.......Henry VI Part II is a history play about the struggle for power during the reign of a young English king. 

Key Dates

.......Henry VI Part II was written between 1590 and 1592. It was published in 1623 as part of the First Folio, the first authorized collection of Shakespeare's plays.

Sources

.......Shakespeare based Henry VI Part II primarily on accounts in The Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (Holinshed’s Chronicles), by Raphael Holinshed (?-1580?), who began work on this history under the royal printer Reginald Wolfe. The first edition of the chronicles was published in 1577 in two volumes. Shakespeare also used The Union of Two Noble and Illustre Families of Lancastre and York, by Edward Hall (?-1547).

Settings

.......The action takes place in England, beginning in 1445. The locales include London, including the palace, the streets, and various other places; Saint Albans, about 20 miles northwest of London; the county of Kent, along the English Channel in southeastern England; Blackheath, about six miles southeast of central London; Kenilworth Castle, in Warwickshire; and plains between Dartford, a borough east of central London, and Blackheath. 

Characters

Historical Background

.......Henry VI, of the House of Lancaster, became King of England as an infant on Sept. 1, 1422, after the death of his father, King Henry V. Henry VI reigned from 1422 to 1461 and from 1470 to 1471. After serving merely as a figurehead in his boyhood and adolescence, Henry began to rule on his own in 1437, at age sixteen. Henry VI Part II continues the story begun in Henry VI Part I, which ended with the marriage of Henry to Margaret of Anjou in April 1445, when Henry was twenty-four.
.......The play focuses primarily on the following: (1) an attempt by schemers in the Lancaster faction to oust Henry’s uncle and protector, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, in order to gain control of the weak king; (2) a struggle by supporters of the House of York to replace Henry with a man they believe is the rightful king, Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York; (3) an uprising against the Crown led by a commoner, Jack Cade, who is joined by aristocrats as well as other commoners.

Plot Summary
By Michael J. Cummings...© 2003

Hide not thy poison with such sugar’d words; 
Lay not thy hands on me; forbear, I say: 
Their touch affrights me as a serpent’s sting. 
Thou baleful messenger, out of my sight! 
Upon thy eye-balls murderous tyranny 
Sits in grim majesty, to fright the world. (3.2.51-56) 

The struggle for power divides a kingdom. The House of Lancaster, to which Henry VI belongs, and the House of York vie for power. The Yorkists believe they were cheated out of the throne in 1399, when Henry Bolingbroke became king as Henry IV. Within the House of Lancaster, there is also division. The Duke of Suffolk conspires with the queen to oust Henry’s protector so that they can exert more control over the young king. 
Ambition preys on the weak. Self-seekers, including Henry’s own wife, attempt to manipulate the king in order to further their own ends. 
Weak leaders invite upheaval. Henry VI is an upright but weak king who is easily manipulated. His failure to assert his authority is in part responsible for the discord during his reign.
Treachery’s weapon is deceit. As the Yorkists and Lancastrians fight over the throne, they both use deceit to manipulate the king.  Henry’s own wife, Queen Margaret of Anjou, conspires with the Duke of Suffolk, a Lancastrian, to gain control of Henry and his kingly powers. Richard Plantagenet, the leader of the House of York, foments rebellion against the king among the commoners. The uprising will enable Plantagenet to step in at the right time with his army to quell the rebellion and then seize the throne.  When Plantagenet returns from Ireland at the head of an army, Buckingham, the king’s messenger, asks why Richard had raised so great an army without the king’s permission, then brought “thy force so near to court”? (5. 1. 25). In an aside (a passage spoken only loud enough for the speaker to hear), Richard reveals his true feelings:

I am far better born than is the king, 
More like a king, more kingly in my thoughts; 
But I must make fair weather yet awhile, 
Till Henry be more weak, and I more strong. (5. 1. 31-34)

The cause why I have brought this army hither 
Is to remove proud Somerset from the king,
Seditious to his Grace and to the state. (5. 1. 38-40)

Not all these lords do vox¹ me half so much 
As that proud dame, the Lord Protector’s wife:
She sweeps it through the court with troops of ladies, 
More like an empress than Duke Humphrey’s wife. 
Strangers in court do take her for the queen: 
She bears a duke’s revenues on her back, 
And in her heart she scorns our poverty. 
Shall I not live to be aveng’d on her? (1. 3. 58-65)

            [A]ll his mind is bent to holiness, 
To number Ave-Maries² on his beads;³
His champions are the prophets and apostles; 
His weapons holy saws⁴ of sacred writ; 
His study is his tilt-yard,⁵ and his loves 
Are brazen images of canoniz’d saints. 
I would the college of the cardinals 
Would choose him pope, and carry him to Rome,
And set the triple crown⁶ upon his head: 
That were a state fit for his holiness. (1. 3. 38-46) 

.......The climax of the play occurs when the plotters murder Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, the king's uncle and protector. Without him, the kingdom falls into disarray, precipitating the deaths of various noblemen and ultimately leading to Yorkist Richard Plantagenet's attempt to seize power.

Figures of Speech

Following are examples of figures of speech in the play.

Alliteration

My sword should shed hot blood, mine eyes no tears. (1.1.107)

Pirates may make cheap pennyworths of their pillage (1.1.211)

The business asketh silent secrecy. 
Dame Eleanor gives gold to bring the witch: 
Gold cannot come amiss, were she a devil. (1.2.94-96)

Contemptuous base-born callot as she is, 
She vaunted ’mongst her minions t’other day 
The very train of her worst wearing gown 
Was better worth than all my father’s lands, (1.3.66-69)

Warwick, my son, the comfort of my age, 
Thy deeds, thy plainness, and thy house-keeping, 
Have won the greatest favour of the commons. (1.1.179-181)

While as the silly owner of the goods 
Weeps over them, and wrings his hapless hands, 
And shakes his head, and trembling stands aloof,  216
While all is shar’d and all is borne away, 
Ready to starve and dare not touch his own: 
So York must sit and fret and bite his tongue 
While his own lands are bargain’d for and sold. (1.1.214-220)

His champions are the prophets and apostles;   40
His weapons holy saws of sacred writ; 
His study is his tilt-yard. . . . (1.3.40-42)

It is great sin to swear unto a sin, 
But greater sin to keep a sinful oath. 
Who can be bound by any solemn vow  192
To do a murderous deed, to rob a man, 
To force a spotless virgin’s chastity, 
To reave the orphan of his patrimony, 
To wring the widow from her custom’d right,  196
And have no other reason for this wrong 
But that he was bound by a solemn oath? (5.1.190-198)

Ring, bells, aloud; burn, bonfires, clear and bright, 
To entertain great England’s lawful king. (5.1.5-6)
The speaker addresses bells and bonfires.

Thus droops this lofty pine and hangs his sprays; 
Thus Eleanor’s pride dies in her youngest days. (2.3.48-49)
Humphrey is compared to a tree.

Small curs are not regarded when they grin; 
But great men tremble when the lion roars. (3. 1. 20-21)
Comparison of humans to animals

Now ’tis the spring, and weeds are shallow-rooted; 
Suffer them now, and they’ll o’ergrow the garden. (3. 1. 33-34)
Implied comparison of humans to weeds

My lords, at once: the care you have of us, 
To mow down thorns that would annoy our foot, 
Is worthy praise (3.1.68-70)
Comparison of problems to thorns

         [M}y heart is drown’d with grief, 
Whose flood begins to flow within mine eyes, (3.1.202-204)
Comparison of tears of grief to a flood

[L]et my words stab him, as he hath me. (4.1.68)
Comparison of words to a stabbing instrument

       [D]ark shall be my light, and night my day. (2.4.44)

Pride went before, ambition follows him. (1.1.169)
Pride and ambition become persons.

Barren winter, with his wrathful nipping cold (2.4.5) 
Winter becomes a person.

Why droops my lord, like over-ripen’d corn . . . ? (1.2.3)
Comparison of the lord to corn

Our kinsman Gloucester is as innocent 
From meaning treason to our royal person, 
As is the sucking lamb or harmless dove. (3.1.71-73)
Comparison of Gloucester to a lamb and a dove

    [A]rt thou, like the adder, waxen deaf? 
Be poisonous too and kill thy forlorn queen. (3.2.82-83)
Comparison of a human to a snake

My brain, more busy than the labouring spider,  344
Weaves tedious snares to trap mine enemies. (3.1.344-345)
Comparison of the act of thinking to the labor of a spider

.......Among the more memorable lines in Henry VI Part II are the following: 

Small things make base men proud. (4.1.121)
Suffolk is insulting a captain who defends the king. 

True nobility is exempt from fear. (4.1.134)
Defiantly, Suffolk praises himself before his beheading.

I will make it felony to drink small beer. (4.2.40)
In this hyperbole, Jack Cade makes a promise in an attempt to rally support for his rebellion. 

The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers. (4.2.43)
Dick the Butcher utters this line to Cade as the commoners make plans to bring down the government.

.......Dramatic irony is a literary device in which the author allows the audience to know what a character does not know. In Henry VI Part II, the audience is well aware that Queen Margaret and Suffolk are plotting against the king. The king himself, however, is not aware of their schemes.

Historical Irony

.......Henry VI, though a good man, was one of England's weakest rulers. Ironically, his father, the warrior king Henry V, was one of England's strongest and most beloved monarchs. Henry VI may have inherited his father's throne, but not his genes. Perhaps even more ironic, though, is that Henry VI was king of England for approximately 40 years, a term of office far longer than that of all but a few English monarchs.

Henry VI: Saintly Scholar

.......Shakespeare depicts Henry VI as weak and ineffectual, as he was in real life. However, the historical Henry did possess some praiseworthy qualities, notably his piety as a devout Catholic and his love of learning and education. He exhibited the latter quality when he established Eton College in 1440 as the King's College of Our Lady of Eton Beside Windsor, providing scholarships for deserving boys who enrolled. Henry also founded Cambridge University's King's College to enable Eton boys to continue their education. Both Eton and King's College continue operation today as two of England's most respected educational institutions. 
.......As for Henry's famous saintliness, Edward Hall, a historian who graduated from Eton and King's College, described it in a history that Shakespeare used as one of his sources for the play. Hall (also spelled Halle) wrote:

He did abhor of his own nature, all the vices, as well of the body as of the soul; and from his very infancy he was of honest conversation and pure integrity; no knower of evil, and a keeper of all goodness; a despiser of all things which were wont to cause the minds of mortal men to slide or appair. Besides this, patience was so radicate in his heart that of all the injuries to him committed (which were no small number) he never asked vengeance nor punishment, but for that rendered to Almighty God, his Creator, hearty thanks, thinking that by this trouble and adversity his sins were to him forgotten and forgiven (qtd. in G.B. Harrison, ed. Shakespeare: The Complete Works. New York: Harcourt, 1952, Page 143).

What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted!
Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just,
And he but naked, though lock'd up in steel
Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted.(Act III, Scene II, Lines 232-235)

.......Henry Bolingbroke's ascendancy to the English throne as Henry IV was the germinal event that triggered the War of the Roses (1455-1485) between the House of Lancaster–founded by Bolingbroke's father, John of Gaunt–and the House of York. For additional information on the War of the Roses, click here.

Lineage of the Houses of Lancaster and York

House of Lancaster: Henry IV ("Bolingbroke," son of the Duke of Lancaster), 1399-1413. Age at death: 47. Henry V (son of Henry IV), 1413-1422. Age at death: 34. Henry VI (son of Henry V, deposed), 1422-1471. Age at death: 49. 
House of York: Edward IV (son of duke of York), 1461-1483. Age at death: 41. Edward V (son of Edward IV), 1483. Age at death: 13. Richard III ("Crookback," brother of Edward IV) 1483-1485. Age at death: 35.

1. vox: Vex. 
2. Ave-Maries: Hail Marys, or Ave Marias. A Hail Mary is a Catholic prayer praising Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Jesus himself. It also asks Mary to pray for the person reciting the prayer.
3. beads: String of beads, called a rosary, resembling a necklace. Catholics finger the beads of a rosary to count the number of Hail Marys and other prayers–including Our Fathers (Lord’s Prayers)–they have recited. 
4. holy saws: Sayings from the Bible. 
5. His study is his tilt-yard: A tilt-yard was a fenced-in area where knights jousted. This yard was referred to as the lists. In this passage, Queen Margaret mockingly says her husband, the king, would rather read books than don armor and joust. 
6. triple crown: The tiara worn by the pope. It has three crowns.

Study Questions and Essay Topics 

1. Which character in the play is the most admirable? Which is the least admirable?
2. Write an essay that uses Henry VI Part II to demonstrate how ruthless politicians maneuver to get their way.
3. Write a psychological profile of King Henry VI or his wife, Margaret.
4. Do King Henry’s loyalists support him because they like him or because they believe he is the rightful king?
5. In monarchies, rulership passes to a son or daughter of the king and queen. Is a monarchy a flawed system of government? Or does it have its merits?
6. Does Richard Plantagenet have a legitimate claim to the throne?