Henry VI Part 3

“Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind.” English playwright and national poet William Shakespeare is believed to have written King Henry VI, Part 3 between 1590 and 1593. It was first published in a corrupt quarto in 1595. A longer version of the play appeared in the First Folio of 1623. King Henry VI, Part 3 is the third in a sequence of four history plays collectively called The First Tetralogy. The other three in the sequence are King Henry VI, Part 1, King Henry VI, Part 2, and King Richard III. All four plays focus on the Wars of the Roses between the houses of Lancaster and York. In King Henry VI Part 3, the Yorkists persuade Henry VI to disinherit his son, and then go on to capture the throne by force. Queen Margaret, bent on bringing her disinherited son, Edward VI, back to power, beats the Duke of York in battle and stabs him to death. York’s sons join forces and civil war erupts. In time, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, the youngest brother of the new king, Edward IV, emerges as a contender to the throne.