PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS
King Henry VI
Edward, the prince of Wales, his son
Louis XI, the King of France
Richard Plantagenet, the Duke of York
Edward, York’s son, afterward King Edward IV
Edmund, York’s son, the Earl of Rutland
George, York’s son, afterward the Duke of Clarence
Richard, York’s son, afterward the Duke of Gloucester
Lord Hastings, of the Duke of York’s party
The Earl of Warwick, a kingmaker
Margaret, the Queen of England
Lord Clifford, Margaret’s ally
Lady Grey, afterward Edward IV’s queen
Lady Bona, the sister of the Queen of France
THE STORY
In the House of Parliament, the Duke of York, his sons, and the Earl of Warwick rejoiced over their success at Saint Albans. Riding hard, the Yorkists had arrived in London ahead of the routed king, and Henry, entering with his lords, was filled with consternation when he saw York already seated on the throne, to which Warwick had conducted him. Some of the king’s followers were sympathetic toward York and others were fearful of his power; the two attitudes resulted in defection in the royal ranks. Seeing his stand weakened, the king attempted to avert disorder by disinheriting his own son and by pledging the crown to York and his sons, on the condition that York stop the civil war and remain loyal to the king during his lifetime.
Annoyed by the reconciliation and contemptuous toward the king because of her son’s disinheritance, Queen Margaret deserted the king and raised her own army to protect her son’s rights to the throne. The queen’s army marched against York’s castle as York was sending his sons to recruit forces for another rebellion. York’s sons had persuaded their father that his oath to the king was not binding because his contract with the king had not been made in due course of law before a magistrate.
In a battle near Wakefield, Lord Clifford and his soldiers killed Rutland, York’s young son, and soaked a handkerchief in his blood. Later, as he joined Margaret’s victorious army, which outnumbered York’s soldiers ten to one, Lord Clifford gave York the handkerchief to wipe away his tears as he wept for his son’s death. York’s sorrow was equaled by his humiliation at the hands of Margaret, who, after taking him prisoner, put a paper crown on his head that he might reign from the molehill where she had him placed to be jeered by the soldiers. Clifford and Margaret stabbed the Duke of York and beheaded him. His head was set on the gates of York.
Hearing of the defeat of York’s forces, Warwick, taking the king with him, set out from London to fight Queen Margaret at Saint Albans. Warwick’s qualities as a general were totally offset by the presence of the king, who was unable to conceal his strong affection for Margaret, and Warwick was defeated. Edward and Richard, York’s sons, joined Warwick in a march toward London.
King Henry, ever the righteous monarch, forswore any part in breaking his vow to York and declared that he preferred to leave his son only virtuous deeds, rather than an ill-gotten crown. At the insistence of Clifford and Margaret, however, the king knighted his son as the prince of Wales.
After a defiant parley, the forces met again between Towton and Saxton. The king, banned from battle by Clifford and Margaret because of his antipathy to war and his demoralizing influence on the soldiers, sat on a distant part of the field lamenting the course affairs had taken in this bloody business of murder and deceit. He saw the ravages of war when a father bearing the body of his dead son and a son with the body of his dead father passed by. They had unknowingly taken the lives of their loved ones in the fighting. As the rebel forces, led by Warwick, Richard, and Edward approached, the king, passive to danger and indifferent toward his own safety, was rescued by the prince of Wales and Margaret before the enemy could reach him. He was sent to Scotland for safety.
After a skirmish with Richard, Clifford fled to another part of the field, where, weary and worn, he fainted and died. His head, severed by Richard, replaced York’s head on the gate. The Yorkists marched on to London. Edward was proclaimed King Edward IV; Richard was made Duke of Gloucester, and George, Duke of Clarence.
King Edward, in audience, heard Lady Grey’s case for the return of confiscated lands taken by Margaret’s army at Saint Albans, where Lord Grey was killed fighting for the York cause. The hearing, marked by Richard’s and George’s dissatisfaction with their brother’s position and Edward’s lewdness directed at Lady Grey, ended with Lady Grey’s betrothal to Edward. Richard, resentful of his humpback, aspired to the throne. His many deprivations resulting from his physical condition, he felt, justified his ambition; he would stop at no obstacle in achieving his ends.
Because of their great losses, Margaret and the prince went to France to appeal for aid from King Louis XI, who was kindly disposed toward helping them maintain the crown. The French monarch’s decision was quickly changed at the appearance of Warwick, who had arrived from England to ask for the hand of Lady Bona for King Edward. Warwick’s suit had been granted, and Margaret’s request denied, when a messenger brought letters announcing King Edward’s marriage to Lady Grey. King Louis and Lady Bona were insulted; Margaret was overjoyed. Warwick, chagrined, withdrew his allegiance to the House of York and offered to lead French troops against Edward. He promised his older daughter in marriage to Margaret’s son as a pledge of his honor.
At the royal palace in London, family loyalty was broken by open dissent when King Edward informed his brothers that he would not be bound by their wishes. Told that the prince was to marry Warwick’s older daughter, the Duke of Clarence announced that he intended to marry the younger one. He left, taking Somerset, one of King Henry’s factions, with him. Richard, seeing in an alliance with Edward an opportunity for his own advancement, remained; he, Montague, and Hastings pledged their support to King Edward.
When the French forces reached London, Warwick took Edward prisoner. The kingmaker removed Edward’s crown and took it to crown King Henry once again, who had, in the meantime, escaped from Scotland only to be delivered into Edward’s hands and imprisoned in the Tower. Henry delegated his royal authority to Warwick and the Duke of Clarence, in order that he might be free from the turmoil attendant upon his reign.
Richard and Hastings freed Edward from his imprisonment. They formed an army in York; while Warwick and Clarence, who had learned of Edward’s release, were preparing for defense, Edward, marching upon London, again seized King Henry and sent him to solitary confinement in the Tower.
Edward made a surprise attack on Warwick near Coventry, where Warwick’s forces were soon increased by the appearance of Oxford, Montague, and Somerset. The fourth unit to join Warwick was led by Clarence, who took the red rose, the symbol of the House of Lancaster, from his hat and threw it into Warwick’s face. Clarence accused Warwick of duplicity and announced that he would fight beside his brothers to preserve the House of York. Warwick, a valiant soldier to the end, was wounded by King Edward and died soon afterward. Montague was also killed.
When Queen Margaret and her son arrived from France, the prince won great acclaim from Margaret and the lords for his spirited vow to hold the kingdom against the Yorkists. Defeated at Tewkesbury, however, the prince was cruelly stabbed to death by King Edward and his brothers. Margaret pleaded with them to kill her too, but they chose to punish her with life. She was sent back to France, her original home. After the prince had been killed, Richard of Gloucester stole off to London, where he assassinated King Henry in the Tower. Again he swore to get the crown for himself.
The Yorkists were at last supreme. Edward and Queen Elizabeth, with their infant son, regained the throne. Richard, still intending to seize the crown for himself, saluted the infant with a Judas kiss, while Edward stated that they were now to spend their time in stately triumphs, comic shows, and pleasures of the court.
CRITICAL EVALUATION
In Henry VI, Part III, which belongs to William Shakespeare’s tetralogy of history plays dealing with the political upheaval that followed Henry Bolingbroke’s overthrow and murder of Richard II, England continues to suffer the evils of civil strife and social disorder arising from the battles between the houses of York and Lancaster known as the Wars of the Roses. Shakespeare’s general purpose in this series of plays is to reassert the power of Providence, to glorify England, and to suggest the nature of her salvation; only with the restitution of the rightful heir to the throne at the end of Richard III will England be able to bind her wounds and enjoy peace once again.
Henry VI, Part III is a powerful study of disorder and chaos; the play interweaves a cohesive body of imagery and symbolism with the action of its plot to create a strong unity of impression centering on the theme of anarchy and disunity. Chaos prevails on all levels of society, from the state, to the family, to the individual. At the highest level of authority and social organization—the throne—anarchy has replaced traditional rule. The king, who must be the center of political strength and embody the sanctity of social duty, oath, and custom, is instead the essence of weakness; Henry not only yields the right of succession to York, but eventually abdicates in favor of Warwick and Clarence. Whenever he attempts to intervene in events, his weak voice is quickly silenced; finally he is silenced permanently, and his murder represents the ultimate overturning of political order and rejection of the divine right upon which his rule was founded. Contrasted to Henry, the representative of rightful power, is Richard, who in this play becomes the epitome of total anarchy. Richard murders the prince, the king, and his brother Clarence, boasting later, “Why, I can smile, and murder while I smile”; he scornfully disregards any form of moral obligation and eventually falls victim to unreasoning fears and nightmares.
The primary social bond—that of the family—in a state of dissolution. Again, the malady begins at the level of the king; Henry disinherits his own son, the rightful heir, thus causing his wife Margaret to cut herself off from him, sundering their marital bond. York’s three sons become hopelessly divided by their conflicting ambitions. In Act II, scene v, Shakespeare shows, by means of the morality tableau, that the same family breakdown prevails among the common people as well. Simultaneously with its presentation of political and social chaos, the play dramatizes the disruption that is occurring in individuals’ morality. Hatred, ambition, lust, and greed are the keynotes, while duty, trust, tradition, and self-restraint are increasingly rare.
Henry VI, Part III thus depicts a society in the throes of anarchy and war, a society where kings surrender their duties, fathers and sons murder each other, and brothers vie for power at any cost. Yet the play contains an occasional feeble ray of light, such as Henry’s weak protests against the cruelty of the usurpers, his pleas for pity for the war’s victims, and his ineffectual calls for an end to the conflict and a restoration of peace and order. These scattered flickers, dim as they are, along with several prophecies planted throughout the play, foreshadow the coming hope, the resolution of conflict, and the return of peace and rightful authority which will follow in Richard III.
—Joseph Rosenblum
FILM ADAPTATIONS
1960 An Age of Kings Production
An Age of Kings, a fifteen-part BBC series first broadcast in 1960, contained two episodes based on Henry VI, Part III. These were titled “The Morning’s War” and “The Sun in Splendour.” Actors included Frank Windsor as Earl of Warwick; Jack May as Duke of York; Julian Glover as Edward IV; Patrick Garland as George, Duke of Clarence; Paul Daneman as Richard, Duke of Gloucester; Mary Morris as Queen Margaret; Edgar Wreford as Duke of Suffolk; Terry Scully as King Henry VI; Robert Lang as Cardinal Beaufort; Gordon Gostelow as Earl of Salisbury; Alan Rowe as Duke of Somerset; Frank Windsor as Earl of Warwick; and Esmond Knight as Jack Cade.
In his 2013 book Small-Screen Shakespeare (65–66), Peter Cochran highly praised the terrifying scene in which Margaret and Clifford kill York (65) and thought another fine scene involved Henry drawing a clock (66).
1965 The Wars of the Roses Productions
In 1965 the BBC broadcast a series of Shakespeare’s history plays titled The Wars of the Roses, with two programs devoted to the Henry VI plays. Actors included Paul Hardwick as Gloucester; David Warner as King Henry VI; Charles Kay as the Dauphin; Hugh Sullivan as Burgundy; Janet Suzman as Joan la Pucelle; Peggy Ashcroft as Margaret; and Ian Holm as Gloucester.
In his 2013 book Small-Screen Shakespeare (66–67), Peter Cochran admired the acting and camera work, the fact that Rutland is acted by a boy (making his death more horrific), the close shots used to depict York’s death, and the ambiguity of Margaret’s weeping (66). He thought Gloucester’s appearance here is effectively attractive (66); praised the acting of Brewster Mason as Warwick as well as of Peggy Ashcroft as Margaret (67); and admired the scene of Henry’s death, especially the interactions of Henry and Gloucester (67).
1983 BBC Shakespeare Plays Production
This adaptation, like the first two parts of the BBC Henry VI trilogy, was directed by Jane Howell. It starred Peter Benson as King Henry VI; Ron Cook as Richard, Duke of Gloucester; Julia Foster as Queen Margaret; Brian Protheroe as Edward, Earl of March, later Edward IV; and Bernard Hill as the Duke of York.
Henry Fenwick, in his discussion of “The Production” (20–31) in the booklet the BBC issued to accompany the first broadcast of this adaptation, reported that director Jane Howell was surprised by the play’s effectiveness; was struck by its “classic, almost Greek structure,” with large issues at stake (20); and was intrigued by its “very powerful speeches” (21). Fenwick said she found an improvement in the verse in this text over the first two plays of the trilogy and a greater emphasis on the characters. She explained how she cut and then restored parts of the script and made the costumes and sets darker after the first two productions (21–22). Fenwick noted that the set was changed in various other ways, especially involving lighting; reported that wide-angle cameras were used; and noted that battles became especially frequent and prominent in this third play (22–24), with mirrors and fake brown blood sometimes used to enhance the battles’ visual impact (25–26). He commented that much attention was paid to how the verse should be spoken; that the social and political collapse reflected in society and the warfare in this play seemed modern concerns; and that the opening scene of Part III was especially difficult to perform (27), with York and Margaret two particularly intriguing characters (27–28), more interested in the next generation than in themselves (28–29). In the final pages of Fenwick’s introduction, various actors explained how they imagined and played their parts and developed their characters (28–30). Ron Cook, the actor playing the future Richard III, particularly discussed his character’s development, saying he is presented not as innately wicked but as “the logical outcome of the society into which he was born” (31).
Michael Manheim, in his 1994 essay “The English History Play on Screen,” found Howell’s production “closest to the text,” less absurdist than the version in the 1960s War of the Roses, and more accepting of Shakespeare’s ultimate Christian message. He praised Howell’s treatment of the battle scenes (133).
Discussing this production in their 2006 book on the Henry VI plays (129–33), Stuart Hampton-Reeves and Carol Chillington Rutter reported that Howell was especially proud of this third part of the trilogy. They noted its innovative televisual methods (129) and the fact that its sets were now much changed from how they appeared in the first two plays of the series. They also commented on the ways the characters now reveal a growing sense of the hollowness of their ambitions. They stated that “Part Three is not easy to watch, nor was it meant to be” (129). It presents no sympathetic characters and it focuses on constant battles (129). Noting that war in this film is “neither heroic nor romanticized” (129), Hampton-Reeves and Rutter observed that the same was true in many recent American antiwar movies. They commented that the pageants that opened Parts I and II give way in Part III to “surreal montages” (131) and that the breakdown of the kingdom is presented in fragmented imagery (132). They concluded by asserting that “Howell created one of the most visually stunning and adventurous contributions” to the whole BBC series of Shakespeare plays.
Peter Cochran, in his 2013 book Small-Screen Shakespeare (67), thought the television studio was too obvious and monotonous (67); said the symbolically changed set is seen only briefly and therefore ineffectively; and called the whole production too slow (67).
1991 English Shakespeare Company Productions
In 1991, two episodes devoted to Henry VI—titled Henry VI: House of Lancaster and Henry VI: House of York—were broadcast as parts of a series of Shakespeare’s history plays performed by the English Shakespeare Company. Actors in these two episodes included Paul Brennen as King Henry VI; Ian Burford as Duke of Exeter; Francesca Ryan as Joan la Pucelle; Jack Carr as Duke of Burgundy; Michael Cronin as Earl of Warwick; Barry Stanton as Duke of York; June Watson as Queen Margaret; John Dougall as George, Duke of Clarence; Andrew Jarvis as Richard, Duke of Gloucester; and Michael Pennington as Jack Cade.
Peter Cochran, in his 2013 book Small-Screen Shakespeare (64–65), humorously described the Jack Cade riot scene (68); thought the “crown” episode between York and Margaret was well done; found the scene involving machine gun fire “very moving”; and thought this production benefitted from being performed before a live audience.
Bibliography
Cochran, Peter. Small-Screen Shakespeare. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013.
Fenwick, Henry. “The Production.” The Shakespeare Plays: Henry VI Part 3, edited by John Wilders et al., BBC Books, 1983, pp. 20–31.
Hampton-Reeves, Stuart, and Carol Chillington Rutter. The Henry VI Plays. Manchester UP, 2006.
Manheim, Michael. “The English History Play on Screen.” Shakespeare and the Moving Image, edited by Anthony Davies and Stanley Wells, Cambridge UP, 1994, pp. 121–45.