HENRY VI (r. 1422-1461 and 1470-1471)Born at Windsor Castle, Henry VI
succeeded to the thrones of England and France before the age of one, when his
father Henry V and his grandfather Charles VI of France died within months of
each other. Henry was crowned King of England in 1429 and, in 1431, King of France.
His minority was dominated by his uncles Cardinal Beaufort and the Duke of Gloucester
(who opposed each other). Another uncle, the Duke of Bedford, was Regent of France;
his death in 1435, combined with Burgundy breaking the alliance with England,
led to the collapse of English rule in northern France. The dual monarchy proved
too difficult for the King and England to maintain; the successes of the Dauphin
and Joan of Arc began to weaken England's grip on its French possessions and Normandy
was lost in 1450. Henry's cultural patronage and genuine interest in education
(he founded Eton and King's College, Cambridge) were outweighed by his patchy
and partisan interest in administration. Failure in France and domestic unrest
(for example, the Cade rebellion of 1450) encouraged factionalism.In 1453
the King became ill and Richard, Duke of York, was made Protector in 1454. The
King recovered in 1455, but civil war between the Yorkist and Lancastrian factions
broke out (the Wars of the Roses). For the rest of his reign, Henry's queen, Margaret
of Anjou, was determined to fight, rather than negotiate a compromise, for the
Lancastrian cause of her husband and son. Pitted against Henry was the Duke of
York, asserting his legitimate claim to the throne as he was descended by his
mother from Edward III's second surviving son (Henry VI was descended from Edward's
third surviving son). The Wars of the Roses were therefore a struggle to decide
if the succession should keep to the male line or could pass through females.
The Duke of York was killed at the Battle of Wakefield in 1460.
In 1461,
his son Edward, an able commander, defeated the Lancastrians at the Battle of
Towton (out of the 120,000 men who fought, 28,000 died). London opened its gates
to the Yorkist forces; Henry and his queen fled to Scotland. An unsuccessful military
campaigner, Henry was captured and imprisoned in the Tower of London in 1465,
but was restored to the throne in 1470. His brief period of freedom ended after
the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471 (in which his son Edward, Prince of Wales was
killed) when Edward IV regained the throne, and Henry was put to death in the
Tower of London.