David you are doing a great job on this series just like your podcast the history of England podcast. I am learning a ton
Thanks, Matthew
Tell me have you ever been to England I have but Zoey has been wanting to go any
Suggestions what we should do when we get there
well
You might want to carry out an experiment when you get round to it
Wander into a pub get yourself a pint of the finest ale and look around for anyone wearing open-toed sandals and a pair of socks
Introduce yourself to them express your love of English history and ask them if they've heard of the Black Prince
You have a very fair chance of getting a five-hour poem with added slideshow and dance routine
Try the same thing with a military hero called Berthold do Gessler at all. You'll get his blank stares
That told you guessed Lau was a French hero
He realized that the English were formidable on the set-piece field of battle
But that the French had far greater resources that if fought in the right way the English could not win in the long term
So Gessler and his new king charles v listened to the words of the Roman general
Quintus Fabius Maximus if you can win a battle without having to fire a shot in anger
Then you are the true Victor Gessler avoided battle. He fortified French towns to choke the English free companies
He took the war to the lands held in France by the English the English were forced onto the defensive now
It was the new subjects of the English crown suffering from fire and sword
He won over French Baron's in English loud lands to come back to France
He fought only when the odds were overwhelming in his favor and when he could choose the battleground Edward fought back
He appealed to English patriotism by using the English language at the start of the war
It warned that the French were trying to eradicate English to destroy all memory of the English people in
1362 for the very first time Parliament was opened in English and it now became the language of the law courts
Previously all of this had been done in French in the 13 70s royal
proclamations once more sounded the alarm of the threat to the English language, but nothing seemed to work even English victories turned to failure in
1367 the Black Prince won a battle against Gessler in Spain as
Extraordinary as any but the English fought on behalf of a villainous man pedra
The Kroll who's greedy schemes were doomed to failure. And in this fight on Baja of an evil, man
We get to one of the great tragedies of 100 years war for here
the Black Prince contracted an illness that would stay with him until his death and which robbed him of his powers and
humanity
In fact death stalked the English camp the great Earl of Lancaster had died in 1361
Other captains valve thick and fast Warwick in 1369. Jongchan dose in 1369
walter mani in 1372 and in 1369 edwards queen and soulmate Philippa joined them to
Edwards court the bright and glorious
assembly of all the talents
Unstoppable for whom all turn to gold was falling to pieces and in France English campaigns seemed now to do nothing
But wander aimlessly in the countryside while the conquered French Nobles
Conspired with guests glad to open their gates to any passing French troop as the glory turned to ashes the strange showed the Black Prince
Supposed model of chivalry butchered the people of Limoge with a brutality that shocked even the English
The story of Edward the third and his son the Black Prince is in many ways a story of tragedy of two men whose talents
And achievements made them shining heroes at their time exemplars of chivalry worshipped by their contemporaries
but who saw their triumphs turned to disaster and their lives turned to personal tragedy and loss death in
1360 would have been such a better career move
Edwards mind had become weak and him filled in the vast royal palaces lost without his Queen Edward - taken a mistress Alice Paris
Alice created a clique around him through which Edwards Nobles and even his sons couldn't penetrate
Alice persuaded Edward to appointing competence the military command on the basis that their support for her was more important than their military capability
Alice became daily richer and more powerful in France England's cause became more hopeless by the day in
1373 all of what had been gained had been lost and the last great captain of the glory days the captain la bouche was locked
In a French jail where he'd spend the rest of his days too dangerous to release
only by the skin of their teeth did the English hang on to Gaskin in Calais Edwards personal humiliation was maybe worse in
1375 now 63 years old
He arranged a glorious tournament and gave pride a place to his Alice on lookers was shocked at the sight of her mistress
Treated by the Queen they'd all loved
The torrent was a mockery parody of the great celebrations of chivalry of his glory days worse unknown to him
Alice had secretly married someone else behind his back Alice engaged in extortion and bribery
Selling access to the King to the highest bidder. In fact, it was the Commons of Parliament that acted to remove Alice the Parliament of
1376 was exceptional in refusing to dance to the tune of the great men Edwards second, son
John of Gaunt was furious as ordinary merchants and Gentry mere commoners set up a council presented a hundred and forty-one petitions and
refused to grant any taxation
until the king had agreed to them this Parliament became known as the good Parliament and is one of the very few examples of the
Medieval Parliament asserting its power at the end of the story had finally arrived in May
1376 the aged and infirm Edward sat and watched his eldest son
The Black Prince slowly die the next year Edward himself went into terminal decline
around him his household deserted him as his powers faded when he died the deceived and dying hero of Crecy was alone with his
Venal and corrupt mistress until Alice stripped the rings from his fingers and fled, but Edward had the last laugh
His reign was remembered for centuries as a golden age and his was the face of medieval chivalry braved
magnificent warrior to his fingertips who built a glittering court around him as close to the legendary Arthur as will ever get
Edwards successor was the black Prince's son Richard the second. He was 11 in 1377
Expectations were high his nobles expected a return to the good old days
Richard would surely beard chip off the old black Prince's block sadly. No one ended up being quite sure
What kind of block riches chip actually came from the Black Prince?
He was not in 1381 a rebellion by impoverished. Peasants tore through London
peasants destroyed the Royal Uncle John of Gaunt Savoy Palace ransacked London and beheaded the Archbishop of Canterbury
Not a stellar recommendation for the quality of his reign Richard was a strange personality
artistic intelligent pretty affectionate to his friends
But a poor governor of people tyrannical volatile to be a successful medieval monarch
You needed a combination of utter ruthlessness and the ability to manage a bunch of very powerful magnets, Richard
Vacillated way should have acted and he acted where he should have let Mathers alone
Richard was a great believer in the absolute god-given primacy of the king. Yes, the will of the king was paramount. Yes
He'd been anointed by God, but for all this the king was Primus inter pares first amongst equals
He must govern with the consent of his great men and his people Richard had another failing. He hated war nowadays
We might think that's pretty sensible back
Then he made him as mad as a box of cheese
War was the very job of nobility what would happen to society?
but at a war light nobility to protect church and people at a dramatic tournament in
1397 two men accused of treason had agreed to trial by battle to prove who was guilty and who was innocent
one of them was Henry Bolingbroke a
grandson of Edward the third as they leveled their lances and spurred their war horses forward suddenly the King races wand and ordered them to
Stop and he banished both of them within two years
Bolingbroke was back with an army Richard was murdered alone in a cold dungeon and Bolingbroke had become the troubled usurper King Henry the fourth
fortunately for the English the French could take no advantage the new French King Charles's ex with a minor in
1318 and the French never dealt well with
Minorities their Dukes the brothers of the old King squabbled and pinched each other just when Charles the sixth assumed power and restored balance
He began to suffer from a mental illness that would have flicked him for the rest of his life at one point
He was convinced he was made of glass and terrified. He'd be shattered. It was a disaster for France
meanwhile
The young man who'd fought with his father King John at poitiers was now a grown man Philip the bold duke of burgundy
Jook philip had become so fabulously wealthy and so powerful that for much of the 15th century
his dynasty was
practically independent from controlled by the French follow our kings and the struggle between the French crown and burgundy would allow France once more to
Be ravaged by their ancient enemy back in England Henry the fourth spent all his Rangers holding on to power
Desperately trying to keep his dynasty the House of Lancaster on the throne
He achieved little else except to raise one of England's most exceptional kings Henry the fifth and it was Henry the fifth that would make
the French pay for their divisions