Hello everyone, welcome to the History of England, episode 156, Rivas.

Last week we had the last of the great English victories in France in the 100 years war,

and Gloss does rather fun little adventure, which gave a rather graphic expression to the

bone-headed noblesse oblige, which is a constant theme of, well, history, really.

This week we're going to reach 1427ish from a domestic point of view, so that the week

after we can do Joan of Arc, which is too good a story to miss just on the flimsy grounds

that it's actually French history.

Now, I can guess what you're thinking.

You are thinking, come on David, put your skates on, how can it take an entire episode

to cover that amount of ground?

Well, there's a nice bit of violence coming up, and I thought I'd take the opportunity

to link that to the slightly fast-hour point, that really you can put a cigarette paper

between the violence amongst the nobility that we describe as politics, and the violence

amongst the nobility that we describe as crime, and then tell you a bit about the problems

of lawlessness in the realm during Henry's minority and beyond.

And then take the chance to talk just a little bit about the most lawless place of all,

the northern marches, whence the word, reavers.

But let's do the politics first.

So, as I mentioned last time, Gloucester came back from the arduous business of leaving

your wife in the lurch to find a rather changed political environment.

Whereas before, Protectorate England was a model of good and even-handed governance,

with Pratchanage handed out evenly insensibly, when Gloucester took his eye off the ball,

...