Henry VI of England - Shakespeare's Henry VI and After

Shakespeare's Henry VI and After

In 1590, William Shakespeare wrote a trilogy of plays about the life of Henry VI: Henry VI, Part 1, Henry VI, Part 2, and Henry VI, Part 3. His dead body and his ghost also appear in Richard III.

Shakespeare's portrayal of Henry is notable in that it includes no mention of the King's madness. This is considered to have been a politically-advisable move, as to not risk offending Elizabeth I, whose family was descended from Henry's Lancastarian family. Instead, Henry is portrayed as a pious and peaceful man ill-suited to the crown. He spends most of his time in contemplation of the bible and bemoaning his wish to be anyone other than a king. Shakespeare's Henry is weak-willed and easily influenced, allowing his policies to be led by Margaret and her allies and being unable to defend himself against York's claim to the throne. He only takes an act of his own volition just before his death, when he curses Richard of Gloucester just before he is murdered.

In screen adaptations of these plays he has been portrayed by James Berry in the 1911 silent short Richard III, dramatising a part of Shakespeare's play, Terry Scully in the 1960 BBC series An Age of Kings, which contained all the history plays from Richard II to Richard III, Carl Wery in the 1964 West German TV version of König Richard III, David Warner in Wars of the Roses, a 1965 filmed version of the Royal Shakespeare Company performing the three parts of Henry VI (condensed and edited into two plays, Henry VI and Edward IV) and Richard III, Peter Benson in the 1983 BBC Shakespeare versions of all three parts of Henry VI and Richard III, Paul Brennen in the 1989 film versions of the full cycle of consecutive history plays performed, for several years, by the English Shakespeare Company, Edward Jewesbury in the 1995 film version of Richard III (1995), with Ian McKellen as Richard, and James Dalesandro in the 2008 modern-day film version of Richard III.

Miles Mander portrayed him in Tower of London, a 1939 horror film loosely dramatising the rise to power of Richard III.

J. K. Rowling mentions Henry VI in her book The Tales of Beedle the Bard, in which it is implied that his advisor may have been a witch.