Shakespeare’s Royal Education

Host Dennis Leap begins the discussion of Act 2: Scene I of William Shakespeare’s The Life and Death of King John. In this scene, King Phillip, Arthur, the Duke of Austria and Arthur’s mother, Constance, face the gates of John’s ancestral home with the plan to take the city and give it to Arthur, who is John’s nephew. John and his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, arrive at Angiers gates. John threatens Phillip with war. Phillip suggests that the people of Angiers decide who is the rightful king. The people request a battle between the two kings and their armies to decide the matter.