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.
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