 Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
Table of Contents PLOT (Synopsis) The play begins with the victory of the first battle of St. Albans on May 22, 1455 by Richard Plantagenet, the Duke of York. This is depicted in the final sequence of Henry VI, Part II. After winning the first battle of St. Albans, York goes straight to London's Houses of Parliament and proclaims himself the lawful heir to the throne. King Henry is compelled to acknowledge York as heir to the crown in 1460. He disinherits his own son and agrees to give the sons of York the right to the throne although he must reign as King during his lifetime. York's sons Edward and Richard persuade their father to go back on his oath and claim the throne by force, which he does but a battle ensues and York is defeated and killed at the battle of York. The Yorkists are defeated again at the second battle of St. Albans in 1461, but the Lancastrians then withdraw north, while York's eldest son Edward is proclaimed King in London. The next month, Edward marches northwards and wins the battle of Towton. This victory establishes him on the throne and Henry takes refuge in Scotland. His son and wife go into exile in France. Henry is captured again and brought to the Tower of London, and imprisoned. He is restored to the throne by the 'Kingmaker' Warwick, who is enraged with the news that Edward by his own desire has made a private marriage with the widow Elizabeth Lady Grey, while Warwick was abroad negotiating for the hand of a French Princess for the new king. In April 1471, after losing the battle of Barnet, in which Warwick is killed, Henry falls into the hands of Edward again. Queen Margaret is defeated by Edward's younger brother, Richard of Gloucester, at the battle of Tewkesbury the next month. Henry is recommitted to the Tower where on the night of Edward's return, he is murdered by Richard. The sequence ends with the birth of Edward's young son, later Edward V. The reign is a pattern of disorder, a mirror on the dynastic strife centered on personal ambition rather than any desire for political reform. Table of Contents | |
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