0:00:04 > 0:00:091953. A coronation fit for a king.
0:00:09 > 0:00:12But it's a young queen who is about to be crowned.
0:00:12 > 0:00:15And the crowd roars its approval.
0:00:17 > 0:00:20The fact that she's a woman attracts no comment
0:00:20 > 0:00:24and she will go on to reign over us for six decades.
0:00:26 > 0:00:31But England's queens haven't always been greeted with such adoration,
0:00:31 > 0:00:34and throughout our history,
0:00:34 > 0:00:37women and power have made an uneasy combination.
0:00:39 > 0:00:43800 years earlier, another female heir to the throne
0:00:43 > 0:00:46came to Westminster for her coronation.
0:00:46 > 0:00:48She wasn't met by cheering crowds.
0:00:48 > 0:00:51Instead, she was chased away from the capital by an angry mob.
0:00:51 > 0:00:53SHOUTING AND JEERING
0:00:54 > 0:00:57Her name was Matilda,
0:00:57 > 0:01:01the first woman to make a claim to the English crown in her own right.
0:01:03 > 0:01:06But 800 years ago, power was inescapably male.
0:01:06 > 0:01:10There was no question in the medieval world -
0:01:10 > 0:01:14men ruled and women didn't.
0:01:14 > 0:01:19A king was a warrior who literally fought to win power,
0:01:19 > 0:01:21then battled to keep it.
0:01:21 > 0:01:25Yet despite everything that stood in their way,
0:01:25 > 0:01:27a handful of extraordinary women
0:01:27 > 0:01:31did attempt to rule medieval and Tudor England.
0:01:32 > 0:01:36This series is about the queens who challenged male power
0:01:36 > 0:01:40and the fierce reactions they provoked.
0:01:40 > 0:01:42When they pursued power like kings,
0:01:42 > 0:01:45these royal women were criticised and condemned.
0:01:45 > 0:01:49Most graphically of all, they'd been vilified as She-Wolves.
0:01:49 > 0:01:53These are the stories of the She-Wolves of England,
0:01:53 > 0:01:57and to explore them is to realise just how far we've come
0:01:57 > 0:01:59and how little has changed.
0:02:22 > 0:02:25On the 24th of June 1141, a 39-year-old woman
0:02:25 > 0:02:30sat down here at Westminster to a sumptuous banquet.
0:02:30 > 0:02:33It was a feast to celebrate her planned coronation
0:02:33 > 0:02:35as Queen of England.
0:02:35 > 0:02:38Matilda, it seemed, was about to become the first woman
0:02:38 > 0:02:41to rule England in her own right.
0:02:45 > 0:02:48Matilda was the daughter of Henry I
0:02:48 > 0:02:50and granddaughter of William the Conqueror,
0:02:50 > 0:02:55but you won't find her on the role-call of English monarchs.
0:02:55 > 0:02:57This faint manuscript image
0:02:57 > 0:03:00is the only contemporary picture of her that survives.
0:03:02 > 0:03:05Her attempt to claim the crown was to throw the country
0:03:05 > 0:03:09into almost 20 years of catastrophic civil war.
0:03:09 > 0:03:11Matilda herself has gone down in history
0:03:11 > 0:03:14as a domineering and destructive woman,
0:03:14 > 0:03:17perceived by men as a she-wolf
0:03:17 > 0:03:20simply because she dared to challenge the assumption
0:03:20 > 0:03:22that only a man could wear the English crown.
0:03:26 > 0:03:29And her bid for the throne began with a tragedy.
0:03:29 > 0:03:32The death of the male heir, her brother William.
0:03:33 > 0:03:35It happened not in England,
0:03:35 > 0:03:38but when he and their father were returning from their territory
0:03:38 > 0:03:41across the channel in Normandy.
0:03:45 > 0:03:48This sleepy village - Barfleur, in Normandy -
0:03:48 > 0:03:51was once the greatest port on the Norman coast.
0:03:51 > 0:03:54It was from here that Matilda's grandfather,
0:03:54 > 0:03:58William, Duke of Normandy, set off to conquer England in 1066.
0:03:59 > 0:04:0154 years later, another Norman fleet
0:04:01 > 0:04:04set out from Barfleur to cross the channel.
0:04:04 > 0:04:07At it's head was the King of England, Henry I,
0:04:07 > 0:04:10in his great dragon-headed longship, and behind him,
0:04:10 > 0:04:13in a newly fitted-out vessel called the White Ship,
0:04:13 > 0:04:17was his son and heir, William, with a large party of young noblemen.
0:04:19 > 0:04:21It was November,
0:04:21 > 0:04:24late in the year for what could be a treacherous crossing.
0:04:26 > 0:04:29But the water in Barfleur harbour was still and glassy,
0:04:29 > 0:04:32and there seemed no need for concern.
0:04:33 > 0:04:37The King set sail first at twilight, to be followed by William
0:04:37 > 0:04:40and his company of ebullient young aristocrats.
0:04:40 > 0:04:43But when the White Ship slipped out into the dark water,
0:04:43 > 0:04:46everyone on board was roaring drunk.
0:04:53 > 0:04:56No-one noticed the rock at the harbour mouth.
0:04:56 > 0:05:01But no one could mistake the sickening jolt as the ship struck.
0:05:01 > 0:05:03CRASHING BOOM
0:05:10 > 0:05:12It took only minutes to sink.
0:05:15 > 0:05:20And in the freezing November waters, there was no hope of rescue.
0:05:24 > 0:05:26BELL TOLLS
0:05:26 > 0:05:29The chronicler William of Malmesbury wrote...
0:05:29 > 0:05:34No ship that ever sailed brought England such disaster.
0:05:34 > 0:05:37It was such a calamity that two days passed
0:05:37 > 0:05:42before anyone dared to break the news to King Henry.
0:05:42 > 0:05:45When eventually a stuttering boy was pushed forward
0:05:45 > 0:05:47to tell him that his son was dead,
0:05:47 > 0:05:50the king collapsed in anguish.
0:05:51 > 0:05:54It was a personal tragedy,
0:05:54 > 0:05:57but for a King, the personal was always political
0:05:57 > 0:05:59and all Henry's hopes for his country's future
0:05:59 > 0:06:02had been swallowed by the sea, along with his drowned son.
0:06:05 > 0:06:09Norman Kings had worn the English crown for just over 50 years,
0:06:09 > 0:06:13but already a dynasty had been founded
0:06:13 > 0:06:17and a new source of potential power for future queens.
0:06:17 > 0:06:21After all, they were the ones who produced sons and heirs.
0:06:21 > 0:06:26But now there was no natural successor to continue the line.
0:06:26 > 0:06:29No boys, just a daughter
0:06:29 > 0:06:31called Matilda.
0:06:31 > 0:06:35There had never been a female heir to the English throne.
0:06:35 > 0:06:37But then again, there was nothing explicitly to say
0:06:37 > 0:06:39that a woman couldn't inherit the crown.
0:06:39 > 0:06:42The revolutionary effects of the conquest,
0:06:42 > 0:06:44which had swept away all precedent and tradition
0:06:44 > 0:06:48meant that Norman England hadn't yet developed fixed rules
0:06:48 > 0:06:50about how a new monarch should be chosen.
0:06:54 > 0:06:59But in these times, it wasn't enough to have a right to the throne.
0:06:59 > 0:07:03To wear the crown, you had to fight for it, too.
0:07:03 > 0:07:07That's exactly what happened with Matilda's father.
0:07:07 > 0:07:10Henry the First had fought his older brother
0:07:10 > 0:07:13for the rule of England and Normandy,
0:07:13 > 0:07:17and once he'd become King, he had to keep on fighting
0:07:17 > 0:07:19to impose his authority on his nobles.
0:07:21 > 0:07:23Could this possibly be a job for a woman?
0:07:25 > 0:07:29These are the two sides of a king's great seal,
0:07:29 > 0:07:32the physical representation of the crown's authority
0:07:32 > 0:07:34that hung from every royal decree.
0:07:34 > 0:07:37It's an iconic image of power
0:07:37 > 0:07:40that demonstrates the king's most fundamental roles.
0:07:42 > 0:07:46Here, on one side, he sits with an orb and sceptre in his hands
0:07:46 > 0:07:48to give justice to his people.
0:07:48 > 0:07:54On the other, he rides a war horse with his sword unsheathed
0:07:54 > 0:07:56to defend his kingdom.
0:08:04 > 0:08:09Even today, power still looks, sounds and feels
0:08:09 > 0:08:11overwhelmingly male.
0:08:12 > 0:08:16Back then, there was no question in contemporaries' minds
0:08:16 > 0:08:18about the order of God's creation.
0:08:18 > 0:08:22Men ruled and their women obeyed.
0:08:23 > 0:08:28In fact, the Anglo Saxon word for "queen" didn't mean a female king,
0:08:28 > 0:08:31it meant the wife of a king
0:08:31 > 0:08:35and as a king's wife, a queen could advise her husband,
0:08:35 > 0:08:40or even represent him, but her authority always depended on his.
0:08:42 > 0:08:45And it was this limited kind of queenship,
0:08:45 > 0:08:48as royal wife to a royal husband,
0:08:48 > 0:08:51for which Matilda had been prepared since birth.
0:08:51 > 0:08:55When she was a small child, her father sent her to a foreign land
0:08:55 > 0:08:57to be married to a complete stranger.
0:09:00 > 0:09:04At the age of eight, she'd already begun an extraordinary career.
0:09:04 > 0:09:06She'd left England to marry Henry the Fifth,
0:09:06 > 0:09:09the King of Germany and Holy Roman Emperor.
0:09:09 > 0:09:12Since then, she'd been fated as his empress
0:09:12 > 0:09:15at the greatest court in Europe, and as a result,
0:09:15 > 0:09:19she had a powerful sense of her own majesty.
0:09:27 > 0:09:30Matilda assumed that she would spend the rest of her life
0:09:30 > 0:09:32as a German empress,
0:09:32 > 0:09:37but when she was 23, her husband died suddenly
0:09:37 > 0:09:42and after 16 years abroad, Matilda came home to England.
0:09:43 > 0:09:45She was Henry's only heir
0:09:45 > 0:09:49and he chose this moment to ensure the future of his dynasty.
0:09:52 > 0:09:55This is Westminster Hall.
0:09:55 > 0:10:00In Matilda's day, it was probably the largest indoor space in Europe.
0:10:00 > 0:10:03It still has a daunting grandeur.
0:10:04 > 0:10:08It was at a ceremony here that Henry promised Matilda
0:10:08 > 0:10:11a startling new future.
0:10:11 > 0:10:14He was suggesting that for the first time
0:10:14 > 0:10:18a woman could rule in her own right as a female King.
0:10:20 > 0:10:25On the 1st of January 1127, here in the great hall at Westminster,
0:10:25 > 0:10:28the nobles of Henry's kingdom swore a solemn oath
0:10:28 > 0:10:30that they would support Matilda's right
0:10:30 > 0:10:33to succeed to her father's throne.
0:10:33 > 0:10:36No-one tried to argue that a woman couldn't rule.
0:10:39 > 0:10:43But the likelihood is that the nobles were paying lip service
0:10:43 > 0:10:46to an idea that they thought would never happen.
0:10:46 > 0:10:50And Henry had an alternative plan.
0:10:50 > 0:10:54Matilda was still young. If she could give him a grandson,
0:10:54 > 0:10:58England might yet be ruled by a king of his bloodline.
0:10:58 > 0:11:03So once again, he sent her away to be married.
0:11:03 > 0:11:06She might have been promised a powerful future,
0:11:06 > 0:11:09but for the moment she was still her father's pawn.
0:11:11 > 0:11:14Since the conquest, the Kings of England
0:11:14 > 0:11:17had ruled both England and Normandy
0:11:17 > 0:11:22but this new Anglo-Norman realm was difficult to hold together.
0:11:22 > 0:11:26One way to defend it was to create alliances through marriage,
0:11:26 > 0:11:31so Henry chose as Matilda's bridegroom Geoffrey of Anjou,
0:11:31 > 0:11:35whose lands to the south of Normandy could protect Henry's borders.
0:11:45 > 0:11:51In June 1128, Henry came here, to his Norman capital, Rouen,
0:11:51 > 0:11:54to knight his prospective son-in-law.
0:11:56 > 0:12:02Henry was delighted with the match, but Matilda wasn't so pleased.
0:12:02 > 0:12:06The good news? Geoffrey was so handsome and athletic
0:12:06 > 0:12:10that he was nicknamed "Geoffrey the Fair".
0:12:10 > 0:12:12The bad? He was only 15.
0:12:15 > 0:12:20Matilda clearly wasn't dazzled by Geoffrey's good looks.
0:12:20 > 0:12:22He was eleven years younger than her
0:12:22 > 0:12:25and her junior by far in status and experience.
0:12:25 > 0:12:28She'd just lost a husband who'd been a father figure
0:12:28 > 0:12:29as well as an emperor,
0:12:29 > 0:12:34and now she was offered an arrogant teenager as his replacement.
0:12:34 > 0:12:38She tried to resist the match, but in the end she had no choice.
0:12:38 > 0:12:42She did her unpleasant duty and married him.
0:12:51 > 0:12:54But Matilda didn't give in easily.
0:12:54 > 0:12:57She never called herself Countess of Anjou.
0:12:57 > 0:13:01Instead, she always insisted on the greater magnificence
0:13:01 > 0:13:06of her own title, as empress and daughter of the King of the English.
0:13:07 > 0:13:11As such, Matilda knew what her father expected of her -
0:13:11 > 0:13:14that she should produce a male heir.
0:13:14 > 0:13:16But just a year after the wedding,
0:13:16 > 0:13:20the unhappy couple were living apart.
0:13:20 > 0:13:26Matilda might have given up on her marriage, but her father hadn't.
0:13:26 > 0:13:32In 1131, he imposed a reconciliation on the couple and to good effect.
0:13:32 > 0:13:35In the Spring of 1133, Matilda gave birth to her first child,
0:13:36 > 0:13:41a healthy boy called Henry after his proud grandfather.
0:13:41 > 0:13:44A year later, she had a second son.
0:13:44 > 0:13:47So, Henry had his male heirs.
0:13:47 > 0:13:49But he was in his 60s,
0:13:49 > 0:13:55and it would be years before they grew up and there was more.
0:13:55 > 0:13:56Having a family of her own
0:13:56 > 0:14:00meant that Matilda's loyalties were now split.
0:14:00 > 0:14:04The arrival of his grandsons was a dynastic triumph for Henry.
0:14:04 > 0:14:07But Matilda's new role as the mother of two young sons
0:14:08 > 0:14:11left her caught in the middle, between her husband's ambition
0:14:11 > 0:14:15and her father's refusal, even at the age of 67,
0:14:15 > 0:14:19to relinquish any part of his hold on power.
0:14:19 > 0:14:23And in 1135, as political disagreement escalated
0:14:23 > 0:14:25into the flexing of military muscle,
0:14:25 > 0:14:27Matilda stayed in Anjou with Geoffrey,
0:14:27 > 0:14:31standing shoulder to shoulder with her husband.
0:14:40 > 0:14:43But just as Matilda was fighting for power for her husband,
0:14:44 > 0:14:47she was suddenly offered power in her own right.
0:14:51 > 0:14:57Her father, Henry, was taken ill on a hunting trip in November 1135.
0:14:58 > 0:15:03Knowing that his grandsons were not yet old enough to succeed him,
0:15:03 > 0:15:07as Henry lay dying he insisted that the nobles abide by the agreement
0:15:07 > 0:15:11they'd made eight years earlier to allow Matilda to rule.
0:15:13 > 0:15:16And as soon as the news of her father's death reached her,
0:15:16 > 0:15:19Matilda made her first move in becoming Queen.
0:15:22 > 0:15:25She rode north to seize control of Argentan,
0:15:25 > 0:15:29an important fortress that was crucial to the rule of Normandy.
0:15:32 > 0:15:35But then she went no further.
0:15:35 > 0:15:37She discovered she was pregnant.
0:15:44 > 0:15:47It's impossible to know what was going through Matilda's mind
0:15:47 > 0:15:49stuck out here at Argentan.
0:15:49 > 0:15:51The chronicler, William of Malmesbury,
0:15:51 > 0:15:54says only that she failed to return to England for "certain reasons",
0:15:54 > 0:15:59which at a distance of almost 900 years is maddeningly opaque.
0:15:59 > 0:16:01Maybe her pregnancy had made her ill
0:16:01 > 0:16:05or maybe she believed the nobles would simply rally to her cause.
0:16:05 > 0:16:08What we do know is that while Matilda hesitated
0:16:08 > 0:16:12it was her cousin Stephen who seized the moment.
0:16:17 > 0:16:22Stephen was a powerful man and an effective soldier.
0:16:22 > 0:16:25He rode to Winchester, where his brother was Bishop,
0:16:25 > 0:16:28and had himself crowned King.
0:16:29 > 0:16:33For Matilda this was a shocking betrayal.
0:16:33 > 0:16:37Stephen had been among the nobles who had sworn allegiance to her
0:16:37 > 0:16:40when her father was alive.
0:16:40 > 0:16:45Matilda believed absolutely in her right to the throne.
0:16:45 > 0:16:48But her big mistake was to assume that others did too.
0:16:50 > 0:16:54Male might, it seemed, still overcame female right.
0:16:56 > 0:17:01According to a chronicle known as the Gesta Stephani,
0:17:01 > 0:17:03The Deeds of Stephen:
0:17:03 > 0:17:06"There was no one else at hand who could take the King's place
0:17:06 > 0:17:10"and put an end to the great dangers threatening the kingdom."
0:17:10 > 0:17:13This is hardly an impartial account.
0:17:13 > 0:17:17It was written by a monk with close ties to Stephen's court
0:17:17 > 0:17:19and Stephen is the hero of the story.
0:17:20 > 0:17:24Unfortunately no-one was writing Matilda's story.
0:17:27 > 0:17:31Stephen's masterstroke was his speedily arranged coronation.
0:17:31 > 0:17:37Once God had made him King, no man, let alone a woman, could undo it.
0:17:39 > 0:17:42Stephen's kingship had taken effect in the moment
0:17:42 > 0:17:44he was anointed with holy oil.
0:17:44 > 0:17:48But in that instant also lay the seeds of civil war.
0:17:48 > 0:17:51Two different forms of royal legitimacy
0:17:51 > 0:17:54now stood in opposition to one another.
0:17:54 > 0:17:57Matilda was the only legitimate child of the previous king
0:17:57 > 0:18:01and the nobles had sworn allegiance to her as his heir.
0:18:01 > 0:18:05But Stephen had just been anointed and crowned as Henry's successor.
0:18:05 > 0:18:09Victory for one now meant defeat for the other.
0:18:16 > 0:18:21Stephen might have God on his side, but he needed people too.
0:18:21 > 0:18:25He couldn't rule without the support of the powerful nobles.
0:18:25 > 0:18:27It was a balancing act.
0:18:27 > 0:18:29They would help the King keep order in the Kingdom
0:18:29 > 0:18:35and defend it from attack if he offered leadership and security.
0:18:35 > 0:18:39And this is what Stephen appeared to be doing,
0:18:39 > 0:18:43so one by one they rallied to his cause
0:18:43 > 0:18:46and his triumph seemed complete
0:18:46 > 0:18:49when he won the support of Robert of Gloucester,
0:18:49 > 0:18:52one of the most powerful noblemen in the country.
0:18:54 > 0:18:58Hundreds of miles away in France, Matilda's cause seemed lost.
0:19:02 > 0:19:06Her third son had been born safely at Argentan.
0:19:06 > 0:19:08But now and she and her boys were embattled there
0:19:08 > 0:19:11with little prospect of reclaiming her inheritance.
0:19:11 > 0:19:15But it was Normandy that came to her rescue.
0:19:19 > 0:19:22To make his throne secure Stephen needed to control
0:19:22 > 0:19:25the Anglo Norman realm on both sides of the channel.
0:19:25 > 0:19:29But while he established his rule in England,
0:19:29 > 0:19:34it took him more than a year to cross the channel to France.
0:19:35 > 0:19:39By then Normandy had collapsed into anarchy
0:19:39 > 0:19:41and so did Stephen's army,
0:19:41 > 0:19:45as his soldiers began to squabble among themselves.
0:19:50 > 0:19:52At her base at Argentan -
0:19:52 > 0:19:56news reached Matilda that Stephen's campaign in Normandy
0:19:56 > 0:19:58was disintegrating into chaos.
0:19:58 > 0:19:59Most significantly of all,
0:19:59 > 0:20:03the uneasy alliance between Stephen and Robert of Gloucester
0:20:03 > 0:20:04began to fall apart.
0:20:04 > 0:20:07And in June 1138, in a dramatic about turn,
0:20:07 > 0:20:10Robert declared his support for Matilda.
0:20:10 > 0:20:14At a stroke her position was transformed.
0:20:17 > 0:20:22Matilda now had a route to England and the throne.
0:20:22 > 0:20:26Robert's lands in Normandy gave her a safe corridor to the coast.
0:20:28 > 0:20:33Stephen was still the anointed king but for the first time,
0:20:33 > 0:20:36cracks were beginning to appear in his regime.
0:20:38 > 0:20:40How far would Matilda go
0:20:40 > 0:20:43to fight for the crown that she believed was hers?
0:20:49 > 0:20:51It was becoming clear that Matilda herself
0:20:51 > 0:20:53would have to stand at the centre
0:20:53 > 0:20:55of the campaign to secure her inheritance.
0:20:55 > 0:20:57Her uniquely royal blood -
0:20:57 > 0:21:00despite the female body in which it was housed -
0:21:00 > 0:21:02represented the only hope
0:21:02 > 0:21:05of challenging the sanctity of Stephen's coronation.
0:21:05 > 0:21:09And so, in 1139, Matilda set foot on English soil
0:21:09 > 0:21:11for the first time in eight years.
0:21:11 > 0:21:14She came here, to Arundel Castle.
0:21:17 > 0:21:21News quickly reached Stephen of Matilda's arrival
0:21:21 > 0:21:25and he lost no time in marching an army to Arundel's gates.
0:21:26 > 0:21:31For once, Matilda's sex worked to her benefit, not her disadvantage.
0:21:31 > 0:21:34She was the daughter of a king, the widow of an emperor
0:21:34 > 0:21:35and Stephen's own cousin.
0:21:35 > 0:21:38Attempting to wage war on a woman of such exalted status
0:21:38 > 0:21:41would be a profoundly risky business.
0:21:42 > 0:21:48So Stephen was reluctantly persuaded to allow Matilda to leave Arundel.
0:21:48 > 0:21:51This played straight into Matilda's hands.
0:21:51 > 0:21:55She immediately went to Bristol, where Robert of Gloucester
0:21:55 > 0:21:57waited in his fortress.
0:21:57 > 0:22:00While Matilda's forces were still smaller than Stephen's,
0:22:00 > 0:22:02support for her was growing.
0:22:05 > 0:22:08Men who had wavered in their loyalty to Stephen
0:22:08 > 0:22:10now had the royal figurehead they needed.
0:22:10 > 0:22:13And while Matilda's forces had no chance
0:22:13 > 0:22:15of overwhelming Stephen's army head on,
0:22:15 > 0:22:17they did find a way to wear him down
0:22:17 > 0:22:19with feints and lightning strikes,
0:22:19 > 0:22:22a kind of guerrilla warfare that kept Stephen on the back foot.
0:22:29 > 0:22:34For the next two years civil war raged in England
0:22:34 > 0:22:36and it took an immense toll on the country.
0:22:40 > 0:22:42The countryside was plundered
0:22:42 > 0:22:45and reduced to blackened earth by hostile troops.
0:22:52 > 0:22:53"It was a dreadful thing,"
0:22:53 > 0:22:56said the chronicler, William of Malmesbury,
0:22:56 > 0:23:00"that England, once the noblest place of peace,
0:23:00 > 0:23:02"the peculiar habitation of tranquillity,
0:23:02 > 0:23:05"had sunk to such wretchedness."
0:23:12 > 0:23:14But out of that wretchedness
0:23:14 > 0:23:19would come the moment of Matilda's greatest triumph.
0:23:19 > 0:23:23In February 1141, in vicious fighting at Lincoln,
0:23:23 > 0:23:28troops loyal to Matilda defeated Stephens' army
0:23:28 > 0:23:30and took the king prisoner.
0:23:32 > 0:23:36It had been five years since her father's death
0:23:36 > 0:23:41but now the throne was within her reach for the first time.
0:23:41 > 0:23:45Now Matilda knew she needed the church
0:23:45 > 0:23:47and the people to recognise her as Queen.
0:23:49 > 0:23:52She couldn't undo Stephen's coronation
0:23:52 > 0:23:56but she could try to supersede it with one of her own.
0:23:56 > 0:23:59And she found an unlikely ally
0:23:59 > 0:24:02in the man who had orchestrated Stephen's coronation,
0:24:02 > 0:24:05his own brother, Bishop Henry of Winchester.
0:24:07 > 0:24:10Matilda cleverly promised Bishop Henry
0:24:10 > 0:24:13first place among her advisors.
0:24:13 > 0:24:16And in return he rallied the church to her cause.
0:24:19 > 0:24:21In April 1141,
0:24:21 > 0:24:25Bishop Henry convened a special counsel of the church at Winchester.
0:24:25 > 0:24:29Among those who attended was the chronicler, William of Malmesbury.
0:24:32 > 0:24:35This is a translation of William's chronicle
0:24:35 > 0:24:39and it's an extraordinary thing more than 800 years later
0:24:39 > 0:24:41to read an eye witness account.
0:24:42 > 0:24:46It turned out that the Bishop was a master of political spin.
0:24:46 > 0:24:49He explained to the council that when King Henry died,
0:24:49 > 0:24:53he had left his crown to his daughter.
0:24:53 > 0:24:57"But," he said, "because it seemed tedious to wait for the lady
0:24:57 > 0:24:59"who made delays in coming to England
0:24:59 > 0:25:02"since her residence was in Normandy,
0:25:02 > 0:25:05"thought was taken for the peace of the country
0:25:05 > 0:25:08"and my brother allowed to reign."
0:25:08 > 0:25:11This was a piece of breath-taking revisionism
0:25:11 > 0:25:13but the Bishop didn't stop there.
0:25:13 > 0:25:18Stephen, he declared, hadn't brought peace and justice to England,
0:25:18 > 0:25:20and he was now a prisoner.
0:25:20 > 0:25:25So the English church spoke in the voice of Bishop Henry.
0:25:25 > 0:25:28"We choose as Lady of England and Normandy
0:25:28 > 0:25:31"the daughter of a king who was a peacemaker,
0:25:31 > 0:25:34"a glorious king, a wealthy king, a good king,
0:25:34 > 0:25:37"without peer in our time,
0:25:37 > 0:25:40"and we promise her faith and support."
0:25:47 > 0:25:49This was a victory
0:25:49 > 0:25:52that Matilda had fought for six long years to achieve.
0:25:54 > 0:25:58So here at Winchester Matilda was recognised as England's lady,
0:25:58 > 0:26:00"domina" in Latin.
0:26:00 > 0:26:03What that meant was that she would have dominion,
0:26:03 > 0:26:08power, or lordship, of the kind that her father had enjoyed.
0:26:08 > 0:26:10And once she was anointed and crowned
0:26:10 > 0:26:13she would become a new kind of queen,
0:26:13 > 0:26:16one who would rule in her own right.
0:26:19 > 0:26:22Matilda began to prepare for her coronation,
0:26:22 > 0:26:28she was on the brink of becoming England's first female king,
0:26:28 > 0:26:31but as she began to act like England's new ruler
0:26:31 > 0:26:35it became clear that she still had a battle to fight.
0:26:35 > 0:26:38As the chronicles written at the time reveal,
0:26:38 > 0:26:42when the great men of the kingdom began to be confronted
0:26:42 > 0:26:46with the reality of female rule, they didn't like what they saw.
0:26:46 > 0:26:50"She was lifted up into an insufferable arrogance
0:26:50 > 0:26:54"and she alienated the hearts of almost everyone.
0:26:54 > 0:26:57"She had brought the greater part of the kingdom under her sway
0:26:57 > 0:27:02"and on this account she was mightily puffed up and exulted in spirit."
0:27:02 > 0:27:05"She at once put on an extremely arrogant demeanour
0:27:05 > 0:27:08"instead of the modest gait and bearing proper to the gentle sex.
0:27:08 > 0:27:11"Began to walk and speak and do all things more stiffly
0:27:11 > 0:27:15"and more haughtily than she had been wont, to such a point
0:27:15 > 0:27:18"that soon, in the capital of the land subject to her,
0:27:18 > 0:27:21"she actually made herself Queen of all England
0:27:21 > 0:27:23"and gloried in being so called."
0:27:23 > 0:27:25This has become the defining account
0:27:25 > 0:27:28of Matilda's difficulties at this crucial moment.
0:27:28 > 0:27:32She was just too arrogant to make a success of ruling.
0:27:32 > 0:27:34But there's more going on here
0:27:34 > 0:27:37than a previously undetected character flaw.
0:27:37 > 0:27:40Matilda was trying to become Queen of England,
0:27:40 > 0:27:43not in the conventional sense of a king's wife,
0:27:43 > 0:27:47but in the unprecedented form of a female king.
0:27:47 > 0:27:51And kings didn't deport themselves with a modest gait and bearing,
0:27:51 > 0:27:54they had to be commanding and authoritative.
0:27:54 > 0:27:56But when Matilda tried to do that,
0:27:56 > 0:27:59she was seen as unnaturally domineering.
0:28:00 > 0:28:04The great men of the realm couldn't believe that a mere woman
0:28:04 > 0:28:07wouldn't take their advice without question
0:28:07 > 0:28:11and as the rumblings of discontent grew louder and louder,
0:28:11 > 0:28:14medieval spin doctors went to work.
0:28:16 > 0:28:19True to form, the hostile chronicler of the Gesta Stephani,
0:28:19 > 0:28:23the Deeds of Stephen, reported that she had demanded money
0:28:23 > 0:28:24from the citizens of London.
0:28:24 > 0:28:26And when they resisted...
0:28:26 > 0:28:30"She, with a grim look, her forehead wrinkled into a frown,
0:28:30 > 0:28:34"every trace of a woman's gentleness removed from her face,
0:28:34 > 0:28:37"blazed into unbearable fury."
0:28:40 > 0:28:42Stephen was still a prisoner,
0:28:42 > 0:28:44but troops loyal to his cause
0:28:44 > 0:28:47began to ravage the land south of the Thames
0:28:47 > 0:28:51just across the river from the City of London.
0:28:59 > 0:29:04Undeterred Matilda pressed on with her coronation plans.
0:29:04 > 0:29:07She was so close to her moment of triumph
0:29:07 > 0:29:10but at the last moment everything began to unravel.
0:29:16 > 0:29:20As Matilda prepared to enjoy her feast at Westminster,
0:29:20 > 0:29:22bells began to toll.
0:29:22 > 0:29:24The gates of the City swung open
0:29:24 > 0:29:28and out swarmed thousands of armed Londoners
0:29:28 > 0:29:30to drive her away from the capital.
0:29:38 > 0:29:41All Matilda's hopes of being crowned Queen
0:29:41 > 0:29:45were trampled into the dirt along with the feast she had left behind.
0:29:53 > 0:29:56But things were about to get still worse.
0:29:57 > 0:30:02News reached Matilda that Bishop Henry had swapped sides once again
0:30:02 > 0:30:06and declared his support of his brother Stephen.
0:30:06 > 0:30:09Matilda pursued the Bishop to Winchester
0:30:09 > 0:30:11but was caught in an ambush.
0:30:11 > 0:30:15She was smuggled to safety but her greatest supporter,
0:30:15 > 0:30:19Robert of Gloucester, was captured in battle.
0:30:19 > 0:30:22Without him, she knew she could never hope to win
0:30:22 > 0:30:27so she bought his freedom but the price was high,
0:30:27 > 0:30:32she had to release her most valuable prisoner by far, her rival Stephen.
0:30:34 > 0:30:35Still she fought on
0:30:35 > 0:30:41and in September 1142, Matilda was besieged by Stephen's forces
0:30:41 > 0:30:44in the burned and blackened city of Oxford.
0:30:44 > 0:30:49For three months she held out but just before Christmas
0:30:49 > 0:30:53she decided to risk everything in one last effort to escape.
0:30:58 > 0:31:01Matilda's escape from Oxford is the most famous, the most daring
0:31:01 > 0:31:04and certainly the bravest moment of her life.
0:31:04 > 0:31:05In the cold and dark,
0:31:05 > 0:31:08with a body guard of just three trusted soldiers,
0:31:08 > 0:31:11she left Oxford Castle by a small side gate.
0:31:11 > 0:31:15Wrapped in white cloaks as camouflage against the snow,
0:31:15 > 0:31:17they walked silently across the frozen river.
0:31:17 > 0:31:21An army surrounded the castle but no-one saw them pass.
0:31:21 > 0:31:24They trudged seven miles through the drifting snow
0:31:24 > 0:31:27before they found horses to carry them to safety.
0:31:32 > 0:31:36It was a courageous escape by anyone's standards
0:31:36 > 0:31:42and even the Gesta Stephani remarked on Matilda's extraordinary tenacity.
0:31:42 > 0:31:45"Never have I read of another woman so luckily rescued
0:31:45 > 0:31:50"from so many mortal foes and from the threat of dangers so great."
0:31:52 > 0:31:56Matilda was now free, but nothing had changed.
0:31:56 > 0:32:00England remained in military deadlock,
0:32:00 > 0:32:03it was time to develop a new game plan.
0:32:06 > 0:32:08As the destructive stalemate continued,
0:32:08 > 0:32:11Matilda came to the realisation that, as a woman,
0:32:11 > 0:32:13she would never fit her most powerful subjects' idea
0:32:13 > 0:32:16of what a King should be
0:32:16 > 0:32:17but she was the mother of a son,
0:32:17 > 0:32:21Henry, and he was an entirely different prospect.
0:32:21 > 0:32:24Matilda recognised that the battle she now faced
0:32:24 > 0:32:27was to win the crown for her son, not to wear it herself.
0:32:30 > 0:32:35If the she-wolf couldn't wear the crown, then her cub would.
0:32:35 > 0:32:37While Matilda had been fighting in England,
0:32:37 > 0:32:40her son Henry had grown up in France.
0:32:40 > 0:32:43As a strong and energetic warrior
0:32:43 > 0:32:45he had all the promise of a future King
0:32:45 > 0:32:49and Matilda decided that the time had come for him to fight
0:32:49 > 0:32:51for his grandfather's kingdom.
0:32:53 > 0:32:56Stephen's position had depended on his ability
0:32:56 > 0:32:58to offer security and leadership.
0:33:01 > 0:33:05But the anarchy of the long years of civil war had undone all that.
0:33:06 > 0:33:09According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,
0:33:09 > 0:33:12England's people felt abandoned by God.
0:33:12 > 0:33:16Saying that while they suffered, Christ and his saints slept.
0:33:21 > 0:33:23And so, in the face of dwindling support,
0:33:23 > 0:33:27Stephen was forced to agree a compromise.
0:33:28 > 0:33:30He would remain as King
0:33:30 > 0:33:32but at a ceremony, here in Winchester,
0:33:32 > 0:33:36Stephen recognised Henry as his successor.
0:33:39 > 0:33:41Matilda had won.
0:33:42 > 0:33:47But the cost of her victory was her own political eclipse.
0:33:47 > 0:33:49She wasn't even mentioned by name
0:33:49 > 0:33:51in the treaty that brought an end to the conflict
0:33:51 > 0:33:53that had dominated her life.
0:33:54 > 0:33:58It wasn't long though before her self denial was rewarded.
0:33:58 > 0:34:03Stephen died in October 1154 and two months later,
0:34:03 > 0:34:08almost exactly 19 years since Matilda's father had died,
0:34:08 > 0:34:11her son was crowned King Henry II.
0:34:11 > 0:34:12BELLS RINGING
0:34:14 > 0:34:19With her son safely on the throne, Matilda returned to Normandy
0:34:19 > 0:34:21and settled just outside its capital, Rouen,
0:34:21 > 0:34:24where she acted as Henry's councillor
0:34:24 > 0:34:26and sometimes his royal deputy.
0:34:26 > 0:34:29Matilda had shown how hard it was
0:34:29 > 0:34:33for a woman to rule in her own right.
0:34:33 > 0:34:36In the end she sacrificed her own claim to the throne
0:34:36 > 0:34:39to ensure her dynasty continued.
0:34:39 > 0:34:43She had lost the battle but she had won the war.
0:34:43 > 0:34:48Her father would have been proud of her and her son certainly was.
0:34:50 > 0:34:53Henry never forgot the importance of his mother
0:34:53 > 0:34:58and always called himself Henry FitzEmpress - son of the Empress.
0:34:59 > 0:35:02A poem from the time recalls that,
0:35:02 > 0:35:05"Nothing in the world was dearer to him than she."
0:35:10 > 0:35:14Matilda died in Normandy at the age of 65
0:35:14 > 0:35:17on the 10th of September 1167.
0:35:26 > 0:35:30In the end it was Matilda's tough political pragmatism
0:35:30 > 0:35:33that made her son King.
0:35:33 > 0:35:37These Latin verses were later inscribed on her tomb:
0:35:37 > 0:35:41"Ortu Magna, viro maior, sed maxima partu,
0:35:41 > 0:35:47"hic iacet Henrici filia, sponsa, parens."
0:35:47 > 0:35:53"Great by birth, greater by marriage but greatest in her offspring.
0:35:53 > 0:35:58"Here lies the daughter, wife and mother of Henry."
0:35:58 > 0:35:59Her son's triumph
0:35:59 > 0:36:02was the vindication of everything she'd done
0:36:02 > 0:36:05but the price to be paid for that victory
0:36:05 > 0:36:08was her disappearance between the lines of her own epitaph.
0:36:11 > 0:36:13This was the price that Matilda paid
0:36:13 > 0:36:19for being a queen who dared to believe she might act like a king.
0:36:19 > 0:36:20And still the question remained,
0:36:20 > 0:36:26would a woman seeking this much power always face such outrage?
0:36:34 > 0:36:38Her daughter-in-law would attempt to find out
0:36:38 > 0:36:41with just as much determination as Matilda herself.
0:36:44 > 0:36:47But as the centuries have gone by,
0:36:47 > 0:36:51Eleanor of Aquitaine's fame has endured less as a she-wolf
0:36:51 > 0:36:56than as a queen of the romantic world of chivalry and courtly love.
0:37:01 > 0:37:05In fact we know very little for certain about Eleanor's looks
0:37:05 > 0:37:06or her emotional life.
0:37:06 > 0:37:09The only contemporary image of her that survives
0:37:09 > 0:37:11is this effigy from her tomb at Fontevraud Abbey
0:37:11 > 0:37:14and it's hard to get a sense of the extraordinary woman
0:37:14 > 0:37:16behind this mask-like face.
0:37:17 > 0:37:20One clue to her intellect is perhaps the book she's holding -
0:37:20 > 0:37:23not a typical prop for a medieval woman
0:37:23 > 0:37:27but then Eleanor wasn't typical in anything she did.
0:37:27 > 0:37:30She spent 80 years at the centre of European politics,
0:37:30 > 0:37:35not as a passive consort but as a dynamic force in her own right.
0:37:35 > 0:37:39Above all she was a woman who believed in her own agency,
0:37:39 > 0:37:41her ability to determine her own fate.
0:37:51 > 0:37:54Eleanor's childhood was spent in Poitiers,
0:37:54 > 0:37:58one of the great cities of her father's Duchy of Aquitaine.
0:38:00 > 0:38:05In her day it had a reputation as a place of poetry, romance and wit.
0:38:07 > 0:38:10It was a flamboyant and sophisticated court
0:38:10 > 0:38:11for a girl to grow up in.
0:38:14 > 0:38:17This exquisite church, with its elaborate carvings
0:38:17 > 0:38:20and richly painted walls,
0:38:20 > 0:38:23gives us a rare glimpse into the sumptuousness
0:38:23 > 0:38:25of Eleanor's early life
0:38:25 > 0:38:30but at the age of 13 she was abruptly taken away from all this.
0:38:31 > 0:38:34The beginning of Eleanor's life was entirely conventional
0:38:34 > 0:38:37for an aristocratic heiress.
0:38:37 > 0:38:39Just like Matilda before her,
0:38:39 > 0:38:42she was an asset to be traded in marriage.
0:38:43 > 0:38:47But Eleanor made a particularly powerful match.
0:38:47 > 0:38:50Her new husband was heir to the French throne
0:38:50 > 0:38:55and within days of the wedding the old King died.
0:38:55 > 0:39:00Now, at the age of only 13, Eleanor was Queen of France,
0:39:00 > 0:39:02wife of King Louis VII.
0:39:05 > 0:39:08Louis, who was unworldly and young for his years,
0:39:08 > 0:39:12was puppyishly devoted to his beautiful wife.
0:39:12 > 0:39:15Eleanor was much less impressed.
0:39:15 > 0:39:19According to later gossip she said he was more monk than King.
0:39:19 > 0:39:24Eleanor's role as consort was to give Louis an heir
0:39:24 > 0:39:26and it may be evidence of her distaste for the job
0:39:26 > 0:39:30that it was eight years before she gave birth for the first time.
0:39:31 > 0:39:35The baby was strong, healthy and perfect in every way
0:39:35 > 0:39:38except for the fact that she was a girl.
0:39:41 > 0:39:43But Eleanor was still only 21.
0:39:45 > 0:39:47And, from their court in Paris,
0:39:47 > 0:39:52there was another project consuming the royal couple.
0:39:52 > 0:39:56Louis and Eleanor had decided to go on crusade.
0:40:01 > 0:40:05Here at Saint-Denis, in June 1147,
0:40:05 > 0:40:07Eleanor knelt to receive the Pope's blessing
0:40:07 > 0:40:10during the crusade's elaborate send-off
0:40:10 > 0:40:14and she almost fainted on a suffocatingly hot day
0:40:14 > 0:40:16but she didn't show any such vulnerability
0:40:16 > 0:40:19in the face of the very real dangers of the crusade itself.
0:40:24 > 0:40:27Eleanor and Louis were joining the great battle
0:40:27 > 0:40:29between the Christian West and Muslim East
0:40:29 > 0:40:32to win control of Jerusalem and the Holy Land.
0:40:33 > 0:40:36This adventure was the first sign
0:40:36 > 0:40:40that Eleanor was not going to be a conventional wife or Queen.
0:40:43 > 0:40:46A crusade was not to be taken lightly,
0:40:46 > 0:40:49a treacherous journey across 1,000s of miles
0:40:49 > 0:40:55to face dangers of landscape, climate, disease and war.
0:40:55 > 0:40:59Ironically, though, the greatest threat to France's Queen
0:40:59 > 0:41:03wasn't her position near the front line but a personal scandal.
0:41:04 > 0:41:08Eleanor and Louis made their way across Europe.
0:41:08 > 0:41:13In the Spring of 1148 they sought refuge in Antioch,
0:41:13 > 0:41:15now in modern day Turkey,
0:41:15 > 0:41:19which was ruled by Eleanor's uncle, Raymond of Poitiers.
0:41:22 > 0:41:24According to one chronicler,
0:41:24 > 0:41:26Raymond was the handsomest of the princes of the earth
0:41:26 > 0:41:29and Eleanor delighted in his company.
0:41:29 > 0:41:32Soon the intimacy between them began to spark scandalous gossip
0:41:32 > 0:41:34that raced across Europe.
0:41:36 > 0:41:39This was a dangerous moment for Eleanor.
0:41:39 > 0:41:44She was suspected of having an incestuous affair with her uncle.
0:41:44 > 0:41:46"Bad enough," you might think,
0:41:46 > 0:41:50for a Queen, however, adultery was also treason.
0:41:54 > 0:41:56But Eleanor seemed completely undaunted
0:41:56 > 0:41:59by this innuendo and speculation.
0:41:59 > 0:42:01When Louis decided to leave Antioch,
0:42:01 > 0:42:04Eleanor, astonishingly, refused to go with him
0:42:04 > 0:42:06and when he tried to insist,
0:42:06 > 0:42:10she showed just how far she was prepared to go to escape him.
0:42:14 > 0:42:18Eleanor decided to use church law to claim that her marriage was invalid.
0:42:19 > 0:42:22In theory, the church banned marriages
0:42:22 > 0:42:24where a couple shared an ancestor
0:42:24 > 0:42:26within the previous seven generations
0:42:26 > 0:42:28as Eleanor and Louis did
0:42:28 > 0:42:31but this was a law that the powerful could always
0:42:31 > 0:42:33get permission to ignore.
0:42:34 > 0:42:38According to the chronicler, John of Salisbury:
0:42:38 > 0:42:42"When the King made haste to tear her away she mentioned their kinship,
0:42:42 > 0:42:45"saying it was not lawful for them to remain together as man and wife
0:42:45 > 0:42:50"since they were related by the fourth and fifth degree."
0:42:50 > 0:42:53The reality was that church law was used by powerful men
0:42:53 > 0:42:56to get rid of wives who were no longer politically convenient.
0:42:56 > 0:43:00And it seemed that Eleanor didn't see why she shouldn't use it too.
0:43:05 > 0:43:09But Eleanor found that the King's power was greater than hers.
0:43:09 > 0:43:12Louis wasn't prepared to let his Queen go
0:43:12 > 0:43:15and she was forced to leave Antioch with him.
0:43:20 > 0:43:24In 1149 the failed crusade trailed home
0:43:24 > 0:43:26and for the next two years Eleanor
0:43:26 > 0:43:29didn't waste her energy by struggling further.
0:43:29 > 0:43:32She remained dutifully in Paris
0:43:32 > 0:43:36and in 1150 she gave birth to another daughter.
0:43:38 > 0:43:40But then she encountered the man
0:43:40 > 0:43:43who would change the whole course of her life.
0:43:44 > 0:43:50This man was Matilda's son, Henry, future King of England
0:43:50 > 0:43:54and in 1151 peace talks brought him to Paris.
0:44:00 > 0:44:03Eleanor and Henry must have met when he came to the French court
0:44:03 > 0:44:04in the summer of 1151,
0:44:04 > 0:44:08though the chroniclers are tantalisingly silent on the subject.
0:44:08 > 0:44:11He was nine years younger than Eleanor,
0:44:11 > 0:44:12a fiery and charismatic young man
0:44:12 > 0:44:16with boundless energy as a soldier and a leader
0:44:16 > 0:44:19and just seven months later, the difficulties in Eleanor's marriage
0:44:19 > 0:44:22erupted into the open once again.
0:44:24 > 0:44:27This time it was Louis who had given up the fight
0:44:27 > 0:44:29to keep his wife by his side.
0:44:31 > 0:44:37In March 1152 a committee of French bishops annulled their marriage
0:44:37 > 0:44:39and Eleanor left Paris immediately for Poitiers.
0:44:39 > 0:44:43BELLS RINGING
0:44:48 > 0:44:54Just eight weeks and two days after her divorce she married Henry.
0:44:54 > 0:44:57In doing so she changed the balance of power in Europe.
0:45:00 > 0:45:05Eleanor had inherited the vast Duchy of Aquitaine from her father
0:45:05 > 0:45:09and by adding this to Henry's lands in England, Normandy and Anjou,
0:45:09 > 0:45:12she helped him build an empire that
0:45:12 > 0:45:16stretched from the Pyrenees to the Scottish borders.
0:45:19 > 0:45:24Eleanor had already shown that she would determine her own future
0:45:24 > 0:45:27but now in her second royal marriage, she found
0:45:27 > 0:45:32she wasn't the strongest female influence in her husband's life.
0:45:32 > 0:45:37That role went to her new mother-in-law, Matilda.
0:45:39 > 0:45:43We don't know anything about the relationship between these
0:45:43 > 0:45:45two formidable women.
0:45:45 > 0:45:48But what we do know is that while Eleanor did her duty
0:45:48 > 0:45:52as Henry's Queen, producing eight children in 15 years,
0:45:52 > 0:45:57it was Matilda who was the elder states woman in his government.
0:45:57 > 0:46:02That was to change in 1167 when Matilda died less than a year
0:46:02 > 0:46:05after the birth of her last royal grandchild.
0:46:05 > 0:46:08Now, at the age of 43,
0:46:08 > 0:46:12Eleanor's political career was about to begin in earnest.
0:46:17 > 0:46:21The task of governing Henry's huge and unwieldy empire
0:46:21 > 0:46:25was a challenging one, which kept him constantly on the move.
0:46:29 > 0:46:32Aquitaine, at its most southern edge, was culturally
0:46:32 > 0:46:36and politically alien to Henry but it was Eleanor's homeland.
0:46:40 > 0:46:45And in 1168, Eleanor went to govern the Duchy in her husband's name.
0:46:46 > 0:46:50For Henry this was a matter of political strategy,
0:46:50 > 0:46:55but for Eleanor an opportunity and a welcome homecoming.
0:46:57 > 0:47:01Hidden inside what are now the law courts in Eleanor's city
0:47:01 > 0:47:04of Poitiers is all that remains of her vast palace.
0:47:09 > 0:47:12We don't know very much about the details of Eleanor's rule
0:47:12 > 0:47:16but it's clear that she exercised independent power here,
0:47:16 > 0:47:18holding great courts where she gathered
0:47:18 > 0:47:20Aquitaine's lords around her.
0:47:20 > 0:47:22But she wasn't accused of unnatural pride,
0:47:22 > 0:47:24as Matilda had been in England.
0:47:24 > 0:47:27Instead, her role as Aquitaine's Duchess was accepted.
0:47:27 > 0:47:30A woman in charge was much less challenging, it turned out,
0:47:30 > 0:47:33if she were ruling as the lieutenant of an absent husband.
0:47:38 > 0:47:42However, the stories that surround this period of Eleanor's life
0:47:42 > 0:47:45are tales of romance and chivalry.
0:47:47 > 0:47:50Aquitaine was the home of the troubadours
0:47:50 > 0:47:54who sang of knights declaring their passionate devotion
0:47:54 > 0:47:55to unobtainable ladies
0:47:55 > 0:47:59and attempting heroic deeds of valour to win their hearts.
0:48:00 > 0:48:04One 12th century text entitled De Amore
0:48:04 > 0:48:07puts Eleanor at the centre of these stories,
0:48:07 > 0:48:11ruling over a court of love that pronounced judgement
0:48:11 > 0:48:15on questions such as whether true love could exist in marriage.
0:48:21 > 0:48:25There's no evidence that the courts of love ever really existed,
0:48:25 > 0:48:29but it's interesting that the idea has persisted so powerfully.
0:48:29 > 0:48:32How much easier to think of Eleanor as the Queen of romance
0:48:32 > 0:48:35concerned with emotions, not politics.
0:48:35 > 0:48:39But what Eleanor did next, I think, demonstrated
0:48:39 > 0:48:43in the most dramatic way, just how important power was to her.
0:48:50 > 0:48:54This magnificent castle at Chinon along the banks of the Loire
0:48:54 > 0:48:58was one of the most important centres of Henry's rule.
0:48:58 > 0:49:01It was also the setting for what was to be
0:49:01 > 0:49:04Eleanor's most assertive bid for power.
0:49:09 > 0:49:13Eleanor never had a claim to be a monarch in her own right,
0:49:13 > 0:49:15but her children did
0:49:15 > 0:49:18and, as a mother, she was prepared to fight tooth and claw
0:49:18 > 0:49:21for her sons' rights.
0:49:21 > 0:49:24It was a fight that would dominate the rest of her life.
0:49:27 > 0:49:31Male heirs were a medieval king's greatest asset,
0:49:31 > 0:49:34the insurance that his dynasty would prevail,
0:49:34 > 0:49:38but grown-up sons weren't always prepared to wait patiently
0:49:38 > 0:49:40while their father still reigned.
0:49:40 > 0:49:43When Eleanor's three eldest boys reached their teens,
0:49:43 > 0:49:47they were champing at the bit for a share
0:49:47 > 0:49:49in ruling their father's empire.
0:49:49 > 0:49:52And although Henry promised them a role to play,
0:49:52 > 0:49:56he couldn't bring himself to delegate real power.
0:49:59 > 0:50:03In 1173, their oldest son
0:50:03 > 0:50:06had had enough of his father's empty promises.
0:50:06 > 0:50:10Under cover of night, he rode away from Chinon to defect
0:50:10 > 0:50:16to Henry's great enemy and Eleanor's ex-husband, the King of France.
0:50:18 > 0:50:22Eleanor's husband was devastated at their son's betrayal,
0:50:22 > 0:50:25but Henry was about to get a much bigger shock.
0:50:25 > 0:50:28When he sent for his wife and his younger sons,
0:50:28 > 0:50:32he discovered that Eleanor and the boys had also left for Paris.
0:50:32 > 0:50:35It was clear that Eleanor too was in open revolt
0:50:35 > 0:50:37against her husband and King.
0:50:38 > 0:50:41Why did Eleanor turn on her husband?
0:50:41 > 0:50:44The story that's often told is that she was violently angry
0:50:44 > 0:50:47about Henry's affair with a beautiful young woman
0:50:47 > 0:50:49named Rosamund Clifford,
0:50:49 > 0:50:52known as "Fair Rosamund" the "Rose of the World".
0:50:54 > 0:50:58There's no way of knowing now what Eleanor thought or felt,
0:50:58 > 0:51:02so we'll never be sure exactly what was going through her mind
0:51:02 > 0:51:04when she rebelled against her husband.
0:51:04 > 0:51:07And once again in Eleanor's life, emotion gets used to fill
0:51:07 > 0:51:10a gap left by an absence of evidence.
0:51:10 > 0:51:12All kings had mistresses
0:51:12 > 0:51:15and Eleanor was worldly wise enough to know that.
0:51:15 > 0:51:19But she had a formidable political brain and it's much more likely
0:51:19 > 0:51:23that she, like her sons, was angry that the power Henry
0:51:23 > 0:51:26had given her in Aquitaine wasn't everything he'd promised.
0:51:31 > 0:51:35Eleanor was treading an intensely dangerous path,
0:51:35 > 0:51:37but she had never been held back by fear.
0:51:38 > 0:51:41She had already done the unthinkable
0:51:41 > 0:51:43when she left one king to marry another.
0:51:45 > 0:51:49Now her second royal husband was standing in the way
0:51:49 > 0:51:52of her ambition and she would leave him too.
0:51:56 > 0:52:00Sons rebelling against their father were a cause of outrage and sorrow,
0:52:00 > 0:52:03but the 12th century had seen it all before.
0:52:03 > 0:52:05A wife rebelling against her husband
0:52:05 > 0:52:09was a new and profoundly alarming phenomenon.
0:52:09 > 0:52:13One chronicler scoured his archive to find more than 30 examples
0:52:13 > 0:52:15of sons taking up arms against their father,
0:52:15 > 0:52:20but not a single precedent of a queen in revolt against her husband.
0:52:20 > 0:52:23In a public letter, the Archbishop of Rouen told Eleanor
0:52:23 > 0:52:26that she threatened the very fabric of society.
0:52:26 > 0:52:29"Man is the head of woman", he said.
0:52:29 > 0:52:31"We know that unless you return to your husband,
0:52:31 > 0:52:34"you will be the cause of a general ruin".
0:52:40 > 0:52:43But Eleanor, as always, refused to be cowed.
0:52:43 > 0:52:48She set about mustering support from the disaffected Lords of Aquitaine
0:52:48 > 0:52:52who were always ready to resist Henry's rule.
0:52:54 > 0:53:00Finally, she rode North to join her sons. But she never arrived.
0:53:00 > 0:53:04She was captured on the road by her husband's forces.
0:53:04 > 0:53:09According to one chronicle, they found her disguised as a man.
0:53:11 > 0:53:14With Eleanor captured, the boys were no match for their father.
0:53:15 > 0:53:18By the autumn of 1174, they had no choice
0:53:18 > 0:53:21but to throw themselves on his mercy.
0:53:22 > 0:53:27Henry was generous in victory and offered his sons peace with honour.
0:53:28 > 0:53:32To Eleanor, he was not so magnanimous.
0:53:36 > 0:53:40Eleanor was taken as a prisoner from France to England
0:53:40 > 0:53:44and for the next 15 years she's almost lost in silence.
0:53:44 > 0:53:46We don't even know for certain where she was held,
0:53:46 > 0:53:49but for a woman who'd always believed in her own agency,
0:53:49 > 0:53:54captivity can only have been relentlessly difficult to endure.
0:53:59 > 0:54:02Eleanor was blamed for their family's descent into civil war.
0:54:02 > 0:54:07But during the 15 long years, she was kept under lock and key,
0:54:07 > 0:54:08THEY kept on fighting.
0:54:12 > 0:54:17It was a conflict that claimed the life of her eldest son
0:54:17 > 0:54:23and it didn't stop until 1189 when, at the age of 56,
0:54:23 > 0:54:26in his fortress of Chinon, Henry II died.
0:54:28 > 0:54:30His body was taken to Fontevraud Abbey,
0:54:30 > 0:54:33ten miles westward along the Loire River.
0:54:36 > 0:54:38His heir was his second son, Richard,
0:54:38 > 0:54:41Eleanor's favourite child,
0:54:41 > 0:54:44who would one day be known as the Lion Heart.
0:54:46 > 0:54:51It was dusk when Richard stepped into the church to look
0:54:51 > 0:54:54for the last time at his dead father's face.
0:54:54 > 0:54:56Then he sent word to England
0:54:56 > 0:54:59that his mother was now a free woman.
0:55:06 > 0:55:08Eleanor was 65 years old,
0:55:08 > 0:55:13and, after 15 years in captivity, her moment had come.
0:55:13 > 0:55:16And this time, she wasn't just given the Duchy of Aquitaine to rule
0:55:16 > 0:55:18but the kingdom of England.
0:55:18 > 0:55:22Richard sent word that his mother should have the power of doing
0:55:22 > 0:55:24whatever she wished in the kingdom.
0:55:28 > 0:55:32Eleanor had to rule England because Richard was away on crusade.
0:55:32 > 0:55:36And unusually for Eleanor's controversial career,
0:55:36 > 0:55:39her power didn't provoke critical comment.
0:55:40 > 0:55:45It seemed that a queen mother ruling on behalf of her son, the King,
0:55:45 > 0:55:49was infinitely more acceptable than a queen ruling in her own right.
0:55:52 > 0:55:54To establish her son's new regime,
0:55:54 > 0:55:58Eleanor travelled from city to city and castle to castle
0:55:58 > 0:56:00at the head of her queenly court,
0:56:00 > 0:56:02an unusual adjective for the chronicler
0:56:02 > 0:56:04Roger of Howden to choose,
0:56:04 > 0:56:08but one that emphasised the rare spectacle of a woman alone
0:56:08 > 0:56:10at the helm of English government.
0:56:12 > 0:56:17And she had to do the job for much longer than anyone had anticipated.
0:56:17 > 0:56:21On his way back from the Holy land, Richard was captured,
0:56:21 > 0:56:25and spent more than a year behind the walls of a German castle.
0:56:26 > 0:56:31It was Eleanor who kept the peace in England during his absence
0:56:31 > 0:56:35and Eleanor who raised the ransom that eventually bought his freedom.
0:56:37 > 0:56:43When Richard died in 1199, struck by a stray arrow at a siege in France,
0:56:43 > 0:56:46it was Eleanor who secured the succession
0:56:46 > 0:56:47of her youngest son, John.
0:56:53 > 0:56:58Amazingly, at the age of 75, she travelled hundreds of miles,
0:56:58 > 0:57:02the length and breadth of France to support John's rule.
0:57:05 > 0:57:09But eventually age and exhaustion caught up with Eleanor.
0:57:09 > 0:57:12She returned here to Fontevraud to rest
0:57:12 > 0:57:16and from that point on she retreated into silence.
0:57:19 > 0:57:25Eleanor died on the 31st March 1204 at the age of 80.
0:57:29 > 0:57:32Despite her long years of conflict with her husband,
0:57:32 > 0:57:35she was laid to rest beside him.
0:57:42 > 0:57:47Matilda and Eleanor both believed in their right to rule for themselves.
0:57:47 > 0:57:51Matilda got to the very brink of her own coronation as Queen of England.
0:57:51 > 0:57:54And when Eleanor's power and autonomy were threatened,
0:57:54 > 0:57:57she went so far as to lead a rebellion against her own husband.
0:57:57 > 0:58:00But in practice, it turned out that the sight of a woman
0:58:00 > 0:58:05pursuing power for herself caused consternation and horror.
0:58:05 > 0:58:09The fear of the she-wolves had begun.
0:58:09 > 0:58:11In the next programme,
0:58:11 > 0:58:16we meet the queens who inspired that title in literature.
0:58:16 > 0:58:18One accused of murder,
0:58:18 > 0:58:21the other of plunging the country into the Wars of the Roses,
0:58:21 > 0:58:24Isabella and Margaret each fought for power
0:58:24 > 0:58:27in one of the most brutal periods of English history.
0:58:49 > 0:58:52Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd