WEBVTT - Eustace the Monk 0:00:01.320 --> 0:00:04.280 Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:14.960 of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. 0:00:15.080 --> 0:00:19.280 Wilson and I'm Holly Frye. It's been quite a while 0:00:19.360 --> 0:00:23.680 since we had an episode on a pirate and also, 0:00:23.840 --> 0:00:25.799 I really could have sworn that we had just a 0:00:25.880 --> 0:00:29.280 ton of pirate episodes in the catalog. It feels in 0:00:29.320 --> 0:00:32.440 my mind like a very frequent theme. Turns out, looking back, 0:00:32.440 --> 0:00:38.640 there are not that many, relatively speaking, today's pirate and outlaw. 0:00:38.880 --> 0:00:41.680 Lived in the thirteenth century and was connected to some 0:00:41.840 --> 0:00:45.280 major events in British and French history, but he just 0:00:45.400 --> 0:00:49.720 really doesn't have the name recognition today that someone like 0:00:49.800 --> 0:00:54.040 Blackbeard or Anne Bonnie and Mary Reid, or thanks in 0:00:54.120 --> 0:00:56.960 part to the TV show Our Flag Means Death Steed Bonnet. 0:00:58.480 --> 0:01:03.120 I'm so sad that show was canceled me too. This 0:01:03.160 --> 0:01:08.280 is about Eustace the Monk. Sometimes it is spelled cche 0:01:08.480 --> 0:01:11.560 at the end, almost as though it would be pronounced 0:01:11.560 --> 0:01:16.039 to rhyme with mustache. During his lifetime, he was so 0:01:16.240 --> 0:01:19.959 notorious and feared that in areas around the English Channel, 0:01:19.959 --> 0:01:22.040 people would tell their kids that if they were bad, 0:01:22.600 --> 0:01:24.839 Eustace the monk would come and take them away. 0:01:26.440 --> 0:01:31.880 He's like the lost Crampus and Friends character. A lot 0:01:31.920 --> 0:01:34.680 of what we know about Eustace the Monk comes from 0:01:34.720 --> 0:01:38.039 a biography by an anonymous poet from Picardy in what 0:01:38.160 --> 0:01:42.040 is now France. This book was written in Old French 0:01:42.200 --> 0:01:45.119 with some Picard dialect as a little more than twenty 0:01:45.120 --> 0:01:49.559 three hundred verses in rhymed couplets. There is one known 0:01:49.640 --> 0:01:51.840 copy of it today, which is in the collection of 0:01:51.880 --> 0:01:53.480 the National Library of France. 0:01:54.320 --> 0:01:57.720 So the earliest this biography could have been written is 0:01:57.800 --> 0:02:01.360 the year twelve twenty three, and it definitely existed by 0:02:01.400 --> 0:02:06.280 twelve eighty four. It was probably written in the earlier 0:02:06.360 --> 0:02:09.280 part of that time span, and that means the events 0:02:09.639 --> 0:02:13.720 it describes were in the fairly recent past. It's possible 0:02:13.840 --> 0:02:16.480 the author could have talked to people who knew Eustace 0:02:16.840 --> 0:02:19.560 or lived through various events that he was connected to, 0:02:19.840 --> 0:02:22.360 or the author could have had some kind of personal 0:02:22.400 --> 0:02:27.120 experience with all of this. Various details in the biography 0:02:27.240 --> 0:02:32.440 can be corroborated through other historical sources, including some official documents, 0:02:32.600 --> 0:02:38.959 so parts of this biography probably pretty accurate. But though 0:02:38.960 --> 0:02:42.440 we're calling it a biography, it's not a straightforward biography, 0:02:42.600 --> 0:02:46.760 It's a medieval romance. As a genre, medieval romances are 0:02:46.840 --> 0:02:50.760 known for their fantastic adventures. The most well known medieval 0:02:50.840 --> 0:02:53.800 romances today are the ones that also focus more on 0:02:53.919 --> 0:02:57.680 tales of heroism and chivalry and courtly love. Think of 0:02:57.760 --> 0:03:00.680 all the various stories involving King Arthur and his knights. 0:03:00.680 --> 0:03:01.280 For example. 0:03:02.080 --> 0:03:04.720 Eustace, on the other hand, is an outlaw and a 0:03:04.800 --> 0:03:08.360 pirate whose behavior can really be the opposite of chivalrous, 0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:12.440 like propositioning a sergeant well disguised as a woman and 0:03:12.480 --> 0:03:16.000 then loudly passing gas and blaming it on his horse's saddle. 0:03:17.120 --> 0:03:21.080 Get that incident goes on for much longer than that 0:03:21.160 --> 0:03:26.120 one sentence. The Romance of Eustace the Monk has some 0:03:26.280 --> 0:03:30.280 parallels with the Romance of Reynard the Fox. The characters 0:03:30.280 --> 0:03:34.080 in Reynard the Fox are anthropomorphized animals, but there are 0:03:34.120 --> 0:03:38.160 some similarities between Eustace and the trickster character of Renard. 0:03:39.000 --> 0:03:41.760 There are also some moments in the romance of Eustace 0:03:41.800 --> 0:03:45.280 the Monk that are almost identical to things that happen 0:03:45.600 --> 0:03:49.080 in the Romance of fuch Fitzwaren. This was another real 0:03:49.200 --> 0:03:54.160 person and one of Eustace's contemporaries. It's not really clear 0:03:54.400 --> 0:03:57.640 whether this overlap came from the authors of each of 0:03:57.680 --> 0:04:01.520 these kind of being inspired by each or copying from 0:04:01.560 --> 0:04:05.760 each other, or if the common scenes among them are 0:04:05.760 --> 0:04:08.360 more like literary tropes that were just in heavy use 0:04:08.400 --> 0:04:11.240 at the time and are probably in lots of other 0:04:11.520 --> 0:04:14.040 stories that just haven't survived until today. 0:04:14.840 --> 0:04:18.200 Regardless, nearly two thirds of the Romance of Eustace the 0:04:18.240 --> 0:04:21.480 Monk is focused not on the wars and the monarchs 0:04:21.760 --> 0:04:25.320 and the details that can be more readily substantiated, but 0:04:25.440 --> 0:04:27.880 on the period when he was living as an outlaw 0:04:27.960 --> 0:04:31.599 in the forest of the Boulonnais in northern France. It's 0:04:31.600 --> 0:04:34.400 a series of very dramatic sketches that involve a lot 0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:38.280 of trickery and theft and disguises and narrow escapes, some 0:04:38.320 --> 0:04:42.680 of which really defy reality. So this biography includes details 0:04:42.720 --> 0:04:46.520 that were probably true, details that might have been true, 0:04:46.640 --> 0:04:48.960 and things that were almost certainly made up for the 0:04:49.000 --> 0:04:52.280 sake of and entertaining stories, and sometimes it's really tough 0:04:52.320 --> 0:04:57.640 to pick those apart. Eustace was definitely a real person, 0:04:57.920 --> 0:05:02.320 though born around the year seventy, he was the son 0:05:02.520 --> 0:05:07.440 of a minor noble named Budwin Busque or Buscit. They 0:05:07.480 --> 0:05:10.359 lived in the County of Bologna, which was in northern 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:14.440 France along the coast of the English Channel. Boudoin was 0:05:14.520 --> 0:05:17.799 a vassal of Renaud de de Martin, count of Bologna, 0:05:18.240 --> 0:05:21.400 and since Eustace was of the nobility, he probably trained 0:05:21.480 --> 0:05:24.680 as a knight, and at some point he also learned 0:05:24.720 --> 0:05:28.200 to be a seafarer, although the timeline on that is 0:05:28.240 --> 0:05:31.960 not really clear. According to the Romance of Eustace the Monk, 0:05:32.360 --> 0:05:35.800 Eustace went to Toledo and what's now central Spain to study 0:05:35.880 --> 0:05:40.520 sorcery or necromancy. The romance claims he spent an entire 0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:44.960 summer and winter in an underground chamber there, studying black magic, 0:05:45.160 --> 0:05:49.679 including meeting with the devil himself. A nineteenth century essay 0:05:49.720 --> 0:05:52.640 by Thomas Wright, who was an antiquarian and an editor 0:05:52.680 --> 0:05:56.600 of medieval literature, summed up with the Devil, allegedly foretold 0:05:56.600 --> 0:05:59.800 about Eustace's later life as quote, he should live to 0:06:00.200 --> 0:06:03.200 war against nobles and princes, and that he should not 0:06:03.400 --> 0:06:07.320 die until he had been concerned in many commotions, after 0:06:07.360 --> 0:06:10.000 which he should be killed on the sea. 0:06:10.080 --> 0:06:13.360 This trip to Toledo is one of the moments in 0:06:13.400 --> 0:06:17.600 the Romance of Eustace the Monk that really can't be substantiated, 0:06:17.839 --> 0:06:20.320 not even just the part about talking to the devil. 0:06:20.600 --> 0:06:22.960 There's not really any evidence that he went to the 0:06:23.000 --> 0:06:27.800 Iberian Peninsula at all, but Toledo did have a reputation 0:06:27.920 --> 0:06:30.160 and a lot of Europe for being home to all 0:06:30.240 --> 0:06:34.840 kinds of sorcerers and magicians and underground schools of witchcraft. 0:06:35.720 --> 0:06:38.640 We also don't really know where the idea of his 0:06:38.839 --> 0:06:42.480 studying sorcery came from, like whether this was a rumor 0:06:42.600 --> 0:06:46.480 about Eustace that was circulating during or after his lifetime, 0:06:46.640 --> 0:06:49.360 or whether it was something that the author of this 0:06:49.520 --> 0:06:52.560 romance included to kind of spice up the story and 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:55.520 also offer an explanation of what he was up to 0:06:56.200 --> 0:06:59.320 during a gap in the timeline between when he was 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:03.040 born and the next thing we know happened, along with 0:07:03.080 --> 0:07:06.320 explaining how he became such a cunning and ruthless man. 0:07:07.200 --> 0:07:10.440 As an example of stuff from the biography that can't 0:07:10.440 --> 0:07:14.640 really be substantiated and definitely sounds very fictional. On the 0:07:14.640 --> 0:07:17.480 way back from Toledo, Eustace was traveling with some of 0:07:17.480 --> 0:07:20.520 his fellow students of sorcery, and they stopped in the 0:07:20.520 --> 0:07:24.880 town of Montferrand today that's Clermont Ferrand in central France. 0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:28.280 They didn't have any local currency, so at first the 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:32.040 tavern keeper's wife refused to serve them. Then she tried 0:07:32.080 --> 0:07:35.080 to charge them double because they were using foreign coins, 0:07:35.800 --> 0:07:39.000 so Eustace cast a spell that made her take all 0:07:39.040 --> 0:07:41.840 of her clothes off and release all of the tavern's 0:07:41.880 --> 0:07:45.280 wine from the barrels. Other people in town ran up 0:07:45.280 --> 0:07:48.000 to see what the commotion was about, and they started 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:52.679 taking their clothes off too. Then Eustace's party tried to leave, 0:07:52.760 --> 0:07:56.760 and the townspeople gave chase. One of his traveling companions 0:07:56.840 --> 0:07:59.400 was an old man, and this old man cast a 0:07:59.480 --> 0:08:03.040 spell that caused a huge river to appear and divide 0:08:03.080 --> 0:08:06.520 them from their pursuers, And then he cast another spell 0:08:06.600 --> 0:08:08.760 that made the townspeople back on the other side of 0:08:08.800 --> 0:08:12.840 the river all start fighting each other. Once Eustace felt 0:08:12.840 --> 0:08:16.640 like he'd gotten sufficient retribution for their earlier treatment at 0:08:16.640 --> 0:08:19.720 the tavern, he threw some grain on the ground, which 0:08:19.800 --> 0:08:22.920 caused everything to go back to normal, including making the 0:08:22.960 --> 0:08:24.760 wine go back into the barrels. 0:08:25.760 --> 0:08:29.160 Of course, there's no backup documentation for that whole incident, 0:08:29.320 --> 0:08:33.880 but sources do generally agree that Eustace became a monk. 0:08:34.640 --> 0:08:37.320 He likely joined the Benedictine order at the abbey of 0:08:37.360 --> 0:08:40.360 Saint sam Man near Calais, But again most of the 0:08:40.360 --> 0:08:42.599 details of his time as a monk come from the 0:08:42.720 --> 0:08:46.720 romance in the words of that nineteenth century essay on 0:08:46.840 --> 0:08:50.400 him quote, when Eustace took on himself the religious habit, 0:08:50.760 --> 0:08:54.520 he laid aside none of his former unholy practices. The 0:08:54.559 --> 0:08:57.720 whole abbey was troubled by his conjurations, and he turned 0:08:57.760 --> 0:09:02.199 everything upside down, caused the monks, as the story informs us, 0:09:02.280 --> 0:09:04.959 to fast when they ought to have been eating, and 0:09:05.120 --> 0:09:07.719 when they ought to have worn their shoes, to go barefoot, 0:09:08.360 --> 0:09:11.680 one thousand errors he led them into when they ought 0:09:11.720 --> 0:09:14.880 to have been gravely performing the holy services. 0:09:15.640 --> 0:09:19.840 Eustace later left the monastery, and there are two different 0:09:19.880 --> 0:09:21.040 accounts of why. 0:09:22.040 --> 0:09:23.360 Neither of them is. 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:25.800 That the other monks got sick of him using black 0:09:25.840 --> 0:09:30.440 magic to just continually disrupt their religious community. The Chronica 0:09:30.520 --> 0:09:34.560 Majora by Benedictine monk Matthew Parris, was first published in 0:09:34.640 --> 0:09:40.400 twelve fifty nine and it says that Eustace's father, Buduin Buscuaye, 0:09:40.600 --> 0:09:44.720 died and then Eustace was the only surviving heir. His 0:09:44.880 --> 0:09:49.800 father probably did die sometime around eleven ninety. His name 0:09:49.840 --> 0:09:53.160 shows up as a witness in various legal documents before 0:09:53.240 --> 0:09:58.439 eleven ninety, but then not afterward. Eustace could not inherit 0:09:58.559 --> 0:10:01.040 that estate as long as as he was a monk, 0:10:01.200 --> 0:10:05.480 so he renounced the order. If this is what happened, though, 0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:07.760 if he left the order so that he could get 0:10:07.760 --> 0:10:11.599 this inheritance, some of the details are wrong because Eustace 0:10:11.800 --> 0:10:15.679 seems to have still had surviving brothers. There's not I mean, 0:10:16.000 --> 0:10:19.400 that's possible. Maybe that like his mother remarried and had 0:10:19.440 --> 0:10:21.720 children with somebody else, but he has brothers who show 0:10:21.800 --> 0:10:24.280 up in the historical record later on. 0:10:25.480 --> 0:10:28.600 The other explanation is also connected to the death of 0:10:28.640 --> 0:10:32.000 Eustace's father, and that's that Eustace left the order so 0:10:32.040 --> 0:10:34.240 that he could try to get revenge on the man 0:10:34.280 --> 0:10:38.360 who killed him. Boudoin had some kind of dispute with 0:10:38.480 --> 0:10:43.760 Hanphoi de Harris and Jin, possibly over control of a fifdom. 0:10:44.040 --> 0:10:48.559 This escalated into a physical altercation in which Boudoin struck 0:10:48.720 --> 0:10:53.079 Hanphoi and Hanfoix retaliated, either by killing him or by 0:10:53.200 --> 0:10:57.320 arranging an ambush in which someone else killed him. Eustace 0:10:57.400 --> 0:11:01.040 petitioned Renault de de Martin for justice, leading to a 0:11:01.120 --> 0:11:05.720 judicial duel to settle the matter. Hanphoas's champion was another 0:11:05.760 --> 0:11:10.640 man named Eustace Eustace de Marquise. Eustace the Monk's champion 0:11:10.800 --> 0:11:14.480 was his cousin Monsier, who was killed in the duel, 0:11:14.559 --> 0:11:16.240 making Hanphois the victor. 0:11:17.440 --> 0:11:21.480 And even though Eustace's petition to Reynald de de Martine 0:11:21.640 --> 0:11:24.959 did not work out in his favor, he later entered 0:11:25.000 --> 0:11:28.840 the count's service. By twelve oh three, Eustace had become 0:11:29.120 --> 0:11:33.520 rend Seneschal, but his time in this role did not 0:11:33.640 --> 0:11:36.320 go all that smoothly. Based on what we know, and 0:11:36.360 --> 0:11:48.360 we'll get to that after a sponsor break. Eustace the 0:11:48.440 --> 0:11:51.960 Monk's life up to this point, as we have told 0:11:51.960 --> 0:11:55.840 it so far, has had a fair amount of silliness. 0:11:56.200 --> 0:11:58.200 But before we go on, we need to set up 0:11:58.360 --> 0:12:01.760 some more serious context for what was happening between England 0:12:01.920 --> 0:12:04.400 and France, because that is going to be a recurring 0:12:04.440 --> 0:12:08.320 part of the rest of the episode. England was being 0:12:08.440 --> 0:12:11.760 ruled by the Plantagenets also known as the Angevints or 0:12:11.800 --> 0:12:15.240 the House of Anjou, depending on who's describing them and 0:12:15.360 --> 0:12:19.640 exactly when we are talking about, and France was being 0:12:19.720 --> 0:12:24.480 ruled by the Capitian dynasty. The Plantagenets controlled most of 0:12:24.559 --> 0:12:28.080 what's now England, as well as parts of Ireland and Wales, 0:12:28.679 --> 0:12:32.640 and thanks to various marriages and inheritances going back to 0:12:32.679 --> 0:12:36.080 the later part of the twelfth century, the Plantagenets also 0:12:36.160 --> 0:12:39.320 were controlling about half of what's now France, with this 0:12:39.480 --> 0:12:43.439 combined territory later described as the Angevin Empire. 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:47.720 In eleven ninety nine, English King Richard the First also 0:12:47.800 --> 0:12:51.160 known as Richard the Lionheart, died without a direct heir. 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:55.239 He had previously named his nephew Arthur as his successor, 0:12:55.480 --> 0:12:58.959 but then changed his selection to his brother John, also 0:12:59.000 --> 0:13:03.160 known as John Lackland. John had previously tried to take 0:13:03.200 --> 0:13:06.680 control of England while Richard was imprisoned during the Third Crusade. 0:13:07.200 --> 0:13:09.640 But Richard had a few reasons for making this switch 0:13:09.720 --> 0:13:12.439 in spite of all that. One is that Arthur was 0:13:12.480 --> 0:13:15.200 still a child while John was in his early thirties. 0:13:15.720 --> 0:13:19.320 Another is that after some convoluted and failed attempts to 0:13:19.360 --> 0:13:23.360 create an alliance between the Plantagenets and the Kapecians. Young 0:13:23.480 --> 0:13:26.160 Arthur had wound up being fostered in the court of 0:13:26.200 --> 0:13:29.880 Philip the Second of France. He's also called Philip Augustus. 0:13:30.760 --> 0:13:34.240 Of course, this meant that Philip Augustus supported Arthur's claim 0:13:34.280 --> 0:13:37.760 to the English throne. Among other things, an English king 0:13:37.840 --> 0:13:40.760 who had been fostered in French court might pave the 0:13:40.800 --> 0:13:43.400 way for the French to regain control of some of 0:13:43.400 --> 0:13:44.239 that territory. 0:13:45.160 --> 0:13:49.120 Yeaes switcheroo was confirmed, and near the very end of 0:13:49.240 --> 0:13:51.200 the of Richard the first life, after he had been 0:13:51.840 --> 0:13:55.280 shot with a crossbow bolt, and that had become gangrenous, 0:13:55.320 --> 0:13:57.720 and it was clear that he was dying, so to 0:13:57.720 --> 0:14:00.720 get back to Eustace. While he was in the service 0:14:00.760 --> 0:14:04.719 of Renaud de de Martines, Renaud was supporting Philip Augustus's 0:14:04.760 --> 0:14:09.360 efforts to retake this territory in France by force. And 0:14:09.400 --> 0:14:12.280 we don't know the full story of all of Eustace's service, 0:14:12.360 --> 0:14:14.840 but one portion of it did not go all that 0:14:14.880 --> 0:14:18.800 well for him or for Renaud. Eustace had been ordered 0:14:18.800 --> 0:14:22.040 to oversee the improvement of a road that was going 0:14:22.080 --> 0:14:27.240 to help strengthen communication between Bologna and Calais. This road 0:14:27.400 --> 0:14:30.080 was going to be on land that belonged to Baldwin, 0:14:30.240 --> 0:14:33.080 Count of Guineas, who was opposed to the whole project, 0:14:33.160 --> 0:14:37.640 because this improved road was going to improve that connection, 0:14:37.760 --> 0:14:39.360 but it was going to cut off some of his 0:14:39.680 --> 0:14:44.000 own access routes. This led to a standoff between Eustace 0:14:44.080 --> 0:14:47.280 and Baldwin, with Baldwin finally showing up with men to 0:14:47.400 --> 0:14:52.760 confront Eustace's workforce. Eustace's workers fled, and while it doesn't 0:14:52.760 --> 0:14:55.880 seem like anybody was killed in this altercation, some of 0:14:55.920 --> 0:14:58.800 those workers were captured, and Baldwin also seized all of 0:14:58.840 --> 0:15:00.000 their tools and materials. 0:15:00.880 --> 0:15:04.280 Eustace left Renault's service in twelve oh four, or perhaps 0:15:04.320 --> 0:15:07.360 a little later, and according to the Romance of Eustace 0:15:07.400 --> 0:15:10.560 the Monk, this traced back to his dispute with han 0:15:10.640 --> 0:15:15.200 Foi de Harris engine as Seneschal. Eustace was managing Reynauld's 0:15:15.200 --> 0:15:19.200 accounts and han Foix raised all kinds of suspicions that 0:15:19.240 --> 0:15:24.960 Eustace was mishandling Reynauld's money. Renault eventually summoned Eustace to 0:15:25.040 --> 0:15:29.359 his castle to answer these charges, but instead of answering 0:15:29.560 --> 0:15:33.240 that call, Eustace fled, burning down Renauld's mills on his 0:15:33.320 --> 0:15:37.200 way out. According to the romance, after this, Eustace spent 0:15:37.320 --> 0:15:40.200 some time as an outlaw, hiding out in the woods 0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:44.320 of Boulonnai, trying to both humiliate Renault and rob him 0:15:44.400 --> 0:15:45.440 at every opportunity. 0:15:46.120 --> 0:15:51.080 This probably was a real dispute Eustace and Reynauld. Probably 0:15:51.120 --> 0:15:54.400 we were fighting with each other, but the account of 0:15:54.440 --> 0:15:57.240 it in the Romance of Eustace the Monk is very colorful. 0:15:58.080 --> 0:16:00.440 This is also the longest part of the Row Romance, 0:16:01.320 --> 0:16:02.960 set up at the top of the show. This part 0:16:02.960 --> 0:16:06.680 of the romance has some parallels with Reynard the Fox 0:16:06.760 --> 0:16:11.640 and the Romance of fu Fitzwarren, especially this part of it. 0:16:11.840 --> 0:16:16.240 Like Eustace and fuch Fitzwarren, both have their horses shoes 0:16:16.280 --> 0:16:19.720 put on backward so people will think they're traveling in 0:16:19.760 --> 0:16:23.200 the opposite direction based on the tracks they left. They 0:16:23.240 --> 0:16:27.280 both disguise themselves as charcoal burners, that is, somebody who 0:16:27.320 --> 0:16:30.440 makes and sell charcoal, and people in that role typically 0:16:30.520 --> 0:16:33.040 were just covered in charcoal dust. Because of the nature 0:16:33.080 --> 0:16:36.680 of the work. There are a lot of chases and escapes, 0:16:37.120 --> 0:16:40.920 and there's speculation that Eustace the Monk or fuch Fitzwarren, 0:16:41.080 --> 0:16:43.960 or both of them may have been inspirations for the 0:16:44.080 --> 0:16:47.080 character of Robin Hood From. 0:16:46.920 --> 0:16:50.560 Time to time. Eustace's exploits as an outlaw also touched 0:16:50.600 --> 0:16:54.600 on the bigger political situation in France. When Philip Augustus 0:16:54.720 --> 0:16:58.040 visited the region, Reynauld's men acted as his rear guard 0:16:58.560 --> 0:17:02.440 and Eustace's force, not because he had any issue with 0:17:02.480 --> 0:17:05.160 Philip Augustus, but because he wanted to mess things up 0:17:05.520 --> 0:17:10.199 for Renaud. Renaud managed to capture Eustace after Eustace's saddle 0:17:10.240 --> 0:17:13.040 slipped while he was being pursued, causing him to fall 0:17:13.080 --> 0:17:15.280 off his horse. We don't know if it made a 0:17:15.320 --> 0:17:19.640 farting sound or not. Some of Eustace's allies convinced Renaud 0:17:19.720 --> 0:17:23.640 to send Eustace to Philip Augustus to stand trial rather 0:17:23.720 --> 0:17:28.120 than just executing him himself. But those same allies came 0:17:28.160 --> 0:17:31.520 to Eustace's rescue while he was being transported and got 0:17:31.600 --> 0:17:35.280 him to the border of Boolinais. From there, Eustace fled 0:17:35.320 --> 0:17:38.120 to England, and once he arrived, he pledged his service 0:17:38.160 --> 0:17:38.960 to King John. 0:17:40.280 --> 0:17:43.800 As we said earlier, we don't know exactly when Eustace 0:17:43.960 --> 0:17:47.440 trained to be a seafarer, but it had happened already 0:17:47.560 --> 0:17:50.399 by the time he got to England. King John put 0:17:50.480 --> 0:17:53.760 him in control of a fleet of ships. There's documentation 0:17:53.920 --> 0:17:56.720 of eight of them, but the Romance puts that number 0:17:56.760 --> 0:18:00.760 at thirty. Eustace attacked the King's enemy and was part 0:18:00.800 --> 0:18:05.359 of English efforts to retake Normandy, which England had lost 0:18:05.359 --> 0:18:09.880 to France in twelve oh four. The term privateer and 0:18:10.320 --> 0:18:13.879 letters of mark these things were still centuries away, but 0:18:13.960 --> 0:18:17.080 that's basically what Eustace was doing. He was acting as 0:18:17.119 --> 0:18:21.280 a maritime mercenary at the behest of the king. King 0:18:21.359 --> 0:18:25.240 John was reportedly so impressed with Eustace that he built 0:18:25.320 --> 0:18:28.159 him a palace in London as a thank you gift, 0:18:28.200 --> 0:18:34.840 but there's no documentation of this palace actually existing. As 0:18:34.880 --> 0:18:37.800 he fought for the King, Eustace was also acting more 0:18:37.880 --> 0:18:40.919 like a pirate, operating out of the Channel Islands and 0:18:40.960 --> 0:18:44.920 attacking the King's allies as well. He built a stronghold 0:18:44.960 --> 0:18:47.520 on the island of Sark and treated the whole island 0:18:47.640 --> 0:18:51.399 as his own property. At various points, John had to 0:18:51.400 --> 0:18:54.320 smooth things over with various barons and other high ranking 0:18:54.359 --> 0:18:59.639 people after Eustace attacked their ships. Eventually, Eusas made so 0:18:59.720 --> 0:19:02.280 many any English enemies, and any time he needed to 0:19:02.359 --> 0:19:04.679 visit the King, he had to do so with a 0:19:04.760 --> 0:19:08.080 letter of safe passage, and these are on record as 0:19:08.119 --> 0:19:11.080 being issued in May of twelve oh six and April 0:19:11.119 --> 0:19:15.000 of twelve oh seven. And Eustace reportedly made so much 0:19:15.040 --> 0:19:18.920 money through piracy that he tore down that undocumented palace 0:19:18.960 --> 0:19:21.280 that John had built for him and replaced it with 0:19:21.320 --> 0:19:29.159 a bigger, better one, also undocumented. Unsurprisingly, Eustace's relationship with 0:19:29.280 --> 0:19:35.080 King John eventually soured one John understandably got tired of 0:19:35.119 --> 0:19:38.880 having to pay off or otherwise placate people who Eustace 0:19:38.920 --> 0:19:43.200 and his fleet attacked or harassed. Eustace was also probably 0:19:43.240 --> 0:19:46.000 tired of the King constantly getting on his case about 0:19:46.040 --> 0:19:49.159 how he should stop attacking the King's allies, and then 0:19:49.200 --> 0:19:52.159 in twelve twelve, the King also informed the Sheriff of 0:19:52.160 --> 0:19:55.720 Nottingham that Eustace owed a debt of twenty marks and 0:19:55.760 --> 0:19:58.800 that he had a deadline to pay it. When Eustace 0:19:58.800 --> 0:20:01.560 failed to pay the debt by the deadline, the sheriff 0:20:01.680 --> 0:20:06.000 seized all of his lands for unclear reasons, though this 0:20:06.160 --> 0:20:10.760 consequence did not really stick. The king allowed Eustace to 0:20:10.800 --> 0:20:15.359 start occupying those lands again, but John did also imprison 0:20:15.520 --> 0:20:19.679 some of Eustace's men, possibly including one of his brothers, 0:20:19.840 --> 0:20:24.119 and he took Eustace's daughter and possibly also his wife hostage. 0:20:25.600 --> 0:20:28.720 We really don't know anything about his wife or children, 0:20:28.840 --> 0:20:34.080 aside from scattered mentions of their existence in various documents. 0:20:34.600 --> 0:20:38.000 The final straw seems to have come sometime after May 0:20:38.040 --> 0:20:41.960 of twelve twelve, when Renauld did de Martesse switched sides, 0:20:42.480 --> 0:20:46.919 leaving France and pledging his fealty to King John. Either 0:20:47.080 --> 0:20:49.840 Eustace could not stand the idea of fighting on the 0:20:49.880 --> 0:20:53.360 same side as Renaud, or Renaud worked to turn King 0:20:53.440 --> 0:20:56.960 John against him. It's possible that it was more the latter, 0:20:57.119 --> 0:21:00.560 because there's some indication that Eustace stayed in john service 0:21:00.920 --> 0:21:04.200 until twelve fourteen, rather than leaving as soon as Renaud 0:21:04.240 --> 0:21:08.240 showed up. According to the romance, when Eustace left his service, 0:21:08.680 --> 0:21:13.199 King John had his daughter burned and then killed. After 0:21:13.400 --> 0:21:17.639 returning to France, Eustace allied with Philip Augustus and worked 0:21:17.680 --> 0:21:22.919 particularly closely with Philip's son, Prince Louis later King Louis 0:21:22.960 --> 0:21:26.840 the eighth. Eustace became an admiral in the French Navy, 0:21:26.920 --> 0:21:29.719 and one of his assignments was to try to retake 0:21:29.800 --> 0:21:34.560 the Channel Islands from England. Control of the Channel Islands 0:21:34.600 --> 0:21:37.359 went back and forth between England and France during this 0:21:37.440 --> 0:21:42.240 whole period. He also fought against England's efforts to retake 0:21:42.359 --> 0:21:46.880 Normandy from the French. This conflict between England and France 0:21:46.920 --> 0:21:49.800 became known as the Anglo French War of twelve thirteen 0:21:49.840 --> 0:21:53.880 to twelve fourteen. As it went on, England didn't manage 0:21:53.880 --> 0:21:57.520 to retake its lost possessions in France, and France started 0:21:57.560 --> 0:22:02.240 preparing for a direct invasion of Inga, with Eustace transporting 0:22:02.320 --> 0:22:06.520 knights and siege weapons to support that planned invasion. This 0:22:06.680 --> 0:22:10.480 conflict also went beyond England and France, drawing in other 0:22:10.600 --> 0:22:15.240 kingdoms and the Holy Roman Empire. The last major battle 0:22:15.480 --> 0:22:19.600 in this particular war between England and France was the 0:22:19.640 --> 0:22:23.720 Battle of Mouvin, which ended in a French victory. The 0:22:23.760 --> 0:22:28.040 French at this battle captured Renault de de Martines, and 0:22:28.200 --> 0:22:31.720 he remained in prison until his death in twelve twenty seven, 0:22:31.760 --> 0:22:33.760 at the age of about sixty one. 0:22:34.640 --> 0:22:37.199 Although the Anglo French War ended with the Truce of 0:22:37.280 --> 0:22:40.639 Chinol in twelve fourteen, it did not take long for 0:22:40.720 --> 0:22:43.719 England and France to be at war again. More on 0:22:43.760 --> 0:22:45.280 that after a sponsor break. 0:22:55.000 --> 0:22:58.399 The English losses in the Anglo French War fed into 0:22:58.640 --> 0:23:03.000 long standing tension between the English monarch and the barons, 0:23:03.200 --> 0:23:06.920 or the landowners who made up the nobility. This included 0:23:07.040 --> 0:23:11.600 disputes over things like taxes and administrative issues, and those 0:23:11.760 --> 0:23:16.560 questions about who Richard the First's successor should be had 0:23:16.680 --> 0:23:21.040 contributed to a lack of confidence in the monarchy. John's 0:23:21.080 --> 0:23:26.199 reputation as king was really not good, and after the 0:23:26.240 --> 0:23:30.320 Anglo French War, the barons were also angry about the 0:23:30.400 --> 0:23:35.879 loss of nearly all of England's territory in France. Same time, 0:23:36.119 --> 0:23:39.720 there were also disputes between the crown and Pope Innocent 0:23:39.800 --> 0:23:44.040 the Second. The Pope excommunicated King John in twelve oh nine, 0:23:44.280 --> 0:23:48.800 although that was later rescinded. Efforts to resolve these issues 0:23:48.880 --> 0:23:51.240 and to try to prevent a civil war in England 0:23:51.640 --> 0:23:54.280 ultimately led to the creation of the Magna Carta in 0:23:54.400 --> 0:23:58.399 June of twelve fifteen. The Magna Carta or Great Charter, 0:23:58.760 --> 0:24:01.600 outlined the rights and freedoms of the barons and of 0:24:01.640 --> 0:24:04.480 the Church, as well as outlining limits of power for 0:24:04.560 --> 0:24:09.000 the monarch. Some of its clauses also outlined basic civil rights, 0:24:09.000 --> 0:24:15.000 such as no freeman shall be seized, imprisoned, dispossessed, outlawed, exiled, 0:24:15.119 --> 0:24:18.800 or ruined in any way, nor in any way proceeded against, 0:24:19.000 --> 0:24:21.919 except by the lawful judgment of his peers and the 0:24:22.000 --> 0:24:22.919 law of the land. 0:24:23.640 --> 0:24:25.880 That's one of the four clauses of the Magna Carta 0:24:26.000 --> 0:24:29.359 that are still in effect today. The Magna Carta is 0:24:29.400 --> 0:24:32.360 considered to be one of the most important and influential 0:24:32.440 --> 0:24:35.720 legal documents in English history, and it's one that people 0:24:35.720 --> 0:24:39.119 who have studied English history in any way have probably 0:24:39.160 --> 0:24:39.879 at least heard of. 0:24:40.960 --> 0:24:44.920 There's some speculation that those sieged weapons that Eustace had 0:24:44.920 --> 0:24:48.480 transported on behalf of Prince Louis of France, which we 0:24:48.560 --> 0:24:51.960 talked about before the break. There's speculation that those were 0:24:52.000 --> 0:24:55.600 a factor in King John agreeing to the terms of 0:24:55.640 --> 0:24:59.840 the Magna Carta. John was hoping to prevent the possibility 0:25:00.080 --> 0:25:05.000 of the dissatisfied barons. Basically inviting the French to invade England. 0:25:05.920 --> 0:25:09.680 Knowing that the French already had siege weapons ready to go, 0:25:10.359 --> 0:25:13.480