   #copyright

Henry VI of England

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: British History 1500 and
before (including Roman Britain); Monarchs of Great Britain

                  Henry VI
    By the Grace of God, King of England
   and France and Lord of Ireland
   Reign       31 August 1422 - 4 March 1461
               and 31 October 1470 - 11 April 1471
   Coronation  6 November 1429
   Born        6 December 1421
               Windsor Castle
   Died        21 May 22 May 1471
               Tower of London
   Buried      Windsor Castle
   Predecessor Henry V
   Successor   Edward IV
   Consort     Margaret of Anjou (1429–1482)
   Issue       Edward, Prince of Wales
               (1453–1471)
   Royal House Lancaster
   Father      Henry V (1387–1422)
   Mother      Catherine of Valois (1401–1437)

   Henry VI ( 6 December 1421 – 21 May 1471) was King of England from 1422
   to 1461 (though with a Regent until 1437) and then from 1470 to 1471,
   and King of France from 1422 to 1453.

The Child King

   Henry was the only child of King Henry V of England and was his heir,
   and therefore great things were expected of him from birth. He was born
   on 6 December 1421 at Windsor, and he succeeded to the throne at the
   age of nine months on 31 August 1422, when his father died. His mother,
   Catherine of Valois, was then only twenty years old and as the daughter
   of King Charles VI of France was viewed with considerable suspicion and
   prevented from having a full role in her son's upbringing. Though not
   prevalent at the time of his birth, there were later rumours doubting
   his paternity that cannot entirely be contributed to Yorkist
   propaganda.

   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, was
   appointed Protector and Defender of the Realm and the Church until the
   King came of age, but his appointment was revocable by the Council at
   any time. His duties were limited to keeping the peace and summoning
   and dissolving Parliament. Bishop Henry Beaufort (Cardinal from 1426)
   who was 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 Gloucester as Regent of England
   whenever Bedford was personally in the country.

   From 1428, Henry's tutor was the Earl of Warwick, whose father had been
   instrumental in the opposition to Richard II's reign. Henry was also
   influenced by Henry Beaufort, and later William de la Pole, 1st Duke of
   Suffolk. 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 in Paris 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.

   As to his uncles, John, Duke of Bedford and Humphrey, Duke of
   Gloucester, who in the early part of the child king's reign were the
   most powerful of the regents, the former died in 1435; the latter 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

         English Royalty
       House of Lancaster
   Armorial of Plantagenet
            Henry VI
       Edward, Prince of Wales

   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. Since Henry VI was still a child,
   and England was ruled by a regency government, much of the ground his
   father gained was lost. A revival of French fortunes, beginning with
   the military victories of Joan of Arc, led to the repudiation of
   Henry's title to rule France, and the crowning of the French Dauphin at
   Reims. Diplomatic errors as well as military failures resulted in the
   loss of most of the English territories in France.

   On gaining his majority, Henry VI proved to be a deeply spiritual man,
   lacking the worldly wisdom necessary to allow him to rule effectively.
   Right from the time he assumed control as king in 1437, he allowed his
   court to be dominated by a few noble favorites; 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 niece, Margaret of Anjou. Henry agreed, especially when
   he heard reports of Margaret’s stunning beauty, and sent Suffolk to
   negotiate with King Charles. Charles agreed to the marriage on
   condition that he would not have to provide the customary dowry and
   instead would receive the lands of Maine and Anjou from the English.
   These conditions were agreed to in the Treaty of Tours, but the cession
   of Maine and Anjou was kept secret from parliament. It was known that
   this would be hugely unpopular with the English populace.

   The marriage went ahead in 1445 and Margaret’s character seems to have
   complemented that of Henry’s in that she was prepared to take decisions
   and show leadership where he was content to be led by her. In this much
   Margaret proved a more competent ruler than Henry ever was, even though
   she was only sixteen at that time. Now came the thorny issue of Maine
   and Anjou. Henry had procrastinated about keeping his end of the
   bargain with Charles VII, knowing that it would be a hugely unpopular
   move and that Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester and the war party would be
   especially critical of it. However, Margaret was determined to make him
   see it through and finally it became public knowledge in 1446. Most
   public anger was directed at Suffolk, for having negotiated the Treaty
   of Tours, but Henry and Margaret were determined to protect him,
   knowing they were vulnerable too, having also had full knowledge of the
   conditions of the marriage.

   In 1447, the king, the queen and the group surrounding them (Suffolk,
   Somerset, and the ageing Cardinal Beaufort) summoned Gloucester before
   parliament on a charge of treason in Bury St Edmunds, and he died in
   captivity, whether of natural causes or foul play was not clear. The
   death of Gloucester left York as Henry’s heir presumptive, but Henry
   never officially acknowledged this and York continued to be excluded
   from the court circle, being banished to govern Ireland, while Henry
   and Margaret promoted Suffolk and Edmund Beaufort to Dukedoms, (a title
   normally reserved for immediate relatives of the monarch). Beaufort,
   the new Duke of Somerset (and Cardinal Beaufort's nephew) was sent to
   France to lead the war.

Increasing unpopularity and insanity

   The government's increasing unpopularity was due to a breakdown in law
   and order, corruption, the distribution of royal land to the king's
   court favourites, the troubled state of the crown's finances, and the
   steady loss of territories in France. In 1447, this unpopularity took
   the form of a Commons campaign against the Duke of Suffolk, who was the
   most unpopular of all the King's entourage and widely seen as a
   traitor. Henry was forced to send him into exile, but his ship was
   intercepted in the English Channel, and he was murdered. His body was
   found on the beach at Dover.
   Henry VI depicted in Cassell's History of England (1902)
   Henry VI depicted in Cassell's History of England (1902)

   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 presumably 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, had in all likelihood
   inherited the hereditary trait from his mother Joanna of Bourbon, who
   showed obvious signs of resembling mental breakdown, 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.

The Wars of the Roses

   Disaffected nobles who had grown in power during Henry's reign (most
   importantly the Earls of Warwick and Salisbury) took matters into their
   own hands by backing the claims of the rival House of York, first to
   the Regency, and then to the throne itself. After a violent struggle
   between the houses of Lancaster and York, (see Wars of the Roses),
   Henry was deposed on 4 March 1461 by his cousin, Edward of York, who
   became King Edward IV of England. But Edward failed to capture Henry
   and his queen, and they were able to flee into exile abroad. During the
   first period of Edward IV's reign, Lancastrian resistance continued
   mainly under the leadership of Queen Margaret and the few nobles still
   loyal to her in the northern counties of England and Wales. Henry was
   captured by King Edward in 1465 and subsequently held captive in the
   Tower of London.

   Queen Margaret, exiled in Scotland and later in France, was determined
   to win back the throne on behalf of her husband and son, and with the
   help of King Louis XI of France eventually formed an alliance with
   Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, who had fallen out with Edward IV.
   After marrying his daughter to the Prince of Wales, Warwick returned to
   England, defeated the Yorkists in battle, liberated Henry VI and
   restored him to the throne on 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, who had been
   weak-willed and mentally unstable to start with. By all accounts Henry
   looked lethargic and vacant as Warwick and his men paraded him through
   the streets of London as the rightful King of England, and the contrast
   with the imposing King Edward whom he had replaced must have been
   marked. Within a few months Warwick had overreached himself by
   declaring war on Burgundy, whose ruler responded by giving Edward IV
   the assistance he needed to win back his throne by force. The Prince of
   Wales was killed at the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471.

Death and legacy

   Henry VI was imprisoned in the Tower of London, where he was murdered
   on 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. 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 which now stands where he died.

   King Henry VI was originally buried in Chertsey Abbey; then, in 1485,
   his body was moved to St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.

   He was succeeded by Edward IV, son of Richard, Duke of York.

   Ironically for one so personally pious and peace-loving, Henry left a
   great legacy of strife and civil war. Perhaps his one lasting positive
   achievement was his fostering of education—he founded both Eton College
   and King's College, Cambridge. 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, grand, late Gothic or Perpendicular-style
   church (usually called a chapel, a term which belies their size) with a
   monastic and/or educational foundation attached.

Henry's character

   Henry’s character as king is best summed up as pious, indecisive and
   easily-led, and of course later in life, he became severely mentally
   unstable. He was kind and generous to those he cared about (which did
   not help the dire financial situation of his government) giving away
   land and titles to his advisors. He avoided the ostentatious trappings
   of his role, preferring simple dress. He was keen on reading and
   'book-learning' but showed no inclination whatsoever towards leading
   his country in battle — ironic, considering his reign was one of the
   bloodiest in English history. He disliked making war on his fellow
   Christians and he was keen for justice to be done in his name — again
   ironic, considering the widespread corruption and collapse of law and
   order which occurred under him. Henry seems to have used religion and
   piety as a means of escape from the harsh world of bitter rivalries and
   power struggles which surrounded him at court. He was excessively
   prudish, which was encouraged by his confessor who advised him to
   abstain from sex with his wife as much as possible.

   Henry seems to have been a decent man, but completely unsuited to
   kingship. He allowed himself to be totally dominated by the
   power-hungry factions which surrounded him at court and was later
   powerless to stop the outbreak of bloody civil war. It was clearly too
   much for him to cope with, as his recurring mental illness from 1453
   onwards showed. During the Wars of the Roses it was his queen,
   Margaret, who was the driving force behind the Lancastrian faction,
   while Henry was captured first by one side, then the other. Whoever had
   the king in their possession was able to claim to be ruling in his
   name.

Ancestors

   CAPTION: Henry's ancestors in three generations

   Henry VI of England Father:
   Henry V of England Paternal Grandfather:
   Henry IV of England Paternal Great-grandfather:
   John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster
   Paternal Great-grandmother:
   Blanche of Lancaster
   Paternal Grandmother:
   Mary de Bohun Paternal Great-grandfather:
   Humphrey de Bohun, 7th Earl of Hereford
   Paternal Great-grandmother:
   Joan FitzAlan
   Mother:
   Catherine of Valois Maternal Grandfather:
   Charles VI of France Maternal Great-grandfather:
   Charles V of France
   Maternal Great-grandmother:
   Joanna of Bourbon
   Maternal Grandmother:
   Isabeau of Bavaria Maternal Great-grandfather:
   Stephen III, Duke of Bavaria
   Maternal Great-grandmother:
   Taddaea Visconti

Trivia

   Miracles were attributed to the king, and he was informally regarded as
   a saint. Hymns to him still exist.

   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.

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_VI_of_England"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
