Time Team Special: Dover Castle | Classic Special (Full Episode) - 2009

the most shocking and notorious murder in all of medieval European history. The bloody murder of Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral was to have enormous consequences. He was immediately seen as a martyr. People came and took pieces of his blood. They gathered him, put him in water and gave him to the sick, and he healed them. After that, his cult, his sanctuary, becomes one of the most important pilgrimage centers in Europe and attracts people from all over. Henry was seen as the bad guy. He was stunned and that gave his enemies an excuse to turn up the heat.

Three years after Becket's assassination, in 1173, a huge rebellion broke out involving all of England and almost all of continental Europe. The King of France, the King of Scotland, four English earls, three of the King's own children and Queen Eleanor also participated. A large number of powerful and influential people rose up against him. Chroniclers of the

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said it was God's punishment for Becket's murder. Under attack from all sides. Henry had to do something. So he made a bold decision. He decided to ask Becket for help. He walked barefoot to Canterbury. He allowed himself to be flogged by the 70 monks of the cathedral priory and then spent the night praying at Becket's tomb.

The next morning, he receives news that at the same

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he had heard mass at Becket's grave. King William of Scotland has been captured at Alnwick during one of his northern invasions. And we know that Henry thought this proved that Beckett had interceded with God, and God was now on Henry's side again. By his death, Becket had reconciled with Henry. And that act from beyond the grave would indirectly lead to the construction of the Great Tower at Dover. In Dover, construction work is coming to an end. They are all reaching the final stages. What we will do is consolidate the head solidly.

Obviously this will be chosen. What is finished is spectacular. Every link in this mail chain was made by hand. 40,000 of them. Absolutely perfect. Caramba! Everything has to be worthy of a king. So we have gold plating on the rivets, all gold plating. All this is gold plated. Yes. Simply amazing. This is kind of like Henry, right? Yes, this is him. The last time I saw this it was as a drawing. Yes. And now he is here. It is a beautiful sword. It's quite, quite polished. Yes. Henry's lion and then an inscription in Latin. Henry, king of England.

King of England? Yes. The Royal School of Sewing is working at

full

capacity. All works of art are made in the style of the time. The painting of the Norman conquest is already finished and awaiting delivery to the

castle

. However, some of the work now seems a bit flashy to us. It will be difficult for us to understand it with our modern ideas of aesthetics, but historians have done their homework. There is nothing in this country from the late 12th century that has paint. Luckily, we came across some pieces in northern Europe and southern Scandinavia, and it turns out they're gloriously technicolor.

We had a couple of examples of a Madonna and child sitting on a turned chair, like the ones we want to make, and it had this beautiful decoration with bands of two or three colors. Exactly what we needed to design our chairs. The colors are so bright that they are more like what we consider the cardinal colors of kindergarten. So people will be a little surprised when they see them for the first time. But that's how it was. We have to try. There are no half measures. This is the visual and sensory world that they thought belonged to them.

We have a story of Thomas Becket at an embassy in Paris, with the chariots, the horses, the monkeys, the trumpeters and the soldiers. These are not people who think modesty is a virtue. They want to cause a sensation. That's what they do. The death of Thomas Becket certainly caused a sensation. His bloody murder in Canterbury Cathedral made Canterbury one of the most important pilgrimage sites in Europe. In 1173, after Henry made his own pilgrimage there and made peace with Becket, he really took off. More visitors arrived and the quality of visitors increased in 1177. Count Philip of Flanders arrived.

And in 1179 King Louis VII of France himself came because his young heir Philip, aged 15, the only heir to the Capetian crown, was seriously ill, and King Louis, in his desperation, suddenly and in the blink of an eye Blinking his eyes, he crossed the canal. him with most of his royal household and suddenly finds himself in England without warning. It was the first state visit in English history and caught King Henry completely off guard. King Louis VII of France was in England with his enormous entourage. This was an extraordinary moment. Without precedents. It is the first time that a ruling king of France leaves his territory to make a pilgrimage to an English shrine.

It would be like when Barack Obama shows up or something like that. Security has to be adequate. Everything has to be fine. The entertainment has to be adequate. It's your time to prove that you are a king on the world stage. But it wasn't good. Things were not as they should have been. The King of France and the King of England met here on Dover Beach. There was nowhere to entertain the French king. No place to stay. Enrique was embarrassed. Suddenly you need something very big where you can entertain, if that's the word, your rivals when they come to visit.

Because it seems to me that that is really what the great strength of Dover is for. It's a huge status symbol. I don't think it seemed right to a king of England or any prince that when distinguished visitors came, they had to, so to speak, camp in the back garden, until Henry left for this magnificent new building in Dover. Then Henry II built Dover Castle. Embarrassed, with nowhere to entertain important foreign visitors, he realized that he needed something in Dover, and it had to be a place that would really impress them with his wealth. So this is what he built.

In his time, this was the largest

castle

in Europe. And now it's on its way to becoming that way again. Two years of research and hard work by about 250 people are almost over. They are preparing for the castle to reopen its doors to the public. It's been extraordinary to see all of these things come together. Every day something else appears that you can remember when you made a drawing six months ago, nine months ago. He goes into the keep, in the right room, they put him in and it's another little tick. Actually, another small piece of the puzzle.

We have just hung the King's backrest, which has been made by the Royal School of Needlework, and it is a magnificent job. Is awesome. And you never know until you see them. Is it the correct scale? Are they big enough? They are very large rooms and many times people have said that it is a huge poster that is too big. And I'm like, no, believe me, it has to be that big in these spaces. And the reality of what everyone has done is about to be revealed. 830 years after it was first built, Dover Castle has virtually regained its original glory.

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s. Dover Fortress is now finished and Henry has returned. "Go and inform the agents of the House of Knights of my will. We will ride in the morning with Lance." At least in the form of a holographic image. The repair is complete. It is one of the largest castles built in England in the Middle Ages. For those few who are carried up the stairs to the great chambers, it shouts the greatness and wealth of the King of England.

When we think about how much money King Henry II is known to have spent on Dover Castle, four times more than he spent on the great palace-castles of Winchester and Windsor, it is clear that he calculated that he was building something absolutely fantastic. He built something fantastic, but until recently, that's what it looked like. This is what we see in our minds when we think about what a medieval castle is like. Dover's renovation will change all that. It's been almost a year since we went down these steps together, right? Yes absolutely. Here we are in the King's Hall.

Three, of course. Yes it was. Because. I love that red. That's so good. Do you know what I thought? I thought I'd come in here. I was going to be very embarrassed because I wouldn't like it. But it's actually a fantastic environment. Beside. The change is more dramatic. Oh, this has a completely different feel, doesn't it? Truly extraordinary it feels like the place where a person lives and it is much more messy. You have all the books and the chess set with the game going, some writing and the musical instrument. We even have someone's clothes placed very, very, very differently.

All this color. Check this out here. That's pretty good, isn't it? That's fantastic, isn't it? Do you know what I notice about this big whirlwind of all those primary colors that, in natural light, would look like a bunch of children's toys? Sure. It's just that when you take them to a much quieter room they take on completely different characteristics, right? I think they become much more dramatic. They become much heavier and that also takes away their fatigue. This way you will no longer feel like you are in a fairground. It feels. In fact, it feels pretty sexy.

Fantastic. The

team

behind all of this has been trying to figure out what Henry would have liked to be surrounded by. They have combined meticulous research with a sense of theatre. And I think they've done it almost right. I love this detail. Who are these kings? These are some of the kings of Judah or Israel. We have Solomon at the top. Uh, and David on the left side. Biblical themes, of course, were very popular. Yes. Even in a private chamber like this, not just in churches. And of course, these are virtuous people from the kings of the Bible that Henry would want to be associated with because of the good things they did.

And what's up with this frieze at the top? This is something called Sica Macchia, which is an early medieval story about the struggle for the eternal soul between virtue and vice. So, for example, here we have patience and anger and then humility and pride. He is simply giving you a picture of the virtues and the vices and the eternal struggle. Do you know what the design

team

has done here? When I first came here, this was just a big, gloomy stone hall, but now in someone's room. And I think that's really smart. Yes. There is really nowhere where you can appreciate what a great 12th century interior was like.

We believe that what we have done here is something similar. Something similar to what King Henry would have had around him. The fact that he spent so much money here, even though he was never going to use it as his habitual residence, tells us that asserting his kingship and his authority here must have really been very important to him. Watch this. Beautiful, isn't it? Oh. Yes. That is pure silk. Oh, I wouldn't mind that on my couch. Dover Castle speaks of Henry II as an imperial ruler. He is about an imperial ruler, an emperor who dates back to Roman antiquity.

Dover tells of Henry II's relationship with Canterbury. It is on the direct route to Canterbury for all these pilgrims coming from the continent and therefore speaks to Henry II's relationship with God, mediated through Thomas Becket, the great saint of Canterbury. Everything here is designed with a king in mind. There is no doubt that this is as much a royal palace as it is a castle, and makes quite a statement. Don't try it on me. This is a very powerful king and a very rich kingdom. To build something like that. You had to be very rich to have something like that.

You were very powerful. After ten years of fantastic spending under Henry II, what was clearly the largest castle in Western Europe at the time was created. Henry II spent a fortune building this castle. He built it because he was ashamed and he built it to show off; 800 years ago, most of us would never have had the opportunity to see inside. Now we can. And medieval castles will never look the same again. Dover once again looks like a castle fit for a king. Join the Time team on Patreon for access to exclusive 3D models, masterclasses, and behind-the-scenes insights.