1 00:00:04,200 --> 00:00:07,040 'Lots of people remember their history lessons from school 2 00:00:07,040 --> 00:00:12,560 'as dates and battles, kings and queens, facts and figures. 3 00:00:12,560 --> 00:00:16,800 'But the story of our past is open to interpretation 4 00:00:16,800 --> 00:00:20,680 'and much of British history is a carefully edited 5 00:00:20,680 --> 00:00:23,800 'and even deceitful version of events.' 6 00:00:23,800 --> 00:00:27,680 You might think that history is just a record of what happened. 7 00:00:27,680 --> 00:00:30,560 Actually, it's not like that at all. 8 00:00:30,560 --> 00:00:32,680 As soon as you do a little digging, 9 00:00:32,680 --> 00:00:36,960 you discover that it's more like a tapestry of different stories, 10 00:00:36,960 --> 00:00:40,640 woven together by whoever was in power at the time. 11 00:00:41,720 --> 00:00:43,240 In this series, 12 00:00:43,240 --> 00:00:46,520 I'm going to debunk some of the biggest fibs in British history. 13 00:00:47,920 --> 00:00:49,520 In the 17th century, 14 00:00:49,520 --> 00:00:53,080 politicians and artists helped turn a foreign invasion 15 00:00:53,080 --> 00:00:56,760 into the triumphal tale of Britain's glorious revolution. 16 00:00:56,760 --> 00:00:58,640 Hello. Woohoo! 17 00:00:59,760 --> 00:01:03,320 'In the 19th century, a British government coup in India...' 18 00:01:03,320 --> 00:01:04,680 GUNSHOT 19 00:01:04,680 --> 00:01:07,320 '..was rebranded by the Victorians 20 00:01:07,320 --> 00:01:09,800 'as the civilising triumph of the Empire. 21 00:01:12,000 --> 00:01:13,400 'And in this episode, 22 00:01:13,400 --> 00:01:18,320 'I'll find out how the story of the Wars of the Roses was invented 23 00:01:18,320 --> 00:01:21,280 'by the Tudors to justify their power. 24 00:01:21,280 --> 00:01:25,640 'And then immortalised by the greatest storyteller of them all. 25 00:01:25,640 --> 00:01:27,840 'Shakespeare presented this 26 00:01:27,840 --> 00:01:31,400 'as the darkest chapter in the nation's history.' 27 00:01:31,400 --> 00:01:33,760 Now is the winter of our discontent. 28 00:01:35,200 --> 00:01:40,440 Two rival dynasties, the House of Lancaster and the House of York, 29 00:01:40,440 --> 00:01:43,920 were locked in battle for the crown of England. 30 00:01:43,920 --> 00:01:47,080 This was the real-life Game of Thrones. 31 00:01:47,080 --> 00:01:49,400 Brothers fought against brothers. 32 00:01:49,400 --> 00:01:51,920 Anointed kings were deposed. 33 00:01:51,920 --> 00:01:54,840 And innocent children were murdered. 34 00:01:54,840 --> 00:01:57,320 Never before had the country experienced 35 00:01:57,320 --> 00:01:59,640 such treachery and bloodshed. 36 00:02:01,200 --> 00:02:06,800 In 1485, a wicked king, Richard III, was slain. 37 00:02:08,040 --> 00:02:10,600 And Henry Tudor took the throne. 38 00:02:11,600 --> 00:02:15,800 Henry's victory would herald the ending of the Middle Ages 39 00:02:15,800 --> 00:02:19,520 and the founding of the great Tudor dynasty. 40 00:02:19,520 --> 00:02:22,040 It was to be England's salvation. 41 00:02:22,040 --> 00:02:24,520 Or so the story goes. 42 00:02:24,520 --> 00:02:29,080 With history, the line between fact and fiction often gets blurred. 43 00:02:42,240 --> 00:02:46,280 In 1455, the village of Stubbins, in Lancashire, 44 00:02:46,280 --> 00:02:49,400 was the scene of a legendary battle 45 00:02:49,400 --> 00:02:51,040 in the Wars of the Roses. 46 00:02:53,400 --> 00:02:57,480 The fighting began with volleys of arrows, but then, to their horror, 47 00:02:57,480 --> 00:03:00,640 both sides realised that they'd run out of ammunition. 48 00:03:01,840 --> 00:03:06,320 In desperation, the Lancastrians grabbed some makeshift weapons - 49 00:03:06,320 --> 00:03:09,360 they happened to have a supply of their local delicacy, 50 00:03:09,360 --> 00:03:11,400 black puddings from Bury. 51 00:03:11,400 --> 00:03:14,840 And with these, they pelted the Yorkists. 52 00:03:16,680 --> 00:03:18,280 But, as luck would have it, 53 00:03:18,280 --> 00:03:21,160 the Yorkists had their own supply of missiles - 54 00:03:21,160 --> 00:03:22,640 Yorkshire puddings. 55 00:03:22,640 --> 00:03:25,400 With which they bombarded the Lancastrians. 56 00:03:32,760 --> 00:03:34,960 Now, most disappointingly, 57 00:03:34,960 --> 00:03:39,240 this 15th century food fight never really happened. 58 00:03:39,240 --> 00:03:45,080 It's a local legend that was conjured up as long ago as 1983. 59 00:03:45,080 --> 00:03:48,840 But what the Battle of Stubbins Bridge does tell us is that, 60 00:03:48,840 --> 00:03:52,000 although the dates and the details might be hazy, 61 00:03:52,000 --> 00:03:54,920 the Wars of the Roses are still alive and well 62 00:03:54,920 --> 00:03:58,320 in what you might call our national memory. 63 00:03:58,320 --> 00:04:02,040 What you think you know about the Wars of the Roses though 64 00:04:02,040 --> 00:04:03,920 and what really happened 65 00:04:03,920 --> 00:04:06,040 are two quite different things. 66 00:04:07,480 --> 00:04:09,160 According to the history books, 67 00:04:09,160 --> 00:04:12,280 the Wars of the Roses is the story of the fatal rivalry 68 00:04:12,280 --> 00:04:16,360 between the House of Lancaster and the House of York, 69 00:04:16,360 --> 00:04:18,880 between the red rose and the white. 70 00:04:18,880 --> 00:04:23,400 But the saga of a country divided by 30 years of bloody wars 71 00:04:23,400 --> 00:04:27,040 and deadly hate was largely invented by the Tudors, 72 00:04:27,040 --> 00:04:30,160 then spun into the dynasty's foundation myth 73 00:04:30,160 --> 00:04:33,640 by the greatest storyteller of all, William Shakespeare. 74 00:04:39,320 --> 00:04:42,200 And there is a firm basis for this tale 75 00:04:42,200 --> 00:04:44,360 of devastating national conflict. 76 00:04:44,360 --> 00:04:48,920 On a single day in 1461, the bloodshed was only too real. 77 00:04:50,280 --> 00:04:55,680 In the middle of a snowstorm, on the 29th of March, in Towton, Yorkshire, 78 00:04:55,680 --> 00:04:59,400 the Lancastrian and Yorkist forces clashed head-to-head. 79 00:05:01,640 --> 00:05:04,080 The result was utter carnage. 80 00:05:08,160 --> 00:05:10,800 The Lancastrians started out the day pretty well, 81 00:05:10,800 --> 00:05:13,720 but then the tide began to turn against them. 82 00:05:13,720 --> 00:05:18,200 They were chased by the Yorkists down this steep and icy slope, 83 00:05:18,200 --> 00:05:20,160 the blizzard was still blowing, 84 00:05:20,160 --> 00:05:22,720 and that little river at the bottom was flooded, 85 00:05:22,720 --> 00:05:24,600 so they couldn't get any further. 86 00:05:24,600 --> 00:05:27,120 This meant that the Yorkists came down the hill 87 00:05:27,120 --> 00:05:28,840 and started massacring them. 88 00:05:30,400 --> 00:05:35,240 So many men died that their blood stained the snow red. 89 00:05:37,040 --> 00:05:40,600 This became known as the Bloody Meadow. 90 00:05:43,680 --> 00:05:45,320 A century later, 91 00:05:45,320 --> 00:05:49,760 William Shakespeare would depict the battle as a medieval Armageddon, 92 00:05:49,760 --> 00:05:52,560 where fathers slaughtered their own sons 93 00:05:52,560 --> 00:05:55,000 and sons murdered their own fathers. 94 00:05:55,000 --> 00:05:59,120 Towton had come to symbolise a country torn apart by war. 95 00:06:00,840 --> 00:06:05,400 The scale of the killing was so great that there's been nothing else 96 00:06:05,400 --> 00:06:07,880 quite as bad in the whole of our history. 97 00:06:09,200 --> 00:06:12,960 On the first day of the Battle of the Somme, in July 1916, 98 00:06:12,960 --> 00:06:16,640 19,000 British soldiers were killed. 99 00:06:16,640 --> 00:06:22,360 But here at Towton, contemporary reports talk about 28,000 dead. 100 00:06:23,360 --> 00:06:28,840 That's 1% of the entire population killed on a single day. 101 00:06:37,520 --> 00:06:42,360 20 years ago, Bradford University's archaeology department 102 00:06:42,360 --> 00:06:45,680 revealed the true barbarity of the fighting 103 00:06:45,680 --> 00:06:49,880 when they uncovered the remains of 43 men killed at Towton. 104 00:06:52,080 --> 00:06:56,560 George, we've got five skulls of people here on the table. 105 00:06:56,560 --> 00:06:59,640 How was this gentleman finished off here? 106 00:06:59,640 --> 00:07:00,800 It's kind of square. 107 00:07:00,800 --> 00:07:03,280 That is with a horseman's hammer. 108 00:07:03,280 --> 00:07:10,120 But this particular skull has another sign of extreme violence 109 00:07:10,120 --> 00:07:12,680 inflicted with a pole axe. 110 00:07:12,680 --> 00:07:16,720 The head was forced down into the spine, 111 00:07:16,720 --> 00:07:20,840 so the skull has actually shown signs of splitting. 112 00:07:20,840 --> 00:07:23,720 This sort of desecration of the body, 113 00:07:23,720 --> 00:07:27,600 that's actually robbing them of life in the next life. 114 00:07:27,600 --> 00:07:30,920 You are disfiguring them and they can't be resurrected. 115 00:07:30,920 --> 00:07:34,400 This battle is truly horrendously brutal, 116 00:07:34,400 --> 00:07:37,400 but is it the norm for the Wars of the Roses? 117 00:07:37,400 --> 00:07:42,400 No. It was exceptional. Certainly, in the enormous number 118 00:07:42,400 --> 00:07:45,280 of people who fought and died at Towton. 119 00:07:45,280 --> 00:07:48,000 I think people might have the impression that they were just 120 00:07:48,000 --> 00:07:50,200 fighting for decade after decade after decade, 121 00:07:50,200 --> 00:07:53,720 but within this period, how many battles actually were there? 122 00:07:53,720 --> 00:07:57,280 Well, there were skirmishes but, in terms of real battles, 123 00:07:57,280 --> 00:07:58,440 around about eight. 124 00:07:58,440 --> 00:08:03,280 The feud between the Houses of Lancaster and York did fester for 125 00:08:03,280 --> 00:08:08,760 three decades, but the idea that this was a period utterly ravaged 126 00:08:08,760 --> 00:08:12,600 by all-out war, well, that's just historical fiction. 127 00:08:14,080 --> 00:08:20,080 Yes, Towton was a truly brutal battle, but it was also unique. 128 00:08:20,080 --> 00:08:22,360 The other battles in the Wars of the Roses 129 00:08:22,360 --> 00:08:24,720 had much lower death tolls. 130 00:08:24,720 --> 00:08:30,160 And the idea that the country was totally consumed by war is wrong. 131 00:08:30,160 --> 00:08:31,800 Some historians argue that, 132 00:08:31,800 --> 00:08:35,280 out of the 32 years of the Wars of the Roses, 133 00:08:35,280 --> 00:08:39,360 the fighting only lasted for a total of 13 weeks. 134 00:08:39,360 --> 00:08:43,600 That would mean that there were months, years, even a whole decade, 135 00:08:43,600 --> 00:08:45,520 when England was at peace. 136 00:08:48,160 --> 00:08:50,280 The reason we talk of this era 137 00:08:50,280 --> 00:08:53,520 as the Wars of the Roses isn't an accident. 138 00:08:53,520 --> 00:08:56,280 It's the story told by the winning side, 139 00:08:56,280 --> 00:08:59,120 the history the Tudors wanted us to remember. 140 00:09:01,640 --> 00:09:04,040 It began with their account of the battle 141 00:09:04,040 --> 00:09:06,200 that brought the war to an end - 142 00:09:06,200 --> 00:09:07,880 the Battle of Bosworth. 143 00:09:11,400 --> 00:09:13,560 The Lancastrian Henry Tudor 144 00:09:13,560 --> 00:09:15,760 emerged as a victorious hero 145 00:09:15,760 --> 00:09:18,880 who had ended 30 years of bloodshed. 146 00:09:18,880 --> 00:09:20,200 He'd saved the nation 147 00:09:20,200 --> 00:09:21,880 from a villainous tyrant - 148 00:09:21,880 --> 00:09:24,280 the Yorkist King Richard III. 149 00:09:27,400 --> 00:09:31,760 'The Tudors made sure Bosworth would be remembered as the ultimate clash 150 00:09:31,760 --> 00:09:33,840 'between the forces of good and evil. 151 00:09:35,640 --> 00:09:37,560 'Helped along by William Shakespeare, 152 00:09:37,560 --> 00:09:40,280 'who relished their juicy tale, 153 00:09:40,280 --> 00:09:42,360 'the battle has been so mythologized 154 00:09:42,360 --> 00:09:45,640 'that it's hard to sort fact from fiction.' 155 00:09:45,640 --> 00:09:49,280 Historians used to think that the Battle of Bosworth took place 156 00:09:49,280 --> 00:09:53,080 about two miles away, over there, up on top of the hill, 157 00:09:53,080 --> 00:09:55,120 but over the last ten years, 158 00:09:55,120 --> 00:09:59,000 all sorts of interesting finds have been emerging from the fields 159 00:09:59,000 --> 00:10:00,800 immediately here. 160 00:10:00,800 --> 00:10:03,960 That's things like parts of 15th-century swords 161 00:10:03,960 --> 00:10:05,760 and badges 162 00:10:05,760 --> 00:10:11,120 and about 40 of these fantastically deadly-looking cannonballs. 163 00:10:11,120 --> 00:10:14,320 The battle must have taken place here. 164 00:10:14,320 --> 00:10:20,040 Now, despite this confusion about its location, a myth, a legend 165 00:10:20,040 --> 00:10:23,240 has grown up about exactly what happened that day. 166 00:10:23,240 --> 00:10:26,120 It's one of our great national stories 167 00:10:26,120 --> 00:10:28,520 and it goes something like this. 168 00:10:29,800 --> 00:10:34,080 'King Richard III goes into battle wearing a crown, 169 00:10:34,080 --> 00:10:37,120 'symbol of what's at stake that day.' 170 00:10:37,120 --> 00:10:42,880 Richard declares, "This day I will die as King or I will win." 171 00:10:42,880 --> 00:10:46,480 And even his enemies admit that he fights courageously. 172 00:10:47,520 --> 00:10:51,200 'Richard gets within a sword's length of Henry Tudor, 173 00:10:51,200 --> 00:10:54,360 'but the enemy forces overwhelm him. 174 00:10:54,360 --> 00:10:56,040 'In desperation, he cries out, 175 00:10:56,040 --> 00:11:01,080 '"My horse, my horse, my kingdom for a horse!"' 176 00:11:01,080 --> 00:11:04,200 And then he's killed with a blow to the head 177 00:11:04,200 --> 00:11:05,840 and he loses his crown. 178 00:11:11,120 --> 00:11:12,960 'After Henry's victory, 179 00:11:12,960 --> 00:11:16,880 'Richard's crown is discovered in a hawthorn bush. 180 00:11:16,880 --> 00:11:20,720 'And Henry is crowned with it on the battlefield.' 181 00:11:27,680 --> 00:11:30,800 Now, how much of this really happened? 182 00:11:30,800 --> 00:11:33,240 It's impossible to say. 183 00:11:33,240 --> 00:11:36,440 But the reason that this is the story we know 184 00:11:36,440 --> 00:11:39,480 is because it's the one Henry wanted us to remember. 185 00:11:41,200 --> 00:11:44,800 Henry wanted to make everyone aware of his decisive victory 186 00:11:44,800 --> 00:11:49,000 on the battlefield, but that was the easy part. 187 00:11:49,000 --> 00:11:50,480 In a nation divided, 188 00:11:50,480 --> 00:11:53,880 Henry's enemies still believed that he was a usurper, 189 00:11:53,880 --> 00:11:57,360 who had stolen the crown from the anointed King Richard III. 190 00:11:58,840 --> 00:12:02,040 Henry needed to legitimise his new reign, 191 00:12:02,040 --> 00:12:05,600 so when his first parliament met a few months after Bosworth, 192 00:12:05,600 --> 00:12:09,240 he made sure that it was his version of events that was recorded. 193 00:12:11,000 --> 00:12:13,680 One telling detail that Henry had written 194 00:12:13,680 --> 00:12:15,720 into the records of Parliament 195 00:12:15,720 --> 00:12:21,360 was that his reign had begun on the 21st of August 1485. 196 00:12:21,360 --> 00:12:24,840 Now, this is a bit odd because the Battle of Bosworth 197 00:12:24,840 --> 00:12:29,400 wasn't until the 22nd of August 1485. 198 00:12:29,400 --> 00:12:31,600 Was this a slip of the quill? 199 00:12:31,600 --> 00:12:33,640 No, it was deliberate. 200 00:12:35,080 --> 00:12:40,960 Henry was claiming that he'd already been king, even before the battle, 201 00:12:40,960 --> 00:12:44,360 so he wasn't a usurper stealing the crown, 202 00:12:44,360 --> 00:12:47,840 he was just taking what was rightfully his. 203 00:12:47,840 --> 00:12:51,520 He cunningly realised that his success didn't just lie 204 00:12:51,520 --> 00:12:55,080 in victory on the battlefield, it also lay in the way that the 205 00:12:55,080 --> 00:12:58,040 history of the Wars of the Roses would be written. 206 00:13:02,080 --> 00:13:05,320 Henry's next move was equally cunning. 207 00:13:05,320 --> 00:13:11,600 On the 18th of January 1486, Henry VII married Elizabeth of York, 208 00:13:11,600 --> 00:13:13,480 daughter of Edward IV. 209 00:13:14,760 --> 00:13:19,160 Henry would present his match as the start of a glorious new chapter 210 00:13:19,160 --> 00:13:20,600 in the nation's history. 211 00:13:24,200 --> 00:13:28,360 Henry realised that picking the right wife was important 212 00:13:28,360 --> 00:13:33,920 but that telling the right story about the marriage was even more so. 213 00:13:33,920 --> 00:13:37,680 The story that he wanted to tell was that this was one of the 214 00:13:37,680 --> 00:13:40,400 most important marriages in history. 215 00:13:40,400 --> 00:13:45,200 Here he was, a Lancastrian, marrying Elizabeth, a Yorkist, 216 00:13:45,200 --> 00:13:47,880 they were going to heal the nation. 217 00:13:47,880 --> 00:13:50,440 They had once been bitter rivals 218 00:13:50,440 --> 00:13:53,520 but now, they were loving bedfellows. 219 00:13:53,520 --> 00:13:57,120 But his cunning storytelling had another advantage too. 220 00:13:57,120 --> 00:14:00,720 It glossed over the very inconvenient fact that 221 00:14:00,720 --> 00:14:02,200 an awful lot of people thought 222 00:14:02,200 --> 00:14:04,880 that he had no right to the throne at all. 223 00:14:12,160 --> 00:14:14,840 Henry hoped that his marriage to Elizabeth 224 00:14:14,840 --> 00:14:16,760 would be seen as a fresh start. 225 00:14:19,520 --> 00:14:24,520 It would also divert attention away from his less than royal lineage. 226 00:14:27,440 --> 00:14:31,160 This is a genealogical roll, showing the kings of England, 227 00:14:31,160 --> 00:14:34,480 going right back into the mists of time. 228 00:14:34,480 --> 00:14:36,680 It goes back as far as Brutus, 229 00:14:36,680 --> 00:14:40,080 the mythical king 1,000 years before the Romans. 230 00:14:40,080 --> 00:14:42,840 You can't even see Brutus because he's still rolled up, 231 00:14:42,840 --> 00:14:45,680 we couldn't fit the whole thing onto the table. 232 00:14:45,680 --> 00:14:48,120 And as you come down this end, towards me, 233 00:14:48,120 --> 00:14:52,600 you move forwards into the period of the Wars of the Roses. 234 00:14:52,600 --> 00:14:56,560 These circles contain pictures of all the different kings, 235 00:14:56,560 --> 00:14:58,680 most of them called Edward. 236 00:14:58,680 --> 00:15:00,400 This one's called Rex Ted, 237 00:15:00,400 --> 00:15:02,560 which pleases me. 238 00:15:02,560 --> 00:15:04,920 As we get down here, we have some Henrys. 239 00:15:04,920 --> 00:15:06,560 Henry VI. 240 00:15:06,560 --> 00:15:08,320 Here is another Edward. 241 00:15:08,320 --> 00:15:10,360 Here is Richard III and then, 242 00:15:10,360 --> 00:15:12,560 the main red line peters out. 243 00:15:12,560 --> 00:15:15,600 Where is the next king, Henry VII? 244 00:15:15,600 --> 00:15:18,960 Well, he's been squished in at the side 245 00:15:18,960 --> 00:15:21,760 as the husband of Elizabeth of York. 246 00:15:21,760 --> 00:15:23,640 So, where has he popped up from? 247 00:15:23,640 --> 00:15:26,640 This black line tells us. 248 00:15:26,640 --> 00:15:30,320 It goes back to Henry's grandmother, Catherine, 249 00:15:30,320 --> 00:15:32,800 who was a proper Queen of England, 250 00:15:32,800 --> 00:15:36,280 but her second husband, Henry's grandfather, 251 00:15:36,280 --> 00:15:38,320 was this chap, Owen Tudor, 252 00:15:38,320 --> 00:15:40,400 a servitor in camera, 253 00:15:40,400 --> 00:15:43,280 that means a chamber servant. 254 00:15:43,280 --> 00:15:45,600 Or in other words, a bit of rough. 255 00:15:47,960 --> 00:15:52,080 This family tree reveals Henry's dirty secret. 256 00:15:53,360 --> 00:15:57,880 The fact that his claim to the throne was decidedly dodgy. 257 00:15:57,880 --> 00:16:01,480 It won't surprise you to learn that the scroll belonged to a family who 258 00:16:01,480 --> 00:16:04,360 didn't like Henry, the De La Poles. 259 00:16:04,360 --> 00:16:06,600 They were plotting against him. 260 00:16:06,600 --> 00:16:10,240 The document also explains why he had to marry Elizabeth. 261 00:16:10,240 --> 00:16:12,440 She really was royal. 262 00:16:12,440 --> 00:16:14,480 She was the daughter of a king, 263 00:16:14,480 --> 00:16:18,800 whereas Henry himself was just the grandson of a servant. 264 00:16:18,800 --> 00:16:22,360 But this isn't the tale that Henry would tell us if he were here. 265 00:16:22,360 --> 00:16:27,160 He didn't present his marriage as a matter of political expediency, 266 00:16:27,160 --> 00:16:31,640 he described it as an extraordinary act of reconciliation. 267 00:16:35,600 --> 00:16:40,240 Henry made his marriage, the union of the Houses of York and Lancaster, 268 00:16:40,240 --> 00:16:44,200 into the centrepiece of a super successful propaganda campaign 269 00:16:44,200 --> 00:16:47,840 to secure his new dynastic ambitions. 270 00:16:47,840 --> 00:16:52,880 This really beautiful book is a medieval anthology of poetry, 271 00:16:52,880 --> 00:16:56,600 prose and advice for educating a prince. 272 00:16:56,600 --> 00:17:00,880 But it's best known for its wonderful illustrations. 273 00:17:00,880 --> 00:17:04,560 Including this one of the Tower of London. 274 00:17:04,560 --> 00:17:07,760 This particular picture has a coat of arms 275 00:17:07,760 --> 00:17:10,960 and these two creatures 276 00:17:10,960 --> 00:17:12,720 are very curly haired lions. 277 00:17:12,720 --> 00:17:15,120 They are black now because they've tarnished. 278 00:17:15,120 --> 00:17:16,520 But they were once silver 279 00:17:16,520 --> 00:17:20,120 and they were the silver lions of King Edward IV. 280 00:17:20,120 --> 00:17:23,040 They show that this book was once in his library. 281 00:17:26,160 --> 00:17:29,960 'The Yorkist King Edward won the throne in 1471 282 00:17:29,960 --> 00:17:33,800 'after defeating his Lancastrian opponents.' 283 00:17:33,800 --> 00:17:39,040 This time in the border, we have got red and white roses, 284 00:17:39,040 --> 00:17:42,920 representing the House of Lancaster and the House of York 285 00:17:42,920 --> 00:17:47,560 and their rivalry in progress at the time, the Wars of the Roses. 286 00:17:47,560 --> 00:17:50,840 The odd thing though about this illustration is that, 287 00:17:50,840 --> 00:17:54,360 during the actual time of the Wars of the Roses, 288 00:17:54,360 --> 00:17:57,080 when this manuscript was first produced, 289 00:17:57,080 --> 00:18:01,000 the red rose had nothing at all to do with the House of Lancaster. 290 00:18:01,000 --> 00:18:03,440 The border was changed, 291 00:18:03,440 --> 00:18:07,920 it was added in at a later date by Henry VII himself. 292 00:18:07,920 --> 00:18:10,480 He was the one who adopted the red rose 293 00:18:10,480 --> 00:18:12,880 as the House of Lancaster's symbol. 294 00:18:12,880 --> 00:18:15,640 And now, look at this. 295 00:18:15,640 --> 00:18:18,000 Adopting the red rose for Lancaster 296 00:18:18,000 --> 00:18:20,000 was only the first stage of 297 00:18:20,000 --> 00:18:24,640 Henry's iconographical plan because now he could combine it 298 00:18:24,640 --> 00:18:27,320 with the white rose of his wife, Elizabeth of York, 299 00:18:27,320 --> 00:18:30,560 to create the multicoloured Tudor rose. 300 00:18:30,560 --> 00:18:34,160 Normally, the inner petals are white and the outer petals are red. 301 00:18:34,160 --> 00:18:38,400 This one happens to be quartered, but you get the general idea. 302 00:18:38,400 --> 00:18:40,720 It's red and white together. 303 00:18:40,720 --> 00:18:46,160 And so this new Tudor rose became the symbol of the new Tudor dynasty 304 00:18:46,160 --> 00:18:48,720 and it was such a powerful symbol 305 00:18:48,720 --> 00:18:52,640 that it allowed Henry VII to completely revise history. 306 00:18:55,200 --> 00:18:58,040 The rose became Henry VII's logo, 307 00:18:58,040 --> 00:19:03,200 shorthand for the story of how he'd heroically united a divided nation. 308 00:19:03,200 --> 00:19:07,200 Over time, he made it the universally recognised symbol 309 00:19:07,200 --> 00:19:08,600 of Tudor might. 310 00:19:10,360 --> 00:19:13,280 'Across the country, from books to buildings, 311 00:19:13,280 --> 00:19:15,360 'Tudor roses started to bloom. 312 00:19:17,440 --> 00:19:21,080 'In Cambridge, Henry made King's College Chapel 313 00:19:21,080 --> 00:19:22,600 'into the backdrop 314 00:19:22,600 --> 00:19:26,360 'for one of the most overwhelming displays of Tudor propaganda.' 315 00:19:28,120 --> 00:19:31,120 Anna, this chapel was begun by Henry VI 316 00:19:31,120 --> 00:19:32,960 but he didn't finish it, did he? 317 00:19:32,960 --> 00:19:36,000 Well, the chapel had been being built for quite some time 318 00:19:36,000 --> 00:19:38,600 but then the Wars of the Roses happened, 319 00:19:38,600 --> 00:19:41,920 resources got diverted and so, when Henry VII became king, 320 00:19:41,920 --> 00:19:43,320 it was unfinished. 321 00:19:43,320 --> 00:19:46,440 It looked nothing like this, none of this beautiful vaulted ceiling. 322 00:19:46,440 --> 00:19:49,440 It was makeshift, it had a sort of timber ceiling, 323 00:19:49,440 --> 00:19:52,760 and it was very much a sort of work in progress and really was much more 324 00:19:52,760 --> 00:19:54,680 of a sort of blight on the landscape 325 00:19:54,680 --> 00:19:57,680 than anything that made a great statement of power. 326 00:19:59,960 --> 00:20:02,760 'But in 1508, Henry VII gave the chapel 327 00:20:02,760 --> 00:20:05,160 'a much-needed cash injection.' 328 00:20:05,160 --> 00:20:07,560 Now, this is a bit different, isn't it? 329 00:20:07,560 --> 00:20:09,480 'Henry died the following year 330 00:20:09,480 --> 00:20:13,560 'but his financial backing ensured that the chapel was completed 331 00:20:13,560 --> 00:20:16,800 'and decorated according to his Tudor vision.' 332 00:20:16,800 --> 00:20:18,280 It's fantastic. I mean, 333 00:20:18,280 --> 00:20:21,840 it's the story really of Henry VII's journey to the throne. 334 00:20:21,840 --> 00:20:23,280 It's his claim to the throne. 335 00:20:23,280 --> 00:20:26,440 We have the greyhound, which is the symbol of Margaret Beaufort, 336 00:20:26,440 --> 00:20:27,480 his mother. 337 00:20:27,480 --> 00:20:31,720 We have the dragon, highlighting Henry's Welsh descent. 338 00:20:31,720 --> 00:20:34,720 And we have, of course, Tudor roses everywhere. 339 00:20:34,720 --> 00:20:36,440 They look like they are on steroids. 340 00:20:36,440 --> 00:20:38,880 What kind of chemicals have they been treated with 341 00:20:38,880 --> 00:20:41,400 to make them so juicy and enormous? They look like cabbages. 342 00:20:41,400 --> 00:20:43,160 It's Tudor chemicals, isn't it? 343 00:20:43,160 --> 00:20:45,760 It's the sort of vitality, the virility of the Tudors. 344 00:20:45,760 --> 00:20:48,080 And, of course, above the Tudor rose, you see the crown, 345 00:20:48,080 --> 00:20:51,480 so again, it's underlying, these are now royal symbols. 346 00:20:51,480 --> 00:20:56,000 This is Henry saying, "Game over. Now it's the Tudors all the way." 347 00:20:56,000 --> 00:20:59,680 And really, I would argue it's almost like one of the first sort of 348 00:20:59,680 --> 00:21:02,200 ubiquitous brands that people across the country, 349 00:21:02,200 --> 00:21:03,480 you know, identify with. 350 00:21:03,480 --> 00:21:06,840 They know the Tudor brand, they know the Tudor rose. 351 00:21:06,840 --> 00:21:10,400 It's all about propaganda, it's all about myth-making, but I think, 352 00:21:10,400 --> 00:21:13,880 you know, we are still talking about it, so it was hugely successful. 353 00:21:15,240 --> 00:21:19,840 'With control of the crown, Henry also controlled the narrative. 354 00:21:19,840 --> 00:21:23,200 'In the emerging Tudor tale of the Wars of the Roses, 355 00:21:23,200 --> 00:21:27,480 'Henry was the conquering hero and, not surprisingly, 356 00:21:27,480 --> 00:21:30,040 'the historians during his reign all agreed.' 357 00:21:31,160 --> 00:21:34,480 This book is called The History Of The Kings Of England. 358 00:21:34,480 --> 00:21:39,360 'And it's the work of an exceptionally unreliable narrator.' 359 00:21:39,360 --> 00:21:40,720 It is written by John Rous, 360 00:21:40,720 --> 00:21:44,480 who was an antiquary and historian. And he is writing it 361 00:21:44,480 --> 00:21:46,520 during the reign of Richard III 362 00:21:46,520 --> 00:21:51,520 but he actually finishes it after Henry VII has become king. 363 00:21:51,520 --> 00:21:55,280 John Rous has written this book for his new boss, Henry VII, 364 00:21:55,280 --> 00:21:57,120 what's he got to say about him? 365 00:21:57,120 --> 00:22:00,040 He talks about Henry being such a good king, 366 00:22:00,040 --> 00:22:03,120 "For he will be remembered for generations to come." 367 00:22:03,120 --> 00:22:04,600 HE SPEAKS LATIN 368 00:22:04,600 --> 00:22:06,960 "For many centuries he will be remembered." 369 00:22:06,960 --> 00:22:12,040 Rous started writing this book when Richard III was still the boss. 370 00:22:12,040 --> 00:22:14,920 What does he have to say about Richard III? 371 00:22:14,920 --> 00:22:18,400 John Rous isn't very complimentary about Richard at all. 372 00:22:18,400 --> 00:22:19,560 And in fact, 373 00:22:19,560 --> 00:22:24,160 - let's look at the passage where he describes Richard's own birth. - OK. 374 00:22:24,160 --> 00:22:29,120 It says that he had been in his mother's womb for two years. 375 00:22:29,120 --> 00:22:32,360 He was born "cum dentibus" - with teeth. 376 00:22:32,360 --> 00:22:33,560 With teeth. 377 00:22:33,560 --> 00:22:35,480 "Et capillis ad humeros." 378 00:22:35,480 --> 00:22:38,120 - That's hair to the shoulder. - Hair to the shoulders. 379 00:22:38,120 --> 00:22:39,680 Very hairy. 380 00:22:39,680 --> 00:22:41,640 And then there's this slightly mysterious word 381 00:22:41,640 --> 00:22:43,720 that could be talons. 382 00:22:43,720 --> 00:22:46,120 Talons, which is quite creepy, isn't it? 383 00:22:46,120 --> 00:22:47,840 That's very monstrous. 384 00:22:47,840 --> 00:22:51,480 And then it says he was born under the sign of Scorpio 385 00:22:51,480 --> 00:22:56,080 and he continued to behave in life like a scorpion. 386 00:22:56,080 --> 00:23:00,160 This is a really striking vilification of Richard III. 387 00:23:00,160 --> 00:23:03,320 Is this the first one? Does it all start here? 388 00:23:03,320 --> 00:23:04,640 Essentially, yes. 389 00:23:04,640 --> 00:23:09,160 The demonization of Richard is taking place here and, in fact, 390 00:23:09,160 --> 00:23:11,520 later down on this particular page, 391 00:23:11,520 --> 00:23:15,720 Rous accuses Richard of committing several murders 392 00:23:15,720 --> 00:23:19,840 including the murder of his own wife, the murder of his nephews 393 00:23:19,840 --> 00:23:22,360 and also the fact that he had killed, 394 00:23:22,360 --> 00:23:24,320 with his own hands, Henry VI. 395 00:23:24,320 --> 00:23:28,440 What do you think Rous' motives were for writing this history in this 396 00:23:28,440 --> 00:23:33,360 - particular way? - John Rous is writing specifically in order to praise 397 00:23:33,360 --> 00:23:36,360 the new king of England, Henry VII. 398 00:23:36,360 --> 00:23:40,200 He was only writing what he expected his readers would want to read. 399 00:23:42,000 --> 00:23:46,200 Demonising Richard when you're now ruled by his archrival, Henry, 400 00:23:46,200 --> 00:23:48,080 was certainly sensible. 401 00:23:48,080 --> 00:23:51,920 And Tudor historians onwards went to town. 402 00:23:51,920 --> 00:23:53,680 Richard III was said to be 403 00:23:53,680 --> 00:23:55,720 "malicious, wrathful and envious" 404 00:23:55,720 --> 00:23:57,120 as a king. 405 00:23:57,120 --> 00:24:00,280 He was also a "lump of foul deformity." 406 00:24:00,280 --> 00:24:01,760 "Ill-featured of limbs." 407 00:24:01,760 --> 00:24:03,800 And "hard-favoured of visage." 408 00:24:05,840 --> 00:24:09,400 As Rous reveals, telling the truth was less important 409 00:24:09,400 --> 00:24:12,240 than pandering to the right master. 410 00:24:13,840 --> 00:24:15,960 At an earlier stage of his career, 411 00:24:15,960 --> 00:24:20,960 he'd written other works in which he praised Richard III instead. 412 00:24:20,960 --> 00:24:23,080 This document is called The Rous Roll. 413 00:24:23,080 --> 00:24:27,240 And John Rous actually made it for presentation to Anne Neville, 414 00:24:27,240 --> 00:24:29,280 who was the wife of Richard III. 415 00:24:29,280 --> 00:24:31,720 We've got the same historian, John Rous, 416 00:24:31,720 --> 00:24:34,120 writing just three years earlier... 417 00:24:34,120 --> 00:24:36,480 While Richard III is still king of England. 418 00:24:36,480 --> 00:24:40,520 This is Richard himself and, in fact, he's described here as 419 00:24:40,520 --> 00:24:46,320 "the most mighty Prince, Richard, King of England, 420 00:24:46,320 --> 00:24:49,960 "and of France, and Lord of Ireland." 421 00:24:49,960 --> 00:24:54,480 And then it goes on to say that "he got great thank of God 422 00:24:54,480 --> 00:24:59,240 "and love of all his subjects, rich and poor. 423 00:24:59,240 --> 00:25:04,320 "And great love of the people of all other lands about him." 424 00:25:04,320 --> 00:25:06,800 So, this couldn't be any better, really. 425 00:25:06,800 --> 00:25:09,920 He's a fantastic king, he's doing a great job and everybody loves him. 426 00:25:09,920 --> 00:25:12,520 And physically... 427 00:25:12,520 --> 00:25:15,920 he's not what I was expecting at all. 428 00:25:15,920 --> 00:25:19,200 There's no sign of a hunchback here at all, is there? 429 00:25:19,200 --> 00:25:21,640 No, he's the perfect knight, in fact. 430 00:25:21,640 --> 00:25:23,240 He's wearing his armour. 431 00:25:23,240 --> 00:25:26,160 He's got rather a lovely face. 432 00:25:26,160 --> 00:25:28,440 He's got beautiful curly hair. 433 00:25:28,440 --> 00:25:30,520 Although it's in a bit of a pudding basin, 434 00:25:30,520 --> 00:25:32,280 which isn't my favourite hairstyle. 435 00:25:32,280 --> 00:25:35,960 He's actually depicted more as a Renaissance prince 436 00:25:35,960 --> 00:25:40,400 rather than the deformed caricature that we know of 437 00:25:40,400 --> 00:25:42,720 from the works of Shakespeare. 438 00:25:42,720 --> 00:25:46,520 So, Julian, we've got two very contrasting pictures of Richard III 439 00:25:46,520 --> 00:25:48,600 from the same historian. 440 00:25:48,600 --> 00:25:50,800 Where does the truth lie? 441 00:25:50,800 --> 00:25:53,320 Well, who knows where the truth actually lies, 442 00:25:53,320 --> 00:25:58,280 but what we can say is that John Rous was writing in order to 443 00:25:58,280 --> 00:26:01,920 gain the favour of the people who were actually paying him. 444 00:26:01,920 --> 00:26:03,200 That's really depressing. 445 00:26:03,200 --> 00:26:06,240 We can't believe historians. 446 00:26:06,240 --> 00:26:08,240 You can never believe a historian. 447 00:26:09,920 --> 00:26:11,480 Well, tell that to the Tudors 448 00:26:11,480 --> 00:26:15,960 because Henry and his historians' dodgy stories were unshakeable. 449 00:26:15,960 --> 00:26:21,240 When Henry VII died in 1509, and his son Henry VIII succeeded him, 450 00:26:21,240 --> 00:26:26,160 the new Henry didn't abandon his father's dynastic founding myth. 451 00:26:26,160 --> 00:26:30,120 Far from it, he embraced the tale and made it his own. 452 00:26:31,200 --> 00:26:32,600 Unlike his father, 453 00:26:32,600 --> 00:26:35,280 the new King Henry hadn't had to fight for his crown 454 00:26:35,280 --> 00:26:38,640 and there were no questions over his right to rule. 455 00:26:38,640 --> 00:26:41,600 But he still emblazoned the dynasty's new symbol, 456 00:26:41,600 --> 00:26:43,240 the Tudor rose, 457 00:26:43,240 --> 00:26:47,000 onto one of the country's most formidable institutions, 458 00:26:47,000 --> 00:26:49,400 the Yeomen of the Guard. 459 00:26:49,400 --> 00:26:52,280 I think I might have a better codpiece than you. 460 00:26:52,280 --> 00:26:54,800 I think you might do. 461 00:26:54,800 --> 00:26:59,600 Alan, I'm clearly wearing the trousers of a muscular giant. 462 00:26:59,600 --> 00:27:00,960 Like yourself. 463 00:27:00,960 --> 00:27:06,000 When were the Yeomen of the Guard formalised as a body of men? 464 00:27:06,000 --> 00:27:09,600 Well, that was after the Battle of Bosworth Field, in 1485. 465 00:27:09,600 --> 00:27:11,200 Henry VII, of course, 466 00:27:11,200 --> 00:27:13,240 defeated Richard at that battle 467 00:27:13,240 --> 00:27:14,480 and having defeated him, 468 00:27:14,480 --> 00:27:17,320 of course, was pretty much worried for his own safety. 469 00:27:17,320 --> 00:27:22,720 - Yeah. - And so then, formed up to 300 Yeomen of the Guard. 470 00:27:22,720 --> 00:27:26,840 Henry VIII adopted his father's Yeomen Guards 471 00:27:26,840 --> 00:27:29,320 and increased their number to 600. 472 00:27:29,320 --> 00:27:31,960 When Henry appeared on important occasions, 473 00:27:31,960 --> 00:27:35,360 he'd be surrounded by this magnificent troop. 474 00:27:35,360 --> 00:27:36,880 Show me my Tudor version. 475 00:27:36,880 --> 00:27:41,840 'Henry also introduced the Yeomen's iconic scarlet uniform 476 00:27:41,840 --> 00:27:44,720 'and a modern version of it is still worn today.' 477 00:27:45,720 --> 00:27:49,120 You're going to slip into something equally comfortable yourself. 478 00:27:49,120 --> 00:27:50,520 Yes, I am. 479 00:27:50,520 --> 00:27:52,160 One arm in. 480 00:27:52,160 --> 00:27:55,080 Now, let's discuss our chests. 481 00:27:55,080 --> 00:27:57,120 - OK. - SHE CHUCKLES 482 00:27:57,120 --> 00:27:59,720 On my chest, I've got a Tudor rose, 483 00:27:59,720 --> 00:28:02,000 that is going to become the rose of England. 484 00:28:02,000 --> 00:28:04,840 - It is indeed. - It's still there, 500 years later. 485 00:28:04,840 --> 00:28:07,640 This is a symbol that's really endured, isn't it? 486 00:28:07,640 --> 00:28:09,920 - Absolutely. - And that's a very fancy thistle. 487 00:28:09,920 --> 00:28:14,240 Introduced when King James VI of Scotland became James I of England. 488 00:28:14,240 --> 00:28:15,880 Of course, over here, the shamrock, 489 00:28:15,880 --> 00:28:18,600 which was introduced on the Act of Union. 490 00:28:18,600 --> 00:28:21,960 So you have the whole of the United Kingdom on your belly. 491 00:28:21,960 --> 00:28:23,040 We do. 492 00:28:25,280 --> 00:28:26,920 There we go. 493 00:28:26,920 --> 00:28:30,960 - Superb. - Are we ready for our photo opportunity? 494 00:28:30,960 --> 00:28:32,120 Indeed. 495 00:28:39,280 --> 00:28:40,520 'Under Henry VIII, 496 00:28:40,520 --> 00:28:44,360 'the Tudor rose went from being the symbol of one royal marriage 497 00:28:44,360 --> 00:28:46,920 'to an emblem for the whole nation.' 498 00:28:46,920 --> 00:28:50,960 This Tudor rose has been an incredibly powerful 499 00:28:50,960 --> 00:28:53,360 and long-lasting symbol. 500 00:28:53,360 --> 00:28:56,280 'You will still find it today representing England 501 00:28:56,280 --> 00:28:58,320 'on the Queen's coronation dress,' 502 00:28:58,320 --> 00:29:01,840 on the Duchess of Cambridge's wedding dress, 503 00:29:01,840 --> 00:29:04,720 and you might even find it in your pocket 504 00:29:04,720 --> 00:29:07,560 because it's still on the 20p. 505 00:29:16,160 --> 00:29:19,240 'Henry VIII had nailed down his father's version 506 00:29:19,240 --> 00:29:21,520 'of the story of the Wars of the Roses. 507 00:29:23,080 --> 00:29:25,160 'By the middle of the 16th century, 508 00:29:25,160 --> 00:29:28,680 'the people who'd experienced the wars had pretty much all died, 509 00:29:28,680 --> 00:29:30,800 'but the story was still alive. 510 00:29:32,880 --> 00:29:36,480 'But when Elizabeth I came to the throne in 1558, 511 00:29:36,480 --> 00:29:40,000 'her grandfather's myth-making proved incredibly useful.' 512 00:29:41,920 --> 00:29:44,520 Ah, here I am in my younger days. 513 00:29:44,520 --> 00:29:48,360 This is Elizabeth I's coronation portrait. 514 00:29:48,360 --> 00:29:51,320 She's wearing all the trappings of majesty, 515 00:29:51,320 --> 00:29:53,640 she's holding her orb and sceptre 516 00:29:53,640 --> 00:29:57,000 and she's wearing ermine, the royal fur. 517 00:29:57,000 --> 00:30:01,520 But this picture glosses over the fact that Elizabeth's coronation 518 00:30:01,520 --> 00:30:04,160 was a bit of a touch-and-go affair. 519 00:30:04,160 --> 00:30:07,520 The problem was that she was the daughter of Anne Boleyn, 520 00:30:07,520 --> 00:30:11,760 the product of a marriage that had been declared null and void. 521 00:30:11,760 --> 00:30:14,600 You could argue that she was illegitimate. 522 00:30:14,600 --> 00:30:18,360 This was such a big problem that it was actually quite hard to find 523 00:30:18,360 --> 00:30:20,280 a bishop willing to anoint her. 524 00:30:21,360 --> 00:30:23,360 Right at the start of her reign, 525 00:30:23,360 --> 00:30:26,840 Elizabeth had to assert her right to rule 526 00:30:26,840 --> 00:30:30,400 and she did so in the same way that her father, Henry VIII, 527 00:30:30,400 --> 00:30:33,360 and grandfather Henry VII had done before her. 528 00:30:33,360 --> 00:30:37,880 If you look closely at her magnificent gold coronation robe, 529 00:30:37,880 --> 00:30:41,640 you will see that it is embroidered with the Tudor rose. 530 00:30:41,640 --> 00:30:47,240 She herself was treated as the living embodiment of the Tudor rose. 531 00:30:47,240 --> 00:30:51,600 The poet Edmund Spenser even described how in the Royal cheek, 532 00:30:51,600 --> 00:30:54,680 the red rose was melded with the white. 533 00:30:55,880 --> 00:30:57,680 In almost every respect, 534 00:30:57,680 --> 00:31:02,040 Elizabeth brilliantly delivered on the promise of her predecessors. 535 00:31:02,040 --> 00:31:05,600 But as the decades passed, she failed to produce an heir. 536 00:31:06,560 --> 00:31:09,920 And without that heir, Elizabeth subjects were haunted 537 00:31:09,920 --> 00:31:13,400 by spectres of a horribly familiar past. 538 00:31:15,000 --> 00:31:19,240 As the country faced an uncertain future in the 1590s, 539 00:31:19,240 --> 00:31:23,840 the memory of the Wars of the Roses took on a new meaning. 540 00:31:23,840 --> 00:31:26,600 People started to worry that when the Queen died, 541 00:31:26,600 --> 00:31:29,280 there might once again be civil war, 542 00:31:29,280 --> 00:31:32,400 with rival claimants fighting for the crown. 543 00:31:32,400 --> 00:31:34,760 History might repeat itself. 544 00:31:44,400 --> 00:31:46,400 At the end of the 16th century, 545 00:31:46,400 --> 00:31:51,040 the history play transformed Tudor fibs into compelling fiction. 546 00:31:52,440 --> 00:31:55,320 For the nation's greatest playwright, William Shakespeare, 547 00:31:55,320 --> 00:31:58,720 the Wars of the Roses had all the ingredients for drama. 548 00:32:00,280 --> 00:32:02,800 And with his Machiavellian plots 549 00:32:02,800 --> 00:32:04,920 and his murderous villain, 550 00:32:04,920 --> 00:32:07,760 he wrote the conflict's definitive script. 551 00:32:12,400 --> 00:32:16,520 'Henry VI Part 1 was the first of Shakespeare's plays 552 00:32:16,520 --> 00:32:20,680 'covering the wars, and it proved a very palpable hit. 553 00:32:20,680 --> 00:32:22,960 'One of the play's best-known scenes 554 00:32:22,960 --> 00:32:25,480 'is set in the gardens of Inner Temple, 555 00:32:25,480 --> 00:32:27,640 'one of the Inns of Court. 556 00:32:27,640 --> 00:32:31,600 'It's the very start of the conflict and the leading nobles are deciding 557 00:32:31,600 --> 00:32:33,520 'which side to fight for. 558 00:32:33,520 --> 00:32:35,160 'Red or white.' 559 00:32:36,440 --> 00:32:40,440 Richard, Duke of York, is going to challenge the King, Henry VI, 560 00:32:40,440 --> 00:32:45,400 for the crown and he tells his supporters to pluck a white rose. 561 00:32:46,560 --> 00:32:49,320 The Duke of Somerset, who is on the King's side, 562 00:32:49,320 --> 00:32:53,360 he tells his supporters to pluck a red rose, 563 00:32:53,360 --> 00:32:55,800 "a bleeding rose", he calls it. 564 00:32:55,800 --> 00:32:57,480 And at the end of the scene, 565 00:32:57,480 --> 00:33:01,560 the Earl of Warwick prophesises the bloodshed to come. 566 00:33:02,640 --> 00:33:06,640 "This brawl today in the Temple Garden," he says, 567 00:33:06,640 --> 00:33:09,920 "Shall send between the red rose and the white 568 00:33:09,920 --> 00:33:14,040 "1,000 souls to death and deadly night." 569 00:33:15,240 --> 00:33:20,520 The scene became famous because it neatly turned the messy reality 570 00:33:20,520 --> 00:33:24,800 into a straightforward struggle between red and white. 571 00:33:24,800 --> 00:33:28,280 And it went on to inspire an Edwardian painting 572 00:33:28,280 --> 00:33:31,200 which is one of the war's most celebrated images. 573 00:33:32,360 --> 00:33:36,800 This floral phoney war preceding the actual fighting 574 00:33:36,800 --> 00:33:38,640 didn't really happen. 575 00:33:38,640 --> 00:33:42,640 But nevertheless, you will see pictures of it in history books. 576 00:33:42,640 --> 00:33:46,080 And that's because Shakespeare's fictional version 577 00:33:46,080 --> 00:33:50,000 of the Wars of the Roses is such a good story, it's so powerful, 578 00:33:50,000 --> 00:33:51,800 that it trumps the truth. 579 00:33:53,720 --> 00:33:56,840 'From John Rous' character assassination 580 00:33:56,840 --> 00:33:58,600 'of Richard III onwards, 581 00:33:58,600 --> 00:34:03,080 'Shakespeare found his history books packed with tales of the conflict. 582 00:34:03,080 --> 00:34:05,720 'They were ripe for recycling. 583 00:34:05,720 --> 00:34:09,280 'After Henry VI Parts 1, 2 and 3 584 00:34:09,280 --> 00:34:12,600 'came one of his masterpieces, Richard III.' 585 00:34:14,080 --> 00:34:16,640 Andrew, this is an early, very early, 586 00:34:16,640 --> 00:34:18,840 collected edition of Shakespeare's works. 587 00:34:18,840 --> 00:34:21,880 And it's split into the comedies and the tragedies. 588 00:34:21,880 --> 00:34:23,840 But then also, the histories. 589 00:34:23,840 --> 00:34:25,640 Is that a new category of play? 590 00:34:25,640 --> 00:34:27,240 There had been history plays before 591 00:34:27,240 --> 00:34:28,320 but Shakespeare is one of 592 00:34:28,320 --> 00:34:29,560 the first writers who writes 593 00:34:29,560 --> 00:34:31,360 a sustained number of histories. 594 00:34:31,360 --> 00:34:33,480 The Henry VI plays are blockbusters. 595 00:34:33,480 --> 00:34:37,080 Parts 2 and 3 are written first and they are so popular 596 00:34:37,080 --> 00:34:39,320 that Part 1 is then written afterwards. 597 00:34:39,320 --> 00:34:42,400 It's the first kind of trilogy that we have surviving. 598 00:34:42,400 --> 00:34:45,640 So, history, it's not funny, it's not sad, it's a bit of both? 599 00:34:45,640 --> 00:34:47,160 You can do what you want with a history, 600 00:34:47,160 --> 00:34:48,640 depending on what the facts tell you. 601 00:34:48,640 --> 00:34:50,720 You don't have to stick to the facts, goodness me! 602 00:34:50,720 --> 00:34:53,120 You don't quite have to stick to the facts, no, that's right. 603 00:34:53,120 --> 00:34:55,440 How old-fashioned of you! THEY LAUGH 604 00:34:55,440 --> 00:34:59,120 How does Shakespeare go about taking history and turning it into fiction? 605 00:34:59,120 --> 00:35:02,520 - What is his method? - Shakespeare is very much a magpie. 606 00:35:02,520 --> 00:35:06,320 He uses bits and pieces from history, as he wants to. 607 00:35:06,320 --> 00:35:09,240 He uses chronicles like Holinshed, 608 00:35:09,240 --> 00:35:12,240 which is one of the most important of Tudor chronicles 609 00:35:12,240 --> 00:35:15,360 that shows the triumph of the Tudors. 610 00:35:15,360 --> 00:35:19,160 Sometimes you can catch him in the act of being inspired 611 00:35:19,160 --> 00:35:21,120 - by these histories, can you? - Oh, certainly. 612 00:35:21,120 --> 00:35:24,520 There's this passage which describes Richard III. 613 00:35:24,520 --> 00:35:29,240 "He was small and little of stature, so was he of body greatly deformed, 614 00:35:29,240 --> 00:35:31,520 "the one shoulder higher than the other. 615 00:35:31,520 --> 00:35:34,360 "His face small but his countenance was cruel, 616 00:35:34,360 --> 00:35:39,080 "a man would judge it to savour and smell of malice, fraud and deceit." 617 00:35:40,160 --> 00:35:42,040 That's a killer line. 618 00:35:42,040 --> 00:35:43,880 I recognise this character. 619 00:35:43,880 --> 00:35:46,760 This is the evil Richard that we know and love. 620 00:35:46,760 --> 00:35:50,400 Exactly. And that is something that Shakespeare clearly expands. 621 00:35:50,400 --> 00:35:53,840 He's really not afraid to use history, to use the past, 622 00:35:53,840 --> 00:35:55,800 to make moral points, is he? 623 00:35:55,800 --> 00:35:58,640 Good, bad, do it like this, don't do it like that. 624 00:35:58,640 --> 00:36:02,520 That's exactly right. History is told and retold because it tells you 625 00:36:02,520 --> 00:36:06,160 lessons, because you start to think about things that you might be able 626 00:36:06,160 --> 00:36:08,080 to do rather better than last time. 627 00:36:08,080 --> 00:36:09,800 A cautionary tale. 628 00:36:11,280 --> 00:36:13,080 For Elizabethan audiences, 629 00:36:13,080 --> 00:36:17,160 tales of the country torn apart by rival factions 630 00:36:17,160 --> 00:36:19,360 struck a powerful chord. 631 00:36:19,360 --> 00:36:21,280 Just 60 years earlier, 632 00:36:21,280 --> 00:36:24,960 Henry VIII's break with Rome had caused the country to divide, 633 00:36:24,960 --> 00:36:27,560 along religious fault lines. 634 00:36:27,560 --> 00:36:30,000 Protestant and Catholic. 635 00:36:30,000 --> 00:36:33,600 So another civil war seemed an ever-present danger. 636 00:36:35,360 --> 00:36:38,800 Is this all happening because Elizabeth I is getting old? 637 00:36:38,800 --> 00:36:40,520 They are worried she is going to die, 638 00:36:40,520 --> 00:36:43,560 they are worried there is going to be another War of the Roses? 639 00:36:43,560 --> 00:36:44,840 That's exactly right. 640 00:36:44,840 --> 00:36:48,480 There's a great fear that there will be a religious war that will be even 641 00:36:48,480 --> 00:36:51,760 worse than the dynastic war of the Wars of the Roses. 642 00:36:51,760 --> 00:36:55,680 So this is water-cooler conversation in the 1590s. 643 00:36:55,680 --> 00:36:57,640 I would have thought so. Yes. 644 00:36:59,120 --> 00:37:02,520 Shakespeare redefined the Wars of the Roses 645 00:37:02,520 --> 00:37:06,560 and he turned Richard III from a crude Tudor cliche 646 00:37:06,560 --> 00:37:10,080 into a truly captivating antihero. 647 00:37:10,080 --> 00:37:13,400 From David Garrick in the 18th century 648 00:37:13,400 --> 00:37:15,640 to Edmund Kean in the 19th, 649 00:37:15,640 --> 00:37:20,000 the biggest stars of the stage have made their names playing the part. 650 00:37:21,720 --> 00:37:25,120 Right from the start, audiences were fascinated 651 00:37:25,120 --> 00:37:28,680 by Shakespeare's character of Richard III. 652 00:37:28,680 --> 00:37:32,520 There's a story about THE most famous Elizabethan actor, 653 00:37:32,520 --> 00:37:33,880 Richard Burbage. 654 00:37:33,880 --> 00:37:37,560 He was playing the part and that night he got a message from a lady 655 00:37:37,560 --> 00:37:39,560 who'd been in the audience, saying, 656 00:37:39,560 --> 00:37:43,040 "Come to my room, Mr Burbage, I've taken a fancy to you." 657 00:37:43,040 --> 00:37:46,840 But she wanted him to come in character. 658 00:37:46,840 --> 00:37:52,680 She'd been seduced by Richard III's blend of cruelty and charisma, 659 00:37:52,680 --> 00:37:55,800 which has kept people interested ever since. 660 00:37:59,600 --> 00:38:03,200 Shakespeare followed the lead of Tudor historians by playing up 661 00:38:03,200 --> 00:38:06,240 Richard's apparently monstrous appearance. 662 00:38:07,800 --> 00:38:11,920 'And the Royal Shakespeare Company's costume collection reveals how 663 00:38:11,920 --> 00:38:16,440 'Richard's physical body has come to define our image of the man.' 664 00:38:17,640 --> 00:38:21,280 Robyn, how many different depictions of Richard III have you had 665 00:38:21,280 --> 00:38:24,000 - here in Stratford? - Since 1886, 666 00:38:24,000 --> 00:38:26,920 which was the first permanent theatre company in Stratford, 667 00:38:26,920 --> 00:38:29,680 there's been around 45 different productions. 668 00:38:29,680 --> 00:38:33,160 - Wow! - He's definitely one of the most popular, I think, yes. 669 00:38:33,160 --> 00:38:35,520 The first one I can show you is actually my favourite 670 00:38:35,520 --> 00:38:38,680 and that's a 1984 production of Richard III 671 00:38:38,680 --> 00:38:41,120 and it was actually played by Sir Antony Sher. 672 00:38:41,120 --> 00:38:43,040 He played it as a spider. 673 00:38:43,040 --> 00:38:46,880 In the text, he is described as a "bottled spider". 674 00:38:46,880 --> 00:38:51,280 He was wearing a very tight Lycra body suit. 675 00:38:51,280 --> 00:38:54,520 It's a bit like those pyjamas that kids wear with Superman, 676 00:38:54,520 --> 00:38:58,280 - you know, and they have built-in muscles. - Exactly. Yeah, exactly. 677 00:38:59,520 --> 00:39:04,440 This is one of three humps that were used in the production. 678 00:39:04,440 --> 00:39:08,040 And it's the one that he wore most of the time on stage. 679 00:39:08,040 --> 00:39:11,880 So, it's, I guess you could say, his favourite hump. 680 00:39:11,880 --> 00:39:14,240 Hm, it smells... 681 00:39:14,240 --> 00:39:15,840 - bad. - Yeah, it does. 682 00:39:15,840 --> 00:39:19,040 It's a very unattractive item altogether, isn't it? 683 00:39:19,040 --> 00:39:22,560 It was actually strapped on to Antony Sher. 684 00:39:22,560 --> 00:39:23,920 Little buttons up the front. 685 00:39:23,920 --> 00:39:28,080 So he would have worn this, very tight and close to his body. 686 00:39:28,080 --> 00:39:31,760 It's basically because of Shakespeare that I'm thinking that 687 00:39:31,760 --> 00:39:36,280 - the smell of Antony Sher's sweat is the smell of evil. - Mm. 688 00:39:36,280 --> 00:39:39,400 So, can we have a look at a contrasting Richard III? 689 00:39:39,400 --> 00:39:44,080 This is from a 1980 production of Richard III, Alan Howard, 690 00:39:44,080 --> 00:39:45,760 who played Richard III. 691 00:39:45,760 --> 00:39:49,400 Again, this is a different concentration on another disability. 692 00:39:49,400 --> 00:39:52,440 Critics actually compared it to a surgical boot. 693 00:39:52,440 --> 00:39:56,720 Unlike Antony Sher, who was very nimble across the stage, 694 00:39:56,720 --> 00:40:02,920 Alan Howard, his interpretation was very, very slow, very heavy. 695 00:40:02,920 --> 00:40:07,400 You can see how much pain he was in throughout the production. 696 00:40:07,400 --> 00:40:09,040 What's going on with this arm here? 697 00:40:09,040 --> 00:40:12,440 Ah, yes. That's Richard's withered arm. 698 00:40:12,440 --> 00:40:14,040 It really is withering away. 699 00:40:14,040 --> 00:40:16,520 It looks like a zombie falling to pieces as he walks along. 700 00:40:16,520 --> 00:40:17,640 Yes, yes. 701 00:40:17,640 --> 00:40:22,200 Is he always portrayed with a physical problem of some kind? 702 00:40:22,200 --> 00:40:26,560 Yes. They do all have some type of disability. 703 00:40:26,560 --> 00:40:29,520 Today, I think we kind of take that with us, 704 00:40:29,520 --> 00:40:32,520 so Shakespeare's idea of Richard III 705 00:40:32,520 --> 00:40:35,720 is, kind of, our idea of Richard III, really. 706 00:40:37,680 --> 00:40:40,120 For Shakespeare and his first audiences, 707 00:40:40,120 --> 00:40:43,200 Richard's hunch and his arm and his limp 708 00:40:43,200 --> 00:40:46,160 weren't just physical deformities. 709 00:40:46,160 --> 00:40:49,280 They believed in the science of physiognomy, 710 00:40:49,280 --> 00:40:51,640 that suggested that your outward appearance 711 00:40:51,640 --> 00:40:54,000 reflected your inner self. 712 00:40:54,000 --> 00:41:00,160 So if Richard was deformed, he must have had an irredeemably evil soul. 713 00:41:02,480 --> 00:41:06,760 The tale of the Princes in the Tower reveals the enduring power of 714 00:41:06,760 --> 00:41:09,800 Shakespeare's depiction of the monstrous Richard. 715 00:41:12,680 --> 00:41:14,280 In 1483, 716 00:41:14,280 --> 00:41:18,360 Richard imprisoned his two young nephews in the Tower of London 717 00:41:18,360 --> 00:41:22,680 after the death of their father, King Edward IV. 718 00:41:22,680 --> 00:41:26,080 And there he had the tender babes murdered, 719 00:41:26,080 --> 00:41:28,520 this ruthless piece of butchery, 720 00:41:28,520 --> 00:41:31,600 giving him the crown that was rightfully theirs. 721 00:41:36,120 --> 00:41:37,680 'In the 17th century, 722 00:41:37,680 --> 00:41:41,640 'people were still gripped by tales of evil Richard, 723 00:41:41,640 --> 00:41:43,360 'so well over 100 years after 724 00:41:43,360 --> 00:41:46,280 'the disappearance of the unfortunate princes, 725 00:41:46,280 --> 00:41:49,600 'their fate remained a fascinating mystery to be solved. 726 00:41:52,120 --> 00:41:53,560 'And in 1619, 727 00:41:53,560 --> 00:41:58,040 'the historian Sir George Buck heard that the bodies of the princes 728 00:41:58,040 --> 00:42:00,160 'might still be in the tower.' 729 00:42:01,720 --> 00:42:06,240 Buck wrote that certain bones, like the bones of a child, 730 00:42:06,240 --> 00:42:10,920 had been found in a remote and desolate turret of the tower. 731 00:42:10,920 --> 00:42:12,920 But on closer examination, 732 00:42:12,920 --> 00:42:15,960 these turned out to be the bones of an ape. 733 00:42:15,960 --> 00:42:18,160 It's quite a sad story. 734 00:42:18,160 --> 00:42:21,640 One of the apes from the tower menagerie wandered off, 735 00:42:21,640 --> 00:42:25,400 it somehow got itself into this turret, and there it died. 736 00:42:28,200 --> 00:42:33,040 'A few decades later, one John Webb reported a more promising lead.' 737 00:42:35,000 --> 00:42:38,840 A secret sealed room had been discovered, 738 00:42:38,840 --> 00:42:42,400 built into one of the walls at the King's lodgings. 739 00:42:42,400 --> 00:42:45,120 That's a building that was here. It's gone now. 740 00:42:48,160 --> 00:42:52,160 'And in the secret room, there was a table and on the table, 741 00:42:52,160 --> 00:42:54,480 'there were bones.' 742 00:42:54,480 --> 00:42:58,000 This time, at least the bones were human, not animal's, 743 00:42:58,000 --> 00:43:00,560 but the problem was that these were the remains 744 00:43:00,560 --> 00:43:02,120 of really little children, 745 00:43:02,120 --> 00:43:06,320 six or eight years old, too young to have been the little princes. 746 00:43:08,720 --> 00:43:12,080 'At last, in 1674, 747 00:43:12,080 --> 00:43:16,440 'the 190-year-old mystery appeared to have been solved.' 748 00:43:16,440 --> 00:43:21,200 Workmen excavating the foundations of a predecessor at this staircase 749 00:43:21,200 --> 00:43:27,520 discovered a wooden chest and in it were more children, two of them. 750 00:43:27,520 --> 00:43:31,360 This time, it was decided that they really and truly were 751 00:43:31,360 --> 00:43:32,760 the little princes. 752 00:43:33,760 --> 00:43:38,360 The discovery of these remains only fuelled an obsession with this 753 00:43:38,360 --> 00:43:43,600 legendary crime and when the princes were at last laid to rest, 754 00:43:43,600 --> 00:43:47,680 the reigning monarch, Charles II, seized the opportunity 755 00:43:47,680 --> 00:43:51,720 to condemn wicked King Richard's terrible wrong. 756 00:43:51,720 --> 00:43:55,640 These bones from the tower were brought to a final resting place 757 00:43:55,640 --> 00:43:57,360 at Westminster Abbey, 758 00:43:57,360 --> 00:44:01,400 burial place of kings and queens since Edward the Confessor. 759 00:44:01,400 --> 00:44:06,360 Charles II commissioned a special marble funeral urn for the little 760 00:44:06,360 --> 00:44:10,080 princes and this proved to be the perfect place 761 00:44:10,080 --> 00:44:12,920 to hold their murderer to account. 762 00:44:12,920 --> 00:44:16,640 The inscription on it said that they'd been killed 763 00:44:16,640 --> 00:44:20,320 by "their perfidious uncle, Richard the Usurper." 764 00:44:20,320 --> 00:44:25,200 So the Stuarts took the Tudor tale about Richard's crimes, 765 00:44:25,200 --> 00:44:29,400 they accepted it as fact and they even set it in stone. 766 00:44:33,880 --> 00:44:37,080 When Queen Victoria came to the throne more than three and a half 767 00:44:37,080 --> 00:44:40,400 centuries after the start of the Wars of the Roses, 768 00:44:40,400 --> 00:44:43,360 the conflict was little more than a distant memory. 769 00:44:46,040 --> 00:44:49,200 And the Victorian vision of medieval England was shaped 770 00:44:49,200 --> 00:44:53,160 by the bestselling novelist Sir Walter Scott. 771 00:44:53,160 --> 00:44:57,560 His rip-roaring tales of knights in shining armour were full of 772 00:44:57,560 --> 00:45:00,880 historical fantasy but very short on historical fact. 773 00:45:04,880 --> 00:45:08,840 To 19th-century Romantics like Walter Scott, 774 00:45:08,840 --> 00:45:13,240 the Wars of the Roses represented the Middle Ages gone wrong. 775 00:45:13,240 --> 00:45:15,840 Scott wasn't very fond of the period. 776 00:45:15,840 --> 00:45:19,520 Out of more than 20 novels, he only set one in it, 777 00:45:19,520 --> 00:45:23,440 the rather obscure Anne Of Geierstein. 778 00:45:23,440 --> 00:45:26,640 And he doesn't make it sound very nice. 779 00:45:26,640 --> 00:45:29,120 England is torn and bleeding. 780 00:45:29,120 --> 00:45:34,880 There are piles of slain bodies and quite a lot of drenching in blood. 781 00:45:34,880 --> 00:45:38,720 To Walter Scott, the Wars of the Roses had too much brutality 782 00:45:38,720 --> 00:45:41,600 and not enough chivalry to be a bestseller. 783 00:45:42,680 --> 00:45:45,760 But what Walter Scott did do for the Wars of the Roses 784 00:45:45,760 --> 00:45:48,560 was give it its name. Listen to this, 785 00:45:48,560 --> 00:45:53,040 he talks about "the civil discords so dreadfully prosecuted 786 00:45:53,040 --> 00:45:56,360 "in the wars of the White and Red Roses." 787 00:45:56,360 --> 00:46:00,040 This is more than 300 years after the ending of the conflict 788 00:46:00,040 --> 00:46:03,320 but this is the first time that anybody's called it that. 789 00:46:04,480 --> 00:46:08,800 Most Victorians didn't question the well-established mythology of the 790 00:46:08,800 --> 00:46:12,440 Wars of the Roses and they enjoyed a spot of Shakespeare 791 00:46:12,440 --> 00:46:15,440 as much as their predecessors. 792 00:46:15,440 --> 00:46:21,200 But 19th-century historians took a very dim view of the period. 793 00:46:23,400 --> 00:46:26,680 Helen, we are sitting in the middle of a Victorian vision 794 00:46:26,680 --> 00:46:29,000 of the Middle Ages, which they loved. 795 00:46:29,000 --> 00:46:31,360 But they didn't much like the 15th century, did they? 796 00:46:31,360 --> 00:46:32,440 They didn't. 797 00:46:32,440 --> 00:46:35,040 They were very interested in the Middle Ages as a whole 798 00:46:35,040 --> 00:46:38,160 but they saw the 15th century as something dark, corrupted, 799 00:46:38,160 --> 00:46:39,760 an unhappy time. 800 00:46:39,760 --> 00:46:43,720 Who were these Victorian historians writing about the Wars of the Roses? 801 00:46:43,720 --> 00:46:46,920 The key figure is William Stubbs, Bishop William Stubbs. 802 00:46:46,920 --> 00:46:48,800 He was a hugely influential figure 803 00:46:48,800 --> 00:46:51,040 in the development of the discipline. 804 00:46:51,040 --> 00:46:53,200 It was while he was Regius Professor at Oxford 805 00:46:53,200 --> 00:46:55,080 that the first students began 806 00:46:55,080 --> 00:46:58,480 to be able to take history as a degree subject there. 807 00:46:58,480 --> 00:46:59,840 But he was also a clergyman. 808 00:46:59,840 --> 00:47:02,120 He ended his life as Bishop of Oxford. 809 00:47:02,120 --> 00:47:04,880 He could really turn a phrase, couldn't he, Mr Stubbs? 810 00:47:04,880 --> 00:47:06,200 Yes, certainly. 811 00:47:06,200 --> 00:47:10,480 The 15th century in Stubbs' view goes something like this, 812 00:47:10,480 --> 00:47:15,320 "The son of the Plantagenets went down in clouds and thick darkness. 813 00:47:15,320 --> 00:47:18,640 "The coming of the Tudors gave as yet no promise of light, 814 00:47:18,640 --> 00:47:21,840 "it was, as the morning spread upon the mountains, 815 00:47:21,840 --> 00:47:23,840 "darkest before the dawn." 816 00:47:23,840 --> 00:47:28,480 It sounds like Victorian historians were quite happy to pass judgment 817 00:47:28,480 --> 00:47:31,320 on the past. Black and white, good and bad. 818 00:47:31,320 --> 00:47:33,120 And not only not afraid to judge the past, 819 00:47:33,120 --> 00:47:35,120 they saw it as part of their job. 820 00:47:35,120 --> 00:47:37,160 For historians like Stubbs, 821 00:47:37,160 --> 00:47:39,480 their Christianity was an intrinsic part 822 00:47:39,480 --> 00:47:42,680 of what it meant to be a historian. 823 00:47:42,680 --> 00:47:44,800 So they needed to look in the archives, 824 00:47:44,800 --> 00:47:46,720 they needed to find out the information, 825 00:47:46,720 --> 00:47:50,080 they were great scholars, but then they needed to stand back 826 00:47:50,080 --> 00:47:54,520 to assess what they'd found and stand in judgment on it. 827 00:47:54,520 --> 00:47:56,960 And their judgment had to take in 828 00:47:56,960 --> 00:48:00,320 the moral dimensions of their worldview. 829 00:48:00,320 --> 00:48:05,560 They were quite willing to say that certain actions, certain people, 830 00:48:05,560 --> 00:48:08,000 and certain periods, were evil. 831 00:48:08,000 --> 00:48:11,400 I'm thinking that he is typical of a type of historian that we call 832 00:48:11,400 --> 00:48:12,680 wig historians. 833 00:48:12,680 --> 00:48:16,640 That's a broad grouping, but what is this thing called wig history? 834 00:48:16,640 --> 00:48:18,760 Really, when we talk about wig history, 835 00:48:18,760 --> 00:48:21,680 we're talking about a view of history as progress. 836 00:48:21,680 --> 00:48:25,560 As a movement towards the best of all possible worlds, 837 00:48:25,560 --> 00:48:30,120 which is embodied in 19th-century society, 838 00:48:30,120 --> 00:48:31,680 19th-century politics. 839 00:48:31,680 --> 00:48:35,000 So Victorians see an onward march of progress 840 00:48:35,000 --> 00:48:37,760 up to the Wars of the Roses, then it slips back. 841 00:48:37,760 --> 00:48:39,400 And then it's up and up and up again 842 00:48:39,400 --> 00:48:41,760 to the glorious perfection of Queen Victoria. 843 00:48:41,760 --> 00:48:44,080 Progress isn't always quite that straightforward. 844 00:48:44,080 --> 00:48:46,280 Obviously, there are lumps and bumps along the way. 845 00:48:46,280 --> 00:48:49,680 But the 15th century seemed a pretty dark age, 846 00:48:49,680 --> 00:48:52,280 when the country collapsed into civil war 847 00:48:52,280 --> 00:48:54,760 and it seemed as though the forces of law 848 00:48:54,760 --> 00:48:58,880 and the Enlightenment of constitutional progress were being 849 00:48:58,880 --> 00:49:03,280 overwhelmed by over mighty subjects and aristocratic faction. 850 00:49:06,680 --> 00:49:09,880 'Although Bishop Stubbs and his colleagues weren't writing for the 851 00:49:09,880 --> 00:49:14,640 'mass market, their judgment on the Wars of the Roses as a great leap 852 00:49:14,640 --> 00:49:18,520 'backwards, as an interruption to the march of progress, 853 00:49:18,520 --> 00:49:21,080 'has proved extremely influential.' 854 00:49:28,080 --> 00:49:33,400 Ah, now this is perhaps my favourite history book. 855 00:49:33,400 --> 00:49:38,800 It's called 1066 And All That, A Memorable History Of England. 856 00:49:38,800 --> 00:49:44,320 It's basically a spoof of those very self-confident Victorian historians 857 00:49:44,320 --> 00:49:47,080 like Bishop Stubbs and his chums. 858 00:49:47,080 --> 00:49:52,040 And like them, it's not afraid to make judgments about history. 859 00:49:52,040 --> 00:49:55,280 Here's the 17th-century English Civil War, for example, 860 00:49:55,280 --> 00:49:57,960 between the Cavaliers and the Roundheads. 861 00:49:57,960 --> 00:50:01,040 The Cavaliers being "Wrong but Wromantic", 862 00:50:01,040 --> 00:50:05,360 and the Roundheads, "Right but Repulsive". 863 00:50:05,360 --> 00:50:09,080 What have they got to say about the Wars of the Roses? 864 00:50:09,080 --> 00:50:11,960 Well, it was all because the Barons, 865 00:50:11,960 --> 00:50:14,480 who "made a stupendous effort using 866 00:50:14,480 --> 00:50:17,440 "sackage, carnage and wreckage 867 00:50:17,440 --> 00:50:20,960 "so to stave off the Tudors for a time. 868 00:50:20,960 --> 00:50:24,160 "They achieved this by a very clever plan 869 00:50:24,160 --> 00:50:26,680 "known as the Wars of the Roses." 870 00:50:26,680 --> 00:50:29,080 So just like the Victorian historians, 871 00:50:29,080 --> 00:50:33,440 this book thinks that it was the fault of the bad barons. 872 00:50:33,440 --> 00:50:36,800 Clearly, the whole thing is a joke, but minus the jokes, 873 00:50:36,800 --> 00:50:38,640 and plus a few more dates, 874 00:50:38,640 --> 00:50:42,000 this was pretty much how generations of school kids 875 00:50:42,000 --> 00:50:43,600 were taught their history. 876 00:50:46,040 --> 00:50:48,320 But no account of the Wars of the Roses 877 00:50:48,320 --> 00:50:51,840 could ever hope to rival the remarkable staying power 878 00:50:51,840 --> 00:50:54,080 of Shakespeare's drama. 879 00:50:54,080 --> 00:50:59,920 In the 20th century, his Richard III made the leap from stage to screen. 880 00:50:59,920 --> 00:51:04,800 March on, join bravely, let us to't pell-mell. 881 00:51:04,800 --> 00:51:11,280 In 1955, Laurence Olivier, both directed and starred in Richard III. 882 00:51:11,280 --> 00:51:16,040 He turned Shakespeare's story into a Technicolor spectacular and he 883 00:51:16,040 --> 00:51:20,640 turned Richard III himself into the ultimate Hollywood villain. 884 00:51:20,640 --> 00:51:23,680 Complete with prosthetic villainous nose. 885 00:51:23,680 --> 00:51:26,200 Now is the winter of our discontent 886 00:51:26,200 --> 00:51:28,920 made glorious summer 887 00:51:28,920 --> 00:51:31,320 by this sun of York. 888 00:51:32,320 --> 00:51:36,960 Olivier delivers his scheming monologues straight down the camera, 889 00:51:36,960 --> 00:51:42,040 eyeball to eyeball, he draws us into his murderous plots. 890 00:51:42,040 --> 00:51:44,560 I can smile 891 00:51:44,560 --> 00:51:47,040 and murder whiles I smile. 892 00:51:47,040 --> 00:51:50,040 'He is both monstrous and magnetic.' 893 00:51:50,040 --> 00:51:52,760 And wet my cheeks with artificial tears 894 00:51:52,760 --> 00:51:55,360 and frame my face to all occasions... 895 00:51:55,360 --> 00:51:58,720 This was the definitive Richard III for the 20th century. 896 00:51:58,720 --> 00:52:02,840 Everybody else who played the part would be measured against Olivier. 897 00:52:08,760 --> 00:52:11,960 In America, the film was shown on television 898 00:52:11,960 --> 00:52:14,760 the same day that it opened in cinemas. 899 00:52:14,760 --> 00:52:18,520 As many as 40 million people watched it. 900 00:52:18,520 --> 00:52:22,360 That's more than the total number of people who'd seen it in theatres 901 00:52:22,360 --> 00:52:26,480 over the whole 350 years since it was first performed. 902 00:52:31,440 --> 00:52:33,320 40 years after Olivier, 903 00:52:33,320 --> 00:52:38,160 Ian McKellen played Richard III as the greatest tyrant of them all, 904 00:52:38,160 --> 00:52:39,360 Adolf Hitler. 905 00:52:45,520 --> 00:52:49,040 Complete with murderous moustache. 906 00:52:49,040 --> 00:52:52,880 Now is the winter of our discontent 907 00:52:52,880 --> 00:52:56,400 made glorious summer 908 00:52:56,400 --> 00:52:58,720 by this sun of York. 909 00:52:58,720 --> 00:53:01,240 LAUGHTER 910 00:53:01,240 --> 00:53:04,640 This version of Richard III didn't make any connection 911 00:53:04,640 --> 00:53:07,320 to the real events of the 15th century. 912 00:53:07,320 --> 00:53:09,880 Shakespeare's plot was so well known 913 00:53:09,880 --> 00:53:13,080 that it had become a sort of timeless parable. 914 00:53:20,000 --> 00:53:24,000 Richard III had become the biggest baddie in history 915 00:53:24,000 --> 00:53:28,560 and the Wars of the Roses symbolised a nation's darkest hour. 916 00:53:38,880 --> 00:53:44,160 But a new and radically different tale of good King Richard was also 917 00:53:44,160 --> 00:53:50,400 emerging, which turned Shakespeare's familiar story on its head. 918 00:53:50,400 --> 00:53:51,760 In 1924, 919 00:53:51,760 --> 00:53:54,960 The Richard III Society was founded 920 00:53:54,960 --> 00:53:58,880 to counter what they saw as outrageous Tudor lies. 921 00:53:58,880 --> 00:54:02,680 And to paint a much more flattering portrait of Richard. 922 00:54:02,680 --> 00:54:05,000 Their Richard was a good lord 923 00:54:05,000 --> 00:54:06,600 and a mighty prince 924 00:54:06,600 --> 00:54:09,440 and he definitely didn't have a hunchback. 925 00:54:14,320 --> 00:54:19,360 'Centuries after Richard's death, his supporters, the Ricardians, 926 00:54:19,360 --> 00:54:21,480 'were determined to clear his name.' 927 00:54:22,880 --> 00:54:27,560 The culmination of Richard's rehabilitation came in 2012 928 00:54:27,560 --> 00:54:31,120 with the extraordinary discovery of his body, 929 00:54:31,120 --> 00:54:33,400 here in this car park in Leicester. 930 00:54:34,400 --> 00:54:41,080 After centuries of conjecture and half-truths and even downright lies, 931 00:54:41,080 --> 00:54:44,240 here was some hard evidence for the real Richard. 932 00:54:46,840 --> 00:54:49,320 Just five feet under the tarmac, 933 00:54:49,320 --> 00:54:52,560 archaeologists made the remarkable find. 934 00:54:57,400 --> 00:55:01,280 The Ricardians were delighted finally to lay eyes on their hero. 935 00:55:02,280 --> 00:55:04,440 But even from a quick glance, 936 00:55:04,440 --> 00:55:06,680 it was clear that this man did have 937 00:55:06,680 --> 00:55:09,080 an abnormal curvature of the spine. 938 00:55:12,280 --> 00:55:15,760 In a battle where opinions mattered more than facts, 939 00:55:15,760 --> 00:55:17,880 Richard's physical imperfections 940 00:55:17,880 --> 00:55:20,720 didn't shake the Ricardians' conviction. 941 00:55:20,720 --> 00:55:24,800 In the Wars of the Roses, the wrong man had come out on top. 942 00:55:24,800 --> 00:55:29,880 For them, the final twist in the tale is that Henry VII, not Richard, 943 00:55:29,880 --> 00:55:32,040 was the true villain of the piece. 944 00:55:33,520 --> 00:55:34,720 To the Ricardians, 945 00:55:34,720 --> 00:55:39,360 the triumphant Tudor was nothing more than a ruthless usurper 946 00:55:39,360 --> 00:55:41,920 who had slandered Richard's good name. 947 00:55:44,560 --> 00:55:49,040 As Henry VII faced their wrath, his defenders rallied round. 948 00:55:49,040 --> 00:55:53,040 In 2013, another royal fan club was born. 949 00:55:53,040 --> 00:55:55,200 The Henry Tudor Society. 950 00:55:56,280 --> 00:55:57,640 Nathan, what is this? 951 00:55:57,640 --> 00:55:59,600 It's a small representation 952 00:55:59,600 --> 00:56:03,040 of a statue that we are hoping to put up in Pembroke. 953 00:56:03,040 --> 00:56:07,480 I feel that Henry Tudor is an overlooked monarch. 954 00:56:07,480 --> 00:56:09,520 Since Richard III was dug up, 955 00:56:09,520 --> 00:56:13,280 there's been a sort of rehabilitation of his reputation. 956 00:56:13,280 --> 00:56:17,440 Do you think this means that, inevitably, Henry Tudor's gone down? 957 00:56:17,440 --> 00:56:19,880 Unfortunately, yes, it does seem that way. 958 00:56:19,880 --> 00:56:21,840 For one king to become unmaligned, 959 00:56:21,840 --> 00:56:24,880 it seems that some feel that another has to become maligned. 960 00:56:24,880 --> 00:56:26,720 So, how many members have you got? 961 00:56:26,720 --> 00:56:29,360 Currently, there's 12,000 people on my Facebook page. 962 00:56:29,360 --> 00:56:32,320 Wow! And how many has Richard III got, then? Shall we...? 963 00:56:32,320 --> 00:56:34,880 Let's compare. Did you say you've got 12,000 likes? 964 00:56:34,880 --> 00:56:36,880 12,358 as of today. 965 00:56:36,880 --> 00:56:41,720 I hate to tell you this, Nathan, but Richard III has got 16,000. 966 00:56:41,720 --> 00:56:44,480 - He is ahead of you. But not by much. - Not by much. 967 00:56:44,480 --> 00:56:46,200 We are hot on your tail, Richard. 968 00:56:46,200 --> 00:56:48,680 And is there a sort of tension between the two societies? 969 00:56:48,680 --> 00:56:51,560 How do you get on together? Not well, I imagine. 970 00:56:51,560 --> 00:56:55,320 If you believe some things you read on Facebook, this man was a monster, 971 00:56:55,320 --> 00:56:58,520 a usurper, a ruthless, evil king. 972 00:56:58,520 --> 00:57:02,040 In my opinion, this was a king who was without doubt the cleverest man 973 00:57:02,040 --> 00:57:03,920 to ever sit on the throne of England 974 00:57:03,920 --> 00:57:07,680 and he was recognised throughout Europe as a generous family man. 975 00:57:09,280 --> 00:57:14,400 The need to find a hero and a villain of the Wars of the Roses 976 00:57:14,400 --> 00:57:16,320 remains as strong as ever. 977 00:57:17,320 --> 00:57:23,440 In 2015, 530 years after his death on the battlefield of Bosworth, 978 00:57:23,440 --> 00:57:27,880 Richard III was finally laid to rest in Leicester Cathedral, 979 00:57:27,880 --> 00:57:29,720 in a tomb fit for a king. 980 00:57:31,000 --> 00:57:35,240 Ironically, the discovery of Richard's curved spine 981 00:57:35,240 --> 00:57:37,280 shows that what had seemed to be 982 00:57:37,280 --> 00:57:39,880 the most outrageous piece of myth-making of all, 983 00:57:39,880 --> 00:57:44,160 the hunchbacked king, was close to reality. 984 00:57:44,160 --> 00:57:47,320 But fascinating though Richard's bones are, 985 00:57:47,320 --> 00:57:50,520 they can't really tell us what sort of a man 986 00:57:50,520 --> 00:57:52,680 or what sort of a king he was. 987 00:57:54,160 --> 00:57:59,200 'Because history is more than a series of dates, facts and bones. 988 00:57:59,200 --> 00:58:01,720 'It's a collection of stories 989 00:58:01,720 --> 00:58:05,600 'and all stories reveal just as much about their authors as they do about 990 00:58:05,600 --> 00:58:09,080 'the heroes and the villains they portray.' 991 00:58:09,080 --> 00:58:11,760 While Richard has been laid to rest, 992 00:58:11,760 --> 00:58:15,240 the story of the Wars of the Roses certainly hasn't. 993 00:58:16,360 --> 00:58:21,040 'Next time, I'll be exploring the Glorious Revolution. 994 00:58:21,040 --> 00:58:23,240 'Was it really glorious? 995 00:58:23,240 --> 00:58:25,680 'And was it really a revolution?'