While I have a serviceable knowledge of Elizabethan history, as I started in on the “Henry VI” trilogy, I realized that I was woefully underprepared to read, understand, and write about the Plantagenet dynasty. This led me to step back and fill in some gaps in my history education. Re-reading Henry VI, Part 1 now, with this historical context has given me a much greater appreciation for the massive achievement that is Shakespeare’s history plays. They tell a complex, interlocking story of power struggles across generations. And they do it all while dramatizing usurpation without glorifying it in the plays’ actions (an act that might have earned a banned play or a severed head); they interrogate the rise of Tudor power without raising concerns about legitimacy. The plays are a thrilling dance across history and British politics.

I’m sketching these notes in now as I prepare to write about the Henry VI cycle. I’ll return to these notes and likely fill them in as I get further in the project. Dates are courtesy of our friends at Wikipedia.

Henry II

Ruled: 1154–1189
No play
Henry II was the patriarch of the Plantagenet line.

Richard I

Ruled: 1189–1199
No play
Richard is known as “the Lionhearted” and was father of Philip, “The Bastard” in the play, King John.

King John

Ruled: 1189–1199
Play: 1596

Henry III

Ruled: 1216–1272
No play.
Henry III surfaces as “Prince Henry” in the play, King John .

Edward I

Ruled: 1272–1307
No play

Edward II

Ruled: 1307–1327
No play

Edward III

Ruled: 1327–1377
No play

Richard II

Ruled: 1377–1399
Play: 1595

Henry IV

Ruled: 1399–1413
Plays:

• Henry IV, Part 1 (1596–1597)
• Henry IV, Part 2 (1596–1597)

Henry IV’s father was John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. Henry IV seized the throne from his cousin Richard (of the York line) in 1399. This Lancaster/York conflict that resulted from this usurpation would serve as the basis for the War of the Roses.

Henry V

Ruled: 1413–1422
Play: 1598–1599
The play dramatizes the story of Henry V’s maturing as a leader and his victory over the French at Agincourt. The play has little of the court intrigue that features in the other history plays.

Henry VI

Ruled: 1422–1461, 1470-71
Plays:

• Henry VI, Part 1 (1591): This play dramatizes the ignition of the War of the Roses
• Henry VI, Part 2 (1590-1591)
• Henry VI, Part 3 (1591)

Edward IV

Ruled: 1461–1470, 1471-1483
No play.
Edward IV was son of Richard, Duke of York (aka Richard Plantagenet) of the Henry VI cycle. He seized power twice, losing it the first time back to Henry VI. He died suddenly, leaving a young son powerless to hold together the fragile York rule.

Edward V

Ruled: 1483
No play
Edward V was, as a child, king for only a few months before being imprisoned (and probably murdered) in the Tower of London by the “Lord Protector,” Richard, who would become Richard III.

Richard III

Ruled: 1483–1485
Play: 1592

Henry VII

Ruled: 1485–1509
No play
Henry VII seized the throne from the hated Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth. He then married Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV, to unify the houses of York and Lancaster. Henry VII was thus the patriarch of the Tudor line and marks the end of the Plantagenet line. The Tudor symbol, the white rose within the red, symbolizes this union.

Henry VIII

Ruled: 1509–1547
Play (Henry VIII, or All is True): 1613