July 1453 /
ohn Talbot, born in 1373 at Blechmore in Shropshire, was the second son of Richard, Lord Talbot. In 1414, he was sent to Ireland to suppress a rebelion and given the title of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. He then fought in France as part of the Hundred Years War where he was renowned as a great leader even by the French themselves. He was present at the siege of Orleans in 1429 until Joan of Arc rescued the city forcing the English to retreat. At the Battle of Patay a few months later, the English were defeated and Lord Talbot was captured. As was usual in medieval times, the more important prisoners were held captive in the hope of exchanging them for a ransom fee. In John s case he was exchanged for an important French hostage that the English had taken. After his release he once again commanded the English in France and attacked Paris. After his successes in France he returned to England and was given the title Earl of Shrewsbury by King Henry VI. Returning again t
probably marry him. she has to choose and then she has to make that marriage work. your books are tapping into a fascination that people have with royals. what do you think it is? how would you characterize the fascination? i think it s the period as much as anything else. what you re talking about is a time when the state of england is being made. everything that we have now is being forged in these years. and it s being forged in a battle between very, very, very different, very ambitious, very rivalrous houses. i think it s just a fascinating time politically. and of course, they have fabulous clothes. this is true. and in our version of it, bustle women and handsome young men. of course. what s not to like? only beautiful people, right, richard wolffe? that s all they have over there. exactly. and incredible accents. we do have some mud. we did include mud. apparently roadside trumpets. she did meet the king of england standing on the road. and i was doing a
middleton, who now looks like the combination of a royal princess and a hollywood superstar. reporter: and while it could be years before william succeeds his father as king, he and kate are now the fresh faces of this 1,000-year-old institution. are you seeing a passing of the torch? is this sort of the next generation now? it does feel like the sun is beginning to set. i think the queen probably does need to step back a little bit. and we also have, you know, these bright young things. william, kate and harry all ready to do their thing. and we ve already seen that with royal tours in the far east, from william and kate and from harry out in the united states. reporter: 20 years ago the british monarchy s popularity was at an all-time low as prince charles and diana had separated. and windsor castle went up in flames. it seemed like the house of windsor might have to close up shop. that s all a distant memory now.
ukraine. see, now you re doing it, martin. see, it s instinctive, isn t it? this was reported on by journalists because of the actions of the royal family. i think the significant mainstay has been her majesty, the queen. and her commitment to duty and service has frankly trumped all of the wrongdoing. she has been unimpeachable in her character. she has served the country with enormous commitment and stability and steadfastness. and that s led to ultimately the royal family continuing to enjoy such high ratings amongst the british public because the scandals after a while have settled, and who s been left, but her majesty, the queen, stable and steadfast. so the economics of course yeah, mika, it s also led to the fact that charles probably won t be allowed to be king until he s about 97.
be king, diana was determined to expose her son to a world beyond the royal household. what you saw in diana was a very modern mother within, you know, the royal family setup. so interesting. we lived through that whole thing. when you look at the issue with the nanny, that s tense. that was very tense. prince charles had this lagubrious wish. and she was an old-fashioned runner of the nursery. diana fired her right off the bat and hired her friend s nanny, barbara barnes. but she really was the first caregiver. it s absolutely true. what s great about her is she was able to give her children a modern, contemporary, fun childhood. the images of her going down a water slide together with william and the children or just going to movies, eating popcorn. doing the kind of contemporary, modern things. she didn t want her children to