Helen Castor and Dan Jones, both broadcasters and historians, discuss the Crown of England from Richard II to Henry V.
Castor’s The Eagle and the Hart tells the story of the power struggle between cousins Richard of Bordeaux and Henry Bolingbroke, one a thin-skinned narcissist, the other a chivalric hero and leader. As king, Richard II became consumed by the need for total power. When he banished Henry into exile, the stage was set for a final confrontation.
Jones offers a new perspective on the life of Henry V, who reigned over England for only nine years but who looms large over the late Middle Ages and beyond. As king, Henry saved a shattered country from economic ruin, put down rebellions and secured England’s borders, but he sowed the seeds for three generations of calamity in the form of the Wars of the Roses.
