Susan Morrison and Len Pennie explore the bloody struggles for the throne of medieval Scotland where keeping it for you and your heirs meant being as effective in bed as in battle
Mindful of the fate of his eldest son, in 1406 Robert attempts to smuggle his younger son James out of the country by sea. But calamity strikes and young James (who is 12) gets stuck on the Bass Rock for several miserable months before boarding a ship which is then hijacked by English pirates. Nae luck! The Prince of Scotland is handed over as a prisoner to Henry IV and, shortly afterwards, Robert III dies. Young King James I is a prisoner of a hostile foreign power and Robert, Duke of Albany, rules Scotland in his absence. The Albany Stewarts have never been more powerful.
But the political landscape is never static. Wars can eliminate key players and allegiances can change. When James I is released and returns to Scotland, will he gun for the family that let him be a prisoner for 18 years and murdered his brother? Which branch of the Stewart dynasty will emerge triumphant?
Presenters: Len Pennie and Susan Morrison
Contributors: Dr Fiona Watson and Dr Callum Watson
Producers: Louise Yeoman and Lynsey Moyes
Executive Producer: Peter McManus
Music & Sound Design: Gav Murchie
Commissioning editor for BBC Scotland: Gareth Hydes
22 Feb 2024
Episode 5 - Band of Brothers
Correction: In this episode it was incorrect to say Elgin Cathedral wasn’t repaired after the fire of 1390. It was in fact restored and enlarged over the following centuries. The ruins that remain are of that rebuilt cathedral.
While David II is holding on to the throne but failing to sire an heir, his nephew Robert Stewart (whom he can’t stand, remember) is doing almost the exact opposite. He may not have the throne but while he waits to see if he’s going to get a crack at the top job, he fathers lots and lots of heirs. In fact, when David II dies and Robert ascends to the throne (as Robert II, first of the Stewarts) his tally of kids is estimated at over 20. He has so many grown-up sons, in fact, that he could run his own jousting tourney. All looks rosy for the Stewarts - but Robert II is 55 and his sons are no longer children. They are grown-up aristocrats each with their own desires and ambitions. They might get fed up waiting around...
Battling brothers, deadly dungeons and a wayward Wolf: Len Pennie and Susan Morrison reveal how family feuds and sibling rivalry reach new levels of treachery when what's at stake is the Scottish throne.
Presenters: Len Pennie and Susan Morrison
Producers: Louise Yeoman and Lynsey Moyes
Executive Producer: Peter McManus
Music & Sound Design: Gav Murchie
Commissioning editor for BBC Scotland: Gareth Hydes
15 Feb 2024
Episode 4 - Wives and Mistresses
Susan Morrison and Len Pennie discover that, when retaining the Scottish throne, the bedroom is just as important as the battlefield...
8 Feb 2024
Episode 3 - The Balliols Strike Back
Talk about accelerated development. Robert the Bruce's son David is already a married ‘man’ at four (his wife was a positively elderly seven-year-old), then at 5, after his father's death, he becomes a king. He's barely old enough to look after a hamster. Before you know it, the Balliols sniff an opportunity and are back. They crown their heir at Scone as Edward I, King of Scots. The nearly-deposed little King and Queen are in terrible danger and flee to France.
The Bruce dynasty now fights for its survival against two Edwards on the Scottish and English thrones, plus a peeved force known as ‘The Disinherited’, the Lords and Barons who sided against Robert Bruce. Castles will be defended by ladies on either side - the gallant Christian Bruce at Kildrummy, her Balliol counterpart Katherine Beaumont at the island fortress of Lochindorb. Eventually oor Edward I gets caught napping and is ambushed in his nightshirt. English Eddie realises that Scottish Eddie is another Balliol Bust and his support subsides. Scotland has turned into a war zone, famine follows fighting and innocent peasants pay the price for their overlords' ambition. Winter has definitely come.
Meanwhile, over in France, David is growing up and learning siege-craft. The gallant Bruce fightback has brought Edward’s enemies to the table and the French king brokers a deal. David and his young wife Queen Joan finally land back in Scotland at Inverbervie, north of Montrose, on 2 June 1341. They think it’s all over. But oh! It’s definitely not!
Presenters: Len Pennie and Susan Morrison
Producers: Louise Yeoman and Lynsey Moyes
Executive Producer: Peter McManus
Music & Sound Design: Gav Murchie
Commissioning editor for BBC Scotland: Gareth Hydes
1 Feb 2024
Episode 2 - Bruces and Balliols
Four executions, two life imprisonments and a corpse on trial for murder. Susan Morrison and Len Pennie discover that taking the Scottish throne is a brutal and bloody business.
25 Jan 2024
Episode 1 - Brutal Enough?
Since the 13th Century, the banner of the Scottish royal house has been a lion. From then until the Union of the Crowns in 1603, four different dynasties engaged in a seemingly endless struggle to claim the banner and the throne. We start with the first big dynastic struggle for the banner of the lion between the ‘Margaretsons’ and the ‘MacWilliams’. Both families descend from Malcom (Canmore) III via different wives. The Macwilliams sprout from first wife, Queen Ingibjorg, while the Margaretsons claim the second wife, St.Margaret, as ancestral matriarch.
Who should wear the crown remains a bone of contention between the two factions for decades, but by 1214 it’s the Margaretsons in the hot-seat with Alexander II. Now here’s a man who knows the value of brutality, and unfortunately for everyone else, is not afraid to use it. It’s Alexander II who cuts off the hands and feet of eighty men (although they had just roasted a Bishop alive). He sees the Macwilliams are a threat that must be extinguished as they try to hold the Northern strongholds of Moray and Badenoch. Alexander hunts them all down until only a single threat remains.
With the help of historians Professor Richard Oram and Dr Susan Marshall, Len and Susan discover that the fictional machinations in Game of Thrones are nothing compared to real life Scottish history.
Presenters: Len Pennie and Susan Morrison
Producers: Louise Yeoman and Lynsey Moyes
Executive Producer: Peter McManus
18 Jan 2024
Introducing House of the Lion: A Blood Soaked Throne
Susan Morrison and Len Pennie explore what it takes to be King in medieval Scotland, where ruthlessness and brutality were qualities at the top of the job description.
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