Eleventh Episode of Siggie, presenting her take on the history of the monarchs of England in the context of her favorite topic….herself. Here she discusses the historical reign of Henry VI of the House of Lancaster: his background; his battles with both French King Charles VII (in the “Hundred Years War”) and with his own mental illness; his marriage to the “She-Wolf” Margaret of Anjou; and his struggles in the “Wars of the Roses” with Richard Duke of York and his son.

Now we are headed toward the Wars of the Roses era. Not the Michael Douglas and Kathleen

Turner version but the real thing. King Henry VI of the House of Lancaster. He was the

only child of King Henry V. He was placed on the English throne at the ripe old age

of nine months when his daddy Henry V died. He also succeeded to the French

throne when his maternal granddaddy Charles VI died. Mad King Charles VI. He was a 

nutcase. Henry VI is the only English monarch to have also been made the King of France.

This happened in 1431. So, let’s take a little step backwards just for a

second here. Henry VI’s dad, King Henry V, was one of the greatest warrior kings 

of Medieval England, having had great successes  in the Hundred Years War against France.

After Henry V kicked butt at the famous Battle of Agincourt in 1415, he was

married off to Charles VI’s daughter, Catherine of Valois. (I think that’s how

you pronounce it). Catherine was Henry VI’s mom and so there’s the tie-in with

France. Unlike Henry V, Henry VI was described as peace-loving, shy,

timid, and occasionally mentally unstable.

He was married off to the ambitious Margaret of Anjou, the niece of Charles

the 7^th. It became clear over time that Henry VI was unfit to rule and his

poor ability to reign led to the loss of English lands in France. His wife,

Margaret of Anjou, another She Wolf, moved in and made herself a power behind

the throne while her husband, Henry VI, had a series of nervous breakdowns. She

was accused of misconduct and misrule, mostly by Henry VI’s cousin, Richard the

Duke of York, and tensions between Margaret and Richard led the Civil War

that is now known as the Wars of the Roses. This is the battle between the

two branches of the Royal House of  Plantagenet: Lancaster and York. Henry

was imprisoned in the Tower of London,  where he later died or possibly was killed. 

Richard’s son Edward took the throne as Edward IV, and he may have been

behind the murder of Henry VI. While Henry VI was heralded as a saint and a martyr for a

while, well Shakespeare stepped in in the 16th century and portrayed Henry VI as a

weak man under the influence of Margaret.

(Stay tuned for Episodes 12: and more on “The Wars of the Roses.”)