Ruthlessness and Richard III: Thomas Penn (1483)
In this haunting episode of Travels Through Time, Thomas Penn guides us back to the blackest year of them all, 1483.
Richard Duke of Gloucester, has seized power. His rivals, the Woodville faction, have fled for their lives. And the uncrowned child Edward V has disappeared into the Tower of London, along with his younger brother. The two would never be seen again.
This was the year that Richard Duke of Gloucester conceived a ruthless plan to seize the throne for himself. His actions would make his reputation for cunning, opportunism and recklessness. In retrospect, Penn argues, this was the year that the powerful House of York began to consume itself.
The ‘Wars of the Roses’ saw the House of York ranged against their rivals in the House of Lancaster. The complex, long-running conflict played out in a succession of battles, betrayals and beheadings. It was a time when, as the historian Thomas Penn puts it, ‘necessity knew no law.’
So begins the final tragic act in the story of the House of York.
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Show notes:
Scene One: Northampton, the night of April 29/30, Richard and Buckingham’s plot
Scene Two: Council chamber, Tower of London, morning of Friday 13 June, Richard’s accusation/Hastings’ execution
Scene Three: Lincoln, Sunday 12 October, Richard’s response to news of Buckingham’s rebellion
Memento: Edward IV’s will.
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People / Social
Presenter: Peter Moore
Guest: Thomas Penn
Producer: Maria Nolan
Editorial: Paul Lay / Artemis Irvine
Digital Production: John Hillman
Titles: Jon O.
Stuart Clark: The Space Age (1957)
Michèle Mendelssohn: Making Oscar Wilde (1882)
Catherine Fletcher: The Beauty and the Terror (1492)
Selma van de Perre: Liberation (1945)
Hugh Aldersey-Williams: Christiaan Huygens (1655)
Jonathan Schneer: The Lockhart Plot (1918)
Alan Mikhail: The Ottomans (1517)
Rebecca Wragg Sykes: Neanderthals (Eemian)
Simon Hall: Fidel Castro in Harlem (1960)
Thomas Levenson: The South Sea Bubble (1720)
Ken Follett: The Evening and the Morning (1002)
Prof. David Abulafia: Wolfson Prize Special (1415)
Justin Marozzi: Seizure of Constantinople (1453)
Prof. Greg Woolf: Rise of the Romans (146 BCE)
Craig Brown: Beatlemania (1963)
Luke Pepera: Mansa Musa (1325)
Prof. James Shapiro: Manifest Destiny (1845)
Season Three Trailer
Owen Matthews: Richard Sorge (1941)
Kelcey Wilson-Lee: Daughters of Chivalry (1297)
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