The Royal Shakespeare Company: Henry VI, part 2

The Plays

Henry VI, part 1 | Henry VI, part 2 | Henry VI, part 3 | Richard III

Henry VI, Part 2

Now the power play between the houses of York and Lancaster begins in earnest. Queen Margaret and her lover, the Duke of Suffolk, and other powerful nobles, arrange the murder of Gloucester. But they’ve misjudged the people’s affection for Gloucester, and the people demand that the murderers be brought to justice.

The Duke of York leaves England for Ireland and arranges for a bogus claim to the throne to be made by Jack Cade, who leads a popular rebellion in Kent. Chaos takes hold of nearly every level of society, and England descends deeper into anarchy and bloody civil strife.

The Duke of York commits himself to gaining the throne by force. Together with three of his sons and the army he put together in Ireland, he opposes an army led by Queen Margaret at St. Albans, where the Yorks win the first round of the Wars of the Roses.