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We first met Margaret in Henry VI, Part 2, where she proved herself to be a skilled political schemer. Disappointed with her new husband’s penchant for religious contemplation, Margaret committed herself to the consolidation of power. She played a key role in the plot to remove the duke of Gloucester from his role as Lord Protector, and she also helped plan his murder. Yet she also suffered in that play when her secret lover, the duke of Suffolk, was killed by pirates. Chastened by grief, she briefly receded into the background. But by the play’s end, she was back to her old self, issuing commands to her husband, who obeyed her without question. In Part 3, Margaret takes an even more commanding role. Infuriated that Henry has disinherited their son by entailing the kingdom to another family, Margaret takes control of the king’s army and uses it to hound York. She and Clifford capture him in battle and, in a scene of cruel mockery, kill him. Margaret remains the de facto commander-in-chief of the Lancastrian forces for the rest of the play. She goes on a diplomatic mission to France to request reinforcements, and when she returns to England, she plunges back into the fray of battle.
Margaret’s role in Part 3 largely turns on the question of her status as a woman. Whereas her motivation in Part 2 had everything to do with a selfish drive for power, in Part 3 she is driven by a maternal desire to protect her son’s inheritance. This is why she condemns Henry not for being a weak king but for being “so unnatural a father” (1.1.219). By disinheriting Prince Edward, he has broken the “natural” line of inheritance, which she must now take it upon herself to restore. In doing so, she is, to some extent, an exemplary mother. Yet Margaret’s strategy for restoring her son’s inheritance is to take up arms. Like Joan la Pucelle in Part 1, her militancy marks her as an unnaturally masculine woman—a fact that earns her much disdain from her enemies. Even so, she proves herself a remarkably inspired military leader. Though she ends up losing the final battle with Edward’s forces, the speeches she gives her troops show that she is a gifted rhetorician. In the end, though, only Richard recognizes the danger of her words, and her survival ensures that she will have much more to say in the play that follows, Richard III.
