S9 E8 | Royal Blood

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. 

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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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