 Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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Table of Contents Literary/Historical Information Shakespeare’s two main sources of information are: Edward Hall’s The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Families of Lancaster and York (1548); and Raphael Molinshed’s The chronicles of England, Ireland, and Scotland (1578). Of the latter, Shakespeare used the second edition of 1587. The action of the play runs from the birth of Henry VI till his marriage to Margaret of Anjou. The main focus is on the loss of French territories by the English during the reign of Henry VI. Henry was born in 1421 and his father Henry V died in 1422. Henry V invaded France, renewing the Hundred-Year-War, initiated by his great-grandfather in 1337. This war lasted from 1337 to 1453. The reason that led to this war was the English claim to the crown of France. The French throne was claimed for Edward III in his mother’s right. She was Isabella, the daughter of Charles IV, the King of France. The French lords saying that no woman could transmit a claim to the French crown denied him the crown. King Henry VI, Part I treats a series of events from the funeral of Henry V in November 1422 to the defeat and death of Talbot at Chatillan in July 1453, the encounter that ended the Hundred-Year-War. Shakespeare also emphasizes the rivalry between the English peers that lead to the loss of English possessions in France and finally develops into the War of the Roses, the English civil war that follows the French disaster. Table of Contents | |
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