(dramatic choral music)
God will protect you, Mary.
Previously in The Real War of Thrones.
(shouting and clattering)
In Europe, the son of Holy Roman Emperor Philip of Spain
had married the Catholic Queen of England, Mary Tudor.
You look splendid, madame.
It has been too long since I was at your side.
In the name of their faith,
they had persecuted the English Protestants.
May the Lord punish the heretics!
(crowd cheering)
But Mary had failed
to give her kingdom an heir.
(screaming)
And she could not prevent her half-sister Elizabeth
from ascending to power.
I promise to govern according to my convictions.
Her coronation triggered the fury
of the king of France.
By marrying his son to the young queen of Scotland,
Mary Stuart, Henry II had claimed the crown of Scotland
and hoped to one day reign over England.
For the young Mary Queen of Scots also laid claim
to the English crown.
Our niece is the true successor of the throne of England.
They will not get away with this.
(wind howling)
(exciting, dramatic music)
In the second half of the 16th century,
(groaning) religion was the law.
England had a new Protestant queen.
The queen of Scotland, now queen of France
was on the point of losing everything.
The king of France had a hard time
ensuring peace in his kingdom.
(grunting)
An event was about to re-shuffle the cards
and re-deal the thrones.
(expansive, dramatic music)
(tense ambient music)
(moaning)
In the spring of 1559,
the court followed the king of France
to visit his mistress Diane de Poitiers
at the Chateau d'Anet to the west of Paris.
(moaning)
Diane was once the governess of Henry II.
During his adolescence, she became his great lover.
Diane was 60 years old, 20 years older than the king,
but she was still celebrated
as the most beautiful woman in the kingdom.
A beauty she retained, they say,
from drinking concoctions of gold.
The king was crazy about her.
(upbeat woodwind music)
At the Chateau d'Anet which Diane de Poitiers
had built to her glory and that of her king,
there is a love letter from Henry II to his mistress,
a letter in which one can sense his passion for her.
He writes, good evening my dear love.
Should I sleep, I shall dream of you.
Should I lie awake, I shall dream of you too.
Please receive therefore one million kisses from me,
and it's signed H for Henry,
surrounded by the barred S's, the sign of loyalty.
This letter is proof that King Henry of France
cannot live without Diane,
either romantically or politically.
A penny for your thoughts.
No, it's nothing.
Just thinking of my hopes.
What hopes, hm?
To see my children in the biggest royal houses,
my son as husband of the queen of Scots,
and my daughter, the future queen of Spain.
Love and politics, two sides of the same coin, my friend.
Nobody knows that better than me. (laughs)
For Queen Catherine de' Medici,
Henry's wife, the love affair with Diane was heartbreaking.
(sad ambient music)
(percussive, dramatic music)
Since her marriage to Henry at 19 years old,
Catherine's main role had been
to provide children for the crown.
She was pregnant 10 times.
At 40, her beauty had faded,
but the queen still loved her husband passionately.
(haunting choral music)
Catherine de' Medici raised her children
at the Chateau de'Blois.
Through her superstition,
she has an observatory built there.
In the 16th century, they are convinced
that the stars determine the course of events.
Here, Catherine is visited by astrologers
such as the Italian Cosimo Ruggeri
or the famous Nostradamus.
But their predictions are often
more harrowing than heartening.
(frightening, chaotic music)
(moaning and gasping)
On the last night of June 1559,
Catherine de' Medici had a nightmare.
After reading the prophecies of Nostradamus,
she saw her husband, King Henry II, bathed in his blood.
(moaning and gasping)
(stately horn music)
The next day, a celebration chased the bad dream away.
The king of France had organized a tournament in Paris
to celebrate the marriage of his daughter
to the king of Spain.
(trumpet blaring)
(exciting, adventurous music)
King Henry II was a skilled jouster and a keen performer.
The king saw off one opponent after the next.
He was tired after a long day.
Next bout!
But he insisted on one final tilt.
His next adversary was a young captain
from the king's Scottish guard,
Gabriel the Count of Montgomery.
(cheering) (fast, exciting music)
(hooves pounding)
(cracking) (whinnying)
When his opponent's lance broke,
it exploded into a mass of splinters.
Five of them went through his eye and his temple.
When Montgomery begged the king's forgiveness,
Henry II uttered these words.
I don't blame, I don't blame you.
You were following orders.
I've nothing to forgive.
(crickets chirping) (thoughtful ambient music)
King Henry II was taken
to the Hotel des Tournelle
where his physician Ambroise Pare tended to his wounds.
(moaning)
(sparse woodwind music)
The splinters of wood were removed,
but an abscess soon formed.
(panting and moaning)
Queen Catherine de' Medici was devastated.
Her bad dream had turned out to be a prediction.
But the queen's deep sorrow didn't allow her
to put aside her rivalry with Diane de Poitiers.
How dare you!
Leave us.
As revenge, she refused her access
to the king's bedside.
Henry II's mistress would never see her royal lover again.
She left the French court and never returned.
King Henry II died in Paris on July 10th, 1559
at the age of 40.
His reign had lasted just over 12 years.
His life was worthy of a novel,
with an unhappy childhood in prison,
a burning passion until his dying breath,
and a tragic end.
To everyone, except the Protestants he persecuted,
Henry II was a good king who extended his country's borders
and made peace with his enemies.
(birds calling)
The announcement of his death
sent shivers throughout Europe.
(tense, exciting music)
Across the channel, the succession of the French crown
sent ripples through the court of England.
Madame, on the 18th of September
in the year of our Lord 1559,
His Majesty the King of France, Francois,
succeeded his father and was crowned in Reims Cathedral.
His wife, your cousin Mary Stuart,
has been proclaimed queen of France,
Scotland, England, and Ireland.
The French saw Mary Stuart
as the true queen of England.
Reading these words, Elizabeth's anger grew.
She knew that if she didn't
provide her country with an heir,
her legitimate successor
would be Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots.
(screaming)
(dramatic choral music)
The reason why the new queen of France
had designs on Elizabeth's throne
was that the two queens shared the same ancestor,
Henry VII, the first of the Tudor kings.
But while Mary was Catholic, Elizabeth was Protestant.
At 26, Elizabeth I was a determined woman
of exceptional intelligence.
Long regarded as illegitimate,
the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn
had become a woman king in a world dominated by men.
(respectful ambient music)
From the moment of her accession,
Elizabeth's succession was a major worry for her government.
Her advisors often suggested the names of princes
or monarchs who would make a suitable husband.
But Elizabeth refused them all.
This is how she justified her decision to reject marriage.
I am already married to the kingdom of England,
and that will have to suffice.
Do not reproach me for my lack of child.
All of you, and all the subjects
of this realm are my children.
For the memory and for the glory of my name,
when I have exhaled my last breath,
I want written in marble, here lies Elizabeth,
who having reigned such a time, lived and died a virgin.
Elizabeth preferred to remain single
rather than marry a man who would take her crown.
(placid woodwind music) (birds chirping)
The first to ask for her hand
was the widower of her dead sister, Queen Mary Tudor.
King Philip II proposed to Elizabeth
hoping to continue the alliance between England and Spain.
But she refused his offer.
(percussive, militaristic music)
This was a grave mistake,
as the Catholic king of Spain would devote his reign
to eliminating Protestants from Europe.
(sparse choral music)
Protestants also risked being burned at the stake
in the Catholic kingdom of France.
But in the name of God, the Huguenots, as they were called,
would stop at nothing to practice their religion.
(tense ambient music)
Among commoners and the aristocracy,
the Geneva Bible translated into French
in part by the leader of the reformers, John Calvin,
could easily be slipped under a coat.
Now, everyone could read the Bible
without needing a priest as middleman.
This seriously upset the clergy.
In Catholic France during the Renaissance,
the hunt for heretics was on.
In Paris, a huge network of spies
bent on unmasking Protestants was at work.
(fast-paced, perilous music)
All were in the pay of the two most powerful men
in the kingdom, the Guise brothers,
closest advisors to the king of France.
These ultra-Catholics had sworn to burn all heretics.
Francis of Lorraine, Duke of Guise
and his brother Cardinal Charles of Lorraine
were now the uncontested masters of the kingdom.
The Guise brothers, as they were known,
took advantage of their close relationship
with the new queen of France to influence the king.
After all, she was none other than their niece,
Mary Queen of Scots.
(coughing)
Francois, Francois, sit down.
Breathe. (gasping)
Breathe.
At 15, the young king Francis
was a listless, fragile adolescent,
but he listened to his wife.
I need to see my council.
You're too weak.
Rest, and leave the thorny details to my uncles.
(coughing) (tense, sad music)
His health seriously worried the young queen.
She was not in love with Francis,
but they had been friends since childhood.
Mary knew that her husband listened favorably to her advice.
(coughing)
No doctor knew what really ailed Francis.
As winter approached, they prescribed fresh air,
so the whole court decamped
to the Chateau d'Amboise in the Loire Valley,
a stronghold known for its security.
But Francis II didn't suspect
that another threat hung over him.
(sparse, threatening music)
(owl hooting) (crickets chirping)
In the middle of the night,
on February 22nd, 1560,
in the grounds of the Chateau d'Amboise,
the young king Francis and Queen Mary of France
were taken to the royal lodge.
Stay there, Your Majesty.
Are you going to finally tell us what is going to on?
There are heretics at the gates of the town.
We need to get you to safety.
This removed them from the Guise influence.
Protestant conspirators had tried to kidnap
the king and queen of France, but the plot,
known as the Amboise Conspiracy, was a failure.
(tense, high-pitched music)
On March 19, the Huguenot plotters
were arrested by the Duke of Guise's men.
The rebels were then tortured.
The Duke of Guise wanted them to divulge the names
of the other conspirators involved in the plot.
(screaming)
After hours of torture,
the prisoners died without naming their leader.
Their bodies were then thrown into The Loire.
(sparse, tense music)
The head conspirators, all noblemen, were beheaded.
(panting) (music intensifies)
(groaning) (gasping)
Others were hanged from here,
now known as the Balcon de Pendu, the hanged man's balcony.
(ambient dramatic music)
These executions traumatized
the young Mary Stuart and her royal court.
(sobbing)
But to the Guises, they were a source of pride.
While the Guises continued their investigation,
to find the brains behind the Amboise Conspiracy,
a rumor reached them, that Queen Elizabeth of England
had been aware of the plot.
(dissonant choral music)
Rumors also circulated that England was planning to support
European Protestants against the Catholics.
Queen Elizabeth had forbidden mass
and the raising of the Eucharist
in churches throughout her kingdom.
Everywhere, relics and other Catholic symbols
had been removed.
English Catholics now had to celebrate mass
in strict secrecy.
(crickets chirping)
(thoughtful ambient music)
Madame, the Catholics will rebel.
You need to make an example of them, burn them.
For the love of God, be quiet man!
During my sister's reign,
too many people died for their faith!
While I am queen,
no one will die for their religious convictions.
Elizabeth was what one might call
a moderate Protestant.
Though she did not hesitate to blaspheme
through the many curses she uttered,
for her private prayers,
she kept the crucifix and the candles.
Her advisors were much more radical.
They were obsessed with preventing Mary,
Queen of Scotland and France,
from ever taking the crown of England.
They needed to convince Elizabeth
to help the Protestants of Scotland take the throne.
Cecil, I'm waiting.
Your thoughts on Scotland.
As I have said a hundred times, Your Majesty,
we need to drive the French from Scotland
and place a Protestant on the throne.
I do not like war.
Pressured by her advisors,
Elizabeth eventually agreed to their demands.
She begrudgingly agreed to send troops
to help the Protestants take the Scottish regency by force.
In April 1560, 7,200 horsemen
arrived to the south of Edinburgh.
(cheering and shouting)
Facing them were 6,000 Frenchmen, allies of the Scots.
Not many, but enough to wipe out Elizabeth's English army.
(inspirational choral music)
(thoughtful ambient music)
Elizabeth was crushed when she heard
of her troops' defeat in Scotland.
This defeat is not worthy of a Tudor.
Worse still,
a furious France threatened to declare war.
But one piece of news changed everything.
Madame, the Scottish regent
Mary de Guise had died in Edinburgh.
Francois's ambassador wishes to discuss
peace with you, Majesty.
The death of the Catholic Mary of Guise
in Edinburgh Castle on June 10th, 1560
opened the door for Scottish Protestants.
This was also a catastrophe for the king of France
because his wife, Mary Queen of Scots
could now lose her Scottish crown.
So Francis II negotiated and agreed to recognize Elizabeth
as the queen of England on condition
his wife Mary was recognized as queen of Scotland.
Elizabeth agreed.
(tense, energetic music)
But when the so-called Treaty of Edinburgh
finally arrived in France,
Francis refused to sign it
because Elizabeth was still supporting
the Protestants against him.
In Fontainebleau, not far from Paris,
the Guises were still trying to find
and unmask the mastermind behind the Amboise Conspiracy.
They now had a very serious lead.
If you want to live, talk.
(smacking) (groaning and coughing)
(sparse ambient music)
(flames crackling)
Put it near the fire.
(exciting, intriguing music)
A secret message written in invisible ink
revealed that a Bourbon was behind the plot
to kill the king.
(smacking) (groaning)
Antoine de Bourbon, King of Navarre,
and his brother, Louis de Bourbon, Prince of Conde,
were descendants of the sainted King Louis IX.
Princes of the blood,
they belonged to a junior branch of the house of France
and could lay claim to the throne
if the Valois were to die out.
(tense, exciting music)
A spy named Le Sage admitted that the Prince of Conde
was one of the leaders of the Protestant rebellion
and that his plan was to eliminate
the Guises' influence on the king.
The Guises finally had proof that the leader
of the Protestant rebellion was a Bourbon.
Now all they had to do was convince King Francis II
to arrest their avowed enemy.
(dramatic, thoughtful music)
On October 30, 1560,
Antoine de Bourbon and his brother the Prince of Conde
arrived in Orleans.
They had been summoned by the king.
Let's go.
The two brothers were aware
that their future would be played out
behind the walls of the Hotel Groslot in Orleans.
If they failed to prove their innocence before King Francis,
they would be arrested and possibly executed.
According to eyewitnesses,
the scene apparently proceeded like this.
In the king's chamber, the king's mother
and the Guise brothers attended the decisive meeting.
(tense, sparse music)
A pale-faced King Francis appeared cold and distant
to his cousins, treating them as if they were mere vassals.
The scene had been carefully stage managed
by the Guise brothers.
The brothers left the room to avoid compromising themselves
and so the king could play the part
they had written for him.
Sir, I've called you here because you have been implicated
in a plot against my person and the state.
I want the truth.
Sire, everything I am accused of
is nothing more than lies.
Just as the Guises planned,
the king informed them of La Sage's confession
and the accusations leveled against them
regarding the Amboise Conspiracy.
Conde denied taking up arms against the king,
but he admitted wanting to overthrow the Guises.
Sire, I do admit I have links to the court,
but only with the aim to maintain the rights
to my family's land because that land was stolen,
spoiled by the ambitions of the Lorrianes.
Guards, arrest this man.
Sire, sire, I'll answer for him on my life.
But Antoine de Bourbon realized
that the arrest of his brother Conde
had been planned by the king and the Guises
well before their arrival.
Go, my brother.
Obey our king.
(dramatic, thoughtful music)
The Hotel Groslot in Orleans, where the scene unfolded,
was completely redecorated in the 14th century.
It was here that the health of King Francis
declined alarmingly.
(gasping)
King Francis was suffering from a tumor behind the ear
from which pus flowed continuously.
Queen Mary was so worried, she didn't leave his bedside.
She knew that if the king died without an heir,
then she too would lose the crown of France.
Rumors circulated that Francis
had been poisoned by the Huguenot.
The Guises reinforced the king's guard.
In a bid to save him, Ambroise Pare,
the world's leading physician was called to his bedside.
(gasping)
(dark, tense music)
After diagnosing the abscess in his ear,
the doctor warned the Duke of Guise
that the king had only days to live.
It was known throughout the kingdom
that King Francis's brother was still too young
to succeed him and that a regency council would be set up.
But who between Francis of Guise and Antoine de Bourbon
had the most legitimate claim on the regency of France?
(thoughtful piano music)
One night in December 1560,
Antoine de Bourbon was invited to the apartments
of the king's mother, Queen Catherine de' Medici.
Enter, my friend.
To his great surprise,
the queen had also summoned the Guises.
Majesty.
Antoine felt that, as cousin to the king
and a prince of royal blood,
he had the most legitimate claim on the regency,
should King Francis die.
For the peace of the kingdom,
I am asking of you, my cousin, Antoine de Bourbon,
to formally renounce any intentions you have to the regency.
Even if the estates general are encouraging you.
And if my son Francois dies,
I ask you to support his brother, the Duke of Anjou.
Is this clear, my cousin?
Catherine de' Medici was as distrustful
of the Bourbons as she was the Guises.
Weary of their rivalry, she appointed herself regent
and insisted that Antoine de Bourbon and the Guises
make friends in front of her.
(dramatic, exciting music)
Now.
And now, reconciled, I ask for your signature.
This was an utter humiliation for the Guises.
She also obtained assurances from the Bourbon prince
that he would renounce all claim to the throne of France.
To complete her coup d'etat,
Catherine de' Medici had her dying son sign a decree
announcing the accession to the throne
of his younger brother Charles, Duke of Anjou,
and the confirmation of Catherine's appointment
as regent of the kingdom until Charles came of age.
The Guises had lost.
Catherine was a decisive and ambitious woman,
but since her coronation,
she had always been pushed into second place,
both as a wife by Diane de Poitiers,
and as a politician by the Guises.
Now, revenge was within her grasp.
On December 5th, 1560 at the Hotel Groslot,
in this room, which was once Francis's bedchamber,
the king lay dying.
This painting by DuPuis, painted in the 19th century,
shows him surrounded by his young wife, Mary Stuart,
the Guises, and his mother Queen Catherine de' Medici.
Legend has it that before his death,
Doctor Amboise Pare suggested trephining the king,
but Catherine de' Medici refused,
saying that only God had the right
to look inside a king's head.
(sad ambient music)
Francis II died in excruciating pain.
He was 16 years old.
He will forever be remembered as the husband of Mary Stuart.
She now had no choice but to try
and reclaim her Scottish crown.
(peaceful piano music) (birds chirping)
For months following the death of her husband,
Mary locked herself away to mourn.
She wore all white, the French tradition at the time.
Pupil and muse to Pierre de Boscosel since her childhood,
she wrote poems suffused with her sincere sorrow.
My heart feels endless grief for his loss.
Sometimes in such a place, his image comes to me.
I see his sweet, smiling face upon a cloud.
At the announcement of her widowhood,
many of Europe's kings proposed marriage to her
in order to annex Scotland,
but Mary paid them no heed.
(exciting fast-paced music)
At 17, Mary Stuart saw that she was no longer welcome
in the court of France.
After hesitating for seven months,
Mary decided to set out for Scotland,
a country she didn't know, having left aged five,
and whose language she hadn't spoken in several years.
Mary's return would prove to be very unexpected.
She cried throughout the crossing.
Could she sense already that the land she once loved
would once again descend into bloody war,
and that a tragic fate awaited her in Scotland?
(dramatic, stately music)