Hello and welcome to the History Extra Podcast from BBC History Magazine.

I'm Ellie Corthon.

But today's episode we've got something a little different.

One of the talks from our 2019 Winchester History Weekend.

The speaker was the historian Lauren Johnson, who's the author of the Shadow King, the

life and death of Henry VI, and the turbulent reign of the late medieval king is the subject

of this lecture.

Hello everyone.

First of all, can you hear me?

Yes, excellent.

Most important.

Bit more, bit more you say.

Very good.

Thank you.

Yes, so I'm here to talk about Henry VI, a king who is pivotal to English history and

also, personally, for our present time to England's relationship with Europe, but a king who

often, when he is remembered at all, which to be honest, he often isn't, is remembered

as being either just a weak king, a sort of cipher of poor kingship, or a mad king,

very little else, to be honest, which isn't fair.

And my point over the next 40 minutes is to try and persuade you that there is much

more to King Henry VI, that in fact, like all of us, he was a complex, contradictory, fascinating,

changing and evolving human being.

...