This is History: A Dynasty to Die For

To learn more about the last time an English king was usurped, listen to Season 7, Bonus Episode 12, where Dan tells the story of Henry VI’s grandfather, Henry Bolingbroke. In 1399, he toppled Richard II to become King Henry IV. 

By 1460, England has emerged into a polycrisis. 

King Henry VI has been relegated to a pawn. His son and wife have been disinherited, with Richard, Duke of York, now heir presumptive. Violence pulses through the countryside. 

In this pivotal chapter of the Wars of the Roses, it appears that Yorkist forces have finally overwhelmed the Lancastrians in the battle for the crown.  

But then, Richard, Duke of York is killed in an ambush. It throws everything into disarray, and Queen Margaret of Anjou makes one last attempt at violent restoration. 

It appears the clock has run out for the Yorkists. That is, until the eleventh hour, when Richard's son, Edward Earl of March, is propelled into the decisive moment. 

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A Sony Music Entertainment production. 

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Written and presented by Dan Jones

Producer - Alan Weedon Senior Producer - Dominic Tyerman

Executive Producer - Simon Poole 

Production Manager - Jen Mistri 

Production coordinator - Eric Ryan 

Mixing - Amber Devereux

Head of content - Chris Skinner

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Royal favourites, we want your voice notes in our new miniseries on historical failures. Look out for Producer Al’s callout post on patreon.com/thisishistory. 

It’s there where you can listen to this week’s bonus episode, where Dan gives an explainer on Warwick's piracy, the value of Calais, and the risks of another royal usurpation. Plus, hear more about Dan’s meltdown over a parking ticket. 

All is not well in a simmering kingdom. 

Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick — a key ally of Richard Duke of York — is holding the last skerrick of English territory in France: Calais. He’s the top military boss over there, but in recent months he’s been behaving like a high‑born pirate king. 

Queen Margaret of Anjou decides enough is enough. She summons him back to England for a crackdown, but in the process, she sends Warwick, York — and his towering heir Edward, Earl of March — into open revolt. England erupts into a series of battles between Lancastrians and Yorkists at Blore Heath, Ludford Bridge, and Northampton. 

What emerges is a full blown succession crisis. 

–

A Sony Music Entertainment production. 

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts 

To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [email protected] 

Learn more about your ad choices. 

Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices 

–

Written and presented by Dan Jones

Producer - Alan Weedon Senior Producer - Dominic Tyerman

Executive Producer - Simon Poole 

Production Manager - Jen Mistri 

Production coordinator - Eric Ryan 

Mixing - Amber Devereux

Head of content - Chris Skinner

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Royal favourites, we want your voice notes in our new miniseries on historical failures. Look out for Producer Al’s callout post on patreon.com/thisishistory. 

It’s there where you can listen to this week’s bonus episode, where Dan gives you a primer on the pirate-cum-warlord, the Earl of Warwick. Plus, Dan makes good on his promise to tell the story of when he absolutely lost it over something rather inconsequential. 

All the drift and failure of Henry VI’s reign is coming home to roost. The fizzer of a king’s dodging arrows and men coming his way — and they’re not holding back. 

It’s 1455, and in the old Roman town of St Albans, the royal court are met with a battle. Richard, Duke of York — along with the Nevilles — are leading an insurgency that wants to topple the Queen’s favourite, Edmund, Duke of Somerset. 

Amid all the fracas, the king tries to intervene. He dabbles in kindergarten-level peace making by literally making his warring nobles hold hands. 

The loveday beckons. 

–

A Sony Music Entertainment production. 

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts 

To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [email protected] 

Learn more about your ad choices. 

Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices 

–

Written and presented by Dan Jones

Producer - Alan Weedon Senior Producer - Dominic Tyerman

Executive Producer - Simon Poole 

Production Manager - Jen Mistri 

Production coordinator - Eric Ryan 

Mixing - Amber Devereux

Head of content - Chris Skinner

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Royal favourites, we want your voice notes in our new miniseries on historical failures. Look out for Producer Al’s callout post on patreon.com/thisishistory. 

It’s there where you can listen to this week’s bonus episode, where Dan discusses what likely triggered Henry VI’s descent into silence, while he also gives a primer on England’s warring noble families: the Nevilles, Percys, and Courtenays. 

Henry VI isn’t responding to anyone. Not to his physician, nor to his newborn son, Prince Edward. He’s just inert, catatonic. 

If the king’s health is said to be a mirror of the health of the realm, then England’s in big trouble (which it is). The Hundred Years’ War is on the verge of being decisively over in France’s favour. England has lost Gascony, Normandy, and Maine, with only the small Garrison at Calais left. 

This a full-blown crisis that is usually left to the king to solve, but instead, Parliament decides to make Richard Duke of York the Protector of the realm — angering Queen Margaret and York’s nemesis, Edmund Duke of Somerset.  

Then something remarkable happens: Henry wakes up.

–

A Sony Music Entertainment production. 

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts 

To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [email protected] 

Learn more about your ad choices. 

Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices 

–

Written and presented by Dan Jones

Producer - Alan Weedon Senior Producer - Dominic Tyerman

Executive Producer - Simon Poole 

Production Manager - Jen Mistri 

Production coordinator - Eric Ryan 

Mixing - Amber Devereux

Head of content - Chris Skinner

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Royal favourites, we want your voice notes in our new miniseries on historical failures. Look out for Producer Al’s callout post on patreon.com/thisishistory. 

There you can also listen to this week’s bonus episode, where we discuss the Duke of York’s super-royal credentials, and why the Duke of Somerset fails upward. 

Henry VI’s royal court breathes a collective sigh of relief — Queen Margaret of Anjou is pregnant. It’s a welcome addition to what remains of a vanishingly thin Plantagenet dynasty. 

Aside from Henry, this is the first royal birth in 50 years. 

The celebrations don’t last long. As 1453 rolls on, two prominent nobles are fighting to rule on behalf of an impotent king. Edmund Beaufort, Duke of Somerset is the king’s favourite… but he’s also the man who lost Normandy. At his heels is Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, a man feared by the nobility but loved by England’s increasingly frustrated populace. 

The realm will soon have to make a stark choice, because a catastrophic blow to English power is imminent. 

–

A Sony Music Entertainment production. 

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts 

To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [email protected] 

Learn more about your ad choices. 

Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices 

–

Written and presented by Dan Jones

Producer - Alan Weedon Senior Producer - Dominic Tyerman

Executive Producer - Simon Poole 

Production Manager - Jen Mistri 

Production coordinator - Eric Ryan 

Mixing - Amber Devereux

Head of content - Chris Skinner

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices