King Henry VI

1421 – 1471 · Generation XX · King of England (r. 1422–1461, 1470–1471) · House of Plantagenet

Henry VI was born at Windsor Castle on 6 December 1421, the only child of Henry V and Catherine of Valois. When his father died on 31 August 1422 he became king of England before he was nine months old, the youngest person ever to succeed to the English throne. Seven weeks later the death of his grandfather Charles VI made him, under the Treaty of Troyes, titular king of France as well. A council governed in his name. His uncle John, Duke of Bedford, directed the war in France, his other uncle Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, acted as Protector in England, and his great-uncle Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester and later a cardinal, was a power on the council. Henry was crowned at Westminster Abbey in November 1429, a few months after Charles VII of France was crowned at Reims, and at Notre-Dame in Paris in December 1431. He is the only English king to have been crowned king of France.

He took up personal rule in 1437, around the time he turned sixteen. Contemporaries found him shy, pious and averse to bloodshed, the reverse of his warrior father, and he leaned towards the peace party at court led by Cardinal Beaufort and William de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk. In 1440–1441 he founded Eton College and King’s College, Cambridge, meant as a single path for poor scholars from school to university, and he is also counted a founder of All Souls College, Oxford. In April 1445 he married Margaret of Anjou, niece of Charles VII, at Titchfield Abbey. The price of the match, the secret surrender of Maine, became a source of public anger once it was known.

The 1440s and early 1450s brought collapse abroad and disorder at home. Gloucester died in custody in 1447 after his arrest on a treason charge, and Suffolk, impeached by Parliament and sent into exile, was murdered at sea in 1450. Normandy fell to the French that year, Jack Cade’s rebels briefly occupied London, and Gascony, English since Henry II’s day, was lost in 1451. After a brief recovery, defeat at Castillon in 1453 left Calais as the last English possession on the continent. Soon after the news reached him that August, Henry suffered a complete mental collapse and for well over a year was wholly unresponsive, even failing to acknowledge the birth of his son, Edward. Richard, Duke of York, was named Protector in 1454.

Henry recovered around Christmas 1454, but the rivalry between York on one side and the queen and Edmund Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, on the other now turned to open war, the conflict later called the Wars of the Roses. Henry was captured by the Yorkists at Northampton in 1460. Margaret fought on. Her army killed York at Wakefield that December and freed Henry at the second battle of St Albans in February 1461, but in March York’s son Edward crushed the Lancastrians at Towton and reigned as Edward IV. Henry fled to Scotland and later hid among loyal households in the north of England until he was betrayed and taken near Waddington, Lancashire, in July 1465. He spent the next five years in the Tower of London.

In October 1470 the Earl of Warwick, now at odds with Edward IV and allied with Margaret, drove Edward abroad and restored Henry to the throne, though Warwick and the Duke of Clarence governed in his name. The restoration lasted barely six months. Edward returned, Warwick died at Barnet in April 1471, and at Tewkesbury on 4 May Henry’s only son was killed. Henry was returned to the Tower and was reported dead on the night of 21 May 1471. An official Yorkist account blamed melancholy, but it is widely suspected that Edward IV ordered his death. He was buried at Chertsey Abbey, and in 1484 Richard III had his remains moved to St George’s Chapel, Windsor.

Henry’s memory outlived his failures. Miracles were attributed to him, Henry VII encouraged the cult of the saintly king, and moves towards canonisation were under way when Henry VIII broke with Rome. His colleges still honour him, and Shakespeare made his troubled reign the subject of three plays. Historians have long seen him as a weak and unworldly ruler, though some have argued that he governed in person, with poor judgement rather than none at all.

Place in the family

• King Henry VI was a great-uncle of King Henry VIII.

Images

• Henry crowned king of France in Paris, from a manuscript of Jean de Wavrin’s chronicle, about 1470–1490 (Unknown illuminator, public domain)
• The chapel of King’s College, Cambridge, one of the two colleges Henry founded in 1440–1441 (Dmitry Tonkonog, CC BY-SA 3.0)

One of 26 people of House of Plantagenet (1126–1485) in this archive. The longest-reigning English house, counting its Angevin beginning and the rival Lancaster and York branches that fought the Wars of the Roses.

Line of descent: King William I The Conqueror → King Henry I → Matilda the Empress → King Henry II → King John → King Henry III → King Edward I Longshanks → King Edward II → King Edward III → John of Gaunt → King Henry IV → King Henry V → King Henry VI.

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Parents

• King Henry V (1386 – 1422)
• Catherine of Valois (1401 – 1437)

Siblings

• Edmund Tudor (1430 – 1456) (half)

Partners

• Married Margaret of Anjou (1430 – 1482) in 1445 — one child together

Children

• Edward of Westminster (1453 – 1471)

Life

• 1421 — Born
• 1422 — Henry aged 8 months becomes King of England on the death of his father, Henry V, and then, two months later, King of France on the death of his grandfather, Charles VI.
• 1429 — Henry VI is crowned King of England
• 1431 — Henry VI of England is crowned King of France in Paris
• 1437 — Henry assumes personal rule of England
• 1445 — Married Margaret of Anjou
• 1445 — Henry marries Margaret of Anjou
• 1453 — Henry becomes mentally ill. Richard, Duke of York, is made Protector during Henry’s illness
• 1454 — Henry regains his senses but disaffected nobles take matters into their own hands. Supporters of the Dukes of York and Lancaster take sides.
• 1455 — Beginning of the 'Wars of the Roses'. Duke of York is dismissed. York raises an army and defeats the King’s Lancastrian forces at the Battle of St. Albans.The Lancastrian leader, the Duke of Somerset, is killed. York takes over the government of England.
• 1457 — Henry unsuccessfully tries to broker peace between the Yorkists and Lancastrians.
• 1460 — Yorkist army led by Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, defeats Lancastrians at the Battle of Northampton. Henry VI is captured and his wife, Margaret, escapes to Scotland. Richard of York is again Protector.
• 1460 — Margaret raises a Lancastrian army in the north and defeats and kills Richard of York at Wakefield. Henry VI captured by the Yorkists at Northampton. Earl of Warwick takes London for the Yorkists.
• 1461 — Yorkists win Battle of Mortimers Cross. Queen Margaret marches her army South, defeats Earl of Warwick at St Albans, and frees Henry. Edward, son of Richard of York, defeats Margaret's Lancastrian forces on 29 March at the Battle of Towton - the largest and bloodiest battle ever on British soil when 28,000 lose their lives. Margaret and Henry flee to Scotland. Henry is deposed by Edward who declares himself King Edward IV
• 1464 — Warwick defeats Lancastrians at Battle of Hexham; Henry VI is captured and brought to the Tower of London.
• 1469 — Warwick falls out with Edward IV, and defeats him at Edgecote. They are later reconciled but Warwick is banished. He makes peace with Margaret, returns to England with an army, and Edward flees to Flanders. Henry VI is restored to the throne.
• 1471 — Died
• 1471 — Henry is murdered by being stabbed to death in the Tower of London.

Sources

1. Henry VI of England · Wikipedia
2. Henry VI (r. 1422–1461 and 1470–1471) · The Royal Family (royal.uk)
3. Henry VI of England · World History Encyclopedia