Henry V, Part 1

Synopsis by Cate Yu

Of the three "Henry the Sixth" plays, this is the one that was most likely collaborated on. Modern scholarship suggests Thomas Nashe as the most likely candidate. Robert Greene, Christopher Marlowe, George Peele are also contenders. "The First Part of Henry the Sixth" was premiered in 1592 to considerable acclaim and is suspected of being a "prequel" to the second and third parts.

Henry V has died and Henry VI has immediate duties to attend to. He is too young to take over officially so for the time being, Gloucester will serve as the Protector of the English Realm. The Dauphin Charles has been crowned the king of France while the English military hero Talbot has been taken prisoner. The English lay a successful siege to Orleans. Joan la Pucelle (otherwise known as Joan of Arc) gains a meeting with the king of France. She explains that she has magical powers and can effectively lead the French troops to break the siege. Charles challenges to her a single combat in which Joan beats him.

Gloucester is in a heavy conflict with Winchester, leader of the church. Winchester accuses Gloucester of trying to secretly take over the kingdom. Mostly, Winchester himself is interested in gaining power over the kingdom, like so many of the men in this play. Meanwhile in France, Talbot is released in exchange for a captured French lord. Talbot and Joan fight. He suspects she is a witch. Joan has the upper hand but says it is not his time to die and leaves. She successfully lifts the siege. Charles declares Joan la Pucelle as France's new saint.

In the famous Act two scene four, lords are gathered around the Temple Garden outside Parliament to dispute a point of law over Richard Plantagenet's noble birth. Edmund Mortimer, who had a legitimate claim to the throne, named Plantagenet as his heir before he died. Plantagenet and Somerset form the heads of opposing camps. A white rose and red rose are plucked respectively as a symbol of their difference of opinion. Historically speaking, this confrontational scene never took place but Shakespeare's scene symbolizes the chasm between the House of Lancaster (red rose) and the House of York (white rose) and thereby traces the origin of the Wars of the Roses. The House of Lancaster believed that Henry VI was the rightful heir to the throne while the House of York felt that Plantagenet was the true heir and that Henry VI descended from a line of usurpers. (See the play "Richard II" for Shakespeare's version of how Henry IV takes over the throne.) King Henry later restores Plantagenet the dukedom of York thereby giving him the title of Duke of York. In Act four, however, Henry selects a red rose and unwittingly aligns himself Somerset.

In yet another battle against the French, Talbot's son is killed and Talbot dies of grief. The valiant warrior Talbot's death is ominous, as his downfall was precipitated by the ongoing mistrust between Somerset and York (Somerset refused to send his horsemen to aid York's mission). Meanwhile, Henry is under a great amount of pressure from the pope and the other heads of state to end the war quickly. To soothe over international relations, it would be fruitful for Henry to marry the daughter of the Earl of Armagnac. Suffolk captures a beautiful girl named Margaret while York captures Joan in battle. When Joan is put on trial, she first says she is a virgin and thus can incur a heavenly wrath if the English try to execute her. When this notion fails to deter the death penalty, she insists she is pregnant. York tells her no matter what, she will die. The English burn her at the stake.

Meanwhile, Winchester is trying to bring peace between the French and the English. At first Charles is resistant, but his nobles advise him to stop the massacre of his citizens. Suffolk tells Henry about Margaret and Henry decides to marry her instead of following through with a political marriage. It is Henry's misfortune that he is still inexperienced and easily swayed. The play ends on an unfinished sinister note. Margaret will control the king but Suffolk will control Margaret. Suffolk is no longer interested in being in the presence of beauty so much as he is interested in dominating a king and a nation.

Historically, Henry VI succeeded his father when he was only nine months old. The regency council that ran England until Henry was of age, found him old enough to rule in 1437. He could not have been more than sixteen years old. He married a Margaret of Anjou in 1445. The last ruler of the House of Lancaster, Henry's reign was dominated by the Wars of the Roses. From these historical facts, it is clear Shakespeare took great liberties with time frames and circumstances. It is not a history play based on chronology, but on dramatic potential. If anything, Shakespeare Hollywoodized the reign. In a time of renewed religious war and great uncertainty about national identity, Shakespeare's exploration of the foundations of a fractured Tudor regime resonates powerfully with modern audiences. The play also explores the need for a strong leader, but at what price?

Few film or stage productions of "The First Part of Henry VI" have been recorded for the twentieth century. This being said, Sir Barry Jackson, John Barton and Peter Hall rewrote and compressed the three parts of Henry VI into two plays under the title "The Wars of the Roses" in the early 1960s. In the 1980s, Terry Hands, Adrian Noble, and Michael Bogdanov reduced the tetralogy into a trilogy entitled "The Plantagenets". It was staged in modern dress with an anti-Thatcherite political agenda and performed by the English Shakespeare Company. In the early twentieth-century, Michael Boyd directed the trilogy admirably under the title "This England" at the Swan Theater in Stratford-upon-Avon. Edward Hall reduced the three parts into two and set his version in a slaughterhouse under the title "Rose Rage".