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Henry VI (6 December 1421 - 21 May 1471) was King of England from 1422 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471, and disputed King of France from 1422 to 1453. Until 1437, his realm was governed by regents. Contemporaneous accounts described him as peaceful and pious, not suited for the dynastic wars, such as the Wars of the Roses, which commenced during his reign. His periods of insanity and his inherent benevolence eventually required his wife, Margaret of Anjou, to assume control of his kingdom, which contributed to his own downfall, the collapse of the House of Lancaster, and the rise of the House of York.[1] Child King Henry was the only child and heir of King Henry V. He was born on 6 December 1421 at Windsor Castle, being named Henry of Windsor, and succeeded to the throne at the age of nine months as King of England on 31 August 1422 when his father died, thus making him the youngest person ever to succeed to the English throne. Two months later, on 21 October 1422, he became titular King of France upon his grandfather Charles VI's death in accordance with the Treaty of Troyes in 1420. His mother, Catherine of Valois, was then 20 years old and, as Charles VI's daughter, was viewed with considerable suspicion by English nobles and prevented from having a full role in her son's upbringing. On 28 September 1423, the nobles swore loyalty to Henry VI. They summoned Parliament in the King's name and established a regency council until the King should come of age. One of Henry V's surviving brothers, John, Duke of Bedford, was appointed senior regent of the realm and was in charge of the ongoing war in France. During Bedford's absence, the government of England was headed by Henry V's other surviving brother, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, who was appointed Protector and Defender of the Realm. His duties were limited to keeping the peace and summoning Parliament. Henry V's half-uncle Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester (after 1426 also Cardinal), had an important place on the Council. After the Duke of Bedford died in 1435, the Duke of Gloucester claimed the Regency himself, but was contested in this by the other members of the council. From 1428, Henry's tutor was Richard de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, whose father had been instrumental in the opposition to Richard II's reign. Henry's half-brothers, Edmund and Jasper, the sons of his widowed mother's relationship with Owen Tudor, were later given earldoms. Edmund Tudor was the father of Henry Tudor, later to gain the throne as Henry VII. In reaction to Charles VII Valois's coronation as French King in Reims Cathedral on 17 July 1429,[2] Henry was soon crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey on 6 November 1429,[3] followed by his own coronation as King of France at Notre Dame de Paris on 16 December 1431.[4][5] Although it was not until a month before his sixteenth birthday on 13 November 1437 that he obtained some measure of independent authority,[6] indications of a growing willingness to involve himself in administration were apparent in 1434 when writs temporarilly changed their dating from Westminster (where the Privy Council was) to Cirencester (where the king was).[7] He finally assumed full royal powers when he came of age.[8] Assumption of government and French policies Henry was declared of age in 1437, the year in which his mother died, and he assumed the reins of government. Henry, shy and pious, averse to deceit and bloodshed, immediately allowed his court to be dominated by a few noble favourites who clashed on the matter of the French war. After the death of King Henry V, England had lost momentum in the Hundred Years' War, while, beginning with Joan of Arc's military victories, the Valois gained ground. The young king came to favour a policy of peace in France, and thus favoured the faction around Cardinal Beaufort and William de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, who thought likewise, while Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, and Richard, Duke of York, who argued for a continuation of the war, were ignored. Marriage to Margaret of Anjou Cardinal Beaufort and the Earl of Suffolk persuaded the king that the best way of pursuing peace with France was through a marriage with Margaret of Anjou, the niece of King Charles VII. Henry agreed, especially when he heard reports of Margaret's stunning beauty, and sent Suffolk to negotiate with Charles, who agreed to the marriage on condition that he would not have to provide the customary dowry and instead would receive the lands of Maine and Anjou from the English. These conditions were agreed to in the Treaty of Tours, but the cession of Maine and Anjou was kept secret from parliament, as it was known that this would be hugely unpopular with the English populace. The marriage took place at Titchfield Abbey on 23 April 1445, one month after Margaret's 15th birthday. She had arrived with an entire ('ready-made') household, composed primarily, not of Angevins, but of members of Henry's Royal servants; this increase in the size of the royal household (and a concomitant increase, on the birth of their son in 1453) led to proportionately greater expense but also to greater patronage opportunities at Court.[9] Henry had wavered in yielding Maine and Anjou to Charles, knowing that the move was unpopular and would be opposed by the Dukes of Gloucester and York. However, Margaret was determined to make him see it through. As the treaty became public knowledge in 1446, public anger focused on Duke of Suffolk, but Henry and Margaret were determined to protect him. The ascendancy of Suffolk and Somerset In 1447, the King and Queen summoned the Duke of Gloucester before parliament on the charge of treason. This move was instigated by Gloucester's enemies, the Earl of Suffolk, the ageing Cardinal Beaufort and his nephew, Edmund Beaufort, Earl of Somerset. Gloucester was put in custody in Bury St Edmunds, where he died, probably of a heart attack, although there were contemporaneous rumours of poisoning, before he could be tried. The Duke of York, now Henry's heir presumptive, was excluded from the court circle and sent to govern Ireland, while his opponents, the Earls of Suffolk and Somerset were promoted to Dukes, a title at that time still normally reserved for immediate relatives of the monarch. The new Duke of Somerset was sent to France to lead the war. In the later years of Henry's reign, the monarchy became increasingly unpopular, due to a breakdown in law and order, corruption, the distribution of royal land to the king's court favourites, the troubled state of the crown's finances, and the steady loss of territories in France. In 1447, this unpopularity took the form of a Commons campaign against the Duke of Suffolk, who was the most unpopular of all the King's entourage and widely seen as a traitor. He was impeached by Parliament to a background that has been called "the baying for Suffolk’s blood [by] a London mob",[10] to the extent that Suffolk admitted his alarm to the king.[11] Ultimately, Henry was forced to send him into exile, but Suffolk's ship was intercepted in the English Channel. His murdered body was found on the beach at Dover. In 1449, the Duke of Somerset, leading the campaign in France, reopened hostilities in Normandy, but by the autumn had been pushed back to Caen. By 1450, the French had retaken the whole province, so hard won by Henry V. Returning troops, who had often not been paid, added to the lawlessness in the southern counties of England. Jack Cade led a rebellion in Kent in 1450, calling himself "John Mortimer", apparently in sympathy with York, and setting up residence at the White Hart Inn in Southwark (the white hart had been the symbol of the deposed Richard II). Henry came to London with an army to crush the rebellion, but on finding that Cade had fled kept most of his troops behind while a small force followed the rebels and met them at Sevenoaks. The flight proved to have been tactical: Cade successfully ambushed the force in the Battle of Solefields and returned to occupy London. In the end, the rebellion achieved nothing, and London was retaken after a few days of disorder; but this was principally because of the efforts of its own residents rather than the army. At any rate the rebellion showed that feelings of discontent were running high.[12] In 1451, the Duchy of Guyenne, held since Henry II's time, was also lost. In October 1452, an English advance in Guyenne retook Bordeaux and was having some success but by 1453, Bordeaux was lost again, leaving Calais as England's only remaining territory on the continent. Insanity, and the ascendancy of York In 1452, the Duke of York was persuaded to return from Ireland, claim his rightful place on the council and put an end to bad government. His cause was a popular one, and he soon raised an army at Shrewsbury. The court party, meanwhile, raised their own similar-sized force in London. A stand-off took place south of London, with York presenting a list of grievances and demands to the court circle, including the arrest of Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset. The king initially agreed, but Margaret intervened to prevent the arrest of Beaufort. By 1453, his influence had been restored, and York was again isolated. The court party was also strengthened by the announcement that the Queen was pregnant. However, on hearing of the final loss of Bordeaux in August 1453, Henry slipped into a mental breakdown and became completely unaware of everything that was going on around him. This was to last for more than a year, and Henry failed even to respond to the birth of his own son and heir, who was christened Edward. Henry possibly inherited his illness from Charles VI of France, his maternal grandfather, who was struck by intermittent periods of insanity over the last thirty years of his life.[13] The Duke of York, meanwhile, had gained a very important ally, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, one of the most influential magnates and possibly richer than York himself. York was named regent as Protector of the Realm in 1454. The queen was excluded completely, and Edmund Beaufort was detained in the Tower of London, while many of York's supporters spread rumours that the king's child was not his, but Beaufort's. Other than that, York's months as regent were spent tackling the problem of government overspending. Wars of the Roses On Christmas Day 1454, King Henry regained his senses. Disaffected nobles who had grown in power during Henry's reign (most importantly the Earls of Warwick and Salisbury) took matters into their own hands by backing the claims of the rival House of York, first to the Regency, and then to the throne itself, due to York's better descent from Edward III. It was agreed York would become Henry's successor,[by whom?] despite York being older. After a violent struggle between the houses of Lancaster and York, during which the Duke of York was killed by Margaret's forces on 30 December 1460, Henry was deposed and imprisoned on 4 March 1461 by the Duke of York's son, Edward of York, who became king, as Edward IV. By this point, Henry was suffering such a bout of madness that he was apparently laughing and singing while the Second Battle of St Albans raged, which secured his release. But Edward was still able to take the throne, though he failed to capture Henry and his queen, who fled to Scotland. During the first period of Edward IV's reign, Lancastrian resistance continued mainly under the leadership of Queen Margaret and the few nobles still loyal to her in the northern counties of England and Wales. Henry, who had been safely hidden by Lancastrian allies in Scotland, Northumberland and Yorkshire was captured by King Edward in 1465 and subsequently held captive in the Tower of London. Return to the throne Queen Margaret, exiled in Scotland and later in France, was determined to win back the throne on behalf of her husband and son. By herself, there was little she could do. However, eventually Edward IV had a falling-out with two of his main supporters: Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, and his own younger brother George, Duke of Clarence. At the urging of King Louis XI of France they formed a secret alliance with Margaret. After marrying his daughter to Henry and Margaret's son, Edward of Westminster, Warwick returned to England, forced Edward IV into exile, and restored Henry VI to the throne on 30 October 1470. However, by this time, years in hiding followed by years in captivity had taken their toll on Henry. Warwick and Clarence effectively ruled in his name.[14] Henry's return to the throne lasted less than six months. Warwick soon overreached himself by declaring war on Burgundy, whose ruler responded by giving Edward IV the assistance he needed to win back his throne by force. Edward IV returned to England in early 1471, after which he was reconciled with Clarence and killed Warwick at the Battle of Barnet. The Yorkists won a final decisive victory at the Battle of Tewkesbury on 4 May 1471, where Henry's son Edward was killed. Imprisonment and death Henry was imprisoned in the Tower of London, in whose Wakefield Tower he died during the night of 21/22 May 1471. In all likelihood, Henry's opponents had kept him alive up to this point rather than leave the Lancasters with a far more formidable leader in Henry's son Edward. According to the Historie of the arrivall of Edward IV, an official chronicle favourable to Edward, Henry died of melancholy on hearing news of the Battle of Tewkesbury and his son's death.[15] It is widely suspected, however, that Edward IV, who was re-crowned the morning following Henry's death, had in fact ordered his murder.[16] Sir Thomas More's History of Richard III explicitly states that Richard killed Henry, but no contemporary sources make this claim. Another contemporary source, Wakefield's Chronicle, gives the date of Henry's death as 23 May, on which date Richard is known to have been away from London. King Henry VI was originally buried in Chertsey Abbey; then, in 1485, his body was moved to St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, by Richard III. Legacy Henry's one lasting achievement was his fostering of education; he founded both Eton College and King's College, Cambridge. Continuing a career of architectural patronage begun by his father, these (King's College Chapel and Eton College Chapel respectively) and most of his other architectural commissions (like his completion of his father's foundation of Syon Abbey) each consisted of a late Gothic or Perpendicular-style church with a monastic and/or educational foundation attached. Each year on the anniversary of Henry VI's death, the Provosts of Eton and King's College, Cambridge lay white lilies and roses, the floral emblems of those colleges, on the spot in the Wakefield Tower at the Tower of London where the imprisoned Henry VI was, according to tradition, murdered as he knelt at prayer. Posthumous cult Miracles were attributed to the king, and he was informally regarded as a saint and martyr, addressed particularly in cases of adversity. The anti-Yorkist cult was encouraged by Henry VII Tudor, as dynastic propaganda. A volume was compiled of the miracles attributed to him at St George's Chapel, Windsor, where Richard III had reinterred him, and Henry VII began building a chapel at Westminster Abbey to house Henry VI's relics.[18] A number of Henry VI's miracles possessed a political dimension, such as his cure of a young girl afflicted with the King's evil, whose parents refused to bring her to the usurper, Richard III.[19] By the time of Henry VIII's break with Rome, canonisation proceedings were under way.[20] Hymns to him still exist and until the Reformation his hat was kept by his tomb at Windsor where pilgrims would put it on to enlist Henry's aid against migraines.[21] Numerous miracles were credited to the dead king, including his raising the plague victim Alice Newnett from the dead and appearing to her as she was being stitched in her shroud.[22] He also intervened in the attempted hanging of a man who had been unjustly condemned to death, being accused of stealing some sheep. Henry placed his hand between the rope and the man's windpipe, thus keeping him alive, after which he revived in the cart as it was taking him away for burial.[23] He was also capable of inflicting harm, such as when he struck John Robyns blind after Robyns cursed "Saint Henry". Robyns was healed only after he went on a pilgrimage to the shrine of King Henry.[24] A particular devotional act that was closely associated with the cult of Henry VI was the bending of a silver coin as an offering to the "saint" in order that he might perform a miracle. One story had a woman, Katherine Bailey, who was blind in one eye. As she was kneeling at mass, a stranger told her to bend a coin to King Henry. She promised to do so, and as the priest was raising the communion host, her partial blindness was cured.[25] Although his shrine was enormously popular as a pilgrimage destination during the early decades of the 16th century,[26] over time, with the lessened need to legitimise Tudor rule, the cult of Henry VI faded.[27] Shakespeare's Henry VI and after In 1590 William Shakespeare wrote a trilogy of plays about the life of Henry VI: Henry VI, Part 1, Henry VI, Part 2, and Henry VI, Part 3. His dead body and his ghost also appear in Richard III. Shakespeare's portrayal of Henry is notable in that it does not mention the King's madness. This is considered to have been a politically-advisable move so as to not risk offending Elizabeth I whose family was descended from Henry's Lancastrian family. Instead Henry is portrayed as a pious and peaceful man ill-suited to the crown. He spends most of his time in contemplation of the Bible and expressing his wish to be anyone other than a king. Shakespeare's Henry is weak-willed and easily influenced allowing his policies to be led by Margaret and her allies, and being unable to defend himself against York's claim to the throne. He only takes an act of his own volition just before his death when he curses Richard of Gloucester just before he is murdered. In screen adaptations of these plays he has been portrayed by: James Berry in the 1911 silent short Richard III; Terry Scully in the 1960 BBC series An Age of Kings which contained the history plays Richard II and Richard III; Carl Wery in the 1964 West German TV version König Richard III; David Warner in Wars of the Roses, a 1965 filmed version of the Royal Shakespeare Company performing the three parts of Henry VI (condensed and edited into two plays, Henry VI and Edward IV) and Richard III; Peter Benson in the 1983 BBC version of all three parts of Henry VI and Richard III; Paul Brennen in the 1989 film version of the full cycle of consecutive history plays performed, for several years, by the English Shakespeare Company; Edward Jewesbury in the 1995 film version of Richard III with Ian McKellen as Richard; and James Dalesandro as Henry in the 2008 modern-day film version of Richard III. Miles Mander portrayed him in Tower of London, a 1939 horror film loosely dramatising the rise to power of Richard III. J. K. Rowling mentions Henry VI in her book The Tales of Beedle the Bard, in which it is implied that his advisor may have been a witch. References Jump up ^ The standard modern biography is Bertram Wolffe, Henry VI, London, 1981; the authoritative academic text is Ralph Griffiths, The Reign of Henry VI, Berkeley 1981 Jump up ^ Kendall, P.M., Louis XI: The Universal Spider, USA 1971, pp.39-40 Jump up ^ Lingard, John, A History of England, Vol. V, 1854, pg. 90. Jump up ^ Lingard, p. 91. Jump up ^ C T Allmand & Dorothy Styles, "The Coronations of Henry VI", History Today, vol 32, issue 5 (1982). Accessed 28 February 2013 Jump up ^ Lingard, pg. 107 Jump up ^ Wolffe, B., Henry VI, London, 1981, pp. 79-80; apparently this "caused its own crisis of confidence... 'motions and stirrings' had been made Jump up ^ Lingard, p. 108. Jump up ^ Griffiths, R.,The Reign of Henry VI, Berkeley 1981, p.298 Jump up ^ Hicks, M.A., The Wars of the Roses Yale 2002, p.67 Jump up ^ Griffiths, R., The Reign of Henry VI, Berkeley 1981, p.677 Jump up ^ Sevenoaks Preservation Society: The Rising in Kent in 1450 A.D., J.K.D. Copy in Sevenoaks public library. Jump up ^ Charles VI, in turn, could have inherited the hereditary trait from his mother Joanna of Bourbon, who showed signs of mental illness, and her Bourbon family, where her grandfather Louis I, Duke of Bourbon, her father Peter I, Duke of Bourbon and her brother Louis II, Duke of Bourbon each had symptoms of the ailment. Jump up ^ Wolffe, Bertram (1981). Henry VI. London: Eyre Methuen. pp. 342-344. Jump up ^ John W. McKenna (1965), "Henry VI of England and the Dual Monarchy: aspects of royal political propaganda, 1422-1432", Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 28:145-62. Jump up ^ Either, that with Prince Edward's death, there was no longer any reason to keep Henry alive, or that, until Prince Edward died, there was little benefit to killing Henry. According to rumours at the time and what spread through the ages, was that Henry VI, was killed with a blow to the back of the head, whilst at prayer in the late hours of the 21st of May 1471. Wolffe, Bertram (1981). Henry VI. London: Eyre Methuen. p. 347. Jump up ^ Francois R. Velde. "Marks of Cadency in the British Royal Family". Heraldica.org. Retrieved 2012-08-17. Jump up ^ Eamon Duffy, The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, c. 1400 - c. 1580 (1992) pgs. 164-165 Jump up ^ Duffy, pg. 165 Jump up ^ Leigh Ann Craig (Summer 2003), "Royalty, Virtue, and Adversity: The Cult of King Henry VI" Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies 35(2):187-209. Jump up ^ Eamon Duffy, The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, c. 1400 - c. 1580 (1992):161 Jump up ^ Duffy, pg. 185 Jump up ^ Duffy, pg. 188 Jump up ^ Duffy, pg. 169 Jump up ^ Duffy, pg. 184 Jump up ^ Duffy, pg. 195 Jump up ^ Craig 2003:189. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Another version: Henry VI (December 6, 1421 - May 21/22, 1471) was King of England from 1422 to 1461 (though with a Regent until 1437) and then from 1470 to 1471. Childhood Henry was the only child and heir of King Henry V of England, therefore great things were expected of him from birth. He was born on December 6, 1421 at Windsor, but his father died when he was only a few months old. His mother, Catherine of Valois, was the daughter of the French King and only twenty years old. Because of general suspicion of her origin, she was prevented from having much to do with her son's upbringing. During Henry's minority, England was ruled by a regency government which came to be dominated by Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, Henry IV's youngest son, and Bishop Henry Beaufort (Cardinal Beaufort from 1426) who was Henry V's half-uncle. Henry IV's elder surviving son, John, Duke of Bedford, was the senior regent, having been appointed Regent of France (in charge of running the ongoing war) as well as replacing Gloucester as Regent of England whenever Bedford was personally in the country. From 1428, Henry's tutor was the Earl of Warwick, whose father had been instrumental in the opposition to Richard II's reign. Henry was also influenced by Henry Beaufort, and later William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk. Henry came to favour a policy of peace in France. Henry's half-brothers, Edmund and Jasper, the sons of his mother's second marriage, were later given earldoms, Edmund being the father of Henry Tudor, later King Henry VII of England. Coronation Henry was eventually crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey on November 6, 1429 a month before his eighth birthday, and King of France at Notre Dame in Paris on December 16, 1431. However, he did not assume the reins of government until he was declared of age in 1437-the year in which his mother died. Early in the child king's reign, the most powerful of the regents were his uncles, John, Duke of Bedford and Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester. The former died in 1435; the latter was disgraced, accused of treason and probably murdered in 1447. Henry's marriage to Margaret of Anjou As a result of his successes in the Hundred Years' War, Henry V had left England in possession of considerable territories in France, but the momentum was lost on his death. While Henry VI was still a child, and England was ruled by a regency government, much of the ground his father gained was lost. A revival of French fortunes, beginning with the military victories of Joan of Arc, led to the repudiation of Henry's title to rule France, and the crowning of the French dauphin at Reims. Diplomatic errors as well as military failures resulted in the loss of most of the English territories in France. On gaining his majority, Henry VI proved to be a deeply spiritual man, lacking the worldly wisdom necessary to allow him to rule effectively. Right from the time he assumed control as king in 1437, he allowed his court to be dominated by a few noble favorites, and the peace party (which was in favour of ending the war in France) quickly came to dominate, while the voices of Richard, Duke of York and Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, the leaders of the pro-war faction, were sidelined and generally ignored. Cardinal Beaufort and Suffolk meanwhile persuaded the king that the best way of pursuing peace with France was through a marriage with Charles VII’s niece, Margaret of Anjou. Henry agreed, especially when he heard reports of Margaret’s stunning beauty, and sent Suffolk to negotiate with King Charles. Charles agreed to the marriage on condition that he would not have to provide the customary dowry and instead would receive the lands of Maine and Anjou from the English. These conditions were agreed to in the Treaty of Tours, but the cession of Maine and Anjou was kept secret from parliament. It was known that this would be hugely unpopular with the English populace. The marriage went ahead in 1445 and Margaret’s character seems to have complemented that of Henry’s in that she was prepared to take decisions and show leadership where he was content to be led by her. In this much Margaret proved a more competent ruler than Henry ever was, even though she was only sixteen at that time. Now came the thorny issue of Maine and Anjou. Henry had procrastinated about keeping his end of the bargain with Charles VII, knowing that it would be a hugely unpopular move and that Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester and the war party would be especially critical of it. However, Margaret was determined to make him see it through and finally it became public knowledge in 1446. Most public anger was directed at Suffolk, for having negotiated the Treaty of Tours, but Henry and Margaret were determined to protect him, knowing they were vulnerable too, having also had full knowledge of the conditions of the marriage. In 1447, the king, the queen and the group surrounding them (Suffolk, Somerset, and the ageing Cardinal Beaufort) summoned Gloucester before parliament on a charge of treason in Bury St Edmunds, and he died in captivity, whether of natural causes or foul play was not clear. The death of Gloucester left York as Henry’s heir apparent, but Henry never officially acknowledged this and York continued to be excluded from the court circle, being banished to govern Ireland, while Henry and Margaret promoted Suffolk and Edmund Beaufort to Dukedoms, (a title normally reserved for immediate relatives of the monarch). Beaufort, the new Duke of Somerset (and Cardinal Beaufort's nephew) was sent to France to lead the war. Increasing unpopularity and insanity The government’s increasing unpopularity was due to a breakdown in law and order, corruption, the distribution of royal land to the king’s court favourites, the troubled state of the crown’s finances, and the steady loss of territories in France. In 1447, this unpopularity took the form of a Commons campaign against the Duke of Suffolk, who was the most unpopular of all the King’s entourage and widely seen as a traitor. Henry was forced to send him into exile, but his ship was intercepted in the English Channel, and he was murdered. His body was found on the beach at Dover. The Queen was distraught. In 1449, Somerset, leading the campaign in France, reopened hostilities in Normandy, but by the autumn had been pushed back to Caen. By 1450, the French had retaken the whole province, so hard won by Henry V. Returning troops, who had often not been paid, added to the sense of lawlessness in the southern counties of England, and Jack Cade led a rebellion in Kent in 1450, calling himself ‘John Mortimer’ in sympathy with York and setting up residence at the White Hart Inn in Southwark (the white hart had been the symbol of the deposed Richard II). Henry came to London with an army to crush the rebellion, but was persuaded to keep half his troops behind while the other half met Cade at Sevenoaks. Cade triumphed and went on to occupy London. In the end, the rebellion achieved nothing, and London was retaken after a few days of disorder, but the rebellion showed that feelings of discontent were running high. In 1450, the Duchy of Aquitaine, held since Henry II's time, was also lost, leaving Calais as England's only remaining territory in France. By 1452, York was persuaded to return from Ireland, claim his rightful place on the council, and put an end to bad government. His cause was a popular one, and he soon raised an army at Shrewsbury. The court party, meanwhile, raised their own similar-sized force in London. A stand-off took place south of London, with York presenting a list of grievances and demands to the court circle, including the arrest of the Duke of Somerset. The king initially agreed, but Margaret intervened to prevent the arrest of Somerset. By 1453, his influence had been restored, and York was again isolated. In the meantime, an English advance in Aquitaine had retaken Bordeaux and was having some success, and the queen announced that she was pregnant. However, English success in Aquitaine was short-lived, and on hearing the news of the English defeat in August 1453, Henry slipped into a mental breakdown and became completely unaware of everything that was going on around him. This was to last for more than a year, and Henry failed even to respond to the birth of his own son and heir, who was christened Edward (Edward of Westminster and Prince of Wales). York, meanwhile, had gained a very important ally, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, one of the most influential magnates and possibly richer than York himself. York was named regent as Protector of the Realm in 1454. He finally had the position of influence he had wanted, the queen was excluded completely, and Somerset was detained in the Tower of London, while many of York's supporters rumoured that the king's child was not his, but Somerset's (there is no proof of this). Other than that, York’s months as regent were spent tackling the problem of government overspending. On Christmas Day 1454, however, Henry regained his senses. Henry's character Henry’s character as king is best summed up as pious, indecisive and easily-led, and of course later in life, he became severely mentally unstable. He was kind and generous to those he cared about (which did not help the dire financial situation of his government) giving away land and titles to his advisors. He avoided the ostentatious trappings of his role, preferring simple dress. He was keen on reading and 'book-learning' but showed no inclination whatsoever towards leading his country in battle - ironic, considering his reign was one of the bloodiest in English history. He disliked making war on his fellow Christians and he was keen for justice to be done in his name - again ironical, considering the widespread corruption and collapse of law and order which occurred under him. Henry seems to have used religion and piety as a means of escape from the harsh world of bitter rivalries and power struggles which surrounded him at court. He was excessively prudish, which was encouraged by his confessor who advised him to abstain from sex with his wife as much as possible. Keen on the promotion of education, Henry gave generous grants for the foundation of both Eton College near Windsor (the King's College of Our Lady at Eton near Windsor), for the education of students from poor backgrounds, and King's College, Cambridge (the King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge), where they could continue their education. Henry seems to have been a decent man, but completely unsuited to kingship. He allowed himself to be totally dominated by the power-hungry factions which surrounded him at court and was later powerless to stop the outbreak of bloody civil war. It was clearly too much for him to cope with, as his recurring mental illness from 1453 onwards showed. During the Wars of the Roses it was his queen, Margaret, who was the driving force behind the Lancastrian faction, while Henry was captured first by one side, then the other. Whoever had the king in their possession was able to claim to be ruling in his name. The Wars of the Roses Disaffected nobles who had grown in power during Henry's reign (most importantly the Earls of Warwick and Salisbury) took matters into their own hands by backing the claims of the rival House of York, first to the Regency, and then to the throne itself. After a violent struggle between the houses of Lancaster and York, (see Wars of the Roses), Henry was deposed on March 4, 1461 by his cousin, Edward of York, who became King Edward IV of England. But Edward failed to capture Henry and his queen, and they were able to flee into exile abroad. During the first period of Edward IV's reign, Lancastrian resistance continued mainly under the leadership of Queen Margaret and the few nobles still loyal to her in the northern counties of England and Wales. Henry was captured by King Edward in 1465 and subsequently held captive in the Tower of London. Queen Margaret, exiled in Scotland and later in France, was determined to win back the throne on behalf of her husband and son, and with the help of King Louis XI of France eventually formed an alliance with Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, who had fallen out with Edward IV. After marrying his daughter to the Prince of Wales, Warwick returned to England, defeated the Yorkists in battle, liberated Henry VI and restored him to the throne on October 30, 1470. Henry's return to the throne lasted a very short time. By this time, years in hiding followed by years in captivity had taken their toll on Henry, who had been weak-willed and mentally unstable to start with. By all accounts Henry looked lethargic and vacant as Warwick and his men paraded him through the streets of London as the rightful King of England, and the constrast with the imposing King Edward whom he had replaced must have been marked. Within a few months Warwick had overreached himself by declaring war on Burgundy, whose ruler responded by giving Edward IV the assistance he needed to win back his throne by force. The Prince of Wales was killed at the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471. Death and legacy Henry VI was imprisoned in the Tower of London, where he was murdered on 21st May 1471. Although legend has accused Richard, Duke of Gloucester of his murder, Richard is an unlikely suspect, having been only nineteen at the time. Each year on the anniversary of his death, the Provosts of Eton and King's College, Cambridge, lay roses and lilies on the altar which now stands where he died. King Henry VI was originally buried in Chertsey Abbey; then, in 1485, his body was moved to St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. He was succeeded by Edward IV, son of Richard, Duke of York. Ironically for one so personally pious and peace-loving, Henry left a great legacy of strife and civil war. Perhaps his one lasting positive achievement was his fostering of education-he founded both Eton College and King's College, Cambridge. In the 1590s, William Shakespeare wrote a trilogy of plays about the life of Henry VI: Henry VI, part 1, Henry VI, part 2, and Henry VI, part 3. Henry also appears as a ghost in Richard III. Henry VI, King of England from 1422 to 1461 and from 1470 to 1471, a pious and studious recluse whose incapacity for government was one of the causes of the Wars of the Roses. Henry succeeded his father, Henry V, on Sept. 1, 1422, and on the death (Oct. 21, 1422) of his maternal grandfather, the French king Charles VI, Henry was proclaimed king of France in accordance with the terms of a treaty made after Henry V's French victories. Henry's minority was never officially ended, but from 1437 he was considered old enough to rule for himself, and his personality became a vital factor. There is evidence that he had been a headstrong and unruly boy, but he later became concerned only with religious observances and the planning of his educational foundations (Eton College in 1440-41, King's College, Cambridge, in 1441). Home politics were dominated by the rivalries of a series of overpowerful ministers-Humphrey, duke of Gloucester; Henry, Cardinal Beaufort; and William de la Pole, duke of Suffolk. After Suffolk's fall (1449) the contenders for power were the Lancastrian Edmund Beaufort, duke of Somerset, and Richard, duke of York, a cousin of the King whose claim to the throne, by strict primogeniture, was better than Henry's. Meanwhile, the English hold on France was steadily eroded; despite a truce-as part of which Henry married (April 1445) Margaret of Anjou, a niece of the French queen-Maine and Normandy were lost and by 1453 so were the remaining English-held lands in Guyenne. Henry had a period of insanity (July 1453-December 1454), during which York was lord protector, but his hopes of ultimately succeeding Henry were shattered by the birth of Edward, prince of Wales, on Oct. 13, 1453. A return to power of Somerset in 1455 made war inevitable, and although he was killed at the first Battle of St. Albans (May 1455), Queen Margaret gradually undermined York's ascendancy, and fighting was renewed in 1459. After the Yorkists had captured Henry at Northampton (July 1460), it was agreed that Henry should remain king but recognize York, and not his own son Edward, as heir to the throne. Although York was killed at Wakefield (Dec. 30, 1460), and Henry was recaptured by the Lancastrians at the second Battle of St. Albans (Feb. 17, 1461), York's heir was proclaimed king as Edward IV in London on March 4. Routed at Towton in Yorkshire (March 29), Henry fled with his wife and son to Scotland, returning to England in 1464 to support an unsuccessful Lancastrian rising. He was eventually captured (July 1465) near Clitheroe in Lancashire and imprisoned in the Tower of London. A quarrel between Edward IV and Richard Neville, earl of Warwick, led Warwick to restore Henry to the throne in October 1470, and Edward fled abroad. But he soon returned, defeated and killed Warwick, and destroyed Queen Margaret's forces at Tewkesbury (May 4, 1471). The death of Prince Edward in that battle sealed Henry's fate, and he was murdered in the Tower of London soon afterward. Encyclopædia Britannica 2006 Ultimate Reference Suite.
William B.
