S10 E3 | LOVEBOMBING
From This is History: History’s Greatest Fails by Sony Music Entertainment
June 9, 2026 · 30 min · Season 10 · Episode 3
About this episode
The episode explores the political maneuvers of King Edward IV and Richard Neville, the Earl of Warwick, highlighting the complexities of loyalty and power in royal court dynamics.
Richard Neville, the Earl of Warwick, knows there’s no such thing as a free lunch. And the best way to keep the people on your side is through their stomachs. It’s a lesson King Edward IV has yet to learn. After marrying for love, and starting a diplomatic thaw with Europe, Edward soon finds out that there’s really only one task that matters: keeping his most powerful subject loyal. So the young king allows a raid on a Hanseatic League storehouse on Warwick’s behalf, he moves his entire court to Coventry just to coax Warwick to a council meeting, and then stages a grand ceremony at Windsor Castle to project unity. None of it works. Warwick takes every gift and offers nothing in return. Generosity can be its own kind of trap door. The question is whether the king will recognise it before he’s swallowed whole… – As always, Dan’s royal favourites can chime in anytime on the royal court on Patreon at patreon.com/thisishistory. And don’t forget to listen to this season’s accompanying bonus episodes for this miniseries, where Dan and Producer Al trace how the Earl of Warwick was able to attain power that rivalled that of the king’s. Plus, Dan gets stuck into how the restive Northern…
People in this episode
Host: Dan
Topics covered
- loyalty
- power dynamics
- historical figures
- royalty
- political strategy
Keywords
- Richard Neville
- King Edward IV
- Hanseatic League
- loyalty
- political strategy
- royalty
- historical fails
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Hanseatic League
More episodes of This is History: History’s Greatest Fails
- You may also like: Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford · June 11, 2026 · 45 min
- S10 E2 | Rise of the Woodvilles · June 2, 2026 · 33 min
- S10 E1 | A New Hope · May 26, 2026 · 36 min
- You may also like: Hidden History with Dr Harini Bhat · May 21, 2026 · 9 min
- Introducing… Season Ten of a Dynasty to Die For · May 19, 2026 · 2 min
- War — History’s Ultimate Failure · May 12, 2026 · 32 min
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the This is History: History’s Greatest Fails podcast page.