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 300 years ruthlessly

crushing all competition to become the

greatest English dynasty of all time the

Plantagenet what I love about the

Plantagenet story that is more shocking

more brutal more astonishing than

anything you'll find in fiction I want

to show you the plantations as I see we

live in freedom people driven by

ambition jealousy hateful and revenge

these Kings murdered betrayed and

tyrannized their way to spectacular

success the better and for worse the

Plantagenets forged England as a nation

this time the founder of the dynasty

Henry the second warrior and Empire

Builder he transformed England from a

war zone into a European superpower but

murder and betrayal by his own family

threatened to tear apart everything he

had achieved

in 1153 Henry Plantagenet sails to

England with an invasion force aiming to

seize back the throne

he's only 20 but he's already an

experienced soldier is in fighting for

answers he was a kid and his mother's

drilled into him the idea that the crown

of England is rightfully his

so Henry approaches these saws he's

convinced here the face with definite

Henry's a powerhouse with a fiery temper

bursting with raw energy and ambition

within a year Stephen is dead and Henry

is crowned Henry a second the first

Plantagenet King

of course he doesn't speak a word of

English after 90 years of Norman French

rule in England no one does except the

peasants

and it's not then that Henry's here to

pick a fight with

it's the Barents for generation that

barons been fighting vicious turf wars

burning looting raping killing if you

lived here you could come home any day

to find your house on fire your crops

destroyed your animals taken your family

murdered and this has been going on for

nearly 20 years as long as the new king

has been alive

Henry's future and the future of England

depends on bringing the Barons to heel

he could simply destroy them his armies

big enough but instead he does something

totally unexpected high on the Welsh

borders is Wigmore castle once one of

England's greatest fortresses it's the

power base of human toughest of the

barons and the last to hold out against

a new king

Owen defies Henry and gets away with it

she turns up here at Wigmore with an

army and lay siege to the castle Henry's

got Hugh surrounded but he's not here to

destroy him it just sits outside here I

am is my army what are you going to do

about it

unsurprisingly Hugh fold that is what

Henry does makes that marks him out as a

king to watch because he takes Hugh's

Castle away from them that gives it

straight back you're saying you can have

your power but only because I say so

I'm the king I'm in control and you work

for me

[Applause]

one reason Henry had the confidence to

take on such powerful men he clearly has

a formidable arm henry's queen is

Eleanor Duchess of Aquitaine 10 years is

senior she's such a famous beauty

students across Europe seeing 40 songs

about bedding up she shocked the

continent by divorcing the King of

France in 1152 and marrying Henry just

two months later they're a good match by

the time Henry takes the throne she's

already produced their first son but

this Queen is far more than a baby

machine as Duchess of Aquitaine she's a

serious and litical player in her own

right Henry brings muscle

Eleanor brings prestige together there

are many meals

and the union creates a Plantagenet

empire that stretches from the borders

of Scotland to the tyranny

but to keep control of such vast

territory Henry has to do something

radical controlled everything - Henry

the question is how does he maintain it

it could use it barons to rule the

different regions that standard medieval

practice but as far as Henry can see the

Barons are lonely do things his way as

long as it suits them to get what he

wants

Henry's going to have to do things a

little bit differently fine in Nostrum

quotidianum da nobis oh yes Henry's

genius is to create a new honour not of

soldiers but of clans educated commoners

unlike the Barons they'll do exactly

what he wants what Henry invents is the

basis of the civil service that still

runs the country today

[Music]

here at the National Archives nine

hundred year old documents revealed a

full extent of Henry's to throw

[Music]

so this is a writ from the second year

of Henry's reign it's an official

instruction from the king you can see

the king Rex here Duke Normandy Duke of

Aquitaine sending instruction to the

sheriff of Dorsett ordering him to give

back a farm in the village of RAM

pushing to its rightful owner

that might sound mundane but hundreds of

these survived and what they show you is

Henry's interest in every last field and

pasture of his kingdom and this isn't

everything Henry's doing it's also

rebuilding royal finance through the

exchanges justices raving about the

country to reestablish law and order

what it all adds up to is Henry's

complete obsession with stamping is

control of every area who is New Kingdom

[Music]

the mastermind pulling the

administrative strings for Henry is

commoner Thomas Becket the son of a

merchant he may be lowborn the Becket

such a brilliant operator the Henry

makes him Chancellor it's Beckett he

makes sure the Kings grip on England is

rock-solid

and it's clearly some kind of spark

between them they quickly become

drinking buddies hunting partners and

best mates

but because of Beckett everything

Henry's achieved is about to come under

threat the trouble begins here a

Canterbury

seat of power of the one part of England

that remains beyond Henry's control the

church

one Englishman in five is a cleric

they're effectively above the law

whatever crime they commit even rape or

murder only church courts can try them

the worst punishment they can give out

the fine

the king can't touch them so in 1161

when the Archbishop of Canterbury dies

here Henry thinks excellent I'll appoint

my mate Thomas as Archbishop he can

knock some sense into the church and

even though Thomas has never been a

priest

Henry bullies the monks of Canterbury

until they agree to elect him so you can

see why Henry thinks he's got the church

problem sewn up after all Becket is best

mate he owes his career to ins what

could possibly go wrong

Henry's failed to spot a massive problem

in the medieval world there is a higher

power than the king Beckett finds God

pretty much the first thing he does is

hang the King out to dry by resigning as

Chancellor he's sending a very blunt

message I'm not going to do what you say

anymore I have a new boss now with God

in his corner either Beckett now defies

every command the King makes to bring

the church to heel unsurprisingly

it doesn't go down very well with Henry

this is a king famous across Europe for

his uncontrollable temper a man who once

got so furious during an argument he

rolled around on the floor pulling the

straw out of his mattress stuffing it

into his mouth it's fair to say that

Henry wasn't just angry he's up lected

and this rage combined with Henry's

intense desire for control will lead to

murder and betrayal that threatens to

destroy everything he's achieved

[Music]

[Music]

Westminster July 11 17 henry ii is

having his eldest son young Henry

crowned King of England effectively king

in waiting

it should secure Henry's legacy instead

is going to tear his world apart

because there's one man he really should

be there

the Henry has an advantage

Thomas Beckett's crowning kings of

England the Archbishop of Canterbury's

gig and it always has been

so when Beckett finds out about the

young Kings coronation he explodes with

fury it does something utterly reckless

Becket excommunicated every single

clerical

in in that morning then it

amen as far as he's concerned they're

quite literally going to hell

when the news reaches Henry out comes

his Plantagenet rage again and he says

something you'll come to regret for the

rest of his life back act

he's about to turn

mailmen colors and yours what Mike and

ago me please your door Monty Oh

Henry's just Bentley but that's not how

it looks to his nice

what they hear is a direct order from

their king

this simple misunderstanding sets up a

disaster

and here in Canterbury it all comes

crashing down days later all right pass

through these doors and then march into

the Cathedral to confront Becket here

he's unarmed and dance bishops robes and

they're in our mo its sword by this

furious words are exchanged they try and

drag back it back to the cathedral

here's a pitch and it's at this point

one of the Knights draws his sword and

brings it down Beckett's head shopping

off part it's gone

Beckett Falls one of the Nights skips

his brains onto the floor with the tip

of his sword but they're not alone

because hiding in doorways and behind

pillars but Beckett's friends and

supporters bearing witness to an event

that'll shock Kristensen every single

good thing that henry ii has done in his

career until now may as well be wiped

out because this is what he'll be

remembered for them

[Music]
the fact that his words were taken out

of context is neither here nor there

as far as everyone's concerned Henry

ordered Beckett's murder outrage of this

sacrilege goes viral across Europe

people begin to question whether Henry

has really fit to be a king Henry

realizes straightaway how damaging

this'll be this is the first time since

his meteoric rise that he's been

vulnerable I think I would have hurt him

personally as well in Becket may have

been knocking lumps out of each other

for years

this is still a man who is once its

closest friend who understood him better

than anyone else

the humiliated King makes himself scarce

and goes to Ireland on campaign

and the crisis on this scale the one

group he should be able to count on her

his own family but now they turn on him

too and it's all Henry's fault

Henry's eldest son Henry the young king

is a chip off the old block ambitious

power-hungry and impatient as king in

Waiting he should be taken to Ireland so

Henry can teach him how to exert

iron-fisted control but he isn't instead

the young king is left behind festering

in the aftermath of his father's

disgrace and whilst he's away the King

leaves control in the hands of his slick

Bureau

powerless and isolated resentment as

father starts to feast waiting another

surviving document reveals just how

humiliating life is for the young king

this is a record of royal accounts from

1170 to when Henry is off beating up the

Irish on the face of it it's pretty dry

as a long list of payments made but

throughout the records of money paid out

to the young king what's interesting is

they're all quite small let's have a

look there's one here from Berkhamstead

and it says for the works radius Philly

radius of the king the son of the king

xxx that's 30 shillings well today

that's a few thousand pounds which might

sound like a lot but the eldest son of a

king it's chicken feed now the normal

way that things would work is that a

king would give it the eldest son a

block of lands from which to draw his

revenue but Henry hasn't done that he's

kept everything to himself to keep

control so the picture you get reading

this is of the old king where the

richest most powerful men in Europe

while his eldest son it's going around

cap in hand begging money for Royal

officials

[Music]

resentment is spreading through the rest

of the faculty too

a year before Beckett's murder Henry's

wife Queen Eleanor had returned to her

homeland in Aquitaine and she faced us

up here at poitiers where this Hall is

what remains of a magnificent ducal

palace after years living in a foreign

country Eleanor's come back with her

favorite son Richard to train him to

take over her lands there when she dies

finally she's back where she belongs

this is where she was born this is where

she was raised frankly food and weather

are better here too but Ellen is about

to find that her Aquitaine is now a very

different place a spanking new cathedral

has been built in the town center this

is more than just a church it's a PR

statement designed to sell the

Plantagenet dynasty to the people and

the banner headline of this message is a

spectacular window incredibly it

survived intact nearly nine centuries

if you look at this stained-glass window

high up in the cathedral you can see

Henry Eleanor and their four sons it's

like a snapshot of the United family

reeling together over England and half

of France except it isn't really like

that because in a curtained Eleanor

finds as Henry's men collecting the

taxes Henry's men controlling the

balance even when our husbands hundreds

of miles away it's obvious that he's the

one is in control now Eleanor might have

brought Aquitaine to Henry in marriage

but that doesn't mean it's his then

Ellen to discover something Henry's done

that to her is unforgivable behind her

back Henry has mortgaged off part of her

Aquitaine to secure a political alliance

this is like coming home one day to find

your husband's change the locks sold all

your stuff they've had a whole bunch of

other people to live them

it's not just any nice view me Richard

is spitting blood about his lost

encourages two at one stroke Henry has

created two powerful new enemies

and he probably doesn't realize henry's

blindness to his family's feelings is a

ticking time bomb here Moschino 175

miles southwest of Paris in the very

heart of Henry's French lands and

finally explodes

[Music]

chignon castle has enormous strategic

importance you want to rule the

Plantagenet Empire controlling it is

absolutely essential

that's exactly why Henry the young king

expects that one day this castle with

his then one night Henri announces he's

giving chignon castle the jewel in the

Plantagenet crown to John a young King

six-year-old brother

[Music]

think what it would have been like here

that night

this is one of the angriest families in

history try to imagine all that

Plantagenet rage just boiling up they

think there have been much Pleasant

chitchat with a dinner here

[Music]

see the loss of the castle is more than

the young king prepare true to form

Henry is completely dismissive he's

utterly incapable of seeing things from

my son's point of view but the young

king is adamant for 18 years he's had to

suffer his father's excessive control

now he's drawing a line in the sand had

a backup there the young king should

have known better

Henry was never gonna give up controls

without a fight

chignon teaches the young king a harsh

lesson

his father is never going to give him

real power and he's sick of being strung

along

but if Henry thinks he's got the young

king where he wants him he's dead wrong

his eldest son is now hell-bent on

taking the old man down

[Music]

[Music]

spring 1173

but the young king steals out of his

father's custody who flees the palace

straight into the arms of Louis the

seventh King of France

this is out-and-out betrayal

the young king is planning to use King

Louie to help save his father throne but

why does the King of France get involved

in such a dangerous game two doctors

really borrow an expert in the medieval

French Court it makes perfect sense Lois

hates Henri well they had many reasons

not to like each other maybe the first

one is that the embody completely

opposite ideas of what it is to be a

king on the one hand you have you know

Henri macho warrior and on the other

hand you had Louis was anything but and

the other thing is that Henry was much

much wealthier than Louis and never

wasted an opportunity to do sure very

clearly but it's more than just

political isn't it

well yes what makes this story unusually

that you have a very deep personal

aspect to it a mere two months after

Louis separated from his wife Eleanor

she married Henry and she didn't just

marry him but she started having one

baby boy after the other when you Ian

Eleanor has really tried for a song for

years before that so that must have been

really really painful for for Louis so

all those aspects together explain why

you have such a deep and long animosity

between those two men

the young king rocking up in Paris is no

surprise to Louie this is more than just

a spur-of-the-moment betrayal by a

petulant son because Henry the young

king isn't acting alone his brothers are

in on this too and so is the one person

whose vital to making the whole betrayal

possible Eleanor the Queen's been

flossing with her ex-husband to replace

Henry at secondary and she immediately

sends Richard to join the old brother

a few days later Eleanor's policies she

makes a mad dash across France on

horseback going immense

and

but she doesn't make it she's caught on

her way to Paris by only two seconds men

and brought to chignon castle not as a

queen but as a prison your own sons

rebelling against you is pretty much as

bad as it gets

your queen masterminding the whole plot

with their ex that's off the chart

the scandal rocks medieval Europe but

there's no stopping the betrayal Eleanor

has set in motion in Paris Louie Richard

and young King immobilizing to attack

Henri from all sides and not just in

France they're going to hit him where it

hurts the most

England plenty of English barons are

still pretty sore about having their

wings clipped by Henry the second the

young King promises to give them

everything back now the last time the

English barons had that sort of power

they basically destroyed the country so

this is a pretty reckless promise it's

not careful strategy but that's the

young king for you he's good at betrayal

relax his father's political savvy he

just wants to win whatever the cost

he even cuts a deal with Henry's other

mortal enemy the King of Scotland the

young King promises him big chunks of

England if he attacks Henry from the

north for a King of England in Waiting

this is a dangerous game but it works

by the spring of 1174 Henry faces a

perfect storm full-on revolt is

spreading across his empire all sparked

by his family's betrayal whilst Henry's

fighting in France England turning into

a disaster zone the King of Scotland

invaded the north as foreign mercenaries

are flooding across the channel to

support the Barons revolves if Henry

doesn't do something drastic England

which is lost

most Kings crossing the channel to face

a rebellion will be thinking the same

thing raise an army crush them by force

the Henry's got something else up it's

me because he realizes it isn't his

barons or even his sons or threatening

his empire if the dead hand of Thomas

Becket rising up from beyond the grave

it's more than three years since Becket

was killed and Canterbury Cathedral in

that time Henry's troubles have gone

from bad to worse

on the 12th of July 1174 henry ii heads

to countable what he does in the next 24

hours will shock the world and decide

the future of the entire plantation

dynasty just outside the city walls he

stops removes his boots begins to walk

barefoot along the road people watching

must be wondering if the desperate king

has lost his mind

the streets here in Cantabria full of

people nudging each other pointing maybe

even trying to grab it then I was the

king because behind him the Royal

standards fluttering these dressed as an

ordinary pilgrim roughed woolen clothes

and he's barefoot and the roads aren't

nice and clean and smooth they're muddy

they're filthy the full of broken rocks

and sharp stones that cut his feet of

shreds this isn't just physically

painful it's humiliating the King of

England is dragging himself through the

mud

leaving bloody footprints behind

Henri's performing the most public act

of penance imaginable begging God and

Beckett to forgive him this can only end

in one place Canterbury Cathedral it's

wretched three-mile walk is actually

propaganda dynamite every person who

sees it will spread the news with a

scale of the Kings penance Henry hasn't

finished yet he knows he has one chance

to win back the hearts and minds of his

kingdom and he's planning something

[Music]

the stage miss grand finale is the

shrine of the once best friend Natalie

be murdered Thomas Beckett

when Henry entered the cathedral dirty

bloody and drained Thomas's shrine isn't

up there down these stairs the Crypt

[Music]

down here the dark among the columns the

Henry does something absolutely

extraordinary in front of Becket's tomb

Henry kneels down the commands the monk

stood weapon

[Music]

100 of them take turns to beat his bash

up to 5 times each with a virgin

Henry is spilling his own blood to

atoned the spilling of Becket's and

Cathedral above these are the same monks

he cowered behind the pillars in horror

back there now they striking the flows

beating the sin of fashion in all

penniless leaves more than 300 flesh

laceration lashes

[Music]

there may be far fewer people down here

than up there but these are the men who

write about all those scene who'll tell

the world they may be Henry's Punishers

but they're also propagandists it's a

masterstroke of charismatic kingship

this is Henry's best shot at quashing a

whispering campaign against him

[Music]

but there's no guarantee of saving then

something extraordinary happens the next

morning a messenger arrives he bares

explosive news the King of Scotland has

been captured the invasion of the north

is over

not a theme of some kind of miracle

timings just to perfect and it feeds

directly into Henry's own propaganda

ever since the time of Beckett's death

he's been describing himself in

documents as king by the grace of God

now he has unarguable proof that God is

on his side
Henry's miracle rips the heart out of

the rebellion in England the Barons fold

without a fight Henry's backing control

[Music]

in less than a month he's free to head

back to France and take the fight to his

traitorous sons Henry's on a roll he

gets back to France

the rebellion melts away before him

first he persuades a flaky young Caine

to switch sides

that leads Richard Bowles as well their

rebellion is snuffed out for Henry's

family it's a catastrophe

they gambled everything and lost the

king has crushed them but he now faces a

dilemma of what to do with his

treacherous family one family member

Henry can't forgive his Eleanor because

as a wife rebelling against a husband

she's committed one of the worst forms

of treachery and should he never be

trusted again and here in this chapel

near chignon Castle her fate is recorded

in this incredible fresco so the front

you can see her husband Henry

Ellen is in the middle and the behind

her are two of her sons this might look

like a nice touching Plantagenet family

portraits it actually shows Ellen are

being led off into captivity

[Music]

Henry may not need Eleanor anymore

he dare fermitas proponent I divide this

class yet to us but he does need his

sons to carry on the Plantagenet dynasty

after him so in a public ceremony of

reconciliation

who said Gibson

even given money castles

they may have been forgiven but both

boys must know the one thing you'll

never give them after this is any real

power

[Music]

Henry simply can't see that his

obsession with control might be the root

cause to all his family's betrayals and

this blindness to his own fault will

ultimately destroy him

[Music]

in the summer of 1183 an unexpected

event froze Henry the second world into

terminal the eldest son the young king

dies not by the sword

but if dysentry an inglorious death for

an inglorious son living

the long-term

mm to do
Henri's grief isn't just a father's what

was clear he's personally devastated

the death of the young king had

destroyed all his plans for his legacy

as his remaining sons begin to jockey

for position

Henry is losing control again just two

of Henry's sons remain alive only one

can become his heir Richard the eldest

surviving son is expecting to be named

but Henry's favorite has always been his

youngest son John he at least has never

betrayed his father even so Henry

doesn't dare name either of you Henry

drags his heels last time he named a

successor it was disaster this time he

thinks by stalling he can keep Richard

obedient and under control what he

doesn't know is someone's been stoking

up resentment in Richard whispering

ideas of betrayal in his ear yet again

this

the man doing the whispering is the new

king of France fill it the second he

plays on Richards fears persuading him

that his father intends to name John

there

Richard demands that Henry formally

names him as his successor and of course

and reviews that would be giving up

control

[Music]

so with Philip V aside Richard once

again goes to war against his father in

less than a month they clear to the part

of Henry's French lands winning a deal

not long before a defeated Henry find

himself holed up again

back here at chignon castle with his son

and the king france the gates their

young ambitious and aggressive Henry's

old and tired

the one thing he could never control has

finally caught up with him time outside

his Plantagenet heartland is collapsing

the Empire he built and as ruled over

for more than thirty years is being

ripped from him by his own son it's a

final total defeat on the 3rd of July

1189 Henry rides out from scheana to

meet Richard a man who spent so much of

his life on horseback

his legs are physically bold now has to

be strapped into the saddle stop him

from falling off ridges demands are read

out he wants land he wanted money more

than anything else he wants to be the

next king is all Henry can do to nod his

head weakly and agree at the end he

leans in for one last embrace and he

whispers to Richard

god grant that I may not die until I've

had my revenge on you somewhere in this

broken old man is still Henry the second

King of England

[Music]

but this act of defiance is Henry's last

hurrah

[Music]

God doesn't grant his wish n read a

second the first Plantagenet King of

England died two days later

[Music]

here less than 20 miles from Sheena in

the family shrine at Santiago Abbey

Henry the second lies buried beside him

were buried the bodies of his wife

Eleanor and his successor Richard but

not his favorite son John

[Music]

his whole reign Henry kept a close grip

on his kingdom he never allowed his sons

real control because fundamentally he

didn't think they could do as good a job

as he could when Richard and then John

become King they prove him right within

15 years the Plantagenet Empire has

collapsed torn apart by rebellion war

and that's why John's not buried here at

font of Oh with his mother his father

because by the time John dies this place

is ruled by France

you

[Music]

you