|
|
|
|
Henry VI of England
|
| |
|
| |
Henry VI (6 December 1421 – 21 May 1471) was King of England 1422–1461 (though with a Regent until 1437) and then 1470–1471, and King of France as the de jure monarch from 1422 to 1429.
y was the only child and heir of King Henry V of England. He was born on 6 December 1421 at Windsor, and succeeded to the throne at the age of eight months as King of England on 31 August 1422, when his father died, and King of France on 21 October 1422 upon his grandfather Charles VI's death in agreement with the Treaty of Troyes in 1420.
Discussion
Ask a question about 'Henry VI of England' Start a new discussion about 'Henry VI of England' Answer questions from other users |
Timeline
|
|
1421 Born
1422 Henry VI becomes King of England.
1422 With the death of King Charles VI of France, Henry VI of England is proclaimed King of France in Paris, while the Dauphin, Charles, is proclaimed King Charles VII of France in Bourges.
1440 Eton College is founded by Henry VI.
1450 Jack Cade's Rebellion: Kentishmen revolt against King Henry VI.
1454 Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York becomes Protector for the insane King Henry VI of England
1455 First Battle of St Albans: Richard, Duke of York, defeats and captures King Henry VI of England.
1464 Battle of Hexham - Montague defeats another Lancastrian army, this one led by King Henry and Queen Margaret themselves. This marks the end of organized Lancastrian existence for several years.
1465 Former King Henry VI of England is captured by Yorkist forces and imprisoned in the Tower of London. Queen consort Margaret of Anjou and the Prince of Wales Edward of Westminster had fled to France.
1470 A rebellion orchestrated by King Edward's former ally, the Earl of Warwick, forces the King to flee England to seek support from his brother-in-law Charles the Bold of Burgundy. Warwick releases Henry VI from the Tower and restores him to the throne on October 30.
|
Encyclopedia
Henry VI (6 December 1421 – 21 May 1471) was King of England 1422–1461 (though with a Regent until 1437) and then 1470–1471, and King of France as the de jure monarch from 1422 to 1429.
Child King
Henry was the only child and heir of King Henry V of England. He was born on 6 December 1421 at Windsor, and succeeded to the throne at the age of eight months as King of England on 31 August 1422, when his father died, and King of France on 21 October 1422 upon his grandfather Charles VI's death in agreement with the Treaty of Troyes in 1420. His mother, Catherine of Valois, was then 20 years old and, as Charles VI's daughter, was viewed with considerable suspicion and prevented from having a full role in her son's upbringing.
On 28 September 1423, the nobles swore loyalty to Henry VI. They summoned Parliament in the King's name and established a regency council. Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, Henry IV's youngest son and Henry VI's uncle, was appointed Protector and Defender of the Realm and the Church until the King came of age, but the Council could revoke his appointment at any time. His duties were limited to keeping the peace and summoning and dissolving Parliament. Bishop Henry Beaufort (Cardinal from 1426), Henry V's half-uncle, had an important place on the Council. Henry IV's elder surviving son, John, Duke of Bedford, was the senior regent, having been appointed Regent of France (in charge of running the ongoing war) as well as replacing Humphrey as Regent of England whenever Bedford was personally in the country.
From 1428, Henry's tutor was the Earl of Warwick, whose father had been instrumental in the opposition to Richard II's reign. Henry was also influenced by Henry Beaufort, and later William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk. The young king came to favour a policy of peace in France.
Henry's half-brothers, Edmund and Jasper, the sons of his widowed mother's relationship with Owen Tudor, were later given earldoms. Edmund Tudor was the father of Henry Tudor, later to gain the throne as Henry VII of England.
Henry was eventually crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey on 6 November 1429, a month before his eighth birthday, and King of France at Notre Dame on 16 December 1431. However, he did not assume the reins of government until he was declared of age in 1437 — the year in which his mother died.
Henry VI's uncles were, in the early part of the child king's reign, the most powerful of the regents. John, Duke of Bedford, died in 1435; and Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, was disgraced, and died in custody in 1447, probably of a heart attack, before he could be accused of treason.
Henry's marriage to Margaret of Anjou
As a result of his successes in the Hundred Years' War, Henry V had left England in possession of considerable territories in France, but the momentum was lost on his death. While Henry VI was still a child, and England was ruled by a regency government, much of the ground his father gained was lost. A revival of French fortunes, beginning with Joan of Arc's military victories, led to the repudiation of Henry's title to rule France, and the crowning of the French Dauphin at Reims. Diplomatic errors and military failures resulted in the loss of most of the English territories in France.
Right from the time he assumed control as king in 1437, Henry VI allowed his court to be dominated by a few noble favourites; the faction in favour of ending the war in France quickly came to dominate, while the voices of Richard, Duke of York and Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, the leaders of the pro-war faction, were ignored.
Cardinal Beaufort and Suffolk meanwhile persuaded the king that the best way of pursuing peace with France was through a marriage with Charles VII’s wife's niece, Margaret of Anjou. Henry agreed, especially when he heard reports of Margaret’s stunning beauty, and sent Suffolk to negotiate with King Charles. Charles agreed to the marriage on condition that he would not have to provide the customary dowry and instead would receive the lands of Maine and Anjou from the English. These conditions were agreed to in the Treaty of Tours, but the cession of Maine and Anjou was kept secret from parliament. It was known that this would be hugely unpopular with the English populace. The marriage went ahead in 1445.
Henry had procrastinated about keeping his end of the bargain with Charles VII in terms of Maine and Anjou, knowing that it would be a hugely unpopular move and that Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester and the war party would be especially critical of it. However, Margaret was determined to make him see it through and finally it became public knowledge in 1446. Most public anger was directed at Suffolk, for having negotiated the Treaty of Tours, but Henry and Margaret were determined to protect him, knowing they were also vulnerable.
In 1447, the king, the queen and the group surrounding them (Suffolk, Somerset, and the ageing Cardinal Beaufort) summoned Gloucester before parliament on a charge of treason in Bury St Edmunds, and Gloucester died in captivity. His death left York as Henry’s heir presumptive, but Henry never officially acknowledged this and continued to exclude him from the court circle, banishing him to govern Ireland, while Henry and Margaret promoted Suffolk and Edmund Beaufort to dukedoms, a title normally reserved for immediate relatives of the monarch. Beaufort, the new Duke of Somerset (and Cardinal Beaufort's nephew) was sent to France to lead the war.
Increasing unpopularity and insanity
In the later years of Henry's reign, the monarchy became increasingly unpopular, due to a breakdown in law and order, corruption, the distribution of royal land to the king's court favourites, the troubled state of the crown's finances, and the steady loss of territories in France. In 1447, this unpopularity took the form of a Commons campaign against the Duke of Suffolk, who was the most unpopular of all the King's entourage and widely seen as a traitor. Henry was forced to send him into exile, but Suffolk's ship was intercepted in the English Channel, and he was murdered. His body was found on the beach at Dover.
In 1449, Somerset, leading the campaign in France, reopened hostilities in Normandy, but by the autumn had been pushed back to Caen. By 1450, the French had retaken the whole province, so hard won by Henry V. Returning troops, who had often not been paid, added to the sense of lawlessness in the southern counties of England, and Jack Cade led a rebellion in Kent in 1450, calling himself "John Mortimer" in sympathy with York and setting up residence at the White Hart Inn in Southwark (the white hart had been the symbol of the deposed Richard II). Henry came to London with an army to crush the rebellion, but was persuaded to keep half his troops behind while the other half met Cade at Sevenoaks. Cade triumphed and went on to occupy London. In the end, the rebellion achieved nothing, and London was retaken after a few days of disorder, but the rebellion showed that feelings of discontent were running high.
In 1450, the Duchy of Aquitaine, held since Henry II's time, was also lost, leaving Calais as England's only remaining territory in France. By 1452, York was persuaded to return from Ireland, claim his rightful place on the council, and put an end to bad government. His cause was a popular one, and he soon raised an army at Shrewsbury. The court party, meanwhile, raised their own similar-sized force in London. A stand-off took place south of London, with York presenting a list of grievances and demands to the court circle, including the arrest of the Duke of Somerset. The king initially agreed, but Margaret intervened to prevent the arrest of Somerset. By 1453, his influence had been restored, and York was again isolated. In the meantime, an English advance in Aquitaine had retaken Bordeaux and was having some success, and the queen announced that she was pregnant.
However, English success in Aquitaine was short-lived, and on hearing the news of the English defeat in August 1453, Henry slipped into a mental breakdown and became completely unaware of everything that was going on around him. This was to last for more than a year, and Henry failed even to respond to the birth of his own son and heir, who was christened Edward (Edward of Westminster and Prince of Wales). York, meanwhile, had gained a very important ally, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, one of the most influential magnates and possibly richer than York himself. York was named regent as Protector of the Realm in 1454. He finally had the position of influence he had wanted, the queen was excluded completely, and Somerset was detained in the Tower of London, while many of York's supporters spread rumours that the king's child was not his, but Somerset's. Other than that, York's months as regent were spent tackling the problem of government overspending. On Christmas Day 1454, however, Henry regained his senses.
Henry possibly inherited his illness from Charles VI of France, his maternal grandfather, who coped with intermittent periods of insanity over the last 30 years of his life. He, in turn, could have inherited the hereditary trait from his mother Joanna of Bourbon, who showed signs of mental illness, and her Bourbon family, where her grandfather Louis I, Duke of Bourbon, her father Peter I, Duke of Bourbon and her brother Louis II, Duke of Bourbon each had symptoms of the ailment.
Wars of the Roses
Disaffected nobles who had grown in power during Henry's reign (most importantly the Earls of Warwick and Salisbury) took matters into their own hands by backing the claims of the rival House of York, first to the Regency, and then to the throne itself. After a violent struggle between the houses of Lancaster and York (see Wars of the Roses), Henry was deposed and imprisoned on 4 March 1461 by his cousin, Edward of York, who became King Edward IV of England. By this point, Henry was suffering such a bout of madness that he was apparently laughing and singing while the Second Battle of St Albans raged, which secured his release. But Edward was still able to take the throne, though he failed to capture Henry and his queen, who fled to Scotland. During the first period of Edward IV's reign, Lancastrian resistance continued mainly under the leadership of Queen Margaret and the few nobles still loyal to her in the northern counties of England and Wales. Henry was captured by King Edward in 1465 and subsequently held captive in the Tower of London.
Queen Margaret, exiled in Scotland and later in France, was determined to win back the throne on behalf of her husband and son, and with the help of both Henry and Margaret's first cousin King Louis XI of France eventually formed an alliance with Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, who had fallen out with Edward IV. After marrying his daughter to the Prince of Wales, Warwick returned to England, defeated the Yorkists in battle, liberated Henry VI and restored him to the throne on 30 October 1470. Henry's return to the throne lasted a very short time. By this time, years in hiding followed by years in captivity had taken their toll on Henry. Within a few months Warwick had overreached himself by declaring war on Burgundy, whose ruler responded by giving Edward IV the assistance he needed to win back his throne by force. The Prince of Wales was killed at the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471.
Death and legacy
Henry VI was imprisoned in the Tower of London, where he was murdered on 21 May 1471. Popular legend has accused Richard, Duke of Gloucester of his murder, as well as the murder of Henry VI's son Edward of Westminster; more than a century later, William Shakespeare's Richard III also accused the Yorkist king of the murder. King Henry VI was originally buried in Chertsey Abbey; then, in 1485, his body was moved to St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.
Edward IV was now the undisputed master of England.
Henry's one lasting positive achievement was his fostering of education; he founded both Eton College and King's College, Cambridge. Continuing an architectural patronage trend begun by his father, these (King's College Chapel and Eton College Chapel respectively) and most of his other architectural commissions (like his completion of his father's foundation of Syon Abbey) consisted of a single, late Gothic or Perpendicular-style church with a monastic and/or educational foundation attached. Each year on the anniversary of Henry VI's death, the Provosts of Eton and King's College, Cambridge, lay roses and lilies on the altar in St. George's Chapel, Windsor.
Titles, styles, honours and arms
Arms
As Prince of Wales, Henry's arms were those of the kingdom, differenced by a label argent of three points. Upon his accession, he inherited use of the arms of the kingdom undifferenced.
Ancestry
Popular culture
Legend and literature
- Miracles were attributed to the king, and he was informally regarded as a saint. Hymns to him still exist. Until the Reformation, his hat was kept by his tomb at Windsor where pilgrims would put it on to enlist Henry's aid against migraines.
- In 1590, William Shakespeare wrote a trilogy of plays about the life of Henry VI: Henry VI, part 1, Henry VI, part 2, and Henry VI, part 3. Henry also appears as a ghost in Richard III.
- In the Harry Potter spinoff book The Tales of Beedle the Bard, it rumoured that the French witch Lisette de Lapin had transformed herself into a large white rabbit, to be Henry's "trusted advisor", probably contributing to his reputation for mental instability.
- Henry's reign and the Wars of the Roses are seen through the eyes of the fictional Morland family in The Founding, Volume 1 of The Morland Dynasty, a series of historical novels by author Cynthia Harrod-Eagles.
Film and television
Henry has been played on film and television by:
- James Berry in the silent short Richard III (1911), dramatising a part of Shakespeare's play
- Miles Mander in Tower of London (1939), a horror film loosely dramatising the rise to power of Richard III
- Terry Scully in the BBC series An Age of Kings (1960), which contained all the history plays from Richard II to Richard III
- Carl Wery in the West German TV version of Shakespeare's play König Richard III (1964)
- David Warner in The Wars of the Roses (1965), which was a filmed version of the Royal Shakespeare Company performing the three parts of Henry VI (condensed and edited into two plays, Henry VI and Edward IV) and Richard III; Peggy Ashcroft played his queen, Margaret of Anjou
- Peter Benson in the BBC Shakespeare versions of all three parts of Henry VI and Richard III (1983)
- Paul Brennen in the film versions of the full cycle of consecutive history plays performed, for several years, by the English Shakespeare Company (1989)
- Edward Jewesbury in Richard III (1995), with Ian McKellen as Richard
- James Dalesandro in Richard III (2007), a modern day version
|
| |
|
|
