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July 6th, 1483, and Westminster Abbey was packed tight | 0:00:04 | 0:00:10 | |
for the coronation of one of England's | 0:00:10 | 0:00:12 | |
most controversial kings, Richard III. | 0:00:12 | 0:00:14 | |
His name and the battles of his violent era | 0:00:15 | 0:00:19 | |
are familiar parts of our history. | 0:00:19 | 0:00:21 | |
Towton, Bosworth, the Wars of the Roses - | 0:00:22 | 0:00:25 | |
when the rivalry between two great dynasties tore the nobility apart. | 0:00:25 | 0:00:30 | |
But my story is not about kings and their great power struggles, | 0:00:33 | 0:00:37 | |
it's about the remarkable women | 0:00:37 | 0:00:39 | |
whose stories have been hidden | 0:00:39 | 0:00:41 | |
by these tales of conflicts and alliances. | 0:00:41 | 0:00:44 | |
Almost by accident, I have spent my working life | 0:00:47 | 0:00:50 | |
researching and writing the secret histories | 0:00:50 | 0:00:53 | |
of virtually unknown women | 0:00:53 | 0:00:55 | |
who appear as the wife or mother of a more famous man. | 0:00:55 | 0:00:59 | |
Three of them in particular have fascinated me for years. | 0:01:01 | 0:01:06 | |
They are at the heart of our story. | 0:01:06 | 0:01:08 | |
And on the day that Richard was crowned, | 0:01:08 | 0:01:10 | |
they could all be found here in Westminster. | 0:01:10 | 0:01:13 | |
The first is Anne Neville. | 0:01:16 | 0:01:18 | |
At this extravagant ceremony, | 0:01:18 | 0:01:20 | |
she was transformed into the leading woman in the realm. | 0:01:20 | 0:01:23 | |
As Richard's wife, she was the new queen. | 0:01:24 | 0:01:27 | |
She brought with her the love and loyalty of the north of England. | 0:01:29 | 0:01:33 | |
She was so important that Richard honoured her | 0:01:33 | 0:01:36 | |
with a joint coronation. | 0:01:36 | 0:01:37 | |
As the daughter of the most powerful noble in the realm, | 0:01:40 | 0:01:43 | |
Anne was destined for greatness from birth. | 0:01:43 | 0:01:46 | |
And by her side was another extraordinary woman. | 0:01:46 | 0:01:50 | |
Dressed in scarlet, carrying the queen's train | 0:01:51 | 0:01:54 | |
was Margaret Beaufort, | 0:01:54 | 0:01:56 | |
the second most important woman in the country. | 0:01:56 | 0:01:59 | |
She had deliberately placed herself at the heart of this new court. | 0:01:59 | 0:02:04 | |
Margaret's ambitions were bound up with her only son, Henry Tudor. | 0:02:05 | 0:02:10 | |
Never far from the centre of power, | 0:02:10 | 0:02:12 | |
the Margaret I know was a skilled politician | 0:02:12 | 0:02:15 | |
who believed herself guided by God. | 0:02:15 | 0:02:18 | |
And out of sight at this great occasion was the third woman. | 0:02:19 | 0:02:23 | |
Hidden in the sanctuary of the abbey in fear of her life | 0:02:23 | 0:02:27 | |
was Elizabeth Woodville | 0:02:27 | 0:02:29 | |
the former Queen of England and Richard's declared enemy. | 0:02:29 | 0:02:33 | |
She had risen the furthest and fallen the hardest. | 0:02:34 | 0:02:38 | |
Elizabeth was the commoner queen. | 0:02:38 | 0:02:40 | |
An English beauty who enchanted a king. | 0:02:40 | 0:02:43 | |
This is my chronicle of these three women. | 0:02:44 | 0:02:47 | |
The former queen, the new queen | 0:02:47 | 0:02:49 | |
and the woman who planned to be greater than them both. | 0:02:49 | 0:02:52 | |
We call this conflict the Wars of the Roses, | 0:02:53 | 0:02:56 | |
but they called it the Cousins' War. | 0:02:56 | 0:03:00 | |
A war between kin, not countries. | 0:03:00 | 0:03:02 | |
And that is why the women really matter. | 0:03:02 | 0:03:05 | |
They had to survive a violent family feud and utterly ruthless men. | 0:03:05 | 0:03:10 | |
But women were actors on their own account, | 0:03:11 | 0:03:14 | |
capable of fierce loyalty and shocking treachery. | 0:03:14 | 0:03:18 | |
Living in a world where women's roles were strictly limited | 0:03:18 | 0:03:21 | |
and their behaviour judged as good or bad | 0:03:21 | 0:03:24 | |
by a misogynistic church, | 0:03:24 | 0:03:26 | |
they had to exercise their power in hiding. | 0:03:26 | 0:03:29 | |
In a time of bloodshed, these three tenacious women | 0:03:30 | 0:03:34 | |
would become canny allies | 0:03:34 | 0:03:36 | |
and grow into calculating adversaries. | 0:03:36 | 0:03:39 | |
Here in windswept Wales, | 0:03:51 | 0:03:54 | |
30 years before the Cousins' War met its bloody climax, | 0:03:54 | 0:03:58 | |
a fragile 12-year-old girl was facing a new life, | 0:03:58 | 0:04:01 | |
a new home and a new husband. | 0:04:01 | 0:04:04 | |
A man twice her age who she barely knew. | 0:04:04 | 0:04:08 | |
Margaret Beaufort was an heiress to valuable lands, | 0:04:08 | 0:04:12 | |
but that gave her no power over her own life. | 0:04:12 | 0:04:15 | |
Margaret would have known that as a young woman from a noble family, | 0:04:18 | 0:04:21 | |
she would never have had any choice over her husband. | 0:04:21 | 0:04:25 | |
She probably would not even have been consulted. | 0:04:25 | 0:04:28 | |
The medieval marriage was to forge family alliances. | 0:04:28 | 0:04:32 | |
It was nothing to do with love. | 0:04:32 | 0:04:34 | |
With no control over her own destiny, | 0:04:37 | 0:04:40 | |
Margaret turned to God at a young age. | 0:04:40 | 0:04:43 | |
Later in her life, this devotion would earn her respect and status. | 0:04:43 | 0:04:49 | |
But as a child, Margaret's fate had been decided | 0:04:49 | 0:04:51 | |
by no less than the King of England, Henry VI. | 0:04:51 | 0:04:55 | |
He had given her in marriage to his half-brother, Edmund Tudor. | 0:04:55 | 0:04:59 | |
The aristocracy in the late Middle Ages | 0:05:01 | 0:05:03 | |
were a social and political elite. | 0:05:03 | 0:05:07 | |
And they were always seeking to increase their land-holdings | 0:05:07 | 0:05:12 | |
and increase their status. | 0:05:12 | 0:05:14 | |
So they did this by securing desirable marriages | 0:05:14 | 0:05:18 | |
to other aristocratic families. | 0:05:18 | 0:05:20 | |
Margaret Beaufort was a very desirable commodity | 0:05:20 | 0:05:24 | |
in the late medieval marriage market. | 0:05:24 | 0:05:27 | |
Margaret and all her possessions were transferred to Edmund Tudor | 0:05:35 | 0:05:39 | |
and she was brought here, to his estates in Wales. | 0:05:39 | 0:05:43 | |
At 12 years old, Margaret was old enough to marry, | 0:05:49 | 0:05:52 | |
but she was small for her age and still a little girl. | 0:05:52 | 0:05:57 | |
Even her contemporaries would have thought that she was too young | 0:05:57 | 0:06:00 | |
and too physically undeveloped for the marriage to be consummated. | 0:06:00 | 0:06:04 | |
Her 24-year-old husband had different ideas. | 0:06:10 | 0:06:13 | |
He wanted a son to inherit his property and title | 0:06:13 | 0:06:16 | |
and would not delay. | 0:06:16 | 0:06:19 | |
He took young Margaret into the marital bed | 0:06:19 | 0:06:22 | |
and just months after marrying Edmund Tudor, Margaret was pregnant. | 0:06:22 | 0:06:26 | |
Even by the standard of the time, this was a selfish, brutal act. | 0:06:29 | 0:06:34 | |
But Edmund was so determined to secure Margaret's estates | 0:06:34 | 0:06:38 | |
and the all-important heir, | 0:06:38 | 0:06:39 | |
that he risked both her life and that of the unborn child. | 0:06:39 | 0:06:43 | |
Margaret might have been forgiven for cursing the man | 0:06:48 | 0:06:51 | |
who had ordered her into this frightening life, but she didn't. | 0:06:51 | 0:06:55 | |
She remained fiercely loyal to Henry VI, | 0:06:56 | 0:06:59 | |
the King, who was now her brother-in-law. | 0:06:59 | 0:07:01 | |
Henry VI had reigned for over 30 years. | 0:07:05 | 0:07:08 | |
He sat on the throne alongside his wife, | 0:07:08 | 0:07:11 | |
the formidable Margaret of Anjou, | 0:07:11 | 0:07:13 | |
not only as ruler of England, | 0:07:13 | 0:07:16 | |
but as head of a great dynasty, the House of Lancaster. | 0:07:16 | 0:07:21 | |
But Henry's reign was troubled. | 0:07:21 | 0:07:22 | |
His nobles thought him feeble and unstable. | 0:07:24 | 0:07:26 | |
His weakness encouraged disagreement | 0:07:26 | 0:07:29 | |
at the highest levels of English society. | 0:07:29 | 0:07:31 | |
And strengthened the ambitions of another English noble line, | 0:07:33 | 0:07:37 | |
the House of York. | 0:07:37 | 0:07:38 | |
Lancaster against York would scar England for decades to follow. | 0:07:40 | 0:07:44 | |
And overshadow the lives of our three young women, | 0:07:46 | 0:07:49 | |
Margaret Beaufort, Anne Neville and Elizabeth Woodville. | 0:07:49 | 0:07:54 | |
Safely distant from the troubled royal court, | 0:08:04 | 0:08:07 | |
leading the quiet life of an English country lady, | 0:08:07 | 0:08:11 | |
was the beautiful wife of a mid-ranking English knight. | 0:08:11 | 0:08:14 | |
Elizabeth Woodville was a mother of two boys | 0:08:15 | 0:08:18 | |
living in rural Leicestershire, | 0:08:18 | 0:08:20 | |
but her family was extraordinarily well connected. | 0:08:20 | 0:08:23 | |
Elizabeth's parents were leading lights at the court of Henry VI | 0:08:28 | 0:08:32 | |
because her mother, Jacquetta, | 0:08:32 | 0:08:34 | |
was born into the Royal House of Luxembourg, | 0:08:34 | 0:08:36 | |
an ancient European family who could trace their lineage back | 0:08:36 | 0:08:40 | |
through recorded history into myth. | 0:08:40 | 0:08:43 | |
The family seat was a fairytale castle | 0:08:49 | 0:08:52 | |
that dominated the roads and rivers | 0:08:52 | 0:08:54 | |
between France, Germany and the Low Countries. | 0:08:54 | 0:08:58 | |
And as a child, Elizabeth must have heard | 0:08:58 | 0:09:00 | |
the whole family story from her mother, Jacquetta. | 0:09:00 | 0:09:03 | |
A story wrapped in magic and mystery. | 0:09:03 | 0:09:08 | |
Jacquetta's ancestor, Count Siegfried, | 0:09:08 | 0:09:10 | |
was said to have married a water goddess, Melusina, | 0:09:10 | 0:09:14 | |
a being half-woman, half-fish, rather like a mermaid. | 0:09:14 | 0:09:19 | |
She made the family castle of Luxembourg | 0:09:19 | 0:09:21 | |
magically appear on her wedding night. | 0:09:21 | 0:09:25 | |
And their marriage was a happy one, | 0:09:25 | 0:09:27 | |
until the count broke his vow | 0:09:27 | 0:09:29 | |
of giving her absolute privacy once a month, | 0:09:29 | 0:09:32 | |
and she flew away with her daughters and was never seen again. | 0:09:32 | 0:09:36 | |
This was an age when people believed in the power of the supernatural. | 0:09:42 | 0:09:46 | |
Their connection with the water witch | 0:09:46 | 0:09:48 | |
would have given the Woodville women a strange and mysterious allure. | 0:09:48 | 0:09:52 | |
But more vital than their European heritage | 0:09:53 | 0:09:56 | |
were their English allegiances. | 0:09:56 | 0:09:58 | |
Known as the Rivers Family, they were Lancastrian loyalists, | 0:09:58 | 0:10:02 | |
steadfast followers of the king, Henry VI. | 0:10:02 | 0:10:05 | |
So when the tension between the houses of Lancaster and York | 0:10:10 | 0:10:14 | |
broke into open conflict, | 0:10:14 | 0:10:15 | |
they were quick to rally to Henry's cause. | 0:10:15 | 0:10:18 | |
The men in Elizabeth's family all readied themselves for war | 0:10:20 | 0:10:24 | |
against the Yorkist rebels. | 0:10:24 | 0:10:26 | |
The House of York had a new young champion | 0:10:29 | 0:10:32 | |
and claimant to the throne, Edward of York. | 0:10:32 | 0:10:34 | |
His family had long coveted the kingdom, | 0:10:36 | 0:10:38 | |
and in 1461, he was ready to fight for the prize. | 0:10:38 | 0:10:43 | |
The noble families of England | 0:10:43 | 0:10:45 | |
were divided behind the banners of York and Lancaster. | 0:10:45 | 0:10:49 | |
But one family would matter more than any other | 0:10:49 | 0:10:52 | |
in this great struggle. | 0:10:52 | 0:10:54 | |
The family of Anne Neville. | 0:11:06 | 0:11:08 | |
Her childhood was one of opulence and privilege | 0:11:08 | 0:11:11 | |
beyond the dreams of anyone else in the country. | 0:11:11 | 0:11:14 | |
She was the youngest daughter of Richard Neville, | 0:11:14 | 0:11:16 | |
the wealthiest noble in England, | 0:11:16 | 0:11:18 | |
with a fortune that put him at the centre of English power politics. | 0:11:18 | 0:11:22 | |
Anne was born here, in Warwick Castle, | 0:11:25 | 0:11:28 | |
the main power base of her spectacular father, | 0:11:28 | 0:11:31 | |
Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick. | 0:11:31 | 0:11:33 | |
He was, without question, the supreme noble in England, | 0:11:33 | 0:11:36 | |
and starting to be thought of as greater than the king himself. | 0:11:36 | 0:11:40 | |
Warwick controlled lands from the south of England | 0:11:43 | 0:11:46 | |
all the way up to the border with Scotland. | 0:11:46 | 0:11:49 | |
Mostly concentrated in the north and the Midlands, | 0:11:49 | 0:11:52 | |
but there were some quite powerful estates down in the south, too. | 0:11:52 | 0:11:55 | |
So, effectively, you could draw a line from London to Berwick, | 0:11:55 | 0:11:58 | |
which would always go through lands owned by him. | 0:11:58 | 0:12:01 | |
Warwick's standard, the bear and ragged staff, | 0:12:06 | 0:12:09 | |
would have been known to almost everyone in the country. | 0:12:09 | 0:12:12 | |
A symbol of his unrivalled power and influence. | 0:12:12 | 0:12:17 | |
Effectively, the Neville family were princes in their own kingdom. | 0:12:19 | 0:12:23 | |
They could raise armies, they could fight their own private wars. | 0:12:23 | 0:12:26 | |
They effectively owned the lives of the men | 0:12:26 | 0:12:29 | |
who lived and worked on their lands. | 0:12:29 | 0:12:31 | |
So they had enormous influence, and especially in the north country, | 0:12:31 | 0:12:34 | |
which was outside of the diaspora of royal power, | 0:12:34 | 0:12:37 | |
they were the rulers. | 0:12:37 | 0:12:39 | |
For young Anne, it all meant a gilded life, | 0:12:41 | 0:12:43 | |
but there was a price to be paid for luxury and security. | 0:12:43 | 0:12:48 | |
She may have been his daughter, but for Warwick, | 0:12:48 | 0:12:50 | |
she was also a valuable piece to be played | 0:12:50 | 0:12:53 | |
in the complex game of aristocratic alliance. | 0:12:53 | 0:12:56 | |
Anne had no brothers. She and her sister would inherit everything. | 0:12:58 | 0:13:03 | |
Even when they were tiny, the entire nobility could see | 0:13:03 | 0:13:06 | |
their unequalled marriage potential | 0:13:06 | 0:13:08 | |
and eyed them up as valuable wives for their sons. | 0:13:08 | 0:13:12 | |
Anne was one of the two most desirable heiresses in England. | 0:13:12 | 0:13:16 | |
And making a good marriage alliance for her | 0:13:16 | 0:13:18 | |
was one of the principal political decisions for Warwick. | 0:13:18 | 0:13:21 | |
He had aspirations to be as close as possible to the throne. | 0:13:21 | 0:13:25 | |
And in an age when all politics was family politics, | 0:13:25 | 0:13:29 | |
dynastic politics, it was clear that his two young daughters | 0:13:29 | 0:13:32 | |
were going to be very important parts of that strategy. | 0:13:32 | 0:13:35 | |
But right now, the Earl of Warwick | 0:13:38 | 0:13:40 | |
was engaged in a different strategy, how to topple a king. | 0:13:40 | 0:13:44 | |
His sympathies and ties were with the House of York. | 0:13:45 | 0:13:48 | |
And he threw his considerable power base behind Edward, | 0:13:48 | 0:13:52 | |
backing his challenge against the Lancastrian King Henry VI. | 0:13:52 | 0:13:56 | |
War was now inescapable. | 0:14:00 | 0:14:02 | |
And taking sides, as the violence escalated, | 0:14:02 | 0:14:06 | |
were our three young women. | 0:14:06 | 0:14:09 | |
Anne Neville, daughter of the mighty Earl of Warwick | 0:14:09 | 0:14:12 | |
and Elizabeth Woodville, | 0:14:12 | 0:14:14 | |
the beautiful young wife of a Lancastrian knight, | 0:14:14 | 0:14:17 | |
each had a life-changing stake in the outcome of these troubles. | 0:14:17 | 0:14:20 | |
For Margaret Beaufort, the pious child bride, | 0:14:23 | 0:14:26 | |
life had taken a menacing turn. | 0:14:26 | 0:14:28 | |
A long way from family and friends and with war looming, | 0:14:33 | 0:14:37 | |
Margaret Beaufort had endured terrible suffering. | 0:14:37 | 0:14:41 | |
The husband who had forced her into pregnancy was dead. | 0:14:41 | 0:14:44 | |
A victim of the plague. | 0:14:44 | 0:14:47 | |
And she had another great burden. | 0:14:47 | 0:14:49 | |
Aged 13, she was now a mother. | 0:14:49 | 0:14:51 | |
In the cold gloom of Pembroke Castle, | 0:14:56 | 0:14:59 | |
Margaret had faced the most dangerous moment | 0:14:59 | 0:15:01 | |
of any medieval woman's life, the ordeal of childbirth. | 0:15:01 | 0:15:06 | |
Childbirth was much more dangerous in the 15th century than it is now. | 0:15:08 | 0:15:12 | |
We estimate that about one in ten women died in childbirth. | 0:15:12 | 0:15:18 | |
There was nothing they could do about very common complications | 0:15:19 | 0:15:23 | |
like eclampsia and haemorrhaging. | 0:15:23 | 0:15:26 | |
If you haemorrhaged, you died. | 0:15:26 | 0:15:28 | |
If the baby got stuck in the birth canal or was a breech presentation, | 0:15:28 | 0:15:32 | |
there was almost nothing they could do. | 0:15:32 | 0:15:34 | |
They could do a caesarean, but only after the mother had died | 0:15:34 | 0:15:37 | |
because they understood that it would be fatal. | 0:15:37 | 0:15:39 | |
So if you think about the number of things we've got an answer to now, | 0:15:39 | 0:15:44 | |
and think about the fact that they didn't have any answer to them then, | 0:15:44 | 0:15:48 | |
you can understand what a dreadfully frightening experience | 0:15:48 | 0:15:51 | |
it would have been for women. | 0:15:51 | 0:15:53 | |
Margaret would have been acutely aware of the fatal dangers | 0:15:56 | 0:15:59 | |
facing her as she went into labour. | 0:15:59 | 0:16:03 | |
And because of her size, she was greatly at risk. | 0:16:03 | 0:16:06 | |
The birth was long and difficult. | 0:16:08 | 0:16:11 | |
Both she and the baby were expected to die. | 0:16:11 | 0:16:14 | |
Margaret, small, still a child herself, | 0:16:14 | 0:16:18 | |
was probably permanently physically damaged. | 0:16:18 | 0:16:21 | |
She would never bear another child. | 0:16:21 | 0:16:23 | |
Against all the odds, | 0:16:32 | 0:16:34 | |
Margaret survived this agonising childbirth and delivered a son. | 0:16:34 | 0:16:39 | |
Unusually, she didn't christen him for his father, | 0:16:42 | 0:16:45 | |
but chose instead a royal name. | 0:16:45 | 0:16:47 | |
She called him Henry, | 0:16:47 | 0:16:49 | |
after the child's uncle, the king, who Margaret revered as a saint. | 0:16:49 | 0:16:53 | |
Perhaps she felt as she emerged from the ordeal of childbirth, | 0:16:53 | 0:16:57 | |
that this baby who had caused her so much pain | 0:16:57 | 0:17:00 | |
was destined for greatness. | 0:17:00 | 0:17:03 | |
Why did this vulnerable young woman have such a determined belief | 0:17:04 | 0:17:08 | |
that she and her child could rise so far? | 0:17:08 | 0:17:12 | |
Her background was noble, but tainted. | 0:17:12 | 0:17:14 | |
Just like the king, she was descended from Edward III | 0:17:14 | 0:17:19 | |
through his third surviving son, | 0:17:19 | 0:17:21 | |
John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. | 0:17:21 | 0:17:24 | |
But there was one major difference between her and Henry VI. | 0:17:26 | 0:17:30 | |
The Beaufort line was a bastard line. | 0:17:30 | 0:17:34 | |
Like many men of the time, | 0:17:34 | 0:17:36 | |
John of Gaunt fathered illegitimate children. | 0:17:36 | 0:17:39 | |
Unusually, he later married his mistress | 0:17:39 | 0:17:42 | |
and had his bastards legitimised by an Act of Parliament. | 0:17:42 | 0:17:47 | |
But it was clearly agreed, | 0:17:48 | 0:17:50 | |
the Beaufort line could never take the throne. | 0:17:50 | 0:17:52 | |
So the Beauforts were of the Royal Family, | 0:17:55 | 0:17:58 | |
but also not of the Royal Family. | 0:17:58 | 0:18:01 | |
And from a Beaufort point of view, | 0:18:01 | 0:18:03 | |
I think that must have really rankled. | 0:18:03 | 0:18:05 | |
They would have seen that as a considerable injustice. | 0:18:05 | 0:18:08 | |
That we've been legitimated, we're part of the Royal Family, | 0:18:08 | 0:18:12 | |
we're very, very close to the Royal Family, | 0:18:12 | 0:18:15 | |
so why are we being excluded from succession to the throne? | 0:18:15 | 0:18:19 | |
Bastards or not, Margaret knew she was close to the throne. | 0:18:19 | 0:18:24 | |
But she saved her greatest ambitions, however unlikely, | 0:18:24 | 0:18:27 | |
for the son that she insisted would carry the royal name, Henry. | 0:18:27 | 0:18:31 | |
As the war between the cousins started, | 0:18:36 | 0:18:38 | |
our women stood on different sides of the conflict. | 0:18:38 | 0:18:42 | |
For the House of Lancaster, | 0:18:42 | 0:18:44 | |
Margaret Beaufort remained devoted to Henry VI. | 0:18:44 | 0:18:47 | |
The family of Elizabeth Woodville | 0:18:49 | 0:18:51 | |
were also aligned with King Henry | 0:18:51 | 0:18:53 | |
as he stood against the Yorkist Edward's forces. | 0:18:53 | 0:18:57 | |
But on the other side of the conflict was Anne Neville. | 0:18:58 | 0:19:02 | |
Her father, the Earl of Warwick was Edward of York's main ally. | 0:19:02 | 0:19:06 | |
All three women had to watch anxiously | 0:19:07 | 0:19:09 | |
as the war that was going to determine the rest of their lives | 0:19:09 | 0:19:13 | |
escalated from early skirmishes to its pivotal moment. | 0:19:13 | 0:19:17 | |
Towton. | 0:19:17 | 0:19:19 | |
Edward quickly gathered all his forces together | 0:19:22 | 0:19:24 | |
and they met on the battlefield of Towton in South Yorkshire. | 0:19:24 | 0:19:28 | |
And Towton was the bloodiest battle of the civil wars, | 0:19:28 | 0:19:33 | |
of the whole of the Wars of the Roses. | 0:19:33 | 0:19:35 | |
The Lancastrians and Yorkists probably put | 0:19:38 | 0:19:41 | |
between 20,000 and 30,000 men in the field. | 0:19:41 | 0:19:44 | |
Significantly, most of the English nobility was present at Towton. | 0:19:44 | 0:19:48 | |
That's what really singles out Towton as a very special battle. | 0:19:48 | 0:19:53 | |
This was the battle that was going to decide the Wars of the Roses. | 0:19:53 | 0:19:56 | |
The Earl of Warwick had attracted the best soldiers and gunners | 0:19:58 | 0:20:01 | |
to the Yorkist banner, | 0:20:01 | 0:20:02 | |
greatly boosting their chances of success. | 0:20:02 | 0:20:05 | |
Edward, who had been Warwick's military pupil, | 0:20:07 | 0:20:10 | |
fought, as always, in the middle of his men. | 0:20:10 | 0:20:12 | |
And he was a fantastic symbolic figure. | 0:20:12 | 0:20:14 | |
Tall, very good looking. | 0:20:14 | 0:20:16 | |
And he fought with an axe, with his standard behind him. | 0:20:16 | 0:20:19 | |
A really inspiring figure to his troops. | 0:20:19 | 0:20:22 | |
There was a high death rate, | 0:20:26 | 0:20:27 | |
although no-one knows exactly what the death rate was, | 0:20:27 | 0:20:30 | |
but the word went round 25,000 people died in the battle. | 0:20:30 | 0:20:34 | |
Almost every great northern family lost a son. | 0:20:35 | 0:20:39 | |
It was said that all the fields from Tadcaster to Towton, | 0:20:39 | 0:20:43 | |
a distance of more than two miles, | 0:20:43 | 0:20:46 | |
were filled with the bodies of dead men. | 0:20:46 | 0:20:49 | |
It was a bloody, but decisive victory for Edward. | 0:20:49 | 0:20:53 | |
Towton was the moment, the battle that secured Edward on the throne. | 0:20:55 | 0:21:00 | |
It established the House of York. | 0:21:00 | 0:21:02 | |
The slaughter at Towton toppled the House of Lancaster and King Henry. | 0:21:05 | 0:21:09 | |
He fled into exile with his wife and son. | 0:21:10 | 0:21:13 | |
But England had not heard the last of him or his cause. | 0:21:13 | 0:21:16 | |
Young Edward of York was triumphantly crowned Edward VI. | 0:21:18 | 0:21:22 | |
And our three young women experienced dramatic upheaval. | 0:21:22 | 0:21:26 | |
Anne Neville's status rose with that of her powerful father, Warwick. | 0:21:29 | 0:21:34 | |
He had made Edward's victory possible | 0:21:34 | 0:21:36 | |
and people now called him the Kingmaker. | 0:21:36 | 0:21:39 | |
Anne's good fortune was in sharp contrast | 0:21:44 | 0:21:47 | |
to the new life facing Elizabeth Woodville. | 0:21:47 | 0:21:50 | |
Her side had lost and her husband had died | 0:21:50 | 0:21:53 | |
fighting for the Lancastrian cause. | 0:21:53 | 0:21:55 | |
It was a terrible blow for Elizabeth. | 0:21:57 | 0:22:00 | |
She had lost her husband and she was now a widow with two little boys. | 0:22:00 | 0:22:05 | |
To make matters worse, her mother-in-law | 0:22:06 | 0:22:08 | |
was refusing to pay her the allowance | 0:22:08 | 0:22:10 | |
that she was owed under her marriage contract. | 0:22:10 | 0:22:14 | |
With no source of income, Elizabeth's future looked bleak. | 0:22:14 | 0:22:18 | |
THUNDERCLAP | 0:22:20 | 0:22:21 | |
Also facing anxious times was the 17-year-old Margaret Beaufort. | 0:22:25 | 0:22:29 | |
The king she worshipped almost as a saint had been deposed. | 0:22:31 | 0:22:35 | |
Many of her family and allies were dead. | 0:22:35 | 0:22:38 | |
Even worse, the future for the son she adored looked uncertain. | 0:22:38 | 0:22:43 | |
The new king would control the destiny | 0:22:44 | 0:22:46 | |
of wealthy, young, fatherless heirs. | 0:22:46 | 0:22:49 | |
And Henry Tudor was a valuable prize. | 0:22:49 | 0:22:52 | |
If a boy's father was dead, then care and custody of him, | 0:22:54 | 0:22:58 | |
guardianship if you like, wardship, could be given or sold, | 0:22:58 | 0:23:03 | |
because again, this was big business, to another noble. | 0:23:03 | 0:23:06 | |
The noble would then be able to administer the boy's lands | 0:23:06 | 0:23:10 | |
and also to dispose of him in marriage, | 0:23:10 | 0:23:13 | |
which could be an advantageous business. | 0:23:13 | 0:23:16 | |
In return, he was supposed to protect the boy's interests | 0:23:16 | 0:23:20 | |
and teach him everything he should know. | 0:23:20 | 0:23:22 | |
See that he was taught a certain amount of book learning, perhaps, | 0:23:22 | 0:23:25 | |
everything to do with the estate, | 0:23:25 | 0:23:26 | |
but also, and most importantly, the art of war. | 0:23:26 | 0:23:30 | |
Margaret Beaufort was powerless to prevent her son Henry from being moved | 0:23:34 | 0:23:39 | |
into the home of one of the York King Edward's strongest supporters, | 0:23:39 | 0:23:44 | |
the experienced soldier, William, Lord Herbert. | 0:23:44 | 0:23:47 | |
In Herbert's household, Henry would have been given | 0:23:49 | 0:23:53 | |
a basic military training. | 0:23:53 | 0:23:55 | |
And we know that certainly from the age of nine, if not earlier, | 0:23:55 | 0:23:59 | |
there was a regular exercise routine where these children were drilled, | 0:23:59 | 0:24:04 | |
first of all with wooden toy replica, um...spears, | 0:24:04 | 0:24:10 | |
swords, shields, and then the real thing. | 0:24:10 | 0:24:14 | |
From now on, if Margaret wanted to see Henry, | 0:24:19 | 0:24:22 | |
she would have to make the long journey to Raglan | 0:24:22 | 0:24:25 | |
Lord Herbert's magnificent castle in Wales. | 0:24:25 | 0:24:28 | |
And she would have to accept hospitality from a Yorkist. | 0:24:28 | 0:24:32 | |
Although wardship was a normal part of medieval aristocratic life, | 0:24:35 | 0:24:39 | |
Margaret must have found it very hard to bear. | 0:24:39 | 0:24:42 | |
Her son had been taken from her and placed with her enemy | 0:24:42 | 0:24:45 | |
and there was nothing she could do about it. | 0:24:45 | 0:24:47 | |
But in taking Henry out of Margaret's hands | 0:24:49 | 0:24:51 | |
and putting him with one of his favourites, | 0:24:51 | 0:24:54 | |
the king had merely underlined how important he was. | 0:24:54 | 0:24:58 | |
We know that Margaret visited Henry at least once. | 0:25:02 | 0:25:06 | |
She stayed with her son in Raglan Castle for about a week | 0:25:06 | 0:25:09 | |
before she had to face the pain of separation once again. | 0:25:09 | 0:25:13 | |
I think it did affect her very strongly. | 0:25:16 | 0:25:20 | |
He was her only child, she was not able to have another one. | 0:25:20 | 0:25:25 | |
And their relationship had been forged | 0:25:25 | 0:25:27 | |
in this time of terrible danger. | 0:25:27 | 0:25:29 | |
First of all, she'd learned that her husband had succumbed to the plague, | 0:25:29 | 0:25:34 | |
she was alone and vulnerable, | 0:25:34 | 0:25:37 | |
and that gave an intensity to their relationship. | 0:25:37 | 0:25:40 | |
And I think when they were separated, it impacted on her a lot. | 0:25:40 | 0:25:45 | |
It must have been terribly hard | 0:25:55 | 0:25:57 | |
for Margaret to leave her son in the hands of the enemy, | 0:25:57 | 0:26:00 | |
even if she knew that he was being raised as a nobleman | 0:26:00 | 0:26:03 | |
in the house of a favourite of the king. | 0:26:03 | 0:26:06 | |
Worse for her must have been the fear that the Yorks | 0:26:06 | 0:26:08 | |
would be turning him to their side, | 0:26:08 | 0:26:11 | |
That the boy she had named for the Lancastrian king | 0:26:11 | 0:26:14 | |
was becoming a Yorkist. | 0:26:14 | 0:26:16 | |
Margaret had dreams for her son | 0:26:22 | 0:26:23 | |
that could only be realised through years of patient scheming. | 0:26:23 | 0:26:27 | |
But immediate action was needed | 0:26:27 | 0:26:29 | |
to save the children of the widow Elizabeth Woodville. | 0:26:29 | 0:26:32 | |
Her husband was dead, she had no source of income | 0:26:36 | 0:26:39 | |
and she and her boys were facing ruin. | 0:26:39 | 0:26:41 | |
To save her family, she was forced to turn to the man | 0:26:45 | 0:26:48 | |
who had brought this misery on them. | 0:26:48 | 0:26:50 | |
Edward, the newly-crowned king. | 0:26:50 | 0:26:53 | |
According to the traditional story, | 0:26:56 | 0:26:58 | |
Elizabeth waited for Edward under an oak tree | 0:26:58 | 0:27:01 | |
with her two fatherless boys. | 0:27:01 | 0:27:04 | |
When the king appeared, she stepped forward and begged him to help her. | 0:27:04 | 0:27:09 | |
Edward, a notorious womaniser, | 0:27:09 | 0:27:11 | |
was so struck by Elizabeth's beauty that he fell for her at once. | 0:27:11 | 0:27:17 | |
Edward did just fall hard for Elizabeth. | 0:27:17 | 0:27:21 | |
It was love or lust, whichever way you care to look at it. | 0:27:21 | 0:27:24 | |
She was beautiful, all reports say, | 0:27:24 | 0:27:27 | |
and in the way that the age most admired. | 0:27:27 | 0:27:29 | |
I mean, the age admired a willowy figure, | 0:27:29 | 0:27:32 | |
golden hair, white skin, perhaps grey or blue eyes. | 0:27:32 | 0:27:36 | |
Apparently powerless, without friends or family | 0:27:39 | 0:27:43 | |
who could help her, Elizabeth's situation had seemed hopeless. | 0:27:43 | 0:27:47 | |
But she still had one powerful tool available to her. | 0:27:47 | 0:27:51 | |
In many ways, Elizabeth was trading her beauty, | 0:27:55 | 0:28:00 | |
her sexual appeal, for great position. | 0:28:00 | 0:28:03 | |
And good on her, really. | 0:28:03 | 0:28:05 | |
Because a women didn't necessary have very many weapons | 0:28:05 | 0:28:08 | |
in the 15th century. | 0:28:08 | 0:28:10 | |
And if she was going to try and carve her own place in the world, | 0:28:10 | 0:28:14 | |
her looks and her allure | 0:28:14 | 0:28:17 | |
were really one of the strongest tools she had. | 0:28:17 | 0:28:20 | |
The young king may have assumed that he could have a secret affair. | 0:28:24 | 0:28:28 | |
He'd had many lovers. Other women were happy to be his mistress. | 0:28:28 | 0:28:32 | |
It was said that he went for women of all sorts. | 0:28:34 | 0:28:38 | |
Noble, lowly, married, unmarried. | 0:28:38 | 0:28:42 | |
I mean, the Chronicler does say, rather nicely, | 0:28:42 | 0:28:45 | |
with, you know, some admiration, | 0:28:45 | 0:28:47 | |
that nonetheless, he overcame none by force. | 0:28:47 | 0:28:50 | |
He did all by, you know, money and promises. | 0:28:50 | 0:28:53 | |
But that having won them, he then dismissed them. | 0:28:53 | 0:28:55 | |
Elizabeth resisted Edward's advances. | 0:28:59 | 0:29:02 | |
Chroniclers at the time reported that she was so determined, | 0:29:02 | 0:29:05 | |
she held him off with his own dagger. | 0:29:05 | 0:29:09 | |
There's stories that he held a knife to her throat, | 0:29:09 | 0:29:13 | |
that she held a knife to his throat, | 0:29:13 | 0:29:15 | |
but that either way, she said if she was too low to be his wife, | 0:29:15 | 0:29:19 | |
she was too high to be his concubine. | 0:29:19 | 0:29:22 | |
And that might have appealed to Edward. | 0:29:22 | 0:29:25 | |
In Elizabeth, he'd met a woman who was not prepared to be dismissed. | 0:29:25 | 0:29:29 | |
Elizabeth left the completely love-struck king | 0:29:37 | 0:29:39 | |
with only one option. | 0:29:39 | 0:29:42 | |
One morning, he rode to the Rivers' home for a secret ceremony | 0:29:42 | 0:29:46 | |
that would change the fortunes of the House of York and of the nation. | 0:29:46 | 0:29:50 | |
According to chroniclers, Jacquetta was the only family member present | 0:29:54 | 0:29:58 | |
when Edward and Elizabeth were married on May Day. | 0:29:58 | 0:30:01 | |
A day for lust, for love and for the celebration of life. | 0:30:01 | 0:30:06 | |
The marriage was consummated immediately. | 0:30:06 | 0:30:09 | |
For the next few weeks, the handsome young king of the House of York | 0:30:09 | 0:30:13 | |
was creeping every night | 0:30:13 | 0:30:15 | |
into a staunchly Lancastrian home to be with his bride. | 0:30:15 | 0:30:20 | |
Elizabeth's mother must have encouraged this secret passion | 0:30:24 | 0:30:28 | |
because she knew that their marriage | 0:30:28 | 0:30:30 | |
could reap enormous benefits for the Woodville family | 0:30:30 | 0:30:33 | |
and pave the way to Elizabeth's role as the first woman of England. | 0:30:33 | 0:30:38 | |
If Edward could keep his throne, she would be queen. | 0:30:38 | 0:30:41 | |
But Elizabeth's new husband, the king, | 0:30:45 | 0:30:47 | |
had underestimated the outrage his marriage would cause. | 0:30:47 | 0:30:51 | |
Especially amongst powerful nobles like the Earl of Warwick. | 0:30:51 | 0:30:54 | |
When the news escaped, when Edward told the council, | 0:30:56 | 0:31:00 | |
they and his family were absolutely horrified. | 0:31:00 | 0:31:04 | |
Kings were supposed to make a big public marriage | 0:31:04 | 0:31:08 | |
with a foreign princess for the advantage of the country, | 0:31:08 | 0:31:12 | |
not make a love match. | 0:31:12 | 0:31:15 | |
And indeed, it was even said | 0:31:15 | 0:31:16 | |
that Edward was proving himself to be no true monarch | 0:31:16 | 0:31:20 | |
in doing something so undignified and extraordinary. | 0:31:20 | 0:31:23 | |
In the eyes of the English nobility, she was wrong on practically every count. | 0:31:27 | 0:31:31 | |
The fact she was a widow really meant she was tarnished | 0:31:31 | 0:31:34 | |
by this previous relationship. They did call her a bigamist. | 0:31:34 | 0:31:38 | |
And the fact that she had children by this previous marriage | 0:31:38 | 0:31:42 | |
made it considerably worse. | 0:31:42 | 0:31:44 | |
She was so much the wrong person for him to have married. | 0:31:44 | 0:31:46 | |
Edward's choice of bride was not just scandalous, | 0:31:48 | 0:31:51 | |
it was deeply offensive to the man who had made him king, | 0:31:51 | 0:31:56 | |
Warwick the Kingmaker. | 0:31:56 | 0:31:57 | |
For a start, Elizabeth Woodville's family | 0:31:59 | 0:32:02 | |
had been traditional Lancastrians, | 0:32:02 | 0:32:05 | |
so what was a Yorkist king doing marrying her? | 0:32:05 | 0:32:08 | |
For another, Warwick was in the middle of negotiating | 0:32:08 | 0:32:12 | |
a diplomatic, advantageous, continental alliance for Edward. | 0:32:12 | 0:32:16 | |
So he looked a fool when he was suddenly told, | 0:32:16 | 0:32:19 | |
no, no, Edward was married already. | 0:32:19 | 0:32:20 | |
Edward had forgotten his duties as king | 0:32:23 | 0:32:25 | |
and recklessly chosen his own bride for no other reason than blind love. | 0:32:25 | 0:32:31 | |
Or was it even worse than love? | 0:32:33 | 0:32:35 | |
No other English king had married for love before. | 0:32:35 | 0:32:38 | |
Was young Edward in the grip of intemperate lust? | 0:32:38 | 0:32:41 | |
Suspicious rumours began to circulate | 0:32:43 | 0:32:45 | |
that would have dangerous repercussions. | 0:32:45 | 0:32:47 | |
Perhaps some malign influence was at work. | 0:32:47 | 0:32:50 | |
Some people even suggested Edward had been seduced by witchcraft. | 0:32:50 | 0:32:56 | |
Belief in witchcraft was universal in the 15th century. | 0:33:01 | 0:33:04 | |
In the power of spells, incantations, charms and herbs. | 0:33:04 | 0:33:10 | |
What's more, it was one of the few accusations | 0:33:10 | 0:33:13 | |
from which even royal rank couldn't protect a woman. | 0:33:13 | 0:33:16 | |
There'd already been, in that century, | 0:33:16 | 0:33:18 | |
two royal women imprisoned for it. | 0:33:18 | 0:33:21 | |
But the enchanted Edward was sure of his choice. | 0:33:24 | 0:33:28 | |
And Elizabeth's transformation was complete. | 0:33:28 | 0:33:31 | |
From obscure country lady, she had emerged as the new Queen of England. | 0:33:31 | 0:33:37 | |
And in May 1465, Edward officially confirmed her status | 0:33:42 | 0:33:46 | |
with a highly glamorous and lavish ceremony in Westminster Abbey. | 0:33:46 | 0:33:50 | |
Elizabeth entered the abbey barefoot, | 0:33:57 | 0:33:59 | |
dressed in purple, followed by the lords and ladies of the court. | 0:33:59 | 0:34:03 | |
She passed through the choir, | 0:34:03 | 0:34:05 | |
knelt and prostrated herself before the high altar | 0:34:05 | 0:34:08 | |
while the archbishop conducted the service, | 0:34:08 | 0:34:11 | |
anointing her on her forehead and her breast. | 0:34:11 | 0:34:14 | |
Then, after receiving the coronation ring on her finger | 0:34:14 | 0:34:18 | |
and the crown on her head, | 0:34:18 | 0:34:20 | |
she was solemnly led to the throne itself. | 0:34:20 | 0:34:23 | |
In the magnificent abbey, | 0:34:31 | 0:34:33 | |
Edward paraded his new queen in a dazzling show | 0:34:33 | 0:34:36 | |
attended by the most important nobles of Europe. | 0:34:36 | 0:34:39 | |
The public spectacle of her coronation | 0:34:43 | 0:34:45 | |
could not have been more unlike the secret wedding at the Rivers' family home. | 0:34:45 | 0:34:50 | |
That had been a private, personal affair. | 0:34:50 | 0:34:53 | |
This was a matter of international politics. | 0:34:53 | 0:34:57 | |
As Queen of England, Elizabeth Woodville | 0:34:59 | 0:35:02 | |
was the first of our women to win the highest position in the realm. | 0:35:02 | 0:35:05 | |
Margaret Beaufort seemed further from achieving her aspirations than ever before. | 0:35:07 | 0:35:11 | |
And Anne Neville had seen her father the Kingmaker | 0:35:13 | 0:35:16 | |
sidelined by the new king. | 0:35:16 | 0:35:18 | |
But he wouldn't take this treatment lightly. | 0:35:20 | 0:35:23 | |
He was still the richest noble in the land. | 0:35:23 | 0:35:26 | |
And he set out to prove it, | 0:35:26 | 0:35:28 | |
with flamboyant demonstrations of his wealth. | 0:35:28 | 0:35:31 | |
Entertaining, giving large banquets and parties | 0:35:35 | 0:35:38 | |
was a way of showing off your wealth, your power | 0:35:38 | 0:35:41 | |
and also of networking. | 0:35:41 | 0:35:42 | |
So, Warwick, yes, he did entertain lavishly, | 0:35:42 | 0:35:45 | |
he did give very large parties | 0:35:45 | 0:35:47 | |
and even as he moved about the countryside, | 0:35:47 | 0:35:49 | |
he would have a large retinue of men at arms, | 0:35:49 | 0:35:51 | |
he would have his banners, his emblems with him, | 0:35:51 | 0:35:54 | |
so that every stage of his life was a carefully choreographed ballet | 0:35:54 | 0:35:58 | |
to manifest his power upon the world. | 0:35:58 | 0:36:01 | |
When his brother was promoted to Archbishop of York, | 0:36:04 | 0:36:07 | |
the second most powerful position in the church, | 0:36:07 | 0:36:09 | |
Warwick the Kingmaker threw an enormous feast. | 0:36:09 | 0:36:13 | |
We have the menu of the feast | 0:36:16 | 0:36:18 | |
and it shows that the Nevilles would go to extraordinary lengths | 0:36:18 | 0:36:21 | |
to demonstrate their wealth. | 0:36:21 | 0:36:23 | |
The feast lasted several days | 0:36:23 | 0:36:25 | |
and 2,000 guests drank their way through 25,000 gallons of wine | 0:36:25 | 0:36:31 | |
and ate, among other things, | 0:36:31 | 0:36:33 | |
4,000 mallard and 500 buck and stag. | 0:36:33 | 0:36:38 | |
One table at this great Neville dinner | 0:36:40 | 0:36:43 | |
was reserved for the young people, | 0:36:43 | 0:36:45 | |
the royal kinsmen and women of the House of York. | 0:36:45 | 0:36:48 | |
Seated together, with some ladies of the royal court, | 0:36:49 | 0:36:53 | |
were Anne Neville and Richard of Gloucester, | 0:36:53 | 0:36:55 | |
the king's younger brother. | 0:36:55 | 0:36:57 | |
She was nine and he was 13. | 0:36:57 | 0:36:59 | |
And he was invited to the feast because he was her father's ward. | 0:36:59 | 0:37:03 | |
So Anne and Richard were growing up in the same household. | 0:37:03 | 0:37:06 | |
It was a mark of Anne's high status that she was living | 0:37:08 | 0:37:11 | |
under the same roof as the king of England's own brother. | 0:37:11 | 0:37:14 | |
The boy who would become Richard III. | 0:37:14 | 0:37:18 | |
Anne Neville was brought up, if not to think of herself quite as a princess, | 0:37:19 | 0:37:22 | |
then certainly something close to it. | 0:37:22 | 0:37:25 | |
She knew that her father had great wealth, great influence | 0:37:25 | 0:37:27 | |
and very important political connections | 0:37:27 | 0:37:29 | |
and I think this must have informed her sense of self, of who she was | 0:37:29 | 0:37:34 | |
and what her expectations of her life might be. | 0:37:34 | 0:37:36 | |
Anne's father, Warwick the Kingmaker, | 0:37:39 | 0:37:41 | |
was becoming more and more resentful of the new Queen of England, | 0:37:41 | 0:37:46 | |
the former loyal Lancastrian and commoner Elizabeth Woodville. | 0:37:46 | 0:37:50 | |
As Queen, Elizabeth could use pillow talk | 0:37:51 | 0:37:54 | |
to influence her husband the king. | 0:37:54 | 0:37:57 | |
And this was of huge benefit to her family. | 0:37:57 | 0:38:00 | |
She had five brothers and seven sisters | 0:38:00 | 0:38:03 | |
who were found excellent marriages and great positions in the realm. | 0:38:03 | 0:38:08 | |
The Woodvilles were a large, extensive, enthusiastic | 0:38:10 | 0:38:15 | |
and some said rapacious family, | 0:38:15 | 0:38:18 | |
who very quickly began snapping up the available positions, | 0:38:18 | 0:38:24 | |
awards, heirs to marry. | 0:38:24 | 0:38:27 | |
It did look to their enemies | 0:38:27 | 0:38:29 | |
as though the Woodvilles were staging a takeover of the country. | 0:38:29 | 0:38:32 | |
But not even the Earl of Warwick could deny | 0:38:35 | 0:38:38 | |
that in her most important duty to king and country, | 0:38:38 | 0:38:41 | |
Elizabeth exceeded expectations. | 0:38:41 | 0:38:44 | |
As Queen, Elizabeth's main job was to produce heirs. | 0:38:46 | 0:38:50 | |
Making the dynasty secure | 0:38:50 | 0:38:52 | |
and proving that it was blessed by God. | 0:38:52 | 0:38:55 | |
Elizabeth was expected to be fertile, and she didn't disappoint. | 0:38:55 | 0:39:00 | |
Within the first five years of her marriage to Edward, | 0:39:00 | 0:39:03 | |
she gave birth to three daughters. | 0:39:03 | 0:39:05 | |
The birth of royal heirs was attended | 0:39:08 | 0:39:10 | |
by much ritual and superstition. | 0:39:10 | 0:39:12 | |
Each time Elizabeth had a baby, she had to follow a strict protocol. | 0:39:14 | 0:39:18 | |
When the queen was expecting to give birth, | 0:39:21 | 0:39:25 | |
she would effectively retire from the court. | 0:39:25 | 0:39:28 | |
There would be a ceremonial mass | 0:39:28 | 0:39:30 | |
that was attended by a lot of people as a farewell, | 0:39:30 | 0:39:33 | |
and then she retired into a suite of rooms | 0:39:33 | 0:39:36 | |
that had been specially prepared for her. | 0:39:36 | 0:39:38 | |
At this point, women of her household would take on roles | 0:39:39 | 0:39:43 | |
that had previously been fulfilled by men, and deliver what was needed. | 0:39:43 | 0:39:48 | |
The queen passed the last few weeks of her pregnancy | 0:39:50 | 0:39:53 | |
served exclusively by women. | 0:39:53 | 0:39:55 | |
There's a wonderful description of the inner sanctum, | 0:39:57 | 0:40:01 | |
the room where she was actually going to give birth. | 0:40:01 | 0:40:03 | |
It's very dark and warm. | 0:40:03 | 0:40:04 | |
There's got to be carpets on the floor, on the ceiling and the walls, | 0:40:04 | 0:40:08 | |
it's got to be blue with fleur-de-lis. | 0:40:08 | 0:40:11 | |
Blue, of course was the colour of the Virgin Mary | 0:40:11 | 0:40:13 | |
and so, fleur-de-lis was her symbol, so it's connecting in with this. | 0:40:13 | 0:40:18 | |
There's a sumptuous main bed, | 0:40:18 | 0:40:20 | |
which the bedspread would be edged in velvet and ermine, | 0:40:20 | 0:40:24 | |
but then, there was a pallet bed, | 0:40:24 | 0:40:26 | |
which had a big canopy over it in crimson | 0:40:26 | 0:40:28 | |
with gold crowns all over it. | 0:40:28 | 0:40:30 | |
After giving birth, the Queen was expected to rest for two months | 0:40:33 | 0:40:38 | |
before she ceremoniously re-entered public life. | 0:40:38 | 0:40:41 | |
There was a long procession to the chapel and that's where she would be churched, | 0:40:43 | 0:40:47 | |
the ceremony of purifying, which had a bishop putting holy water over her | 0:40:47 | 0:40:51 | |
and then, after that, they went in for mass. | 0:40:51 | 0:40:54 | |
All of this ritual was designed to celebrate the arrival | 0:40:59 | 0:41:03 | |
of what might be the future king. | 0:41:03 | 0:41:05 | |
For Edward, a usurper of the throne, | 0:41:06 | 0:41:09 | |
these customs were a very public way to reaffirm his dynasty. | 0:41:09 | 0:41:14 | |
This contemporary image of Elizabeth with her three daughters | 0:41:19 | 0:41:22 | |
is not just a reminder of her fertility. | 0:41:22 | 0:41:25 | |
It demonstrates how unusual she was as a royal, medieval mother. | 0:41:25 | 0:41:30 | |
She has her children by her side. | 0:41:30 | 0:41:32 | |
She didn't farm them out to aristocratic connections, | 0:41:34 | 0:41:36 | |
as other high-status mothers did. | 0:41:36 | 0:41:38 | |
She kept them by her. | 0:41:38 | 0:41:40 | |
She was a devoted mother in a way that we can understand today. | 0:41:40 | 0:41:44 | |
But she had failed in one key duty - | 0:41:46 | 0:41:49 | |
Elizabeth hadn't yet produced the all-important son and heir. | 0:41:49 | 0:41:53 | |
And as each daughter arrived, the Earl of Warwick's resentment grew. | 0:41:53 | 0:41:58 | |
Eight years after putting Edward on the throne, | 0:42:01 | 0:42:04 | |
Warwick the Kingmaker could no longer tolerate the grasping Rivers family | 0:42:04 | 0:42:09 | |
and his relationship with Edward collapsed completely. | 0:42:09 | 0:42:13 | |
Warwick was deeply resentful that he had been replaced | 0:42:13 | 0:42:17 | |
in the central councils of the King, | 0:42:17 | 0:42:20 | |
indeed as the most principal supporter | 0:42:20 | 0:42:22 | |
and subject...minister of the crown, | 0:42:22 | 0:42:25 | |
by, in particular, Earl Rivers, Queen Elizabeth Woodville's father. | 0:42:25 | 0:42:30 | |
The Kingmaker began to enact his rebellion. | 0:42:33 | 0:42:37 | |
Against the King's wishes, | 0:42:37 | 0:42:38 | |
he married his eldest daughter | 0:42:38 | 0:42:40 | |
to the King's brother, | 0:42:40 | 0:42:41 | |
George, Duke of Clarence, | 0:42:41 | 0:42:43 | |
cementing a dangerous alliance | 0:42:43 | 0:42:45 | |
in opposition to Edward. | 0:42:45 | 0:42:47 | |
Together, Warwick and George issued a proclamation | 0:42:47 | 0:42:50 | |
against certain "seditious persons" in court. | 0:42:50 | 0:42:54 | |
Warwick the Kingmaker declared that the King was being misled | 0:42:57 | 0:43:00 | |
by these evil ministers, | 0:43:00 | 0:43:02 | |
the government of the kingdom was falling into rack and ruin | 0:43:02 | 0:43:04 | |
and he, Warwick the Kingmaker, was going to put it right. | 0:43:04 | 0:43:08 | |
After eight peaceful years in England, war was looming once more. | 0:43:09 | 0:43:14 | |
Having installed Edward on the throne, | 0:43:14 | 0:43:17 | |
Anne Neville's all-powerful father | 0:43:17 | 0:43:19 | |
now set out to remove him and seize control. | 0:43:19 | 0:43:22 | |
When the Kingmaker took up arms against the King at Edgecote Moor, | 0:43:24 | 0:43:27 | |
England was pitched into the most unstable time in its history. | 0:43:27 | 0:43:31 | |
Once again, the families of these three women went to war. | 0:43:33 | 0:43:38 | |
Anne Neville saw her father | 0:43:38 | 0:43:40 | |
boldly turn against the King he'd once served. | 0:43:40 | 0:43:43 | |
Elizabeth Woodville was about to pay an awful price | 0:43:43 | 0:43:46 | |
for her meteoric rise to power. | 0:43:46 | 0:43:49 | |
And Margaret Beaufort's adored son, | 0:43:49 | 0:43:52 | |
who had been growing up in the house of a Yorkist noble, | 0:43:52 | 0:43:55 | |
was about to come under terrible threat. | 0:43:55 | 0:43:58 | |
On the eve of battle, Margaret would have been at her home, | 0:44:04 | 0:44:07 | |
praying for a York defeat. | 0:44:07 | 0:44:09 | |
But her loyalties would have been divided, | 0:44:09 | 0:44:11 | |
because fighting for the enemy was her 12-year-old son Henry. | 0:44:11 | 0:44:16 | |
He'd been led into his first battle by his guardian, | 0:44:16 | 0:44:18 | |
the Yorkist commander William Herbert. | 0:44:18 | 0:44:21 | |
Margaret must have been beside herself, | 0:44:21 | 0:44:24 | |
praying for a York defeat, | 0:44:24 | 0:44:26 | |
hoping for the safety of her son. | 0:44:26 | 0:44:28 | |
The battle was a disaster for York. | 0:44:36 | 0:44:39 | |
Henry's protector, William Herbert, suffered an awful fate. | 0:44:39 | 0:44:43 | |
He was overwhelmed by rebels, | 0:44:44 | 0:44:46 | |
dragged away and executed by Warwick the Kingmaker. | 0:44:46 | 0:44:49 | |
The boy, Henry, who must have seen all this happen, | 0:44:53 | 0:44:55 | |
was abandoned on the battlefield. | 0:44:55 | 0:44:57 | |
Margaret sent out frantic messages | 0:45:00 | 0:45:02 | |
to try and find out what had happened to her son. | 0:45:02 | 0:45:05 | |
She must have feared he was captured or dead. | 0:45:05 | 0:45:08 | |
But the boy had been escorted from the battlefield | 0:45:15 | 0:45:18 | |
in a state of terror. | 0:45:18 | 0:45:20 | |
He and Herbert's widow had found safety in a house nearby. | 0:45:20 | 0:45:24 | |
Margaret sent a party of trusted servants to find him | 0:45:24 | 0:45:28 | |
and generously rewarded those who had saved her son. | 0:45:28 | 0:45:31 | |
For Henry himself, she sent a gift, | 0:45:31 | 0:45:34 | |
a reminder of his inescapable destiny - a bow and arrows. | 0:45:34 | 0:45:40 | |
Without her son, Margaret's ambitions would come to nothing | 0:45:42 | 0:45:46 | |
and this battle had come close to taking him from her. | 0:45:46 | 0:45:50 | |
But Elizabeth Woodville would suffer devastating, permanent loss | 0:45:50 | 0:45:54 | |
with Warwick the Kingmaker's victory. | 0:45:54 | 0:45:57 | |
Warwick's triumph meant that he became England's ruler. | 0:46:03 | 0:46:06 | |
He captured Elizabeth's husband, the King, | 0:46:08 | 0:46:10 | |
and imprisoned him in his castle. | 0:46:10 | 0:46:12 | |
But his treatment of the Woodville family was much more savage. | 0:46:14 | 0:46:18 | |
He seized the Queen's father and brother | 0:46:20 | 0:46:22 | |
and, without trial or charge, had them beheaded. | 0:46:22 | 0:46:26 | |
This was an act of pure revenge, driven by hatred and jealousy. | 0:46:27 | 0:46:33 | |
Having dealt with the men of the family, | 0:46:33 | 0:46:35 | |
Warwick turned his attention to the matriarch - Jacquetta. | 0:46:35 | 0:46:39 | |
He sent an armed guard to snatch her from her home | 0:46:39 | 0:46:42 | |
and imprisoned her here, in Warwick Castle. | 0:46:42 | 0:46:45 | |
Grief-stricken, having just lost her husband and her son, | 0:46:55 | 0:46:59 | |
Jacquetta now faced their murderer | 0:46:59 | 0:47:01 | |
as he accused her of a crime punishable by death. | 0:47:01 | 0:47:05 | |
Capitalising on rumours | 0:47:06 | 0:47:08 | |
circulating from the marriage of King Edward and Elizabeth, | 0:47:08 | 0:47:12 | |
Warwick claimed that Jacquetta had used magic | 0:47:12 | 0:47:14 | |
to bewitch the King into marrying her daughter. | 0:47:14 | 0:47:18 | |
Witchcraft in the 15th century is the ability to influence | 0:47:23 | 0:47:30 | |
what happens to another person | 0:47:30 | 0:47:34 | |
either by making them sick, | 0:47:34 | 0:47:36 | |
making them love you or hate you, | 0:47:36 | 0:47:39 | |
making them lucky or unlucky by cursing them. | 0:47:39 | 0:47:42 | |
Fear of the power of the witch | 0:47:45 | 0:47:47 | |
tapped into fear of woman's power in general. | 0:47:47 | 0:47:50 | |
I mean, a witch could be this old crone over a cauldron, | 0:47:50 | 0:47:54 | |
but she could also be young and beautiful, | 0:47:54 | 0:47:57 | |
wielding a dangerous sexual magic | 0:47:57 | 0:48:00 | |
and, of course, that very much ties in all too neatly | 0:48:00 | 0:48:04 | |
with the story of Elizabeth Woodville's marriage | 0:48:04 | 0:48:07 | |
and how it was made. | 0:48:07 | 0:48:09 | |
Jacquetta's fate was in the hands of her sworn enemy | 0:48:11 | 0:48:14 | |
and the murderer of her husband and son. | 0:48:14 | 0:48:18 | |
As she waited in this castle, the odds were stacked against her. | 0:48:18 | 0:48:22 | |
One word from the Earl of Warwick was enough | 0:48:22 | 0:48:26 | |
to condemn her to death by strangulation. | 0:48:26 | 0:48:28 | |
Warwick didn't just want Jacquetta dead, | 0:48:32 | 0:48:35 | |
he wanted to prove her malign influence on the young King | 0:48:35 | 0:48:39 | |
and he staged a full show trial with witnesses. | 0:48:39 | 0:48:43 | |
He even produced two little figures - | 0:48:43 | 0:48:45 | |
one representing the King and one the Queen, | 0:48:45 | 0:48:48 | |
which he claimed Jacquetta had bound together | 0:48:48 | 0:48:51 | |
"with witchcraft and sorcery." | 0:48:51 | 0:48:54 | |
But, incredibly, Jacquetta escaped her punishment. | 0:48:57 | 0:49:01 | |
The Kingmaker realised he had over-reached himself. | 0:49:01 | 0:49:05 | |
He didn't have the support of England's political elite | 0:49:05 | 0:49:08 | |
and he was forced to set the King free. | 0:49:08 | 0:49:10 | |
Edward intervened and cleared his mother-in-law's name, | 0:49:10 | 0:49:14 | |
but the Kingmaker's accusations would have permanent consequences. | 0:49:14 | 0:49:19 | |
Jacquetta was publicly named as a witch, | 0:49:24 | 0:49:28 | |
the royal wedding condemned as the product of witchcraft. | 0:49:28 | 0:49:32 | |
A slur was laid on Jacquetta, and on her daughter Elizabeth, | 0:49:32 | 0:49:36 | |
that would follow them throughout their lives, | 0:49:36 | 0:49:38 | |
even to the grave and beyond - into the records of history. | 0:49:38 | 0:49:43 | |
After a brief period of imprisonment, | 0:49:45 | 0:49:48 | |
Edward IV was back in power. | 0:49:48 | 0:49:50 | |
In March 1470, he forced Warwick the Kingmaker | 0:49:50 | 0:49:54 | |
and his own brother, George, Duke of Clarence, | 0:49:54 | 0:49:56 | |
into exile as traitors. | 0:49:56 | 0:49:59 | |
The rebels took their wives and children | 0:50:00 | 0:50:02 | |
and fled across the Channel. | 0:50:02 | 0:50:05 | |
Unable to find a safe port, | 0:50:05 | 0:50:07 | |
they were nearly wrecked in stormy seas. | 0:50:07 | 0:50:10 | |
The Kingmaker's thirst for power | 0:50:13 | 0:50:15 | |
had brought his family into terrible danger. | 0:50:15 | 0:50:17 | |
This was a far cry from Anne Neville's life of luxury in England. | 0:50:17 | 0:50:21 | |
They're really fleeing for their lives, and as this is happening, | 0:50:24 | 0:50:28 | |
as if that wasn't traumatic enough, | 0:50:28 | 0:50:29 | |
her sister Isabel has gone into premature labour | 0:50:29 | 0:50:32 | |
with her first child. There's no-one on the ship to help them, | 0:50:32 | 0:50:35 | |
they've got no medicine, there is certainly no question of a doctor | 0:50:35 | 0:50:38 | |
so the only people who would have been able to help Isabel | 0:50:38 | 0:50:41 | |
were her mother, her sister, Anne, and their very few maids. | 0:50:41 | 0:50:44 | |
This must have been a terrifying experience for Anne, | 0:50:44 | 0:50:48 | |
and a very traumatic one because Isabel, although she survived, | 0:50:48 | 0:50:52 | |
lost her baby. | 0:50:52 | 0:50:54 | |
Anne's life of privilege was completely torn from her. | 0:51:10 | 0:51:13 | |
Her father, who had seemed invincible, had been defeated. | 0:51:13 | 0:51:18 | |
Her sister had lost the heir, | 0:51:18 | 0:51:20 | |
they were in exile from their castles and lands, | 0:51:20 | 0:51:23 | |
and there was no way of knowing how they would ever get back to England. | 0:51:23 | 0:51:27 | |
Having dragged his family into this situation, | 0:51:32 | 0:51:35 | |
Warwick needed a drastic plan to save them. | 0:51:35 | 0:51:38 | |
And he found it. | 0:51:38 | 0:51:39 | |
He would switch sides | 0:51:39 | 0:51:42 | |
and forge an alliance with his enemies in the House of Lancaster. | 0:51:42 | 0:51:45 | |
Warwick went to Margaret of Anjou - | 0:51:47 | 0:51:49 | |
wife of the deposed Lancastrian king Henry VI - | 0:51:49 | 0:51:53 | |
with an astounding proposal. | 0:51:53 | 0:51:56 | |
Warwick's strength was always as a diplomat. | 0:51:56 | 0:51:59 | |
He was brilliant at manipulating people, | 0:51:59 | 0:52:01 | |
he was brilliant at making implausible alliances cement. | 0:52:01 | 0:52:05 | |
And the idea he came up with in France was absolutely preposterous! | 0:52:05 | 0:52:10 | |
He planned to marry his younger daughter, Anne Neville, | 0:52:10 | 0:52:13 | |
to Prince Edward, the son and heir of Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou. | 0:52:13 | 0:52:19 | |
Warwick managed to convince Margaret that the only future | 0:52:19 | 0:52:22 | |
for the Lancastrian cause lay in this marriage. | 0:52:22 | 0:52:26 | |
She didn't let him off lightly. | 0:52:26 | 0:52:27 | |
He had to grovel on his knees for a good 15 minutes, | 0:52:27 | 0:52:30 | |
but Warwick pulls it off, this incredible, improbable alliance, | 0:52:30 | 0:52:35 | |
and his daughter is betrothed to the Prince of Wales, | 0:52:35 | 0:52:38 | |
which means, potentially, that she will be Queen of England. | 0:52:38 | 0:52:41 | |
It was an extraordinary turn of events. | 0:52:49 | 0:52:52 | |
Warwick was prepared to trade a lifetime of loyalty to York | 0:52:52 | 0:52:56 | |
to see his daughter, Anne, on the Lancaster throne. | 0:52:56 | 0:52:59 | |
Of course, nobody thought to ask Anne's opinion of this plan. | 0:53:03 | 0:53:07 | |
It was not her choice. | 0:53:07 | 0:53:09 | |
Her marriage was the key to reversing her family's fortunes | 0:53:09 | 0:53:12 | |
and saving the House of Lancaster. | 0:53:12 | 0:53:14 | |
The betrothal made, Anne's father left her in Normandy | 0:53:16 | 0:53:20 | |
and returned to England, raising a huge army to destroy King Edward. | 0:53:20 | 0:53:25 | |
Edward is completely caught unawares. | 0:53:28 | 0:53:31 | |
It's one of those rare moments | 0:53:31 | 0:53:32 | |
in Edward's career | 0:53:32 | 0:53:33 | |
where he has been unable to second-guess his opponent. | 0:53:33 | 0:53:36 | |
Luck has run out for him, and faced with his inability to put an army | 0:53:36 | 0:53:41 | |
together in a short period of time, he and his closest advisors | 0:53:41 | 0:53:45 | |
decide that flight is really the only option. | 0:53:45 | 0:53:48 | |
Edward IV was forced to abandon his throne and the Yorkist cause, | 0:53:51 | 0:53:55 | |
and flee England. | 0:53:55 | 0:53:57 | |
The Lancastrian king Henry VI was restored in his place. | 0:53:57 | 0:54:02 | |
With her husband on the run, Elizabeth Woodville, | 0:54:05 | 0:54:07 | |
the former Queen of England, was now in grave danger. | 0:54:07 | 0:54:11 | |
Anne Neville's life had returned to its former glory. | 0:54:11 | 0:54:16 | |
Her father, the Kingmaker, | 0:54:16 | 0:54:17 | |
was once again the most powerful noble in England. | 0:54:17 | 0:54:21 | |
For Margaret Beaufort, seeing her hero restored to the throne | 0:54:21 | 0:54:25 | |
was reward for years of patient scheming. | 0:54:25 | 0:54:28 | |
BELLS TOLL | 0:54:29 | 0:54:34 | |
When her husband Edward escaped abroad, | 0:54:34 | 0:54:37 | |
Elizabeth Woodville was left powerless, with nowhere to turn. | 0:54:37 | 0:54:42 | |
Pregnant once again, she sought sanctuary with her mother | 0:54:42 | 0:54:45 | |
and daughters in Westminster Abbey. | 0:54:45 | 0:54:47 | |
The concept of sanctuary was a kind of right of asylum, | 0:54:50 | 0:54:53 | |
whereby if a fugitive won their way to a church or monastery | 0:54:53 | 0:54:58 | |
or a place of sanctuary, they could claim that right | 0:54:58 | 0:55:01 | |
and, for as long as they stayed there, the law couldn't touch them. | 0:55:01 | 0:55:05 | |
The authorities could not come in and haul them out by force | 0:55:05 | 0:55:08 | |
so it gave, at the very least, a breathing space. | 0:55:08 | 0:55:12 | |
As a devout man, | 0:55:13 | 0:55:14 | |
Henry VI would not breach Elizabeth's right to protection. | 0:55:14 | 0:55:18 | |
This must have been a terrible time for Elizabeth. | 0:55:20 | 0:55:24 | |
Her husband was far away, perhaps never to return, and she was | 0:55:24 | 0:55:27 | |
entirely reliant on the kindness and generosity of the Abbey's staff. | 0:55:27 | 0:55:32 | |
Her only contact with the outside world were messages | 0:55:32 | 0:55:36 | |
smuggled in by loyal Londoners. | 0:55:36 | 0:55:39 | |
And, in stark contrast to her previous royal births, | 0:55:39 | 0:55:42 | |
she faced delivering this new baby in cramped, cold surroundings. | 0:55:42 | 0:55:46 | |
On November 2nd, 1470, in the sanctuary of Westminster Abbey, | 0:55:51 | 0:55:56 | |
with her mother and three young daughters present, | 0:55:56 | 0:55:59 | |
Elizabeth Woodville gave birth to a boy - | 0:55:59 | 0:56:03 | |
Edward IV's all-important male heir. | 0:56:03 | 0:56:05 | |
Elizabeth named him Edward, for his father, and had him baptised | 0:56:09 | 0:56:13 | |
in the Abbey like a poor man's son, | 0:56:13 | 0:56:15 | |
not like a future king for the House of York at all. | 0:56:15 | 0:56:19 | |
What should have been a moment of great rejoicing was actually a time | 0:56:19 | 0:56:22 | |
of great anxiety. What would the future hold for this little boy? | 0:56:22 | 0:56:27 | |
But Elizabeth Woodville's anxiety for her child, | 0:56:33 | 0:56:36 | |
the exiled King's son, was in stark opposition to the opportunities | 0:56:36 | 0:56:41 | |
Margaret Beaufort now saw for her boy. | 0:56:41 | 0:56:44 | |
The child's uncle, the ailing king Henry VI, was back on the throne, | 0:56:45 | 0:56:51 | |
and Margaret immediately arranged for the two to meet. | 0:56:51 | 0:56:54 | |
It was an encounter that would have lasting significance | 0:56:54 | 0:56:57 | |
for the young mother. | 0:56:57 | 0:56:58 | |
Henry Tudor's official historian later reported that the frail king | 0:57:02 | 0:57:07 | |
had met the boy and said, | 0:57:07 | 0:57:09 | |
"This is he unto whom both we and our adversaryes must yeald | 0:57:09 | 0:57:15 | |
"and geave of over the dominion. | 0:57:15 | 0:57:17 | |
"Yt woold come to passe that Henry Showld in time enjoy the kingdom." | 0:57:17 | 0:57:23 | |
We know that they met, | 0:57:25 | 0:57:27 | |
but this premonition was probably claimed by Margaret after the event. | 0:57:27 | 0:57:32 | |
She believed that her son was the Lancastrian king's rightful heir, | 0:57:32 | 0:57:36 | |
and that one day, Henry Tudor would sit on the throne of England. | 0:57:36 | 0:57:41 | |
This was not yet Margaret's moment. | 0:57:43 | 0:57:46 | |
Her ambitions for her son could wait. | 0:57:46 | 0:57:49 | |
Her side, the House of Lancaster, was strengthened by a new alliance - | 0:57:49 | 0:57:54 | |
the marriage between Anne Neville, the Kingmaker's daughter, | 0:57:54 | 0:57:59 | |
and the king's son and heir, Edward Prince of Wales. | 0:57:59 | 0:58:03 | |
At this moment, it was Anne who seemed to have it all. | 0:58:05 | 0:58:09 | |
Her father's plan to put his daughter on the throne of England | 0:58:09 | 0:58:12 | |
was coming together. | 0:58:12 | 0:58:14 | |
She was Princess of Wales, married to Henry VI's son, | 0:58:14 | 0:58:17 | |
and if the king could just hold on to his crown, | 0:58:17 | 0:58:20 | |
one day she would be queen of England. | 0:58:20 | 0:58:23 | |
Next time, Anne Neville emerges from the shadow of her Kingmaker father. | 0:58:27 | 0:58:32 | |
Elizabeth Woodville fights for survival. | 0:58:34 | 0:58:37 | |
And Margaret Beaufort sees her way clear to power. | 0:58:37 | 0:58:42 |