| Alt Name: | "La Couronne du Diable" |
| Genre: | Drama History |
| Director: | Alan Cooke Jane Howell Ronald Wilson |
| Starring: | Brian Cox Jane Lapotaire Michael Byrne John Duttine Christopher Gable |
| Composer: | David Cain |
| Country: | United Kingdom France Switzerland Italy |
| Language: | English |
| Num Series: | 1 |
| Num Episodes: | 13 |
| Producer: | Richard Beynon |
| Runtime: | 55 minutes |
| Company: | British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Radiotelevisione Italiana TF1 Time-Life Television Productions Télécip Télévision Suisse-Romande (TSR) |
| Channel: | BBC2 |
The Devil's Crown is a BBC television series which dramatised the reigns of three medieval Kings of England: Henry II and his sons Richard I and John. It is also known as La couronne du Diable in French.
The series was written by Jack Russell and Ken Taylor. It was shown in the United Kingdom in thirteen 55-minute episodes between 30 April and 23 July 1978.
A full set of tape copies exist at the British Film Institute, where they can be viewed on request.It has never been released on DVD, although a French dubbed version, called "La couronne du Diable", is available as a paid download.[1]
Henry Plantagenet (latterly Henry II), sees his opportunity to seize the crown of England and create a kingdom of law and order. He cuts a deal with King Stephen in which Stephen will name him his heir, excluding his sons Eustace and William in exchange for a fragile truce. Stephen's sudden death elevates Henry to the throne. He may have been King of England, but the bulk of the Angevin Empire was in France, and it was this that Henry regarded as the Jewel in his Crown, maintained through a series of political marriages and complex allegiances. Henry pays homage to Louis VII, King of the Franks, for these lands, but it is clear that Henry is the shrewder and more ambitious of the two kings, having married Louis' ex-wife Eleanor of Aquitaine.