Henry VI 1422-61, 1470-71

• Henry VI


  King of England for 39 years from 1422 to 1461 and then again for six months from October 1470 to April 1471
• Henry VI is the 11th Plantagenet to have set on England's Throne but is commonly referred to as a Lancastrian king
• The Wars of the Roses broke out between two separate branches of the royal family stretching back to Edward III, the House of Lancaster descended from Edward III's son John of Gaunt, and the House of York descended from Edward III's other son Edmund the Duke of York
• Henry VI


  • Inherited the crown of England when he was just nine months old
  • Suffered severe mental health issues as an adult
  • Simultaneously ruled England and France
  • Pivotal Monarch beginning his Reign when he could barely walk, realizing the dream of many previous Kings by sitting on the French throne but then losing it all
• Henry VI was born

  1421
• Henry V had basically conquered France, forcing the French King Charles VI to agree to allowing him to inherit the French throne
• Henry V died just weeks before Charles VI, so the baby Henry VI inherited the Two Thrones
• Charles VII, the son of Charles VI, decided he still wanted the inheritance his father had given away and set about harrying the English armies that had occupied France
• Joan of Arc, a young peasant girl with no military training, relieved the French from the siege of Orléans and led a successful fight back against the English forces
• The English eventually captured Joan of Arc and burned her at the stake in Rouen in 1431 when Henry VI was nine
• As Henry VI matured from a child to a man


  The English started to lose ground in France
• Henry VI favored peace and surrounded himself with advisors such as the Duke of Suffolk who felt the same way
• In a bid to stem the tide, the 24-year-old King Henry VI took a wife in 1445, his rival King's niece Margaret of Anjou
• Part of the settlement involved Henry VI seeding Maine to Charles VII, even conceding some territory in a bid for peace, but it didn't help as Charles VII wanted the whole of France
• The English eventually lost Normandy, the center of the English crown in France, to the French King Charles VII
• Older English Nobles who had fought alongside Henry V for these territories were absolutely furious both at the king and his advisors, in particular Suffolk
• In 1450, a furious Parliament summoned Suffolk and banished him from England, only for him to be executed by angry Nobles as he was leaving, and his body washed up in Kent
• The ordinary folk of Kent fell prey to a rumor that the angry king was planning to take revenge by killing them and turning their whole County into hunting grounds, so they rose up under a man called Jack Cade and marched in London
• Richard the Duke of York, a great grandson of King Edward III, had been quietly running another part of the Kingdom, Ireland, on the king's behalf
• Richard the Duke of York was the next in line to the throne, just in case something were to happen to the king
• In 1451, Gascony and its capital Bordeaux, part of the English crown since Eleanor of Aquitaine had married Henry II in 1152, fell to Charles VII
• The news of the loss of Gascony and Bordeaux caused Henry VI to have a mental breakdown, falling into a catatonic state unable to feed or clothe himself
• The English Nobles decided they needed a strong leader, so the Duke of York was appointed Protector of the Realm, but Queen Margaret opposed the appointment as she saw York as a direct threat to her newborn son Edward's right to inherit the crown
• On a Christmas Day 1454, Henry VI suddenly recovered, released Somerset, and stripped York of his power
• The first battle of St Albans in 1455 marked the start of the Wars of the Roses, with the country divided down the middle between those loyal to the king (Lancastrians) and those who supported the Duke of York's cause (Yorkists)
• In 1459, the Duke of York's forces were defeated at the Battle of Ludford Bridge, but in 1460 the king faced an army led by the Duke of York's powerful ally the Earl of Warwick at the Battle of Northampton, which was a disaster for the Lancastrians
• York declared himself King, but after opposition from Parliament it was agreed that he would only inherit the crown on Henry VI's death
• Queen Margaret was furious, as her seven-year-old son Edward was supposed to be the next king, not the Duke of York
• At the Battle of Wakefield, the tide turned completely, and the Duke of York was killed, with his head later hung from the walls of York City with a paper crown nailed to it
• It looked like the Yorkists were completely done for, especially after Warwick's defeated the Second Battle of St Albans, during which King Henry VI was found sitting under a tree singing to himself
• But the Duke of York's eldest son, the 18-year-old Edward, determined to continue the war, marched on London and had himself declared King as Edward IV
• The Battle of Towton in 1461 is cited as one of the bloodiest of the era, with more than ten thousand men slaughtered, and the young Duke of York's forces completely routed those of King Henry VI
• Henry VI, the man who had ruled England for 39 years since he was a babe in arms, the king who had desperately wanted a peaceful life, was dethroned
• For a few years, Henry VI was given sanctuary by a series of loyal Nobles in the north of England, but by July 1465 he was captured and jailed in the Tower of London
• In 1471, Edward IV returned and defeated Warwick's forces at the Battle of Tewkesbury, and Henry VI's son Edward, the one-time heir to the throne, was killed
• Henry VI himself was recaptured, and reportedly bludgeoned to death by Edward IV's brother Richard the Duke of Gloucester, who we know by another name
• Henry VI was buried at Windsor Castle