Introduction/Character Profiles Flashcards
What did Henry VI do?
- Spends enormous amounts of money on Eton and King’s College, Cambridge
- Adopts a Peace Policy towards France - Truce of Tours (1444): surrenders Maine, marriage to Margaret of Anjou
The Duke of Suffolk - William de la Pole
- Ran the government from c.1442/43 and dominated a faction around the King (was the favourite of HVI)
- Knight of the garter - an experienced fighter
- He had no official ministerial office, but gained wealth under the king and was heavily involved in the Peace Policy with France
- Was hated by the commonweal as he was blamed for the poor economic situation of England at the time - he was named in Cade’s Rebellion as the figurehead of the problem
- He was impeached (put on trial for treason) by the House of Commons in 1450 for the loss of France. He was banished to 5 years in exile by Henry (perhaps to save him) but was beheaded at sea in 1450
The Duke of Somerset - Edmund Beaufort
- A favourite of HVI
- Became the English Commander in Chief in France (lieutenant- governor) c.1447, replacing York
- He was in charge when Normandy was lost in 1449-50
- Surrenders Rouen (1449) and Caen (1450) without a fight whilst York was the Captain of Rouen, allowing York’s men to be captured against chivalric convention
- He was appointed the Constable of England in 1450
- Potential claim to the throne through the bastard Beaufort line debarred from inheriting the Crown (decision could be easily overturned by the easily led HVI)
- Was not named by Cade’s rebels
- Somerset was not implicated in Suffolk’s fall as he was in France at the time and once he returned to England in Autumn 1450, Henry VI accepted his excuses for the defeat in France
The Duke of York - Richard Plantagenet
- Premier noble of the realm - Henry VI’s cousin
- Had a claim to the throne through the Mortimer line
- After the death of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, and before the birth of Prince Edward, York was heir presumptive to the crown (but not formally recognised as heir apparent)
- He received approx. £5,000 pa - the largest baronial income. Through the 1430s and most of the 1440s he was a firm Lancastrian supporter and involved in the royal councils
- Took up the commonweal’s demand for ‘good governance’
- Being in Ireland and remove from domestic politics whilst when everything fell apart in the late 1440s left untainted by the severe problems of 1449-50
- Was afraid after Cade’s rebels seemed to see him as an opportunity for reform - calling him the ‘true blood’
- He was appointed king’s lieutenant in France (C-in-C) in 1436. He held the office again between 1441 and 1445 and was complicit (a part of) in negations for the Truce of Tours (1444). He expected to be reappointed for the remainder of the decade but…
- Was replaced by Somerset as Captain in France in 1447
- Was made the lieutenant governor of Ireland in 1449
- By 1450, York was struggling financially. Whilst in France he had paid the wages of the soldiers out of his own funds - and so the crown owed York £26,000 in arrears of wages and debts
- Hated Somerset for the losses of Normandy, Rouen and Caen. Also hated Somerset for his pre-eminent role in politics as Henry VI’s favourite after Suffolk’s death. Was potentially afraid of Somerset’s claim to the throne
Henry VI
- Easily influenced
- Weak (enough to be controlled)
- Deeply religious
- Pleasant
- Loved education
- Simple
- Technically the king of England and France
- Became king at 9 months old
- Never fought in the Hundred years’ war
Cade’s Rebellion
- 9th Jan 1450 - 12th July 1450
- Duke of Suffolk named and blamed for the economic crisis in England
- Duke of York was also named as a beacon of hope for the people
Not being in command in France in the late 1440’s when everything there fell apart, and being in Ireland and removed from domestic politics, York was untainted by the severe problems of 1449-50. This, together with his royal blood and status as the premier magnate, mean it was natural for Cade’s rebels to look to York as some kind of political savour. They named him in their proclamations; Cade also called himself ‘Mortimer’ and claimed (falsely) to be a cousin of York. This must have caused York some concern, his name being associated with the populist and utimately violent unrest of Cade’s Rebellion. Wild rumours that the rebels intended to remove Henry VI and replace him with York could, in the worst-case scenario, expose York to being impeached
