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The date of this play’s composition is uncertain. Some editors think it was written before Henry VI, Part 1, probably in 1591, making this play one of Shakespeare’s earliest stage plays. The action takes place after the French wars, when the English lost much of the territory originally won by Henry V. During the wars, which Shakespeare depicts in Henry VI, Part 1, factionalism between the various nobles brought about the death of England’s champion warrior, Lord Talbot. Disagreements between Somerset and York led to a division of nobles into those who supported the red or white rose, setting the stage for the civil conflict known as the Wars of the Roses. At the end of Henry VI, Part 1, Suffolk captured Margaret, the daughter of a bankrupt French lord. Infatuated with her, Suffolk wooed her for Henry and convinced the king to marry her, thereby abandoning a more politically advantageous marriage arrangement.
Henry VI, Part 2 concerns the continued scheming in the court, first between Gloucester and Winchester, then between York’s faction and the other lords. The infighting between the lords and the popular uprising by Jack Cade show what happens to the nation when the king in power is too weak to rule effectively. The play charts the rise and fall of many lords and lesser figures within the kingdom.
Shakespeare probably made use of historical information gathered from contemporary chronicle histories of the fifteenth century and the struggles between the Yorks and the Lancasters in the Wars of the Roses. In particular, he is thought to have used Raphael Holingshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland for details of Cade’s rebellion, modeled on the revolt by Wat Tyler in the Peasant’s Rebellion of 1381.
Scholars agree that two different versions of this play existed in the early modern period. A version of the play was first published in 1594, and another, longer version appeared in the First Folio in 1623. The relationship between these two texts has been a long-debated point in Shakespeare scholarship. Some scholars have suggested that the first version was a reconstruction of the play prepared by actors, who remembered as much of the play as they could for publication. Alternatively, this first version may have derived from a promptbook. Another scholar remarks that the 1594 version of this play may have been Shakespeare’s early version, and the play published later included his revisions. Most editors agree that many people, from actors, scribes, publishers, and censors, had a hand in altering the play as it moved onto the stage or into print.
