0:00:06 > 0:00:10It's hard to imagine today that there was ever a time
0:00:10 > 0:00:15when England and France were more than two separate countries.
0:00:15 > 0:00:19But 700 years ago, our ruling classes were bound
0:00:19 > 0:00:24by a shared set of values, codes of behaviour and language.
0:00:25 > 0:00:31Locked together by one culture in a marriage that had lasted 300 years.
0:00:31 > 0:00:35But, in the mid-14th century, it hit the rocks.
0:00:40 > 0:00:45What followed was the longest and bloodiest divorce in history
0:00:45 > 0:00:50set against a backdrop of raging plague and violent revolution.
0:00:50 > 0:00:54Oh, my goodness! You can feel the texture of the skin.
0:00:54 > 0:00:58I'm going to tell the story of over a hundred years of war,
0:00:58 > 0:01:01when little England dared to challenge
0:01:01 > 0:01:06the mighty superpower that was France and refused to give up.
0:01:06 > 0:01:12I want to uncover how those famous battles like Crecy, Poitiers and Agincourt
0:01:12 > 0:01:18were more than just military victories in what became a fight for national identity.
0:01:20 > 0:01:24I'll show what was really at stake for charismatic leaders
0:01:24 > 0:01:28like Henry V, Edward III and Joan of Arc.
0:01:28 > 0:01:33And reveal how these people and events shaped and changed us,
0:01:33 > 0:01:36helping make England what it is today.
0:01:46 > 0:01:49In this episode,
0:01:49 > 0:01:51a bold English king does the unthinkable
0:01:51 > 0:01:55when he rips up the medieval rule book to take on France
0:01:55 > 0:02:01with new weapons, new ideas and, above all, a burning will to win.
0:02:16 > 0:02:19For me as a cultural historian,
0:02:19 > 0:02:23these are some of the most interesting documents in English history.
0:02:34 > 0:02:37They're records of parliamentary sessions
0:02:37 > 0:02:41held between 1066 and 1360.
0:02:41 > 0:02:47They document three centuries of English governance, law and policy.
0:02:50 > 0:02:52But have a look at this.
0:02:54 > 0:02:56They're in French.
0:02:58 > 0:03:01(SPEAKS FRENCH) These are the remembrances...
0:03:01 > 0:03:05(SPEAKS FRENCH)
0:03:05 > 0:03:10..of parliaments summoned in the reign of the king.
0:03:11 > 0:03:15French was the language of the English ruling class.
0:03:15 > 0:03:20In fact, they had more in common with their counterparts across the channel
0:03:20 > 0:03:22than with the rest of the population.
0:03:22 > 0:03:26There's no more potent symbol than this
0:03:26 > 0:03:29of the ties that, for 300 years,
0:03:29 > 0:03:33bound France, the most powerful country in Europe,
0:03:33 > 0:03:35with her poor neighbour England.
0:03:39 > 0:03:43Since the Norman Conquest, they had been joined not just by language but by lands.
0:03:43 > 0:03:49France was a country divided into semi-independent provinces.
0:03:49 > 0:03:56By 1327, the English king still held Ponthieu, a small area of northern France.
0:03:56 > 0:04:01And the valuable duchy of Gascony or Aquitaine.
0:04:01 > 0:04:07The English king ruled over these territories not as a monarch but as a duke.
0:04:09 > 0:04:11These lands came at a price.
0:04:11 > 0:04:17To keep them, English kings had to pay homage to the French monarch.
0:04:17 > 0:04:21This was a delicate arrangement but it worked.
0:04:21 > 0:04:26That was until one man challenged the rules of this uneasy marriage.
0:04:26 > 0:04:28And here he is.
0:04:31 > 0:04:33Edward III.
0:04:47 > 0:04:54Edward was crowned aged 14 here in Westminster Abbey, where his tomb now lies.
0:04:57 > 0:05:00No one could have expected that he would pose such a challenge
0:05:00 > 0:05:04to the relationship between England and France.
0:05:04 > 0:05:09He was three-quarters French and had grown up steeped in the same chivalric traditions
0:05:09 > 0:05:12as his relations across the Channel.
0:05:14 > 0:05:17With flowing blond locks and charming manners,
0:05:17 > 0:05:20Edward seemed to embody the knightly ideal.
0:05:20 > 0:05:27But behind this image lay a brilliant mind, a ruthless streak
0:05:27 > 0:05:29and a will of iron.
0:05:33 > 0:05:36Edward had survived a traumatic childhood.
0:05:36 > 0:05:38His father had died a broken man,
0:05:38 > 0:05:43rumoured to have been murdered by his mother's ambitious lover,
0:05:43 > 0:05:48a man who would pose such a threat to Edward that he would have him executed.
0:05:48 > 0:05:54Edward may have been a young king but he was not one to antagonise.
0:05:56 > 0:06:01Only a year into his reign, events conspired to do just that.
0:06:01 > 0:06:06Edward had been bought up to believe that, through his mother,
0:06:06 > 0:06:11the French King's sister, he had a claim to the crown of France.
0:06:13 > 0:06:17But, in 1328, it was given to his cousin Philip.
0:06:17 > 0:06:23Relations between the two men would never recover.
0:06:23 > 0:06:27Paying homage as the Duke of Aquitaine to his cousin
0:06:27 > 0:06:29didn't come easy to the proud Edward.
0:06:32 > 0:06:36But Edward couldn't afford to lose his lands in France.
0:06:36 > 0:06:41Gascony was more than just his birthright.
0:06:41 > 0:06:44Together with the wool trade from Flanders,
0:06:44 > 0:06:46it was propping up the English economy.
0:06:46 > 0:06:52Over 80,000 tons of wine were exported from here each year.
0:06:52 > 0:06:58The tax alone was worth more than that collected from all the shires of England.
0:06:59 > 0:07:05In France, Edward should have known his place as the king's vassal.
0:07:07 > 0:07:12Instead, he seemed increasingly keen to assert his authority
0:07:12 > 0:07:14over that of his cousin.
0:07:17 > 0:07:22Here in Gascony, evidence of this still survives today.
0:07:28 > 0:07:30I'm here in the church of St Seurin
0:07:30 > 0:07:34and up in the ceiling is a keystone of one the side chapels.
0:07:34 > 0:07:38You can just make out a shield held aloft by an angel,
0:07:38 > 0:07:41with the three leopards couchant of England depicted on it.
0:07:41 > 0:07:43More than ornamentation,
0:07:43 > 0:07:47this stamp of ownership was 14th-century propaganda
0:07:47 > 0:07:50and would have been unmistakably English.
0:07:51 > 0:07:54This would've been painted in heraldic colours of red and gold
0:07:54 > 0:07:57and would've been instantly recognisable to worshippers here
0:07:57 > 0:08:00as a symbol of strength and continuity
0:08:00 > 0:08:04Edward was becoming a most problematic vassal.
0:08:04 > 0:08:07Not known for his diplomatic brilliance,
0:08:07 > 0:08:11King Philip was already struggling to manage his unwieldy country.
0:08:11 > 0:08:15And, by 1337, he wanted Edward out.
0:08:19 > 0:08:24In an unprecedented move, he sent his army to confiscate Ponthieu,
0:08:24 > 0:08:28attacked Edward's castles and tried to seize Gascony.
0:08:29 > 0:08:34Edward couldn't retaliate, his army was tied up in a border war with Scotland.
0:08:34 > 0:08:40But the furious English king wasn't going to let this lie.
0:08:43 > 0:08:48Three years later, having secured valuable allies here in Flanders,
0:08:48 > 0:08:53in the market square of Ghent, he made a provocative gesture.
0:08:53 > 0:08:58Its consequences would last for over a hundred years.
0:08:59 > 0:09:03In front of the gathering of English barons and Flemish allies,
0:09:03 > 0:09:08he unveiled his new royal coat of arms.
0:09:08 > 0:09:12Where once there was just the three leopards of the English royal family,
0:09:12 > 0:09:17there were now three leopards quartered with the fleur-de-lis,
0:09:17 > 0:09:20symbol of the French monarchy.
0:09:20 > 0:09:23Edward III had done the unthinkable,
0:09:23 > 0:09:27he had proclaimed himself king of England and France.
0:09:29 > 0:09:35This was now more than a territorial dispute.
0:09:35 > 0:09:41And Edward and Philip both knew there was only one way this challenge could be settled.
0:09:41 > 0:09:44Knightly combat.
0:09:45 > 0:09:50And that was dictated by a shared code of military conduct.
0:09:50 > 0:09:53A code that would be pushed to its limits.
0:09:53 > 0:09:57These 600-year-old manuscripts tell us about this set of rules
0:09:57 > 0:10:00developed for the French and English knights.
0:10:00 > 0:10:05A way of life both on and off the battlefield. Chivalry.
0:10:07 > 0:10:11The rules of chivalry were written by the knights themselves.
0:10:11 > 0:10:16They were written in French, which was the international language of chivalry.
0:10:16 > 0:10:18There was an element of snobbery in it, yes,
0:10:18 > 0:10:20because it's an upper-class thing.
0:10:20 > 0:10:26But, above all, it was concerned with right honourable behaviour that saw
0:10:26 > 0:10:33the knightly class as ordained by god to protect king, kingdom and people.
0:10:33 > 0:10:38But the causes that they fought in were those of kings.
0:10:38 > 0:10:42Here in the Luttrell Psalter, we can see a knight being equipped.
0:10:42 > 0:10:45Here he is in all his heraldic splendour.
0:10:45 > 0:10:49His arms are being handed to him by his wife and daughter,
0:10:49 > 0:10:51he is setting out for war.
0:10:51 > 0:10:54But here in this illustration of the St Inglevert tournament
0:10:54 > 0:10:57from Froissart's Chronicle,
0:10:57 > 0:11:02we see a scene of a famous tournament held at St Inglevert near Calais.
0:11:02 > 0:11:07This was a tournament between the English and the French knights in friendly conditions.
0:11:07 > 0:11:12Here we see two knights in the foreground tilting at each other in the lists.
0:11:12 > 0:11:17And you can see it's a great occasion, it's like Royal Ascot.
0:11:17 > 0:11:20It's exotic, it's colourful, it is showing off.
0:11:20 > 0:11:25Showing off on a grand scale. It's conspicuous consumption.
0:11:25 > 0:11:29It's the brotherhood solidarity of the upper classes.
0:11:29 > 0:11:33And the knights used the engagements to show off their prowess.
0:11:33 > 0:11:36And to inspire future generations of knights.
0:11:40 > 0:11:45For all their pomp and ceremony, tournaments were a training ground
0:11:45 > 0:11:50where knights prepared for the greatest of chivalric combats, war.
0:11:53 > 0:11:59After five years' preparation, Edward was ready to take on the mightiest army in Europe.
0:12:01 > 0:12:05He organised a force to defend his own lands in Gascony.
0:12:05 > 0:12:08But Edward would lead a different campaign.
0:12:08 > 0:12:12He would invade King Philip's territories.
0:12:12 > 0:12:16On the 5th of August 1346,
0:12:16 > 0:12:19he set sail across the Channel
0:12:19 > 0:12:23with 750 ships and an army of 15,000 men.
0:12:24 > 0:12:27And this is where Edward's army landed.
0:12:27 > 0:12:30He'd wanted to fool the French king that he was going to land
0:12:30 > 0:12:34several hundred miles in that direction in Gascony.
0:12:34 > 0:12:38But, instead, they landed here on the beaches of Normandy.
0:12:42 > 0:12:46The first thing the king did was to knight his 16-year-old son,
0:12:46 > 0:12:51Edward, the Prince of Wales, later known as the Black Prince.
0:12:51 > 0:12:54He then sent all the ships home.
0:12:54 > 0:12:57This was to be a campaign of no return.
0:13:01 > 0:13:04With the Black Prince in the vanguard,
0:13:04 > 0:13:06Edward's army stormed east.
0:13:06 > 0:13:10Their target, the prosperous city of Caen.
0:13:10 > 0:13:15The Hundred Years' War is remembered for its iconic set-piece battles.
0:13:15 > 0:13:18What happened here at Caen was very different.
0:13:21 > 0:13:26The city was defended outside the walls by 2,500 men.
0:13:26 > 0:13:28But, when they saw Edward's army approaching,
0:13:28 > 0:13:32the French fled back to the safety of the castle here in the city walls.
0:13:32 > 0:13:36But they were too late, the Black Prince and the Earl of Warwick
0:13:36 > 0:13:39were already upon them before they had reached the city gates.
0:13:39 > 0:13:44What followed was perhaps more typical of medieval warfare
0:13:44 > 0:13:47than any of the famous battles to come.
0:13:47 > 0:13:49(MAN SPEAKS FRENCH)
0:13:49 > 0:13:54I'm with Francois Neveux, an expert on the history of Normandy.
0:13:55 > 0:13:57(SPEAKS FRENCH)
0:14:47 > 0:14:53After three days, 5,000 men, women and children lay dead.
0:14:56 > 0:14:58Then the looting began,
0:14:58 > 0:15:02something which probably motivated Edward's men more than any sense
0:15:02 > 0:15:06of loyalty to the king or idealistic set of values.
0:15:06 > 0:15:12Chivalry in action was far removed from the gilded images of manuscripts.
0:15:12 > 0:15:17It was a brutal business and its rules didn't apply to everyone.
0:16:05 > 0:16:07(LAUGHS) Thank you.
0:16:09 > 0:16:14Caen was Edward's first victory but to claim back his rights in France
0:16:14 > 0:16:16he would have to take on Philip's army.
0:16:20 > 0:16:26With still no sign of that mighty force, Edward continued south,
0:16:26 > 0:16:29burning all in his path, towards Paris.
0:16:46 > 0:16:51Never before had the superpower France been so violated.
0:16:51 > 0:16:55I've come to the Abbey of St Denis in Paris,
0:16:55 > 0:16:59where Philip prepared a chivalric response,
0:16:59 > 0:17:02confident he could crush his impertinent cousin.
0:17:05 > 0:17:09Philip really had to do something to stop Edward III once and for all.
0:17:09 > 0:17:14He raised the call to arms and messengers were sent to all his allies and vassals abroad,
0:17:14 > 0:17:18assembling one of the biggest armies France has ever seen.
0:17:18 > 0:17:21Then he rode here to take possession of the Oriflamme,
0:17:21 > 0:17:25the sacred war banner of France, from the abbot.
0:17:27 > 0:17:31And here it is. This is the flag of St Denis
0:17:31 > 0:17:36that medieval monarchs would come here to collect before they went to do battle.
0:17:36 > 0:17:40This is a more recent version. During the Hundred Years' War,
0:17:40 > 0:17:43the banner would have had a central motif
0:17:43 > 0:17:47of a flaming gold sun against a blood-red backdrop.
0:17:47 > 0:17:51And this banner really symbolised all that was great about France,
0:17:51 > 0:17:54both spiritually and militarily.
0:17:54 > 0:17:58It's said that Charlemagne's army bore the Oriflamme before it
0:17:58 > 0:18:01as they went to battle against the infidels.
0:18:01 > 0:18:04But the unfurling of this banner during the Hundred Years' War
0:18:04 > 0:18:08meant something else, "guerre mortelle," a fight to the death.
0:18:08 > 0:18:12This meant the opposing side would be shown no mercy,
0:18:12 > 0:18:16given no quarter, and no prisoners were to be taken.
0:18:22 > 0:18:25But Edward had a trick up his sleeve,
0:18:25 > 0:18:27one that he'd spent years preparing.
0:18:30 > 0:18:34And it would shake the very foundations of chivalry.
0:18:34 > 0:18:38He wouldn't rely just on knights but on low-born archers
0:18:38 > 0:18:41equipped with a devastating new weapon
0:18:41 > 0:18:44rarely used outside the British Isles.
0:18:47 > 0:18:50This is a statute from the latter years of Edward's reign.
0:18:50 > 0:18:54And its very existence is a direct acknowledgement
0:18:54 > 0:18:58of the importance of the longbow in the king's wars.
0:18:58 > 0:19:03It states that each Sunday, every able-bodied man
0:19:03 > 0:19:07should go to the archery butts and practise with bows and arrows,
0:19:07 > 0:19:11pellets or bolts, the art of shooting.
0:19:11 > 0:19:15And it also states, rather interestingly, that it is forbidden
0:19:15 > 0:19:21to play or watch sports of null value, such as football.
0:19:22 > 0:19:24Draw! Loose! Middle rank!
0:19:24 > 0:19:26Mark!
0:19:26 > 0:19:30Edward would use his archers in a unique formation.
0:19:33 > 0:19:38Their role is still remembered today at events like this in Bosworth.
0:19:43 > 0:19:47I'm here to meet Matthew Strickland, an expert on the longbow.
0:19:47 > 0:19:53So, Matthew, we know that Edward III was developing the use of archers in his battle plans.
0:19:53 > 0:19:58In 1341, he makes an order for 3 million arrows and 7,000 bows.
0:19:58 > 0:20:01- Archery is important to him. - It's extremely important.
0:20:01 > 0:20:05It's important to remember that Edward I and Edward II's armies
0:20:05 > 0:20:08had a lot or archers but they were auxiliaries to the cavalry.
0:20:08 > 0:20:10The English cavalry was the main striking force.
0:20:10 > 0:20:13But during the wars with Scotland,
0:20:13 > 0:20:17particularly the defeat of the English army at Bannockburn in 1314,
0:20:17 > 0:20:20the English developed this new tactical formation.
0:20:20 > 0:20:25The first time we see this is at Dupplin Moor in 1332,
0:20:25 > 0:20:31where the English flank a unit of dismounted knights,
0:20:31 > 0:20:35dismounted men-at-arms, flanked by wings of archers, longbowmen.
0:20:35 > 0:20:39And this gives them a very, very powerful defensive formation.
0:20:39 > 0:20:44And it's that tactical combination combining dismounted knights
0:20:44 > 0:20:49flanked by wings of archers, that can enfilade an attacking French force,
0:20:49 > 0:20:54that he realises will deliver a knockout blow if he can get the French to join battle.
0:20:54 > 0:20:56That is his principal strategy.
0:20:59 > 0:21:02This was a risky tactic.
0:21:02 > 0:21:07For it to work, Edward's archers would have be on higher ground than the French.
0:21:10 > 0:21:14By mid-August, Edward was just 20 miles from Paris.
0:21:15 > 0:21:18But he had no intention of attacking the capital.
0:21:18 > 0:21:22With his troops in sight of the French,
0:21:22 > 0:21:25he turned his army and headed north.
0:21:25 > 0:21:30But French garrisons stationed on the Somme blocked Edward's path.
0:21:39 > 0:21:43In an incredible act of heroism, two of Edward's senior knights,
0:21:43 > 0:21:47William de Bohun, Earl of Northampton, and Sir Reginald Cobham,
0:21:47 > 0:21:50waded across the river under enemy crossbow fire,
0:21:50 > 0:21:53covered by their own archers and a hundred men at arms
0:21:53 > 0:21:57to engage the French on the other side and push them back.
0:21:59 > 0:22:03The two knights had cleared the way. The English were through.
0:22:05 > 0:22:11Finally, after two more days of marching, Edward halted his men.
0:22:14 > 0:22:18They had reached the tiny village of Crecy in Ponthieu,
0:22:18 > 0:22:20Edward's former Duchy.
0:22:22 > 0:22:26He stationed his men on a hilltop overlooking the plain.
0:22:30 > 0:22:35He knew that this was the best place to do battle because he knew the lie of the land.
0:22:35 > 0:22:37On the 25th of August 1346,
0:22:37 > 0:22:40the English army took up camp over there
0:22:40 > 0:22:43in the forest of Crecy and simply waited.
0:22:43 > 0:22:46Two days later, Philip's troops,
0:22:46 > 0:22:51one of the largest French armies ever gathered, caught up.
0:22:51 > 0:22:53They had followed him all the way here.
0:22:55 > 0:22:57Just as Edward had wanted.
0:23:03 > 0:23:07Historian Andrew Ayton has pieced together what happened next.
0:23:11 > 0:23:14The battle probably began with the English first division,
0:23:14 > 0:23:17the vanguard division of the Prince of Wales,
0:23:17 > 0:23:20deployed in a crescent about here.
0:23:20 > 0:23:25From the tower at one end to that apple tree in the distance down there.
0:23:25 > 0:23:30Below them is a kind of bowl of terrain into which the French army advanced.
0:23:30 > 0:23:35The battle began when the crossbow men were pushed forward by Philip
0:23:35 > 0:23:39to neutralise the English defence at the beginning of the battle.
0:23:39 > 0:23:41To soften them up, if you like.
0:23:41 > 0:23:45The problem was that, before the crossbowmen got within range,
0:23:45 > 0:23:49they had been mown down by concentrated massed archery shooting.
0:23:52 > 0:23:55This was exactly what Edward had planned.
0:23:55 > 0:24:00Froissart recorded that the English arrows were so thick they fell like snow.
0:24:00 > 0:24:05The French had never experienced anything like it.
0:24:12 > 0:24:17With this first set back, the massed ranks of French knights responded.
0:24:18 > 0:24:25What we see then are a series of French heavy cavalry attacks on the English position.
0:24:25 > 0:24:29As the cavalry advanced, of course horses would begin to come down.
0:24:29 > 0:24:32They would create mounds of horse cadavers,
0:24:32 > 0:24:37which would then be difficult for the next wave of cavalry to get round.
0:24:37 > 0:24:41So they would stop, presenting easy targets for the archers.
0:24:41 > 0:24:46After a while, the battlefield would have been littered with horseflesh.
0:24:46 > 0:24:49And under the horses would have fallen their riders.
0:24:49 > 0:24:51If they hadn't been hit by arrows,
0:24:51 > 0:24:54they would have been crushed by their horses.
0:24:54 > 0:24:59One of the most vivid remarks that a French chronicler makes is,
0:24:59 > 0:25:02"On this day, men were killed by their horses."
0:25:02 > 0:25:04So it's a killing ground down there
0:25:04 > 0:25:08and it's created by the topography of the battlefield.
0:25:08 > 0:25:11And Edward exploits it to perfection.
0:25:11 > 0:25:14- The high ground really is giving an advantage.- It is.
0:25:14 > 0:25:17It's a perfect place for an archer to use his bow.
0:25:17 > 0:25:21Shooting down, you're not wasting energy by going up and then down.
0:25:21 > 0:25:26And it negated, it neutralised, the French advantage of heavy cavalry.
0:25:26 > 0:25:30It's also creating an impediment to this face to face combat
0:25:30 > 0:25:33that's supposedly so important to this chivalric king.
0:25:33 > 0:25:38Only a proportion of the French aristocracy would get within striking distance
0:25:38 > 0:25:43of their English counterparts on foot around the prince in his division.
0:25:43 > 0:25:47That's true. But, from Edward's point of view this didn't matter,
0:25:47 > 0:25:53because the French had such a numerical advantage in terms of knights, noblemen, men-at-arms,
0:25:53 > 0:25:56it was crucial, from the English point of view,
0:25:56 > 0:25:59to take out as many of them as possible at a distance.
0:25:59 > 0:26:01To even the odds, if you like.
0:26:01 > 0:26:05So, when after the battle, a French chronicler, the Grande Chroniques,
0:26:05 > 0:26:11says it was such a shame that so many noblemen were brought down by men of no value,
0:26:11 > 0:26:16Edward's point of view would have been, "Well, that's just part of my tactical method."
0:26:16 > 0:26:19There are individual acts of heroism, aren't there?
0:26:19 > 0:26:25There are. The most dramatic is King John of Bohemia who, by this time, was blind.
0:26:25 > 0:26:28When he hears that the battle is not going well,
0:26:28 > 0:26:33he asks the Bohemian knights, who are accompanying him to the field,
0:26:33 > 0:26:36to take him forward into the fray.
0:26:36 > 0:26:39One of the chroniclers tells us he and they were all killed
0:26:39 > 0:26:42tied together, chained together on the field.
0:26:42 > 0:26:46Whether he actually got to give a blow with his sword, we don't know.
0:26:52 > 0:26:55In one of England's greatest victories,
0:26:55 > 0:26:58Edward had lost just 300 mounted men.
0:27:00 > 0:27:04Philip, who'd been hit in the neck by an arrow, had fled.
0:27:04 > 0:27:10Behind him in these fields lay the bodies of 10,000 French nobles.
0:27:22 > 0:27:27Allegedly, a white ostrich feather like this was plucked from the crown
0:27:27 > 0:27:33of the dead King John of Bohemia by the Prince of Wales and presented to his father,
0:27:33 > 0:27:36who said, "Ich dien," I serve.
0:27:36 > 0:27:40This act is commemorated to this day on the two-pence coin
0:27:40 > 0:27:43where you see the three ostrich feathers.
0:27:43 > 0:27:46And it's still the emblem of the Prince of Wales.
0:27:53 > 0:27:57Returning from the battle of Crecy, here at Gloucester Cathedral,
0:27:57 > 0:28:02one of Edward's commanders commissioned the East Window in celebration.
0:28:05 > 0:28:12Rising 22 metres high, it glorifies the great hierarchy of chivalry.
0:28:12 > 0:28:17Knights, kings and saints beneath the head of the church.
0:28:20 > 0:28:25It's perhaps ironic that it wasn't knights who had won the battle
0:28:25 > 0:28:27but low-born archers.
0:28:28 > 0:28:32In fact, Edward had shown just how willing he was
0:28:32 > 0:28:35to abandon the shared rules of chivalry to win.
0:28:39 > 0:28:42But one battle wasn't enough.
0:28:42 > 0:28:46To win back his lands, Edward would have to carry on fighting.
0:28:46 > 0:28:48And he needed to keep his men supplied.
0:28:48 > 0:28:51His next target was Calais.
0:28:56 > 0:29:00To take the town, Edward would embark on the longest
0:29:00 > 0:29:03and most expensive siege in medieval history.
0:29:09 > 0:29:14This 15th-century copy of Jean Froissart's Chronicles
0:29:14 > 0:29:18tells us about the fight for this strategically vital port.
0:29:18 > 0:29:22The people of Calais held out for nearly a year,
0:29:22 > 0:29:25forced to eat horses and rats to survive.
0:29:25 > 0:29:29By the time the town fell in September 1347,
0:29:29 > 0:29:32they were in no position to negotiate.
0:29:32 > 0:29:39Edward could dictate his terms for the city's humiliating surrender.
0:29:40 > 0:29:43Instead of ordering a massacre of the whole population,
0:29:43 > 0:29:47he says that, "Six of the principal citizens of Calais
0:29:47 > 0:29:51shall march out of the town with bare heads and feet,
0:29:51 > 0:29:53with ropes around their necks
0:29:53 > 0:29:57and with the keys to the town and the castle in their hands."
0:29:57 > 0:30:00"They shall be at my absolute disposal."
0:30:03 > 0:30:07In France, these six men have never been forgotten.
0:30:10 > 0:30:14And here they are in the square in Calais,
0:30:14 > 0:30:18captured so evocatively by Rodin in 1889.
0:30:18 > 0:30:24The sculpture was commissioned to commemorate French heroism in the Franco-Prussian War.
0:30:24 > 0:30:28It's interesting that the subject of the Burghers of Calais was chosen.
0:30:28 > 0:30:33These men going willingly to what they thought was their imminent death
0:30:33 > 0:30:36has become a symbol of self-sacrifice.
0:30:37 > 0:30:40A symbol of French national pride.
0:30:43 > 0:30:46Across the Channel, the exact same sculpture
0:30:46 > 0:30:50stands opposite the Houses of Parliament in London.
0:30:50 > 0:30:55Here it has a very different meaning.
0:30:58 > 0:31:02When these men had left the gates of Calais ready to die for their town,
0:31:02 > 0:31:07Edward, in a great show of mercy, spared their lives.
0:31:11 > 0:31:14Here, this sculpture commemorates
0:31:14 > 0:31:19the act of a monarch powerful enough to be benevolent.
0:31:26 > 0:31:28Ten years into the war,
0:31:28 > 0:31:34in England King Edward and his campaigns were hugely popular,
0:31:34 > 0:31:39not least for the vast spoils flooding in from France.
0:31:45 > 0:31:50For Edward, this war wasn't just to be fought on the battlefield.
0:31:50 > 0:31:54His next move was a political one at home.
0:31:54 > 0:32:00But every bit as destructive to the relationship with France as any military victory.
0:32:00 > 0:32:04I've come to Lingfield Church in Surrey to see the tomb
0:32:04 > 0:32:08of one of Edward's most loyal commanders, Sir Reginald Cobham.
0:32:11 > 0:32:16Cobham was a prominent figure in Edward III's military circle.
0:32:16 > 0:32:20A hero of Caen and Crecy, and one of the men who crossed the ford
0:32:20 > 0:32:24at Blanchetaque to clear the way for Edward's army.
0:32:26 > 0:32:31Reginald Cobham's tomb tells us how Edward's Knights saw them themselves
0:32:31 > 0:32:33and how they wanted to be remembered.
0:32:35 > 0:32:40But he doesn't just want to be remembered as an individual soldier.
0:32:40 > 0:32:43It's his fraternity that's all important.
0:32:43 > 0:32:48Just look at the coats of arms on the base of this tomb.
0:32:48 > 0:32:52Each one represents a different knightly family.
0:32:52 > 0:32:56But Reginald's tomb tells us something else about him.
0:32:58 > 0:33:03Strapped around his left leg is a thin band of leather.
0:33:03 > 0:33:09It shows he was a member of Edward's newly founded Order of the Garter.
0:33:09 > 0:33:14This exclusive institution had all the trappings of conventional chivalry.
0:33:14 > 0:33:16But there was a crucial difference.
0:33:17 > 0:33:20Its members were not just the chivalric elite.
0:33:20 > 0:33:25Sir Reginald wasn't a hero of the nobility but of the battlefield.
0:33:27 > 0:33:32The elevation of a man of humble rank to a Garter Knight
0:33:32 > 0:33:34was a sign that King Edward
0:33:34 > 0:33:39was interested in rewarding service not birth.
0:33:41 > 0:33:46Edward was changing the way the knighthood would fight this war.
0:33:46 > 0:33:50In creating the Order of the Garter at Windsor Castle,
0:33:50 > 0:33:55Edward surrounded himself with men loyal only to him.
0:33:57 > 0:34:02Designed to mirror the legendary knights of Arthur's Round Table,
0:34:02 > 0:34:05it had just 26 elite members.
0:34:06 > 0:34:13The inaugural meeting of the knights took place in St George's Chapel on the 23rd of April 1349.
0:34:13 > 0:34:19All around me are the coats of arms of the original knights and their successors,
0:34:19 > 0:34:21right up to the present day.
0:34:30 > 0:34:33Edward's order wouldn't just fight under
0:34:33 > 0:34:37the traditional shared values of chivalry but for his cause.
0:34:37 > 0:34:42They were bestowed with a mission statement to be displayed wherever they roamed.
0:34:43 > 0:34:48The motto, "Honi soit qui mal y pense,"
0:34:48 > 0:34:51"Shame on he who thinks evil of it,"
0:34:51 > 0:34:53is thought to be a pointed reference
0:34:53 > 0:34:57to the king's claims to the throne of France.
0:34:57 > 0:35:00And there was another provocative detail.
0:35:00 > 0:35:04The colours chosen for the leather garter were blue and gold,
0:35:04 > 0:35:07the royal colours of the French.
0:35:11 > 0:35:17But I think Edward's masterstroke was that his men would fight under
0:35:17 > 0:35:23the red cross of the 4th-century warrior St George, Edward's personal saint.
0:35:26 > 0:35:32The inauguration of the Garter Knights was a seminal moment in our history.
0:35:32 > 0:35:36It wasn't just about Edward's dynastic claims.
0:35:36 > 0:35:40This was about service to a national project.
0:35:40 > 0:35:46And the King's saint and protector, St George, was also nationalised.
0:35:46 > 0:35:51It was a triumph of propaganda and strategic thinking.
0:35:52 > 0:35:56The symbol of the English nation had been born
0:35:56 > 0:36:01and Edward had further eroded the bonds between France and England.
0:36:02 > 0:36:06In contrast, France was wracked with crisis.
0:36:06 > 0:36:10King Philip had never recovered from his defeat at Crecy.
0:36:10 > 0:36:14When he died in 1350, it was as a broken man.
0:36:15 > 0:36:19Philip's successor was his son John II.
0:36:19 > 0:36:21He had earned his nickname John the Good
0:36:21 > 0:36:26more for his prowess in tournaments than for his strategic thinking.
0:36:26 > 0:36:31And here he is, John II.
0:36:31 > 0:36:34This is the first real portrait of a French king.
0:36:34 > 0:36:37Taking his inspiration from the 26 Knights of the Garter,
0:36:37 > 0:36:40John founded his own order of chivalry.
0:36:40 > 0:36:43His Knights of the Star were established
0:36:43 > 0:36:45"For the glory of god, of our lady,
0:36:45 > 0:36:50for the heightening of chivalry and the augmenting of honour."
0:36:52 > 0:36:56The French response was to be more chivalric than ever.
0:36:57 > 0:37:01In contrast to Edward's elite force of 26,
0:37:01 > 0:37:04here 500 knights swore loyalty to the king
0:37:04 > 0:37:07and never to flee the battlefield.
0:37:13 > 0:37:16The man who put the whole thing together was Geoffroi de Charny,
0:37:16 > 0:37:20the perfect French knight, a hero from the struggle for Calais
0:37:20 > 0:37:22and the author of his own book on chivalry.
0:37:22 > 0:37:27Here he is pictured fighting opposite Edward III
0:37:27 > 0:37:31during an ill-starred attempt to retake Calais in 1347.
0:37:31 > 0:37:36In the Book Of Chivalry, Charny regards skills at arms
0:37:36 > 0:37:38as the pinnacle of knightly values
0:37:38 > 0:37:42and war as the greatest of chivalric combats.
0:37:42 > 0:37:49He says, "You will have to put up with great labour before you achieve honour from this employ."
0:37:49 > 0:37:53"You will be afraid when you see men slaughtering one another,
0:37:53 > 0:37:55fleeing, dying and being taken prisoner,
0:37:55 > 0:37:59and your friends dead, whose corpses lie before you."
0:37:59 > 0:38:03"You could flee with your horse and ride off without honour."
0:38:03 > 0:38:07"But, if you stay, you will have honour ever after."
0:38:07 > 0:38:09"Is this not a greater martyrdom?"
0:38:12 > 0:38:17The French King was convinced that, with chivalry reasserted,
0:38:17 > 0:38:19they could defeat the English.
0:38:34 > 0:38:40But in 1348, both France and England were stopped in their tracks
0:38:40 > 0:38:46by catastrophic events outside of anyone's control.
0:38:53 > 0:38:59There's a remarkable testimony to what happened here at the Church of St Mary's in Ashwell.
0:39:09 > 0:39:14Its walls are covered in graffiti, some of it medieval.
0:39:28 > 0:39:33These aren't the words of kings and chroniclers but of ordinary people.
0:39:37 > 0:39:40There's a particularly irreverent message here.
0:39:40 > 0:39:47It says, "Archidiacobus asemnes."
0:39:47 > 0:39:49Roughly translated, "The archdeacon is an ass."
0:39:56 > 0:40:00But I'm here to see one message in particular.
0:40:00 > 0:40:04It's scratched into the walls of the bell tower.
0:40:14 > 0:40:17And here it is.
0:40:17 > 0:40:19You can just make it out here.
0:40:19 > 0:40:24Written in Latin, it says, "Pestilencia."
0:40:24 > 0:40:26"There was a plague."
0:40:26 > 0:40:30"Miseranda ferox violenta."
0:40:32 > 0:40:35"Miserable, fierce and violent."
0:40:35 > 0:40:41"A wretched populace survives to witness."
0:40:42 > 0:40:45The Black Death had reached Europe.
0:40:45 > 0:40:50And in just two years it would wipe out half the population.
0:40:53 > 0:40:56The disease had arrived in England in 1348
0:40:56 > 0:40:59and swept east through the country.
0:41:01 > 0:41:06It's thought that the graffiti was scratched in the stone
0:41:06 > 0:41:09by monks fleeing the plague in London.
0:41:09 > 0:41:12We can only imagine the horrors they witnessed.
0:41:17 > 0:41:22In just 18 months, some 40,000 Londoners were killed.
0:41:28 > 0:41:33That no one could explain this pestilence made it all the more terrifying.
0:41:35 > 0:41:38Most shocking to the medieval mind
0:41:38 > 0:41:40was that it attacked all levels of society.
0:41:40 > 0:41:45It had no respect for the social order and nobody was safe.
0:41:46 > 0:41:51King Edward lost his 14-year-old daughter to the disease.
0:41:55 > 0:41:58France and England were forced to agree a truce.
0:41:58 > 0:42:02But it was a fragile one.
0:42:02 > 0:42:06Edward's appetite for conquest hadn't diminished
0:42:06 > 0:42:09and France was more vulnerable than ever.
0:42:10 > 0:42:13On top of years of failed war,
0:42:13 > 0:42:16the plague had plunged the country into moral panic
0:42:16 > 0:42:20and an economic crisis that Edward was keen to exploit.
0:42:26 > 0:42:30After five years of truce and failed peace negotiations,
0:42:30 > 0:42:34Edward re-ignited the war.
0:42:34 > 0:42:39The new campaign was to be led by his 25-year-old son, the Prince of Wales.
0:42:39 > 0:42:44In Canterbury Cathedral lies his elaborate tomb,
0:42:44 > 0:42:46built to his specific instructions.
0:42:58 > 0:43:03It was only after his death that this young prince became known as the Black Prince.
0:43:08 > 0:43:11Some believe the name comes from his tournament arms,
0:43:11 > 0:43:14those three ostrich feathers on a black background.
0:43:16 > 0:43:21Others that he'd earnt it for the ferocious reputation he would gain in France.
0:43:26 > 0:43:32The boy who had served at Caen and Crecy was about to become a legend in his own right.
0:43:43 > 0:43:46I'm with his with biographer David Green.
0:43:47 > 0:43:51David, you've looked into the life, the mind of the Black Prince.
0:43:51 > 0:43:53What do you think of his personality?
0:43:53 > 0:43:55What was he like as a person?
0:43:55 > 0:43:58I think he's a product of his time and environment.
0:43:58 > 0:44:03Undoubtedly, his background is something that is bound up with military ability.
0:44:03 > 0:44:07He goes to his first tournament that we know of when he was about six.
0:44:07 > 0:44:10He gets his first suit of armour when he's eight.
0:44:10 > 0:44:12He fights at his first tournament when he's about 13.
0:44:12 > 0:44:16When he's 16, he's fighting in the vanguard at Crecy.
0:44:16 > 0:44:20I think he was a very inspirational figure to his men,
0:44:20 > 0:44:23very effective in rallying the troops.
0:44:23 > 0:44:27I think he's a proud man undoubtedly.
0:44:27 > 0:44:31Seen as being perhaps rather haughty, rather domineering.
0:44:31 > 0:44:35At the core, though, is still this military ability.
0:44:43 > 0:44:48In October 1355, the Black Prince sailed to Gascony
0:44:48 > 0:44:51and mustered an army of over 6,000.
0:44:51 > 0:44:55The plan was not to meet the French in battle but to terrorise them.
0:44:55 > 0:45:00All this was a long way from the chivalric ideas of warfare.
0:45:02 > 0:45:06The Black Prince launched his army on a chevauchee,
0:45:06 > 0:45:09literally, a horse raid through the country.
0:45:09 > 0:45:12It was a medieval blitzkrieg beyond Gascony
0:45:12 > 0:45:17and into the French king's lands, destroying everything in its path.
0:45:20 > 0:45:23This was systematic pillage and destruction
0:45:23 > 0:45:28designed to cripple the French economy, demoralise the population
0:45:28 > 0:45:31and undermine faith in the French king.
0:45:32 > 0:45:35Neither life nor properties were spared.
0:45:40 > 0:45:46Historian Peter Hoskins has followed the route and studied the Black Prince's tactics.
0:45:47 > 0:45:51They're going to destroy anything which they can't take.
0:45:51 > 0:45:53Small farms, mills, homesteads,
0:45:53 > 0:45:58vineyards. Crops are going to be destroyed in the fields.
0:45:58 > 0:46:02Anything that can be taken is going to be taken and put on the carts.
0:46:02 > 0:46:04It's a swathe of disruption, 20 miles wide.
0:46:04 > 0:46:07What makes it so important really here,
0:46:07 > 0:46:12bearing in mind this is a very economically important area for France,
0:46:12 > 0:46:17it's almost the bread basket because of the grain that is grown here, it's a very important area.
0:46:17 > 0:46:19- So it's crippling the French - It is.
0:46:19 > 0:46:21It's about economic warfare.
0:46:21 > 0:46:25It's about damaging the ability of the French king to raise taxes
0:46:25 > 0:46:28to prosecute the war in the months and year to come.
0:46:28 > 0:46:34They're going out, they're attacking anything they find. It's indiscriminate?
0:46:34 > 0:46:38- I think it's almost more than indiscriminate, it's total.- Right.
0:46:38 > 0:46:40If you come across a mill, you'll destroy it.
0:46:40 > 0:46:43You'll try and damage or break the millstones if you can.
0:46:43 > 0:46:46If you come across a farm, you'll take whatever you can.
0:46:46 > 0:46:50You've got to live off the land, so you take food supplies.
0:46:50 > 0:46:53If you come to a village, you'll want to empty the stores of food.
0:46:53 > 0:46:59Then you'll burn it. The key to these operations is movement, you keep on the move all the time.
0:46:59 > 0:47:03Keep the enemy guessing. You want the next villages to know you're coming.
0:47:03 > 0:47:05They need to think about what they're going to do.
0:47:05 > 0:47:09Are they going to surrender? Are they going to flee to the hills?
0:47:09 > 0:47:12The brutality of the chevauchee campaign seems to be about
0:47:12 > 0:47:16this imposition of the king's power on distant lands.
0:47:16 > 0:47:21How do you control distant lands? Through this brutal campaign of annihilating the landscape.
0:47:21 > 0:47:25It is about the demonstration of power but there's another element to it as well,
0:47:25 > 0:47:29- which is to demonstrate that the French king is powerless.- Yes.
0:47:29 > 0:47:35One of the fundamental duties of the nobility and the lords of the period is to protect their people.
0:47:35 > 0:47:39And if you can demonstrate that the king cannot protect you,
0:47:39 > 0:47:42protect the people, then that's a powerful message.
0:47:42 > 0:47:44Not far behind us is the little village of Simorre.
0:47:44 > 0:47:49We know that the people from Simorre fled on the approach of the army.
0:47:49 > 0:47:52We don't know whether it was burned down after the army left
0:47:52 > 0:47:54but, typically, it would've been burnt down.
0:48:12 > 0:48:18Leaving a trail of devastation that would scar France for decades to come,
0:48:18 > 0:48:22the Black Prince's men continued east for 300 miles.
0:48:24 > 0:48:28They travelled at such speed, no French army could catch them.
0:48:30 > 0:48:34After four weeks, they reached the walled city of Carcassonne.
0:48:48 > 0:48:52Down there, outside the walls and across the river,
0:48:52 > 0:48:54is the old town or the Bourg.
0:48:54 > 0:48:58For three days, the Black Prince's men camped there,
0:48:58 > 0:49:02feasting on the finest produce and guzzling the very best wine.
0:49:02 > 0:49:06While up here in the city, the French knights looked on,
0:49:06 > 0:49:11offering their townspeople no support and offering no resistance.
0:49:17 > 0:49:23When the townspeople offered 250,000 gold ecus to save their city,
0:49:23 > 0:49:28the Black Prince responded that he came not for gold but for justice.
0:49:31 > 0:49:34What the Black Prince is doing is stressing both his
0:49:34 > 0:49:38and his father's rights to this city and to the crown of France.
0:49:38 > 0:49:42And, as such, he's implying that the townspeople of Carcassonne
0:49:42 > 0:49:46are deluded in continuing to swear allegiance to King John.
0:49:46 > 0:49:49And with that, he burnt the town.
0:49:49 > 0:49:55Still the French king John didn't act.
0:49:55 > 0:50:00He had neither the resources nor the imagination to counter this kind of campaign.
0:50:04 > 0:50:09Instead of sending an army to Carcassonne, he sent a letter.
0:50:09 > 0:50:12It arrived two weeks later.
0:50:17 > 0:50:21It says, "I have been deeply affected by these events
0:50:21 > 0:50:27and want nothing more than to avenge the wrongs done to the people of this town."
0:50:27 > 0:50:33This is the best King John can do to reassure his demoralised subjects.
0:50:33 > 0:50:37The Black Prince's plan was working perfectly.
0:50:37 > 0:50:41So far, he'd managed to avoid the French king's army
0:50:41 > 0:50:43and grew ever more confident.
0:50:44 > 0:50:50He wrote home proudly of the "Many goodly towns and strongholds burnt and destroyed."
0:50:53 > 0:50:58In spring the next year, the Black Prince launched a raid north east,
0:50:58 > 0:51:03miles into the heart of central France, and reached as far as Tours.
0:51:03 > 0:51:06But King John had finally gathered an army.
0:51:07 > 0:51:10On the 17th of September, outside Poitiers,
0:51:10 > 0:51:15the English, laden down with plunder, were intercepted.
0:51:15 > 0:51:17The prince's army of 10,000,
0:51:17 > 0:51:22led by his commanders Sir Reginald Cobham and Sir John Chandos,
0:51:22 > 0:51:24would have to face King John,
0:51:24 > 0:51:29that paragon of chivalry Geoffroi de Charny and 20,000 men.
0:51:30 > 0:51:34All of them determined not just to crush the son
0:51:34 > 0:51:37but to avenge the sins of his father
0:51:37 > 0:51:40in what would be the first major battle since Crecy.
0:51:45 > 0:51:48According to an account written by Chandos's herald,
0:51:48 > 0:51:52they all met on the eve of battle to try settle their differences.
0:51:52 > 0:51:55As a last resort, de Charny says,
0:51:55 > 0:52:00"I make the offer that we fight you 100 against 100."
0:52:00 > 0:52:02"Cent par cent."
0:52:03 > 0:52:07The Black Prince refused this chivalric gesture.
0:52:07 > 0:52:12He was his father's son but this wasn't the carefully planned battle of Crecy.
0:52:15 > 0:52:18The French attacked first.
0:52:18 > 0:52:22This time, they were prepared for the English longbows.
0:52:22 > 0:52:25The first wave were not on vulnerable horses but on foot
0:52:25 > 0:52:28and ploughed their way through the English lines.
0:52:32 > 0:52:35The Black Prince's only hope was a hidden unit,
0:52:35 > 0:52:38which he sent to attack the French from behind.
0:52:38 > 0:52:41Then he and his men made a remarkable attempt
0:52:41 > 0:52:46to hack their way through to the French standard and King John.
0:52:50 > 0:52:54In the clash that followed, the Knights of the Order of the Star were decimated.
0:52:54 > 0:52:56Bound by the rules of their order,
0:52:56 > 0:52:58they were unable to leave the battlefield
0:52:58 > 0:53:01and so fell doing their chivalric duty.
0:53:02 > 0:53:05One of Froissart's chronicles records that de Charny,
0:53:05 > 0:53:10still holding the Oriflamme, was cut down by Reginald Cobham.
0:53:11 > 0:53:14The Order of the Star had met the Order of the Garter.
0:53:16 > 0:53:21The real prize, captured with one of his sons, was the French king.
0:53:24 > 0:53:29In triumph, the Black Prince took the humiliated John to Gascony.
0:53:33 > 0:53:36After seven months in Bordeaux, King John, his son
0:53:36 > 0:53:41and hundreds of noble prisoners were shipped to England for ransom.
0:53:41 > 0:53:43Edward III would make a fortune.
0:53:50 > 0:53:54This time, Edward had not just humbled the French monarchy,
0:53:54 > 0:53:56he had broken it.
0:54:07 > 0:54:10So, Andrew, after Poitiers,
0:54:10 > 0:54:14can we really see the bonds between English and French nobility
0:54:14 > 0:54:17pulling apart once and for all?
0:54:17 > 0:54:21The English had been using the French war as a means of making vast profit
0:54:21 > 0:54:23at the expense of the French nobility.
0:54:23 > 0:54:29The balance of payments on ransoms is massively in England's favour.
0:54:29 > 0:54:32If we imagine the French elite as a vast social network,
0:54:32 > 0:54:38their hubs had been torn out. It left society in France without leaders.
0:54:38 > 0:54:42Given that 20 years of war had led to the rape of the French countryside,
0:54:42 > 0:54:45systematically in some parts of France,
0:54:45 > 0:54:47it is hardly surprising that, by the 1360s,
0:54:47 > 0:54:51the English and French nobilities no longer saw eye to eye.
0:54:53 > 0:54:57Defeated at Poitiers, with their king held prisoner,
0:54:57 > 0:55:00the French had no choice but to agree a peace.
0:55:02 > 0:55:04With the Treaty of Bretigny,
0:55:04 > 0:55:07Edward was to be given full sovereignty,
0:55:07 > 0:55:12not just of an enlarged Gascony, but of all his conquests in France.
0:55:14 > 0:55:18On receipt of these lands, nearly a third of the country,
0:55:18 > 0:55:24Edward was to formally renounce his claim to be king of France.
0:55:28 > 0:55:32So really is this claim to the French crown a bit of a red herring?
0:55:32 > 0:55:36He's using it to further his rights to his ancestral territories.
0:55:36 > 0:55:42Well, the question about his claim to the throne of France is how real it really was.
0:55:42 > 0:55:47Was it intended primarily as a sort of bargaining lever in the diplomatic stage?
0:55:47 > 0:55:53Or was he using this to extract a large ransom from the French king?
0:55:53 > 0:55:57And his ancestral lands expanded now, in full sovereignty,
0:55:57 > 0:56:01was that what he was using his claim to the throne for?
0:56:01 > 0:56:05Was he accepting that, at some point, he may need to set it aside
0:56:05 > 0:56:08in order to achieve what he was really after all the time,
0:56:08 > 0:56:13the property that his ancestors had had in France?
0:56:20 > 0:56:24Whatever his motivation, Edward spent his triumphant years,
0:56:24 > 0:56:27and vast spoils, turning Windsor,
0:56:27 > 0:56:32the seat of his loyal Knights of the Garter, into a magnificence palace.
0:56:34 > 0:56:38It escaped everyone's notice that Edward's formal renunciation
0:56:38 > 0:56:41of his claim to the French crown was never made.
0:56:53 > 0:56:55As for King John of France,
0:56:55 > 0:57:01he was unable to pay his colossal three million gold crown ransom.
0:57:01 > 0:57:03A gracious King Edward actually let him go home,
0:57:05 > 0:57:09keeping instead his two sons as hostages.
0:57:11 > 0:57:14Within a year, King John was back.
0:57:16 > 0:57:21He preferred hawking in captivity to reconstructing his ruined country.
0:57:21 > 0:57:26He would eventually die here in England, a truly defeated man.
0:57:37 > 0:57:40Edward had got what he wanted, he'd won.
0:57:40 > 0:57:42But he'd done more than that.
0:57:42 > 0:57:48No longer a vassal, he had changed the rules of England's relationship with France.
0:57:48 > 0:57:53And he'd set his country on a path from which there would be no way back.
0:57:55 > 0:57:58Next on the Hundred Years' War,
0:57:58 > 0:58:01France is out for revenge.
0:58:03 > 0:58:07England descends into civil war as the peasants rise up in revolt.
0:58:07 > 0:58:09Oh, my god!
0:58:10 > 0:58:15But in all this chaos a new cultural identity emerges.
0:58:15 > 0:58:18And for the English a new hero,
0:58:18 > 0:58:22Henry V.
0:58:24 > 0:58:26Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd