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00:05In the last decades of the 13th century, the nations of Britain found their voices, loud,
00:12confident and defiant, and they were raised against England.
00:18The people of Snowdon assert that even if their prince should give overlordship of them
00:24to the English king, they would refuse to do homage to any foreigner.
00:30Of whose language, customs, and law they were ignorant.
00:34On account of the endless perfidy of the English, and to recover our native freedom,
00:39the Irish are compelled to enter a deadly war.
00:44For as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, we will yield in no least way to English
00:51dominion.
00:52We fight not for glory, nor riches, nor honour, but for freedom.
00:59We know these voices.
01:01They've been with us a long time now.
01:04All the same, it's a shock to hear them this early,
01:07to discover the politics of birthplace, uttered with such passion and such pain.
01:13Once said, they could not be unsaid.
01:20When the Welsh, the Scots, and the Irish acted on their words,
01:24the bloody wars of the British nations became inevitable.
01:27And these would not just be battles about territories.
01:31They were battles for ideas.
01:34Ideas of what a sovereign nation should be.
01:36An extension of the ruler's will, or something wider,
01:40something involving the people, as well as the prince.
01:44Something called the community of the realm.
01:48Those battles would be fought between the peoples of Britain.
01:52Welshmen would die in Scotland.
01:54Scotsmen would perish in Ireland.
01:57The English would kill and be killed everywhere.
02:02For the fight to the death between princes and principals,
02:06the battle for the making of a nation would begin in the very heart of England.
02:58One man was responsible
03:00for provoking the peoples of Britain into an awareness of their nationhood.
03:04And he was England's own homegrown Caesar, Edward I.
03:12In 1774, those made curious by his fearsome reputation opened his tomb.
03:19The man they found inside was every bit as awesome as contemporaries had recorded,
03:25dressed in the purple robe of a Roman emperor.
03:28An impressive six-foot-two tall, fully justifying his nickname, Longshanks.
03:36Upon that stark marble tomb, the Oni ornamentation reads...
03:43Edwardus Primus, Scotorum Malleus Hic Est.
03:50Hammer of the Scots.
03:56After a century of rule by kings, who were essentially Frenchmen,
04:01Edward can be called the first truly English king,
04:04given an old Anglo-Saxon name
04:07and imbued with a frightening certainty
04:09that it was England's imperial mission
04:12to take its rule to the four corners of the British islands.
04:15His many enemies compared him to one of the big cat predators.
04:22Perhaps he will rightly be called a leopard.
04:25Leo.
04:26Brave, proud and fierce.
04:28The pard.
04:29Wily, devious and treacherous.
04:35The leopard prince was born to splendid, impossible expectations.
04:41His father, Henry III, had named his son for England's royal saint,
04:46Edward the Confessor, the paragon,
04:48so it was then thought of kingly perfection.
04:55Though the Confessor had been dead for almost 200 years,
04:59Henry VIII drank and worshipped him
05:01and finally created for the long-dead king
05:04a shrine of unparalleled magnificence.
05:08Of course, such a shrine would need a home
05:11that equalled its splendour.
05:14The new Westminster Abbey.
05:23Henry demolished the old basilica at Westminster
05:26and replaced it with an immense Gothic Abbey,
05:29a building that now fitted his vision
05:32of an awe-inspiring English monarch.
05:35From now on, Westminster would be the symbolic heart of the kingdom,
05:39the place where all English monarchs would be crowned and buried.
05:44His father, King Henry III, reigned for 56 years.
05:49He is not remembered for any stirring achievement or blood-soaked conquest.
05:54But Henry's time on the throne was driven by a magnificent obsession.
05:58He wanted to turn the monarchy into England's dominant power.
06:07Henry's great gift to the nation was more than just a fine new church.
06:13Across the way, its secular counterpart
06:15was the great hall of the Palace of Westminster.
06:20The palace was both a seat of government and a residence for King Henry,
06:24who, unlike his Angevin ancestors, didn't much like being in the saddle.
06:31And the hall was a court in both the senses the word suggests,
06:35a place of judgment and a theatre of ceremony.
06:41At Westminster, the king had to be seen to be magnificent.
06:46But the king had also to be seen to be just.
06:53Westminster may have been the creation of the monarchy,
06:57but it also belonged to England, a nation of laws,
07:01the nation of Magna Carta.
07:06Henry had grown up with the charter,
07:08signed by his father, King John, in 1215,
07:12which put real limits on the power of the king,
07:15a bit of a blow for a king who wanted absolute authority.
07:20Kings could no longer ignore the complaints of their subjects.
07:24They could be forced to submit to a council of the barons.
07:27That council thought of itself as the voice of the community of the realm
07:32and even now began to be called Parliament.
07:35Its role would be to hold the king to his contract.
07:42Since Henry had become king as a boy of nine,
07:46he'd had no choice but to swallow this bitter pill.
07:49However, as he grew older, Henry burned with frustration
07:53and became determined to get free of its shackles,
07:57to restore the unchallenged authority of the crown.
08:02Knowing that this couldn't happen without a fight,
08:05Henry accepted a compromise position for many years,
08:08that the king was not free to govern through pure royal will.
08:14But Henry III was also a Plantagenet,
08:17and Plantagenets dreamed dangerous dreams,
08:21expensive dreams of campaigns far abroad,
08:25which no-one in York or Canterbury could quite see the point of.
08:29And when Plantagenets thought they might get unwelcome advice,
08:32they stopped listening, until, that is, they were made to.
08:40In 1258, in the very hall that defined His Majesty, Westminster,
08:45seven of the most powerful barons confronted the king.
08:49Fully armed, they paused only to leave their swords outside.
08:53They demanded that Henry meet them at a parliament in Oxford
08:57and stop trying to turn his European dreams into reality.
09:04The barons were led, in all but name,
09:07by the most improbable revolutionary in all of British history,
09:11Simon de Montfort.
09:13And here at Kenilworth,
09:15he presided over a little empire of culture.
09:20A French aristocrat who inherited the earldom of Leicester,
09:25Simon became convinced that he was more English than the English.
09:29What was good for de Montfort was good for the nation.
09:32Love him or hate him,
09:34everyone knew that Simon de Montfort was a man with a mission.
09:41That mission,
09:42embarked on with his fellow barons,
09:44was to bring the wayward, self-glorifying monarchy to book,
09:48to make it the servant, not the master of the realm.
09:53At Oxford, amidst wildfire rumours,
09:57a camp of soldiers and the growling hunger of a famine,
10:01Henry III was treated to the emasculation of his sovereignty.
10:06A document was drawn up for the king to sign,
10:09not discuss, just to accept.
10:12And what it said was so startling,
10:15so genuinely revolutionary,
10:17that 1258 ought to be one of those dates
10:19engraved on the national memory.
10:23The provisions of Oxford
10:25were at least as important as Magna Carta.
10:30In effect, the crown had been replaced by a new council of nobles and clergy.
10:37That council now virtually ruled England.
10:42Foreign courtiers were made to disappear.
10:47It has been ordained that there are to be three parliaments a year
10:50to view the state of the kingdom.
10:53It is provided that from each county
10:55there are chosen four law-worthy knights
10:58to hear all complaints
11:00for the common benefit of the whole kingdom.
11:04And when the assembled community of the realm,
11:07including the king and Prince Edward,
11:09swore an oath to uphold the provisions,
11:12they could have been in no doubt
11:13about the significance of the moment
11:15for the fate of the nation.
11:19And so Henry III's facade of omnipotent rule
11:22had come crashing down around his ears.
11:25But he was not the only royal with a stake in events.
11:31Well, how did the 19-year-old Edward feel
11:34about the drastic shrinkage in the power of the crown,
11:37his crown?
11:38Well, there's no doubt that for some time
11:40even the prince was dazzled
11:43by the intense magnetism of Simon de Montfort's personality.
11:47And for a while, Edward went along with it.
11:57But, inevitably, divisions opened up between the reformers.
12:03It was all very well to make the king and his officers
12:06answerable to the barons,
12:08but ought the barons to be answerable to their inferiors.
12:13De Montfort thought yes,
12:16the earls thought no.
12:18And as those divisions opened wider,
12:21the leopard prince began to change his spots
12:24and sharpen his claws.
12:28Now it became increasingly clear
12:30that the struggle over who was to rule England
12:33and how they were going to do it
12:35centred on two men, Simon and Edward.
12:38Neither could prevail without the other's total defeat.
12:44Over five years,
12:46Henry and Edward manoeuvred against de Montfort for power
12:49until, finally, words ran out.
12:52For this was no three-month paper revolution
12:55like the original signing of the Magna Carta.
13:02The issue could now only be settled on the field of battle.
13:05For the first time since the Norman Conquest,
13:08the political fate of England was completely fluid,
13:11its eventual outcome uncertain.
13:14In 1264, de Montfort won the first round
13:17at the Battle of Lewes on the Sussex Downs.
13:21King Henry and Edward were both taken prisoner.
13:27The year which followed, with de Montfort in charge,
13:31was the closest England came to a republic
13:33until the days of Oliver Cromwell.
13:36And in Parliament, not just aristocrats and bishops,
13:40but ordinary knights of the shire
13:42and even burgesses from the towns
13:44presumed to discuss the fate of their superiors,
13:47a prince and a king.
13:50But like the later republic,
13:52this one quickly gained the attributes of a dictatorship.
13:56With power going to his head,
13:58Simon seemed more the vainglorious adventurer
14:01than the messianic reformer.
14:03In the end, he simply repelled more people
14:06than he attracted.
14:08With the impotent Henry III firmly under lock and key,
14:11the crown's future lay with Edward,
14:14who outwitted his captors
14:15and made a dashing horseback getaway.
14:24Even at this stage, it was obvious
14:26there was something extraordinary about Edward.
14:29He radiated the kind of charisma
14:31that drew confused responses of both fear and adoration.
14:36He purposely kept his signals mixed,
14:39the better to convert them into loyalty.
14:45Edward led his following to Evesham in Worcestershire,
14:48where de Montfort's now outnumbered army
14:50camped near the abbey.
14:58Under stormy skies, the battle was a slaughter.
15:06Told that his son had been killed,
15:08Simon replied,
15:09then it is time to die.
15:11He charged under the fray
15:13and was slain on foot,
15:15his devoted knights falling with him.
15:23Edward ignored the rules of war.
15:27The wounded were stabbed where they lay
15:32Simon's head, hands, feet and testicles were cut off
15:39The genitals hung around his nose
15:49The Crown had won
15:52But only after overcoming Kenilworth's mighty defences
15:55In a siege that lasted nine months
15:58But they would have been given a serious early lesson
16:02In the political realities of England
16:04He was never going to cringe before the barons
16:07But he would have to make them his allies
16:09As partners they would go on to create an English empire of their own
16:14The reincarnation of Roman Britannia
16:22In 1274, Edward I's coronation finally took place
16:26In a magnificent sanctuary created by his father
16:31The Westminster in which he was crowned
16:34Would, if Edward had anything to do with it
16:36Be the capital, not just of England, but of Britain
16:42It was in Wales that Edward first made the seriousness of his ambitions crystal clear
16:49Here the dominant prince was Chloelyn up Griffith
16:53Ruler of the mountainous kingdom of Gwyneth
16:56Greater Snowdonia
16:59Knowing that the difficult, not to say impossible, terrain of his country
17:03Had been the graveyard of English armies
17:05Chloelyn was determined to resist their attempts to subdue central Wales
17:12Here the native Welsh clung on to their language, customs and laws
17:16Lords in their own lands
17:18But still subjects of the English king
17:22By the 13th century, Wales had become divided
17:24Into the principality of Gwyneth, the disputed centre
17:28And the encroaching English baronial and crown lands
17:31Encroaching, that is, until 1258
17:35When Chloelyn was strong enough to have himself declared
17:38Princeps Waliai, Prince of Wales
17:43Exploiting the civil war in England
17:45And making an alliance with de Montfort
17:47Chloelyn's armies overran the now undefended centre
17:51But he then overreached himself
17:54Marrying de Montfort's daughter
17:56An offence Edward was unlikely to forgive or to forget
18:02Years later, Chloelyn handed out but the perfect pretext for retribution
18:07He failed to show up at Edward's coronation
18:10And ignored a total of five summonses
18:13To pay homage to his new king
18:17Edward, who needed no tutorials on the connections
18:20Between ceremonies and power
18:22Immediately took this as a slap in the face
18:25An act of virtual rebellion
18:27In 1276, a huge army
18:30The biggest scene in Britain since the Norman Conquest
18:33Invaded Gwyneth
18:35Penetrating right to its furthest corners
18:38To Snowdonia and to Anglesey
18:40Faced with this invasion, Chloelyn was forced to surrender
18:48But as so often in these years
18:50Humiliation bred defiance
18:53In 1282, the Welsh launched a surprise attack on an English garrison
18:59Edward now bore down again with an even bigger army
19:03But this campaign was far from being a walkover
19:14Realising this, the Archbishop of Canterbury attempted to conciliate between the warring factions
19:20Offering Chloelyn land and title in England
19:24If he would renounce his rights in Wales
19:27And the answer to this offer was blunt
19:32That they must stand by their laws and rights in defence of all Wales
19:37The people preferred to die rather than to live under English rule
19:41They would not do homage to any stranger of whose language, manners and laws they were entirely ignorant
19:47They would fight in defence of Nostra Nazio
19:50Our nation against the English
19:56When the war was renewed
19:58It was with fresh and unsparing savagery
20:03No quarter was given by either side
20:06The Welsh exploited their land
20:09Ambushed the slow-moving companies of knights
20:11And then disappeared off again
20:13Into the hills and forests
20:25Then in a minor skirmish in central Wales
20:28Chloelyn was killed by an anonymous English spearman
20:34The final annihilation of resistance
20:37Took another six months
20:38Before the king could claim Wales to be pacified
20:46However, the subjugation of Wales was far more subtle than the surgical application of brute force
20:53Edward had the chilling, uncannily modern knowledge
20:57That to break your enemy, you must first strip him of his cultural identity
21:03Before this place became called Conway by the English, it was Aber Conwy
21:08It was a monastery that housed the tomb of the most powerful of all the Welsh princes
21:13And was home to a sacred relic that the Welsh believed to be a piece of the true cross
21:21Naturally then, the monastery became a fortress
21:24And the cross was taken to London
21:27Along with Llewellyn's crown
21:34The lords called themselves princes of Wales
21:37Fine, from 1301, they will be the most English of the English
21:43The first son of the king
21:45The heir to the throne
21:46The emperor in waiting
21:51But the most titanic of all the visible signs of the English empire
21:55Were its castles
21:56A granite ring of fortresses
21:58Stretching from bilth to hope
22:01Most of them supplied from the sea
22:03Depriving the Welsh of any hope of liberation
22:10For the Welsh of Snowdonia
22:12The great stone fortresses in their midst
22:15Were what one of them called
22:16The magnificent badges of our subjection
22:22The symbol not of imperial grandeur
22:25But of crushing national annihilation
22:28A permanent, daily, wounding reminder
22:31Of conquest and humiliation
22:36The most colossal exercise, in fact, in colonial domination
22:40Anywhere in medieval Europe
22:43Beneath the lion standard of Edward Plantagenet
22:47The Welsh inhabitants had now become second-class citizens
22:51In their own country
22:56Well, those natives were treated for the most part like naughty children
23:00Not allowed to bear arms, of course
23:02But even forced to ask permission
23:05If they wanted strangers to stay at their house overnight
23:09Worst of all, I think
23:10The Welsh were doomed by English superiority
23:13To become objects of terminal quaintness
23:16The quaint language
23:18The quaint songs
23:19Those amusing choirs and chants
23:25It could have been worse
23:26And for the Jews of England, it was
23:31The Welsh wars cost ten times the king's annual revenue
23:35And the price of victory and castle building
23:38Had so exhaustively bled the Jews
23:41The usual source of loans and taxation
23:44That they had nothing left to yield
23:46And so could be dispensed with altogether
23:51Early in his reign
23:53Edward, perhaps acting from religious conviction
23:56Outlawed money lending
23:58And so put most of England's Jews out of business
24:03He then forced them to wear yellow felt badges
24:07Of identification
24:08And so be recognised as the subspecies of humanity
24:12He undoubtedly believed they were
24:17A year after his first Welsh invasion
24:20Edward arrested all the heads of the Jewish households
24:24And hanged nearly 300 in the tower
24:31Not satisfied with this
24:33He expelled the entire community
24:36Perhaps 3,000 people in 1290
24:39An act so overwhelmingly popular
24:42Especially with the church
24:44That it awarded him a huge tax grant
24:50So it's Edwards, England
24:52Which became the first country
24:54To perform a little act of ethnic cleansing on its Jews
24:58The violent uprooting of entire communities
25:01In York, Lincoln and London
25:09It was not plain sailing
25:12For the Jews aboard one deportation boat in the Thames
25:15At Queenborough, the captain encouraged his Jewish passengers
25:19To stretch their legs
25:21As the ship beached on the receding tide
25:24As it returned
25:25He barred them from getting back aboard
25:28Challenging them to call on their god
25:30To part the waves
25:32As he had with the Red Sea
25:34But there was no miracle this time
25:36They all drowned
25:50In Lincoln Cathedral
25:51Lie the entrails of Eleanor of Castile
25:54Queen to Edward I
25:56She died within months of the expulsions
25:59Leaving her husband
26:01Normally so thick-skinned
26:02And emotionally coarse
26:04Distraught
26:05Plunged into grief
26:08Edward's devotion
26:10Is best reflected in a monument
26:12Unique in medieval kingship
26:14Twelve crosses he built
26:16To mark the points
26:17Where Eleanor's body
26:18Lay en route
26:19To Westminster Abbey
26:22The most famous
26:23Being Charing Cross
26:25In London
26:33Eleanor's death
26:34Seemed to transfer Edward's reserve of passion
26:38To what now
26:39Became the real love of his life
26:41The single-minded pursuit
26:43Of imperial power
26:47It was Scotland
26:48That was destined to be on the receiving end
26:51Of Edward's deadly power games
26:53Which began, as always
26:54By converting accidents
26:56Into opportunities
27:00The accident
27:01Was the death in 1290
27:03Of the last surviving direct heir
27:06To Alexander III
27:07King of Scotland
27:09With her gone
27:10The Scottish nobles were lining up for the throne
27:13Someone was needed to judge the contestants
27:17Well, guess who?
27:21The strongest claimants
27:23Led the two most powerful family factions
27:26In Scotland
27:27The Bruces
27:28And the come-in
27:29Balliol Alliance
27:30They hated each other
27:35Both were determined
27:36To have their man
27:37Made king
27:38And if they pushed
27:39Their rival claims fully
27:41Their conflict
27:42Would cause civil war
27:43Across all of Scotland
27:47Edward came north
27:48To decide
27:49Which of the two rivals
27:51Would be king
27:52The competitors met him
27:54On either side of the river Tweed
27:56Near a place
27:57Called Norham
28:01Of course
28:02Edward being Edward
28:03He had a price on his mind
28:04In return
28:05For being
28:06Adjudicator
28:07Godfather
28:08To the Scots
28:08And that price
28:10Needless to say
28:11Was homage
28:12The bent knee
28:13The kiss on the ring
28:15The devoted sword
28:16The acceptance
28:17By whoever got the job
28:19That henceforth
28:20He would be
28:21Edward's man
28:22Deeply in his debt
28:23His soldiers
28:24At the king's command
28:27To prove his point
28:29He gathered an army
28:30At Norham
28:31An army of monks
28:32Scholars
28:33And antiquarians
28:34Their heavy artillery
28:35Were ancient charters
28:37And chronicles
28:38Their job
28:39To find
28:40The historical proof
28:41Of English
28:42Overlordship
28:43But they failed
28:45And so the king
28:46Threw the problem
28:47Right back
28:48To the Scots
28:50Edward asked
28:51The guardians of the realm
28:52To come up
28:53With some documentary evidence
28:54As to why
28:55He was not
28:56In fact
28:57Their feudal overlord
28:58To which he got
28:59A wonderfully
29:00Canny contradiction
29:02Not at all
29:02What he wanted to hear
29:04Sire
29:05They said
29:05The bona gentes
29:06The responsible men
29:08Who have sent us here
29:09Know full well
29:10You couldn't possibly
29:12Make so great a claim
29:13Unless you actually
29:14Believed
29:15You had a right to it
29:16But of this right
29:17We know nothing
29:20Which is as much
29:21To say
29:21Look
29:22You can't be
29:23Completely off your head
29:24To come up
29:24With this sovereignty stuff
29:26But actually
29:27It's all news
29:28To us
29:28Chum
29:29Since the Scottish realm
29:30On this side of the river
29:32Is held tribute
29:33To no one
29:34But God
29:35We don't have to prove
29:37A thing
29:38It's for you
29:39To come up
29:40With a super monk
29:41With the perfect charter
29:43Why don't you let us know
29:44When you have it
29:48In the end
29:49All those
29:50Who thought
29:50They were still in
29:51With a chance
29:52Of winning
29:52The Scots throne
29:53Did pay homage
29:54To Edward
29:55But the rest
29:56Of the Scots
29:57Community of the realm
29:58Held their noses
29:59And stood aloof
30:02Was this
30:03As some Scottish historians
30:04Have always insisted
30:05An Edwardian trap
30:07Was he already thinking
30:09Of turning Scotland
30:10Into Wales North
30:11The next territory
30:13To be gobbled up
30:14By his imperial appetite
30:16Well I think
30:17The appetite
30:18Grew with the eating
30:19A year later
30:21When the final verdict
30:23Came through
30:23Balliol did prove
30:25To have the better claim
30:26And was the clear choice
30:28Of Scotland
30:28Edward did not force him
30:31On anybody
30:33For his part
30:35Once Balliol
30:36Had acknowledged
30:37Edward's overlordship
30:38The English king
30:40Agreed to keep
30:41The separate identity
30:42Of Scottish institutions
30:44Only if their interest
30:46Crossed
30:47Would there be trouble
30:48Alas
30:50They did
30:51And trouble
30:52There certainly was
30:55Edward wasted no time
30:58In humiliating
30:59Balliol
30:59On every occasion
31:01Over the next five years
31:02Driving the Scots
31:04Community of the realm
31:05The nobles
31:06Clergy
31:07Gentry
31:07And Burgesses
31:08To stand
31:09Against their own king
31:11When war with France
31:13Coincided with another
31:15Welsh rebellion
31:16Edward exercised
31:17His overlordship
31:18Of Scotland
31:19And summoned
31:20Their nobility
31:21To fight for him
31:22They refused
31:24And then
31:25Went one stage further
31:27They signed
31:28A formal treaty
31:29With France
31:30Against England
31:32To Edward
31:33It was self-evidently
31:35A declaration of war
31:36The army he raised
31:38In 1296
31:39Put even the Welsh campaign
31:41In the shade
31:46First to fall
31:47Was Scotland's wealthier city port
31:49Berwick-upon-Tweed
31:51The siege
31:52Lasted only hours
31:56Massacre that followed
31:57Days
32:01The king of England
32:03Spared no one
32:06Whatever the age
32:08Or sex
32:10And for two days
32:11Streams of blood
32:12Flowed from the bodies
32:14Of the slain
32:17So that mills
32:19Could be turned round
32:20By its flow
32:25At Dunbar
32:27The Scots royal army
32:28Was swept aside
32:30Now Edward turned
32:31Imperial conqueror
32:32In deadly earnest
32:34King John Balliol's arms
32:36Were torn from his coat
32:38Like a court-martialed
32:39Subaltern
32:40And English officials
32:41Took over Scottish government
32:43And just as he had
32:45Ripped the heart out
32:46Of the Welsh sense
32:47Of independence
32:47By carrying off
32:49Their sacred relics
32:50Edward now took
32:52The stone of scone
32:53Symbol of the independent
32:55Scottish crown
32:56To Westminster
32:57Where a magnificent
32:58Coronation chair
32:59Was custom designed
33:01To hold it
33:03And when Edward
33:04Was given
33:05The broken Scottish
33:06Royal seal
33:07He set it aside
33:09Commenting
33:10A man does good business
33:12When he rids himself
33:14Of a turd
33:16One by one
33:17A host of Scots
33:18Came to do homage
33:20To Edward
33:20Including the Bruces
33:22But there was one
33:23Who did not
33:25Malcolm Wallace
33:26And this Malcolm
33:28Had a brother
33:35Here he is
33:36The standard issue
33:38Freedom fighter
33:39Of the imagination
33:40The give-em-hell whiskers
33:42The save-me-Jesus eyes
33:44The hamstrings from hell
33:49We've not a clue
33:50Of course
33:50Whether William Wallace
33:51Looked remotely like this
33:52Any more than we know
33:54Whether he could have
33:54Stood in as a stuntman
33:56For Mel Gibson
33:57Who immortalised him
33:58In Braveheart
34:00But Wallace is one
34:01Of those larger-than-life figures
34:03Whose epic romance
34:05Refuses to go away
34:07It just grows
34:08To match this
34:10Extraordinary monument
34:11To him
34:12Dominating
34:13The sterling skyline
34:17There's no doubt
34:18Of course
34:18That Wallace
34:19Did count
34:20That his brief
34:21But incredibly dramatic
34:23Intervention
34:23In the wars
34:24Between England
34:25And Scotland
34:25Did change the course
34:27Of British history
34:28If only to show
34:29That the armies
34:30Of Edward I
34:31Were not invincible
34:33At all times
34:34And in all places
34:37Beyond that
34:38Wallace was one
34:39Of the few Scots
34:40Who never
34:41At any stage
34:42Paid homage to Edward
34:44Remaining loyal
34:45To King John
34:46Balliol
34:47More gentlemen
34:49Turn outlaw
34:50Than peasant man
34:51Of the glens
34:51Wallace wasn't
34:53A one-man war
34:54Either
34:55By mid-1297
34:57Old Scotland
34:58Was on the boil
34:59North of the fourth
35:01Andrew Murray
35:02Matched or even
35:03Surpassed him
35:04By leading a wild
35:05And brilliant
35:06Guerrilla war
35:08It was when
35:09Murray marched
35:10South
35:11And Wallace
35:11Moved north
35:12To meet here
35:13On the fourth
35:14At Stirling
35:15The key to Scotland
35:16That a chaotic
35:17Wildfire uprising
35:19Turned into a major
35:20Military campaign
35:25On the eve
35:26Of the battle
35:27Of Stirlingbridge
35:28Wallace
35:28Told the English
35:29We are not here
35:31To make peace
35:32But to do battle
35:33And to liberate
35:35Our kingdom
35:39The Scots gathered
35:40On the abbey
35:41Craig ridge
35:42Below
35:43A narrow wooden
35:44Bridge
35:45Led to the castle
35:46And to the English
35:50Wallace allowed
35:51About half of them
35:52To cross
35:52The fragile structure
35:53Enough
35:54For his forces
35:55To deal with
36:02And so they did
36:03Rushing down
36:04From their perch
36:05Through the woods
36:06And into
36:07The English ranks
36:15Wallace on foot
36:16With a great
36:17Sharp sword
36:18Goes
36:19Amongst the very
36:20Thickest of his foes
36:24The Scots
36:25Vanquished
36:26The savage English
36:27Whom they put
36:28Into mourning
36:29For death
36:30Some had their
36:31Throats cut
36:32By swords
36:33Others were
36:34Taken prisoners
36:35Others drowned
36:39One
36:40The hated
36:41English taxman
36:42Cressingham
36:43Was skinned
36:44His fat body
36:45Made into a belt
36:46For Wallace's
36:47Victoria sword
36:52And yet
36:53As so often
36:54In Scottish history
36:55Defeat
36:56Quickly followed
36:57Victory
36:57Down the fourth
36:59At Falkirk
37:02Wallace's
37:03Wallace's warriors
37:03Died
37:05By the thousand
37:08They fell like
37:09Blossoms
37:10In an orchard
37:11When the fruit
37:12Has ripened
37:12Bodies covered
37:14The ground
37:15As thickly
37:15As snow
37:16In winter
37:20Wallace himself
37:22Managed to escape
37:23The slaughter
37:23Only to be captured
37:25Years later
37:26Betrayed by a
37:28Scotsman
37:29Possibly even
37:30The Bruce
37:31Himself
37:35After a mock
37:37Trial
37:37Wallace endured
37:38The most appalling
37:39Death that the
37:40King's rage
37:41Could devise
37:42A live
37:43Disembowelment
37:48In the intervening
37:50Six years
37:50Scotland suffered
37:52Almost as badly
37:53By Edward's hand
37:54As the Scots
37:55Drew inspiration
37:56From Wallace
37:57And fought on
38:00Edward came back
38:02From 1297
38:03To 1304
38:06The war
38:08Became a murderous
38:09Academy
38:09Of siege
38:10Warfare
38:12Edward came
38:14Came from the
38:14Southwest
38:15To Kerlaverock
38:16Castle
38:17Took it
38:18And left
38:19With its defenders
38:20Hanged from the
38:21Walls
38:22North to
38:23Bothwell
38:23Where a huge
38:24Siege tower
38:25Overcame its
38:26Mighty battlements
38:27And on
38:28And on
38:30Not even
38:31Scotland's
38:32Westminster
38:33Was saved
38:34From his fury
38:37Dunfermline Abbey
38:38Is one of those
38:39Places where you
38:40Can almost
38:41Smell tragedy
38:42And the stonework
38:43Pretty much
38:45Everything you see
38:46Here was built
38:47Or rather
38:47Rebuilt
38:48After 1303
38:50It was in that
38:52Year that
38:52Edward I
38:53In one of his
38:54Murderously vindictive
38:56Tantrums
38:57Torched the place
38:58Burnt it to the ground
39:00He was
39:01As usual
39:02Making a point
39:04To smash up
39:06A royal mausoleum
39:07Was to strike
39:08Directly
39:09At Scotland's
39:10Sense of
39:11Independent
39:11History
39:13The greatest
39:14Symbol of that
39:15Independence
39:15As always
39:16Was sterling
39:19Its surrender
39:20Took the fight
39:22Out of the
39:22Scots
39:26In 1304
39:27They submitted
39:28To Edward
39:29Well
39:30He must have
39:31Thought
39:31That was that
39:33Done with
39:34Peace
39:35A mistake
39:37For what
39:39Edward couldn't
39:40Possibly have
39:41Predicted
39:41Was the
39:42Emergence of
39:43A Scottish
39:43Lion
39:44Even more
39:45Ruthless
39:45Than a leopard
39:46Himself
39:47And he was
39:48Of course
39:49The Bruce
39:52The strange
39:53Thing though
39:53Is when you
39:54Catalogue
39:55The formidable
39:55Strengths
39:56Of Robert
39:57The Bruce
39:57His political
39:58Cunning
39:59His military
40:00Ingenuity
40:01His steely
40:02Resolution
40:02Even his
40:03Intermittent
40:04Fits of rage
40:05They all
40:06Begin to sound
40:06Rather like
40:07The attributes
40:08Of the man
40:08Whose work
40:09He'd sworn
40:10To undo
40:10Edward I
40:12If he'd
40:13Read the book
40:14Of Edward's
40:15Life
40:15He would have
40:16Known
40:16That lesson
40:16Number one
40:17Was not
40:18Beat the
40:19Foreigner
40:20It was
40:21First
40:21Win your
40:22Battles
40:23At home
40:26And so
40:27In 1306
40:29Bruce
40:30The most
40:30Politically
40:31Intelligent
40:32And militarily
40:33Successful
40:34Figure
40:34In medieval
40:35Scottish
40:35History
40:36Did just
40:37That
40:38He met
40:39With John
40:40Cummins
40:41His main
40:41Rival
40:42And ended
40:43Up stabbing
40:44Him
40:44Before the
40:44Altar
40:45Of Grey
40:46Friars
40:46Church
40:47In
40:47Dumfries
40:54The murder
40:55Is neither
40:56Explained
40:56Nor justified
40:57By it being
40:58The case
40:59Of a patriot
41:00Knocking off
41:01A quizling
41:01For Cummins
41:02Had been
41:03A lot more
41:03Consistent
41:04In his
41:04Opposition
41:05To the
41:05English
41:05Than Bruce
41:06He remained
41:08Loyal
41:08To King
41:09Balliol
41:09Who still
41:10Lived
41:10And so
41:11Had to
41:11Be removed
41:13Barely
41:14Six weeks
41:15After he
41:16Had murdered
41:16Cummins
41:17Bruce
41:18Had himself
41:19Inaugurated
41:20King
41:20At
41:20Schoon
41:23Instead
41:24Of unifying
41:25The Scots
41:26Behind a
41:26Single
41:26Leader
41:27Bruce's
41:28Actions
41:28Only
41:29Intensify
41:30What was
41:30Already
41:30A scottish
41:31Civil war
41:32One
41:33That he
41:34Initially
41:34Lost
41:39He fled
41:40Scotland
41:41And so
41:42Created
41:42A vacuum
41:43Of knowledge
41:44Filled
41:45By heroic
41:46Mythology
41:46The fable
41:47Of the cave
41:48And the spider
41:49Whose patience
41:50Gave Robert
41:51The resolution
41:52To persevere
41:55There was
41:56No cave
41:56No spider
41:57But there was
41:58Something much
41:59More extraordinary
42:00The polished
42:01Noble
42:02Turning himself
42:03Into a
42:04Gorilla
42:04Captain
42:04For it was
42:06Robert the
42:06Bruce
42:06Not William
42:07Wallace
42:08Who wrote
42:08The book
42:09On partisan
42:10Warfare
42:12On his
42:13Return
42:13Four months
42:14Later
42:15Adversity
42:16Now made
42:17Him
42:17A great
42:18General
42:18Attacking
42:19His Scots
42:20And English
42:20Foes
42:21Alike
42:23In the
42:24End
42:24Robert the
42:25Bruce
42:25Simply
42:26Outlived
42:27The old
42:27King
42:28Who breathed
42:29His last
42:30Fearing
42:31The worst
42:31Should ever
42:32His son
42:33Edward of
42:33Carnarvon
42:34Have to
42:35Meet Robert
42:35The Bruce
42:36On the
42:36Field
42:37Of battle
42:40Eventually
42:41Edward died
42:42Here near
42:44Carlisle
42:44In 1307
42:46En route to
42:47Deal with
42:48Bruce
42:48Himself
42:50Ironically
42:51At the end
42:51Of his life
42:52Edward turned
42:53Thoughtful
42:54Even writing
42:55That he wanted
42:56To promote
42:56Pleasantness
42:58Ease
42:58And quiet
42:59For our
42:59Subjects
43:01But if
43:02He must have
43:02He must have
43:04Died
43:04A truly
43:05Disappointed
43:05Man
43:07One story
43:08Says the
43:08King
43:08Left orders
43:09For his
43:10Bones to
43:10Be boiled
43:11Away from
43:11His flesh
43:12And carried
43:13Before his
43:14Son's army
43:15Believing
43:16That as long
43:16As his bones
43:17March north
43:18The Scots
43:19Would never
43:20Be victorious
43:24But Edward
43:25Junior
43:25Was going
43:26To need
43:26More than
43:27His father
43:27Shinbone
43:28If he was
43:29To have
43:29Any chance
43:30Of success
43:33He was
43:33Certainly
43:34Not
43:34The incarnation
43:35Of the
43:36Community
43:37Of the
43:37Realm
43:37Neither
43:38Was he
43:39The true
43:39Heir
43:40Of the
43:40Caesar
43:41Of Britain
43:41The monarch
43:42Of all
43:42He surveyed
43:43He was
43:44Just
43:45A loser
43:48Bruce
43:49On the
43:49Other hand
43:50Was still
43:50A winner
43:51Over seven
43:53Years
43:53He regained
43:54His kingdom
43:55So by
43:561314
43:57The English
43:58Only controlled
43:59Bothwell
44:00Berwick
44:00Jedburgh
44:01And the
44:02Quay
44:02Stirling
44:03Castle
44:04Now besieged
44:05By the
44:05Scots
44:06Faced
44:08With complete
44:09Humiliation
44:09In Scotland
44:10Edward II
44:11Finally acted
44:12A march
44:13North
44:14He met
44:16His nemesis
44:17In a muddy
44:17Field
44:18Along the
44:19Banks
44:19Of the
44:20Bannock
44:20Burn
44:22It was
44:23Not to
44:23Be the
44:23Usual
44:24Story
44:24Of charge
44:25Arrows
44:25Away
44:26Slash
44:27Victory
44:27But a
44:28Relentless
44:29Two-day
44:30Affair
44:32Outnumbered
44:32Three to
44:33One
44:33Bruce
44:33Did get
44:34To choose
44:34The
44:35Battlefield
44:35Knowing
44:36That even
44:37Plantagenet
44:38War
44:38Machines
44:38Don't
44:39Work
44:39Well
44:39On
44:40Wet
44:40Ground
44:46However
44:47It was
44:48Almost
44:48All over
44:48Before
44:49It had
44:49Begun
44:49The
44:50Young
44:50Henry
44:51De
44:51Boone
44:52English
44:52Knight
44:52Caught
44:53Bruce
44:53Unawares
44:54And
44:55Unarmoured
44:55On
44:55His
44:56Little
44:56Mount
44:56Someway
44:57Off
44:58From
44:58His
44:58Soldiers
45:00Sir
45:01Henry
45:01Missed
45:02The
45:02Noble
45:02King
45:02And
45:03He
45:03Standing
45:04In
45:04His
45:04Stirrups
45:05With
45:05An axe
45:06That
45:06Was
45:06Both
45:06Hard
45:07And
45:07Good
45:07Struck
45:08Him
45:08A
45:09Blow
45:09With
45:09Such
45:09Great
45:10Force
45:10But
45:11It
45:11Cleaved
45:12The
45:12Head
45:12To
45:13His
45:13Brains
45:13The
45:15Shaft
45:15Of
45:15The
45:15Axe
45:16Left
45:16Broken
45:17In
45:17Robert's
45:18Fist
45:20Skirmishing
45:21Followed
45:22As
45:22The
45:22Short
45:23Jew
45:23Knight
45:23Fell
45:24Bruce
45:25Reminding
45:25The
45:26Scots
45:26The
45:27English
45:27Are
45:28Bent
45:28On
45:28Obliterating
45:29My
45:29Kingdom
45:30Nay
45:31Our
45:31Whole
45:32Nation
45:34The
45:35English
45:35Knights
45:35Charge
45:38The
45:39Sudden
45:39Ground
45:40Shilterum
45:41Hedgehogs
45:42Of
45:421,500
45:42Men
45:43Each
45:44Holding
45:44A
45:4412
45:45Foot
45:45Spear
45:46Defeat
45:46Them
46:05Ranks
46:06Of
46:06Infantry
46:07Meet
46:07Head
46:08On
46:10Such
46:11A
46:11Smashing
46:11Of
46:12Spears
46:12That
46:12Men
46:13Could
46:13Hear
46:13It
46:13Far
46:14Away
46:16English
46:16Archers
46:17Are
46:17Now
46:17Swept
46:18Away
46:18By
46:18Scots
46:19Cavalry
46:19Or
46:20Blocked
46:20By
46:21The
46:21Four
46:21Shilterums
46:22Which
46:22Unite
46:23And
46:23Push
46:24Forward
46:26And
46:26And
46:27Many
46:27And
46:27Splendid
46:28Mighty
46:28Blow
46:29Dealt
46:29There
46:29On
46:30Both
46:30Sides
46:31Until
46:32Blood
46:32Burst
46:33Through
46:33The
46:34Mail
46:34Coats
46:35And
46:35Went
46:35Streaming
46:36Down
46:36To
46:37The
46:37Earth
46:41Edward
46:42Edward
46:42Edward
46:42Second
46:43Fled
46:43The
46:44Field
46:44With
46:45500
46:46Knights
46:48The
46:49English
46:49Force
46:49Broke
46:50Behind
46:50Him
46:51And
46:51Was
46:52Slaughtered
46:52The
46:53Burn
46:54Becomes
46:54So
46:54Choked
46:55Men
46:56Could
46:56Pass
46:56Dry
46:57Foot
46:57Over
46:58It
46:58On
46:58Drowned
46:58Horses
46:59And
47:00Men
47:03Edward
47:04The
47:04Second
47:05Left
47:05His
47:05Shield
47:06His
47:07Seal
47:07His
47:08Honour
47:08And
47:09Perhaps
47:094,000
47:10English
47:11And
47:11Welsh
47:11Dead
47:21Having
47:21Won
47:22A
47:22Victory
47:22On
47:22A
47:22Battlefield
47:23If
47:23Not
47:23The
47:24War
47:24Itself
47:25The
47:25Scots
47:25Now
47:26Sought
47:26International
47:27Recognition
47:28Of
47:29Their
47:29Newly
47:29Won
47:29Liberty
47:33The
47:34Occasion
47:34Was
47:34A
47:35Letter
47:35Sent
47:36To
47:36The
47:36Pope
47:36Setting
47:37Out
47:37The
47:38Reasons
47:38Why
47:39Scotland's
47:39Independence
47:40Ought
47:40To
47:41Be
47:41Recognized
47:41By
47:42The
47:42Church
47:42As
47:43Itself
47:43Sacred
47:46The
47:47Letter
47:47Was
47:47Written
47:47Here
47:48In
47:48Arbroath
47:49Abbey
47:49And
47:50More
47:50Than
47:50Anything
47:50Ever
47:51Produced
47:51South
47:52Of
47:52The
47:52Border
47:52Represented
47:54A
47:54Perfect
47:55Fusion
47:55Between
47:56The
47:56Two
47:56Ideas
47:57Of
47:57Sovereignty
47:58We've
47:58Seen
47:59In
47:59Action
47:59The
48:00Nation
48:01And
48:01The
48:01Prince
48:05At
48:06At
48:06The
48:06Heart
48:06Of
48:06What
48:06We
48:06Call
48:07The
48:07Declaration
48:08Of
48:08Our
48:08Growth
48:08Is
48:09Something
48:09Much
48:10More
48:10Powerful
48:11Much
48:11More
48:12Deeply
48:12Moving
48:13It's
48:14The
48:14In
48:14The
48:15Lived
48:15On
48:16Beyond
48:16And
48:17Outside
48:17The
48:18Person
48:18Of
48:18The
48:18Prince
48:19Who
48:19For
48:19Time
48:20Happened
48:21To
48:21Claim
48:21Its
48:21Government
48:22Now
48:23We've
48:23Heard
48:23Something
48:23Like
48:24This
48:24Before
48:24In
48:25Fact
48:25At
48:25The
48:25Very
48:25Beginning
48:26Of
48:26Our
48:26Story
48:26In
48:27Oxford
48:27In
48:281258
48:29But
48:30Here
48:30In
48:30Scotland
48:31It's
48:31Much
48:32More
48:32Eloquent
48:33The
48:34Image
48:34Of
48:34The
48:34Free
48:35Patriot
48:35Drawn
48:36Not
48:36As
48:36Desperado
48:37Like
48:37Wallis
48:38Or
48:38Mighty
48:38Prince
48:39Like
48:39Bruce
48:40But
48:40As
48:40One
48:41Of
48:41A
48:41Band
48:42Of
48:42Brother
48:42Survivors
48:43For
48:44As
48:45Long
48:45As
48:45But
48:46A
48:46Hundred
48:46Of
48:46Us
48:47Remain
48:47Alive
48:47We
48:48Will
48:48Yield
48:48In
48:49No
48:49Least
48:49Way
48:49To
48:50English
48:50Dominion
48:51We
48:51Fight
48:52Not
48:52For
48:52Glory
48:53Nor
48:53Riches
48:54Nor
48:54Honor
48:55But
48:55For
48:56Freedom
48:57Good Man
48:58Gives
48:58Up
48:59Except
48:59With
49:00His
49:00Life
49:03The
49:04Real
49:04Lesson
49:05Of
49:05The
49:05Battle
49:05Of
49:05Bannockburn
49:06Was
49:06That
49:07The
49:07Scottish
49:07King
49:07Commanded
49:08Loyalty
49:09In
49:09Ways
49:10That
49:10Just
49:10Never
49:10Occurred
49:11To
49:11Edward
49:11II
49:15Robert
49:15The
49:15Bruce
49:16Knew
49:16That
49:17He
49:17Could
49:17Only
49:18Be
49:18Successful
49:19If
49:19He
49:19Could
49:20Be
49:20The
49:20Personification
49:21Of
49:21Scotland
49:22The
49:22Incarnation
49:23Of
49:23The
49:24Community
49:24Of
49:24The
49:24Realm
49:25And
49:26That
49:26Why
49:26He
49:26Was
49:26Not
49:27Scotland's
49:28Edward I
49:28He
49:29Was
49:29Scotland's
49:30Simon
49:31De
49:31Monfort
49:36Like
49:37De
49:37Monfort
49:38Bruce
49:38Had
49:39Pinned
49:39His
49:39Personal
49:40Cause
49:40To
49:40The
49:40Flag
49:41And
49:41To
49:41The
49:41Passions
49:42Of
49:42His
49:42Country
49:49Unlike
49:49Edward I
49:50Robert
49:51Was
49:52Not
49:52Just
49:52A
49:52Warlord
49:53Who
49:53Hammered
49:53The
49:54Country
49:54To
49:54His
49:54Will
49:55He
49:55Had
49:55Managed
49:56To
49:56Forge
49:56A
49:57True
49:57Alliance
49:58With
49:58The
49:58People
49:58A
50:00Community
50:00Of
50:00The
50:01Realm
50:01That
50:01When
50:01United
50:02And
50:02Led
50:02By
50:03King
50:03Robert
50:03I
50:04Could
50:04Win
50:05Its
50:05Freedom
50:13And
50:14So
50:14The
50:14Emboldened
50:15Scots
50:15Take
50:16The
50:16War
50:16To
50:17The
50:17English
50:21For
50:2222
50:22Years
50:23The
50:23Scots
50:23Raided
50:24And
50:24Terrorized
50:25Huge
50:26Areas
50:26Of
50:26Northern
50:27England
50:27Reaching
50:28As
50:28Far
50:29South
50:29As
50:29Yorkshire
50:32Abbeys
50:32And
50:33Castles
50:33Fell
50:34Cities
50:34Paid
50:35The
50:35Scots
50:35Off
50:36To
50:36Avoid
50:36Destruction
50:40Villages
50:41Were
50:41Trashed
50:44The
50:45Border
50:46Raids
50:46On
50:46A
50:46Weakened
50:47Enemy
50:47Were
50:47Just
50:48What
50:48You
50:48Would
50:48Expect
50:55In
50:56May
50:561315
50:57Robert
50:58Bruce's
50:58Brother
50:59Edward
50:59Landed
51:00Here
51:01In
51:01North
51:01East
51:01Island
51:02Near
51:02Carrick
51:03Fergus
51:03Castle
51:04With
51:04A
51:04Formidable
51:05Scots
51:05Army
51:06Army
51:06Many
51:07Thousands
51:07Of
51:08Men
51:08What
51:09The
51:09Bruces
51:09Were
51:10Doing
51:10In
51:10Effect
51:10Was
51:11Opening
51:12A
51:12Second
51:12Front
51:13Against
51:13The
51:14English
51:14Empire
51:16Robert
51:17Of
51:17Britain
51:17A
51:18Remarkable
51:18Letter
51:49there had been an entrenched English colony in North and Eastern Ireland,
51:54often safe only in castles like Carrickfergus,
51:57which Edward Bruce now besieged for a year.
52:01But the timing was unfortunate,
52:04for 1315 also saw the worst famine in living memory.
52:10Very soon, Edward Bruce's army became indistinguishable
52:14from any other disorderly gang of knights,
52:17using force to extract the provisions they desperately needed for their men and animals
52:23and not choosing to distinguish with any care between Gaelic friends and English foes.
52:29Famished and desperate, the Scots soldiers took what they needed from the Irish villagers
52:35and finally resorted, so it was said, to digging up fresh graves and eating the decayed bodies.
52:44Month by month, the Bruce's War of Liberation turned into something remarkably like an occupation.
52:54Ambitious Edward Bruce also wanted to be a king, a king in Dublin,
52:59and he didn't much care what taking the throne would cost the Irish.
53:04It was the usual story, a victory over the Ulster English,
53:08then a march south towards Dublin.
53:11There, many of the population tore down their own houses
53:14to use as walls against the Scots rather than surrender the city.
53:20Not all the Irish nobility and kings opened their arms to embrace their Scots liberators.
53:26A bitter civil war broke out between native Irish supporters of both sides.
53:31A climactic battle in the West took, according to contemporaries,
53:36no fewer than 10,000 lives.
53:41In 1318, Edward Bruce was himself killed
53:45before the end of the year, the Scots had left.
53:48Perhaps the experiment and collaboration across the North Channel deserved to fail
53:54because, from the beginning, Robert the Bruce had his own
53:58rather than his Irish brother's interests at heart,
54:01needing a second front to divert critical English military resources
54:05from Scotland to Ireland.
54:11Not for the last time, the Irish were being used in someone else's quarrel.
54:19As grim as the story of the Scots in Ireland was,
54:22they did leave behind something other than widows and tragic ballads.
54:27The Anglo-Norman colony stopped expanding from its base in Ulster and Leinster,
54:33and the idea of the unstoppable English empire, the Plantagenets,
54:38had the shine not right off its myth of invincibility.
54:47And not least, the Bruces had given Irish leaders
54:51their voice of resistance, an expression of national identity.
55:12All these startlingly modern-sounding declarations of national community
55:17come together as the epitaph of the idea
55:21of the Plantagenet Empire of Britain.
55:25You hear this language, eloquent, fierce, righteously belligerent,
55:31and you hear a voice which, for better or worse,
55:34would shout, roar and lament down through the ages.
55:39Robert the Bruce outlived both Edwards,
55:42and while war would continue with England for generations,
55:46the Scots had won English recognition
55:48of their truly independent kingdom.
55:54This is certainly not what Longshanks had imagined
55:57when he had been crowned before his namesake, the Confessor's Tomb,
56:01or when he had seated himself upon the Stone of Scone.
56:08For Edwards' attempt to pound the nations of Britain
56:12into a united super-state
56:14ended up just reinforcing their acute sense of difference.
56:20The hammer that Edward had taken to the Scots
56:23had rebounded fatally against his dream of a reborn Britannia.
56:30For the cost of all those endless marches
56:33and mile upon mile of castle walls
56:36was political as well as financial.
56:39It meant that Parliament was more, not less, necessary
56:43to the Government of England.
56:45It was Parliament which had to agree on how to foot the bills
56:49and how big those bills ought to be.
56:53Edward II, of course,
56:56completely failed to pay any attention to this new reality.
57:01Falling back on rule by favourites,
57:04Edward made himself an alien in his own land.
57:07The nobility failed to remove him, but his wife succeeded.
57:12Legend has it that he was killed in Barclay Castle
57:16from a hot iron thrust up his rectum.
57:23Edward's murder was proof that the king could be removed,
57:27even physically disposed of, if he betrayed the community.
57:33But England would get a new king,
57:36more the heir to Edward I than the second.
57:41But Edward III knew he couldn't achieve anything
57:44simply by acts of brutal imperial will.
57:48He'd learned something from the long wars of Plantagenet Britain.
57:53And what he'd learned was that his power depended
57:56not just on force, but on consent.
57:59On the consent of his barons and his churchmen,
58:03on the consent of Parliament,
58:05on the consent of the English community of the realm.
58:09Not for the first and not for the last time,
58:12it would take the rest of Britain
58:14to teach England just how to be a nation.
58:18and the familiar.ZA