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.......Henry VI Part III is a history play about the struggle for power during the reign of a young English king. Date
Written: Between 1590 and 1592.
.......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). .......Henry VI Part III is set in various locales in England and France, including the following: (1) London, England: Parliament House, the royal palace, the Tower; (2) Wakefield, England: Sandal Castle and a battlefield; (3) Herefordshire: a plain near Mortimer's Cross; (4) York; (5) Yorkshire: battlefield between Towton and Saxton, a park near Middleham Castle; (6) northern England: a forest; (7) France: the palace of King Lewis XI; (8) a plain in Warwickshire; (9) Warwick: Edward's camp; (10) West Midlands: Coventry; (11) Barnet: battlefield; and (12) Tewksbury: a plain. Characters
.......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 16. After he married Margaret of Anjou in April 1445, ambitious
nobles–and his own wife–began plotting against him for their own selfish
ends. Henry VI Part III continues the story begun in Henry
VI Part I (which ended with the marriage of Henry to Margaret)
and Henry VI Part II
(which ended with Richard Plantagenet claiming the crown).
Ah, wretched man! would I had died a maid.......Meanwhile, York’s sons, Edward and Richard, importune their father to take back the throne that he yielded. Edward says: “Now you are heir, therefore enjoy it now: / By giving the house of Lancaster leave to breathe” (1.2.15-16). When York says he is bound on oath to the agreement with Henry, Richard argues that an oath not taken before a “true and lawful magistrate” (1.2.26) is not binding. He also says: “How sweet a thing it is to wear a crown, / Within whose circuit is Elysium” (1.2.32-33). York then agrees to seize the throne immediately “or die” (1.2.38). .......To retain her standing as queen, Margaret raises an army and clashes with York at Wakefield. She conquers. York’s son Edmund is tortured and killed. York himself, taken prisoner, endures taunts and mocks. The queen crowns him with a paper diadem and says, “Now looks he like a king!” (1.4.99). Lord Clifford, a supporter of Margaret and the Lancasters, stabs York. Margaret stabs him again for good measure. .......After York dies, Margaret orders him decapitated. The head is placed on the gates at York. The queen then wins another battle at Saint Albans over the Earl of Warwick. Warwick carries news of the defeat to York’s sons Edward and Richard. Warwick says Margaret and Clifford, who “have wrought the easy-melting king like wax” (2.1.175), are now marching on London thirty thousand strong to reclaim the throne for Henry. Warwick stiffens his resolve and predicts that with the help of his remaining forces, along with loyal Welshmen and troops under the Duke of Norfolk, the Yorkists will yet win the day. Edward, who has now become Duke of York to succeed his dead father, can then claim the crown.  .......When
the armies meet between Towton and Saxton in Yorkshire, the meek king watches
from a distance as Warwick and the Yorkists rout the queen. She flees with
her son to France, and Clifford is taken prisoner and beheaded. Edward,
Duke of York, is proclaimed King Edward IV. Warwick then lays out the schedule
for the new monarch: First, he must hie to London for his coronation.
.......Then he must marry Lady Bona, the sister of the King of France, because “having France thy friend, thou shalt not dread / The scatter’d foe that hopes to rise again” (2.6.95-96). Warwick embarks for France to arrange the marriage. Now that Edward is king, his brother Richard becomes Duke of Gloucester. George, another brother, becomes Duke of Clarence. Poor Henry is captured in the north of England and imprisoned in the Tower of London. While Warwick is on his mission in France, Edward falls in love with a beautiful widow, Lady Grey, and seeks to make her his queen. But even as Edward prepares to run the realm, a new rivalry takes shape: His brother Richard, a hunchback who has no conscience, begins lusting for the crown and plotting to overthrow Edward to get it. .......In France, Margaret denounces Warwick in an attempt to block the proposed marriage between Lady Bona and Edward IV. Such a marriage, she believes, would end all chances for Henry to reclaim the throne. Nevertheless, Louis XI approves the alliance. But all is for naught, for word arrives from England that Edward has married Lady Grey. This affront to Warwick’s honor so angers him that he breaks with Edward and aligns himself with Margaret in her effort to restore Henry. Margaret welcomes his change of heart, saying, “Warwick, these words have turn’d my hate to love; and I forgive and quite forget old faults.” The French decide to support Warwick and Margaret, but Louis first asks for a pledge of loyalty before he provides aid. Warwick then offers his oldest daughter to Margaret’s son, Prince Edward, in “holy wedlock” (3.3.250). When the prince accepts the proposal, Louis appoints his high admiral, Lord Bourbon, to ferry troops to England. .......In England, many of King Edward’s followers are unhappy with his marriage to Lady Grey. The Duke of Clarence, Edward’s own brother, is so incensed that he joins with Warwick and agrees to marry Warwick’s youngest daughter. Richard, Duke of Gloucester, stands by Edward, but only because he wants to keep the crown in the family–the better to usurp it later. After Warwick’s forces enter England, they capture King Edward, then free Henry from the Tower of London and reinstall him as king. However, the meek Henry has had enough of governing. He asks Warwick and Clarence to rule jointly in his stead while he pursues a quiet life of prayer. .......Meanwhile, Edward has escaped to Burgundy, thanks in large part to Gloucester. After raising an army, he returns to England to reclaim the throne. He and Gloucester capture Henry, return him to the Tower of London, and engage Warwick in battle at Coventry. Clarence decides to switch sides again, saying he will not “bend the fatal instruments of war” (5.1.95) against his brothers. He tells them, “Pardon me, Edward, I will make amends; / And, Richard, do not frown upon my faults” (5.1. 108-109). Both brothers welcome him back to the fold. .......Margaret then arrives from France with fresh troops. But she is defeated near Tewkesbury, and she and her son are taken prisoner. When Margaret’s son spits insults at Edward, Gloucester, and Clarence, they stab him in turn as he writhes on the ground. Gloucester then returns to London with all dispatch. After entering the Tower, he tells Henry, “Thy son I kill’d for his presumption” (5. 4. 36). Then he stabs Henry. Edward is restored to the throne, Margaret is exiled to France, and Gloucester remains on the prowl, still dreaming of the crown he will one day wear. .
 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.
.......The climax of a play or another literary work, such as a short story or a novel, can be defined as (1) the turning point at which the conflict begins to resolve itself for better or worse, or as (2) the final and most exciting event in a series of events. The climax of Henry VI Part III occurs, according to the first definition, when Edward reclaims the throne. According to the second definition, the climax occurs when Gloucester stabs Henry in the Tower of London. .......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:
.......The play opens at the House of Parliament in London with a bit of black humor that foreshadows the ruthless, bloodstained machinations of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, as he murders his way to the throne in another Shakespeare history play, Richard III. First, Edward, Prince of Wales, tells his father–Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York–that he either killed or severely wounded the Duke of Buckingham. As proof, Edward shows his father his bloody sword. Not to be outdone, Montague then displays his sword, stained with the blood of the Earl of Wiltshire. Richard, Duke of Gloucester, then ends the game of one-upmanship by throwing down the head of the Duke of Somerset. Plantagenet then says, “Richard hath best deserv’d of all my sons” (1.1.19). .......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 all but a few English monarchs. .......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.
Study Questions and Essay Topics 1.
Which is the most admirable character in the play? Which is the least admirable?
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