Season synopsis
Contains spoilers for this season and earlier seasons.
Prince Edmund begins his pursuit of power by accidentally killing the wrong king. In this invented version of English history, Richard III wins at Bosworth but is beheaded by Edmund, who mistakes him for a horse thief. Edmund’s father becomes Richard IV, leaving his younger son desperate for recognition beside the favoured Prince Harry. Calling himself the Black Adder, Edmund relies on the foolish Lord Percy and his more practical servant Baldrick to turn royal accidents into opportunities.
Life at court keeps providing ways for ambition to become a threat to his survival. When the soldier Dougal McAngus receives Edmund’s lands, Edmund plots revenge through a theatrical performance, then encounters evidence that could alter the succession. His hopes of inheriting through Harry’s appointment as Archbishop of Canterbury collapse when his father gives the dangerous church position to him instead. A proposed royal marriage offers another unwelcome advancement: Edmund tries to escape the match rather than accept the bride chosen for him. His father’s inability to remember his name remains a constant humiliation.
Eventually Edmund recruits a band of violent men to overthrow Richard IV. His childhood enemy Philip of Burgundy imprisons him, then takes over the conspirators after Edmund escapes. The gang tortures Edmund before Percy and Baldrick kill them with poisoned wine. Their rescue creates a second disaster: Percy has poisoned the entire supply. The royal family drinks a toast around Edmund’s deathbed and dies. Edmund realises what has happened, samples the wine himself and briefly claims the throne before the poison kills him too.