Henry VI, Part 1

• England after Henry V's death: the infant Henry VI inherits the throne. The realm is vulnerable • In France, Joan of Arc (La Pucelle) rallies the French and begins recapturing English territories • Joan is portrayed as a witch and fraud — Shakespeare's most politically incorrect characterization by modern standards • English nobles start feuding: the Duke of Gloucester (Protector) vs. the Bishop of Winchester — personal rivalry masking a power struggle • The Temple Garden scene: York picks a white rose, Somerset a red. The Wars of the Roses symbolically begin • Lord Talbot, the greatest English warrior, fights heroically in France but is abandoned by squabbling English commanders • Talbot and his son die at the Battle of Castillon — the play's emotional climax. English heroism wasted by English politics • Joan is captured, tried, and burned — but not before she's thoroughly vilified (claims divine virginity, then turns out to be pregnant) • Henry VI, now grown, is pious, weak, and utterly unsuited to kingship. He agrees to marry Margaret of Anjou • The marriage deal gives away English territories in France — Suffolk engineers it for his own advantage • England is losing France, its nobles are dividing into factions, and the king can't control any of it • The play ends with Suffolk scheming and England's doom clearly on the horizon