{"id":189,"date":"2024-04-13T18:10:26","date_gmt":"2024-04-14T01:10:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/shakespeare\/?page_id=189"},"modified":"2026-02-19T20:25:31","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T04:25:31","slug":"3-henry-vi-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/shakespeare\/3-henry-vi-2\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Henry VI"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Commentaries on
Shakespeare’s History Plays<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
HOME<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
OLLI<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
QUESTIONS<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
COMMENTARIES<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
AUDIO<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
GUIDES<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
LINKS<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
ACT 1<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
ACT 2<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
ACT 3<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
ACT 4<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
ACT 5<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
ENDNOTES<\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Shakespeare, William [and possibly Christopher Marlowe]. The Third Part of Henry the Sixth.<\/em> Folio. (The Norton Shakespeare: Histories,<\/em> 3rd ed. 230-96.) *Norton lists Shakespeare as sole author of this play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shakespeare Sources & Resources:<\/strong>  RSC Resources<\/a> | ISE Resources<\/a> | S-O Sources<\/a> | 1623 Folio 503-28 (Folger)<\/a> | The True Tragedie \u2026<\/em> (HathiTrust)<\/a> | Holinshed & Plays Compared: 3 Henry VI<\/em><\/a> | Holinshed Chronicles <\/em>onHenry VI<\/em><\/a> | Holinshed Chronicles <\/em>onEdward IV<\/em><\/a> | Hall\u2019s Chronicle, Henry VI <\/em><\/a> | Mirrour for Magistrates: Duke of York<\/em><\/a> | Mirrour for Magistrates: Henry VI<\/em><\/a> | Historic Royal Palaces: Henry VI<\/a> | \u201cAttributing Henry VI<\/em> Authorship \u2026\u201d (Ribeiro\/JSTOR)<\/a> | \u201cShakespeare and Marlowe\u201d (Folger SU Podcast)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Encyclopedias\/Lexica:<\/strong> Britannica.com<\/a> | World History Encyclopedia<\/a> | Wikipedia<\/a> | Wiktionary<\/a> | C. T. Onions\u2019 Shakespeare Dictionary<\/a> | A. Schmidt\u2019s Shakespeare Dictionary<\/a> | Concordance (Shakespeare Network)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comprehensive Shakespeare:<\/strong> Folger Shakespeare Library<\/a> | RSC Shakespeare\u2019s Plays<\/a> | Shakespeare-Online (Mabillard)<\/a> | Internet Shakespeare Editions (U-Vic)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Text\/Media Repositories:<\/strong> U-Penn Books Page<\/a> | Holinshed Project<\/a> | Early English Books (EEBO)<\/a> | Renascence\/Luminarium<\/a> | Gutenberg<\/a> | HathiTrust<\/a> | Internet Archive<\/a> | M\u00fcnchen Digital Lib. (MDZ)<\/a> | Wikisource<\/a> | Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

English & European Royals:<\/strong> English Monarchy Timeline (Drake)<\/a> | English Monarchs<\/a> | Kings & Queens of Britain (Historic-UK)<\/a> | Historic-UK.com<\/a> | Shakespeare <\/a>& History<\/a> | Family Trees: Edward III\u00a0 \/ Neville \/ Percy (Hist. of Eng.)<\/a> | Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford)<\/a> |Burke\u2019s Peerage<\/a> | European Royal History<\/a> | French Rulers 840 CE to Present (Thoughtco)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hundred Years\u2019 War: <\/strong>Medievalists.net<\/a> | 100 Years\u2019 War (Britannica)<\/a> | 100 Years\u2019 War (WHE)<\/a> | 100 Years\u2019 War Timeline<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wars of the Roses:<\/strong> Wars of the Roses.com<\/a> | Key People<\/a> | Battles Timeline<\/a> | Battles (Brit. Battles)<\/a> | Battles (Battlefields Trust)<\/a> | R3 Society: Wars of the Roses<\/a> | R3 House of York Timeline<\/a> | History Extra<\/a>  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tudors: <\/strong>Tudor Society<\/a> | TudorHistory.org<\/a> | The Tudors (Eng-Heritage UK)<\/a> | Life in Elizabethan England (M. Secara)<\/a> | Elizabethan Era.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Date and New Oxford Shakespeare Attribution Note: <\/strong>The editors of the Oxford Shakespeare give a date range for 3 Henry VI <\/em>of 1590-91, with probable revisions by Shakespeare in the mid-1590s. As for authorship, they identify in their Folio-based 1623 copy Scenes 4-6, 8-12, 14, 23, and 25-29 as belonging to Shakespeare himself. Scenes 1, 2, 7, 15-21, and 24 they grant to Marlowe, and the scenes not mentioned (3, 13, and 22) possibly to some other playwright. In the Norton edition used for the commentary below, these numbers correspond to the following Acts\/Scenes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shakespeare: 1.4, 2.1-2, 2.4-6, 3.1-2, 4.1, 5.1, 5.3-7 
Marlowe: 1.1-2, 2.3, 4.2-8, 5.2
Other? 1.3, 3.3, 4.9<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By this estimation, Shakespeare wrote a scene in Acts 1 and 4, most of Act 2, around half of Act 3, and most of Act 5. Marlowe wrote the first two scenes in Act 1, a scene in Acts 2 and 5, and most of Act 4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ACT 1<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Act 1, Scene 1 (231-37, with Warwick\u2019s help, Richard Plantagenet, 3rd<\/sup> Duke of York seats himself on Henry VI\u2019s throne; Henry arrives and is intimidated into declaring York his heir, and York accepts the deal; Queen Margaret, however, does not<\/em>\u2014it means disinheriting her son Edward, Prince of Wales, so off she goes to muster a Lancastrian army of her own.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Historically, the First Battle of St. Albans took place in 1455, and that is the battle described both at the end of 2 Henry VI<\/em> and for the first twenty lines of 3 Henry VI.<\/em> [1]<\/a> Richard Plantagenet, 3rd<\/sup> Duke of York (hereafter called \u201cYork\u201d) and several others list the Lancastrian opponents who have been killed or wounded in action: among them are Northumberland; Thomas Clifford; Humphrey Lord Stafford (son of the 1st<\/sup> Duke of Buckingham); the Earl of Wiltshire; and the Duke of Somerset\u2014whose severed head Richard of Gloucester carries. [2]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The time frame shifts abruptly from 1455\u2019s Yorkist win at St. Albans to July 1460, just after the Battle of Northampton, another Yorkist victory, and thence to October 10, 1460, when York approaches King Henry VI\u2019s empty throne in Parliament in hopes of finally claiming it. By reaching back five years to the first battle of the Wars of the Roses, First St. Albans, the playwright is practicing a strong, characteristically dramatic telescoping <\/em>of events. [3]<\/a> The upshot is that the Yorkists have for the present routed the Lancastrians, and York, the scion of that cadet branch of the Plantagenets, now feels strong enough to claim the throne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

York seems to distrust Warwick (aka \u201cthe Kingmaker\u201d), [4]<\/a> or at least that\u2019s a plausible reading of his request to the man after the earl\u2019s fulsome vow never to shut his eyes until York takes the throne from Henry VI. To this, York says, \u201cAssist me, then, sweet Warwick, and I will, \/ For hither we have broken in by force\u201d (231, 1.1.28-29). That seems like a way to say, \u201cprove your complicity with me in this act of rebellion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One other thing to note is that while historically, Parliament was in session on October 10, 1460 when York entered the upper chamber, [5]<\/a> the playwright treats the event like an eerie strategy meeting between York and his supporters rather than a highly visible political event. York is laying claim to the power that comes with the right to occupy the throne, as if it were situated in the space called \u201cthe Holy of Holies\u201d in the ancient Temple of Jerusalem. [6]<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warwick the Kingmaker\u2019s pride is evident throughout the scene. Speaking of himself in the third person, he declares boldly in the presence of York and key supporters, \u201cNeither the King nor he that loves him best, \/ The proudest he that holds up Lancaster, \/ Dares stir a wing if Warwick shake his bells\u201d (232, 1.1.45-47). These great royal birds of prey will not, he implies, disobey him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just then, in tread King Henry VI, Lord Clifford, Northumberland, Westmorland, Exeter, and other Lancastrians, and an argument over who really deserves the throne ensues. While Henry seems to shy away from violence, his pacifism is underlain by real political acumen. When Clifford tries to bully the king to \u201cassail the family of York,\u201d Henry says, \u201cAh, know you not the city favors them \/ And they have troops of soldiers at their beck?\u201d (232, 1.1.65, 67-68) Henry understands where he is: London, the great city, apparently prefers the Yorkist forces over Henry\u2019s Lancastrians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, that basic perspicacity aside, we can tell right away that Henry\u2019s attempt to overawe York and his company will go nowhere. The playwright has admirably grasped the medieval mindset that governs this whole struggle: two fiercely competitive factions assert\u2014and most of them probably believe they have every right to assert\u2014equally brazen claims to supreme power, so the argument stops at the level of \u201cI\u2019m the king\u2014obey me!\u201d and \u201cNo, I\u2019m <\/em>the king\u2014obey me!<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even so, we may be surprised to find that in this instance, there is an attempt to remain calm and be reasonable. As York\u2019s sons clamor for battle around him, he tells them, \u201cSons, peace,\u201d most likely meaning, \u201ckeep silent.\u201d And when Henry VI asks for \u201cleave to speak\u201d (233, 1.1.119-20), for a moment he gets his wish, and utters a mixture of threats and boasts such as \u201cMy title\u2019s good, and better far than his\u201d (234, 1.1.130).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even so, Warwick needs only to mention the old issue of Henry IV\u2019s establishment of the Lancastrian line by usurpation of the crown from Richard II, and Henry VI knows he can\u2019t in good conscience maintain this argument. As he says to himself, \u201cI know not what to say: my title\u2019s weak\u201d (234, 1.1.134). Neither does Henry\u2019s attempt to switch up his argument gain him any respect: while he feebly puts it forth that King Richard II \u201cResigned the crown to Henry the Fourth\u201d (234, 1.1.139), even the loyal Exeter can\u2019t hold his tongue, and points out the bankruptcy of this line of thinking. [7]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the argument breaks down into threats and dares, we see the utility of casting this first scene, with its stark confrontation between two warring houses, in an otherwise hushed Parliament. There\u2019s no need for the parties to engage in ceremony, flowery rhetoric or elaborate justifications. We find a degree of frankness in both sides that would be impossible if they had to scrape and put on a show for the members of Parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

York speaks to Henry without flattery or even basic decorum. He is the son of that same Richard, Earl of Cambridge who tried to kill Henry\u2019s royal father, and Henry VI, for his part, does not pretend to honor York. Northumberland and Clifford both say that they don\u2019t give a farthing whether Henry\u2019s claim is valid or worthless\u2014they\u2019re not going to let him lose the throne, no matter what. In return, the currently York-favoring Warwick the Kingmaker insists that he will \u201cfill the house with arm\u00e8d men \/ And over the chair of state where now he sits \/ Write up his title with usurping blood\u201d (234, 1.1.167-69).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The stage directions tell us that at this point, Warwick stamps his foot, and his soldiers make their presence known, right here in the Parliamentary seat of England. Upon seeing this sign of strength and hearing the accompanying threat of violence, [8]<\/a> Henry makes York a deal he finds hard to refuse. He can articulate it as easily as Henry can: \u201cConfirm the crown to me and to mine heirs, \/ And thou shalt reign in quiet while thou liv\u2019st\u201d (235, 1.1.172-73). This is the essence of the formal Act of Accord [9]<\/a> that, historically, both sides agreed to on October 31, 1460, following the July 10, 1460 Battle of Northampton. [10]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clifford, Westmorland, and Northumberland are dismayed at Henry VI\u2019s decision to disinherit his own son, Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales. [11]<\/a> They try to slink away from the approaching Queen Margaret, but it\u2019s mainly Henry that she means to talk sense into. She points out that whatever agreement he may have signed with York and his party, he is still going to be surrounded by foes. As she puts it, \u201cWarwick is Chancellor and the lord of Calais; \/ Stern Falconbridge commands the narrow seas; \/ The Duke is made Protector of the realm; \/ And yet shalt thou be safe?\u201d (236, 1.1.238-41)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enraged, Margaret separates from Henry, and says she won\u2019t return until Henry goes back on the agreement he has made. The Prince of Wales follows her, while remaining diplomatic towards his father. Left with only Exeter, Henry sounds almost delusional, saying, \u201cPoor Queen, how love to me and to her son \/ Hath made her break out into terms of rage\u201d (237, 1.1.264-65). It would be challenging to say anything more off-the-mark about Queen Margaret: it isn\u2019t tender love for Henry that\u2019s guiding her in this matter, it\u2019s dynastic tenacity. Henry\u2019s unacceptable mildness is threatening her<\/em> son.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a sense, too, Henry has already returned to his unfavorable reading of York\u2019s efforts. He has taken the moral issue of who really deserves the crown seriously, not merely as a formal, external matter but as a matter of conscience, which we today would call a thing of interiority. We should give Henry VI credit for this seriousness. He also figures York as a man \u201cWhose haughty spirit, wing\u00e8d with desire, \/ Will cost my crown and, like an empty eagle, \/ Tire on the flesh of me and of my son\u201d (237, 1.1.267-69). Who can blame the king for thinking that way about York?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act 1, Scene 2 (237-38, York\u2019s sons Edward and Richard convince him to go back on his oath to respect Henry VI\u2019s lifetime tenure and instead to take the crown from him; with Queen Margaret\u2019s forces making towards his stronghold, York readies his men to meet them at Wakefield.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At first, York seems determined to keep his word\u2014in this, he is not so different from the conscientious Henry in seeking stability instead of chaos and brutality. But then his sons set after him and change his mind. Edward sees York\u2019s faith as dangerous\u2014he can\u2019t believe that giving \u201cthe house of Lancaster leave to breathe\u201d (237, 1.2.13) will do anything but act like a good rest for a runner, allowing him to outpace the opponent. Edward is not too shy to push open breach of contract, saying to his father, \u201cfor a kingdom any oath may be broken. \/ I would break a thousand oaths to reign one year\u201d (237, 1.2.17).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richard, however, is more subtle than his brazenly ambitious older brother Edward. He sounds lawyerly with regard to the business of oath-breaking: \u201cGod forbid your grace should be forsworn\u201d (237, 1.2.18). Now, we need not worry that Richard\u2014in defiance of modern psychiatry\u2019s tenets\u2014is growing a delicate conscience that might prevent him from the villainy we know lies ahead of him. His point is rather that he can absolve York of opprobrium by legalistic means. As he puts his case, \u201cAn oath is of no moment, being not took \/ Before a true and lawful magistrate \/ That hath authority over him that swears\u201d (237, 1.2.22-24).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This way, the idea runs, the Yorkists can stomp all over good faith and contractual obligation while still preserving the public appearance of decency. Richard is every bit as ambitious as his brother Edward, telling York, \u201cfather, do but think \/ How sweet a thing it is to wear a crown, \/ Within whose circuit is Elysium \/ And all that poets feign of bliss and joy\u201d (237, 1.2.28-31). Richard II and Henry IV, along with many other kings, could tell Richard otherwise, [12]<\/a> but we may suspect that such advice would be of no value to the future Richard III, at least until it\u2019s too late to save him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

York is soon brought round to a determination to fight for the throne of England, and he sends Montague to London to advise Warwick, Richard to inform Norfolk of the change of plans, and Edward to tell Cobham in Kent. Through it all, he insists, King Henry VI must be kept clueless about the real state of affairs. As Lady Macbeth says to her husband, \u201cLook like th\u2019innocent flower, \/ But be the serpent under it.\u201d [13]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The messenger Gabriel informs York and his supporters that Queen Margaret is heading down with an army from the north to besiege him at Sandal Castle in West Yorkshire, northern England. The estimate is that she has around 20,000 troops, a sizeable force compared to York\u2019s 5,000 or so. What should they do? Take shelter at Sandal and stand for a siege, or attack beyond the castle\u2019s walls?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The York men\u2019s sexism is on full display as they confront the news of Margaret\u2019s advance, with Richard exclaiming, \u201cA woman\u2019s general; what should we fear?\u201d (238, 2.3.68) Has he really never heard of Joan of Arc, regardless of how her campaign ultimately turned out? York is soon carried along by his sons\u2019 eagerness to give battle, and expresses his optimism: \u201cMany a battle have I won in France \/ Whenas the enemy hath been ten to one\u201d (238, 1.2.73-74).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act 1, Scene 3 (239-40, to revenge the killing of his own father at the hands of York, Lord Clifford slaughters York\u2019s defenseless son Rutland at Wakefield.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scene 3 captures the most extreme ethos of the Wars of the Roses, with Lord Clifford [14]<\/a> in his thirst for vengeance ruthlessly cutting down the defenseless Edmund, Earl of Rutland, York\u2019s son. The playwright chooses to represent Rutland as a child, but in fact he was seventeen\u2014an age at which aristocratic young men were expected to become involved with governance and even military campaigns. Still, knowing this can\u2019t keep us from viewing Clifford as a monster in his unquenchable need to spill Yorkist blood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lord Clifford blames the Duke of York for killing his father (which occurs towards the end of 2 Henry VI<\/em>), so he is deaf to the young Rutland\u2019s pleas for mercy, and even describes himself in classical style as being pursued by a divine enforcer of revenge, saying, \u201cThe sight of any of the house of York \/ Is as a Fury to torment my soul, \/ And till I root out their accurs\u00e8d line \/ And leave not one alive, I live in hell\u201d (239, 1.3.30-33). Clifford\u2019s motive here is purely personal\u2014it has nothing to do with the good of England or even, frankly, with the rights of King Henry VI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act 1, Scene 4 (240-44, as the Battle of Wakefield turns against his forces, the Duke of York is captured by Queen Margaret and her nearest officers; they mock him with a paper crown and taunt him with news of Rutland\u2019s killing, even offering him a handkerchief stained with Rutland\u2019s blood to wipe away his tears; Clifford and Margaret then stab York, and the Queen commands that his head be installed above the city of York\u2019s gates.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

York, comparing the movements of his troops to those of that royal bird, the swan, swimming against the tide (240, 1.4.19-21), finds himself trapped and constrained to vent his fury at Clifford, Northumberland, and Queen Margaret. He prophesies, \u201cMy ashes, as the phoenix, may bring forth \/ A bird that will revenge upon you all \u2026\u201d (241, 1.4.35-36). [15]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This prediction produces little effect. Margaret\u2019s interest is to draw out York\u2019s suffering and enjoy for a while. Northumberland holds Clifford back when that lord is disposed to kill or capture York without assistance, saying, \u201cIt is war\u2019s prize to take all vantages, \/ And ten to one is no impeach of valor\u201d (241, 1.4.59-60). That is hardly a chivalric-spirited suggestion. It is often said that the Wars of the Roses, once concluded, marked the end of the medieval era, but it might be better to suggest that there wasn\u2019t a lot of chivalry left to believe in even by the beginning of that struggle. [16]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Margaret is full of glee at York\u2019s discomfiture, and it\u2019s hard to miss the hint of onlookers\u2019 mockery of Jesus in the biblical account of his crucifixion, when he was supposedly given vinegar to drink, adorned with a crown of thorns, and taunted with a kingly title. [17]<\/a> Margaret\u2019s vituperation is hideous: \u201cYork cannot speak unless he wear a crown \/ \u2014A crown for York!\u201d (242, 1.4.93-94) she says, and on goes the paper coronet to humiliate him before his captors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In turn, York rages at Margaret, calling her \u201cShe-wolf of France\u201d and \u201cAmazonian trull,\u201d and making degrading comments about the financial troubles of the queen\u2019s unfortunate father Ren\u00e9, King of Naples (242-43, 1.4.111, 114, 118-23). [18]<\/a> But the doomed scion of the House of York makes his most unforgettable rejoinder to Maragaret with the following outburst: \u201cO tiger\u2019s heart wrapped in a woman\u2019s hide, \/ How couldst thou drain the lifeblood of the child \/ To bid the father wipe his eyes withal \/ And yet be seen to bear a woman\u2019s face?\u201d (243, 1.4.137-40) [19]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even Northumberland pities the tears York Sheds for Rutland, but Margaret does not, and after York\u2019s parting curse to Margaret, which runs, \u201cin thy need such comfort come to thee \/ As now I reap at thy too cruel hand\u201d (243, 1.4.165-66), first Clifford stabs York, and then Margaret stabs him, too. Once the great lord is dead, Margaret is ready with just the order we might have expected: \u201cOff with his head and set it on York gates, \/ So York may overlook the town of York\u201d (244, 1.4.179-80). This twisted, grotesque literalism in humor seems to be a feature of Shakespearean villains. [20]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ACT 2<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Act 2, Scene 1 (244-48, Edward and Richard learn of their father York\u2019s death; Warwick announces that the Yorkists have lost the Second Battle of St. Albans following Wakefield; the Yorkists ready themselves for further battles against the Lancastrians, and Warwick insists that the new Duke of York, Edward, will become king.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Edward and Richard await news of their father\u2019s fate in the December 30, 1460 Battle of Wakefield, they both see what we now call a \u201csun dog\u201d or parhelion, when a colorful spot appears to the sun\u2019s left and right at 22\u00b0. [21]<\/a> Richard says that these suns \u201cjoin, embrace, and seem to kiss, \/ As if they vowed some league inviolable. \/ Now are they but one lamp, one light, one sun\u201d (244, 2.1.29-31). Most likely, Edward and Richard would include George as the third son since in the play, Rutland (York\u2019s second oldest son) is characterized as a child. [22]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A messenger soon arrives and puts an end to the speculation stoked by the parhelion since his news is that York has been done to death, \u201cslaughtered by the ireful arm \/ Of unrelenting Clifford and the Queen\u201d (245, 2.1.57-58), and that Rutland was also killed by the ruthless Clifford. The gruesome detail about the napkin \u201csteep\u00e8d in the harmless blood \/ Of sweet young Rutland\u201d (245, 2.1.62-63) is duly passed along. The brothers hear, too, that the heads of the slain father and son have been affixed to the gates of York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edward and Richard\u2019s first thoughts are for their father\u2014Rutland is not mentioned until later, during the contentious meeting with Margaret, Clifford and their forces. Edward laments, \u201cNow thou art gone we have no staff, no stay\u201d (245, 2.1.69), and Richard, characteristically violent in his reaction, says, \u201cI cannot weep, for all my body\u2019s moisture \/ Scarce serves to quench my furnace-burning heart \u2026\u201d (245, 2.1.79-80).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richard, soon to be created Duke of Gloucester after Edward becomes king, seems driven to take revenge and relive his paternal namesake\u2019s agonizing story. He addresses his dead father, \u201cRichard, I bear thy name, I\u2019ll venge thy death, \/ Or die renown\u00e8d by attempting it\u201d (246, 2.1.87-88). To this, Edward responds that while their father left Richard his name, <\/em>\u201cHis dukedom and his chair with me is left\u201d (246, 2.1.90). But this does not quell the younger brother\u2019s passion, and he retorts that Edward must demonstrate his worth by \u201cgazing \u2018gainst the sun\u201d\u2014he must, that is, be willing to replace \u201cchair and dukedom\u201d with \u201cthrone and kingdom\u201d (246, 2.1.92-94).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Edward can\u2019t or won\u2019t do this, Richard insists, he is no son of such a father. Would it be too forward to suggest, even before the fraternal treacheries laid out in the play Richard III,<\/em> that Richard does not see his eldest brother Edward as being cut from the same regal cloth as Richard Plantagenet, 3rd<\/sup> Duke of York, or the youngest son who bears his name? It may be that Shakespeare is letting us in on something vital about the future King Richard III\u2019s psyche.  After all, even towards the end of 3 Henry VI, <\/em>Richard makes the astonishing claim, \u201cI have no brother, I am like no brother.\u201d [23]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much of what Richard says at this point in 3 Henry VI <\/em>may profitably be read as providing the kernel of the same character\u2019s justification for the treachery he will practice in Richard III <\/em>against (among others) his brothers Edward and Clarence as well as Edward\u2019s sons, who, we know, will sometime \u201csleep in Abraham\u2019s bosom.\u201d [24]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warwick himself is all but over the sorrows of Wakefield, the December 30, 1460 battle loss during which York and Rutland were killed, and now delivers the news of the Yorkist defeat at the second battle of St. Albans, which historically took place on February 7, 1461, five weeks after Wakefield. He describes how the Yorkist soldiers\u2019 weapons, being \u201clike the night-owl\u2019s lazy flight \/ Or like a lazy thresher with a flail, \/ Fell gently down as if they struck their friends\u201d (246-47, 2.1.129-31). It is, of course, one of the delights of Shakespeare\u2019s style that we so often come across such deliciously implausible <\/em>passages to describe military conflicts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warwick also informs Edward and Richard  that the Duchess of Burgundy has sent their brother George back to England with much-needed reinforcements, [25]<\/a> and rebukes Richard when that young man dares reproach him for his \u201cretire\u201d (retreat) from the fighting at Second St. Albans in February 1461. The kingmaker\u2019s pride can\u2019t brook such an insinuation, and he retorts, \u201cthis strong right hand of mine \/ Can pluck the diadem from faint Henry\u2019s head \/ And wring the awful scepter from his fist \u2026\u201d (247, 2.1.151-53).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Margaret and Clifford\u2019s army of some 30,000 will, says Warwick, try to make fast their breach of the agreement that had made York heir to the throne, and in return, the kingmaker is determined to advance York\u2019s eldest son Edward, Earl of March (and with his father\u2019s death, the new Duke of York) not simply to York\u2019s former position as heir of Henry VI, but to take the crown now, in his own right. Still, Margaret is coming up with her \u201cpuissant host\u201d to try to make sure that doesn\u2019t happen (248, 2.1.206).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act 2, Scene 2 (248-52, Margaret, Clifford, and Henry VI exchange views of the action to come, and Henry knights his son, Prince Edward; Warwick and the Yorkist forces now hold a brief parley with the Lancastrian leaders Henry VI, Margaret, Clifford, and Prince Edward; angry rhetoric flies back and forth to no avail, and the Battle of Towton is imminent.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Margaret, Clifford, and Henry VI await a parley with the Yorkists, they air their views on how things came to this. Clifford ventures that much trouble has been caused by \u201ctoo much lenity \/ And harmful pity\u201d and that all this \u201cmust be laid aside\u201d (248, 2.2.209-10). After all, he says, \u201cThe smallest worm will turn, being trodden on, \/ And doves will peck in safeguard of their brood\u201d (249, 2.2.17-18). Even the mildest creature, Clifford is suggesting, will fight back when there\u2019s no other choice, yet somehow, Henry VI has failed to uphold the rights of his young son and heir, Edward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Henry VI\u2019s response to Warwick is to bring to the fore the weakness of his own claim to the throne: \u201cClifford,\u201d he says, \u201ctell me, didst thou never hear \/ that things ill got had ever bad success?\u201d and concludes, \u201cI leave my son my virtuous deeds behind, \/ And would my father had left me no more\u201d (249, 2.2.45-46, 49-50).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To Henry, the crown just hasn\u2019t been worth the struggle, the agony, the terror. There\u2019s no \u201cjot of pleasure\u201d (249, 2.2.53) in it, says the king, and he ought to know since he has been one since he was born in 1422, nearly four decades ago. We may put this experience up against Richard\u2019s ill-starred advice to York in Act 1, Scene 2, \u201cfather, do but think \/ How sweet a thing it is to wear a crown, \/ Within whose circuit is Elysium \/ And all that poets feign of bliss and joy.\u201d [26]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

All the same, Henry knights his only son, saying, \u201cEdward Plantagenet, arise a knight, \/ And learn this lesson: draw thy sword in right\u201d (249, 2.2.61-62). Is the boy really old enough\u2014full as he is of his own and others\u2019 talk of his own \u201cright\u201d to the crown?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the parley between the Lancastrian leaders and the Yorkist vanguard, angry words fly, but nothing is solved. Edward, 4th<\/sup> Duke of York hurls his claim at Henry, requiring pointedly, \u201cwilt thou kneel for grace \/ And set thy diadem upon my head, \/ Or bide the mortal fortune of the field?\u201d (250, 2.2.81-82). Edward also refers to his claim on the throne, saying, \u201cI was adopted heir by his consent \u2026\u201d (250, 2.2.88), which conveniently ignores that this \u201cadoption\u201d was by no means consensual even though Henry VI himself first proposed it in Parliament, and it has apparently been ratified by now (as of October 25, 1460) as the Act of Accord. [27]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warwick and Clifford rehearse their mutual hatred next, and Richard and Edward rail at Margaret and her sometime impoverished father Ren\u00e9, King of Naples. She comes back at Richard [28]<\/a> with a taunt about his appearance: he is, she says, \u201clike a foul misshapen stigmatic, \/ Marked by the Destinies to be avoided, \/ As venom toads or lizards\u2019 dreadful stings\u201d (251, 2.2.136-38). [29]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In spite of King Henry\u2019s declaration, \u201cI am a king and privileged to speak,\u201d no one seems interested in anything he might have to say (251, 2.2.120). Margaret\u2019s possibly premonitory plea to the Yorkist leader, \u201cStay, Edward\u201d is met with scorn, as Edward responds, \u201cNo, wrangling woman, we\u2019ll no longer stay\u201d (252, 2.2.175-76). The climactic Battle of Towton on March 29, 1461 looms, and for the moment, at least, words have had their allotted time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act 2, Scene 3 (252-53, with the battle not going well so far, Warwick retires from the field and encounters the Yorkist brothers Edward, Richard and George; they fear the worst, but say their goodbyes and return to the fight.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Battle of Towton rages, and so far the action is favoring the Lancastrian forces assembled by Clifford and Margaret. George sums it up: \u201cOur hap is loss, our hope but sad despair, \/ Our ranks are broke, and ruin follows us\u201d (252, 2.3.29-30). Richard asks Warwick why he has retired from the field, not reflecting that he himself has done the same thing. Warwick responds with highly motivated and leading questions: \u201cWhy stand we like soft-hearted women here, \/ Wailing our losses whiles the foe doth rage, \/ And look upon, as if the tragedy \/ Were played in jest by counterfeiting actors?\u201d (253, 2.3.25-28)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though Richard has told him his brother the Marquess of Montague [30]<\/a> has been killed, Warwick draws sustenance from his own utterance, and quickly resolves to return to the fight. The four men say their farewells in case it comes to that, and off they go, with George speaking for them all, \u201cFor yet is hope of life and victory\u201d (253, 2.3.55).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act 2, Scene 4 (253, Richard and Clifford engage in single combat, but when Warwick tries to join in, Clifford flees; Richard says he will go after Clifford.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richard challenges Clifford, with (as the Norton footnote #1 to this incident informs us) his sentence \u201cI have singled thee alone\u201d (253, 2.4.1), referring to a predator picking out a weak member of the herd, and Clifford, sounding like some character from another of Shakespeare\u2019s early gorefests, Titus Andronicus, <\/em>[31]<\/a> \u201cThis is the hand that stabbed thy father York, \/ And this the hand that slew thy brother Rutland, \/ And here\u2019s the heart that triumphs in their death \u2026\u201d (253, 2.4.6-8). So many body parts to mention, so little time!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warwick soon shows up and tries to join the action, but that sets Clifford to running away, and Richard is not pleased with the cessation of his chivalric contest with the great Lancastrian enemy, saying, \u201cNay, Warwick, single out some other chase, \/ For I myself will hunt this wolf to death\u201d (253, 2.4.12-13). It\u2019s interesting that Clifford, first described as a prey animal, has been promoted by Richard to England\u2019s ultimate nemesis animal, a wolf. <\/em>[32]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act 2, Scene 5 (254-56, while the battle at Towton rages, Henry VI philosophizes on the sidelines while he beholds the agonies of one man who has accidentally slain his own father in the action, and another who has slain his own son; Henry privately claims that as a king, his grief encompasses and exceeds theirs; Margaret and others urge Henry to go with them to avoid capture by the triumphant Yorkists.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While war rages all around in Towton in the north of England (March 29, 1461), Henry VI plays no part in the fighting. [33]<\/a> The commanders on his own Lancastrian side have told him he\u2019s just a distraction, and he has humbly taken their advice. And so he says, \u201cHere on this molehill will I sit me down. \/ To whom god will, there be the victory\u201d (254, 2.5.14-15). Once seated, he begins to philosophize, admitting that he would as well be dead, if God allows it, and that nothing so appeals to him as the ancient shepherd\u2019s life, much as the way it\u2019s depicted in Theocritus and Vergil\u2019s pastoral poems. [34]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Says Henry, \u201cO God, methinks it were a happy life \/ To be no better than a homely swain, \/ To sit upon a hill, as I do now \u2026\u201d (254, 2.5.21-23). But that can never be for one born into royalty as King Henry VI, a relatively young but tired and dejected man who, as he reminds us in this play, was never really not <\/em>a king. [35]<\/a> Power brings misery, as he must know: it spurs competition, which soon blossoms into treason, and life becomes a chaos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As he sits on his little hill, Henry beholds something very like a Sidneyan \u201cspeaking picture\u201d [36]<\/a> of the anguish of war: two men, neither named, express their misery and dejection about what has befallen them. What has happened to them is perhaps the worst thing in the world: one has unwittingly slain his father during the battle, and the other has unwittingly slain his son: parricide and filicide. The father\u2019s plight is most heartrendingly expressed: \u201cOh, pity, God, this miserable age! \/ What stratagems, how fell, how butcherly, \/ Erroneous, mutinous, and unnatural, \/ This deadly quarrel daily doth beget!\u201d (255, 2.5.88-91)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Henry is sure that he himself suffers the greatest grief of all, as his sorrow encompasses that of all his subjects\u2014the violence that comes with the Wars of the Roses, he implies, is only happening because of him. [37]<\/a> That makes sense, but so does the filicide father\u2019s newfound pacifism: he addresses his dead son, saying, \u201cI\u2019ll bear thee hence, and let them fight that will, \/ For I have murdered where I should not kill\u201d (256, 2.5.121-22).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just then, Prince Edward and Margaret swoop in on Henry\u2019s sad contemplations, urging him to come with them to Berwick on the Scottish border. The day has not gone well for Lancaster\u2019s side: Towton has been a decisive Yorkist victory, and Edward, 4th<\/sup> Duke of York will be King Edward IV by June 1461.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act 2, Scene 6 (257-59, the mortally wounded Clifford enters, and the victorious Yorkists Warwick, Edward, Richard, and George exult over his corpse; they will sever his head and post it above the city of York\u2019s gates; before they set out for London, Warwick says he means to gain the French King\u2019s sister, Lady Bona, as Edward\u2019s bride; Edward creates George \u201cDuke of Clarence\u201d and Richard \u201cDuke of Gloucester,\u201d despite Richard\u2019s superstitious preference for the title George has been granted.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clifford, ever the creature of the House of Lancaster, enters mortally wounded and still lamenting what he had previously called Henry VI\u2019s \u201clenity\u201d in allowing the Yorkists to bully him from any position Clifford would consider suitably rigid against such traitors. By the time Edward, Warwick, Richard, George and others arrive, Clifford\u2019s injuries have reduced him to what sounds like agonal status\u2014he is groaning, not speaking. Warwick understands that Clifford \u201cnor sees, nor hears us what we say\u201d (258, 2.6.62). Still, Richard is dubious, so George urges him to poke the dying man verbally, just to see if he knows by what implacable enemies he is surrounded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At last, several taunts later, Richard is satisfied that Clifford is in fact dead, but dissatisfied that he is unable to buy another two hours of life for the man, just so he can continue insulting him. This is one of those moments that reveals much about what Shakespeare must think men such as Richard\u2014or indeed any of the major Yorkist and Lancastrian players\u2014can reduce themselves to, thanks to the terrible dynastic fury driving the Wars of the Roses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warwick\u2019s instructions sound almost mild in comparison to the behavior of Richard and George, at least in this scene. He says simply, \u201cOff with the traitor\u2019s head \/ And rear it in the place your father\u2019s stands\u201d (258, 2.6.84-85). They\u2019ll soon be on their way to London, where Edward will be crowned England\u2019s new king. From there, Warwick will sail to France and ask King Louis XI of France for the hand in marriage of his sister-in-law Bona of France, the daughter of Louis, Duke of Savoy. [38]<\/a> In this, he will be successful\u2014or so he thinks. On verra,<\/em> as the French say: \u201cwe shall see.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We should know by now that such fantasies as the one Warwick expresses for a stable peace between England and France are just that\u2014fantasies. The same is true of Edward\u2019s promise to Warwick, \u201cnever will I undertake the thing \/ Wherein they counsel and consent is wanting\u201d (259, 2.6.100-01). One practical piece of business is to create Richard \u201cDuke of Gloucester\u201d and George \u201cDuke of Clarence.\u201d Richard\u2019s superstitious (but understandable) request to be Duke of Clarence instead of Duke of Gloucester is immediately nixed by Edward. [39]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ACT 3<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Act 3, Scene 1 (259-61, a pair of gamekeepers, who consider themselves subjects of the current King Edward IV, not Henry VI, capture the former king.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Sinklo and Humfrey, two ordinary hunters, are waiting for some deer to come within range, they become witnesses to a bit of royal history\u2014at least as Shakespeare tells it\u2014unfolding before their eyes and ears. The dispossessed King Henry VI wanders down from Scotland into the north of England, as he tells us, just to \u201cgreet mine own land with my wishful sight\u201d (259, 3.1.14). [40]<\/a> Sinklo soon recognizes the former sovereign, saying \u201chere\u2019s a deer whose skin\u2019s a keeper\u2019s fee\u201d (259, 3.1.22). His idea is simply to lay hands on this ruined piece of royalty, and, no doubt, find himself richly rewarded for his action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But while they listen, they hear a former king who is by no means devoid of political acumen, even though everyone seems to think him a fool or a simpleton. Henry\u2019s analysis of what\u2019s happening in France is spot on\u2014he says that the \u201ckingmaker\u201d will emerge victorious since \u201cWarwick is a subtle orator \/ And Louis a prince soon won with moving words\u201d (260, 3.1.33-34). Beneath this surface analysis, Henry has some grasp of what today we call Realpolitik\u2014<\/em>hard-boiled political reality. The French king will go with the side he thinks is stronger, and that side, Henry surely believes, is Edward IV and his House of York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With regard to his sometime subjects\u2019 refusal to hold fast in their allegiance to him, though, Henry seems a bit puzzled, or perhaps just a little bemused. As he sees such allegiance, it\u2019s as wispy as a feather, apt, in his figure, to be blown away with each new gust of breath. Still, he is gentle in his observations, and finally says, \u201cGo where you will, the King shall be commanded \u2026\u201d (261, 3.1.91). In truth, the sometime Henry VI is in no position to give commands, so the hunters might as well play king themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act 3, Scene 2 (261-66, Lady Elizabeth Grey petitions Edward IV for her deceased husband\u2019s estate, and he offers to grant the request if she will sleep with him; when that gambit fails, the king asks Elizabeth to marry him, which upsets Richard and Clarence; word arrives that Henry VI has been captured; in soliloquy, Richard reflects on his options and determines that his only pleasure lies in reaching for the crown, no matter the obstacles.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this point, the lovely widow Lady Elizabeth Grey, n\u00e9e Woodville, makes her entrance into English history. She has come to the Royal Palace in London to petition King Edward IV for the estate of her Lancastrian husband, Sir Richard Grey, who died during the Second Battle of St. Albans on February 17, 1461. [41]<\/a> Strictly, since he was fighting against the Yorkists, his lands were subject to confiscation. While George and Richard observe from the sidelines, cracking jokes like sly schoolboys, their kingly brother tenders an indecent proposal: if the pretty lady will sleep with him, he will grant her suit. Quid pro quo. <\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elizabeth is no fool, and her immediate answer is \u201cno.\u201d She understands perfectly that if she answers \u201cyes,\u201d the king will never marry her. He will only ruin her reputation as a respectable woman, and then cast her aside for some other mistress. This rings true since historically, King Edward IV was quite the bon vivant, a playboy king. [42]<\/a> The lady\u2019s wisdom is apparent from Edward\u2019s own aside during their conversation. Impressed with her modesty, he muses, \u201cAll her perfections challenge sovereignty: \/ One way or other she is for a king, \/ And she shall be my love, or else my queen\u201d (263, 3.2.86-88).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After this audience with Lady Grey, the future Queen Elizabeth (n\u00e9e Woodville), Edward seems sincerely surprised that his younger brothers are surprised by his conversation with her. Soon, a nobleman messenger arrives with the news that the erstwhile Henry VI has been secured and conveyed to the palace gate as Edward\u2019s prisoner. The new king at once commands that the former king be conducted to the Tower of London for safekeeping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The end of Scene 2 could easily be subtitled, \u201ctell us what you really think, Richard.\u201d Alone with his thoughts for a good 69 lines, the young Duke of Gloucester shows us who he is. <\/em>Perhaps Shakespeare has a ways to go before he can render the interiority of a Hamlet, or a Macbeth, or a King Lear, but his character-rendering skills are by no means lacking even in the early 1590s, when 3 Henry VI <\/em>is thought to have been written, so he gives us a glimpse into the tortured, twisted soul of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, that future hobgoblin of the Tudor chroniclers\u2019 making, Richard III.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richard\u2019s first thought is apparently that it would be wonderful if his rascal of an older brother, Edward IV, were to indulge his tastes in the ladies until \u201che were wasted, marrow, bones, and all, \/ That from his loins no hopeful branch may spring \/ To cross me from the golden time I look for\u201d (264, 3.2.125-27). Syphilis, as we know, has a way of blighting dynastic hopes, and kings are not exempted from its dread effects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But even if that charitable wish comes to pass, Richard frets, there\u2019s still \u201cClarence, Henry, and his son, young Edward \u2026\u201d (264, 3.2.130) and any children they <\/em>may someday produce, potential heirs all. The truth is, Richard at this point in his life is nowhere near a fair and decent prospect of rising to supreme power. As such, then, he is like a person who \u201cstands upon a promontory \/ And spies a far-off shore where he would tread, \/ Wishing his foot were equal with his eye \u2026\u201d (264, 3.2.135-37).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It would seem that any thoughts Richard may harbor for the crown are misplaced. What to do, then\u2014what meaning remains to wring from such a life as his? He reflects, \u201cWhat other pleasure can the world afford?\u201d It may be rather difficult for us to square this hedonistic version of Richard with the grim power-seeker of Richard III <\/em>fame, but here he is in 3 Henry VI,<\/em> contemplating like a proto-Benthamite [43]<\/a> how he may maximize his pleasure throughout life in the most sustainable way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Might he, put-case, go his playboy brother Edward\u2019s route? Should he dress to the nines and, as he says, \u201cwitch sweet ladies with my words and looks\u201d? (264, 3.2.150) There will come a time when this thought actually occurs to him as a viable option in Richard III\u2014<\/em>who could blame him, since his wildly implausible \u201cwooing\u201d of the recently widowed Anne Neville goes so well in Richard III <\/em>[44]<\/a> \u2014<\/em> but at present, cold, hard, mirror-gazing reality tells him to put away such ridiculous hopes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richard\u2019s self-description reads like a preview of the one he will later provide in Richard III. <\/em>He says that the goddess of love forsook him even in the womb, bribing mother nature, as he puts it, \u201cTo shrink mine arm up like a withered shrub, \/ to make an envious mountain on my back, \/ Where sits deformity to mock my body \u2026\u201d (265, 3.2.156-58), and so forth. Despite all his privileges when growing up, Richard\u2019s imagination and vocabulary would no doubt have been amply stocked with the unenlightened views of disability held by many fellow medievals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, then, if a life of sexual adventure is not for the likes of Richard of Gloucester, what should he do? His answer is chilling and precise: \u201cI\u2019ll make my heaven to dream upon the crown \/ And, whiles I live, t\u2019account this world but hell \/ Until my misshaped trunk that bears this head \/ Be round impal\u00e8d with a glorious crown\u201d (265, 3.2.168-71). This is the only pleasure\u2014if we can label as \u201cpleasure\u201d the end result of a process he associates with \u201cTorment\u201d (265, 3.2.179)\u2014that\u2019s open to him, and he will pursue it, come what may.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richard\u2019s summing-up of his actorly resources wherewith to accomplish this unlikely triumph is magnificent, and every bit as good as any of his rhetoric in Richard III: <\/em>\u201cWhy, I can smile and murder whiles I smile, \/ And cry \u2018Content!\u2019 to that which grieves my heart, \/ And wet my cheeks with artificial tears, \/ And frame my face to all occasions\u201d (265, 3.2.182-85). This, and more. Whatever this discursive portrait of the man\u2019s interiority, his inner self, may lack in terms of the later poetic compressions, silences, gestures, and other means by which the mature Shakespeare makes the inside of a character available to us, it supplies with its sheer discursive brilliance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bravo! If in this portrait in 3 Henry VI <\/em>Richard is truly thinking things through, so that we are treated to the motions of a wicked mind in motion, it makes sense to say that in Richard III, <\/em>what we are enjoying is more like a studied performance in the theater of Richard\u2019s cruelty. Either way, we are in no doubt about what Gloucester\u2019s fellow characters are up against. Most of them will never see the axe or knife or full-up cask of malmsey wine coming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act 3, Scene 3 (266-71, Queen Margaret is making headway towards gaining France\u2019s King Louis XI\u2019s support, but Warwick shows up and proposes a match between Edward IV and Lady Bona of Savoy; news arrives that Edward IV has married Elizabeth Grey, so Louis XI decides to back Margaret and her son; Warwick angrily switches his allegiance to the Lancastrian side; the \u201ckingmaker\u201d will lead French troops against Edward IV, and Margaret will arrive in England later with another substantial French army.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enough of Richard\u2019s musings, it\u2019s time for Queen Margaret and the 16th<\/sup> Earl of Warwick to make their pitches regarding, respectively, support and marriage. Louis fancies himself fair-minded, and professes himself ready to hear what\u2019s on tap. Margaret goes first, and her desire is simple. Her poor simple husband Henry VI has \u201cbecome a banished man \/ And forced to live in Scotland a forlorn \u2026\u201d while the \u201cproud ambitious Edward, Duke of York, \/ Usurps the regal title and the seat \/ Of England\u2019s true-anointed lawful king\u201d (266, 3.3.25-28). Louis sounds almost ready to grant Margaret and her princely son the relief they seek.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next up in this medieval version of \u201cShark Tank\u201d is the Earl of Warwick, Ralph Neville. His proposal is also fairly simple: Louis XI should agree to give his sister, Lady Bona of Savoy, in marriage to England\u2019s shining, handsome new king, Edward IV. This would, suggests Warwick, achieve the \u201cleague of amity\u201d (267, 3.3.53) that would do so much good for France and England in the wake of the hell that was the Hundred Years\u2019 War. [45]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Queen Margaret argues that allying himself with a usurper-king such as Edward IV would be a terrible and destabilizing idea, this is hardly a compelling case since, after all, the Lancastrian \u201cBolingbroke\u201d (Henry IV) undeniably usurped the crown from King Richard II in 1399. Just as Henry VI told us a few scenes ago, Realpolitik <\/em>will take precedence over moral sententiae, <\/em>even when uttered by a queen. To adapt a line from JFK, Louis XI is more interested in \u201cwhat England can do for him,\u201d not what he can do for England.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So Warwick, whom Margaret calls \u201cProud setter-up and puller-down of kings\u201d (269, 3.3.157), is set to win the day, and it looks as if he has done so when the French king, having decorously allowed Bona of Savoy to weigh in with her opinion, declares, \u201cour sister shall be Edward\u2019s\u201d (269, 3.3.134). That is, it all looks good until the letters\u2014several of them\u2014arrive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One set of letters is for Warwick from Montague, while another set is from Edward IV to Louis XI, and yet a third is for Margaret. She is happy, but Warwick and Louis are anything but. The letters break the news that the English king has married Elizabeth Grey, n\u00e9e Woodville, making her his queen consort. So much for Warwick\u2019s stratagem, and for Louis XI\u2019s willingness to credit it. The earl, ever the quick-change artist, immediately makes nice with Margaret, and she, just as pliable, declares, \u201cI forgive and quite forget old faults \/ And joy that thou becom\u2019st King Henry\u2019s friend\u201d (270, 3.3.200-01). As for Louis, he\u2019s a good Lancastrian now, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warwick, once he\u2019s alone, tells us that for him, the matter comes down to wounded pride. As he asks, \u201cHad he none else to make a stale but me?\u201d It would appear so, and therefore, says Warwick, he, who raised Edward to his exalted position will be \u201cchief to bring him down again\u201d (271, 3.3.260, 263). This reduction of historical process to the feelings of a single high-status individual or \u201cpower player\u201d may come across as cartoonish, but it makes sense in dramatic terms, which cannot easily accommodate months and months of complicated negotiations such as those that attended the king of England\u2019s marriage, along with other political and dynastic complications. [46]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, Warwick can\u2019t help but admit to himself and us in soliloquy that none of what he\u2019s doing is about reasserting Henry VI\u2019s alleged rights as king of England. As he says, \u201cNot that I pity Henry\u2019s misery, \/ But seek revenge on Edward\u2019s mockery\u201d (271, 3.3.264-65). It\u2019s obvious that the earl doesn\u2019t care a rat\u2019s scrawny bottom for Henry or his whole Lancastrian line. If he\u2019s for anything, it\u2019s his own Neville<\/em> faction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ACT 4<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Act 4, Scene 1 (271-74, Edward IV finds out that Warwick has changed sides and orders that troops be raised to defend against the expected incursions; Clarence signs on with Warwick in exchange for his marriage to the powerful earl\u2019s daughter Isabel Neville.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

George and Richard criticize their brother the king\u2019s marriage to the upstart Elizabeth Grey, n\u00e9e Woodville, and Edward is not pleased with their viewpoint, which is basically that the match is demeaning and politically disadvantageous. Edward\u2019s attitude is easily stated, and he does so at the conversation\u2019s outset: \u201cI am Edward, \/ Your King and Warwick\u2019s, and must have my will\u201d (272, 4.1.15-16). A little later, he repeats the point with slight variation: \u201cIt was my will and grant, \/ And for this once my will shall stand for law\u201d (272, 4.1.49-50).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With due respect to his majesty, the view as stated is not convincing. We all know the problem with that kind of formulation: a king\u2019s absolutist gestures are never made \u201cjust this once,\u201d and there is no such thing as a \u201cdictator on day one\u201d\u2014at least not one who isn\u2019t also a dictator on every other day he is in power. Like so many absolutists (and no doubt with some variation on the old argument about \u201cthe king\u2019s two bodies\u201d), [47]<\/a> Edward makes the mistake of separating the crown\u2019s symbolic power too neatly from his personal management or \u201cwielding\u201d of it. By itself, a golden crown does not have the force he imagines it does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clarence, upon hearing that Warwick\u2019s daughter Anne Neville has married Margaret\u2019s young son the Prince of Wales, decides that he, too, will defect to Warwick and marry another of his daughters. This would logically make it possible for Warwick to set him <\/em>on the throne, rather than Henry VI, in spite of any words spoken with Margaret. Clarence and Warwick would have been in communication for some time regarding their options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richard, for his part, tells us in soliloquy that he will stay with Edward IV, but only for \u201cthe crown\u201d (274, 4.1.124). In other words, he has no chance of ever becoming king if he shifts to Henry VI\u2019s side, but if he stays with King Edward, there\u2019s hope for him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Greek poet Pindar has a line that might please that rider of chaos, Richard: \u201cIn one perfectly apportioned instant, the winds may shift in many directions.\u201d [48]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act 4, Scene 2 (274-75, Warwick and Clarence get ready to pounce on King Edward IV, who is waiting for his opponents\u2019 attack in an almost unguarded spot.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this stripped-to-the-bone scene, it almost looks as if Edward IV was captured merely because he was being lazy, but historically, what\u2019s described here is the aftermath of the Earl of Warwick\u2019s victory at the Battle of Edgcote Moor on July 24, 1469. Warwick\u2019s actions around this time should probably be referred to as an attempted coup, which, if it had been fully successful, would have allowed the earl to rule through <\/em>Edward IV. The latter may have been slow to recognize this, which failure then led to his own capture by Warwick\u2019s brother George Neville, Archbishop of York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The earl welcomes \u201csweet Clarence\u201d (275, 4.2.12) to the rebellion, at least verbally casting aside the distrust he still can\u2019t help mentioning might attend the defection of such a player. By the 1470 phase of his attempts, Warwick, having failed to seize full power in his own right, will plot to brush Edward aside and instead put Clarence himself on the throne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the aid of a Greek allusion about Ulysses, Diomedes, and the horses of Rhesus\u2019s \u201cThracian steeds\u201d (see 275, 4.2.19-21), Warwick paints a fine picture of how easy it will be to capture Edward: \u201cSo we, well covered with the night\u2019s black mantle, \/ At unawares may beat down Edward\u2019s guard \/ And seize himself\u201d (275, 4.2.22-24).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act 4, Scene 3 (275-77, watchmen guarding Edward IV express their worries for the king\u2019s safety; Warwick and Clarence\u2019s forces capture King Edward and strip him of his crown, sending him as a prisoner to Warwick\u2019s brother the Archbishop of York; next, they prepare to march into London and liberate King Henry VI.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The watchmen guarding King Edward IV talk among one another, and their consensus is that his majesty is not safe with such a small watch set over him. Right after this conversation, Warwick and his party attack Edward\u2019s camp, and the watchmen flee, leaving a surprised Edward to be taken into custody. Warwick takes the crown from Edward, and the dispossessed king waxes philosophical, saying, \u201cThough Fortune\u2019s malice overthrow my state, \/ My mind exceeds the compass of her wheel\u201d (276, 4.3.46-47). That\u2019s quite a statement for any mortal, even a king or queen. But he also says a little later, \u201cWhat fates impose, that men must needs abide; \/ It boots not to resist both wind and tide\u201d (277, 4.3.58-59).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All the same, perhaps the historical Edward knows something we don\u2019t: his captivity won\u2019t last. By September 10, 1469, Warwick, unable to govern in his own right, will find it necessary to release the king, and that king will begin to govern on his own, at least until Warwick\u2019s last invasion of England in September 1470, which would place Henry VI back on the throne for several months until the Yorkist victories at the Battle of Barnet in April 1471 and the Battle of Tewkesbury in May 1471. In any case, by October 1469, Edward IV was making his way to London \u201cin full state, with his lords in attendance.\u201d [49]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It seems that we should date the end of Scene 3 as condensing the periods wherein Edward IV was captured (July 1469) and then Warwick and Clarence went into exile in France from March 1470 to their return to England in September 1470. Warwick tells Oxford that the plan now is \u201cTo free King Henry from imprisonment \/ And see him seated in the regal throne\u201d (277, 4.3.63-64). Henry was indeed reinstalled as king on October 3, 1470.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act 4, Scene 4 (277, Edward\u2019s Queen, Elizabeth Grey\/Woodville, frightened upon learning that her husband has been captured, seeks sanctuary to protect herself and her unborn child from the cruelty of the king\u2019s opponents.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Queen Elizabeth Grey, n\u00e9e Woodville, pregnant with King Edward\u2019s child, tells Lord Rivers that the king has been captured by Warwick\u2019s brother the [Arch]bishop of York. (The king was sent initially to Warwick Castle, and then transferred to Middleham Castle.) The Queen\u2019s plan, she says, is to remove herself to safety: \u201cI\u2019ll hence forthwith unto the sanctuary \/ To save at least the heir of Edward\u2019s right\u201d (277, 4.4.31-32). [50]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elizabeth\u2019s entry into Westminster Abbey for sanctuary took place on October 1, 1470. Readers of Richard III <\/em>will recall the moving Folio scene in which Elizabeth again seeks sanctuary, though this time from Richard, Duke of Gloucester, in April 1483. On that occasion in Shakespeare\u2019s play, she will say her two young boys, \u201cPitty, you ancient Stones, those tender Babes, \/ Whom Enuie hath immur\u2019d within your Walls, \/ Rough Cradle for such little prettie ones \u2026\u201d (Folger 1623 Folio, Act 4, Scene 1). [51]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act 4, Scene 5 (278, Richard, Duke of Gloucester rescues King Edward IV from the grounds of Middleham Castle while he is out hunting in his usual location; Edward and his party prepare to sail to Flanders.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The playwright apparently borrows from Holinshed\u2019s Chronicles <\/em>the narrative of Edward\u2019s supposed escape from the surroundings of Middleham Castle in Yorkshire. [52]<\/a> Richard gives his compatriots, including a huntsman, the game plan: \u201cyou know our King, my brother, \/ Is prisoner to the Bishop here, at whose hands \/ He hath good usage and great liberty \u2026\u201d (278, 4.5.4-6). He has such freedom, Richard continues, that it will be no trouble making away with him so long as he has, as he\u2019s been instructed, placed himself in the right place at the right time. It all comes off as planned, and Edward is again at large.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Holinshed\u2019s account and the playwright\u2019s are highly dramatized since Edward didn\u2019t really \u201cescape\u201d so much as get set free. There was a Lancastrian rebellion going on in the north of England, and Warwick needed Edward\u2019s help to suppress it. He didn\u2019t have the heft needed to keep order without the king\u2019s assistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act 4, Scene 6 (278-80, Warwick frees King Henry from the Tower of London, where he has been imprisoned; Henry, wishing to lead a private life, asks Warwick and Clarence to take the reins of government; Henry VI, informed that Henry Tudor is present, utters a prophecy about the young man\u2019s importance to the nation; Oxford and Somerset arrange to send Henry Tudor to Brittany to keep him safe from the exiled Edward IV.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Warwick and Clarence and their party come to rescue King Henry from the Tower, Henry tells them in all humility, \u201cI make you both Protectors of this land, \/ While I myself will lead a private life \/ And in devotion spend my latter days \u2026\u201d (279, 4.6.41-43). Aside from the use of the official term \u201cProtector,\u201d the playwright\u2019s authority for this portrait appears to be Holinshed\u2019s account in the Chronicles. <\/em>The historical date would be October 3, 1470.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Henry Tudor (the future Henry VII) is present at the beginning of King Henry\u2019s \u201creadeption\u201d (the formal term for Henry\u2019s reassumption of his title from October 3, 1470-April 11, 1471, at which latter date Edward IV marched into London unopposed and secured his possession of the city). Henry Beaufort, 3rd<\/sup> Earl of Somerset, is shepherding a young lad, and the king wants to know who he is. The answer is, \u201cMy liege, it is young Henry, Earl of Richmond\u201d (280, 4.6.67). His is a fateful presence since soon, as we know, no one but him will be left to represent the Lancastrian line during the malign reign of Richard III in just a dozen years or so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mystical Henry VI issues a prophecy pertaining to Henry Tudor, saying, \u201cMake much of him, my lords, for this is he \/ Must help you more than you are hurt by me\u201d (280, 4.6.75-76). When all but Somerset, Oxford, and Richmond have departed, Somerset sets forth the plan for Richmond: \u201cForthwith we\u2019ll send him hence to Bretagne \/ Till storms be past of civil enmity\u201d (280, 4.6.97-98). They agree that he must be kept out of Edward\u2019s clutches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act 4, Scene 7 (281-82, Edward IV has returned from exile in Flanders with an army, and enters the city of York; he protests that all he wants is to regain his dukedom, but as soon as he enters York, he gives in to his supporters\u2019 pleas to assert his right to be king.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On March 14, 1471, Edward IV arrives at East Yorkshire\u2019s Ravenspur in hopes of regaining the English throne. The Mayor of York is at first reluctant to unbar the gates and let Edward and his troops in, but Edward uses his famous charm and talks his way in, saying, \u201cBut, master Mayor, if Henry be your King \/ Yet Edward, at the least, is Duke of York\u201d (281, 4.7.20-21). It\u2019s hard to imagine anyone being fooled by such a pitch; but then, the same argument worked well enough seven decades ago to earn Henry Bolingbroke a lot of Percy lords and other supporters, who subsequently made him<\/em> king.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once the former sovereign is admitted into York, Sir John Montgomery and other supporters have unsurprisingly little trouble convincing \u201cDuke\u201d Edward that \u201cKing Edward IV\u201d is much the better title for him. \u201cThen be it as you will,\u201d says Edward, \u201cfor \u2018tis my right, \/ And Henry but usurps the diadem\u201d (282, 4.7.65-66). As Michael Corleone says in The Godfather, Part 3, <\/em>\u201cJust when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!\u201d [53]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act 4, Scene 8 (283, Warwick <\/strong>reports that Edward has returned from the Low Countries and is now on his way to London with an army; Warwick says he\u2019ll raise troops in Warwickshire, Clarence will raise soldiers in Suffolk, Norfolk and Kent, and Montague and Oxford will do the same elsewhere; King Henry says goodbye to Warwick and the others, who then tells his lords they\u2019ll all meet at Coventry.<\/strong>)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warwick informs his lords that Edward has come back from the Low Countries, and is now marching towards London, picking up support as he goes. The kingmaker gives his commands as to how his side will proceed, with each of the commanders present being ordered to go and raise as many troops as they can. As for himself, Warwick says, \u201cIn Warwickshire I have true-hearted-friends, \/ Not mutinous in peace, yet bold in war\u201d (283, 4.8.9-10). They will, he promises, find Edward in London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

King Henry says a gracious farewell to each man, even calling Warwick \u201cmy Hector, and my Troy\u2019s true hope\u201d (283, 4.8.25), and the powerful earl says they\u2019ll all meet at Coventry. As the Norton editor points out, English lore sometimes casts England as a \u201csecond Troy.\u201d [54]<\/a> That association seems fraught just now, as it was Brutus, not Hector, who left the burning city of Troy to found Britain. But no doubt Henry just means to invoke Warwick as a valiant warrior, not tell him he\u2019s about to die for the Lancastrian cause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act 4, Scene 9 (283-84, King Henry, staying at the Bishop of London\u2019s Palace while Warwick and his Lancastrian officers rustle up more soldiers, is captured one last time by King Edward IV; Edward marches towards Coventry to do battle with Warwick\u2019s forces.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

King Henry guilelessly asks Exeter how his subjects could support Edward instead of him when, as he says, \u201cMy pity hath been balm to heal their wounds \u2026\u201d (283, 4.9.9). As the saintly king puts the case, \u201cwhen the lion fawns upon the lamb, \/ The lamb will never cease to follow him\u201d (284, 4.9.17-18). The trouble is, Henry\u2019s subjects\u2014particularly the higher-status ones, but not only them\u2014are not lambs, they\u2019re human beings. \u201cWe the sheeple,\u201d as the comic description goes today, are capable of all sorts of ingratitude and even viciousness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Henry is not among those English sovereigns who are \u201cMachiavellians before Machiavelli.\u201d Consider the famous advice from Chapter 17 of The Prince: <\/em>\u201cit is much safer to be feared than loved, when, of the two, either must be dispensed with.\u201d Machiavelli speaks to what really motivates people\u2019s actions when he writes, \u201cmen have less scruple in offending one who is beloved than one who is feared, for love is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to the baseness of men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails.\u201d [55]<\/a> Henry, though surrounded by aristocratic brutes, does not wish to think of them as base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enter soon-to-be (again) Edward IV, who, after some pretty words about \u201cfounts\u201d and \u201csmall brooks\u201d and suchlike things, is about as subtle as Edmund in King Lear<\/em> when it comes time to have a hapless old king and his beloved daughter dragged off to prison: Edward\u2019s language is, \u201cHence with him to the tower. Let him not speak\u201d (284, 4.9.25). The date should be April 11, 1471\u2014just three days before the Battle of Barnet on April 14, and a little over three weeks before the decisive Yorkist victory at Tewkesbury on May 4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ACT 5<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Act 5, Scene 1 (284-87, Warwick and his forces wait near Coventry\u2019s walls for Clarence to arrive with his troops as other pro-Lancastrian forces arrive; King Edward shows up with his forces, and a brief parley takes place; when Clarence finally arrives, he at once betrays Warwick and rejoins Edward and his Yorkist cause; Warwick and his men will march out from Coventry to fight against Edward\u2019s armies at Barnet. )<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outside the walls of the West Midlands city of Coventry, Warwick waits with his forces for Clarence to add his numbers to the Lancastrian army, but so far he has not arrived. Instead, Edward\u2019s forces arrive at Coventry, and a parley takes place. Edward and Richard taunt Warwick with the news that they have already taken King Henry prisoner, but the earl is in no mood to capitulate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, Clarence arrives, but \u201cGeorge,\u201d plucking a red rose from his hat, shocks Warwick with his words. Tossing the rose at the earl, he declares brazenly, \u201cI will not ruinate my father\u2019s house, \/ Who gave his blood to lime the stones together, \/ And set up Lancaster\u201d (286, 5.1.83-85). Shakespeare represents this decision as a sudden change of heart, but in historical terms, it was more of a drawn-out process whereby Clarence was led (for reasons of self-interest, it almost goes without saying) to betray the \u201ckingmaker\u201d who betrayed his brother Edward. [56]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only thing for Warwick and his forces to do now is march towards Barnet and offer battle to Edward\u2019s armies. The date of the Battle of Barnet will be April 14, 1471.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act 5, Scene 2 (287-88, the Battle of Barnet takes place, and King Edward brings the gravely wounded Warwick to an unspecified spot of ground, leaving him to die; Lancastrian officers find Warwick, but after a few last exchanges, he dies, and the Lancastrians prepare to join forces with Margaret and her French troops.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edward brings in the mortally wounded Warwick, and addresses the also gravely wounded Montague, who may be nearby (that\u2019s Warwick\u2019s brother John Neville, Marquess of Montague, who was killed before his brother at Barnet), \u201cI seek for thee \/ that Warwick\u2019s bones may keep thine company\u201d (3-4). [57]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warwick, this violent man we have come to think of as almost a political automaton, relentlessly pursuing his special power to make and unmake men even greater than he, turns penetratingly philosophical at the point of death, saying, \u201cThese eyes, that now are dimmed with death\u2019s black veil, \/ Have been as piercing as the midday sun \/ To search the secret treasons of the world\u201d (287, 5.2.16-17). He laments all the material delights\u2014the parks, the walks, the fine manors, and so forth\u2014that he must now leave behind forever. Most of all, however, he will miss the power that he wielded: \u201cFor who lived king but I could dig his grave? (287, 5.2.21)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Somerset arrives at the scene and tells Warwick that his brother Montague is in fact dead, having uttered with his last breath, \u201cOh, farewell, Warwick\u201d (288, 5.2.47). With that, Warwick dies, too. [58]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act 5, Scene 3 (288-89, King Edward and his brothers Richard and Clarence exult after their victory at Barnet; now it\u2019s time for them to march to Tewkesbury and confront Margaret\u2019s numerous forces there.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edward is in high spirits as he enters triumphantly with his commanders: \u201cThus far our fortune keeps an upward course \/ And we are graced with wreaths of victory \u2026\u201d (288, 5.3.), he says, but still there\u2019s a dark cloud on the horizon: Margaret is coming with an army of Frenchmen reputed to be 30,000 strong. Edward has learned that they are headed for Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire. That is where Edward and his men, victorious at Barnet, will go, hoping to give battle before Margaret\u2019s forces are fully prepared to fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act 5, Scene 4 (289-90, in spite of Lancastrian losses, Queen Margaret rallies her men with a fine speech drawn from a sailing metaphor; King Edward arrives, speaks briefly to his forces, and the Battle of Tewkesbury impends.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Queen Margaret freely references her side\u2019s losses thus far\u2014the loss at Barnet is behind the Lancastrians, and she wields a sailing metaphor that Shakespeare\u2019s navy-minded Elizabethan audiences must have found stirring: \u201cWhat though the mast be now blown overboard, \/ The cable broke, the holding-anchor lost, \/ And half our sailors swallowed in the flood?\u201d (289, 5.4.3-5) The ship\u2019s pilot, she says, is still alive\u2014Henry lives, though he is not present. She asks her men, \u201cAnd, though unskillful, why not Ned and I \/ For once allowed the skillful pilot\u2019s charge?\u201d (289, 5.4.19-20)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why not, that is, try a royal warrior-woman as pilot, along with her young son, the Prince of Wales? This, and more, all of it well received by her commanders and the troops. The last words Margaret has for her troops before battle is the admission that King Henry has been captured, and almost everything he has done as king negated. But as she says, with Edward IV entering the scene, \u201cyonder is the wolf that makes this spoil\u201d (291, 5.4.80), so they all know what to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edward speaks briefly to his men, telling them that Margaret\u2019s forces are a \u201cthorny wood\u201d that \u201cMust by the roots be hewn up yet ere night\u201d (290, 5.4.67, 69).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act 5, Scene 5 (290-92, Queen Margaret is led in as a prisoner; Oxford and Somerset are led away to execution; Prince Edward is brought in, and spurns the king\u2019s offer to hear his apology; Edward, Richard, and Clarence each stab the prince to death; Margaret begs for death, but the king prevents Richard from obliging her; Richard heads for the Tower of London, where Henry is kept, and Margaret is led away.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The captured Earl of Oxford and Duke of Somerset are led away to their deaths, and Queen Margaret spars with King Edward and Richard as she is forced to watch the Prince baited and stabbed to death by these vicious adults. Probably sensing that his life is done, Prince Edward baits the king, ordering him, \u201cSpeak like a subject, proud ambitious York\u201d (291, 5.5.17). This elicits approval from Margaret, who says, \u201cAh, that thy father had been so resolved!\u201d (291, 5.5.22)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richard, ever hateful towards the sometime Queen (not to mention frankly misogynistic), mocks her with \u201cthat you might still have worn the petticoat \/ And ne\u2019er have stol\u2019n the breech from Lancaster\u201d (291, 5.5.23-24). Prince Edward\u2019s comparison of Richard\u2019s taunt to an Aesop\u2019s fable proves fatal to the young man since, hearing this mockery and a bit more afterwards, King Edward, Richard, and Clarence stab him in turn. Margaret begs for death, and Richard is set to oblige her, but Edward restrains him, the better to torment her with the death of her beloved son and last dynastic hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richard recovers quickly since he\u2019s in a hurry to make his way to the Tower of London, exclaiming \u201cTower. The Tower!\u201d (292, 5.5.50) It isn\u2019t difficult to guess what he has in mind to do when he gets there. Almost comically, it\u2019s brother George, or Clarence, who figures out what the errand is. King Edward seems to have no clue\u2014he\u2019s more focused on the fact that his queen, Elizabeth Woodville, is due to have his child, and he\u2019s hoping for a son.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act 5, Scene 6 (293-95, Richard converses with Henry, who speaks prophecies and insults the duke; an angry Richard cuts Henry\u2019s diatribe off with his knife, and, with King Henry VI and his son Prince Edward dead, tells us how he plans to gain the crown: brother Clarence will soon join these now-eliminated rivals in death.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richard dismisses the lieutenant of the Tower, and makes some tense conversation (if we can call it that) with the imprisoned King Henry, who compares Richard to a hungry wolf and then, framing what\u2019s to come in theatrical terms, asks, \u201cWhat scene of death hath Roscius now to act?\u201d (293, 5.6.10) The former king has heard about Prince Edward\u2019s death already, and speaks of him as a little bird who \u201cwas limed, was caught and killed\u201d (293, 5.6.17). Richard compares the dead prince to Icarus in the Greek legend, and Henry draws out the figure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Henry soon loses patience bandying learned words with the man he knows murdered his son and has now come to kill him, too. He utters a prophecy of doom for thousands who will regret that the ill prodigy, Richard, survived his own childhood. Henry says that when the duke was born, \u201cThe night-crow cried, aboding luckless time; \/ Dogs howled and hideous tempest shook down trees; \/ The raven rooked her on the chimney\u2019s top \u2026\u201d and so forth (294, 5.6.45-47).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richard can take no more of it. He seems especially rattled by Henry\u2019s mention of the popular legend that he was born with teeth, [59]<\/a> and stabs Henry VI to death, saying, \u201cFor this amongst the rest was I ordained\u201d (294, 5.6.68). There\u2019s a priestly sound to that pronouncement, as if Richard feels he has been \u201cordained\u201d from birth to slay this Lancastrian king, this \u201cHenry VI,\u201d in whose service so much blood of York has been shed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Henry dead, Richard stabs him a second time to make sure of him, and utters a chilling speech about his own sense of who he really is. The legend about being born with teeth, he admits, is true. Reflecting on his strange and misshapen physicality, he says, \u201csince the heavens have shaped my body so, \/ Let hell make crooked my mind to answer it\u201d (294, 5.6.78-79).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most startling, however, is Richard\u2019s sense of isolation and emotional sterility even in the midst of a triumphant royal family. He says, \u201cI have no brother, I am like no brother; \/ And this word \u2018love,\u2019 which greybeards call divine, \/ Be resident in men like one another \/ and not in me. I am myself alone\u201d (294, 5.6.80-83). Shakespeare\u2019s Richard does not consider Edward or Clarence his brothers in anything but a formal sense that sparks no human warmth in him\u2014he certainly does not love them or indeed anyone but himself; if, that is, he does not loathe himself, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richard is already thinking through the villainies he will commit in Shakespeare\u2019s Richard III. <\/em>In the first act of that play, he will do exactly what he sketches now: falsely implicate Clarence in yet another plot against King Edward, get him condemned for it, \u201cand then the rest\u201d (294, 5.6.90). At present, let others enjoy their mindless celebrations\u2014Richard, who has all the marks of a true psychopath, will enjoy his \u201ctriumph\u201d (295, 5.6.93) over Henry\u2019s violent death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act 5, Scene 7 (295-96, King Edward celebrates, making Richard and Clarence kiss his newborn son, the future Edward V; Richard makes a show of such good spirits, but tells us in soliloquy that his intentions are anything but avuncular towards the boy.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s springtime for Edward IV\u2014spring of 1471, to be precise, for April of that year marks the beginning of the king\u2019s second reign, which will last until his death on April 9, 1483. The king ticks off the list of famous Lancastrians and Nevilles over whom he has triumphed\u2014\u201cThree Dukes of Somerset \u2026,\u201d a pair of Cliffords and Northumberlands, and Warwick and his brother Montague\u2014all come in for honorable mentions (295, 5.7.5-10). If there is anything unseemly in listing such men\u2019s deaths in this way, Edward remains unaware of the fault.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He remains unaware, too, of the serpent-like Richard\u2019s true intentions among his royal \u201chappy family.\u201d Like Clarence, he obeys his elder brother\u2019s polite command to kiss his beautiful wife Elizabeth and their darling infant son, Edward, who represents the Yorkists\u2019 hoped-for glorious future. [60]<\/a> Edward, evincing his usual obliviousness to the psychopathy lodged at the heart of his own family, says to Clarence and Richard, \u201clove my lovely queen, \/ And kiss your princely nephew, brothers both\u201d (295, 5.7.26-27). Richard\u2019s wicked asides leave no doubt about his plans going forwards. If Edward wants to play Joseph beaming over the little Christ child, brother Richard will, without hesitation, adopt the role of Judas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edward is not troubled by the defeated ex-Queen Margaret\u2019s being ransomed from imprisonment in England to her homeland, France. [61]<\/a> He proposes to \u201cspend the time \/ With stately triumphs, mirthful comic shows, \/ Such as befits the pleasure of the court\u201d (296, 5.7.42-44). Enjoy your pleasures while you may, illustrious Edward\u2014the fate of the House of York will be nothing to celebrate when Shakespeare\u2019s twisted Richard III deceives and murders his way to his own vision of personal glory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3 Henry VI <\/em>is a difficult play to take in since it spans mainly from the Battles of Northampton and Wakefield in 1460 to King Edward\u2019s final reassumption of the throne in the spring of 1471\u2014an intense period during the Wars of the Roses that shaped much of English history. To get a sufficient amount of it in, Shakespeare, along with his probable co-author Marlowe, plays his usual skillful tricks on objective history\u2014not that he or we could ever arrive at that, <\/em>to be sure\u2014telescoping, conflation, or rearrangement of times and events, and changing the age of characters, if doing so will suit a theme or action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But for all the biases, distortions, inventions, and other features that might be regarded as flaws by history purists\u2014Percy Shelley\u2019s good friend Thomas Love Peacock wrote that the Elizabethans bothered with time and place mainly because dramatic propriety wouldn\u2019t allow them to dismiss such stuff altogether [62]<\/a> \u2014Shakespeare, as always in his history plays, gets something fundamentally right about English history\u2019s pageant of colorful, often ethically challenged royal and otherwise aristocratic or noteworthy characters. In these plays, he represents humanity under the extreme pressure of dynastic maneuvering, clan-based savagery, and symbolically supercharged expectations and responsibilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps above all, Shakespeare and his likely collaborators make history so fascinating a bedfellow of intense personality that we can\u2019t help but search for the true dynamics and facts of history itself\u2014or at least, to use an updated, less essentialist historical lexicon, we can\u2019t help but search for the most plausible and productive narratival and other discursive frameworks for understanding the past and, with it, the present it has made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was Richard Plantagenet, 3rd<\/sup> Duke of York as complicated and ambitious, Warwick as prideful and domineering, Margaret as fierce and resentful, Henry VI as saintly and prophetic, or Richard, Duke of Gloucester as cunning and evil as Shakespeare makes them appear? We don\u2019t know, and can\u2019t know\u2014but we feel bound to search deeper to find out who they were, what they did, and what their contemporaries thought about them. The task is impossible if we treat it in an unsophisticatedly objectivist manner, but the search itself is always constructive, very often fascinating, and, in the end, altogether necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edition.<\/strong>\u00a0Greenblatt, Stephen et al., editors.\u00a0The Norton Shakespeare: Histories + Digital Edition.<\/em>\u00a03rd ed. W. W. Norton, 2016. ISBN-13: 978-0-393-93859-3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 Alfred J. Drake<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Document Timestamp: 2\/18\/2026 5:36 PM<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ENDNOTES<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

*To return to exact part of the text referenced by the endnotes below, left-click on the endnote’s numbered link. By contrast, the blue scroll-up button at the bottom right of the page returns to the top of the document.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[1]<\/a> Geoffrey Bullough says the battles at St. Albans (May 22, 1455) and Northampton (July 10, 1460) are combined. See his Narrative and Dramatic Sources of Shakespeare. <\/em>Vol. III. Earlier English History Plays: Henry VI, Richard III, Richard II.<\/em> London: Routledge and Kegan Paul; New York: Columbia UP, 1960. 72.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[2]<\/a> As for the several Lancastrian lords killed or wounded at St. Albans: these were Henry Percy, 2nd<\/sup> Earl of Northumberland (1392-1455, killed); Thomas Clifford, 8th<\/sup> Baron de Clifford (1414-55, killed); Lord Stafford aka Humphrey Earl Stafford (1425-58, badly wounded), son to 1st<\/sup> Duke of Buckingham; and Edmund Beaufort, the 2nd Duke of Somerset (1406-55).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[3]<\/a> Shakespeare almost never clarifies these abrupt temporal transitions in his history plays, while he sometimes chooses to dwell on transitions that may span several years as if only a moment had gone by. An example of this treatment occurs in Pericles, Prince of Tyre, <\/em>wherein the ghost of the medieval poet John Gower tells us he has sped time along to bring us to the next episodes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[4]<\/a> A good introduction to this powerful earl, Richard Neville (1428-1471), whose daughter Anne would one day become Richard III\u2019s queen, is available at \u201cWarwick the Kingmaker<\/a>.\u201d Historic-UK.com. Accessed 1\/5\/2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[5]<\/a> Hall\u2019s Chronicles<\/em> and Holinshed\u2019s Chronicles<\/em> both affirm that Parliament was in session. See Boswell-Stone, Walter G. Shakespeare’s Holinshed: The Chronicle and the Historical Plays Compared<\/em>. Wentworth Press, 2019 [repr. of London: Chatto & Windus 1907 ed.]. ISBN-13: <\/strong>978-0530892863. 291-92.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[6]<\/a> See \u201cHoly of Holies<\/a>.\u201d Britannica.com. Accessed 1\/5\/2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[7]<\/a> This level of doubt is surprising coming from the Duke of Exeter (i.e., Henry Holland, 3rd<\/sup> Duke of Exeter, 1430-75), a strong Lancastrian supporter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[8]<\/a> Henry VI\u2019s part was, historically, accompanied by negotiations and political considerations on the Parliament\u2019s part. It was not as sudden or solitary a decision by York as it seems to be in Shakespeare\u2019s play. See Ross, Charles. Edward IV. <\/em>Berkeley: U of California Press, 1974. ISBN-10: 0520027817.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[9]<\/a> On the October 31, 1460 \u201cAct of Accord,\u201d see \u201cThe brief triumph of Richard, duke of York \u2026.<\/a>\u201d Historyofparliament.com. See also the text of the Accord<\/a>. Wikisource.org. Accessed 1\/5\/2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[10]<\/a> See \u201cBattle of Northampton<\/a>.\u201d Battlefieldstrust.com. Accessed 1\/5\/2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[11]<\/a> Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales (1453-71). This young son of Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou was killed at the Battle of Tewkesbury in May 1471, ending his parents\u2019 hopes for dynastic succession.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[12]<\/a> Henry IV can speak for them all when he says, \u201cUneasy lies the head that wears a crown.\u201d Shakespeare, William. The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, Continuing to His Death, and Coronation of Henry the Fifth.<\/em> Quarto. In The Norton Shakespeare: Histories,<\/em> 3rd ed. 710-78. See 740, 3.1.31.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[13]<\/a> Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Macbeth.<\/em> In The Norton Shakespeare: Tragedies,<\/em> 3rd ed. 917-69. See 926, 1.5.63-64.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[14]<\/a> John Clifford, 9th<\/sup> Baron Clifford (1435-61).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[15]<\/a> On the mythical bird, see \u201cPhoenix<\/a>.\u201d Theoi.com. Accessed 1\/5\/2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[16]<\/a> In truth, the Christian chivalric code is in part a decorous cover for the ruthlessness and primal violence that have marred human history. It may restrain or temper violent impulses, but it also depends on them for its continued relevance. See, for example, Kathryn Mogk Wagner, \u201cConstructing Chivalry<\/a>.\u201d Genealogiesofmodernity.org. Accessed 1\/5\/2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[17]<\/a> See The Gospel According to St. Matthew<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>Chs. 26-27. Biblegateway.com. Accessed 1\/5\/2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[18]<\/a> Ren\u00e9 (1409-80), King of Naples from 1435-42, at which point he was deposed. He was also Duke of Anjou and Count of Provence from 1434-80. Ren\u00e9 was Margaret of Anjou\u2019s father by Isabella, Duchess of Lorraine (1400-53).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[19]<\/a> This famous \u201ctiger\u2019s heart\u201d passage was used by Robert Greene against the \u201cupstart\u201d Shakespeare, who dared to write excellent plays without the university education Greene and his friends enjoyed: \u201cO tiger\u2019s heart wrapped in a player\u2019s hide \u2026\u201d wrote Greene sneeringly. See Greene\u2019s Groatsworth of Wit, Bought with a Million of Repentance<\/em><\/a>, 1592. HathiTrust.org. Accessed 1\/5\/2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[20]<\/a> Recollecting how Regan and Cornwall mock the Earl of Gloucester before and as they blind him should suffice. When Regan\u2019s husband Cornwall asks Gloucester why he traveled to Dover to find the king, the earl says, \u201cBecause I would not see thy cruel nails \/ Pluck out his poor old eyes, nor thy fierce sister \/ In his anointed flesh stick boarish fangs\u201d (811-12, 3.7.56-58). This is all the prompting Cornwall needs\u2014he plucks out one of Gloucester\u2019s eyes, and then Regan goads him into doing the same with the other, screaming, \u201cOut, vile jelly!\u201d (812, 3.7.83)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Observing the many correspondences between various things and levels of things was an Elizabethan habit and part of their overall worldview, so it isn\u2019t surprising that such wicked literalism should be a feature of the darker sort of humor: what the decent man Gloucester can scarcely imagine, rogues like Regan and Cornwall do without reflection or even hesitation, much less conscience. On the Elizabethan conception of order and correspondence, see Tillyard, E. M. W. The Elizabethan World Picture: A Study of the Idea of Order in the Age of Shakespeare, Donne and Milton.<\/em> Vintage, 1959. ISBN-13: 978-0394701622.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[21]<\/a> The triple-sun phenomenon is called a \u201cparhelion\u201d or sun-dog. See \u201cParhelion<\/a>.\u201d Skybrary.aero. Accessed 1\/5\/2026. We might also recall how in Richard III, <\/em>Richard of Gloucester, ever selfish, arrogates the power of the sun to his use when, delighted at his success with Anne Neville, he blurts out, \u201cShine out, fair sun, till I have bought a glass, \/ That I may see my shadow as I pass.\u201d See Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of King Richard the Third.<\/em> Quarto. In The Norton Shakespeare: Histories,<\/em> 3rd ed. 384-465. 1.2.248-49.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[22]<\/a> The relevant historical birthdates are as follows: Edward, Earl of March and future King Edward IV (1442), Edmund, Earl of Rutland (1443), George (1449), Richard of Gloucester (1452). Rutland was only about a year younger than York\u2019s eldest son and heir, Edward. Thus, only Edward and Rutland would have been old enough to be involved in the battles that occurred around this time (1460 or so). Edward was not at Wakefield but was stationed in the Welsh Marches. (He would soon avenge his father at Towton at the end of March 1461.) Right after the Battle of Wakefield, Richard and George were sent for safety to the Low Countries. See \u201cThe Western Campaign of 1461<\/a>.\u201d Battlefieldstrust.com. Accessed 1\/5\/2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[23]<\/a> 3 Henry VI, <\/em>294, 5.6.80.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[24]<\/a> Richard says at 441, 4.3.38, \u201cThe sons of Edward sleep in Abraham\u2019s bosom.\u201d The Norton footnote for this line reminds us that the language echoes Luke <\/em>16:22-23. Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of King Richard the Third.<\/em> Quarto. In The Norton Shakespeare: Histories,<\/em> 3rd ed. 384-465.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[25]<\/a> In 1461, the real-life George or \u201cClarence\u201d was around twelve years old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[26]<\/a> 3 Henry VI, <\/em>237, 1.2.28-31.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[27]<\/a> See earlier endnote on the 1460 Act of Accord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[28]<\/a> See earlier endnote on Queen Margaret\u2019s father, Ren\u00e9, King of Naples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[29]<\/a> See also, for example, Anne Neville\u2019s insulting language to Richard during the wooing scene: \u201cNever hung poison on a fouler toad. \/ Out of my sight! Thou dost infect my eyes\u201d (392, 1.2.145-46). Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of King Richard the Third.<\/em> Quarto. In The Norton Shakespeare: Histories,<\/em> 3rd ed. 384-465.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[30]<\/a> John Neville, 1st<\/sup> Marquess of Montagu (1431-71).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[31]<\/a> Titus Andronicus<\/em> would, in truth, be hard to top for outrageous language and ultra-violence. When Lucius returns to tell his father Titus that the captive Tamora, Queen of Goths\u2019 eldest son has been sacrificed, he declares proudly, \u201cAlarbus\u2019 limbs are lopped \/ And entrails feed the sacrificing fire, \/ Whose smoke like incense doth perfume the sky\u201d (149, 1.1.146-48).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[32]<\/a> In England and other parts of today\u2019s United Kingdom, wolves were for centuries much feared and subject to attempts to exterminate them. Those attempts go back at least as far as King Edward I (r. 1272-1307). To this day, there are no wild wolves in the UK. See \u201cAre There Wild Wolves in the UK?<\/a>\u201d  YouTube. Naturally Happy Dogs. Accessed 1\/5\/2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[33]<\/a> Towton seems to be conflated here with Northampton\u2014it was at the latter place that Henry VI was captured on July 10, 1460. His own Lancastrians \u201crecaptured\u201d him at the Second Battle of St. Albans on February 17, 1461, and then, after the disastrous outcome of the Battle of Towton on March 29, 1461, Henry fled north to Scotland with Queen Margaret. See Battles (British Battles)<\/a> and other sites pertaining to the Wars of the Roses at the beginning of this commentary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[34]<\/a> See, for example, Theocritus\u2019 Idylls 1-4<\/em><\/a>. <\/em>Trans. J. M. Edmonds, Loeb Library 1912. Theoi.com. Accessed 1\/5\/2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[35]<\/a> He says to Warwick and York, \u201cWhen I was crowned I was but nine months old\u201d (233, 1.1.112).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[36]<\/a> See Sir Philip Sidney\u2019s circa 1580 treatise, \u201cThe Defence of Poesie<\/a>.\u201d Gutenberg e-text. Accessed 1\/05\/2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[37]<\/a> Old Queen Margaret\u2019s grief in Richard III <\/em>4.4 makes a similar, extended claim to superiority, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[38]<\/a> The Norton footnote 8 for pg. 258 tells us about Bona of Savoy\u2019s ancestry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[39]<\/a> The two<\/em> dukes of Gloucester who were appointed before Richard were Edward III\u2019s youngest surviving son, Thomas of Woodstock (1355-97), who was killed by order of Richard II in 1397, and son of King Henry IV Humphrey of Lancaster (1390-1447), who died under suspicious circumstances while under arrest on a charge of treason in 1447.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[40]<\/a> Historically, Henry was looking for support, not wandering aimlessly. In 1464, the deposed king returned to England in support of an uprising that subsequently failed, and he was taken prisoner in 1465. See Britannica\u2019s entry \u201cHenry VI, King of England<\/a>.\u201d Accessed 1\/5\/2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[41]<\/a> See Susan Higginbotham\u2019s \u201cRichard Grey, Elizabeth Woodville\u2019s Second Son<\/a>.\u201d  Susanhigginbotham.com. Accessed 1\/5\/2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[42]<\/a> See Ross, Charles. Edward IV. <\/em>Berkeley: U of California Press, 1974. ISBN-10: 0520027817. 86-87. Ross weighs common claims about Edward that he was \u201clicentious,\u201d perhaps to an extreme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[43]<\/a> Jeremy Bentham\u2019s hedonic or felicific calculus comes to mind\u2014it offered Victorians a way to \u201cmeasure their pleasure\u201d and factor in the pleasure to be experienced by others as well. Of course, Richard of Gloucester has little concern for the broader framework of utilitarianism, which concerns the achievement of \u201cthe greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.\u201d See \u201cJeremy Bentham and the Felicific Calculus<\/a>.\u201d That Religious Studies Website. Accessed 1\/5\/2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[44]<\/a> See Richard\u2019s wooing of Anne Neville in The Norton Shakespeare: Histories,<\/em> 3rd ed. 384-465. 1.2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[45]<\/a> See 100 Years\u2019 War (Britannica)<\/a>, 100 Years\u2019 War (WHE)<\/a>, and 100 Years\u2019 War Timeline<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[46]<\/a> See Ross, Charles. Edward IV. <\/em>Berkeley: U of California Press, 1974. ISBN-10: 0520027817. 84-103. Ch. 5. \u201cThe King\u2019s Marriage and the Rise of the Woodvilles.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[47]<\/a> See Kantorowicz, Ernst. The King\u2019s Two Bodies: A Study in Medieval Political Theology. <\/em>Princeton UP, 2016. Orig. published in 1957.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[48]<\/a> Pindar. \u201cOlympian VII<\/a>,\u201d line 95. My translation of \u1f10\u03bd \u03b4\u1f72 \u03bc\u03b9\u1fb7 \u03bc\u03bf\u03af\u03c1\u1fb3 \u03c7\u03c1\u03cc\u03bd\u03bf\u03c5 \/ \u1f04\u03bb\u03bb\u03bf\u03c4\u1fbd \u1f00\u03bb\u03bb\u03bf\u1fd6\u03b1\u03b9 \u03b4\u03b9\u03b1\u03b9\u03b8\u03cd\u03c3\u03c3\u03bf\u03b9\u03c3\u03b9\u03bd \u03b1\u1f56\u03c1\u03b1\u03b9. Topostext.org. Accessed 1\/5\/2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[49]<\/a> See Ross, Charles. Edward IV. <\/em>Berkeley: U of California Press, 1974. ISBN-10: 0520027817. 84-103. Ch. 7. \u201cThe Years of Crisis, 1469-71.\u201d 135. See full chapter for Ross\u2019s coverage of the crisis period discussed at this point of the commentary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[50]<\/a> Historically, Lord Rivers, or Richard Woodville, 1st<\/sup> Earl Rivers, was to be executed by Warwick\u2019s forces on August 12, 1469.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[51]<\/a> This passage is not included in Norton\u2019s print-copy of Richard III, <\/em>which is based upon the 1597 quarto edition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[52]<\/a> See Boswell-Stone, Walter G. Shakespeare’s Holinshed: The Chronicle and the Historical Plays Compared<\/em>. Wentworth Press, 2019 [repr. of London: Chatto & Windus 1907 ed.]. ISBN-13: <\/strong>978-0530892863. 324-25. The story is also told in Hall\u2019s Chronicle<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>\u201cEdward IV\u201d 275-76.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[53]<\/a> The famous line is spoken by Al Pacino as \u201cMichael Corleone\u201d in Francis Ford Coppola\u2019s The Godfather, Part 3.<\/em> (Paramount, 1995)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[54]<\/a> On the \u201cTrinovantum\u201d legend, see \u201cLegendary Origins and the Origin of London\u2019s place name<\/a>.\u201d Cultural Heritage Resources. Accessed 1\/5\/2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[55]<\/a> Machiavelli, Niccol\u00f2. The Prince, Ch. 17<\/em><\/a>. Gutenberg e-text. Accessed 1\/5\/2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[56]<\/a> on clarence\u2019s longer-frame decision to return to Edward IV again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[57]<\/a> Circumstances of Montague\u2019s death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[58]<\/a> Info about Warwick and Montague being displayed after death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[59]<\/a> See \u201cA Difficult Birth?<\/a>\u201d on the legends surrounding Richard of Gloucester\u2019s birth. The Richard III Society, Dr. Joanna Laynesmith. Accessed 1\/5\/2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[60]<\/a> Edward was actually born on November 2, 1470, during Edward IV\u2019s period of deposition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[61]<\/a> Historically, this ransom was tendered in 1475, not 1471. But Margaret returned to France, ransomed by King Louis XI, and lived at Dampierre-sur-Loire near Anjou until her death in 1482. Her death in France will not stop her from showing up in England, however, in Shakespeare\u2019s Richard III, <\/em>to curse the Yorkist rascals who killed her husband and her only son.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[62]<\/a> Peacock, Thomas Love. From \u201cThe Four Ages of Poetry<\/a>,\u201d 1820. Poetry Foundation. Accessed 1\/5\/2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shakespeare, William [and possibly Christopher Marlowe]. The Third Part of Henry the Sixth. Folio. (The Norton Shakespeare: Histories, 3rd ed. 230-96.) *Norton […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"iawp_total_views":7,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[36,37,57,55,39,56,33,54,53],"wf_page_folders":[7],"class_list":["post-189","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","category-history-plays","tag-elizabethan-drama","tag-english-political-theory","tag-king-edward-iv","tag-margaret-of-anjou","tag-raphael-holinsheds-chronicles","tag-richard-of-york","tag-shakespeares-history-plays","tag-the-talbot","tag-tigers-heart-wrapped-in-a-womans-hide"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"ajd_shxpr","author_link":"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/shakespeare\/author\/ajd_shxpr\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Shakespeare, William [and possibly Christopher Marlowe]. The Third Part of Henry the Sixth. Folio. (The Norton Shakespeare: Histories, 3rd ed. 230-96.) *Norton […]","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/shakespeare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/shakespeare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/shakespeare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/shakespeare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/shakespeare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/shakespeare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11244,"href":"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/shakespeare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/189\/revisions\/11244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/shakespeare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/shakespeare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/shakespeare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189"},{"taxonomy":"wf_page_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ajdrake.com\/shakespeare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_page_folders?post=189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}