0:00:02 > 0:00:04CHEERING
0:00:04 > 0:00:061953.
0:00:06 > 0:00:09A coronation fit for a king.
0:00:09 > 0:00:13But it's a young queen who's about to be crowned.
0:00:13 > 0:00:15And the crowd roars its approval.
0:00:17 > 0:00:19The fact that she's a woman attracts no comment
0:00:19 > 0:00:23and she will go on to reign over us for six decades.
0:00:25 > 0:00:29But England's queens haven't always been greeted with such adoration.
0:00:30 > 0:00:34The first woman who sought to be crowned queen in her own right,
0:00:34 > 0:00:37here in Westminster, 800 years earlier,
0:00:37 > 0:00:40received a very different response.
0:00:40 > 0:00:43She wasn't met by cheering crowds.
0:00:43 > 0:00:47Instead, she was chased away from the capital by an angry mob.
0:00:51 > 0:00:57That's because throughout our history, women and power have made an uneasy combination.
0:00:57 > 0:01:02Never more so than the Middle Ages when a king was a warrior
0:01:02 > 0:01:06who had to fight to win power, then battle to keep it.
0:01:08 > 0:01:11But despite everything that stood in their way,
0:01:11 > 0:01:16a handful of extraordinary women did attempt to rule Medieval England.
0:01:18 > 0:01:21This series is about the queens who challenged male power
0:01:21 > 0:01:25and the fierce reactions they provoked.
0:01:27 > 0:01:29When they pursued power like kings,
0:01:29 > 0:01:32these royal women were criticised and condemned.
0:01:32 > 0:01:37Most graphically of all, they've been vilified as She-Wolves.
0:01:37 > 0:01:40These are the stories of the She-Wolves of England.
0:01:40 > 0:01:44And to explore them is to realise just how far we've come,
0:01:44 > 0:01:46and how little has changed.
0:01:57 > 0:01:59CHURCH BELLS PEAL
0:02:11 > 0:02:15In 1308, a 12-year-old girl, Isabella of France,
0:02:15 > 0:02:18became Queen of England when she married the English king.
0:02:18 > 0:02:21A century and a half later, another young French girl,
0:02:21 > 0:02:24Margaret of Anjou, followed in her footsteps.
0:02:25 > 0:02:32These are the stories of two women who were thrust into a violent and dysfunctional foreign country.
0:02:33 > 0:02:35And as their new lives unfolded,
0:02:35 > 0:02:40they each felt driven to take control of the kingdom themselves.
0:02:42 > 0:02:46At their weddings, Isabella and Margaret were little more than pawns
0:02:46 > 0:02:49in the power play between England and France.
0:02:49 > 0:02:53But as they grew into women, they became queens who dominated the board.
0:02:53 > 0:02:57It was Margaret's violent pursuit of power that inspired Shakespeare
0:02:57 > 0:03:00to name her "The She-Wolf of France."
0:03:00 > 0:03:04Another poet, Thomas Gray, later gave Isabella the same title.
0:03:09 > 0:03:14But there was no hint of the She-Wolf when Isabella first arrived in England at the age of 12.
0:03:17 > 0:03:21Today this seems an extraordinarily young age to be married off,
0:03:21 > 0:03:27but as a princess, Isabella had been prepared from the cradle for such a royal match.
0:03:30 > 0:03:33As daughter of the King of France, Isabella came to her marriage
0:03:33 > 0:03:37as the living embodiment of an Anglo-French alliance.
0:03:37 > 0:03:40She had grown up amid the sophistication of the Parisian court
0:03:40 > 0:03:44watching her mother act as consort to one of the most powerful kings in Europe.
0:03:44 > 0:03:47She had a keen sense of her own majesty,
0:03:47 > 0:03:51and she knew exactly what should await her as Queen of England.
0:03:51 > 0:03:54What she found was quite different.
0:03:56 > 0:04:00The signs were there from her very first public appearance,
0:04:00 > 0:04:02the Royal couple's coronation.
0:04:03 > 0:04:07Isabella should have been centre-stage,
0:04:07 > 0:04:12but her place was taken by a handsome young man named Piers Gaveston.
0:04:12 > 0:04:15He carried the king's crown into the Abbey,
0:04:15 > 0:04:18and sat with Edward at the coronation banquet.
0:04:19 > 0:04:23Gaveston was so magnificently dressed, one observer noted,
0:04:23 > 0:04:26that "he more resembled the god Mars than an ordinary mortal."
0:04:28 > 0:04:32Isabella was only 12, but she knew how a king's wife should be treated.
0:04:32 > 0:04:38And it was clear that her rightful place at Edward's side had already been taken, by Gaveston.
0:04:40 > 0:04:45Isabella wasn't the only one who noticed the relationship between Edward and Piers.
0:04:45 > 0:04:49Her French uncles went home in a rage,
0:04:49 > 0:04:53insulted that Edward had given some of their wedding presents to Gaveston.
0:04:55 > 0:04:58A chronicler of the time wrote...
0:04:58 > 0:05:02"I do not remember to have heard that one man so loved another."
0:05:06 > 0:05:10Not only was Isabella finding that there were three people in her marriage,
0:05:10 > 0:05:13but Gaveston's preening and waspish presence
0:05:13 > 0:05:18was having an equally corrosive effect on the king's relationship with his nobles.
0:05:20 > 0:05:24A king couldn't rule without the support of his powerful nobles.
0:05:25 > 0:05:29They would help him keep order in the kingdom and defend it from attack,
0:05:29 > 0:05:34while the king himself offered leadership and security.
0:05:34 > 0:05:38But that's just what the nobles thought Edward wasn't doing.
0:05:38 > 0:05:41His father, the great warrior King Edward I,
0:05:41 > 0:05:46had defended the country and earned the title "Hammer of the Scots"
0:05:46 > 0:05:48for his ferocious attempt to conquer Scotland.
0:05:51 > 0:05:55But these hard-won gains were now being lost by his son
0:05:55 > 0:05:59and the nobles laid the blame on his obsession with Gaveston.
0:06:02 > 0:06:04Eventually, seeing no other option,
0:06:04 > 0:06:09a group of nobles came to parliament, armed and angry.
0:06:09 > 0:06:12They demanded that Gaveston be banished,
0:06:12 > 0:06:17and forced Edward to agree that 21 of them should rule on his behalf.
0:06:20 > 0:06:25This was not what Isabella had signed up for when she married the King of England.
0:06:25 > 0:06:27But she was still little more than a child,
0:06:27 > 0:06:30and she was powerless to stop the conflict.
0:06:35 > 0:06:40And to make matters worse, Edward wouldn't accept Gaveston's exile.
0:06:40 > 0:06:42Within two months, they were back together again.
0:06:45 > 0:06:49Isabella had, though, clearly spent at least one night with her husband.
0:06:52 > 0:06:57By the spring of 1312, she was 16, and pregnant for the first time.
0:06:57 > 0:07:02But instead of relishing her new status as the future mother of England's heir,
0:07:02 > 0:07:06she found herself following Edward and Gaveston round the north of England,
0:07:06 > 0:07:09with a hostile army of lords in hot pursuit.
0:07:13 > 0:07:19Isabella was dragged around the country as Edward tried to keep his lover safe.
0:07:19 > 0:07:25But the group of lords chasing them, led by the Earl of Lancaster,
0:07:25 > 0:07:30were determined to capture Gaveston and end this destructive relationship for ever.
0:07:31 > 0:07:35They got their chance when the royal party was separated.
0:07:35 > 0:07:41Gaveston took refuge in Scarborough, and Edward and Isabella, alone for once,
0:07:41 > 0:07:44headed for the fortified city of York.
0:07:46 > 0:07:50They were here at York Castle when they heard the dramatic news
0:07:50 > 0:07:53that Gaveston had been starved out of the fortress at Scarborough
0:07:53 > 0:07:56and was now a prisoner of the lords.
0:07:56 > 0:08:00Edward was consumed with anxiety about the fate of his favourite.
0:08:00 > 0:08:02Isabella's reaction isn't recorded,
0:08:02 > 0:08:05but we might assume it was rather different.
0:08:06 > 0:08:12Isabella thought Gaveston's removal might allow her to take her rightful place at her husband's side.
0:08:12 > 0:08:18But it was becoming clear that only death would separate Gaveston from Edward once and for all.
0:08:20 > 0:08:26Isabella was still here at York with her husband when word came of a bloody drama
0:08:26 > 0:08:29that had played itself out 100 miles further south.
0:08:30 > 0:08:33Some of the lords, led by the powerful Earl of Lancaster,
0:08:33 > 0:08:39had seized Gaveston and sentenced him to death in a show trial.
0:08:41 > 0:08:45Gaveston was taken out onto a sunny hillside near Warwick
0:08:45 > 0:08:47and his head hacked from his body.
0:08:51 > 0:08:54Isabella's rival was gone,
0:08:54 > 0:08:58and now her position was about to become even stronger.
0:08:59 > 0:09:03On 12th of November 1312, Isabella went into labour.
0:09:03 > 0:09:07Shortly before six the next morning, she gave birth to a boy.
0:09:07 > 0:09:10The 17-year-old queen kept her own counsel,
0:09:10 > 0:09:13but she had already learned a great deal.
0:09:13 > 0:09:17Her husband, she now knew, had much passion and little judgment.
0:09:17 > 0:09:19His nobles were men to be reckoned with.
0:09:19 > 0:09:22And now, with her son in her arms,
0:09:22 > 0:09:26Isabella herself held the key that would transform her power as queen.
0:09:31 > 0:09:33As a young bride
0:09:33 > 0:09:37she'd been little more than a decorative accessory to a diplomatic alliance,
0:09:37 > 0:09:40but as the mother of the future king of England,
0:09:40 > 0:09:43she had the possibility of real power.
0:09:45 > 0:09:47But what Isabella was seeking at this time
0:09:47 > 0:09:50was no more than the conventional role of a queen -
0:09:50 > 0:09:54not power for herself, but to support her husband.
0:09:58 > 0:10:02Tradition gave the queen a formal role as a peacemaker.
0:10:02 > 0:10:04Even a warrior king could show mercy
0:10:04 > 0:10:07if his consort knelt before him in public to beg for peace.
0:10:07 > 0:10:10Isabella's husband was no warrior king,
0:10:10 > 0:10:12but she was a peacemaking queen,
0:10:12 > 0:10:14and now she helped to forge a brittle truce
0:10:14 > 0:10:16between Edward and his nobles.
0:10:19 > 0:10:23But almost immediately her husband undermined her efforts.
0:10:25 > 0:10:28In 1314 the army he led
0:10:28 > 0:10:32suffered the most humiliating defeat of any English king
0:10:32 > 0:10:34at the hands of the Scots.
0:10:36 > 0:10:41At Bannockburn, Robert Bruce routed Edward's army.
0:10:43 > 0:10:47England had lost its hold on Scotland.
0:10:47 > 0:10:50Its borders were now overrun by Scot's raids
0:10:50 > 0:10:54and they couldn't be defended without help from the Earl of Lancaster,
0:10:54 > 0:10:58the man who had murdered Edward's beloved Gaveston.
0:11:00 > 0:11:03The threat of the Scots and the rift between Edward and Lancaster,
0:11:03 > 0:11:06made England a profoundly dysfunctional kingdom,
0:11:06 > 0:11:10and for Isabella it was a thankless task to be its queen.
0:11:10 > 0:11:14But her unhappy situation was about to become much worse.
0:11:14 > 0:11:17A new favourite was emerging at Edward's court,
0:11:17 > 0:11:20who would be more of a threat to Isabella than Gaveston had ever been.
0:11:25 > 0:11:29Hugh Despenser was a political predator.
0:11:29 > 0:11:32He had known Edward since his teens,
0:11:32 > 0:11:38but unlike Gaveston, Despenser doesn't seem to have been the king's lover.
0:11:38 > 0:11:42But this was small comfort to Isabella.
0:11:42 > 0:11:46While she was still loyally performing her royal duty
0:11:46 > 0:11:48by giving birth to two more children,
0:11:48 > 0:11:52she watched as Despenser set about using his influence with the king
0:11:52 > 0:11:56to build up his own wealth and power to dizzying heights -
0:11:56 > 0:12:01no matter how illegal his methods, or who stood in his way.
0:12:04 > 0:12:08By 1321 the lords had had enough.
0:12:08 > 0:12:12They marched on London and threatened violence against Edward
0:12:12 > 0:12:14and his new favourite.
0:12:17 > 0:12:19In the attempt to prevent civil war
0:12:19 > 0:12:22Isabella took action to support her husband
0:12:22 > 0:12:24in the way only a queen could.
0:12:28 > 0:12:31Isabella had just given birth to her fourth child,
0:12:31 > 0:12:36and yet again she had to go down on her knees in the ritual of queenly intervention,
0:12:36 > 0:12:39to persuade Edward to banish Despenser.
0:12:39 > 0:12:44She won a temporary truce, but little more than two months later, with terrible irony,
0:12:44 > 0:12:48it was Isabella herself who precipitated the country into civil war.
0:12:55 > 0:12:57In October 1321,
0:12:57 > 0:13:00Isabella was on her way to Canterbury on pilgrimage.
0:13:03 > 0:13:06At the end of a hard day's ride,
0:13:06 > 0:13:08she found herself at the gates of Leeds Castle,
0:13:08 > 0:13:11a mighty stronghold built near the Kent coast,
0:13:11 > 0:13:15seeking shelter for the night.
0:13:15 > 0:13:19To welcome the queen as a guest would normally be an honour,
0:13:19 > 0:13:22but the castle's lord, Bartholomew Badlesmere,
0:13:22 > 0:13:26was one of the rebels who had marched on London.
0:13:26 > 0:13:29His wife, left to keep the castle in his absence,
0:13:29 > 0:13:32was alarmed by Isabella's sudden arrival,
0:13:32 > 0:13:36and refused to let her in.
0:13:36 > 0:13:40Isabella was left out in the cold, and she was furious.
0:13:40 > 0:13:43She never lacked a sense of her own majesty,
0:13:43 > 0:13:46and now she ordered her men to force their way in.
0:13:46 > 0:13:50In response, the archers on the castle walls began to shoot,
0:13:50 > 0:13:53and within minutes, six of Isabella's soldiers lay dead.
0:13:56 > 0:13:59Isabella's confrontation at Leeds
0:13:59 > 0:14:04gave her husband the chance to send a message to all the rebel lords.
0:14:04 > 0:14:08The violent reception of his queen, Edward said, was treason,
0:14:08 > 0:14:13and he sent troops and siege engines to attack the castle.
0:14:13 > 0:14:18And when Lady Badlesmere threw open the gates to appeal for mercy,
0:14:18 > 0:14:23she and her young children were dispatched as prisoners to the Tower,
0:14:23 > 0:14:26while her men were hanged from the castle walls.
0:14:27 > 0:14:32From this moment the lords who opposed Edward could be in no doubt
0:14:32 > 0:14:36that the king intended the conflict to be a fight to the death.
0:14:36 > 0:14:40And in March 1322, at Boroughbridge in Yorkshire,
0:14:40 > 0:14:43Edward finally got his revenge for the years of humiliation
0:14:43 > 0:14:46when his army defeated and captured the Earl of Lancaster.
0:14:53 > 0:14:57As the greatest chronicler of the reign recalled,
0:14:57 > 0:15:01"The Earl of Lancaster once cut off Piers Gaveston's head
0:15:01 > 0:15:06"and now by the king's command the Earl himself had lost his head.
0:15:06 > 0:15:08"Thus, perhaps not unjustly,
0:15:08 > 0:15:12"the Earl received measure for measure."
0:15:12 > 0:15:18Isabella's husband was making very clear the dreadful penalties
0:15:18 > 0:15:21that now faced anyone who dared to oppose him.
0:15:23 > 0:15:28England's prisons filled with rebels' wives and children,
0:15:28 > 0:15:31while aristocratic corpses were left to rot
0:15:31 > 0:15:32on gallows across the country.
0:15:39 > 0:15:41With the ruthless Despenser at his side,
0:15:41 > 0:15:45Edward had found a way to eradicate all opposition
0:15:45 > 0:15:49by turning his rule into a grasping and paranoid tyranny.
0:15:49 > 0:15:52Isabella had done everything she could to be the perfect queen,
0:15:52 > 0:15:54but now, to her horror,
0:15:54 > 0:15:58she found that she too would be a victim of the new regime.
0:16:02 > 0:16:07And it was Isabella's French heritage which left her acutely vulnerable.
0:16:07 > 0:16:09In the summer of 1324
0:16:09 > 0:16:12a crisis erupted between England and France.
0:16:15 > 0:16:19England still held Gascony in the south of the country
0:16:19 > 0:16:23but Isabella's brother, the French king, was threatening to take it.
0:16:23 > 0:16:26It seemed war with France was imminent.
0:16:29 > 0:16:32Edward ordered that all Frenchmen and women
0:16:32 > 0:16:36living in England should be arrested as enemy aliens.
0:16:36 > 0:16:41And his favourite, Despenser, seized on the opportunity to take Isabella's possessions,
0:16:41 > 0:16:44intern her French servants
0:16:44 > 0:16:47and separate her from her children.
0:16:49 > 0:16:52Now Isabella's feelings for her husband and Despenser
0:16:52 > 0:16:56turned from mistrust to loathing.
0:16:56 > 0:17:00But there was one glimmer of hope.
0:17:00 > 0:17:02The French king was willing to negotiate.
0:17:05 > 0:17:08So Isabella cleverly put herself at her husband's disposal
0:17:08 > 0:17:12as the perfect emissary to her brother, the king of France.
0:17:12 > 0:17:15She had been so patient in the face of provocation
0:17:15 > 0:17:17that Edward and Despenser seized on this solution,
0:17:17 > 0:17:21believing she could be trusted to return like a loyal lapdog.
0:17:21 > 0:17:24And so, on 9th March 1325,
0:17:24 > 0:17:27Isabella left England for Paris.
0:17:33 > 0:17:38Isabella successfully negotiated a truce between England and France.
0:17:38 > 0:17:40Then she persuaded Edward
0:17:40 > 0:17:44that their 12-year-old son, the heir to the throne,
0:17:44 > 0:17:46should be sent to Paris to seal the agreement
0:17:46 > 0:17:49by paying homage to the French King.
0:17:51 > 0:17:54This was the moment Isabella had been waiting for.
0:17:54 > 0:17:59When her son arrived on French soil, her position was transformed.
0:17:59 > 0:18:02As Edward's consort, there had been little she could do.
0:18:02 > 0:18:03But with her son beside her,
0:18:03 > 0:18:07she could speak and act as the mother of the heir to the throne
0:18:07 > 0:18:09in the face of her husband's tyranny.
0:18:09 > 0:18:12She'd been waiting for her chance and now she took it.
0:18:15 > 0:18:18With his son, Edward sent an instruction
0:18:18 > 0:18:20that his wife should return home,
0:18:20 > 0:18:25but Isabella had no intention of doing any such thing.
0:18:25 > 0:18:29And we know exactly the reason she gave.
0:18:29 > 0:18:32The manuscript of the greatest chronicle of the reign,
0:18:32 > 0:18:34the Vita Edwardi Secundi,
0:18:34 > 0:18:38is long lost - but its text has been passed down through the centuries.
0:18:38 > 0:18:40And here, in this modern translation,
0:18:40 > 0:18:44we hear Isabella's voice speaking for the first time.
0:18:44 > 0:18:48Until now, she'd been a supporting player in the unfolding drama.
0:18:48 > 0:18:51But now, she moved to the centre of the stage
0:18:51 > 0:18:55as she replied to her husband with open defiance.
0:18:55 > 0:18:58"I feel that marriage is a union of a man and a woman
0:18:58 > 0:19:03"and someone has come between my husband and myself and is trying to break this bond.
0:19:03 > 0:19:07"I declare that I will not return until this intruder is removed."
0:19:09 > 0:19:13Isabella's game plan was to present herself to the world
0:19:13 > 0:19:15as a wronged wife.
0:19:15 > 0:19:20And until now she'd seemed more than justified in doing so.
0:19:20 > 0:19:23But another player was about to enter the scene,
0:19:23 > 0:19:28who would change forever the picture the world would have of Isabella.
0:19:31 > 0:19:35Roger Mortimer was 38 years old, a soldier
0:19:35 > 0:19:38and a politician of skill and experience.
0:19:38 > 0:19:42He had joined the rebels against Edward in 1321
0:19:42 > 0:19:44and escaped into exile in France.
0:19:46 > 0:19:50And within weeks of Isabella and Mortimer's meeting in Paris
0:19:50 > 0:19:55rumours circulated that their partnership was more than political.
0:19:58 > 0:20:01There's tantalisingly little evidence of the private dynamics
0:20:01 > 0:20:03of Isabella and Mortimer's relationship.
0:20:03 > 0:20:06But it was clearly an all-consuming passion -
0:20:06 > 0:20:11not least because of the danger into which they'd precipitated themselves.
0:20:11 > 0:20:16Adultery, for a queen, was sin and treason combined.
0:20:16 > 0:20:19But for Isabella there were no longer any safe options.
0:20:19 > 0:20:21With her knight at her side
0:20:21 > 0:20:25and the most valuable pawn of all, her son, under her control,
0:20:25 > 0:20:27what move would the queen make?
0:20:31 > 0:20:34Isabella took a momentous decision.
0:20:34 > 0:20:37It was no longer enough to remove Despenser.
0:20:37 > 0:20:40She needed to remove her husband too.
0:20:40 > 0:20:45She intended to do something unprecedented in English history -
0:20:45 > 0:20:47depose an anointed king.
0:20:47 > 0:20:50Could she, as a woman, achieve this?
0:20:50 > 0:20:55She certainly couldn't do it alone. She needed an army.
0:20:55 > 0:20:59And how she got one reveals a great deal about the woman she'd become.
0:21:00 > 0:21:04Now she was an independent player on the European stage
0:21:04 > 0:21:08and she arranged the marriage of her son to Philippa,
0:21:08 > 0:21:10daughter of the count of Hainault,
0:21:10 > 0:21:13who brought troops and ships as her dowry.
0:21:13 > 0:21:15On 22nd September 1326,
0:21:15 > 0:21:20at the head of a hundred ships filled with soldiers,
0:21:20 > 0:21:25Isabella, Mortimer and Prince Edward set sail for England.
0:21:32 > 0:21:35When Isabella stepped onto the Suffolk coast,
0:21:35 > 0:21:40she was taking up arms against her king and husband, with her lover at her side.
0:21:40 > 0:21:43She could hardly have been more openly defying
0:21:43 > 0:21:47the conventions of female virtue.
0:21:47 > 0:21:50And yet she wasn't met with outrage and vilification.
0:21:50 > 0:21:53Instead, she was greeted with open arms.
0:21:55 > 0:21:58While there was no alternative to Edward's rule,
0:21:58 > 0:22:01his people hadn't known how to resist.
0:22:01 > 0:22:04Isabella wasn't challenging him in her own name -
0:22:04 > 0:22:07she, after all, had no right to the throne -
0:22:07 > 0:22:11but in the name of their 13-year-old son, Prince Edward.
0:22:12 > 0:22:16He was too young to act alone and so Isabella acted for him.
0:22:16 > 0:22:21And, with the promise of a new young king and his capable mother,
0:22:21 > 0:22:24her husband's power simply melted away.
0:22:27 > 0:22:31Isabella might have been an unfaithful wife and a rebel queen,
0:22:31 > 0:22:35but she was also England's champion against Edward's tyranny,
0:22:35 > 0:22:39no she-wolf, but the saviour of her adopted country.
0:22:41 > 0:22:46When news of the queen's triumphal progress reached Edward and Despenser
0:22:46 > 0:22:49they were gripped with panic.
0:22:49 > 0:22:52They packed their saddlebags with gold and fled west,
0:22:52 > 0:22:54where they were captured -
0:22:54 > 0:22:57bedraggled figures in the Welsh rain.
0:22:58 > 0:23:02Isabella had Despenser brought before her.
0:23:02 > 0:23:06There's no question that she relished her moment of revenge.
0:23:06 > 0:23:10Despenser was hanged, then disembowelled and castrated
0:23:10 > 0:23:11when he was still alive.
0:23:13 > 0:23:16The supportive queen had been transformed into
0:23:16 > 0:23:17a very different figure.
0:23:17 > 0:23:20Now Isabella was acting as if she were a king,
0:23:20 > 0:23:23inflicting brutal punishments on her enemies.
0:23:25 > 0:23:27Which of course raised the question
0:23:27 > 0:23:30of what she would do with her own king.
0:23:33 > 0:23:35In January 1327,
0:23:35 > 0:23:39in a carefully stage-managed piece of political theatre,
0:23:39 > 0:23:43it was declared in Parliament that Edward had forfeited the allegiance
0:23:43 > 0:23:48of his people, and that now his son should wear the crown in his place.
0:23:51 > 0:23:55In just four short months, Isabella had achieved the unthinkable.
0:23:55 > 0:23:59She, a queen, had seized power to depose a crowned and anointed king
0:23:59 > 0:24:02for the first time in English history.
0:24:02 > 0:24:05To undo a coronation was no easy task.
0:24:05 > 0:24:07Parliament had given the act a legal gloss
0:24:07 > 0:24:13but, to make doubly sure, Edward was forced to sign his own abdication here at Kenilworth.
0:24:13 > 0:24:15Now the deed was done,
0:24:15 > 0:24:19but could Isabella rule in her son's name while her husband still lived?
0:24:23 > 0:24:27The new King Edward III was still just a teenager,
0:24:27 > 0:24:31so Isabella was running his government for him.
0:24:31 > 0:24:33But never before had England had to contend with
0:24:33 > 0:24:37the existence of an ex-king, alive and well,
0:24:37 > 0:24:42while a new king, or in this case a king's mother, ruled the country.
0:24:44 > 0:24:46Isabella had Edward imprisoned
0:24:46 > 0:24:49in Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire.
0:24:49 > 0:24:51But she knew that,
0:24:51 > 0:24:55while he remained alive, he was the obvious focus for any rebellion.
0:24:58 > 0:25:01Within a year, three plots to liberate him
0:25:01 > 0:25:03had already been uncovered.
0:25:07 > 0:25:10These documents here in Berkeley Castle give us a sense
0:25:10 > 0:25:14of the extraordinary difficulty of keeping an ex-king in custody.
0:25:14 > 0:25:17We can see here, from the provisions bought for him,
0:25:17 > 0:25:21which included 280 eggs, or "ova" in Latin, in just three months,
0:25:21 > 0:25:25that at first he was kept in some comfort.
0:25:25 > 0:25:28But this account tells us of the reinforcement of the castle
0:25:28 > 0:25:31with bolts and great bars and other ironwork
0:25:31 > 0:25:36after Edward escaped from his guards in the summer of 1327.
0:25:36 > 0:25:38It was obvious how dangerous
0:25:38 > 0:25:41his continued existence was to the new regime.
0:25:44 > 0:25:48We can't know just how closely
0:25:48 > 0:25:52Isabella was involved in planning Edward's murder.
0:25:52 > 0:25:55By its very nature, his end was a grim business
0:25:55 > 0:25:57done in secrecy and shadows.
0:25:59 > 0:26:03His death was announced, but not explained.
0:26:03 > 0:26:06And, in the absence of an explanation,
0:26:10 > 0:26:13Legend has it that he was killed with a red-hot poker
0:26:13 > 0:26:17thrust into his anus to burn his intestines from the inside.
0:26:20 > 0:26:21This violent detail
0:26:21 > 0:26:26was immortalised more than 200 years later by Christopher Marlowe
0:26:26 > 0:26:28in his play of Edward's life
0:26:28 > 0:26:32when he called Isabella "that unnatural queen, false Isabel".
0:26:35 > 0:26:37What's certain is that it was Edward's death -
0:26:37 > 0:26:41a murder that supposedly took place in this room at Berkeley -
0:26:41 > 0:26:44that sealed Isabella's reputation as a she-wolf.
0:26:44 > 0:26:47Just 30 years later, the chronicler Geoffrey le Baker
0:26:47 > 0:26:50portrayed Edward as a Christ-like figure,
0:26:50 > 0:26:54betrayed and destroyed by a wife who was like the biblical Jezebel -
0:26:54 > 0:26:56a tyrannical and sexually corrupt queen
0:26:56 > 0:27:00manipulating her husband and son to impose evil on the kingdom.
0:27:06 > 0:27:10But these opinions were formed in hindsight.
0:27:10 > 0:27:13When Isabella knelt in prayer at her husband's funeral,
0:27:13 > 0:27:16she was still seen as the saviour of the nation.
0:27:18 > 0:27:23But though Isabella was a political animal through and through
0:27:23 > 0:27:27there were limits to her political understanding.
0:27:27 > 0:27:31And now her overwhelming sense of entitlement
0:27:31 > 0:27:33began to blunt her vision.
0:27:36 > 0:27:38Like so many rulers before and since
0:27:38 > 0:27:44she started to run the country for her own enrichment.
0:27:46 > 0:27:50Very few of the objects that Isabella owned still survive
0:27:50 > 0:27:53but one that does is this exquisite casket.
0:27:53 > 0:27:57It's delicately engraved with the arms of England and France
0:27:57 > 0:28:00and it may have been a wedding present from her mother-in-law.
0:28:00 > 0:28:03It gives us a tiny glimpse of the extraordinary luxury
0:28:03 > 0:28:06with which Isabella surrounded herself.
0:28:06 > 0:28:09That, of course, was appropriate for a queen -
0:28:09 > 0:28:13but the problem was that Isabella didn't know where to stop.
0:28:18 > 0:28:21At the helm of English government, Isabella and Mortimer
0:28:21 > 0:28:25rewarded themselves not just with silver trinkets,
0:28:25 > 0:28:29but with vast estates and the contents of the royal treasury.
0:28:32 > 0:28:33But now they were behaving
0:28:33 > 0:28:36exactly like Edward and Despenser before them.
0:28:38 > 0:28:42For two years Isabella and her lover ruled the country
0:28:42 > 0:28:47with a vice-like grip, meeting opposition with brutal suppression.
0:28:47 > 0:28:51And all the time Isabella kept her son, King Edward III,
0:28:51 > 0:28:54closely by her side, monitoring his friends
0:28:54 > 0:28:57and allowing him no freedom to act alone.
0:28:59 > 0:29:05Marlowe would later describe Isabella's son as "a lamb, encompassed by wolves".
0:29:07 > 0:29:12But by 1330 Edward was 17, and the she-wolf was about to discover
0:29:12 > 0:29:15that her offspring had claws of his own.
0:29:23 > 0:29:27Isabella's day of reckoning came at Nottingham Castle.
0:29:27 > 0:29:29She had already become suspicious
0:29:29 > 0:29:32that her son was beginning to resist her control.
0:29:32 > 0:29:35So when the royal party took up residence here
0:29:35 > 0:29:38they had the guards redoubled about them.
0:29:43 > 0:29:46But Edward's plans had been well laid.
0:29:46 > 0:29:50Under cover of darkness, a group of young knights made their way
0:29:50 > 0:29:53through these secret tunnels into the castle.
0:29:58 > 0:30:02Mortimer and Isabella were surrounded before they knew what was happening.
0:30:02 > 0:30:05Isabella was forced back into her bedchamber
0:30:05 > 0:30:08and Mortimer was disarmed and overpowered in a matter of moments.
0:30:08 > 0:30:13After three years, the rule of Isabella and her consort was over.
0:30:17 > 0:30:20There was no doubt about Mortimer's fate.
0:30:20 > 0:30:24He was sentenced to a traitor's death for killing the last king
0:30:24 > 0:30:27and usurping the power of the new one.
0:30:27 > 0:30:31He was hanged at Tyburn like a common thief.
0:30:33 > 0:30:37More than 20 years of brutal political experience told Isabella
0:30:37 > 0:30:39that Mortimer's fate was inevitable.
0:30:39 > 0:30:41But what would hers be?
0:30:41 > 0:30:44She was, after all, the King's mother
0:30:44 > 0:30:47and, once Mortimer was dead, the story could be spun
0:30:47 > 0:30:51that she had been diverted from her royal duty by his machinations.
0:30:51 > 0:30:55Presumably she mourned for him, but she'd always been a realist
0:30:55 > 0:30:58and she took care to leave no public traces of her grief.
0:31:01 > 0:31:04Her son might have acted against her because of the way she'd ruled,
0:31:04 > 0:31:07but Isabella was still his mother.
0:31:08 > 0:31:10She had to surrender her vast estates,
0:31:10 > 0:31:14but Edward gave her an income of £3,000 a year.
0:31:16 > 0:31:18She could no longer intervene in politics
0:31:18 > 0:31:23but she would have a sumptuous, if compulsory, retirement.
0:31:28 > 0:31:31Isabella had an extraordinary life.
0:31:31 > 0:31:33She showed, for a brief moment,
0:31:33 > 0:31:38that female leadership could represent the legitimacy of the Crown
0:31:38 > 0:31:41forcefully enough to depose an anointed king.
0:31:41 > 0:31:44But the exercise of power by a woman turned out to be a different matter,
0:31:44 > 0:31:47and particularly a woman like Isabella,
0:31:47 > 0:31:51who enriched herself rather than nurturing her people.
0:31:51 > 0:31:55In retrospect, the death of her husband came to define Isabella
0:31:55 > 0:31:56not as the saviour of England,
0:31:56 > 0:31:59but, in the words of the poet Thomas Gray,
0:31:59 > 0:32:02as the "She-wolf of France, with unrelenting fangs
0:32:02 > 0:32:05"That tear'st the bowels of thy mangled mate".
0:32:07 > 0:32:10This is how Isabella has been remembered.
0:32:10 > 0:32:14Certainly many of her actions were violent and self-serving.
0:32:15 > 0:32:18But then, so were those of the men around her.
0:32:18 > 0:32:21And the vitriol heaped on her by history
0:32:21 > 0:32:26draws on an image of female power as grotesque, savage and immoral.
0:32:34 > 0:32:37Over the next hundred years,
0:32:37 > 0:32:40England and France were almost constantly at war
0:32:40 > 0:32:42and out of this conflict
0:32:42 > 0:32:45emerged the woman that Shakespeare dubbed a she-wolf.
0:32:47 > 0:32:52By 1444 the English were on the back foot and ready to make a truce.
0:32:53 > 0:32:57All hopes for peace rested on the young shoulders of Margaret,
0:32:57 > 0:33:00daughter of the Duke of Anjou.
0:33:00 > 0:33:03She would marry the English King, Henry VI,
0:33:03 > 0:33:07and seal a treaty between the warring countries.
0:33:08 > 0:33:12Margaret grew up in this impressive castle in Angers
0:33:12 > 0:33:15and her childhood here gave her a useful lesson
0:33:15 > 0:33:17in the limitations of royal power.
0:33:20 > 0:33:23Margaret's father had many grand titles -
0:33:23 > 0:33:26in theory, he was king of Sicily, Naples and Jerusalem -
0:33:26 > 0:33:28and he spent most of her childhood
0:33:28 > 0:33:31fighting to turn those paper crowns into real power.
0:33:31 > 0:33:34In the meantime, Margaret, here in Anjou,
0:33:34 > 0:33:37was brought up by her formidable mother and grandmother.
0:33:39 > 0:33:42The message to Margaret was clear -
0:33:42 > 0:33:44royal power had to be fought for,
0:33:44 > 0:33:49and a woman could rule if a man was absent.
0:33:49 > 0:33:51When Margaret left Angers at the age of 15
0:33:51 > 0:33:53to marry a man she'd never met,
0:33:53 > 0:33:58she couldn't have known how valuable these lessons would prove to be.
0:34:00 > 0:34:0523-year-old Henry probably struck Margaret as a reassuring presence.
0:34:05 > 0:34:07He had an unworldly, childlike air -
0:34:07 > 0:34:11more a naive innocent than a grim-faced soldier.
0:34:11 > 0:34:14But, if that made him a gentle husband,
0:34:14 > 0:34:18Margaret was about to discover that it also made him a disastrous king.
0:34:22 > 0:34:26Henry VI had come to the throne as a nine-month-old baby
0:34:26 > 0:34:30and England had been governed by a council of noblemen.
0:34:30 > 0:34:33But now, at the age of 23,
0:34:33 > 0:34:37Henry seemed no more capable of ruling than he had as a baby.
0:34:40 > 0:34:42It's not clear exactly when
0:34:42 > 0:34:46Margaret realised how utterly incapable her husband was,
0:34:46 > 0:34:49but what happened seven years into their marriage
0:34:49 > 0:34:51left no room for doubt.
0:34:53 > 0:34:57To Margaret's delight, in 1453 she gave birth to her first child,
0:34:57 > 0:35:00a healthy boy named Edward.
0:35:01 > 0:35:04But Henry took no part in the celebrations.
0:35:05 > 0:35:07Ten weeks before the birth,
0:35:07 > 0:35:11his fragile mental faculties had disintegrated completely
0:35:11 > 0:35:14and he'd fallen into a catatonic trance.
0:35:17 > 0:35:19Henry was oblivious to their son's arrival,
0:35:19 > 0:35:22but Margaret had good reason to be jubilant.
0:35:22 > 0:35:25With the heir to the throne in her arms,
0:35:25 > 0:35:27she discovered, just like Isabella before her,
0:35:27 > 0:35:31that she had a direct stake in the power play that surrounded her.
0:35:31 > 0:35:34The question now was how far she would go in using it.
0:35:35 > 0:35:38The answer wasn't slow in coming.
0:35:39 > 0:35:41Just three months after her son's birth,
0:35:41 > 0:35:45a well-informed observer in London reported that the Queen...
0:35:45 > 0:35:48..desires to have the whole rule of this land
0:35:48 > 0:35:52as well as the right to appoint all other officers
0:35:52 > 0:35:54that the King should make.
0:35:56 > 0:36:00Margaret was proposing that she should act as Regent
0:36:00 > 0:36:02for her helpless husband.
0:36:02 > 0:36:04This dramatic piece of self-assertion
0:36:04 > 0:36:07was the first step on a road that would eventually lead to
0:36:07 > 0:36:12Shakespeare's lacerating portrait of Margaret as the "She-wolf of France".
0:36:12 > 0:36:14But, if we look behind the caricature,
0:36:14 > 0:36:18there was much more to Margaret's position than unthinking aggression.
0:36:19 > 0:36:22The times invited her to act.
0:36:22 > 0:36:25Margaret stepped onto the political stage
0:36:25 > 0:36:29as the country stood on the brink of civil war.
0:36:29 > 0:36:31After years without royal leadership,
0:36:31 > 0:36:35English politics was in the grip of a destructive rivalry
0:36:35 > 0:36:38between the two most powerful nobles in England.
0:36:40 > 0:36:43This was the beginning of what would become known -
0:36:43 > 0:36:46thanks to Shakespeare, and later art and literature -
0:36:46 > 0:36:48as the Wars of the Roses.
0:36:50 > 0:36:54Margaret watched as the nobles divided.
0:36:54 > 0:36:57On one side was the Duke of York, the King's cousin,
0:36:57 > 0:37:01who claimed to speak for the good of the whole country.
0:37:01 > 0:37:03On the other was the Duke of Somerset,
0:37:03 > 0:37:06who acted for the House of Lancaster,
0:37:06 > 0:37:09the line from which Henry descended.
0:37:09 > 0:37:13Both claimed the right to rule in the King's absence.
0:37:13 > 0:37:17And now their rivalry threatened to spill onto the battlefield.
0:37:17 > 0:37:22It was amid this tension and fear that Margaret made her bid to rule.
0:37:23 > 0:37:28From Margaret's own perspective, she was the obvious candidate to safeguard her husband's kingdom,
0:37:28 > 0:37:32just as her mother had governed Anjou in her father's absence.
0:37:32 > 0:37:35But Henry was only mentally, not physically, absent,
0:37:35 > 0:37:38and to the English nobles it seemed as though their French-born queen
0:37:38 > 0:37:41was trying to exceed her proper powers.
0:37:42 > 0:37:47To Margaret's distress, the nobles turned to a council of their own,
0:37:47 > 0:37:50under the leadership of the Duke of York.
0:37:50 > 0:37:53On his orders, his rival, the Duke of Somerset,
0:37:53 > 0:37:55was confined to the Tower of London.
0:37:59 > 0:38:01But on Christmas Day 1454
0:38:01 > 0:38:05Margaret was suddenly presented with a way forward.
0:38:05 > 0:38:0816 months after he had last shown
0:38:08 > 0:38:11any sign of knowing who or where he was,
0:38:11 > 0:38:16King Henry suddenly returned to his senses, such as they'd ever been.
0:38:18 > 0:38:22As Margaret introduced her toddling son to his astounded father
0:38:22 > 0:38:26for the first time, the Duke of York's caretaker regime fell apart.
0:38:26 > 0:38:28Somerset was released from the Tower
0:38:28 > 0:38:32and it seemed that the political merry-go-round was turning again.
0:38:34 > 0:38:37But, by this time,
0:38:37 > 0:38:40York and Somerset's rivalry had become a deadly enmity.
0:38:42 > 0:38:46Margaret believed that Somerset supported her husband
0:38:46 > 0:38:49and for the moment he had the King by his side.
0:38:51 > 0:38:54But York was intent on having the King under HIS control.
0:38:57 > 0:39:02And now the other great noble families were taking sides.
0:39:03 > 0:39:07And in May 1455, when the two armies came face to face
0:39:07 > 0:39:10in the unassuming market town of St Albans,
0:39:10 > 0:39:15political confrontation finally became civil war.
0:39:19 > 0:39:22The first battle of the Wars of the Roses was fought
0:39:22 > 0:39:25through the streets and houses of the town.
0:39:26 > 0:39:31In these confined spaces, probably a hundred men died.
0:39:33 > 0:39:37King Henry took no part in the Battle of St Albans.
0:39:37 > 0:39:40He just sat under his banner in the market square
0:39:40 > 0:39:44while his greatest nobles fought to the death in these streets all around him.
0:39:44 > 0:39:47Nothing could have made it clearer that he was only a pawn
0:39:47 > 0:39:50in this increasingly brutal and dangerous game.
0:39:51 > 0:39:53When the fighting was over,
0:39:53 > 0:39:57it became clear that the Duke of York's army had won the day.
0:39:57 > 0:40:00And his enemy, the Duke of Somerset, was dead.
0:40:04 > 0:40:10Henry was now in York's control. The battle changed everything.
0:40:10 > 0:40:12And for Margaret it was a turning point.
0:40:15 > 0:40:18York still claimed to be Henry's loyal subject
0:40:18 > 0:40:20but, in Margaret's view,
0:40:20 > 0:40:24loyal subjects didn't set out to capture their king in battle.
0:40:24 > 0:40:27And York's closeness to the royal line of succession
0:40:27 > 0:40:29now made him a threat to her son.
0:40:29 > 0:40:32If Henry wasn't able to fight for their son's future,
0:40:32 > 0:40:35then Margaret would do it for him.
0:40:40 > 0:40:44But Margaret knew that her next move would have to be made carefully.
0:40:44 > 0:40:50For now, she left London for her castle at Tutbury in Staffordshire.
0:40:52 > 0:40:56But this wasn't a retreat from the political frontline.
0:40:56 > 0:40:59Instead, it was an attempt to match the Duke of York
0:40:59 > 0:41:02with a territorial power base of her own.
0:41:03 > 0:41:07Margaret had the castle at Tutbury enlarged and improved.
0:41:07 > 0:41:11It was an imposing residence for an increasingly imposing queen.
0:41:13 > 0:41:18Margaret was clearly demonstrating to anyone who cared to look
0:41:18 > 0:41:23that she was prepared to fight to defend her husband and son.
0:41:24 > 0:41:27But in doing so she provoked a reaction.
0:41:29 > 0:41:30And, as ever, a woman in power
0:41:30 > 0:41:34was vulnerable to sexual as well as political slurs.
0:41:34 > 0:41:38Rumours began to speak of the little Prince as a bastard or a changeling
0:41:38 > 0:41:42and to suggest that, in private, Henry's queen might not be as loyal as she seemed.
0:41:42 > 0:41:46The implication was that unnatural impulses were at work,
0:41:46 > 0:41:49both inside and outside the royal bedchamber.
0:41:50 > 0:41:55Margaret knew that York's supporters were taking every opportunity to slander her
0:41:55 > 0:41:57but she was made of stern stuff.
0:41:57 > 0:42:01It would take more than words to defeat her.
0:42:01 > 0:42:08By the summer of 1456 it was clear where the fulcrum of power now lay.
0:42:08 > 0:42:11A contemporary wrote...
0:42:11 > 0:42:13My Lord of York waits on the Queen,
0:42:13 > 0:42:15and she upon him.
0:42:18 > 0:42:21Despite attempts to find a lasting peace,
0:42:21 > 0:42:24the country divided behind Margaret and York.
0:42:26 > 0:42:29For Margaret this meant raising an army
0:42:29 > 0:42:31in the name of her husband and son.
0:42:33 > 0:42:37This beautiful object, known as the Dunstable Swan Jewel,
0:42:37 > 0:42:40probably dates from about 1400.
0:42:40 > 0:42:43The swan was one of the emblems of the Prince of Wales,
0:42:43 > 0:42:46and so it was a badge with this image,
0:42:46 > 0:42:48of a swan with a crown around its neck,
0:42:48 > 0:42:51that Margaret began to distribute to her loyal supporters
0:42:51 > 0:42:53in the name of her small son.
0:42:53 > 0:42:57She was determined to defend the rights of her husband and son
0:42:57 > 0:42:59by any means necessary.
0:43:01 > 0:43:05Margaret saw no middle ground in this conflict.
0:43:05 > 0:43:09Anyone who wasn't with her, she believed, was an enemy of the Crown.
0:43:09 > 0:43:13But that didn't mean her task would be easy.
0:43:14 > 0:43:19In September 1459, the two sides met at Blore Heath in Staffordshire.
0:43:23 > 0:43:25After four hours of bloody fighting,
0:43:25 > 0:43:282,000 men lay dead on the battlefield.
0:43:31 > 0:43:36The Yorkists had defeated an army, which was supposedly King Henry's,
0:43:36 > 0:43:39but everyone knew where the power really lay.
0:43:39 > 0:43:43One chronicler described it as an army of "the Queen's gallants".
0:43:46 > 0:43:49But three weeks later the two sides met again
0:43:49 > 0:43:52and this time it was York's army that was defeated.
0:43:53 > 0:43:59Margaret's enemies, the Duke of York, his son, Edward, and nephew, the Earl of Warwick,
0:43:59 > 0:44:01scattered to Ireland and France.
0:44:03 > 0:44:06In their absence, Margaret seized her moment
0:44:06 > 0:44:09to declare her enemies guilty of treason.
0:44:09 > 0:44:11But they were not yet destroyed in person -
0:44:11 > 0:44:16and Margaret now found that the power base she'd built for herself in the North
0:44:16 > 0:44:19had alienated her husband's subjects in the South.
0:44:19 > 0:44:23And in July 1460, when York's son Edward and nephew Warwick
0:44:23 > 0:44:26returned with troops to face her army at Northampton,
0:44:26 > 0:44:29the result, for Margaret, was a calamity.
0:44:29 > 0:44:32She lost both the battle and the person of the king.
0:44:35 > 0:44:37Margaret was left helpless,
0:44:37 > 0:44:42as the Duke of York took her husband as a prisoner to London.
0:44:42 > 0:44:44The Pope later observed that the King was...
0:44:44 > 0:44:50More timorous than a woman, utterly devoid of wit and spirit.
0:44:50 > 0:44:54The contrast with his forceful wife was obvious.
0:44:56 > 0:45:01News reached Margaret that York was now claiming the crown for himself.
0:45:01 > 0:45:05He argued that his royal line of descent
0:45:05 > 0:45:08made him the rightful king, rather than Henry.
0:45:08 > 0:45:11It was a convenient version of history,
0:45:11 > 0:45:14but for the moment he couldn't get the nobles to back him.
0:45:16 > 0:45:21Instead, a compromise was reached - Henry would keep his crown,
0:45:21 > 0:45:23but, when he died, York would succeed him.
0:45:26 > 0:45:30For Margaret, this was no settlement, but a nightmare.
0:45:30 > 0:45:35Her son, for whose rights she'd fought since the moment of his birth, would be disinherited.
0:45:35 > 0:45:38She threw herself into the task of raising support
0:45:38 > 0:45:42from Scotland and the English lords still loyal to her.
0:45:42 > 0:45:44Now, this was a fight to the death.
0:45:47 > 0:45:52Success for Margaret came much more swiftly than she could ever have hoped,
0:45:52 > 0:45:56when the Duke of York was ambushed and killed by Margaret's troops
0:45:56 > 0:45:59at Wakefield, in Yorkshire, in December 1460.
0:46:02 > 0:46:07She ordered that his head be set on a spike on Micklegate Bar in York,
0:46:07 > 0:46:11dressed in a paper crown to mock his pretensions of majesty.
0:46:13 > 0:46:19Now Margaret's greatest enemy was dead, but victory was not yet hers.
0:46:19 > 0:46:23There were still men prepared to fight for the Yorkist cause
0:46:23 > 0:46:27and York's son Edward and nephew Warwick wanted revenge.
0:46:29 > 0:46:33It was once again at St Albans that the two sides met.
0:46:36 > 0:46:39While Margaret's army fought Warwick's,
0:46:39 > 0:46:43the Queen waited impatiently for news here in the abbey.
0:46:46 > 0:46:49The outcome was a triumph.
0:46:50 > 0:46:54The Yorkists were defeated, and their prisoner, King Henry,
0:46:54 > 0:46:57was released, and reunited with Margaret.
0:47:02 > 0:47:04Husband and wife were back together,
0:47:04 > 0:47:07but this was hardly a romantic reunion.
0:47:07 > 0:47:09Margaret's triumph lay in the fact
0:47:09 > 0:47:13that the power of the royal triumvirate - King, Queen and Prince -
0:47:13 > 0:47:14was once again at her disposal.
0:47:14 > 0:47:16But the war wasn't yet won.
0:47:21 > 0:47:25Margaret had now been fighting for eight long years.
0:47:25 > 0:47:28She, a woman alone, had kept the royal cause alive.
0:47:31 > 0:47:34Henry might be a hopeless case, but if she could keep fighting
0:47:34 > 0:47:36then surely their son would one day
0:47:36 > 0:47:39get his chance to become a glorious king.
0:47:42 > 0:47:47But, even though her greatest enemy, the Duke of York, was dead,
0:47:47 > 0:47:50it turned out that she now faced an even greater threat -
0:47:50 > 0:47:52his 18-year-old son, Edward.
0:47:55 > 0:48:01Edward was tall, handsome, charismatic and precociously able.
0:48:01 > 0:48:05He looked more like a king than anyone had seen in years
0:48:05 > 0:48:08and a king was exactly what he was claiming to be.
0:48:09 > 0:48:12Just as his father had done before him,
0:48:12 > 0:48:16he argued that his royal descent trumped Henry's own.
0:48:16 > 0:48:19The difference was that this time London agreed
0:48:19 > 0:48:22and rapturously acclaimed him as King Edward IV.
0:48:25 > 0:48:30Nine days later his forces set out to defeat Margaret once and for all.
0:48:31 > 0:48:35The two sides met at Towton in Yorkshire.
0:48:35 > 0:48:39And Margaret, Henry and their seven-year-old son
0:48:39 > 0:48:42took refuge behind the city walls at York.
0:48:45 > 0:48:48This 15th-century screen at York Minster
0:48:48 > 0:48:50shows all the kings of England
0:48:50 > 0:48:54from William the Conqueror to Margaret's husband, Henry VI.
0:48:54 > 0:48:56For Margaret, the last eight years
0:48:56 > 0:49:01had been devoted to securing her son's place in this unbroken line.
0:49:01 > 0:49:04And now she could do nothing but pace restlessly, here at York,
0:49:04 > 0:49:07while her soldiers did their work.
0:49:07 > 0:49:12Eight hours later, thousands upon thousands of men were dead
0:49:12 > 0:49:14and it was Margaret's army that had shattered.
0:49:18 > 0:49:22As the light began to fade on this bloodiest of battlefields,
0:49:22 > 0:49:25Edward of York stood unchallenged,
0:49:25 > 0:49:28now King of England in fact as well as name.
0:49:31 > 0:49:35And Margaret, her husband and son fled north,
0:49:35 > 0:49:38no longer the Royal Family but hunted fugitives.
0:49:46 > 0:49:48It was the bitterest of blows.
0:49:48 > 0:49:54Margaret had invested every ounce of her strength to animate the cause of an inert king
0:49:54 > 0:49:59but, as a woman, she couldn't simply inhabit the role her husband had left so damagingly vacant.
0:49:59 > 0:50:03Now she had to watch as Edward, a golden boy in a golden crown,
0:50:03 > 0:50:06occupied the throne as if he'd been born to it.
0:50:09 > 0:50:11But still she wouldn't give in.
0:50:11 > 0:50:15She tried to raise support from the Scots and the French.
0:50:15 > 0:50:18But in England, as a foreign-born queen,
0:50:18 > 0:50:21Margaret was damned twice over,
0:50:21 > 0:50:24for the country of her birth and her sex.
0:50:24 > 0:50:26According to a poem of the time...
0:50:26 > 0:50:29She and her wicked affinity certain
0:50:29 > 0:50:32Intend utterly to destroy this region.
0:50:34 > 0:50:38Nor would she capitulate when her husband was finally captured
0:50:38 > 0:50:43and imprisoned in the Tower of London in the summer of 1465.
0:50:47 > 0:50:48With nowhere else to turn,
0:50:48 > 0:50:51Margaret and her son fled across the Channel,
0:50:51 > 0:50:54where the King of France allowed her to set up
0:50:54 > 0:50:59a tiny and impoverished court in an obscure corner of his kingdom.
0:51:01 > 0:51:04Margaret's son was ten when they moved to France
0:51:04 > 0:51:07and, as he grew into manhood, Margaret doggedly fought on
0:51:07 > 0:51:13in the attempt to secure his future as King of England.
0:51:13 > 0:51:17She watched hawkishly for any chink in the Yorkist regime
0:51:17 > 0:51:21and constantly petitioned the crowned heads of Europe for help,
0:51:21 > 0:51:23but it was a fruitless task.
0:51:25 > 0:51:30For Margaret and her little band of loyalists, the outlook was bleak.
0:51:30 > 0:51:31Margaret never gave up,
0:51:31 > 0:51:35but well-informed observers knew her cause was hopeless.
0:51:35 > 0:51:38That, however, was to reckon without the Yorkist regime's
0:51:38 > 0:51:41extraordinary capacity for self-destruction.
0:51:45 > 0:51:48Edward's cousin, the Earl of Warwick,
0:51:48 > 0:51:51is known to history as the Kingmaker.
0:51:51 > 0:51:54And that, it turned out, was how he saw himself.
0:51:54 > 0:51:58He had been the driving force behind Edward's campaign for the throne
0:51:58 > 0:52:01but, now Edward was king, Warwick discovered
0:52:01 > 0:52:05he couldn't control him and they'd fallen into a bitter rivalry.
0:52:05 > 0:52:08To bring down this Yorkist king,
0:52:08 > 0:52:12Warwick needed another candidate to wear the crown
0:52:12 > 0:52:14and the only viable alternative
0:52:14 > 0:52:18was the House of Lancaster - Margaret, her husband and son.
0:52:21 > 0:52:25This was the moment for which Margaret had been waiting nine long years.
0:52:25 > 0:52:28But it came at a terrible price.
0:52:28 > 0:52:31To seize this chance to regain her son's inheritance,
0:52:31 > 0:52:33Margaret had to take the hand of the Earl of Warwick,
0:52:33 > 0:52:36a man she despised and mistrusted.
0:52:39 > 0:52:43For Margaret this was an agonising decision.
0:52:43 > 0:52:47Warwick had been one of the architects of her husband's fall
0:52:47 > 0:52:50and the disinheritance of her son.
0:52:50 > 0:52:53He'd led armies against her on bloody battlefields.
0:52:55 > 0:53:00But now he offered Margaret her only chance to ensure her son's future.
0:53:01 > 0:53:04On the 22nd July 1470,
0:53:04 > 0:53:08here at Angers, Margaret came face to face with Warwick.
0:53:09 > 0:53:13They were enemies divided by a river of blood
0:53:13 > 0:53:16but now they were about to become allies.
0:53:16 > 0:53:18Margaret's distaste was such
0:53:18 > 0:53:23that she kept Warwick on his knees in front of her for 15 minutes.
0:53:23 > 0:53:24But the deal was done.
0:53:26 > 0:53:29It was a treaty sealed with a kiss,
0:53:29 > 0:53:34when Margaret's 17-year-old son married Warwick's daughter.
0:53:36 > 0:53:39In return for this stake in the royal dynasty,
0:53:39 > 0:53:42Warwick set sail for England, to challenge Edward
0:53:42 > 0:53:44and restore Henry to the throne.
0:53:47 > 0:53:51Margaret stayed in France, waiting to hear that England was won
0:53:51 > 0:53:55before she or her son stepped on English soil again.
0:53:58 > 0:54:02And good news reached her startlingly quickly.
0:54:02 > 0:54:05Edward was surprised by Warwick's attack.
0:54:05 > 0:54:09With his forces unprepared, he fled to the Netherlands,
0:54:09 > 0:54:13leaving Warwick to free the bewildered King Henry from the Tower.
0:54:21 > 0:54:23With her husband back on the throne
0:54:23 > 0:54:26and her son ready to step into his shoes,
0:54:26 > 0:54:29England was once again within Margaret's grasp.
0:54:29 > 0:54:33So on Easter Sunday, the 14th April 1471,
0:54:33 > 0:54:35after a difficult voyage,
0:54:35 > 0:54:39Margaret and her son at last set foot on the English coast
0:54:39 > 0:54:42and at that moment their world fell apart.
0:54:47 > 0:54:49Their timing was disastrous.
0:54:50 > 0:54:54Edward too had returned to England with a small band of soldiers,
0:54:54 > 0:54:57and just hours before Margaret landed,
0:54:57 > 0:55:00in a bitterly fought battle at Barnet, north of London,
0:55:00 > 0:55:04Edward defeated and killed Warwick.
0:55:10 > 0:55:14Suddenly Margaret found herself exposed and vulnerable.
0:55:14 > 0:55:18All her carefully laid plans were falling apart
0:55:18 > 0:55:22and now, once again, the future would be decided on a battlefield.
0:55:22 > 0:55:27Margaret had support and reinforcements in the west of the country
0:55:27 > 0:55:30and she made her way to join them.
0:55:31 > 0:55:35Edward set out to intercept her, warning that death would be
0:55:35 > 0:55:37the penalty for anyone who helped Margaret.
0:55:39 > 0:55:43Everything now depended on this race across the country.
0:55:49 > 0:55:51The two armies met at Tewkesbury -
0:55:51 > 0:55:56and it was here, in this beautiful abbey, that Margaret was once again left to wait for news.
0:55:56 > 0:55:59But this time, she was alone.
0:55:59 > 0:56:01For the very first time, at the age of 17,
0:56:01 > 0:56:04her son was on the battlefield.
0:56:04 > 0:56:09Today, he would either win his father's crown, or lose his life.
0:56:12 > 0:56:15The end, when it came, was quick.
0:56:15 > 0:56:20Margaret's son died where he fell in the rout of the Lancastrian army.
0:56:22 > 0:56:24Margaret didn't try to run.
0:56:24 > 0:56:28She had nowhere to go, and no-one left to fight for.
0:56:31 > 0:56:35And when Edward made his victorious entry into London,
0:56:35 > 0:56:38the captive queen followed in a chariot,
0:56:38 > 0:56:43straight-backed and blank-faced, staring at nothing.
0:56:46 > 0:56:50The following day King Henry's body was brought out of the Tower.
0:56:50 > 0:56:55The Londoners were told he had died of "pure displeasure and melancholy"
0:56:55 > 0:56:57at the news of his son's death,
0:56:57 > 0:57:00but few doubted that Edward had ordered his killing.
0:57:03 > 0:57:09Margaret was 41. And, without her husband and son, her life was over.
0:57:10 > 0:57:13She was no longer a threat to Edward,
0:57:13 > 0:57:15so he had no need to kill her.
0:57:16 > 0:57:20Instead, he imprisoned her for four years in England
0:57:20 > 0:57:26before allowing her to return to France, penniless and purposeless.
0:57:26 > 0:57:29And when she died at age of 51
0:57:29 > 0:57:33her death went unnoticed by the crowned heads of Europe.
0:57:35 > 0:57:38Margaret and Isabella had each stepped forward
0:57:38 > 0:57:41to become a queen who dominated the political chessboard.
0:57:41 > 0:57:44Their forceful leadership shaped the power play around them
0:57:44 > 0:57:48but it also exposed them to vitriolic criticism.
0:57:48 > 0:57:52Their self-assertion, that would have seemed natural in a man,
0:57:52 > 0:57:54was deemed unnatural, even monstrous, in a woman.
0:57:54 > 0:57:58As a result, they've gone down in history condemned as she-wolves.
0:58:01 > 0:58:06In the next programme, we'll see what happened when England was faced
0:58:06 > 0:58:09not with inadequate kings, but no kings at all.
0:58:09 > 0:58:14When Edward died there was no-one left to claim the title of King of England.
0:58:14 > 0:58:16For the first time in English history,
0:58:16 > 0:58:19all the contenders for his crown were female.
0:58:20 > 0:58:25So would the Tudor queens succeed as England's first female kings.
0:58:26 > 0:58:30Would England finally accept the rule of a woman alone?
0:58:30 > 0:58:33Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd