Henry VI, Part 1

Henry VI, Part 1 dramatises England's loss of its French territories after the death of Henry V, and the first quarrels between the houses of York and Lancaster that grew into the Wars of the Roses.

Main characters

• King Henry VI, a boy king
• Lord Talbot, England's great soldier
• Joan la Pucelle (Joan of Arc)
• Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, Lord Protector
• The Bishop of Winchester
• Richard Plantagenet, later Duke of York
• The Duke of Somerset and the Earl of Suffolk
• Margaret of Anjou

Plot summary

This summary gives away the ending.

The play opens at Henry V's funeral, as news arrives that English-held towns in France are falling. The heroic Lord Talbot fights on against the French, who are inspired by Joan la Pucelle, presented by the English as a witch. At home, the young king's protector Gloucester and the Bishop of Winchester feud openly.

In the Temple Garden in London, Richard Plantagenet and the Duke of Somerset quarrel and their supporters pick white and red roses to show their sides, an invented scene that gave the later civil wars their name. Rivalry between York and Somerset leaves Talbot without reinforcements, and he dies at Bordeaux with his son. Joan is captured and burned. The play ends with the Earl of Suffolk arranging Henry's marriage to Margaret of Anjou, whom Suffolk plans to control.

Themes

• Division and faction
• Heroism and its decline
• National identity
• The seeds of civil war

Famous lines

Glory is like a circle in the water, Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself Till by broad spreading it disperse to nought.

Joan la Pucelle, Act 1 Scene 2

More in our collection of famous Shakespeare quotes.

Sources

Edward Hall's The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Families of Lancaster and York (1548) and Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles (1587). Many scholars think the play was co-written, possibly with Thomas Nashe.

On stage and screen

The play was a hit: in 1592 Nashe wrote that audiences wept to see 'brave Talbot' die on stage. The three Henry VI plays are now often staged together, or with Richard III, as a cycle.

See where Henry VI, Part 1 sits in Shakespeare's career on the timeline, or read about the playhouses it was written for.