monarchs in England… You know… throughout history. The conquerors and the ones that
inherited all of their wealth and glory. I guess I plan to do both! –Siggie
Link to the Youtube video and the rest of the series!
Ninth Episode of Siggie presenting her take on the history of the monarchs of England in the context of her favorite topic….herself. Here she discusses the famous reign of Edward III, including his involvement in the “Hundred Years’ War” with France, and with the Black Plague. Next, she discusses Edward’s grandson and heir Richard II, who would be deposed by his cousin Henry, thus ending the Plantagenet dynasty.
All right. King Edward III of the House of Plantagenet.
He reigned from 1327 to 1377. 50 years. That’s a long time. Sadly, he reigned at the time
of the Black Plague when it reared its ugly head in England,
which to be precise was 1347. Like it isn’t tough enough to be a king
during Medieval times. Let’s throw in a plague to spice things up.
So Edward was 14 years old when he became king, but he was literally hidden
away and manipulated by his attention starved and power-seeking mama Isabella
and her equally attention and power-seeking lover Roger Mortimer.
If you remember, there’s a good chance that Isabella was at least somewhat of a
driving force behind former King Edward II getting a red hot poker reamed up a
place that undoubtedly caused him enormous discomfort prior to killing him.
This makes Isabella not what one would expect to be the nurturing
apple pie baking maternal type. Edward III escaped his crazy mother and
stepdad when he was 17 and he became a great military force to be reckoned with.
He won lots of battles in the famous 100 Years War, which actually was longer than
100 years. I don’t know why they’re still calling it “The 100 Years War.” It is
completely erroneous. It was like 115-116 years or something like that. It was
longer than 100 years. They need to rewrite that. Anyway…
Now we’re going to move on to King Richard II of the House of Plantagenet again. He
reigned from 1377 to 1399. Richard II was the last Plantagenet king.
He was only 33 years old when he died. It’s the same age as Jesus Christ with a
similarly fateful and tragic demise. Richard II caused tension between the peasant
rebels and himself by dealing harshly with the peasants, and it was during what
was known as the Peasants’ Revolt. But what eventually did him in was his
struggle with the government and his harsh treatment of his cousin, Henry
Bolingbrook. Bolingbrook deposed Richard. Richard was thrown into prison and
eventually died in Pontefract Castle.
(Stay tuned for Episode 10: “The Lancasters Take Over”)