Britain's Bloodiest Dynasty: The Plantagenets - (Watch Full Series Below) https://dailymotion.com/playlist/x8qybs
Britain's Bloodiest Dynasty: The Plantagenets:
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 three hundred years, ruthlessly crushing all competition to become the greatest English dynasty of all time. They were The Plantagenets.
Episode 3 - Revenge:
Dan Jones continues his history of the Plantagenet dynasty with a look at Edward II, who ruled England between 1307 and 1327. In a story of murder, intrigue, lust, betrayal and revenge, the historian explores whether there is any truth behind the rumours that Edward II was gay, investigates what turned his queen into a bloodthirsty matriarch now known as the `She-Wolf', and reveals how the king's obsessions with his noblemen - especially Piers Gaveston - blurred his judgement throughout his reign.
Britain's Bloodiest Dynasty: The Plantagenets:
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 three hundred years, ruthlessly crushing all competition to become the greatest English dynasty of all time. They were The Plantagenets.
Episode 3 - Revenge:
Dan Jones continues his history of the Plantagenet dynasty with a look at Edward II, who ruled England between 1307 and 1327. In a story of murder, intrigue, lust, betrayal and revenge, the historian explores whether there is any truth behind the rumours that Edward II was gay, investigates what turned his queen into a bloodthirsty matriarch now known as the `She-Wolf', and reveals how the king's obsessions with his noblemen - especially Piers Gaveston - blurred his judgement throughout his reign.
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00:00Out of the chaos, darkness and violence of the Middle Ages, one family rose to seize
00:12control of England.
00:18Generation after generation, they ruled the country for more than 300 years, ruthlessly
00:26crushing all competition to become the greatest English dynasty of all time, the Plantagenets.
00:41What I love about the Plantagenet story is that it's more shocking, more brutal, more
00:46astonishing than anything you'll find in fiction.
00:50I want to show you the Plantagenets as I see them, real, living, breathing people, driven
00:56by ambition, jealousy, hatred and revenge.
01:01These kings murdered, betrayed and tyrannised their way to spectacular success.
01:06For better and for worse, the Plantagenets forged England as a nation.
01:12This time, Edward II was the king most famous for the story of his agonising death.
01:19But the story of his life is even more extraordinary.
01:23One of obsession, bloodlust, political savagery and above all, revenge.
02:20Prince Edward, the 20-year-old heir to the throne, is near London as word of his father's
02:24death races south to meet him.
02:44This is the news that Prince Edward's been waiting for all his life.
02:48So the very first thing you'd expect him to do is to saddle up, ride north, claim his
02:53birthright and save his country, but he doesn't.
02:57In fact, the first thing he does is to issue orders for the recall of the most divisive
03:02man in the kingdom.
03:19Here's Gaveston, Edward's best friend and one of the finest knights around.
03:32But he's been banished to France by the old king for being a bad influence on the prince.
03:38Gaveston's insufferable arrogance and his hold over Edward mean he's hated by every
03:43noble in the land.
03:49Gaveston doesn't have much time for them either. He's famous for making up rude nicknames
03:53for them. He calls one Whoreson, another Burst Belly and a third the Black Dog.
03:59And of course, that just makes them hate him even more.
04:06Gaveston's return will clearly be nothing but trouble, but Edward can't see it.
04:10All he cares about is getting his mate back.
04:15Edward is the sort of guy who can only see one step ahead. He wants what he wants now,
04:21no matter what the cost.
04:24He's utterly incapable of seeing that all his actions have consequences, most of them
04:30bad ones.
04:32This blindness will ultimately lead both Edward and his kingdom to ruin.
04:40And disaster looms right from the start.
04:52Edward marries 12-year-old Isabella, daughter of the king of France, a match designed to
04:57shore up relations with the kingdom's biggest enemy.
05:03Their joint coronation should be a moment of triumph and unity.
05:09But it isn't.
05:14This is the Great Hall at the Palace of Westminster, where Edward and Isabella's coronation feast
05:18takes place.
05:20There's lavish decorations, fountains flowing with wine, but there's one problem.
05:25This looks less like a coronation feast for Edward and his queen, and more like a party
05:31for Edward and Gaveston.
05:36Edward and Isabella's coats of arms should be on the walls.
05:40Instead, it's Edward and Gaveston's.
05:44Worse, Gaveston's swans around in imperial purple, a colour only kings should wear.
05:51Worse still, the king and his friend talk to no one but each other throughout.
05:58Isabella is stoic, but the rest of the French nobles are so incensed they storm out.
06:07With them goes all the goodwill the marriage was designed to create.
06:15The English nobles are hacked off, too.
06:18Not least Edward's cousin, Thomas of Lancaster, the most powerful earl in England.
06:25Isabella hates Gaveston, and to him the whole event is an outrage.
06:32It's proof Edward can't see past his obsession with his friend to the far more important
06:37job of being king.
06:40And if Edward can't see it, then Lancaster's going to make him see it.
06:56Just three months later, at Edward's first parliament, Lancaster and a group of other
07:00leading nobles turn up, armed.
07:07Their message to Edward is simple. Gaveston must go.
07:13Edward responds by accusing them of treachery. He gets a chilling reply.
07:26It's an explicit threat. If you don't get rid of him, we'll get rid of you.
07:33But whatever Lancaster threatens him with, on Gaveston Edward won't budge.
07:41And Lancaster can't make him. Yet.
07:50But the battle lines have been drawn. The bitter hatred between Edward and his cousin
07:54and this fight over Gaveston will define the whole future of the kingdom, and bloody
08:00murder will now stalk England for the rest of Edward's reign.
08:25With Gaveston's help, Edward has very quickly run the country into the ground.
08:45The finances, security and political stability have all gone to the dogs.
08:52By 1310, Lancaster's patience is exhausted. He comes up with a plan to tear Edward and
08:58Gaveston apart.
09:05Lancaster's been conducting a whispering campaign against the king, using popular hatred of
09:09Gaveston to help sell his case. He claims that Gaveston's been lining his pockets at
09:15the king's expense. Now, annoying as Gaveston is, that's probably one of the few things
09:19he hasn't been doing. But the mud sticks, and by February 1310, Lancaster has a committed
09:25group of nobles ready to stand up to the king, and that allows him to do something extraordinary.
09:32And the evidence exists here, in the National Archives.
09:38He's going to crush Edward, and destroy Gaveston at the same time. These are the ordinances,
09:4541 articles which Lancaster claims will bring stability and reform to the kingdom. Sounds
09:52great, but taken as a whole, they actually do something very different. They strip Edward
09:58of pretty much all his powers as king. It's an unprecedented attack. The ordinances take
10:05away the king's right to impose taxation, raise armies, dispense justice and make law.
10:13All these rights will now rest with the nobles, and Lancaster will be far more powerful than
10:19the king. But even that's not enough for Lancaster, because this is personal, and there's a clause
10:27here that proves it. It's not to do with rights or laws. It's to do with Gaveston.
10:35This is it, clause 20. It's even got Gaveston's name beside it.
10:43It says he has malmené, misled, and malconseillé, ill-counseled,
10:48Nostre Seigneur le Roi, Our Lord the King. It orders his immediate exile.
10:56It also says that if Gaveston returns, he is to be treated as a traitor, and the penalty
11:03for traitors is death. So what does Edward do? He should fight Lancaster to protect his
11:11basic rights as king, but he doesn't. He seems perfectly happy to let his enemies strip away
11:17his right to make peace or war, to dispense justice, to collect taxation, so long as they
11:23drop clause 20 and leave his mate alone.
11:30But Lancaster has Edward over a barrel. If he doesn't agree to all the ordinances, then
11:37Lancaster and his new allies will go to war against him. The king has no choice. He turns
11:44his back on his friend. He accepts the ordinances, and Gaveston is banished, forever, on pain
11:52of death. It beggars belief that Edward would be willing to give up all his power just to
11:59save his friend. That's led people to suspect that Edward and Gaveston were more than just
12:05friends, that they were lovers, and that Edward's desire for Gaveston outweighed everything
12:12else. So is it true? Well, possibly. I don't think we'll ever really know what went on
12:20behind the closed doors of the royal bedchamber, but frankly, it didn't really matter. To the
12:26people of the time, Edward could have been bedding his priest, his pageboy, and his horse
12:31so long as he was governing the kingdom properly. To the nobles' minds, Gaveston stopped Edward
12:37from doing that, and that's why Gaveston had to go.
12:42Lancaster may think he's finally got the king under control, but he hasn't, because when
12:48it comes to Gaveston, Edward is literally a law unto himself. Just three months later,
12:55defying Lancaster and all sense, Edward calls Gaveston back, again. And if that wasn't crazy
13:06enough, what Edward does next is utter insanity. The king sends letters out across the country
13:15announcing Gaveston's return, and adding that he's overturning the ordinances, all of them.
13:23When Edward's letters read out in town squares like this, it does two things. First, it brings
13:29England to the brink of civil war, and second, it paints a pretty big target on Gaveston's
13:34back. So you'd be forgiven for thinking this is just the start of some much bigger plan,
13:39but you'd be wrong, because actually, this is the plan. Edward's just going to utter
13:46overturn the ordinances and see what happens. And that's Edward all over. He's so fixated
13:52on what he wants today, he simply can't see what's obviously going to happen next.
14:01Lancaster's response is no surprise to anyone, except the king. Gaveston is hunted down,
14:08and brought here to Warwick Castle, home of one of Lancaster's allies.
14:20The next day, he's hauled up in front of a court organised by Lancaster. It's composed
14:25entirely of nobles who detest him. Gaveston isn't even allowed to speak to the king,
14:31in his defence. It's a kangaroo court, pure and simple.
14:44Make no mistake, Lancaster's crossing a line here. He's trying Gaveston under Article 20
14:50of the ordinances, which make it impossible to get a word in.
14:56He's trying Gaveston under Article 20 of the ordinances, which make it very clear,
15:01if Gaveston comes back to England, he dies. Problem is, Edward's overturned the ordinances,
15:08so this court, held here at Warwick Castle, has about as much authority as a lynch mob.
15:16Piers Gaveston, best friend and trusted advisor to the king of England, is convicted of treason
15:23and sentenced to death. But however they want to dress it up, this isn't justice,
15:29it's political murder.
15:38On 19th June 1312, Lancaster's men march Piers Gaveston out of Warwick Castle,
15:44all the way to Blacklow Hill, for execution.
15:53This monument marks the lonely spot where Gaveston was killed.
16:04He's brought here because, unlike Warwick Castle, this land belongs to Lancaster,
16:09and he wants to send the king a message. He wants him to know who's doing this to him.
16:15This is personal.
16:22It's personal.
16:25Argh!
16:46When Edward hears about Gaveston's death, he goes half crazy with grief.
16:54First he blames Gaveston for getting caught, then, more reasonably, he blames Lancaster.
17:00Interestingly, the only person he doesn't blame is himself.
17:03But he's the one who brought Gaveston back again and again,
17:07despite being warned very clearly what would happen if he did.
17:11He's the one who put his friend in danger.
17:15He might not want to admit it, but the buck stops with him.
17:20Edward swears revenge on Lancaster.
17:24But with the ordinances reissued, and everyone against him,
17:28the king is in no position to revenge himself on anyone.
17:34And things are about to get even worse.
17:41Edward's been neglecting the never-ending war with Scotland.
17:46By 1314, it's reached crisis point.
17:49He has to march an army north immediately, or the war will be lost.
17:54Now, for Edward, this is actually an opportunity.
17:57Winning in Scotland could really help turn things around for him.
18:01But as ever, disaster is about to strike, and as ever, Edward can't see it coming.
18:16In the crucial battle that decides the war, Edward's army is massacred.
18:25And it's all Lancaster's fault.
18:31When Edward led his troops to Scotland,
18:33Lancaster was legally obliged to bring his forces to support him.
18:39The last thing Lancaster wants is to see Edward succeed.
18:43So when the time came to march north,
18:46Lancaster and his cronies simply didn't turn up.
18:50The king suffers a historic defeat.
18:54Most of his army are slaughtered.
18:57Edward is lucky to escape with his life.
19:00And there is now only one thing in his mind.
19:04He will do absolutely anything to get revenge on Lancaster.
19:17After Bannockburn, Edward is humiliated, financially ruined and friendless.
19:24He desperately needs strong new allies to help him.
19:28And here at Caerphilly Castle, in the wild west of medieval Britain,
19:32is where he finds them.
19:37They're called the Dispensers.
19:44This castle tells you everything you need to know about the Dispensers.
19:48In a place where their neighbours are constantly at war over money and power,
19:53the Dispensers have the biggest, baddest castle of them all.
20:02There are two of them, both called Hugh.
20:05Dad is a long-time supporter of Edward,
20:07but it's his son who's the driving force.
20:13Hugh Dispenser Jr is as ruthless as he is ambitious.
20:17He's not afraid to take on anyone,
20:20and he's got the brains and muscle to back it up.
20:25The Dispensers help Edward drag himself out of the mire,
20:29restoring the royal finances and getting the country up and running again.
20:38In return, they get to do whatever the hell they like.
20:41As soon as they've gained the king's confidence,
20:44the Dispensers start snatching things for themselves.
20:48Over the next three years,
20:50they grab territory after territory in the Welsh borders,
20:54trampling on anyone who gets in their way.
20:57Edward must realise the Dispensers are massively destabilising
21:01the balance of power in the kingdom,
21:03and it must be obvious they're only out for themselves.
21:06But I think as long as they ultimately serve up revenge on Lancaster,
21:09he doesn't care who they upset in the process.
21:12He can't see how the effects of the Dispensers' Welsh power grab
21:16could possibly turn out badly for him.
21:21But it does, because Edward backing the Dispensers
21:25creates a new and very dangerous enemy.
21:31Roger Mortimer, one of the most powerful barons in the kingdom.
21:36Up to this point, he's actually been on Edward's side.
21:40But when the Dispensers grab a chunk of his turf and the king does nothing,
21:45Mortimer turns on him
21:48and leads a popular uprising against the Dispensers and the king.
22:01Mortimer's men kick the Dispensers out of Wales.
22:06Then they march on London.
22:16Mortimer demands that the Dispensers are banished,
22:20and that puts Edward in a hopeless position.
22:23The king cannot be seen to back down, so he has to refuse.
22:28But with Mortimer's army ready to sack London,
22:31his refusal could easily get him killed.
22:36Salvation comes from an unlikely source.
22:46No longer a helpless child, 25-year-old Queen Isabella
22:50falls to her knees in front of the court
22:53and begs Edward to reconsider for her sake.
22:57So, just as Mortimer demanded, Edward banishes the Dispensers,
23:01but, crucially, he's able to claim he's doing it for his queen.
23:06She's given her husband a face-saving way out of a no-win situation.
23:12And it finally spurs him into action.
23:29With Isabella by his side,
23:31the king is finally going to take the fight to his enemies.
23:41END OF THE FIRST EPISODE
23:43THIRD EPISODE
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24:11THIRD EPISODE
24:13In October 1321, Queen Isabella makes a surprise stop here at Leeds Castle in Kent,
24:19seeking shelter on her way to Canterbury.
24:24Leeds Castle is the stronghold of Bartholomew Battlesmere,
24:28one of Mortimer's most prominent allies.
24:33Unsurprisingly, when she gets to these gates, Battlesmere's men refuse to let her in.
24:38Isabella insists, it turns nasty, and in the melee that follows, six of her people are killed.
24:44Now, clearly, Isabella's got a core of steel,
24:47but why would she come to this castle, owned by one of her husband's enemies?
24:52Well, in reality, this is just a pretext.
24:55Isabella's putting her life on the line to give her husband an excuse to start a fight.
25:02Just days later, Edward turns up with an army and siege engines,
25:07and Leeds Castle surrenders.
25:12Edward and Isabella look on as 13 of Battlesmere's defenders are executed for resisting.
25:19Watching with them are the Dispensers, Edward's ruthless enforcers,
25:23brought back from exile to manage his campaign.
25:26Because this is just the start.
25:29For the first time in his entire life, Edward has a well-thought-out strategic plan.
25:35With the Dispensers secretly recalled, and Isabella by his side,
25:39he's going to pick off his enemies, and he's going to take over the castle.
25:43With the Dispensers secretly recalled, and Isabella by his side,
25:47he's going to pick off his enemies, one by one.
25:50First Battlesmere, then Mortimer, and finally the real prize, Lancaster.
25:59Edward heads to Wales, picking off Mortimer's allies on the way.
26:05The offensive catches Mortimer off guard.
26:08Edward quickly captures him and bangs him up in the Tower of London.
26:14The momentum is now with the king,
26:17but Lancaster has a big army and powerful allies in the north.
26:21He'll be a much tougher proposition to take down.
26:25Then something extraordinary happens that absolutely no-one saw coming.
26:32One of Edward's supporters, the Archbishop of York,
26:35receives a series of damning letters, and they're here, copied into the government archives.
26:41The letters are between two Scottish ministers.
26:44Here you can see the name of one of them, Sir James Douglas.
26:47And they refer to an agreement with an English noble who's named as King Arthur.
26:54But what he's doing is guaranteeing he won't support any English invasion of Scotland.
26:59There's only one person that King Arthur could be,
27:03the king's cousin, Thomas of Lancaster.
27:10So this is a smoking gun.
27:12It's proof that Lancaster's been colluding with the enemy.
27:16And that is treason.
27:19Ever since Bannockburn, Edward suspected that Lancaster is in bed with the Scots.
27:24Now he can prove it.
27:30The king immediately publishes the Lancaster letters,
27:33then marches his army north.
27:37As Edward approaches, Lancaster's support melts away.
27:41No-one wants to back a traitor.
27:44The earl is captured, fleeing for his life.
27:53This is what remains of Lancaster's favourite castle, Pontefract.
27:57And it's here that he's brought in chains to face Edward.
28:07In a bitter irony, Edward locks him up in a tower that Lancaster had himself built
28:13specifically in anticipation of imprisoning the king.
28:19The next day, Lancaster's hauled from his tower to face the court.
28:23Now this is the king's big chance to restore the rule of law to England
28:27by giving his cousin a fair trial.
28:30After all, the evidence is overwhelming.
28:34Lancaster has committed treason, and he would be found guilty.
28:38But as ever, this is personal.
28:40Edward's not interested in justice.
28:43He wants what he's always wanted, revenge.
28:49Lancaster is tried by a jury of his enemies.
28:52No defence, no right to speak, and sentenced to death.
28:57Amen.
28:59Judicial murder.
29:01This is exactly what he did to Gaveston.
29:10It takes three blows of the sword to kill Lancaster.
29:17As the last blow lands on Lancaster's neck,
29:20Edward finally has his revenge on the man who killed his friend.
29:24But at what price?
29:26The king of England has committed the political murder
29:29of his dear Earl, his first cousin,
29:32a man with plantagenet royal blood in his veins.
29:35Pandora's box is open, and no-one is safe.
29:43On the day of Lancaster's execution,
29:45six of his supporters follow him to the gallows.
29:49Another three are executed the next day.
29:53In the months that follow, the executions continue.
29:56No more, no evidence, just the word of the king.
30:00117 rebels have their lands confiscated,
30:03and at least 15 others join Roger Mortimer in the Tower.
30:07It must look to the whole kingdom like Edward's bloodlust is insatiable,
30:12but in reality, behind the scenes, the Dispensers are pulling the strings.
30:16It's payback time for the humiliation of their exile.
30:21Edward makes Hugh Dispenser Jr. Chamberlain of the royal household,
30:25giving the Dispensers complete control of the machinery of government
30:29and the country's finances.
30:35Soon, all access to Edward has to go through them.
30:45The Dispenser regime makes them hated right across the kingdom.
30:50But the Dispensers don't care.
30:52The king is now their puppet, and they're not done yet.
30:58Two years later, in autumn 1324, war breaks out with France,
31:03and the Dispensers get an opportunity to move on the one person
31:07who could still interfere with their control of the king, Queen Isabella.
31:13The king of France is Isabella's brother.
31:16Technically, she's an enemy alien, and that's how the Dispensers treat her.
31:22On national security grounds, they purge her household of French people,
31:27confiscate her lands...
31:32..and her younger children are ripped from her to be looked after by Dispenser's wife.
31:41Edward does nothing to help her.
31:47Imagine how Isabella must feel.
31:49She's put up with the humiliation of Gaveston.
31:52When Edward went after Lancaster, she was right behind him.
31:55She even put her own life on the line at Leeds Castle.
31:58She's done everything Edward could have asked of a queen, and more,
32:02and this is her reward.
32:08Edward can't know it, but this is the beginning of the end for Isabella.
32:14Six months later, Edward and the Dispensers are here in Dover.
32:19The war with France is going disastrously wrong.
32:22The king has no choice but to turn to his wife for help.
32:26He sends Isabella to France to negotiate a truce with her brother, King Charles.
32:33When Isabella's brother, King Charles, arrives in Dover,
32:36she's left in the hands of the Dispensers.
32:40When Isabella sails for France,
32:42she does so knowing the Dispensers have her children,
32:45and that's why they're pretty confident she'll have to behave.
32:48But they've massively underestimated her,
32:50because this is a woman who will one day become known as the She-Wolf,
32:54and Edward and the Dispensers are about to find out why.
33:03In France, Isabella's influence with her brother does the trick.
33:07She gets him to agree to a treaty.
33:10But there's a catch.
33:11The French king demands that Edward comes to France to seal the deal.
33:19Edward going to France is something the Dispensers simply can't allow.
33:23Their control over the country depends on having the king in their clutches.
33:27Without him, the whole thing could unravel.
33:30In desperation, the Dispensers persuade Edward to send a message
33:34claiming to be ill,
33:35so they must be delighted when the reply comes back, expressing sympathy,
33:39and saying that, under the circumstances,
33:41the French king would be happy to accept the homage of Edward's son,
33:45the 12-year-old Prince Edward, instead.
33:48Sounds reasonable?
33:55So Edward sends the heir to the throne to France,
33:58along with a message telling Isabella that she's going to be killed.
34:03It's a massive miscalculation.
34:09With Prince Edward safely by her side in Paris,
34:12here at the French court in the conciergerie,
34:15Isabella makes her move, and it's extraordinary.
34:33SHE SPEAKS FRENCH
34:50As far as Isabella is concerned, until the Dispensers are gone,
34:54her husband is as good as dead.
34:58Neither the king nor the Dispensers
35:00had appreciated the danger of losing control of both the queen
35:04and the heir to the throne,
35:06but with Isabella declared against them,
35:08she quickly becomes the focus for opposition.
35:11Edward and Hugh might have thought that by snatching her children,
35:15they could force her to toe the line,
35:17but they've no idea who they're dealing with.
35:20Isabella's opposition doesn't stop at speeches.
35:24A month later, she's wearing her black robes of mourning
35:29when she meets a rich, powerful and charismatic man
35:34who's just escaped from the Tower of London.
35:37Roger Mortimer, her husband's bitterest enemy.
35:44The attraction is that he's a man of his word.
35:48Within weeks, they're lovers.
35:51Even Paris is shocked.
35:57Isabella, the she-wolf, and Roger Mortimer,
36:01sworn enemy of the king.
36:03For Edward II, they are a very dangerous combination.
36:08For Edward II, they are a very dangerous combination.
36:39In the autumn of 1326, Isabella and Mortimer head back to England
36:45with one simple aim, regime change.
36:50D-Day, September 24th, 1326,
36:54and even with Mortimer by her side, for Isabella, this is a hell of a gamble.
36:58I mean, let's face it, she's an adulterous foreign queen
37:02with an escaped convict lover,
37:04backed by a handful of men closer in number to a moderate house party
37:08than a proper invasion force.
37:10This has all the hallmarks of a suicide mission.
37:17But Isabella and Mortimer have called it right.
37:24Popular hatred of the dispensers and the king is so deep and so widespread
37:29that as his wife and her lover ride through the shires,
37:32supporters flock to their side.
37:35In less than a month, the queen takes the country.
37:39The king is forced to flee for his life.
37:45Edward's running out of options fast.
37:47He's supposed to be the anointed king of England,
37:50but now he's reduced to a man on the run.
37:56His only remaining supporter is a man who, if it's possible,
37:59is hated even more than he is.
38:01It's said he tried to get a message to Isabella.
38:04If only they could talk, maybe they could smooth things over.
38:09The time for talking is long gone, but as usual, Edward can't see it.
38:18Edward and Hugh are captured,
38:20running scared on a forest path in the Welsh mountains.
38:24Argh!
38:30Isabella bangs Edward up in Kenilworth Castle.
38:34She hasn't decided what to do with him yet.
38:39But she's got big plans for Hugh Dispenser.
38:43Dispenser Senior has already been buried,
38:46but he's not going anywhere.
38:48She's got big plans for Hugh Dispenser.
38:52Dispenser Senior has already been beheaded and fed to the dogs.
38:57And he's the lucky one.
39:02When Hugh the Younger arrives here in Hereford
39:05and sees a 50-foot gallows being erected over the town,
39:08he probably begins to suspect the trial he's about to receive
39:11isn't going to be entirely fair.
39:14And he's right. Like Gaveston and Lancaster before him,
39:18he's not allowed to speak in his own defence,
39:20and he's tried by people who hate him.
39:23And the sentence he receives is so spectacularly vicious and inhuman,
39:28he actually tries to starve himself to death just to avoid it.
39:37In front of a huge crowd,
39:39Dispenser is hung almost to the point of death.
39:44But he's not getting off that lightly,
39:46because Isabella has a point to prove.
39:50This is a very personal execution and a very public statement.
39:57Isabella has a ringside seat
39:59as Dispenser is strapped to a ladder for the next part of his ordeal.
40:03The Queen wants everyone to know
40:05that Dispenser has come between her and her husband.
40:09He's damaged her marriage, and this is her revenge.
40:19Dispenser's genitals are cut off...
40:28..and burned in front of her.
40:31..and burned in front of him.
40:37Incredibly, Isabella is eating as she watches it happen.
40:42Even more incredibly, throughout all of this,
40:45Hugh Dispenser never makes a sound.
40:49But Isabella isn't done.
40:51Dispenser's entrails are pulled out and shunted.
40:56Then he screams.
41:01Finally, almost mercifully, he's beheaded.
41:06Murderous personal vindictiveness
41:09has become the defining characteristic of Edward II's reign.
41:13The only person who could have stopped it was Edward.
41:16Instead, he embraced it.
41:19Now it's coming for him.
41:30Edward, who's being held here at Kenilworth Castle,
41:34is Isabella and Mortimer's last remaining problem.
41:39He may be a defeated tyrant,
41:41but he's still the rightful King of England, anointed by God.
41:45On the other hand, they've been so blatant about their adultery,
41:49they can hardly just give him his crown back.
41:52So Edward's wife and her lover have him declared incorrigible,
41:56and he's deposed by act of Parliament.
42:01Once King of England, he's now just plain Edward of Carnarvon,
42:05the place of his birth.
42:10For the first time since the Dark Ages,
42:12a reigning monarch has been forced from the throne.
42:15England has a new king, Edward III,
42:18but it's Isabella as regent who's really snatched the crown.
42:21The she-wolf has earned her name.
42:31This is Barclay Castle in Gloucestershire,
42:34and it's here the endgame is played out.
42:39Whilst he's still alive, the king remains a threat.
42:45There have already been three attempts to spring him from prison
42:49and restore him to power.
42:52In truth, he's been a dead man walking since his wife snatched the throne.
43:00Publicly, it will be claimed that Edward has died of natural causes,
43:05but as news of his death spreads, suspicion of murder grows.
43:10The story we're told is that he's tortured and murdered
43:14by having a red-hot poker inserted via a trumpet device placed in his rectum.
43:25Even after his death,
43:28even after everything Edward had done,
43:31how could a king be tortured and killed in such a horrific fashion?
43:35The answer, of course, he wasn't.
43:48This is the room where Edward II was murdered,
43:51not killed with a poker, but most probably smothered in his bed.
43:58The poker story only came about about 60 years after Edward was killed,
44:03but it's become the standard version,
44:05and that's because the idea of a humiliated, emasculated,
44:09possibly homosexual king being buggered to death
44:13is too good a story to be troubled by the truth.
44:17Next time, the Plantagenet story reaches its catastrophic climax
44:23as Richard II, the boy king who crushed the Peasants' Revolt,
44:27turns monstrous tyrant,
44:29and Henry Bolingbroke rises up to bring the whole dynasty crashing down.
44:39Hold on tight, Henry.
44:42Hold on tightly for some extreme driving,
44:45a standard Tomorrow At Eight with new series Ice Road Truckers.
44:49Next on Channel 5, does the movie match the facts?
44:52Find out in Braveheart, the true story.