Hello everyone and welcome to the History of England Episode 173, Ritha's Rising.

Before I pile ahead, some notices for you.

Remember to check out the Agora Podcast Network and the associated website, Inspiringly Named,

AgoraPodcastNetwork.com and do check out this month's featured Agora Podcast, which this month

is the History of England. So if you're listening to this, well done, if you're not listening

to this, well weird. So, last time, which seems several centuries ago, but which isn't, we

had the dramatic and breathless romance of Edward and Elizabeth Woodville. The whole thing

came as an enormous shock to the political community, not just the King's Council and of course

Warwick. King's in England just didn't marry English women, they now married foreign royalty

and married to create powerful, dynastical alliances, not because God forbid they fancied someone.

And so, the received history of Edward's reign has become a story of the Woodvills

and their evil, greedy, scheming. Elizabeth is cast in the role of a cold-hearted,

scheming vain, greedy beauty, carefully schooled by her needy parents to use her beauty to entrap a

notoriously susceptible young man. That once her foot was in the door, Elizabeth gave full vent

to her vanity. A diva, inflicting her haughty, overbearing nature and love of grandeur and power

on everyone around her. And close behind her gave a hoard of

slobbering ravenous beasts that she called her family. Under a sovereign grunting, squealing

and slobbering as they thrust their dribbling noses into the trough of state, oozing over the good

honest folk of the court, pushing and shuffling and elbowing them out the way, depriving them of

their birthright. As Elizabeth took advantage of her feckless and helpless husbands better nature,

to gain for them the lion's share of the honours and privileges until he couldn't move

without tripping over a Woodvills' jewellery. In fact, one high-grade gag has come down to us

...