In 1066, the rivalry between two brothers brought England to its knees. When Duke William of Normandy landed at Pevensey on September 28, 1066, no one was there to resist him. King Harold Godwineson was in the north, fighting his brother Tostig and Harald Hardrada at Stamford Bridge. How could...

They showed so much promise. What happened to the Godwines? How did they lose their grip? Earl Godwine had great plans for his children. But he didn't understand his sons. And they barely understood each other. This is England in the days of Edward the Confessor, when Godwine and his sons...

Harold Godwineson, the Last Anglo-Saxon King, owed everything to his father. Who was this Godwine, first Earl of Wessex and known as the Kingmaker? Was he an unscrupulous schemer, using King and Witan to gain power? Or was he the greatest of all Saxon Earls, protector of the English against the...

Richard II found himself under siege not once, but twice in his minority. Crowned king at age ten, he was only 14 when the Peasants' Revolt terrorized London. But he proved himself every bit the Plantagenet successor, facing Wat Tyler and the rebels when all seemed lost. Alas, his triumph was...

If you listened to A King Under Siege, you might remember that we left off just as Richard declared his majority at age 22. He was able to rise above the humiliation inflicted on him during the Merciless Parliament, but the fear that it could happen again haunted him the rest of his life. Ten...

Shakespeare's Witches tell Banquo, "Thou shalt get kings though thou be none." Though Banquo is murdered, his son Fleance gets away. What happened to Fleance? What Kings? The road to kingship had a most inauspicious beginning, and we follow Fleance into exile and death, passing the Witches'...

From the day he was crowned, Henry V was determined to prove the legitimacy of his house. His father's usurpation weighed heavily on his mind, and he needed a grand gesture to capture the respect of his own countrymen and the rest of Europe. What better way than to follow in his...

From Outlaw to Usurper, Henry Bolingbroke fought one rebellion after another. First, he led his own uprising. Then he captured a forsaken king. Henry had no intention of taking the crown for himself; it was given to him by popular acclaim. Alas, it didn't take long to realize that that having...

What happens when a king loses his prowess? The day Henry IV could finally declare he had vanquished his enemies, he threw it all away with an infamous deed. No English king had executed an archbishop before. And divine judgment was quick to follow. Many thought he was struck with...