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As with the other plays in the Henry VI sequence, the title character of Henry VI, Part 3 is a weak figure who willingly withdraws into the background as two warring factions battle it out for the Crown. The two factions are the house of Lancaster and the house of York. The Lancastrians are nominally represented by Henry, but the true leader of their cause is arguably his queen, Margaret. The Yorkists, meanwhile, are initially led by Richard Plantagenet, the duke of York, who spent all of Henry VI, Part 2 plotting his takeover of the Crown. However, York dies early in this play, leaving his sons to carry the torch. His eldest, Edward, claims the kingdom for himself, becoming the new leader of the house of York. Yet unbeknownst to him, his younger brother Richard, newly dubbed the duke of Gloucester, is already scheming to eliminate his elders and capture the Crown for himself. Thus, whereas Henry VI, Part 1 centered on rifts among the nobility and Part 2 showed how those rifts aggravated long-held grievances among the lower classes, Part 3 turns its attention to how a kingdom plunging into civil strife ultimately fractures the family, pitting brother against brother.
The degradation of family ties explored in Part 3 has its origins in the play’s recent history. The enduring conflict between the houses and Lancaster and York stems from the moment when Henry VI’s grandfather, Henry Bolingbroke, murdered Richard II and assumed the throne as Henry IV. Bolingbroke was the son of King Edward III’s fourth son, which is quite far down the line of succession, since the throne is meant to pass first to the king’s eldest son, then the second, and third, and so on. By contrast, Richard Plantagenet, the duke of York, claims descent from Edward III’s third son. This claim gives him priority for the throne, and it is for this reason he declares war on Henry VI. The point of rehearsing this history here is to underscore how the so-called “Wars of the Roses,” which pitted the Lancastrians against the Yorkists, was in a deep sense a family affair. Bolingbroke betrayed his family by killing his uncle and jumping the line, and now the proverbial chickens are coming home to roost, with the struggle between opposing family lines affecting the entire kingdom.
The first major breach of familial bonds in Part 3 comes when Henry agrees to pass the kingship to York after his death. This act negates his son’s right to the throne and reduces what should be a symbol of lineal succession (i.e., the Crown) to a mere piece of property (i.e., a crown). Later, Edward interprets a vision of three suns rising into one as proof that he, Richard, and George will succeed together. But as it turns out, this vision seems to indicate that, without their father to unite them, each will break out on his own until only one remains standing. George soon breaks ties with Edward to join Warwick. Meanwhile, Richard remains loyal only because he eventually hopes to capture the Crown for himself, which will be easier if it’s already firmly in the house of York’s possession. Otherwise, he feels no true love for or loyalty to his brother. As family bonds weaken, the social identities provided by networks of kinship and feudal loyalty disappear, giving birth to a kind of monstrous individualism.
These scenes of severed familial bonds are echoed in “mirror scenes” that symbolically reflect some of the play’s thematic concerns. For instance, Henry watches a battle from afar and sees two soldiers drag the bodies of soldiers they have killed away from the scene of the fight, hoping to find some loot on the bodies to steal. The first discovers he has accidentally killed his father, and the second, his own son. Both are horrified, as is their king, underscoring the social disintegration that occurs when the ties between father and son erode. Shakespeare further reflects this social disintegration in the constant—and often bewildering—shifts of allegiance. As the crown of power moves from one royal head to another, the common people of England trade one vow of loyalty for another. The nobles seem even flightier, forfeiting oaths at a whim. Warwick abandons his longstanding commitment to the Yorkist cause when Edward undermines his ambassadorial mission to France, swiftly recommitting himself to the Lancasters. George does the same when he feels slighted by Edward’s lack of consideration for his needs. When he later denounces Warwick and rejoins Edward’s cause, it isn’t entirely clear why.
Once the ties of family and society are broken, nothing remains but the assertion of individual will. And two particular individuals assert their wills in ways that shape this play most profoundly: Margaret and Richard. Queen Margaret has shown herself a force to be reckoned with ever since she first arrived at Henry’s court in the opening scene of Part 2. In Part 3, however, she sees fit to take matters of the kingdom into her own hands. When her husband disinherits her son by entailing the Crown to the duke of York upon his death, she takes command of his armed forces to hunt York down and kill him. She then takes on the role of ambassador by visiting the king of France to ask for reinforcements. When she succeeds in getting them, she returns to England backed by strong forces that she leads into battle. Though her side loses to Edward, she proves to be an inspiring leader, equipped with enough rhetorical panache to inspire troops in even the direst of situations. Ultimately, words are her greatest weapon, and her survival means that she will live to wield yet more of them in the next play in this sequence, Richard III.
Even more than the martial Margaret, it is Richard, the duke of Gloucester, whose scheming shapes this play. In his first soliloquy, Richard reveals his existential frustrations as well as his desires for the throne, along with a rough plan to get there. In quick succession, he counts the number of people before him in line to the throne, resigns himself to seek the pleasures of the court, despairs because of his deformity, and finally resolves to seek the Crown by transforming himself into a smiling simulacrum of a brother. He recedes into the background as he commits himself to securing the throne for a Yorkist king. But once Edward is firmly seated, he begins to act of his own volition. Most striking his is decision to sneak off and kill Henry. He clearly relishes the act of murder, and it is at this point that he formally declares his independence of all ties: “I am myself alone” (5.6.84).
While Richard is one of the most violent and cruel of Shakespeare’s creations, he is nevertheless one of the most compelling. He draws us in through his soliloquies, in which he reveals charisma and a sharp wit, and he becomes the most finely drawn figure in the play by confiding his motivations directly to the audience. He is no hero, but most of the other characters seem flat compared to his psychological roundedness. By the end of the play, Richard has announced his liberation from the titles of “son” or “brother,” and while he kisses Edward’s new baby, he likens himself to Judas. Meanwhile, the court prepares to celebrate the new king, thinking the civil war is over, but the worst is yet to come. The previous chapters of the Wars of the Roses served to set branches of a family against each other. Now with no other enemies to fight, members of a single family will struggle among themselves, and vicious ambition will once again threaten the kingdom with ruin.
