"King Henry VI": Pt. 3 (Arden Shakespeare) Book

The concluding play in Shakespeare's dramatisation of the reign of Henry V's son, Henry IV Part Three brings to a close the troubled reign of the unfortunate sovereign. As with its predecessors, the final instalment in the series finds the kingdom rife with dissension. After the Richard of York's triumph at the Battle of St. Alban's, Henry agrees that the Yorkists will inherit the throne after his death. However, this disastrous decision infuriates his wife, Margaret, who successfully goes to war against the Yorkists. However, York's sons, Edward, Clarence and Richard, raise another army, and finally defeat Henry, who is murdered, and Queen Margaret, who is banished. The eldest son of York, Edward, is crowned king in 1442, but the jockeying for power between the brothers continues, foreshadowing the bloody events of Shakespeare's subsequent dramatisation of English history, Richard III.An enormously ambitious play, Henry IV Part Three is particularly notable for its portrayal of Margaret of Anjou, the extraordinary scene involving her torture of York, and the appearance of the wonderfully malign villain Richard, the future King Richard III, with his marvellously sinister line that "I am myself alone". --Jerry BrottonRead More