up his own wealth and power to

dizzying heights

no matter how illegal his methods or who

stood in his way

[Music]

by 1321 the lords had had enough

they marched on london and threatened

violence against edward and his new

favorite

in the attempt to prevent civil war

isabella took action to support her

husband in the way only a queen could

[Music]

isabella had just given birth to her

fourth child and yet again she had to go

down on her knees in the ritual of

queenly intervention to persuade edward

to banish dispenser

she won a temporary truce but little

more than two months later with terrible

irony it was isabella herself who

precipitated the country into civil war

in october 1321 isabella was on her way

to canterbury on pilgrimage

at the end of a hard day's ride she

found herself at the gates of leeds

castle a mighty stronghold built near

the kent coast seeking shelter for the

night

to welcome the queen as a guest would

normally be an honor but the castle's

lord bartholomew badelsmir was one of

the rebels who had marched on london

his wife left to keep the castle in his

absence was alarmed by isabella's sudden

arrival

and refused to let her in

isabella was left out in the cold and

she was furious

she never lacked a sense of her own

majesty and now she ordered her men to

force their way in

in response the arches on the castle

walls began to shoot

and within minutes six of isabella's

soldiers lay dead

[Music]

isabella's confrontation at leeds gave

her husband the chance to send a message

to all the rebel lords

the violent reception of his queen

edward said was treason and he sent

troops and siege engines to attack the

castle

and when lady badelsmir threw open the

gates to appeal for mercy

she and her young children were

dispatched as prisoners to the tower

while her men were hanged from the

castle walls

from this moment the lords who opposed

edward could be in no doubt that the

king intended the conflict to be a fight

to the death

and in march 1322 at burra bridge in

yorkshire edward finally got his revenge

for the years of humiliation when his

army defeated and captured the earl of

lancaster

as the greatest chronicler of the rain

recalled

the earl of lancaster once cut off piers

gaviston's head

and now by the king's command the earl

himself had lost his head

thus perhaps not unjustly the earl

received measure for measure

isabella's husband was making very clear

the dreadful penalties that now faced

anyone who dared to oppose him

england's prisons filled with the wives

and children of the rebels while

aristocratic corpses were left to rot on

gallows across the country

[Music]

with the ruthless dispenser at his side

edward had found a way to eradicate all

opposition by turning his rule into a

grasping and paranoid tyranny

isabella had done everything she could

to be the perfect queen

but now to her horror she found that she

too would be a victim of the new regime

and it was isabella's french heritage

which left her acutely

vulnerable in the summer of 1324 a

crisis erupted between england and

france

[Music]

[Applause]

england still held gascony in the south

of the country but isabella's brother

the french king was threatening to take

it

it seemed war with france was imminent

[Music]

edward ordered that all french men and

women living in england should be

arrested as enemy aliens

and his favorite dispenser seized on the

opportunity to take isabella's

possessions in turn her french servants

and separate her from her children

now isabella's feelings for her husband

and dispenser turned from mistrust to

loathing

but there was one glimmer of hope

the french king was willing to negotiate

[Applause]

so isabella cleverly put herself at her

husband's disposal as the perfect

emissary to her brother the king of

france

she had been so patient in the face of

provocation that edward and spencer

seized on this solution believing she

could be trusted to return like a loyal

lap dog

and so on the 9th of march 1325 isabella

left england for paris

[Music]

isabella successfully negotiated a truce

between england and france

then she persuaded edward that their 12

year old son the heir to the throne

should be sent to paris to seal the

agreement by paying homage to the french

king

this was the moment isabella had been

waiting for when her son arrived on

french soil her position was transformed

as edward's consort there'd been little

she could do

but with her son beside her she could

speak and act as the mother of the heir

to the throne in the face of her

husband's tyranny

she'd been waiting for her chance and

now she took it

with his son edward sent an instruction

that his wife should return home

but isabella had no intention of doing

any such thing

and we know exactly the reason she gave

the manuscript of the greatest chronicle

of the reign the vita edwardi sukundi is

long lost but its text has been passed

down through the centuries

and here in this modern translation we

can hear isabella's voice speaking for

the first time

until now she'd been a supporting player

in the unfolding drama but now she moved

to the center of the stage as she

replied to her husband with open

defiance i feel that marriage is a union

of a man and a woman and someone has

come between my husband and myself and

is trying to break this bond

i declare that i will not return until

this intruder is removed

isabella's game plan was to present

herself to the world as a wronged wife

and until now she'd seemed more than

justified in doing so

but another player was about to enter

the scene who would change forever the

picture the world would have of isabella

[Music]

roger mortimer was 38 years old a

soldier and a politician of skill and

experience

he had joined the rebels against edward

in 1321

and escaped into exile in france

and within weeks of isabella and

mortimer's meeting in paris

rumors circulated that their partnership

was more than political

[Music]

there's tantalisingly little evidence of

the private dynamics of isabella and

mortimer's relationship

but it was clearly an all-consuming

passion

not least because of the danger into

which they precipitated themselves

adultery for a queen with sin and

treason combined

but for isabella there were no longer

any safe options with her knight at her

side and the most valuable pawn of all

her son under her control

what move would the queen make

[Music]

isabella took a momentous decision

it was no longer enough to remove

dispenser

she needed to remove her husband too

she intended to do something

unprecedented in english history

depose an anointed king could she as a

woman achieve this

she certainly couldn't do it alone she

needed an army

and how she got one reveals a great deal

about the woman she'd become

now she was an independent player on the

european stage

and she arranged the marriage of her son

to philippa daughter of the count of

enol who brought troops and ships as her

dowry

on the 22nd of september 1326

at the head of a hundred ships filled

with soldiers

isabella mortimer and prince edward set

sail for england

when isabella stepped onto the suffolk

coast she was taking up arms against her

king and husband with her lover at her

side

she could hardly have been more openly

defying the conventions of female virtue

and yet she wasn't met with outrage and

vilification

instead she was greeted with open arms

while there was no alternative to

edward's rule his people hadn't known

how to resist

isabella wasn't challenging him in her

own name

she after all had no right to the throne

but in the name of their 13 year old son

prince edward

he was too young to act alone and so

isabella acted for him

and with the promise of a new young king

and his capable mother her husband's

power simply melted away

isabella might have been an unfaithful

wife and a rebel queen but she was also

england's champion against edwards

tyranny no she-wolf but the savior of

her adopted country

[Music]

when news of the queen's triumphal

progress reached edward and dispenser

they were gripped with panic

they packed their saddlebags with gold

and fled west

where they were captured

bedraggled figures in the welsh reign

isabella had dispenser brought before

her

there's no question that she relished

her moment of revenge

dispenser was hanged then disemboweled

and castrated when he was still alive

the supportive queen had been

transformed into a very different figure

now isabella was acting as if she were a

king

inflicting brutal punishments on her

enemies

which of course raised the question of

what she would do with her own king

in january 1327 in a carefully

stage-managed piece of political theater

it was declared in parliament that

edward had forfeited the allegiance of

his people

and that now his son should wear the

crown in his place

in just four short months isabella had

achieved the unthinkable

she a queen had seized power to depose a

crowned and anointed king for the first

time in english history

to undo a coronation was no easy task

parliament had given the act a legal

gloss but to make doubly sure edward was

forced to sign his own abdication here

at kennelworth

now the deed was done

but could isabella rule in her son's

name while her husband still lived

[Music]

the new king edward iii was still just a

teenager so isabella was running his

government for him

but never before had england had to

contend with the existence of an ex-king

alive and well

while a new king or in this case a

king's mother ruled the country

isabella had edward imprisoned in

barclay castle in gloucestershire

but she knew that while he remained

alive he was the obvious focus for any

rebellion

within a year three plots to liberate

him had already been uncovered

these documents here in berkeley castle

give us a sense of the extraordinary

difficulty of keeping an ex-king in

custody

we can see here from the provisions

bought for him which included 280 eggs

or over in latin in just three months

but at first he was kept in some comfort

but this account tells us of the

reinforcement of the castle with bolts

and great bars and other iron work

after edward escaped from his guards in

the summer of 1327

it was obvious how dangerous his

continued existence was to the new

regime

we can't know just how closely isabella

was involved in planning edward's murder

by its very nature his end was a grim

business done in secrecy and shadows

his death was announced but not

explained

and in the absence of an explanation

rumor and speculation took its place

legend has it that he was killed with a

red hot poker thrust into his anus to

burn his intestines from the inside

this violent detail was immortalized

more than 200 years later by christopher

marlowe in his play of edward's life

when he called isabella that unnatural

queen

false isabel

what's certain is that it was edward's

death a murder that supposedly took

place in this room at berkeley that

sealed isabella's reputation as a

she-wolf

just 30 years later the chronicler

jeffrey lebaker portrayed edward as a

christ-like figure betrayed and

destroyed by a wife who was like the

biblical jezebel a tyrannical and

sexually corrupt queen manipulating her

husband and son to impose evil on the

kingdom

[Music]

but these opinions were formed in

hindsight

when isabella knelt in prayer at her

husband's funeral she was still seen as

the savior of the

nation but though isabella was a

political animal through and through

there were limits to her political

understanding

and now her overwhelming sense of

entitlement began to blunt her vision

[Music]

like so many rulers before and since she

started to run the country for her own

enrichment

very few of the objects that isabella

owned still survive

but one that does is this exquisite

casket

it's delicately engraved with the arms

of england and france

and it may have been a wedding present

from her mother-in-law

it gives us a tiny glimpse of the

extraordinary luxury with which isabella

surrounded herself

that of course was appropriate for a

queen

but the problem was that isabella didn't

know where to stop

at the helm of english government

isabella and mortimer rewarded

themselves not just with silver trinkets

but with vast estates and the contents

of the royal treasury

but now they were behaving exactly like

edward and dispenser before them

for two years isabella and her lover

ruled the country with a vice-like grip

meeting opposition with brutal

suppression

and all the time isabella kept her son

king edward iii closely by her side

monitoring his friends and allowing him

no freedom to act alone

marlow would later describe isabella's

son as a lamb encompassed by wolves

but by 1330 edward was 17

and the she-wolf was about to discover

that her offspring had claws of his own

[Music]

isabella's day of reckoning came at

nottingham castle

she had already become suspicious that

her son was beginning to resist her

control

so when the royal party took up

residence here they had the guards

redoubled about them

[Music]

but edward's plans have been well laid

under cover of darkness a group of young

knights made their way through these

secret tunnels into the castle

mortimer and isabella were surrounded

before they knew what was happening

isabella was forced back into her bed

chamber and mortimer was disarmed and

overpowered in a matter of moments

after three years the rule of isabella

in her consort was over

[Music]

there was no doubt about mortimer's fate

he was sentenced to a traitors death for

killing the last king and usurping the

power of the new one

he was hanged at tyburn like a common

thief

more than 20 years of brutal political

experience told isabella that mortimer's

fate was inevitable

but what would hers be

she was after all the king's mother and

once mortimer was dead the story could

be spun that she had been diverted from

her royal duty by his machinations

presumably she mourned for him but she'd

always been a realist and she took care

to leave no public traces of her grief

her son might have acted against her

because of the way she'd ruled but

isabella was still his mother

she had to surrender her vast estates

but edward gave her an income of three

thousand pounds a year

she could no longer intervene in

politics

but she would have a sumptuous if

compulsory retirement

isabella had an extraordinary life

she showed for a brief moment that

female leadership could represent the

legitimacy of the crown forcefully

enough to depose an anointed king

but the exercise of power by a woman

turned out to be a different matter

and particularly a woman like isabella

who enriched herself rather than

nurturing her people

in retrospect the death of her husband

came to define isabella not as the

savior of england but in the words of

the poet thomas gray as the she-wolf of

france with unrelenting fangs that tears

the bowels of thy mangled mate

this is how isabella has been remembered

certainly many of her actions were

violent and self-serving

but then so were those of the men around

her

and the vitriol heaped on her by history

draws on an image of female power as

grotesque savage and immoral

[Music]

over the next hundred years england and

france were almost constantly at war

and out of this conflict emerged the

woman that shakespeare dubbed a she-wolf

by 1444 the english were on the back

foot and ready to make a truce

all hopes for peace rested on the young

shoulders of margaret daughter of the

duke of anjou

she would marry the english king henry

vi

and seal a treaty between the warring

countries

margaret grew up in this impressive

castle in ajay and her childhood here

gave her a useful lesson in the

limitations of royal power

margaret's father had many grand titles

in theory he was king of sicily naples

and jerusalem and he spent most of her

childhood fighting to turn those paper

crowns into real power

in the meantime margaret here in anjou

was brought up by her formidable mother

and grandmother

the message to margaret was clear

royal power had to be fought for

and a woman could rule if a man was

absent

when margaret left ange at the age of 15

to marry a man she'd never met

she couldn't have known how valuable

these lessons would prove to be

23 year old henry probably struck

margaret as a reassuring presence he had

an unworldly child-like heir more a

naive innocent than a grim-faced soldier

but if that made him a gentle husband

margaret was about to discover that it

also made him a disastrous king

henry vi had come to the throne as a

nine-month-old baby and england had been

governed by a council of noblemen

but now at the age of 23

henry seemed no more capable of ruling

than he had as a baby

it's not clear exactly when margaret

realized how utterly incapable her

husband was

but what happened seven years into their

marriage left no room for doubt

[Music]

to margaret's delight in 1453 she gave

birth to her first child

a healthy boy named edward

but henry took no part in the

celebrations

ten weeks before the birth his fragile

mental faculties had disintegrated

completely

and he'd fallen into a catatonic trance

henry was oblivious to their son's

arrival but margaret had good reason to

be jubilant

with the heir to the throne in her arms

she discovered just like isabella before

her that she had a direct stake in the

power play that surrounded her

the question now was how far she would

go in using it

the answer wasn't slow in coming

just three months after her son's birth

a well-informed observer in london

reported that the queen desires to have

the whole rule of this land as well as

the right to appoint all other officers

that the king should make

margaret was proposing that she should

act as regent for her helpless husband

this dramatic piece of self-assertion

was the first step on a road that would

eventually lead to shakespeare's

lacerating portrait of margaret as the

she-wolf of france

but if we look behind the caricature

there was much more to margaret's

position than unthinking aggression

[Music]

the times invited her to act

margaret stepped onto the political

stage as the country stood on the brink

of civil war

after years without royal leadership

english politics was in the grip of a

destructive rivalry between the two most

powerful nobles in england

this was the beginning of what would

become known

thanks to shakespeare and later art and

literature

as the wars of the roses

margaret watched as the nobles divided

on one side was the duke of york the

king's cousin who claimed to speak for

the good of the whole country

on the other was the duke of somerset

who acted for the house of lancaster the

line from which henry descended

both claimed the right to rule in the

king's absence

and now their rivalry threatened to

spill onto the battlefield

it was amid this tension and fear that

margaret made her bid to rule

from margaret's own perspective she was

the obvious candidate to safeguard her

husband's kingdom just as her mother had

governed anjou in her father's absence

but henry was only mentally not

physically absent and to the english

nobles it seemed as though their

french-born queen was trying to exceed

her proper powers

to margaret's distress the nobles turned

to a council of their own under the

leadership of the duke of york

on his orders his rival the duke of

somerset was confined to the tower of

london

but on christmas day 1454 margaret was

suddenly presented with a way forward

sixteen months after he had last shown

any sign of knowing who or where he was

king henry suddenly returned to his

senses such as they'd ever been

as margaret introduced her toddling son

to his astounded father for the first

time the duke of york's caretaker regime

fell apart

somerset was released from the tower and

it seemed as though the political

merry-go-round was turning once again

but by this time york and somerset's

rivalry had become a deadly enmity

margaret believed that somerset

supported her husband and for the moment

he had the king by his side

but york was intent on having the king

under his control

[Music]

and now the other great noble families

were taking sides

[Music]

and in may 1455 when the two armies came

face to face in the unassuming market

town of saint albans

political confrontation finally became

civil war

the first battle of the wars of the

roses was fought through the streets and

houses of the town

in these confined spaces probably a

hundred men died

king henry took no part in the battle of

saint albans

he just sat under his banner in the

market square while his greatest nobles

fought to the death in these streets all

around him

nothing could have made it clearer that

he was only a pawn in this increasingly

brutal and dangerous game

when the fighting was over it became

clear that the duke of york's army had

won the day

and his enemy the duke of somerset was

dead

henry was now in york's control

the battle changed everything

and for margaret it was a turning point

york still claimed to be henry's loyal

subject

but in margaret's view loyal subjects

didn't set out to capture their king in

battle

and york's closeness to the royal line

of succession now made him a threat to

her son

if henry wasn't able to fight for their

son's future then margaret would do it

for him

[Music]

but margaret knew that her next move

would have to be made carefully

for now she left london for her castle

at tutbury in staffordshire

but this wasn't a retreat from the

political front line

instead it was an attempt to match the

duke of york with a territorial power

base of her own

margaret had the castle at tupre

enlarged and improved it was an imposing

residence for an increasingly imposing

queen

margaret was clearly demonstrating to

anyone who cared to look that she was

prepared to fight to defend her husband

and son

but in doing so she provoked a reaction

and as ever a woman in power was

vulnerable to sexual as well as

political slurs

rumors began to speak of the little

prince as a bastard or a changeling and

to suggest that in private henry's queen

might not be as loyal as she seemed

the implication was that unnatural

impulses were at work both inside and

outside the royal bed chamber

margaret knew that york's supporters

were taking every opportunity to slander

her but she was made of stern stuff

it would take more than words to defeat

her

by the summer of 1456 it was clear where

the fulcrum of power now lay

a contemporary wrote

my lord of york waits on the queen

and she upon him

despite attempts to find a lasting peace

the country divided behind margaret and

york

for margaret this meant raising an army

in the name of her husband and son

this beautiful object known as the

dunstable swan jewel probably dates from

about fourteen hundred

the swan was one of the emblems of the

prince of wales and so it was a badge

with this image of a swan with a crown

around its neck that margaret began to

distribute to her loyal supporters in

the name of her small son

she was determined to defend the rights

of her husband and son by any means

necessary

margaret saw no middle ground in this

conflict

anyone who wasn't with her she believed

was an enemy of the crown

but that didn't mean her task would be

easy

in september 1459 the two sides met at

bloor heath in staffordshire

[Applause]

after four hours of bloody fighting two

thousand men lay dead on the battlefield

[Music]

[Applause]

the yorkists had defeated an army which

was supposedly king henry's but everyone

knew where the power really lay

one chronicler described it as an army

of the queen's gallants

but three weeks later the two sides met

again and this time it was york's army

that was defeated

margaret's enemies the duke of york his

son edward and nephew the earl of

warwick scattered to ireland and france

[Music]

in their absence margaret seized her

moment to declare her enemies guilty of

treason

but they were not yet destroyed in

person and margaret now found that the

power base she built for herself in the

north had alienated her husband's

subjects in the south

and in july 1460 when york's son edward

and nephew warwick returned with troops

to face her army at northampton

the result for margaret was a calamity

she lost both the battle and the person

of the king

was left helpless as the duke of york

took her husband as a prisoner to london

the pope later observed that the king

was

more timorous than a woman

utterly devoid of wit and spirit

the contrast with his forceful wife was

obvious

[Music]

news reached margaret that york was now

claiming the crown for himself

he argued that his royal line of descent

made him the rightful king rather than

henry

it was a convenient version of history

but for the moment he couldn't get the

nobles to back him

instead a compromise was reached

henry would keep his crown but when he

died york would succeed him

[Music]

for margaret this was no settlement but

a nightmare

her son for whose rights she'd fought

since the moment of his birth would be

disinherited

she threw herself into the task of

raising support from scotland and the

english lord still loyal to her

now this was a fight to the death

success for margaret came much more

swiftly than she could ever have hoped

when the duke of york was ambushed and

killed by margaret's troops at wakefield

in yorkshire in december 1460.

she ordered that his head be set on a

spike on mickelgate bar in york dressed

in a paper crown to mock his pretensions

of majesty

now margaret's greatest enemy was dead

but victory was not yet hers

there were still men prepared to fight

for the yorkist cause and york's son

edward and nephew warwick wanted revenge

it was once again at saint albans that

the two sides met

while margaret's army fought warwicks

the queen waited impatiently for news

here in the abbey

[Music]

the outcome was a triumph

the yorkists were defeated and their

prisoner king henry was released and

reunited with margaret

husband and wife were back together but

this was hardly a romantic reunion

margaret's triumph lay in the fact that

the power of the royal triumvirate king

queen and prince was once again at her

disposal

but the war wasn't yet won

[Music]

margaret had now been fighting for eight

long years

she a woman alone had kept the royal

cause alive

henry might be a hopeless case but if

she could keep fighting then surely

their son would one day get his chance

to become a glorious king

[Music]

but even though her greatest enemy the

duke of york was dead it turned out that

she now faced an even greater threat

his 18 year old son edward

edward was tall handsome charismatic and

precociously able

he looked more like a king than anyone

had seen in years

and a king was exactly what he was

claiming to be

just as his father had done before him

he argued that his royal descent trumped

henry's own

the difference was that this time london

agreed and rapturously acclaimed him as

king edward iv

nine days later his forces set out to

defeat margaret once and for all

the two sides met at towton in yorkshire

and margaret henry and their

seven-year-old son took refuge behind

the city walls at york

[Music]

this 15th century screen at york minster

shows all the kings of england from

william the conqueror to margaret's

husband henry vi

for margaret the last eight years had

been devoted to securing her son's place

in this unbroken line

and now she could do nothing but pace

restlessly here at york while her

soldiers did their work

eight hours later thousands upon

thousands of men were dead

and it was margaret's army that had

shattered

as the light began to fade on this

bloodiest of battlefields edward of york

stood unchallenged now king of england

in fact as well as name

and margaret her husband and son fled

north

no longer the royal family but hunted

fugitives

[Music]

it was the bitterest of blows

margaret had invested every ounce of her

strength to animate the cause of an

inert king

but as a woman she couldn't simply

inhabit the role her husband had left so

damagingly vacant

now she had to watch as edward a golden

boy in a golden crown occupied the

throne as if he'd been born to it

but still she wouldn't give in

she tried to raise support from the

scots and the french

but in england as a foreign-born queen

margaret was damned twice over for the

country of her birth and her sex

according to a poem of the time

she and her wicked affinity certain

intend utterly to destroy this region

[Music]

nor would she capitulate when her

husband was finally captured and

imprisoned in the tower of london in the

summer of 1465.

[Music]

with nowhere else to turn

margaret and her son fled across the

channel

where the king of france allowed her to

set up a tiny and impoverished court in

an obscure corner of his kingdom

margaret's son was 10 when they moved to

france

and as he grew into manhood margaret

doggedly fought on in the attempt to

secure his future as king of england

she watched hawkishly for any in

the yorkist regime

and constantly petitioned the crowned

heads of europe for help

but it was a fruitless task

for margaret and her little band of

loyalists the outlook was bleak

margaret never gave up but well-informed

observers knew her cause was hopeless

that however was to reckon without the

yorkist regime's extraordinary capacity

for self-destruction

[Music]

edward's cousin the earl of warwick is

known to history as the king maker and

that it turned out was how he saw

himself

he had been the driving force behind

edward's campaign for the throne

but now edward was king warwick

discovered he couldn't control him

and they'd fallen into a bitter rivalry

to bring down this yorkist king warwick

needed another candidate to wear the

crown

and the only viable alternative was the

house of lancaster

margaret her husband and son

this was the moment for which margaret

had been waiting nine long years

but it came at a terrible price

to seize this chance to regain her son's

inheritance margaret had to take the

hand of the earl of warwick a man she

despised and mistrusted

for margaret this was an agonizing

decision

warwick had been one of the architects

of her husband's fall and the

disinheritance of her son

he'd led armies against her on bloody

battlefields

[Music]

but now he offered margaret her only

chance to ensure her son's future

on the 22nd of july 1470 here at angele

margaret came face to face with warwick

they were enemies divided by a river of

blood but now they were about to become

allies

margaret's distaste was such that she

kept warwick on his knees in front of

her for 15 minutes

but the deal was done

it was a treaty sealed with a kiss when

margaret's 17 year old son married

warwick's daughter

[Music]

in return for this stake in the royal

dynasty warwick set sail for england to

challenge edward and restore henry to

the throne

margaret stayed in france waiting to

hear that england was one before she or

her son stepped on english soil again

and good news reached her startlingly

quickly

edward was surprised by warwick's attack

with his forces unprepared he fled to

the netherlands leaving warwick to free

the bewildered king henry from the tower

with her husband back on the throne and

her son ready to step into his shoes

england was once again within margaret's

grasp

so on easter sunday the 14th of april

1471

after a difficult voyage

margaret and her son at last set foot on

the english coast

and at that moment their world fell

apart

their timing was disastrous

edward too had returned to england with

a small band of soldiers

and just hours before margaret landed in

a bitterly fought battle at barnett

north of london

edward defeated and killed warwick

[Music]

suddenly margaret found herself exposed

and vulnerable

all her carefully laid plans were

falling apart

and now once again the future would be

decided on a battlefield

margaret had support and reinforcements

in the west of the country and she made

her way to join them

[Music]

edward set out to intercept her warning

that death would be the penalty for

anyone who helped margaret

everything now depended on this race

across the country

the two armies met at tewksbury and it

was here in this beautiful abbey that

margaret was once again left to wait for

news

but this time she was alone

for the very first time at the age of 17

her son was on the battlefield

today he would either win his father's

crown

or lose his life

the end when it came was quick

margaret's son died where he fell in the

route of the lancastrian army

[Music]

margaret didn't try to run

she had nowhere to go

and no one left to fight for

and when edward made his victorious

entry into london

the captive queen followed in a chariot

straight-backed and blank-faced

staring at nothing

[Music]

the following day king henry's body was

brought out of the tower

the londoners were told he had died of

pure displeasure and melancholy at the

news of his son's death

but few doubted that edward had ordered

his killing

margaret was 41

and without her husband and son her life

was over

she was no longer a threat to edward so

he had no need to kill her

instead he imprisoned her for four years

in england before allowing her to return

to france

penniless and

purposeless

and when she died at the age of 51

her death went unnoticed by the crowned

heads of europe

margaret and isabella had each stepped

forward to become a queen who dominated

the political chess board

their forceful leadership shaped the

power play around them but it also

exposed them to vitriolic criticism

their self-assertion that would have

seemed natural in a man was deemed

unnatural even monstrous in a woman

as a result they've gone down in history

condemned as she-wolves

[Music]

in the next programme we'll see what

happened when england was faced not with

inadequate kings but no kings at all

when edward died there was no one left

to claim the title of king of england

for the first time in english history

all the contenders for his crown were

female

so would the tudor queen succeed as

england's first female kings

would england finally accept the rule of

a woman alone

[Music]

a long stint on open ocean tomorrow for

monty halls the fisherman's apprentice

at eight on the way tonight how to

rustle up a bun or two in holland on the

hairy bikers vacation