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For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the death of kings.

How some have been deposed, some slain in war, some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed.

Some poisoned by their wives, some sleeping killed, all murdered.

For within the hollow crown that rounds the mortal temples of a king, keeps death his

court, and there the antics sits, scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp, allowing

him a breath, a little scene, to monarchize, be feared and killed with looks, infusing

him with self and vain conceit.

As if this flesh which walls about our life were brass and pregnant and humorous.

Comes at the last and with a little pin, boars through his castle wall and farewell king.

Shakespeare, Richard II, Act 3, Scene 2.

The Wars of the Roses defined political life in England for two generations.

From 1455 to 1485, sporadic outbursts of insane violence rocked what had once been Europe's

most stable state.

Brutal battles left thousands of dead.

The greatest noblemen in the realm were unceremoniously beheaded, their families ruined.

Kings rose and kings fell.

In our last episode, we talked about the origins of the Wars of the Roses.

The Great Warrior King Henry V had conquered northern France and brought England to its

high point during the long and devastating Hundred Years War.

But his untimely death in 1422 brought his infant son Henry VI to the throne.

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