Though Richard of York dies early in the action, the remainder of the play centres on his sons’ efforts (aided by Warwick’s politic schemings) to avenge his death and to establish the dominance of Yorkists over Lancastrians. The balance of power shifts frequently, and the brothers’ alliance crumbles, but finally Queen Margaret, with her French allies, is defeated and captured, and Richard of York’s surviving sons avenge their father’s death by killing her son, Edward, before her eyes. Richard of Gloucester starts to clear his way to the throne by murdering ‘Good King Henry’ in the Tower, and the play ends with the new King Edward IV exulting in his ‘country’s peace and brothers’ loves’ while Richard makes clear to the audience that Edward’s self-confidence is ill-founded.

Though the play is loud and strife-ridden with war, power politics, and personal ambition, a concern with humane values emerges in the subtle and touching continuing portrayal of the quietist Henry VI, a saintly fool who meditates on the superiority of humble contentment to regal misery in an emblematic scene (2.5) that epitomizes the tragedy of civil strife.

Richard Duke of York, like The First Part of the Contention, draws extensively on English chronicle history. Historically, the period of the action covers about sixteen years (1455 to 1471), but events are telescoped and rearranged; for instance, the opening scenes move rapidly from the Battle of St Albans (1445) to York’s death (1460); the future Richard III was only three years old, and living abroad, at the time of this opening battle in which he takes an active part; and Richard’s murder of Henry owes more to legend than to fact.

THE PERSONS OF THE PLAY

Of the King’s Party

KING HENRY VI

QUEEN MARGARET

PRINCE EDWARD, their son

Duke of S0MERSET

Duke of EXETER

Earl of NORTHUMBERLAND

Earl of WESTMORLAND

Lord CLIFFORD

Lord Stafford

SOMERVILLE

Henry, young Earl of Richmond

A SOLDIER who has killed his father

A HUNTSMAN who guards King Edward

The Divided House of Neville

Earl of WARWICK, first of York’s party, later of Lancaster’s

Marquis of MONTAGUE, his brother, of York’s party

Earl of OXFORD, their brother-in-law, of Lancaster’s party

Lord HASTINGS, their brother-in-law, of York’s party

Of the Duke of York’s Party

Richard Plantagenet, Duke of YORK

EDWARD, Earl of March, his son, later Duke of York and

KING EDWARD IV

LADY GRAY, a widow, later Edward’s wife and queen

Earl RIVERS, her brother

GEORGE, Edward’s brother, later Duke OF CLARENCE

RICHARD, Edward’s brother, later Duke OF GLOUCESTER

Earl of RUTLAND, Edward’s brother

Rutland’s TUTOR, a chaplain

SIR JOHN Mortimer, York’s uncle

Sir Hugh Mortimer, his brother

Duke of NORFOLK

Sir William Stanley

Earl of Pembroke

Sir John MONTGOMERY

A NOBLEMAN

Two GAMEKEEPERS

Three WATCHMEN, who guard King Edward’s tent

LIEUTENANT of the Tower

The French

KING LOUIS

LADY BONA, his sister-in-law

Lord Bourbon, the French High Admiral

Others

A SOLDIER who has killed his son

Mayor of Coventry

MAYOR of York

Aldermen of York

Soldiers, messengers, and attendants

The True Tragedy of Richard Duke of York and the Good King Henry the Sixth

1.1 A chair of state. Alarum. Enter Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, his two sons Edward, Earl of March, and Crookback Richard, the Duke of Norfolk, the Marquis of Montague, and the Earl of Warwick, ⌈with drummers⌉ and soldiers. ⌈They all wear white roses in their hats⌉

WARWICK

I wonder how the King escaped our hands?

YORK

While we pursued the horsemen of the north,

He slyly stole away and left his men;

Whereat the great lord of Northumberland,

Whose warlike ears could never brook retreat,

Cheered up the drooping army; and himself,

Lord Clifford, and Lord Stafford, all abreast,

Charged our main battle’s front, and, breaking in,

Were by the swords of common soldiers slain.

EDWARD

Lord Stafford’s father, Duke of Buckingham,

Is either slain or wounded dangerous.

I cleft his beaver with a downright blow.

That this is true, father, behold his blood.

He shows a bloody sword

MONTAGUE ⌈to York⌉

And, brother, here’s the Earl of Wiltshire’s blood,

He shows a bloody sword

Whom I encountered as the battles joined.

RICHARD (to Somerset’s head, which he shows) Speak thou for me, and tell them what I did.

YORK

Richard hath best deserved of all my sons.

(To the head) But is your grace dead, my lord of

Somerset?

NORFOLK

Such hap have all the line of John of Gaunt.

RICHARD

Thus do I hope to shake King Henry’s head.

⌈He holds aloft the head, then throws it down⌉

WARWICK

And so do I, victorious prince of York.

Before I see thee seated in that throne

Which now the house of Lancaster usurps,

I vow by heaven these eyes shall never close.

This is the palace of the fearful King,

And this (pointing to the chair of state), the regal

seat—possess it, York,

For this is thine, and not King Henry’s heirs’.

YORK

Assist me then, sweet Warwick, and I will,

For hither we have broken in by force.