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History of Medieval England - Tuesday 6th Period: Lecture 11: The War of the Roses (Part 1)
I freely admit this is because it's just bloody fun. The average person couldn't give a damn who was sitting on the throne and indeed, commerce and artistic endeavors continued without regard to who was king. But let's get into the soap opera aspects of this, shall we?
[[OOC: Now color-coded for your convenience!!!]
First, please keep your attention on the family tree of the Plantagenet family as descended from Edward III which is posted behind me. This is excellent for keeping track of which Henry and Richard were who, and which Edward was which Henry's son/cousin/brother/mortal enemy. Right.
So, Edward III had a lot of sons. Which was generally a good thing in Medieval England, as sons had a distressing tendency to die, whether in childhood or in battle. And Edward III had an eldest son to follow him who was brave, intelligent, and completely capable. As an aside, the movieThe Knight's Tale That-Kid-Who-Was-A-Peasant-But-Wanted-To-Be-A-Knight-And-Ran-Into-A-Famous-Poet-Along-the-Way (the oddly long title might be why it didn't do that well in the box office) does an excellent job of portraying Edward, the Black Prince, down to his sense of justice and his desire to win tourneys on the basis of arms, not because everyone let him win.
Edward the Black Prince married Joan of Kent, a fabulous heiress, and theirs appeared to be that true rarity in arranged marriages, a love match. The tragedy was that Edward, the Black Prince died the year before his father. His son, Richard II took the throne at the age of ten.
Richard II... did not have the strengths of either his father or his grandfather. For the first ten years of his reign England was governed by a regent in Richard II's name, in this case, his uncle John of Gaunt. At fourteen, Richard II defied a crowd protesting an overly-harsh tax and an act that put a cap on their wages -- as you might remember from last week, after the Black Death, peasant labour was in short supply. Richard II rode into the middle of the mob and cried ringingly to follow him, he would lead them. His intervention prevented bloodshed -- at least, of the nobles and government officials. When the revolt began to break up, it was easy to capture and execute the ringleaders.
When Richard II took over as the head of the government, all seemed to be well. Child kings on the Continent had lead to civil war, but England had only two examples of an underage king before and both had lead to long and fruitful reigns, and Richard II seemed likely to follow in their footsteps.
However. He roughly brushed away many of the top men of the government and replaced them with his bosom friends. This made the older -- and politically very powerful -- lords unhappy. Within a year, he managed to manufacture evidence to execute eight of them for treason. It is said that he could recite word for word slights and condescending remarks that various of the lords had addressed to the child King when he was powerless to fight back.
The problem with Richard II was that he was contrary. He did not like battles -- he definitely was not the warrior his father had been -- and he enjoyed a luxurious way of life that the English felt was inappropriate for their king. He also enjoyed inappropriate liaisons with some of the friends he had given power to.
He was sincerely devoted to his wife, Anne of Bohemia, to the point of razing to the ground the palace where she died in an act of grief. However, they had no children and the government pressured Richard II to marry and have an heir. Marry he did, to the daughter of the king of France. Princess Isabelle was seven at the time of their wedding. Offspring would not happen for at least eight or ten years. Like I said. Contrary.
However, Richard II did not have that time. He furiously banished one of the most powerful men in the country, Henry of Bolingbroke, the son and heir of his uncle John of Gaunt. Henry of Bolingbroke returned the following year, shortly after his father's death (by natural causes, what a shock) and convinced Richard II to let him into the country, arguing that he only wanted to take possession of the estates left to him by his father.
Richard II let him in, and Henry of Bolingbroke promptly seized the crown while Richard II was on campaign in Ireland. When he returned to England he was imprisoned until he agreed to abdicate. Henry of Bolingbroke became Henry IV. But an ex-king is a dangerous thing to have knocking about, and within a year, Richard II was murdered. Popular belief is that he was starved to death.
Despite such a dramatic ascension to the throne, Henry IV's reign was relatively peaceful. Rather than internal conflict, his martial energies were absorbed by a revolt in Wales. Henry IV died thirteen years later in 1413, and his son Henry V of fabulous fame succeeded him.
The important thing about Henry V's nine-year reign from our point of view was that there was little or no opposition to his reign, despite spending most of it in France fighting for the French possessions that Edward III had claimed in the Hundred Years War. He left his uncles as regent and with only a few political machinations peace reigned in England, if not in France.
Henry V won fabulous victories in France, and was acknowledged as the French king's successor. He married the French king's daughter -- a sister to the seven-year-old bride of Richard II. However, Henry V died young, a month before his royal father-in-law, leaving a nine-month old son to inherit England and, a month later, France.
But Henry VI was a king of quite a different color.
[[Go ahead!]]
[[OOC: Now color-coded for your convenience!!!]
First, please keep your attention on the family tree of the Plantagenet family as descended from Edward III which is posted behind me. This is excellent for keeping track of which Henry and Richard were who, and which Edward was which Henry's son/cousin/brother/mortal enemy. Right.
So, Edward III had a lot of sons. Which was generally a good thing in Medieval England, as sons had a distressing tendency to die, whether in childhood or in battle. And Edward III had an eldest son to follow him who was brave, intelligent, and completely capable. As an aside, the movie
Edward the Black Prince married Joan of Kent, a fabulous heiress, and theirs appeared to be that true rarity in arranged marriages, a love match. The tragedy was that Edward, the Black Prince died the year before his father. His son, Richard II took the throne at the age of ten.
Richard II... did not have the strengths of either his father or his grandfather. For the first ten years of his reign England was governed by a regent in Richard II's name, in this case, his uncle John of Gaunt. At fourteen, Richard II defied a crowd protesting an overly-harsh tax and an act that put a cap on their wages -- as you might remember from last week, after the Black Death, peasant labour was in short supply. Richard II rode into the middle of the mob and cried ringingly to follow him, he would lead them. His intervention prevented bloodshed -- at least, of the nobles and government officials. When the revolt began to break up, it was easy to capture and execute the ringleaders.
When Richard II took over as the head of the government, all seemed to be well. Child kings on the Continent had lead to civil war, but England had only two examples of an underage king before and both had lead to long and fruitful reigns, and Richard II seemed likely to follow in their footsteps.
However. He roughly brushed away many of the top men of the government and replaced them with his bosom friends. This made the older -- and politically very powerful -- lords unhappy. Within a year, he managed to manufacture evidence to execute eight of them for treason. It is said that he could recite word for word slights and condescending remarks that various of the lords had addressed to the child King when he was powerless to fight back.
The problem with Richard II was that he was contrary. He did not like battles -- he definitely was not the warrior his father had been -- and he enjoyed a luxurious way of life that the English felt was inappropriate for their king. He also enjoyed inappropriate liaisons with some of the friends he had given power to.
He was sincerely devoted to his wife, Anne of Bohemia, to the point of razing to the ground the palace where she died in an act of grief. However, they had no children and the government pressured Richard II to marry and have an heir. Marry he did, to the daughter of the king of France. Princess Isabelle was seven at the time of their wedding. Offspring would not happen for at least eight or ten years. Like I said. Contrary.
However, Richard II did not have that time. He furiously banished one of the most powerful men in the country, Henry of Bolingbroke, the son and heir of his uncle John of Gaunt. Henry of Bolingbroke returned the following year, shortly after his father's death (by natural causes, what a shock) and convinced Richard II to let him into the country, arguing that he only wanted to take possession of the estates left to him by his father.
Richard II let him in, and Henry of Bolingbroke promptly seized the crown while Richard II was on campaign in Ireland. When he returned to England he was imprisoned until he agreed to abdicate. Henry of Bolingbroke became Henry IV. But an ex-king is a dangerous thing to have knocking about, and within a year, Richard II was murdered. Popular belief is that he was starved to death.
Despite such a dramatic ascension to the throne, Henry IV's reign was relatively peaceful. Rather than internal conflict, his martial energies were absorbed by a revolt in Wales. Henry IV died thirteen years later in 1413, and his son Henry V of fabulous fame succeeded him.
The important thing about Henry V's nine-year reign from our point of view was that there was little or no opposition to his reign, despite spending most of it in France fighting for the French possessions that Edward III had claimed in the Hundred Years War. He left his uncles as regent and with only a few political machinations peace reigned in England, if not in France.
Henry V won fabulous victories in France, and was acknowledged as the French king's successor. He married the French king's daughter -- a sister to the seven-year-old bride of Richard II. However, Henry V died young, a month before his royal father-in-law, leaving a nine-month old son to inherit England and, a month later, France.
But Henry VI was a king of quite a different color.
[[Go ahead!]]
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AFTER CLASS: Medieval England Lecture 11
OOC: Medieval England Lecture 11
Re: OOC: Medieval England Lecture 11
You explained it much better than our professor did.
Re: OOC: Medieval England Lecture 11
*finds new ugly way to die as a medieval king*
*brings us up to... four ways so far!*