Born in 1442, Edward was the son of Richard, Duke of York, and Cicely Neville. Four years later, York made his bid for the throne and so kindled the Wars of the Roses. After the duke’s death in 1460, his youthful, handsome son Edward became the Yorkist claimant, backed by his cousin Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, “the kingmaker”. Victory at Towton in 1461 deposed Henry VI and gave Edward the Crown.

Henry V (1413-22) Henry was born at Monmouth in 1387. His father was Henry Bolingbroke; his mother, Mary de Bohun, daughter of the Earl of Hereford. During the period that Bolingbroke was in exile (October 1398-July 1399), the young Henry stayed with his father’s cousin Richard II, and was knighted by him in Ireland.

Richard II (1377-99)Born in the French city of Bordeaux in 1367, Richard was the youngest son of Edward the Black Prince and Joan of Kent. The Black Prince died in 1376, and a year later the death of Edward III left his ten-year-old grandson as England’s king.

Born in 1312, Edward was under 15 when crowned in January 1327, and at first had to submit to the regency of his mother Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer. In 1330, however, he had Mortimer executed and sent his mother into retirement. England was now his. To distract his squabbling nobles, he set about the country’s traditional foreign enemies: France and Scotland.

Edward I (1272-1307)
‘The pattern of the medieval king’, Edward was born in 1239. Eldest son of Henry III, he married Eleanor of Castile in 1254. His headstrong nature led to a temporary split with his father during the de Montfort rebellion, and it was on his way back from Palestine in 1272 that Edward learned of Henry’s death.

John (1199-1216)
John, born 1167, was nicknamed ‘Lackland’ by his father Henry II, though he gained large estates through gifts and marriage to Isabella of Gloucester. Capable, clever, scheming and untrustworthy, John conspired against both his father and brother, trying to seize the throne in 1193 during Richard’s absence. On becoming king in 1199, he struggled to prevent Henry’s empire from fragmenting, but died in 1216 in the shadow of failure, his name forever linked to Magna Carta - called the ‘greatest constitutional document of all times’ - signed by the Thames at Runnymede.

Henry II (1154-89) ‘One of the most remarkable characters in English history’, Henry II (born 1133) ruled an empire larger than any English king before him. It included England, Wales, Ireland, Anjou, Normandy, Brittany and Aquitaine. His prestige rivalled that of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, while Henry’s wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine - one of the most formidable and dynamic women of medieval times - matched him in power of will.

William II (1087-1100)His strength and girth marked William Rufus as a son of the Conqueror. Born in 1056, he was reckless, greedy and opportunistic - qualities which won approval from his knights, but earned the displeasure of monks who condemned with distaste the fashions of his court - long hair, pointed shoes and effeminate behaviour.

Although William may not have been wanted by the English, they had little choice but to put up with him. He treated the country as dangerous occupied territory, subdued and held by a chain of forts. A line of castles soon stretched from Warwick to York, dominating the Midlands, with another in eastern England passing through Lincoln, Huntingdon and Cambridge.