140 Fathers and Sons

In his final years, Henry faced a new challenge - from his ambitious son Henry. Ill and tired, For a while he loses control to the young bucks, the new generation, the men of his son. 

 

140 Fathers and Sons

 

The coming men 

Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester

Chief of Prince Hal's men was Henry Beaufort. the second of four illegitimate children of John of Gauntand Katherine Swynford. He seems to have been marked out for a clerical career from the start, going to Peterhouse, Cambridge and Queen's College, Oxford. Advancements and positions came quickly, and in 1397 he was chancellor of Oxford University, and by 1398 Bishop of Lincoln. A liaison with Alice Fitzalan, Archbishop Arundel's niece. In the autumn of 1402 he was appointed to the king's council, and in 1403, he was appointed chancellor of England for two years. By 1404 he had progressed to the richest see in Europe - Winchester.  

When in January 1410, Henry, prince of Wales, displaced Arundel as head of the council, Bishop Beaufort and his brother Thomas headed the administration. Thomas became chancellor while Bishop Henry opened parliament. For the two years of the prince's administration, until November 1411, Beaufort followed a policy of fiscal solvency and friendship with Burgundy.

In March 1410 his elder brother John died, leaving his widow, Margaret, with three young children. Thomas of Lancaster  the king's second son then managed to marry the widow, therefore enjoying the lands that formed the greater part of the young Beauforts' inheritance. Bishop Henry tried to impede the marriage, and refused to surrender to Thomas his brother's treasure for a while but in the end was forced to give way. 

In November 1411 Henry IVth asserted himself one last time, and Beaufort was out on his ear. But after his death in 1413, Beauforth was back, made Chancellor and he was back in power. Beaufort would remain as the leading political figure unmtil his death in 1447, the most staunch and relentless supporter of the Lancastrian dynasty. 

Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick (1382-1439)

The Beauchamp family was almost destroyed by Richard II in 1397–9 and saved only by the accession of Henry IV. His father had died in April 1401, leaving his lands concentrated principally in the west midland counties of Warwickshire and Worcestershire. Over the years, he rebuilt the fortunes of the family, participating in the battle of Shrewsbury in 1403, after which he was made a knight of the Garter. From 1408 to 1410 he travelled abroad, visiting Rome and the Holy Land and returning via eastern Europe and was a renowned jouster. In May 1410 he was named a royal councillor but in November 1411 he suffered the same fate as Beaufort when Henry IVth re=-asserted himself. 

 

 

Comments

[Stuart Pimm]

David: You are more than deserving of a sabbatical! 140 episodes is an extraordinary effort. For many of us, history will hibernate until you get back in the New Year.

[e.f. bartlam]

No..No. I do not support this decision. There's no need for a break...I'm not even winded yet. I could listen to another hundred episodes without breaking a sweat.

[Simon]

Have a great break, David. Probably my favourite podcast, so I'll miss the regular Sunday updates. I'll have to find something else to listen to while doing the ironing. Top effort to get to 140 episodes without much of a rest. Hope you do something nice in your break.

[Alex Rowe]

David,

I found your podcast in December and have been listening almost daily since that time and this is where I am at current. I will not explain to you how happy I was to find a replacement for the History of Rome (which I finished) and something with a deeper available catalog than the Dan Carlin’s Hardcore history. I will not explain it because it makes me seem like rather uninteresting loner. But as a research scientist I spend much of my time performing very delicate and complex operations, which can also be very repetitive (repeating things is important in science). Your podcast gets me through some of the more robotic portions of my day.

As to the podcast itself, I appreciate and admire that you take what I believe to be such a balanced and academic approach to history. While you are storyteller and a damn clever narrator* I don’t feel you that ever ignore the uncertainty or bias inherit in the subject matter. While you may dismiss your own efforts as just being those of some guy in a shed I think your podcasts are a fantastic overview of English History with genuine educational merit. The historiographies are terrific. They have inspired me to do more reading on the subjects myself so that I can gain a fuller understanding of the topics you review. As for criticism, I feel that it would be wrong to offer any because I have not listened to your entire library yet and the podcast is constantly improving. However, thank you for referring to Henry the IV as Bolingbroke consistently.

I have one question. Who designed the Castles? There is constant talk about castle building but was there a standard playbook of castle design. Did they do much to adapt them to local terrain? Were their diva castle designers constantly going way over budget and demanding more artistic freedom? What of building codes? Edward the first (I think I remember) was injured when his Solar collapsed, was that the result of poor design or what?

Overall thank you so much for doing this. I am also a fan of Douglas Adams, and I feel like he would love your podcast also.

Alex

*Many of your jokes fall into a category of what I call “Dad jokes”, but I find that makes them amusing on levels. One because of the raw absurdity of the pun, or word play and two because it is entertaining to hear somebody risk their dignity by making such jokes. Keep it up sir!

[The History of England]

Thanks Alex! I am glad you are enjoying them; one of the reasons I started was that I also found some podcasts I really liked, and listened to them when doing things like commuting. There's a community out there of ironers, commuters, cyclists, runners...!
Um, great question on Castle designers, and I can't pretend to know the answer. I think often probably the Master Masons who designed the castle unfortunately just haven't come down to us; there is one I know about - Edward I's Master Mason, Jacques de Saint-Georges d'Espéranche. He was a Savoyard, so it hints at an international circuit of castle designers, but I can't go further than that I'm afraid.

On the jokes, sadly, I am a Dad. That is my level now!
Thanks again for taking the time to comment, and I hope you keep enjoying it!