Henry VI, Part 1
What is Henry VI, Part 1 about?
What role does Joan of Arc play in the story?
How does the play depict the Wars of the Roses?
Henry VI, Part 1, chronicle play in five acts by William Shakespeare, written sometime in 1589–92 and published in the First Folio of 1623. Henry VI, Part 1 is the first in a sequence of four history plays (the others being Henry VI, Part 2, Henry VI, Part 3, and Richard III). Known collectively as the “first tetralogy,” the plays depict events in English history during the Wars of the Roses (1455–85) between the houses of Lancaster and York. Shakespeare’s primary sources for the historical events in the play were the works of Edward Hall (1498–1547) and Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles (1577).
Background
Henry VI, Part 1 covers the early part of King Henry VI’s reign and ends with events immediately preceding the opening of Part 2. Most of the play rapidly shifts between the power struggles at the English court and the war in France. It contains the entirely nonhistorical scene in which Richard Plantagenet, later duke of York, chooses a white rose and the duke of Somerset a red rose as emblems of their respective houses of York and Lancaster. It is uncertain whether Part 1 was Shakespeare’s first effort at a historical play, written before the other two parts, or a supplement that was written subsequently to provide an introduction to the events in Part 2 and Part 3. With the Henry VI trilogy (leading up to the devastating portrayal of evil in Richard III), Shakespeare analyzes the harrowing process by which England suffered through decades of civil war until the victory of Henry Tudor (Henry VII) at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485.
Plot
The Wars of the Roses form the historical context for the first tetralogy, beginning with the division of loyalties to the houses of York and Lancaster in Henry VI, Part 1. Part 2 and Part 3 document the struggle for supremacy between the Lancastrian Henry VI and the Yorkists, led by Richard, duke of York. Henry VI’s crown passes to Edward IV, York’s elder son, and then to Richard III, York’s younger son. The wars finally end with the triumph of Henry VII, who defeats Richard III and pledges to “unite the white rose and the red.”
The formidable Joan of Arc and the garden scene (Acts I–II)
Part 1 begins at the funeral of Henry V, as political factions are forming around the boy king, Henry VI. The chief rivalry is between Henry VI’s uncle Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, the Lord Protector, and his great-uncle, Henry Beaufort, bishop of Winchester. Messengers interrupt the funeral to report the loss of England’s French territories and the defeat and capture of the English commander Lord Talbot. The peace Henry V had established in France is shattered as Joan la Pucelle (Joan of Arc) defeats the French dauphin (Charles VII) in single combat, gaining military authority, and persuades him to reclaim French lands held by the English.
The ransomed Talbot attacks Joan la Pucelle at Orléans. Unable to prevail, he accuses her of witchcraft. The defeated English force retreats, and the French celebrate their victory. Their triumph is temporary, and the English besiege Orléans, driving the French troops out. Richard Plantagenet and Somerset, at odds over a legal issue, meet in a garden where they lead their supporters in picking roses of different colors to signify their allegiances.
Divisions, unity, and Joan of Arc’s defeat (Acts III–V)
Henry VI directs Gloucester and Winchester to reconcile their differences, and they pretend to do so. The young king then makes Richard Plantagenet the duke of York. Joan la Pucelle leads a brief French capture of the town of Roan (or Rouen), which is retaken by the English. Henry is crowned king of France but receives news of the duke of Burgundy’s defection to the French cause, at the behest of Joan la Pucelle. Henry dispatches Talbot to deal with Burgundy and then wears a red rose, aligning himself with Lancaster against York with the disclaimer that he feels no particular allegiance to Somerset over Richard Plantagenet.
The captured Joan, who had claimed to be acting under divine guidance, was handed over to the bishop of Beauvais (in whose diocese she had been seized) and tried before a church court. There were 70 charges against her, which were later reduced to 12; the most serious of these was that she preferred what she believed were direct commands from God to those of the church. She was condemned as a heretic and turned over to the secular authorities—English officials and their French collaborators. On May 30, 1431, she was burned at the stake in Rouen. She was canonized as St. Joan of Arc in 1920.
Talbot is outnumbered by French forces and both York and Somerset fail to come to his aid, each blaming the other. Talbot is defeated and killed by the French, but the English put aside their divisions and mount a united attack. Joan la Pucelle conjures up demonic spirits:
Now help, you charming spells and periapts,
And you choice spirits that admonish me,
And give me signs of future accidents.
You speedy helpers, that are substitutes
Under the lordly monarch of the north,
Appear, and aid me in this enterprise.
However, the fiends refuse to assist the French cause—in the stage directions, “They hang their heads” and “They shake their heads.” Joan la Pucelle is captured by York and is sentenced to execution, which she unsuccessfully appeals by pleading pregnancy.
As Part 1 ends, the earl of Suffolk, who has persuaded Henry to marry Margaret of Anjou, plans to use the alliance to take power for himself:
Margaret shall now be Queen, and rule the King,
But I will rule both her, the King, and realm.
His plan’s first success comes as Part 2 begins, when Henry elevates him to the dukedom of Suffolk.
For a discussion of this play within the context of Shakespeare’s entire corpus, see William Shakespeare: Shakespeare’s plays and poems.