Introduction:`
Henry VI kicks off Shakespeare’s history plays. He will follow with Richard III, who, in fact, murders Henry VI. Then he begins a trilogy of plays immediately preceding the reign of Henry VI, namely Richard II, Henry IV and Henry V, whose funeral procession we witness at the beginning of Henry VI. Only later in his career, with Queen Elizabeth’s death, did he brave a play about her father, Henry VIII.
In our present chronicle the heroic Henry V is dead and his nine-month-old infant son, Henry VI, assumes the throne, while various dukes, earls and rival factions quarrel for control of the nation. The Red Rose of Lancaster and the White Rose of York ignite the War of the Roses as the English fight in France to preserve what warlike Henry V has won. The young king Henry VI seems doomed from the start, as his powerful lords clamour for influence and control of the boy king. On the French battlefield the old warlike chivalry of Lord Talbot is matched for a time by the new hope of France, the visionary maiden Joan of Arc (La Pucelle). Both are killed in the conflict and young King Henry agrees to make a lasting peace by marrying the French Princess Margaret, who will only further divide the kingdom by becoming just one more power broker in the dynastic power struggle for English supremacy. Henry VI’s reign may have been less than impressive but he did rule for 50 years as England’s monarch. Shakespeare establishes a precedent by playing loose with documented English history for the sake of a more intriguing and dramatic story, in this, his first of many explorations into English history.
Act 1 (6 scenes)
Scene i
Westminster Abbey and the funeral of King Henry V
Enter the Duke of Bedford (Regent of France), the Duke of Gloucester (Protector of Prince and realm), the Duke of Exeter, the Earl of Warwick, and the Bishop of Winchester
Bedford: “Hung be the heavens with black. England never lost a king of so much worth.”
Gloucester: “England never had a king before his time… What should I say? His deeds exceed all speech.”
Exeter: “Shall we think the subtle-witted French conjurers and sorcerers, that, afraid of him, by magic verses, have contrived his end?”
Winchester: “The Church’s prayers made him so prosperous.”
Gloucester: “The Church! Where is it? Had churchmen prayed his thread of life had not so soon decayed.”
Winchester: “Gloucester, thou art Protector, to command the Prince and realm. Thy wife is proud; she holds thee in awe more than God or religious churchmen may.”
Gloucester: “Name not religion, for thou loves but the flesh; and never through the year to church thou goes, except it be to pray against thy foes.”
Bedford: “Cease, cease these jars. Henry the Fifth, thy ghost I innovate: prosper this realm, keep it from civil broils. A far more glorious star thy soul will make than Julius Caesar.”
Enter 1 Messenger
1 Messenger: “Sad tidings bring I to you out of France, of loss, of slaughter: Champagne, Rheims, Orleans, Paris are all quite lost.”
Exeter: “How were they lost? What treachery was used?”
1 Messenger: “No treachery, but want of men and money. Amongst the soldiers this is muttered: that here you maintain several factions and are disputing. Awake, awake English nobility!”
Bedford: “Regent I am of France and I will fight for France.”
Enter 2 Messenger
2 Messenger: “France is revolted from the English quite and the Dauphin Charles is crowned king in Rheims.”
Exeter: “The Dauphin crowned king! All fly to him!”
Enter 3 Messenger
3 Messenger: “My gracious lords, to add to your laments I must inform you of a dismal fight between the stout Lord Talbot and the French, wherein Lord Talbot was overthrown. More than three hours the fight continued, where valiant Talbot enacted wonders with his sword and lance. Hundreds he sent to hell and the whole army stood amazed upon him. Here had the conquest fully been sealed up if Sir John Fastolle had not played the coward and cowardly fled. Hence grew the general wreck and massacre.”
Bedford: “Is Talbot slain?”
3 Messenger: “He lives, but is taken prisoner.”
Bedford: “Farewell, my masters; France forthwith I am to make. Ten thousand soldiers with me I will take.”
3 Messenger: “So you had need; for Orleans is besieged; the English army has grown weak and faint.”
Gloucester: “I will proclaim young Henry King.”
Winchester: (aside) “Each hath his place and function to attend; I am left out; but long I will not be out of office.”
Summary and Analysis
Henry V had conquered France but it was prophesied that his son, Henry VI, would lose these French holdings and we see in this first scene that Henry V’s body is not even yet in the ground and the English are being routed all over France. The new boy king, Henry VI, is ruled over by a host of contending politicians, more interested in advancing their private agendas than advancing together as a nation against the French. This internal bickering around the boy king will drive the entire play, as the various players will be at each other’s throats, in contrast to the noble and honourable Lord Talbot, England’s accomplished general, who it is announced has just been captured by the French. Talbot is only the earliest Shakespearean example of so many decent and patriotic soldiers. In subsequent plays Henry V, Bolingbroke (Henry IV), Antony (Julius Caesar), Cassio (Othello) and Enobarbus (Antony and Cleopatra) will follow.
Shakespeare was convinced by his fellow London playwrights that the English love nothing more than to see their very history portrayed upon the theatrical stage. After giving them the blood-letting they also desire in Titus Andronicus and a bit of comedy with Two Gentlemen of Verona he turns to English history and the three plays of Henry VI. This is recent English history, not as distant in the past or geographically as remote as Titus. This is also Queen Elizabeth’s recent history, so Shakespeare must be very careful how he portrays English betrayal and the insurrection of its crown. Henry V is duly honoured as the admired monarch he was thought to be and the nobles are held responsible for the dire events that will soon unfold throughout the three play sequence, where Henry VI never stands a chance of overcoming their plots and divisions.
In these history plays Shakespeare will patriotically disdain the French political leaders as boastful and their soldiers but cowardly masses of men. Two remarkable historical characters are introduced in Act 1: The English Talbot, ‘the scourge of France’ and Joan of Arc, the doomed French visionary, declared a witch by Talbot and the English. Joan is the ‘hope of France’ and a force they believe might neutralize Talbot.
Act I
Scene ii
France, before Orleans
Enter Charles the Dauphin, Alencon and Reignier
Charles: “Now we are victors and here we lie near Orleans. The famished English, like pale ghosts, piteous they look.”
Reignier: “Let’s raise the siege. Talbot is taken. We will rush on them.”
The French are beaten back by the English with great loss.
Re-enter Charles Alencon and Reignier
Charles: “Who ever saw the like? Dogs! cowards! dastards!”
Reignier: “Salisbury is a desperate homicide. He fights as one weary of his life. The other lords, like lions wanting food, do rush upon us as their hungry prey.”
Charles: “Let’s leave this town. Of old I know them. Rather with their teeth the walls they’ll tear down than forsake the siege.”
Enter the Bastard of Orleans
Bastard: “Be not dismayed, for succour is at hand. A holy maid hither with me I bring, which, by a vision sent to her by heaven, is to drive the English forth. The spirit of deep prophecy she hath, exceeding the nine sibyls of old Rome.”
Charles: “Go call her in.”
La Pucelle (Joan of Arc): “Dauphin, I am by birth a shepherd’s daughter, my wit untrained in any kind of art. God’s mother deigned to appear to me , and in a vision willed me to free my country from calamity. In complete glory she revealed herself. My courage try by combat if thou dares, and thou shalt find that I exceed my sex.”
Charles: “Thou has astonished me. In single combat thou shalt buckle with me, and if thou vanquish me, thy words are true. Otherwise I renounce all confidence.”
La Pucelle: “I am prepared.”
Charles: “Then come. I fear no woman.”
La Pucelle: “And while I live I’ll never fly from a man.”
They fight and Joan overcomes Charles
Charles: “Stay! Thou art an Amazon.”
La Pucelle: “Christ’s mother helps me.”
Charles: “Whoever helps thee, tis thou that must help me. Excellent Pucelle, let me thy servant and not sovereign be.”
La Pucelle: “When I have chased all thy foes from hence, then I will think upon a recompense.”
Reignier: “Shall we give over Orleans, or no?”
La Pucelle: “Why, no, I say. Fight to the last gasp. I will be your guard.”
Charles: “What she says I’ll confirm. We’ll fight it out.
La Pucelle: “Assigned am I to be the English scourge. This night the siege assuredly I’ll raise. Glory is like a circle in the water, which never ceases to enlarge itself till by broad spreading it disperses to naught. With Henry’s death the English circle ends and dispersed are the glories it included.”
Charles: “How may I reverently worship thee enough?”
Reignier: “Woman, drive them from Orleans and be immortalized.”
Summary and Analysis
Shakespeare will manipulate the historical facts for the purpose of presenting an excellent play about England’s glorious past, in this, his first attempt at a history play. This will remain true of each and every of his histories.
Internal dissension, more so than the French, threaten the English kingdom. The heroic Talbot has been captured and now the French believe they have a saviour in La Pucelle, known in English history as Joan of Arc. The English soldiers are fierce fighters, if only they get the support they require from the fighting lords in court back home with their young boy King on the throne.
Act I
Scene iii
London, before the Tower
Enter Duke of Gloucester and his servants
Gloucester: “I have come to survey the Tower. Open the gates, tis Gloucester that calls.”
Ward of the Tower: “You may not be let in.”
Servant: “Villains, answer you so the Lord Protector?”
Ward: “The Lord protect him! So we answer him.”
Gloucester: “Whose will stands but mine? There’s none Lord Protector of the realm but I. Open the gates!”
Woodville (within): “Have patience, noble Duke, I may not open. The Cardinal of Winchester forbids.”
Servant: “Open the gates unto the Lord Protector or we’ll burst them open.”
Winchester (from within): “How now, ambitious Humphry Gloucester! What means this?”
Gloucester: “Peeled priest, dost thou command me to be shut out?
Winchester: “I do, thou most usurping Protector of the King.”
Gloucester: “Stand back, thou manifest conspirator, thou that contrived to murder our dead lord; thou that gives whores indulgences to sin.”
Winchester: “Nay, stand thou back. I will not budge a foot.”
Gloucester: “I’ll drive thee back and thy scarlet robes I’ll use to carry thee out of this place. Draw, men! Priest, beware your beard. I mean to tug it and to cuff you soundly. Under my feet I’ll stamp the Cardinal’s hat. In spite of Pope or dignities of the church, here by thy cheeks I’ll drag thee up and down.”
Winchester: “Gloucester, thou will answer for this before the Pope.”
Gloucester: “Out, scarlet hypocrite!”
Gloucester’s men beat out the Cardinal’s men and enter and face the Mayor of London.
Gloucester: “Peace, Mayor. Here’s Beaufort of Winchester, who regards neither God nor King, hath here distrained the Tower to his use.”
Winchester: “Here’s Gloucester, a foe to citizens., who seeks to overthrow religion because he is Protector of the realm, and would have armour here out of the Tower, to crown himself King and suppress the Prince.”
Gloucester: “I’ll not answer thee with words but with blows.”
They skirmish
Mayor: “This cardinal is more haughty than the devil.”
Winchester: “Abominable Gloucester, guard thy head, for I intend to have it before long.”
Exit Gloucester and Winchester with their men
Mayor: “Good God, these nobles should such stomachs bear.”
Summary and Analysis
This scene precisely lays down the plot to come, which centres significantly upon the divisiveness of the English court following King Henry the Fifth’s death. Clearly the Cardinal and the Lord Protector are incapable of focusing on the valour of the English troops or on imprisoned Talbot. The rifts are many at court. Winchester and Gloucester are merely the first to be exposed to us.
Act I
Scene iv
France, before Orleans
Enter Salisbury and Talbot on the turrets
Salisbury: “Talbot, my life, my joy, again returned! How were thou handled being prisoner? By what means got thou to be released?”
Talbot: “The Earl of Bedford had a prisoner and for him I was exchanged and ransomed. But O, the treacherous Fastolfe wounds my heart, whom with my bare fists I would execute if I now had him brought into my power.”
Salisbury: “Yet how wert thou entertained?”
Talbot: “With scoffs, scorns and taunts; to be a public spectacle to all. Here, said they, is the terror of the French, then broke I from the officers that led me.”
Salisbury: “I grieve to hear what torments you endured; but we will be revenged.”
Talbot and Salisbury fight together and Salisbury goes down.
Talbot: “Speak, Salisbury, at least if thou can speak. One of thy eyes and thy cheek’s side struck off! Accursed tower!”
Enter a messenger
Messenger: “The French have gathered head. The Dauphin, with one Joan La Pucelle joined, a holy prophetess, is come with a great power to raise the siege.
Talbot: “Frenchmen, I’ll be a Salisbury to you. Your hearts I’ll stamp out with my horse’s heels and make a quagmire of your mingled brains.”
Summary and Analysis
Lord Talbot represents the very best of English honour and bravery. He has been released in exchanged for a French prisoner and so the English fight on, despite the bickering back home. Why the French would release England’s most renowned warrior is anybody’s guess. They may well regret that decision.
Act I
Scene v
Before Orleans
Talbot pursues the Dauphin and encounters La Pucelle
Talbot: “Our English troops retire. A woman clad in armour chases them. Here she comes. I’ll have a bout with thee. Thou art a witch.”
They fight
La Pucelle: “Talbot, farewell, thy hour is not yet come. I scorn thy strength. This day is ours, as many more shall be.”
Talbot: “I know not where I am nor what I do. A witch, by fear, not force, like Hannibal, drives back our troops. They called us, for our fierceness, English dogs; now like to whelps we crying run away. Hark, countrymen! Either renew the fight or tear the lions out of England’s coat. Pucelle is entered into Orleans in spite of us or aught that we could do. O, would I were to die with Salisbury! The shame hereof will make me hide my head.”
Summary and Analysis
The two main warriors meet up in this scene, Lord Talbot and La Pucelle (Joan of Arc). The French have the upper hand, taking full advantage of England’s problems back home among the feuding lords and their child king. Talbot is astonished by the strength of La Pucelle. But fortunes can change quickly, as we’ll see in Act II.
Act I
Scene vi
Orleans
Enter La Pucelle, Charles, Reignier and Alencon
La Pucelle: “Advance our waving colours! Rescued is Orleans from the English.”
Charles: “Divinest creature! How shall I honour thee? France, triumph in thy glorious prophetess. Tis Joan, not we, by whom the day is won; for which I will divide my crown with her. No longer on St Denis will we cry. But Joan La Pucelle shall be France’s saint.”
Summary and Analysis
La Pucelle has won the day for the French and has repelled the English siege of Orleans. As Act I ends the French are routing the English. Hence the legend of Joan of Arc. I believe we know how her story ends however.
Act II (5 scenes)
Scene i
Before Orleans
Enter Talbot, Bedford and Burgundy
Bedford: “Cowards of France, to join with witches and the help of hell.”
Talbot: “Well, let them practice and converse with spirits. God is our fortress.”
The English scale the walls
French sentinel: “Arm! Arm! The enemy doth make assault.”
Enter Bastard, Alencon and Reignier
Alencon: “Never heard I of a warlike enterprise more venturous or desperate than this.”
Bastard: “I think this Talbot be a fiend of hell.”
Reignier: “If not of hell, the heavens, for sure, favour him.”
Enter Charles and La Pucelle
Charles: “Is this thy cunning, thou deceitful dame?”
La Pucelle: “Will you blame and lay the fault on me? Had your watch been good this sudden mischief never would have fallen.”
Charles: “Duke Alencon, this was your fault, being captain of the watch tonight.”
Summary and Analysis
How quickly things change. Lord Talbot is back in charge of his men as they go on the attack and now King Charles and La Pucelle are the bickering pair at odds with one another.
Act II
Scene ii
Orleans, within the town
Enter Talbot, Bedford and Burgundy
Talbot: “Lords, in all our bloody massacre, I muse we met not with the Dauphin’s grace, his new champion, virtuous Joan of Arc.”
Messenger: “All hail, which of this princely train call ye the warlike Talbot, for his acts so much applauded through the realm of France?”
Talbot: “Here is Talbot. Who would speak with him?”
Messenger: “The virtuous lady, Countess of Auvergne, with modesty admiring thy renown entreats that thou would vouchsafe to visit her poor castle, that she may boast she hath beheld the man whose glory fills the world.”
Talbot: “Tell her I will attend on her.”
Summary and Analysis
The victorious English are wondering where La Pucelle might be when a messenger informs Lord Talbot the the Countess of Auvergne requests that he visit her castle that she may boast that she has met this great warrior. It is a trap and we must assume that Talbot knows this, but nonetheless he agrees to visit her, aware that his army would never permit him to be captured or harmed.
Act II
Scene iii
Auvergne, the castle
Enter the countess
Countess: “The plot is laid.”
Enter Talbot
Countess: “Is this the scourge of France, so much feared abroad? I see report is fabulous and false. I thought I should have seen some Hercules or a second Hector. Alas, this is a child, a silly dwarf! It cannot be this weak and withered shrimp should strike such terror into his enemies. If thou be he, then art thou a prisoner to me and for that cause I trained thee to my house. I will chain these legs and arms of thine that has wasted our country.”
Talbot: “Ha, ha, ha! I am but a shadow of myself.”
Talbot blows his horn and a host of English soldiers enter immediately
Countess: “Victorious Talbot! Pardon my abuse.”
Talbot: “Be not dismayed, fair lady. What you have done has not offended me.”
Countess: “With all my heart, and think me honoured to feast so great a warrior in my house.”
Summary and Analysis
Talbot commands complete loyalty from his army and he leaves the insulting Countess, whose intent was to capture him, on civil terms. Talbot represents the last vestiges of an ancient code of chivalry. He would die with his men as they would for him. However, the world is changing and he is the last of a noble breed and will be left behind in a new world of total war and political infighting.
Act II
Scene iv
London, the Temple Garden
Enter Somerset, Suffolk, Warwick, Richard Plantagenet and Vernon.
Plantagenet: “The truth appears so naked on my side.”
Somerset: “And on my side it is so well apparelled.”
Plantagenet: “Let he who is a true born gentleman pluck a white rose with me.”
Somerset: “Let him who is no coward and no flatterer pluck a red rose with me.”
Warwick: “I pluck this white rose with Plantagenet.”
Suffolk: “I pluck this red rose with Somerset.”
Vernon: “I pluck this pale blossom, giving my verdict on the white rose side.”
Somerset: “Prick not your finger as you pluck it off, lest, bleeding, you do paint the white rose red, and fall on my side, against your will.”
Plantagenet: “Somerset, where is your argument?”
Somerset: “Here in my scabbard, which shall dye your white rose in a bloody red.”
Plantagenet: “Meantime, your cheeks do counterfeit our roses; for pale they look with fear. Hath not thy rose a canker, Somerset?”
Somerset: “Hath not thy rose a thorn, Plantagenet? I’ll find friends to wear my bleeding roses.”
Plantagenet: “I scorn thee and thy fashion, peevish boy.”
Somerset: “Know us by these colours for thy foes.”
Plantagenet: “And, by my soul, this pale and angry rose, will I forever, and my faction, wear.”
Somerset: “Farewell, ambitious Richard.”
Warwick: “Here I prophecy: this brawl today, shall send between the red rose and the white a thousand souls to death and deadly night.“
Plantagenet: “This quarrel will drink blood another day.”
Summary and Analysis
This is a monumental scene in the play, as the infamous War of the Roses begins between the House of Lancaster, represented by the red rose, and the House of York, represented by the white rose. Some background is required here, as all three parts of the Henry VI plays essentially chronicle the War of the Roses. When the great King Edward III died in 1377 there was tremendous debate and dispute over his successor. His first son had died the year before and rather than the crown go to one of his next three sons in line for the throne it went to his first son’s son, Richard II. This started the controversy. Richard II’s reign would be very unpopular for many reasons and the question of his successor was highly controversial, until Henry Bolingbroke, from the House of Lancaster, seized the throne as Henry IV, and Richard II was murdered. Henry V, his son, followed quite successfully and things settled down nicely for a time. However, King Henry V died young and his infant son Henry VI, of our present play, was made king. Since he was a baby the infighting began and the various claims for the throne emerged with great vigor. Henry VI was never popular or successful as king and his House of Lancaster was challenged by the House of York, derived as well from a son of Edward III. During most of the weak reign of Henry VI, the Yorkists made their claim to the throne. This is the origins of the War of the Roses between those supporting the weak Lancaster King Henry VI with their symbol of the Red Rose and those supporting the old claim from Richard Plantagenet of the House of York, with their symbol of the white rose. The various powerful lords around King Henry VI’s court supported one side or the other and a state of virtual civil war existed for many decades until it was determined by Parliament that Henry VI could live out his reign as king but then the Yorkists would succeed him, which they do with Edward IV and Richard III, after Richard murders King Henry VI. The remainder of these three Henry VI plays will dramatically depict these bloody and disruptive Wars of the Roses. All of Shakespeare’s English history plays will tell various parts of this long drawn out affair: Richard II, Henry IV, Henry V, Henry VI, Richard III and Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth’s famous father, all get their own plays. This was certainly not ancient or remote history to Shakespeare’s audiences, including Queen Elizabeth herself. Shakespeare had to be very careful in his depiction of royalty and succession so as not to offend the Queen regarding her ancestry.
Act II
Scene v
The Tower of London
Enter Mortimer
Mortimer: “Let dying Mortimer here rest, like a man new hailed from the rack, so fare my limbs with long imprisonment. The end of Edmund Mortimer; these eyes, like lamps whose wasting oil is spent, weak shoulder, overborne with burdening grief. Yet are these feet unable to support this lump of clay, swift winged with desire to get a grave. Will my nephew come?
Keeper: “Richard Plantagenet, my lord, will come.”
Mortimer: “Enough. My soul will then be satisfied. His wrong does equal mine, since Henry IV first began to reign and before whose glory I was great, and even since then hath Richard been obscured, deprived of honour and inheritance.”
Enter Richard Plantagenet
Mortimer: “Richard Plantagenet, my friend, are you come?”
Plantagenet: “Ay, noble uncle. I will tell thee my disease. Henry IV, grandfather to this king, deposed his nephew Richard II, the lawful heir of King Edward. Young Richard II thus removed, leaving no heir, I was the next by birth and parentage, derived from the third son to Edward III. I lost my liberty when Henry V, succeeding his father, Henry IV, did reign. Thus the Mortimers were suppressed.
Mortimer: “True. Yet thou, Richard Plantagenet, art my heir. Yet be wary.”
Plantagenet: “Me thinks my father’s execution was nothing less than bloody tyranny. In prison hast thou spent a pilgrimage.”
Old Mortimer dies
Plantagenet: “For these wrongs, which Somerset hath offered to my house, I doubt not but with honour to redress.”
Summary and Analysis
The House of York (Old Mortimer and Richard Plantagenet) has been sidelined by the House of Lancaster (Henry IV, Henry V and Henry VI). However, the present king is but a child and the court is deeply divided, so there is ample opportunity for Richard Plantagenet and the House of York to redress these historic wrongs. Hence the War of the Roses commences, which will dominate the entire reign of the ineffective Henry VI.
Act III (4 scenes)
Scene i
London, Parliament
Enter King Henry VI, Exeter, Gloucester, Warwick, Somerset, Suffolk, Bishop Winchester and Richard Plantagenet
Gloucester: “Presumptuous priest: such is thy audacious wickedness; thou art a most pernicious usurer and an enemy to peace; lascivious and wanton.”
Winchester: “Gloucester, I do defy thee. Lords, if I were covetous, ambitious or perverse, as he would have me, how am I so poor?”
Gloucester: “Thou bastard of my grandfather! Am I not Protector, saucy priest?”
Winchester: “Unreverent Gloucester. Rome shall remedy this.”
King: “Uncles of Gloucester and Winchester, I would prevail, if prayers might prevail, to join your hearts in love. What a scandal it is to our crown that two such noble peers as ye should jar! Believe me, lords, my tender years can tell civil dissension is a viperous worm that gnaws the bowels of the commonwealth.”
Enter the Mayor of London
Mayor: “O, my good lords, and virtuous Henry, pity the city of London. The Bishop and the Duke of Gloucester’s men, forbidden late to carry any weapons, have filled their pockets full of stones and do pelt at one another’s pate that many have had their giddy brains knocked out and we fear compelled to shut up our shops.”
Enter Gloucester’s and Winchester’s men with bloody heads
King: “We charge you to keep the peace.”
Gloucester: “You of my household, leave this peevish broil.”
King: “O, how this discord doth afflict my soul! Can you, my lord of Winchester, behold my sighs and tears and will not once relent?”
Warwick: “Yield, my Lord Protector; yield Winchester. You see what mischief hath been enacted through your enmity.”
Winchester: “He shall submit, or I will never yield.”
Gloucester: “Here, Winchester, I offer thee my hand.”
Winchester: “Well, Duke of Gloucester, I will yield to thee; love for thy love and hand for hand I give.”
Gloucester: “A hand of truce.”
King: “O, how joyful I am made by this contract.”
Gloucester: Your grace, you have great reason to do Richard right.”
King: “Our pleasure is that Richard be restored to his blood. If Richard be true, all the inheritance I give that doth belong unto the house of York. Rise created princely Duke of York.”
Somerset: (aside) “Perish, base prince, ignoble Duke of York.”
Gloucester: “Now will it best avail your majesty to cross the seas and be crowned in France.”
King: “When Gloucester says the word, King Henry goes.”
Exit all but Exeter
Exeter: “This late dissension grown between the peers burns under feigned ashes of forged love and will at last break out into a flame. So will this base and envious discord breed.”
Summary and Analysis
King Henry’s court is ablaze with discontent and rebellion and the king himself is incapable of managing the unrest. Gloucester and Winchester want after one another something fierce and now Richard Plantagenet has just had his inheritance and Dukedom restored, which immediately enrages Somerset. All of this dissension and more just as France is unraveling across the English Channel. Exeter is the only lord who seems to see things as they are and his only wish is that he die before it all blows sky high. The old prophecy that circulated during the reign of King Henry V suggested that Henry V would bring peace to the kingdom and attain victory in France but that his son would surrender both the peace at home and the success in France. Typical of Shakespeare, these prophecies most often ring true, as seems certainly the case here.
Act III
Scene ii
France, before Rouen
Enter La Pucelle and her soldiers
La Pucelle: “These are the city gates of Rouen, through which we must make a breach.”
Soldier: “And we will be lords and rulers over Rouen.”
La Pucelle: “Now, Rouen. I’ll shake thy bulwarks to the ground.”
Enter Charles, Bastard, Alencon, Reignier and forces
La Pucelle: “Behold, this is the happy wedding that jointed Rouen unto her countrymen.”
Enter Talbot
Talbot: “Pucelle, that witch, that damned sorceress, hath wrought this hellish mischief.”
Enter Bedford (in a sick chair), Talbot and Burgundy outside the town walls.
Enter La Pucelle, Charles, Bastard, Alencon and Reignier on the walls.
La Pucelle: “Good morrow, gallants!”
Burgundy: “Scoff on, vile fiend and shameless courtesan.”
La Pucelle: (to Old Bedford) “What will you do, grey beard?”
Talbot: “Foul fiend of France and hag of all, becomes it thee to taunt his valiant age and twit with cowardice a man half dead? Damsel, I’ll have a bout with you again, or else let Talbot perish with this shame. Dare ye come forth and meet us in the field?”
La Pucelle: “Belike your Lordship to take us then for fools?”
Talbot: “I speak unto thee, Alencon and the rest. Will ye, like soldiers, come and fight it out?”
Alencon: “No”
Talbot: “They keep to their walls and dare not take up arms like gentlemen.”
La Pucelle: “We came but to tell you that we are here.”
Talbot; “And there we will be too, ere it be long. Vow, Burgundy, either to get the town again or die.”
Burgundy: “My vows are equal partner with thine.”
The English attack the town
Bedford: “Now, quiet soul, depart when heaven please, for I have seen our enemies overthrown.”
Bedford dies
Talbot: “Now we will take some order in this town, placing therein some expert officers, and then depart to Paris to the King; for there young Henry with his nobles lie.”
Summary and Analysis
The English and French go back and forth for control of Rouen. Talbot and La Pucelle exchange words and the English win the day.
Act III
Scene iii
The plains near Rouen
Enter Charles, Bastard, Alencon and La Pucelle
La Pucelle: “Let frantic Talbot triumph for a while. We’ll pull his plumes.”
Alencon: “We’ll set thy statue in some holy place, sweet virgin. For ever should they be expelled from France.”
La Pucelle: “There goes Talbot and all the troops of England after him. Now in the rear comes Burgundy. Summon a parley; we will talk with him.”
Burgundy: “Who craves a parley with Burgundy?”
La Pucelle: “Brave Burgundy, let thy humble handmaid speak to thee. Look on fertile France and see the cities and the towns defaced by wasting ruin of the cruel foe. See the pining malady of France, behold her wounds and turn thy edged sword another way.”
Burgundy: “Either she hath bewitched me with her words or nature makes me suddenly relent. I am vanquished. So, farewell, Talbot. I’ll no longer trust thee.”
Charles: “Welcome, brave Duke! Thy friendship makes us fresh.”
Summary and Analysis
La Pucelle demonstrates a vivid skillfulness for persuasion as she rather easily convinces the Duke of Burgundy to switch sides and support the French. Her mystique continues still.
Act III
Scene iv
Paris, the palace
Enter Talbot, the King, Gloucester, Vernon and Basset
Talbot: “My gracious prince, hearing of your arrival, I have a while given truce unto my wars to do my duty to my sovereign.”
King: “Is this the Lord Talbot, uncle Gloucester?”
Gloucester: “Yes, if it please your majesty.”
King: “Welcome, brave captain and victorious lord. Till now we have never seen your face.”
Exit all but Vernon and Basset
Vernon: “Now, to you, sir. Disgracing of these colours that I wear, in honour of my noble Lord of York, dare thou maintain the former words thou spoke?”
Basset: Yes, sir, as well as you dare bark your saucy tongue against my lord the Duke of Somerset, as good a man as York.”
Vernon: “Hark ye, not so. In witness take ye that.” (strikes him)
Basset: “Villain, I’ll unto his majesty and crave I may have liberty to vengeance this wrong.”
Vernon: “Well, miscreant, I’ll be there as soon as you.”
Summary and Analysis
A curious scene here, where the young monarch meets his greatest general. Even in France the usually united English are divided by the feuding lords, enabling the French to fight successfully behind the inspired Joan of Arc. The discord intensifies throughout the play. Neither side makes a clear case for itself as the rancor intensifies. Yet nobody can stop it. The forces of fate seem stronger than the free will of the great Talbot. The old prophesies are coming true in this new age of divisive leadership.
Act IV (7 scenes)
Scene i
Paris, the palace
Enter the King, Gloucester, Winchester, York, Suffolk, Somerset, Warwick, Talbot, Exeter and the Governor of Paris.
Gloucester: “Lord Bishop, set the crown upon his head.”
Winchester: “God save King Henry, of that name the Sixth!”
Gloucester: “Now Governor of Paris, take your oath that you elect no other king but him.”
Enter Sir John Fastolfe
Talbot: “I vowed, base knight, when I did meet thee next to tear the garter from thy leg, (plucking it off) which I have done. This dastard did run away; in which assault we lost twelve hundred men and myself taken prisoner.”
King: “We banish thee on pain of death. And now my Lord Protector, view the letter from our uncle the Duke of Burgundy.”
Gloucester: (reading) “‘I joined with Charles, the rightful King of France’. Can this be so?”
King: “What? Doth my uncle Burgundy revolt?”
Gloucester: “He doth, my lord, and has become your foe.”
King: “Why then, Lord Talbot shall talk with him. Let him perceive how ill we brook his treason.”
Talbot: “I go, my Lord.”
Enter Vernon and Basset
Vernon: “Grant me combat.”
Basset: “And me.”
King: “Gentlemen, wherefore crave you combat?”
Basset: “This fellow here upbraided me about the rose I wear.”
Vernon: “And that is my petition. I was provoked by him, pronouncing that the paleness of this flower betrayed the faintness of my master’s heart.”
King: “Good lord, what madness rules in brainsick men, when for so slight and frivolous a cause such factious emulations shall arise. Good cousins both, of York and Somerset, quiet yourselves, I pray, and be at peace.”
Exeter: “It grieves his highness. Good, my lords, be friends.”
King: “Come hither, you that would be combatants. Forget this quarrel and the cause. Let me be umpire in this doubtful strife. I see no reason, if I wear this rose. (puts on a red rose). I more incline to Somerset than York: both are my kinsmen, and I love them both. Cousin of York and my lord of Somerset, go cheerfully together and digest your angry choler on your enemy.”
York: “I like it not that he wears the badge of Somerset.”
Exeter: “This jarring discord of nobility doth presage some ill event. When envy breeds unkind division comes the ruin and there begins confusion.“
Summary and Analysis
King Henry is proclaimed the King of France but the in-fighting continues, despite Henry’s plea for peace among his lords, as the much divided English prepare to do battle with the French.
Act IV
Scene ii
France, before Bordeaux
Enter Talbot
Talbot: “Open your city gates. Call my sovereign yours and do him homage as obedient subjects.”
French general: “Thou ominous and fearful owl of death. We are well fortified and strong enough to fight. There are squadrons pitched to wall thee from the liberty of flight. Pale destruction meets thee in the face. These eyes that see thee now well coloured, shall see thee withered, bloody, pale and dead.”
Talbot: “He fables not. I hear the enemy. A little herd of England’s timorous deer, mazed with a yelping kennel of French curs. Turn on the bloody hounds with heads of steel.”
Summary and Analysis
Talbot and a French general exchange threats as the battle for Boedeaux commences.
Act IV
Scene iii
Plains in Gascony
Enter York
York: “A plague upon that villain, Somerset, that thus delays my promised supply of horsemen. Renowned Talbot doth expect my aid.”
Enter Sir William Lucy
Lucy: “English strength, spur to the rescue of the noble Talbot, who now is hemmed about with grim destruction. To Bordeaux, warlike Duke! To Bordeaux, York! Else, farewell Talbot, France and England’s honour.”
York: “O God, that Somerset were in Talbot’s place! So should we save a valiant gentleman by forfeiting a traitor and a coward. He dies, we lose. We mourn, France smiles.”
Lucy: “Then God take mercy on brave Talbot’s soul, and on his son, young John, where both their lives are done. Thus, while the vulture of sedition feeds in the bosom of such great commanders, sleeping neglect doth betray our scarce cold conquerer. While they each other cross, lives, honours, lands and all, hurry to loss.”
Summary and Analysis
Talbot is falling victim to the squabbling between York and Somerset, as the cavalry York was expecting Somerset to provide has not arrived.
Act IV
Scene iv
Other plains of Gascony
Enter Somerset
Somerset: “It is too late. I cannot send them now. This expedition was by York and Talbot too rashly plotted. Talbot hath sullied all his gloss of former honour by this unheedful, desperate, wild adventure York set him on to fight and die in shame.”
Enter Sir William Lucy
Somerset: “Whither were you sent?”
Lucy: “Whither, my lord? From bought and sold Lord Talbot, who, ringed about by bold adversity, cries out for noble York and Somerset, while he yields up his life unto a world of odds. Talbot perishes by your default.”
Somerset: “York set him on.”
Lucy: “The fraud of England and not the force of France , hath now entrapped the noble minded Talbot. He dies betrayed to fortune by your strife.”
Somerset: “Come, I will dispatch the horsemen straight. Within six hours they will be at his aid.”
Lucy: “Too late comes rescue. He is taken or slain. His fame lives in the world, his shame in you.”
Summary and Analysis
Clearly, Talbot is doomed by the two warring lords, York and Somerset. Somerset blames both York and Talbot for an ‘expedition poorly plotted’. The following three scenes depict Talbot’s fate.
Act IV
Scene v
The English camp near Bordeaux
Enter Talbot and his son, John
Talbot: “O young John Talbot. I did send for thee. Now thou art come unto a feast of death. Therefore, dear boy, mount on my swiftest horse, and I’ll direct thee how thou shalt escape. Come, dally not. Be gone.”
John: “Is my name Talbot and am I your son? And shall I fly?”
Talbot: “Fly to revenge my death, if I be slain. If we both stay then we both are sure to die.”
John: “Then let me stay; and father, do you fly. Upon my death the French can little boast. In yours they will and in you all hopes are lost. Here on my knee, I beg mortality rather than life preserved with infamy.”
Talbot: “Shall all thy mother’s hopes lie in one tomb?”
John: “Ay, rather than shame my mother’s womb.”
Talbot: “Part of thy father may be saved in thee.”
John: “Live I will not if my father die.”
Talbot: “Come, side by side, together we live and die, and soul with soul from France to heaven fly.”
Summary and Analysis
Clearly, John is Talbot’s son. And so dies the historic world of chivalry. The remaining lords no longer fight for king or country but for their own personal gain. The era of heroes has ended. The era of civil dissent is well under way and England is now ruled by politicians who fight for their own persona agendas. Talbot is killed as much by the conflict between York and Somerset as by the French. He will die with his son, so there will be no hope of a future Talbot in this new poisoned climate. However, Shakespeare will increasingly shine a positive light on the Yorkists, presumably in order to compliment a particular descendent of York, his very own Queen Elizabeth. York was upset because he wanted to help Talbot and is genuinely distraught that Somerset’s promised cavalry did not materialize. Somerset shows little remorse for the death of Talbot, so the audience begins to side with York as well.
Act IV
Scene vi
A field of battle
Enter Talbot and John Talbot
Talbot: “Fight, soldiers, fight!
John: “O, twice my father, twice am I thy son. The life thou gav’st me first was lost and done till with thy warlike sword, despite of fate, to my determined time thou gav’st new date.”
Talbot: “Fly to revenge my death when I am dead. In thee thy mother dies, our household’s name, my death’s revenge, thy youth, and England’s fame. All these and more we hazard by thy stay; all these are saved if thou wilt fly away.”
John: “Before young Talbot from old Talbot fly, the coward horse that bears me fall and die.”
Talbot: “Thy life to me is sweet; fight by thy father’s side; let’s die in pride.”
Summary and Analysis
The honour between the two Talbots is underlined and stands in vivid contrast to the in-fighting which left them to die. Truly the end of an era.
Act IV
Scene vii
The battlefied
Enter Talbot and servant
Talbot: “Where is my other life? Mine own in gone. O, where is young Talbot? Young Talbot’s valour makes me smile. His bloody sword he brandished and like a hungry lion did commence rough deeds of rage and steam impatience; Dizzy eyed fury and great rage of heart, into the clustering battle of the French; and in that sea of blood my boy did drench his over mounting spirit; and there died, my Icarus, my blossom, in his pride. Come, come, and lay him in his father’s arms. My spirit can no longer bear these harms. Soldiers, adieu! Now my old arms are young John Talbot’s grave.
Talbot dies
Enter Charles, Alencon, Burgundy, bastard, and La Pucelle.
Charles: “Had York and Somerset brought rescue in, we should have found a bloody day of this.”
Bastard: “Hue them to pieces and hack their bones asunder.”
Charles: “O, no. Forbear. Let us not wrong the dead.”
Enter Sir William Lucy
Lucy: “I come to know what prisoners thou hast taken, and to survey the bodies of the dead. Is Talbot slain, your kingdom’s terror? O, were my eyeballs into bullets turned, that I in rage might shoot them at your faces. Give me their bodies, that I may bear them hence.”
La Pucelle: “For God’s sake, let him have them; to keep them here they would but stink.”
Charles: “Go, take their bodies hence.”
Lucy: “I’ll bear them hence, but from their ashes shall be reared a phoenix that shall make all France afeared.”
Charles: “And now to Paris in this conquering vein! All will be ours, now bloody Talbot’s slain.”
Summary and Analysis
And so ends Act IV. The very much divided English have failed General Talbot and the English army in the fields of France. The prophecy has been fulfilled. Typical of Shakespeare, Act V will hold some impactful surprises.
Act V (5 scenes)
Scene i
London, the palace
Enter the King, Gloucester and Exeter
King: “Have you perused the letters from the Pope, the Emperor and the earl of Armagnac?”
Gloucester: “They humbly sue unto your Excellence to have a godly peace concluded between the realms of England and France, and to stop the effusion of Christian blood. And surer to bind this knot of amity, the Earl of Armagnac, near knit to Charles, proffers his only daughter to your grace in marriage, with a large and sumptuous dowry.”
King: “Marriage, uncle! Alas, my years are young. But you call the ambassadors, and, as you please. I shall be content.”
Gloucester: “He doth intend she shall be England’s Queen.”
King: “Bear her this jewel, pledge of my affection.”
Exeter: “What! Is my Lord of Winchester installed unto a Cardinal’s degree? Henry the Fifth did sometime prophesy: ‘if once he comes to be a cardinal, he’ll make his cap co-equal with the crown.”
Winchester: (aside) “Now Winchester will not submit or be inferior to that proudest of peers, Humphrey of Gloucester. I’ll either make thee stoop and bend thy knee, or sack this country with a mutiny.”
Summary and Analysis
Act V starts with a flair, as Henry agrees to marrying into French nobility and Winchester is made cardinal and threatens mutiny.
Act V
Scene ii
France. Plains in Anjou
Enter Charles, Alencon, Burgundy and La Pucelle
Charles: “The stout Parisians do revolt and turn again unto the warlike French.”
Alencon: “Then march to Paris, royal Charles of France.”
Scout: “The English army, that divided was into two parties, is now conjoined in one, and means to give you battle presently.”
La Pucelle: “Of all base passions fear is most accursed. Command the conquest, Charles, it shall be thine.”
Summary and Analysis
The French are in control of Paris but there is word that an English army is preparing for battle.
Act V
Scene iii
Before Angiers
Enter La Pucelle
La Pucelle: “The Frenchmen fly. Now help, ye charming spells and choice spirits that admonish me. Appear and aid me in this enterprise! Ye familiar spirits that are culled out of the powerful regions under earth , help me this once, that France may get the field. No hope to have redress? Then take my soul. They forsake me. Now the time has come that France must let her head fall into England’s lap. My ancient incantations are too weak. France, thy glory droops to the dust.”
Enter English and French fighting. La Pucelle and York fight. La Pucelle is taken prisoner and the French fly.
York: “Damsel of France, unchain your spirits now with spelling charms, and try if they can gain you liberty.”
La Pucelle: “May you be suddenly surprised by bloody hands, in sleeping on your bed.”
York: “Fell banning hag; enchantress, hold thy tongue.”
La Pucelle: “I prithee give me leave to curse a while.”
York: “Curse, miscreant, when thou comes to the stake.”
Enter Suffolk and Margaret
Suffolk: “O fairest beauty, do not fear nor fly. For I will touch thee but with reverent hands. I kiss these fingers for eternal peace. Who art thou, that I might honour thee?”
Margaret: “Margaret my name, and daughter to a king, the King of Naples – whosoever thou art.”
Suffolk: “An earl am I and Suffolk am I called.” (aside) “My hand would free her , but my heart says no. So seems this gorgeous beauty to my eyes. Fain would I woo her, yet I dare not speak.”
Margaret: “Say, Earl of Suffolk. What ransom must I pay before I pass? For I perceive I am thy prisoner.”
Suffolk: (aside) “She’s beautiful and therefore to be woo’d. Remember that thou hast a wife. I’ll win this lady Margaret. For whom? Why, for my king! Tush, that’s a wooden thing! Yet, so my fancy may be satisfied. Henry is youthful and will quickly yield.” “Madam, I have a secret to reveal. Would you not suppose your bondage happy, to be made a queen? I will undertake to make thee Henry’s Queen, to put a golden sceptre in thy hand, and set a precious crown upon thy head. If thou would condescend to be my…”
Margaret: “What?”
Suffolk: “His love”
Margaret: “I am unworthy to be Henry’s wife.”
Suffolk: “No gentle madam. I unworthy am to woo so fair a dame to be his wife. How say you, madam? Are you so content?”
Margaret: “If my father please, I am content.”
Suffolk: “At thy father’s castle wall we’ll crave a parley to confer with him.”
Enter Reignier
Suffolk: “Reignier, see, they daughter is prisoner.”
Reignier: Suffolk, what remedy?”
Suffolk: “Thy daughter shall be wedded to my king.”
Reignier: “Command what your honour pleases, upon condition, the country Maine and Anjou, free from oppression or the stroke of war, my daughter shall be Henry’s, if he please.”
Suffolk: “I’ll over then to England and make this marriage solemnized. Any loving token to his majesty?”
Margaret: “Yes, a pure, unspotted heart, never yet tainted with love, I send the king.”
Suffolk: “And this withal.” (he kisses her)
Exit Reignier and Margaret
Suffolk: “O, wert thou for myself! But, Suffolk, stay. Thou May’st not wander in that labyrinth: there Minotaurs and ugly treasons lurk.”
Summary and Analysis
We learn that La Pucelle derives her powers from the spirits below, who apparently abandon her to her fate, as she is captured and dragged away by York. We are next introduced to Margaret, daughter to the King of Naples, who will play a pivotal role in the remaining Henry VI plays and in Richard III. Suffolk has chosen her to be King Henry’s wife and queen, but Suffolk himself has taken a liking to her as well. Margaret will fit in perfectly to Henry’s court, being one more conniving schemer among the rest and one of the few to survive the carnage of conflicting nobility in order to be a verbal force to be reckoned with by King Richard III in his own play, following Henry’s murder.
Act V
Scene iv
Anjou. Camp of the Duke of York
Enter York and Warwick
York: “Bring forth the sorceress, condemned to burn.”
Enter La Pucelle and a shepherd
Shepherd: “Ah, Joan, this kills thy father’s heart outright! Must I behold thy timeless cruel death? Sweet daughter, Joan. I’ll die with thee!”
La Pucelle: “Decrepit miser! Base ignoble wretch! I am descended of a gentler blood; thou art no father nor no friend of mine.”
Shepherd: “I did beget her, all the parish knows. Her mother can testify.”
Warwick: “Graceless, wilt thou deny thy parentage?”
Shepherd: “Kneel down and take my blessing, my girl. Now cursed be the time of thy nativity. I would the milk thy mother gave thee when thou suck’dst her breast had been a little ratsbane for thy sake. Or else I wish some ravenous wolf had eaten thee. Dost thou deny thy father, cursed drab? O, burn her, burn her! Hanging is too good.”
La Pucelle: “First let me tell you whom you have condemned: issued from the progeny of kings; virtuous and holy. But you, who are polluted by your lusts, you judge it straight a thing impossible.”
York: “Away with her to execution!”
La Pucelle: “Will nothing turn your unrelenting hearts? I am with child, ye bloody homicides. Murder not then the fruit inside my womb, although ye hale me to a violent death.”
York: “She and the Dauphin have been juggling.”
Warwick: “Well, go to; we’ll have no bastards live.”
La Puelle: “It was Alencon who enjoyed my love.”
York: “There were so many whom she could use.”
La Pucelle: I leave my curse: May never glorious sun reflex his beams upon the country where you make abode. But darkness and the gloomy shade of death environ you, till mischief and despair drive you to break your necks or hang yourselves.”
York: “Break thou in pieces and consume to ashes. Thou foul, accursed minister of hell! Insulting Charles, either accept the title thou usurped or we will plague thee with incessant wars.”
Charles: “I shall.”
York: “Then swear allegiance to his Majesty, nor be rebellious to the crown of England.”
Analysis
The English have La Pucelle and taunt her before burning her at the stake. A shepherd claims to be her humble father and she denies that he is such, claiming to be issued from a ‘progeny of kings.’ A controversial historical figure, adored today by Catholic France and regarded as a traitorous witch by the English. Nonetheless, here in English Canada, Catholic school boards have named many schools St Joan of Arc.
Act V
Scene v
London. The Palace
Enter Suffolk, the King and Gloucester
King: “Your wondrous rare description of beauteous Margaret hath astonished me.”
Suffolk: “She is content to be at your command – to love and honour Henry as her lord. Give consent that Margaret may be England’s royal Queen.”
Gloucester: “You know, my lord, your highness is betrothed unto another lady of esteem.”
Suffolk: “A poor earl’s daughter is unequal odds, and therefore may be broke without offence.”
Gloucester: “Is Margaret more than that?”
Suffolk: “Her father is a king. Whom should we match with Henry, being a king, but Margaret, who is daughter to a king? Conclude with me that Margaret shall be Queen.”
King: “Procure that Lady Margaret do cross the seas to England, and be crowned King Henry’s faithful and anointed Queen.”
Gloucester: “Ay, grief, I fear me, both at first and last.”
Suffolk: “Thus Suffolk hath prevailed. Margaret shall now be Queen and rule the King. But I will rule both her, the King and realm.”
Analysis
The divisions grow deeper and deeper. The Red and the White Roses begin to consume the nation over control of the crown and now Suffolk and Margaret, Henry’s queen, lust upon one another and will only further usurp Henry’s fragile authority, as Margaret plunges enthusiastically into the English dynastic struggles. She will play an important role in all four plays. Rival factions in turmoil over a crown during a succession crisis was something near and dear to Renaissance England and Shakespeare had to tread carefully. The parallels were laid bare and made obvious. Suffolk and Margaret hope to rule Henry, Cardinal Winchester hopes to supplant Gloucester as Protector of the Realm while Richard Plantagenet of York bides his time until he can seize the crown he believes is rightfully his. The crown may well fall upon the head most unscrupulous. Richard of York bears watching, as one of his sons will be the villainous King Richard III, title character of the 4th play in the sequence. The kingdom has never been more divided, and it is only the end of Part I.
Final Thoughts:
Shakespeare wrote ten English history plays. King John and Henry VIII stand on their own. The remaining eight represent two 4 play sequences. Historically, Richard II, Henry IV, Parts I and II and Henry V start a story concluded by Henry VI, Parts I, II and III and Richard III. Shakespeare actually began this eight-play story with the last four plays, commencing with the three Henry VI plays, followed by Richard III and only later did he return to complete the remaining earlier four histories. These Henry VI plays were all very successful in Shakespeare’s time and Part I was the hit of the season in 1592, as the English Elizabethan audience flocked to bear witness to the tumultuous events of the previous century. The plays were then almost completely neglected for centuries until recently revived as The War of the Roses by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1965 and again by the English Shakespeare Company in 1990. BBC produced The Hollow Crown in 2012 (Richard II, Henry IV, Part I, Henry IV, Part II and Henry V) and The Hollow Crown – The War of the Roses – in 2015 (Henry VI, Part I, Henry VI, Part II, Henry VI, Part III and Richard III). These are all available on youtube and are superb.
Shakespeare likely had accessed many scripts used in English pageants and bits and pieces from the War of the Roses and ideas involving Joan of Arc and Lord Talbot and they came together as Henry VI, Part I. The three Henry plays are chock full of an excessive number of lords and dukes before Shakespeare finally settles on a play with a close focus on an individual from Henry VI, Part III, worthy of his own stage and his own play, Richard III. There is an occasional woodenness in the countless indistinguishable personages of the three Henry VI plays. There is also frequent dazzling foreshadowing of the genius of his later works. Each play in the sequence is better than the one written before, as the author hones in on his craft from play to play. Richard III is considered his first genuine masterpiece.
William Shakespeare: Journey Through Genius 