This week we focus on the Plantagenet dynasty, with three stories from their early days and three from the end of their time on the British throne. Find out about real buried treasure, a woman who should have been queen of England, and that chap that memorably died in a vat of Malmsey wine.
Medieval monarch King John was a hapless and hopeless king. He lost his lands in France, he lost the support of his barons, and he was even excommunicated from the church. And it does seem to be true that he lost some of the royal treasure in the Wash.
Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122-1204) was one of the most powerful and influential figures in the British Royal Family of the Middle Ages. Inheriting a vast estate at the age of 15 from her father, the Duke of Aquitaine, made her the most sought-after bride of her generation.
Eleanor, Fair Maid of Brittany (c. 1184 –1241), was a contender for the throne of England, but became the victim of a power struggle in the Plantagenet dynasty of English kings and ended up spending the whole of her adult life as a prisoner.
The Wars of the Roses were a series of English civil wars for control of the throne of England fought between supporters of two rival branches of the royal House of Plantagenet: the House of Lancaster, represented by a red rose; and the House of York, represented by a white rose.
George, Duke of Clarence, was a younger brother of King Edward IV, during the period of the Wars of the Roses. He rebelled against his brother several times, and was rumoured to have been executed by his exasperated sibling by being drowned in a vat of wine.
You've probably heard the story of the Princes in the Tower, two little boys who were imprisoned in the Tower of London at the end of the 15th century, and then vanished. But why were they imprisoned, and who were they? Perhaps predictably, they were victims of a royal power struggle.
