S9 E9 | Madness Descends

S9 E9 | Madness Descends

From This is History: History’s Greatest Fails by Sony Music Entertainment

March 3, 2026 · 31 min · Season 9 · Episode 9

About this episode

The episode discusses the mental decline of Henry VI amidst England's political turmoil during the Hundred Years' War.

Royal favourites, we want your voice notes in our new miniseries on historical failures. Look out for Producer Al’s callout post on patreon.com/thisishistory. It’s there where you can listen to this week’s bonus episode, where Dan discusses what likely triggered Henry VI’s descent into silence, while he also gives a primer on England’s warring noble families: the Nevilles, Percys, and Courtenays. Henry VI isn’t responding to anyone. Not to his physician, nor to his newborn son, Prince Edward. He’s just inert, catatonic. If the king’s health is said to be a mirror of the health of the realm, then England’s in big trouble (which it is). The Hundred Years’ War is on the verge of being decisively over in France’s favour. England has lost Gascony, Normandy, and Maine, with only the small Garrison at Calais left. This a full-blown crisis that is usually left to the king to solve, but instead, Parliament decides to make Richard Duke of York the Protector of the realm — angering Queen Margaret and York’s nemesis, Edmund Duke of Somerset. Then something remarkable happens: Henry wakes up. – A Sony Music Entertainment production. Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at…

People in this episode

Host: Dan Jones

Topics covered

  • historical failures
  • royalty
  • mental health
  • political crisis
  • noble families
  • England's history

Keywords

  • Henry VI
  • Queen Margaret
  • Richard Duke of York
  • Edmund Duke of Somerset
  • Hundred Years’ War
  • political crisis
  • noble families
  • England
  • mental health

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: patreon.com

Places: England, France

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