Hello and welcome to the History of England, episode 103, War in Britain.

Last week, Edward had arrived home in high-dudgeon and full of righteous anger, ready to pillage

and burn his way through the treacherous ministers who, according to his world view, had let him

down so badly. In their place, he would use the trustworthy, doubty and reliable household

staff who had worked with him so closely over the last two years, who had shared his pain

and humiliation, and had helped him write all those thoroughly reasonable and sensible letters

while he'd been away. His anger focused on the Archbishop of Canterbury. As we heard

last week, Edward had rather nuttally decided that the Archbishop was out to kill him and bring

him down. As you can see, Edward's world view had become decidedly warped. This time,

the magnets and the community of the realm would unwrap it for him, sharpish, in the form

of a bloody nose. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Robert Stratford was the chancellor

from whom Edward had torn strips already, and been summarily dismissed on Edward's return.

Now it just so happens that the Archbishop was none other than Robert's brother John,

so unsurprisingly, the Archbishop caught wind of the direction of Edward's thoughts and

led it down to the relative safety of Canterbury. Before you could say full and frank exchange

of views, a document had appeared from Edward detailing all the crimes of which he thought

Stratford guilty. It's fair to say that it's not a balanced objective document. Stratford

is supposed to have withheld money, encouraged opposition to taxes, impoverished the crown,

and abused his authority to his own advantage. While Edward launched his attack on Stratford,

he confidently embarked on a new approach to government, using his own household officers

to do the things he was convinced had been simple, but that the incompetent and evil guys

in England had simply decided they couldn't be bothered to do. Now that he had his top

...