00:00 The man named Hans finds himself hiding in the woods of Nottinghamshire after a battle, reflecting on his life as a mercenary and hoping to avoid capture by the English.

05:08 The Wars of the Roses were a period of intense warfare in England, featuring compelling characters such as King Edward IV, the treacherous Earl of Warwick, Richard III, Elizabeth Woodville, Margaret Beaufort, and Henry Tudor, culminating in Henry Tudor's victory at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, but his hold on the throne remained insecure, as demonstrated by the arrival of the Earl of Lincoln's army in 1487.

09:44 The core issue of the Wars of the Roses was royal authority, with King Henry VI's incapability to exercise his own authority leading to a series of advisors and favorites ruling on his behalf.

14:30 The Duke of Suffolk and the Duke of Somerset were two of King Henry VI's favorites who ruled on his behalf, but their personal conflict led to the outbreak of violence at St. Albans in 1455 and marked the beginning of the Wars of the Roses.

19:20 Hans, a young man from Augsburg, Germany, who hated shoemaking and had a tumultuous relationship with his father, was offered the opportunity to join a professional soldier named Martin Schwarz on his next campaign.

23:39 In the 1470s, as Hans left home to become a soldier, the Wars of the Roses in England were coming to an end, and there were plenty of opportunities for mercenaries closer to Augsburg, such as working for Charles the Bold in smaller wars and campaigns.

28:13 Gunpowder became a meaningful part of cutting-edge armies in Europe by the early 1470s, and Hans, a soldier, adopted the new-fangled archibus early on and fought for Charles the Bold in his campaigns, but after witnessing a disastrous battle and realizing that Charles was bankrupt and unable to pay his soldiers, Hans decided to leave his service.

32:52 After leaving Charles the Bold's service, Hans considered working for King Matthias Corvinus in Hungary or the mercenary forces in Italy, but ultimately stayed in Germany and found work in various small wars and feuds; however, in 1479, with Charles dead, Hans was hired to fight in Maximilian's army against Louis XI of France, and witnessed the changing nature of war with the use of gunpowder weaponry and the effectiveness of Swiss pikemen.

37:27 Hans, now a hardened and scarred veteran of war, joins Margaret of York's plot to overthrow Henry Tudor by supporting Lambert Simnell as a potential claimant to the English throne.

42:50 The rebel army, consisting of Swiss, Germans, Irish, and English supporters, prepares for battle against Henry Tudor's forces, but Hans, a mercenary, feels that their chances of winning are slim; nonetheless, they proceed with the attack.

47:22 The rebel army is defeated in the final battle of the Wars of the Roses, with Hans, a mercenary, narrowly escaping with his life.