0:03

Desperate yells and

0:05

the crash of buildings collapsing filter

0:08

through the thick walls of the castle keep

0:11

at Mirabeau. The small

0:13

party barricaded inside look

0:15

at each other, worry etched

0:17

on their faces. They strain

0:20

to hear anything which might give a clue

0:22

as to exactly which bit of the town

0:24

outside has fallen now. A clatter

0:29

of wooden poles and a squeals

0:31

of confused animals. That

0:33

must be the marketplace. The

0:36

rumble of collapsing masonry. That'll

0:39

be one of the stone defensive walls that

0:41

hadn't been repaired properly for years. The

0:45

terrified snorts and screams of

0:47

horses. The stables have

0:49

been broken open. The

0:53

army rampaging through the town isn't

0:55

far away now. It won't

0:57

be long before the keep, the one truly

1:00

secure bit of Mirabeau Castle, is

1:02

surrounded

1:03

and cut off. And that

1:06

makes one sound more important

1:08

than all the rest.

1:10

A frantic, quiet scratching

1:12

coming from the corner of the room. At

1:17

a desk, a clerk is moving

1:19

his quill as fast as he can across

1:21

slips of parchment.

1:23

He's writing SOS letters. His

1:26

hands are shaking and there are black ink

1:29

flecks on his face, but

1:30

he finishes his work. Two

1:35

letters are sealed and handed over to

1:37

the riders who hurtle down the stone

1:39

stairs of the castle, leap onto horses

1:42

and gallop off through the streets, dodging

1:44

the attacking army.

1:47

They make it. They get away.

1:51

Hang on, you might be thinking. If

1:53

riding away is that easy, why

1:56

don't they all do it? Well,

1:59

they can't. Or

2:01

at least the most important person in

2:03

there can't. Elinor

2:06

of Aquitaine Elinor

2:12

is almost eighty years old. Once

2:15

upon a time she would have had no qualms

2:17

about hopping into the saddle and charging

2:20

off, leaving her enemies in her dust.

2:23

Those days are long gone. She's

2:27

supposed to be in retirement, living

2:30

out the peaceful last few years of

2:32

her life at the beautiful Abbey in Fontevro.

2:36

That's where her second husband, the legendary

2:38

Plantagenet King Henry II, is

2:40

buried, along with her favourite son,

2:43

Richard the Lionheart. Yet

2:47

today, on July 30th, 1202,

2:50

she's not at Fontevro at all, but

2:52

in the middle of a siege, brought

2:55

up in a war that has yet again pitted

2:57

one member of the Plantagenet family against

3:00

another. This

3:02

time, Elinor's youngest son

3:04

John, King of England and Lord

3:06

of the Plantagenet Empire, is butting

3:09

heads with a coalition of enemies

3:11

led by Elinor's grandson, the

3:14

teenage Arthur, Duke of Brittany.

3:18

Arthur's forces have been threatening Aquitaine,

3:21

which is why Elinor is on the road in

3:23

the first place, she's trying to get

3:26

from Fontevro to Poitiers, the

3:28

capital of the Duchy, to hold it

3:30

safe for John.

3:32

But Arthur's troops have been much too

3:35

fast for her. They've been

3:37

closing in on her and her attendants

3:40

at such a rate that she's had to dive

3:42

for cover in Mirabeau Castle. Unfortunately,

3:47

Elinor and her attendants will only

3:49

be safe in the keep for a short

3:51

time. They're in no shape

3:54

to wait out a long siege. They

3:56

can hold up here for days at most, maybe

3:59

only a- few dozen hours. Ellen

4:03

has been in plenty of scrapes over the years,

4:05

but even by her standards, this

4:08

is a bad one. As

4:10

usual, we don't know exactly what

4:12

Ellen is thinking or feeling at this

4:14

moment. Is it genuine

4:17

fear? A weary sense of,

4:19

here we go again? Is

4:21

she making a mental note to give

4:23

Arthur a clip around the ear and tell

4:25

him he's definitely not getting a £10

4:28

note inside his Christmas card this year?

4:31

We don't know. But

4:34

there's one thing I do feel

4:36

confident about speculating. Eleanor

4:40

has almost certainly given up all

4:42

hope of being rescued. There's

4:45

no chance of help coming from Fontevro, it's

4:48

a dual monastery of monks and nuns. Poitiers

4:52

is too far and her son John

4:54

is 80 miles away in Le Mans.

4:58

It looks like Ellen's luck has finally

5:01

run out. And

5:04

yet, when it comes to the Plantagenets,

5:08

there's always another twist in

5:10

the tale.

5:14

I'm Dan Jones and from Sony

5:16

Music Entertainment, this is History.

5:19

A dynasty to die for, season 3. Episode 2,

5:24

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7:07

Arthur of Brittany, the

7:09

15-year-old whose forces have Eleanor trapped

7:11

in Mirabou Keep, is a plantagenet

7:14

golden boy. He's the only

7:16

son of John's elder brother Jeffrey, who

7:18

died before he was even born. The

7:21

people of Brittany worship the ground

7:23

he walks on. To them he's

7:25

destined to grow up and become as mighty

7:27

a king as his legendary namesake

7:29

with the round table and the sword

7:32

in the stone. So why

7:34

is Arthur now attacking granny dearest?

7:38

Well it's because, and

7:40

get used to hearing this, John

7:42

did something stupid.

7:47

Last episode we heard about the Treaty

7:49

of Legule, where Philip Augustus

7:51

ran diplomatic rings around John,

7:54

getting him to agree to a deal recognising

7:57

Philip as the ultimate feudal boss

7:59

of Western Europe. Europe, and making

8:02

John pay for the privilege of

8:04

essentially licking his boots. That

8:07

earned John the nickname Soft Sword.

8:11

It also made it damn near certain that

8:14

if Phillips saw the faintest glimmer

8:16

of an opportunity, he would use the

8:18

Legule Treaty to beat John

8:20

over the head. So

8:23

what does John do? Well,

8:26

almost immediately after Legule

8:28

is agreed in the early summer of 1200, he

8:32

gives Phillip a lot more than a

8:34

glimmer. He presents him with

8:36

an open goal. It

8:39

starts when John gets married. Now,

8:43

wait a second, you might be thinking, isn't

8:46

John already married? You'd

8:49

be right. He actually got hitched

8:51

in 1189, right at the start

8:53

of his brother Richard's reign, to a fabulously

8:56

wealthy heiress called Isabel of Gloucester.

9:00

What's more, Isabel of Gloucester

9:02

is still very much alive. But

9:06

John has taken a somewhat fluid

9:08

view of his obligations towards her.

9:11

As soon as he becomes king, he decides

9:13

he wants another crack at a wedding, and

9:16

has a panel of bishops cancel his existing

9:19

marriage on the grounds that he and Isabel

9:21

are cousins, and should never have been allowed

9:23

to marry in the first place. It's

9:26

a classic kingly excuse for

9:28

switching wives.

9:34

Then John sets his sights on a new

9:36

Isabel, or rather an

9:39

Isabella. This

9:41

one is also a wealthy heiress that

9:43

kind of goes without saying. She's

9:46

called Isabel of Angoulême, and

9:49

her strategically valuable lands

9:51

are way down in Aquitaine. Nothing

9:54

about this is very romantic, but

9:56

nor is it totally crazy in theory.

10:00

Until you consider that Isabella

10:02

of Angoulem is engaged

10:05

to someone else.

10:06

And

10:07

she's 12.

10:10

Now, we're rightly disgusted

10:12

every time we come across something like

10:14

this in our story. John is

10:16

a 32-year-old man, marrying

10:19

a child. But again,

10:21

it's not totally out of the ordinary in

10:23

the medieval marriage market. What's

10:26

far less okay, by their standards,

10:29

is that in order for John to get hold

10:31

of this new wife, he has to basically

10:34

abduct the girl from under the nose

10:36

of her current fiancée. In 1200,

10:41

once the annulment of his first marriage

10:43

has come through, John heads down

10:45

to Angoulem and tells young Isabella's

10:47

family that their daughter is trading up.

10:51

She was due to marry a guy called Hugh

10:53

of Lusignan. That match

10:55

was going to make peace between their respective

10:57

families, who've been beefing for

11:00

generations. Now,

11:03

she's going to be Queen of England

11:05

instead. And

11:07

before you can say, Hold on, isn't

11:09

this actually going to unite the two warring families

11:11

of Angoulem and Lusignan against John and send

11:14

them running to the King of France to complain? John

11:16

has gone and married young Isabella. Which

11:19

is great, for about 5

11:22

milliseconds. And then, well,

11:25

the families of Angoulem and Lusignan unite

11:27

against him and...

11:29

Yeah.

11:31

By going through with the theft of Isabella, John

11:34

probably thought he was going to gain more

11:36

control over Aquitaine.

11:39

Instead, Aquitaine explodes

11:41

into rebellion.

11:43

Philip Augustus commands John to

11:45

come to his court in Paris and face the music. Philip

11:50

has every right to do this under the

11:52

terms of the Treaty of Legule.

11:54

Then, when John refuses,

11:58

Philip declares that he is no longer a the

12:00

ruler of the Plantagenet lands in France,

12:03

and that Arthur of Brittany ought to

12:05

take them over. Hey

12:07

presto, within a few months of

12:09

agreeing a fantastic peace treaty

12:12

with Philip, John has managed

12:14

to turn everyone against him, and

12:16

incite a full-blown war backed

12:19

by the French crown and led by

12:21

Arthur, with Isabella's furious

12:23

fiancée Hugh of Lucignan at his

12:26

side. That's

12:28

how we arrived back at Mirabeau, where

12:31

this episode began, with

12:33

the Plantagenet Empire a whisker

12:35

away from falling to Arthur and

12:37

John's mum, Eleanor, besieged

12:40

in Mirabeau castle. At

12:43

dawn on the 1st of August, the

12:45

people hiding in the keep are almost

12:48

certainly contemplating surrender to

12:50

Arthur. Sooner or

12:52

later, probably today, they'll

12:54

have to accept that the lad is going to take

12:57

Eleanor prisoner, march into Poitiers

12:59

with her at his side, and proclaim himself

13:02

the rightful Lord. We can

13:04

only imagine the mood of fear and desperation

13:07

among Eleanor's party as they listen

13:10

to the army systematically dismantling

13:12

the town outside. But

13:15

that army is about to suffer a

13:17

very nasty shock.

13:21

As first light breaks, there comes a rumbling

13:23

of hooves from the north, a

13:26

rumbling that becomes a thundering. Then,

13:31

interview comes a huge heavily

13:34

armed body of knights and mercenaries, their

13:36

whooping and howling as they barrel

13:39

towards Arthur's troops.

13:43

The cavalry has arrived, the

13:45

tables are turned. Now

13:48

Arthur's men panic as this new

13:50

force surrounds them, and

13:53

they're given two options. Surrender

13:57

or die.

14:00

So who is it that's ridden to the rescue? I

14:03

can hardly believe I'm about to say this.

14:06

I reckon Arthur can hardly believe it. And

14:09

even Eleanor, proud matriarch

14:11

that she is, well if she's honest,

14:14

I think she can hardly believe it either.

14:17

The man at the head of this relieving army,

14:20

who's ridden non-stop day and night,

14:22

covering 80 miles in less than 48

14:24

hours, is... John. Last

14:34

episode, I may have given you the impression

14:36

that John was somewhat less than great

14:38

king material, especially

14:41

when compared with his father, old Henry,

14:44

and brother, Richard the Lionheart.

14:47

I still stand by that. But

14:49

I'm also in favour of giving credit

14:51

where it's due. And there's no doubt

14:54

that in late July 1202, John

14:56

pulls off an incredible manoeuvre,

14:59

which any member of the Plantagenet dynasty

15:02

would have been proud of. Obviously,

15:05

it's a testament to just how much respect

15:08

Eleanor still inspires in her family, that

15:10

her grandson Arthur sees her as

15:13

the political key to unlock Aquitaine,

15:16

and that John would bust his tail

15:18

to come to her rescue. But

15:21

props to John too. In

15:23

racing down to Mirabeau to rescue his

15:25

mum from his nephew, he doesn't

15:27

just save the day. He saves

15:30

his empire. He shows that

15:32

when the heat is on, he can handle

15:34

it. Having said all

15:37

that, though, Mirabeau is something

15:39

of a hollow triumph for John. For

15:42

one thing, he really shouldn't have had

15:44

to resort to these last-minute

15:46

heroics in the first place. Eleanor

15:49

was only in that situation because

15:52

of a whole series of gaffes and

15:55

unforced errors that John made

15:57

himself. By

16:00

stealing Isabella so blatantly,

16:03

he rubbed some powerful people up

16:05

the wrong way, and then was

16:07

caught flat-footed when his bad

16:09

behavior blew back on him. And

16:12

then there's what he does after the victory.

16:16

Because the way he mistreated Isabella

16:19

and Hugh of Lusinjian is nothing

16:21

compared with what comes next.

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17:05

The prisoners being marched away from Mirabou

17:08

rattle as they move. They're

17:10

fettered in irons, their chains

17:12

clinking with every jolt and

17:14

rut in the road. It's a

17:16

pitiful sight, but John loves

17:19

it. He parades them 250 miles

17:21

north from Mirabou all

17:24

the way to Normandy. He writes

17:27

gleeful letters to his English nobles,

17:30

telling them he's captured 200 knights,

17:33

literally all of the leading rebels

17:35

in his cluckers, including his

17:37

nephew, Arthur of Brittany himself.

17:41

Even the famously chivalrous William Marshall

17:44

can't help gloating. He

17:46

writes to the Lusinjian family to tell

17:48

them that this should teach them a lesson about

17:51

what happens to troublemakers. Marshall

17:55

is very much on message, because

17:58

John has decided to make a... an example

18:00

of the rebels. Arthur

18:03

is sent off to be imprisoned in a succession

18:05

of castles ending up in the Norman

18:08

capital of Rouen. Hugh

18:10

of Lusignan is locked up in Caen,

18:13

and about 25 others are put on

18:16

ships and sent to the dungeons of Corfe

18:18

Castle in Dorset. This

18:21

isn't some light touch house arrest

18:23

either. It's heavy chains, no

18:26

visitors, maximum security,

18:29

bread and water if you're lucky. John

18:32

wants his enemies to suffer, physically

18:35

and emotionally. He's got

18:37

a real cruel streak, and

18:39

I suppose the Freudians among you might

18:41

think that's no real surprise considering

18:44

that when he was five years old his dad

18:46

locked his mum in prison for 15 years. Security

18:51

by itself isn't a problematic trait

18:54

for a ruler in the middle ages, indeed

18:56

in any age of history. What

18:59

is a problem is cruelty combined

19:01

with incompetence. Had

19:04

John put his prisoners under lock and key,

19:07

then used that fact to negotiate

19:09

peace with all their families and

19:11

Philip Augustus, he'd have done very

19:14

well. He doesn't

19:16

do that. Instead, he

19:18

manages to engineer a completely

19:21

different crisis. It

19:24

starts in the immediate aftermath

19:26

of Mirabeau, with the two guys

19:29

who are at his side and personally

19:31

captured Arthur, Hugh and the

19:33

rest. They're called William

19:35

de Roche and William de Brouz.

19:39

When they hand Arthur over to John, William

19:42

de Roche asks respectfully if

19:44

he might have the honour of deciding where

19:47

and in what conditions Arthur is held.

19:51

Yet as soon as John has Arthur in

19:53

his grasp, he completely

19:55

ghosts de Roche.

19:57

That may well be his prerogative as

19:59

King and Lord, but

20:02

in every other sense it's just plain

20:04

dumb. Garrosh takes

20:07

massive offence and, a

20:09

few months later, he rebels against

20:11

John. John confiscates his

20:13

lands and all of a sudden another

20:16

armed conflict blows up on the borders

20:18

of Aquitaine. Facing

20:21

this new threat, John tries

20:23

to make nice with the Lucienians and

20:25

get them back on side by releasing

20:27

Hugh. But this just makes

20:29

the situation even more unstable. Aquitaine

20:33

was briefly saved. Now,

20:36

once again, it's on the brink. Then

20:42

things really start getting ugly.

20:45

In Corth Castle, the prisoners John

20:47

sent there try to break out. They

20:50

manage to overpower their guards and

20:53

take control of the castle's central

20:55

tower. In response, John's

20:58

troops surround the tower and blockade

21:00

it. No food

21:03

is allowed in and no one

21:05

is allowed out. Over

21:07

the course of a few weeks, almost all

21:10

the prisoners starve to death. Even

21:13

by medieval standards, that's a

21:15

horrific thing to do. It

21:18

wins John no friends among the relatives

21:20

of the prisoners and what little

21:22

reputation he has left as an honourable

21:24

man is shredded. With

21:28

Arthur of Brittany, things are a bit more

21:30

complicated. If John

21:33

kills his nephew, he's going to be

21:35

in trouble. Arthur was once

21:37

Richard's official heir and he

21:39

has a huge following. But

21:42

this same influential power base

21:45

means he'll always be a danger to

21:47

John, so releasing him

21:49

is out of the question. The

21:52

sensible thing to do would be to send

21:54

Arthur to an isolated prison

21:56

in England. Treat him

21:58

well enough. and make sure he can't

22:01

stir up any more trouble. But

22:04

that's not what happened. After

22:07

only a year, in 1203, Arthur disappears. At

22:12

least, that's the official story.

22:15

Over the years that follow, dozens of theories

22:18

about what really happened to him will

22:20

be proposed. Some

22:23

say he starved, others that

22:25

he caught a disease and died, but

22:28

the one that seems most likely to me, the

22:30

one based on the most informed sources

22:33

and which fits other events most logically,

22:36

is this.

22:38

John is seriously angry

22:40

with his nephew, not just politically

22:42

inconvenienced, but personally hurt.

22:45

Over the months that he has Arthur

22:47

in prison, he seems to convince himself

22:50

that as long as the young pretender

22:52

is around, he'll have no peace.

22:56

In early 1203, John orders

22:58

one of his advisors, named Hubert

23:00

de Bourgh, to have Arthur blinded

23:03

and castrated. There

23:06

are some parts of the medieval world where

23:08

no one would have batted an eyelid at this. It

23:11

isn't quite the done thing in Normandy,

23:13

though, and Hubert can't bring

23:15

himself to do it. He spares

23:18

Arthur and just puts the word out

23:20

that the boy has died, figuring

23:22

that John won't care too much either way, and

23:25

that once the people of Brittany think their hero is

23:27

toast, they'll chill out a bit and

23:30

get in line. No

23:32

such luck. The Bretons

23:35

hear the rumour and convene a special

23:37

assembly to denounce John as a murderer.

23:40

They're madder than ever, and it seems

23:43

unlikely that any plantagenet will

23:45

ever be able to set foot in the duchy again

23:47

without being instantly lynched. So

23:51

what does John do now? The

23:53

best place source we have for what happens

23:56

next is a chronicle compiled

23:58

in Margam Abbey in Wales. That's

24:01

a long way from Rouon, but the

24:03

Chronicle has a very good source.

24:06

William de Bruz, one of the Williams

24:09

I mentioned earlier, who helped catch

24:11

Arthur and is one of John's closest

24:13

henchmen.

24:14

After John had captured Arthur and

24:16

kept him alive in prison for some time,

24:19

after dinner on the Thursday before Easter,

24:22

when he was drunk and possessed by

24:24

the devil, he flew him with

24:26

his own hand, tied a heavy

24:29

stone to the body, and cast it

24:31

into the river Seine. It

24:33

was discovered by a fisherman in his net,

24:35

and taken for secret burial for

24:38

fear of the tyrant, in the Priory

24:41

at Beck. I

24:43

know. Wow! If

24:46

this Chronicle is right, and,

24:48

as we will see, there are many good

24:50

reasons to believe it is, John

24:53

personally murdered Arthur

24:56

in a drunken rage. That's

24:59

not the normal cut and thrust of 13th

25:01

century politics. It's completely

25:04

and utterly psycho. We

25:07

know the Plantagenets are a dysfunctional family.

25:10

We've seen them fight each other and put

25:12

each other in prison, but no

25:15

one has gone so far as to kill

25:17

a family member. But

25:19

that's John for you. He doesn't

25:21

do things by halves. He's

25:23

cruel, vengeful, and ruthless,

25:26

and he's prepared to suffer the consequences

25:29

of actions most other people would consider

25:31

far beyond the pale.

25:34

Which is just as well, because although

25:36

John is never formally charged

25:38

with Arthur's murder, once

25:41

it becomes known that the boy is gone, and

25:44

isn't coming back, his reign

25:46

is plunged into a crisis worse

25:48

than anything that's come before. We'll

26:01

find out in the next episode

26:04

of This is History.