Shakespeare's Kings (83 page)

king
.

Come, wife, let's in, and learn to govern better;

For yet may England curse my wretched reign.

king henry vi part ii

The Second Part of King Henry the Sixth
opens in April
1445,
more than eight years before the latest event covered by its predecessor - the death of the Talbots in the high summer of
1453.
It contrives, none the less, to follow naturally on
Part I,
in the closing scene of which the Duke of Suffolk prepares to leave for France to fetch King Henry's royal bride; as the curtain rises on
Part II
he announces the successful outcome of his mission and presents her to her bridegroom and the assembled court. Almost immediately, however, the tension rises: Duke Humphrey of Gloucester begins to read the terms of the truce, but when he comes to the words '. . . that the duchy of Anjou and the county of Maine shall be releas'd and deliver'd to the King her father' they appear to choke him and he is unable to continue; it is left to Cardinal Beaufort to finish the sentence.

As Beaufort points out a few moments later, Duke Humphrey was at this point still the heir apparent; it was in his interest that the King should remain unmarried and childless. Moreover, if marriage there had to be, the Duke had long favoured the daughter of the Count of Armagnac as a more suitable bride. To this extent he had good reason to be annoyed at the choice of Margaret. On the other hand — and the point cannot be too strongly emphasized — the surrender of Maine and Anjou, though widely rumoured at the time and reported by Hall, was never part of the truce.
¹
The rest of the scene, therefore, after the departure of Henry and Margaret for her coronation, is based on a misapprehension:

1. See pp. 230-31.

historically,
Gloucester
could
never
have
made
the
loss
of
the
two territories
the
main
reason
for
his
attack
on
Suffolk.
The
latter
was consequently
able
to
brush
off
the
accusations
made
against
him
and
-after
the
deaths
in
1447
of
the
two
arch-enemies
Gloucester
and
Beaufort —
to
gain
effective
control
of
the
kingdom.
(It
is
perhaps
just
worth mentioning
that
Shakespeare
considerably
anticipates
his
investiture with
the
dukedom,
which
he
received
only
on
2
July
1448.)
During the
three
years
before
his
fall,
Suffolk
was
to
prove
himself
a
responsible statesman
and
an
excellent
administrator.
Ambitious
he
may
have
been; but
he
was
certainly
not
the
power-hungry
megalomaniac
suggested by
the
closing
lines
of
Part I
and
quoted
at
the
end
of
Chapter
12.

Among
the
nobles
echoing
Gloucester's
disgust
is
the
Earl
of
Warwick,
who
claims
to
have
been
personally
responsible
for
acquiring
the provinces
now
lost:

Anjou and Maine! myself did win them both;

Those provinces these arms of mine did conquer:

And are the cities, that I got with wounds,

Deliver'd up again with peaceful words?

Mort Dieu!

Since
Salisbury
specifically
calls
Warwick
his
son,
there
can
be
no
doubt that
the
speaker
is
the
young
Richard
Nevill
—
he
who,
with
his
father and
the
Duke
of
York,
was
to
head
the
Yorkist
forces
at
St
Albans
and later
to
be
known
as
'the
Kingmaker'.
But
Nevill
was
born
only
in
1428 and
did
not
inherit
the
earldom
until
1449,
four
years
after
the
arrival
of Margaret
in
England:
clearly
Shakespeare
is
confusing
him
here
with
his wife's
father,
Richard
Beauchamp,
Earl
of
Warwick,
from
whom
he derived
his
title.
Beauchamp
was
a
fine
old
warrior
-
in
143
7
he
had
been appointed
Lieutenant
of
France
and
Normandy
-
but
even
he
could hardly
have
made
the
extravagant
claim
attributed
to
his
son-in-law.

After
Gloucester's
exit,
Cardinal
Beaufort
predictably
does
his
best to
discredit
him:

So, there goes our Protector in a rage.

'Tis known to you he is mine enemy;

Nay, more, an enemy unto you all,

And no great friend, I fear me, to the King . . .

He will be found a dangerous Protector.

Those
references,
in
the
first
line
of
his
speech
and
again
in
the
last, to
Duke
Humphrey
as
Protector
come
as
something
of
a
surprise.
The Protectorate
had
been
formally
ended
by
Parliament
in
November 1429,
only
a
week
or
two
after
Henry's
coronation;
and
it
may
well
be asked
why
Shakespeare
decided
to
continue
it
for
another
sixteen
years. Unless
this
was
an
oversight
—
which
seems
unlikely
-
he
probably
had three
reasons.
The
first
and
most
immediate
would
have
been
to
lend additional
force
to
Beaufort's
speech,
allowing
the
Cardinal
to
contrast the
concept
of
protectorship
with
the
veiled
imputation
of
treason
in his
last
two
lines;
later
it
would
serve
also
to
increase
the
dramatic impact
of
Gloucester's
fall,
the
strange
story
of
which
begins
—
somewhat anachronistically
-
in
the
next
scene;
finally,
it
would
strengthen
the motive
for
the
Duke's
quite
unhistorical
assassination,
which
would otherwise
have
been
based
only
on
the
unjustified
suspicions
that
he was
conspiring
against
the
King.

The
Cardinal
now
departs,
and
is
immediately
vilified
by
Somerset to
the
Duke
of
Buckingham
in
much
the
same
way
as
he
himself
has just
spoken
of
Duke
Humphrey,
being
accused
ofpersonal
ambition
and the
determination
to
assume
the
Protectorate
for
himself.
Buckingham's reply
could
hardly
be
more
direct: