Channel 5 - Britains Bloodiest Dynasty (2014) Part 4 Tyranny

Britain’s Bloodiest Dynasty

Out of the chaos, darkness and violence of the Middle Ages, one family rose to seize control of England. Generation after generation they ruled the country for more than three hundred years, ruthlessly crushing all competition to become the greatest English dynasty of all time. They were The Plantagenets. Presented by award-winning journalist and acclaimed historian Dan Jones, the Plantagenets combines creative and insightful research with searing dramatic reconstructions to bring to life this shocking and visceral time in England’s history. From Henry II, betrayed by his own wife and children when they try to seize the throne to the powerful friendship between Henry III and Simon de Montfort which falls into hatred and bloody civil war; from Edward II’s adulterous French wife and his ‘legendary’ death from a red hot poker to the boy king and tyrant Richard II one of the most vicious and inventive despots in English history; Britain’s Bloodiest Dynasty: The Plantagenets uncovers a dark, vengeful and bloody history which compels viewers into the heart of the action as they bear witness to the most ruthless dynasty in English history.

Part 4: Tyranny

Dan concludes his part-dramatised history of the Plantagenet dynasty by examining the extraordinary story of Richard II, who ascended the throne when he was 10 years old. He won respect for his actions during the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 when he rode out to meet the rebels, but his belief in the divine right of kings led him to become one of the most brutal tyrants in English history. Richard's rivalry and clash of personalities and politics with his cousin Henry Bolingbroke plunged the country into civil war, leading to Richard being deposed in 1399.

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