Charlie Fenton’s Reviews > Shadow King: The Life and Death of Henry VI > Status Update

‘The next morning, Prince Edward participated in a darker ritual of masculine royal authority when he witnessed the summary execution of Henry’s guards, Bonville and Kyriell. Some pro-Yorkist sources even claimed that the seven-year-old Edward condemned the men himself. Margaret’s influence must have lain behind such a decision, for it asserted the prince’s status‘

‘The Act of Accord, as this agreement was known, allowed Henry to reign until he died, or when it pleased him to ‘lay down or yield the crown’, but his throne would then be inherited not by Henry’s son, but instead by York or one of his line. In other words, Henry disinherited his own dynasty in favour of York’s. It was a remarkable concession and one it is impossible to imagine Margaret assenting to’

‘Both York and Margaret knew the fundamental fact of Henry’s rule, which was that whoever controlled the king controlled the kingdom. York, denied access to the monarch, had no direct influence but he could at least exercise his military rights as a nobleman. Margaret could not even do that. Her only routes to political influence lay through Henry and her son.‘

‘Before Henry’s first illness Margaret had played the traditional queenly role - intercessor, peacemaker and intermediary - but the anxieties of the past three years, Henry’s continued incapacity and Margaret’s new status as a mother had driven the queen into new territory. Now at the age of twenty-six, Margaret stepped into the space left vacant since Somerset’s death.‘

‘The symptoms of this sudden mental breakdown were horrifying. If there was indeed an initial frenzy, it swiftly passed, transformed into a paralysing physical and mental catatonia. Henry could not talk. He could not walk. He did not recognise his companions, nor respond to their concern. He was barely able to hold up his head, sitting slumped and silent in their presence like a rag doll.’

‘By uniting the lines of his half-brother and the Beaufort heiress, Henry established an alternative line of succession for the crown. Through his infant wife, Edmund Tudor gained a claim to the throne which his half-blood connection to Henry did not provide. The founding of this rival Beaufort dynasty must have had the approval of Margaret’s uncle Somerset’

‘The costs of maintaining Henry and Margaret’s households had been mounting for years, despite ordinances put in place by parliament in 1445 to control their spending. According to these regulations Henry was allowed only 53 knights and esquires of the hall and chamber, but in 1446 he had 254 and by 1451 this figure had risen to over 300.‘

‘The impression of England among Henry’s subjects in 1449 was of a country dragged to the brink of lawlessness by royal indulgence and misplaced mercy. Pardons for wrongdoers and patronage of royal favourites were both expected of a king, but only in moderation and with due discretion. It was also the responsibility of a king to resolve the disputes of his most powerful lords before they turned violent’

‘She must have considered it a good sign that during the eleven months between their wedding and their first meeting, Henry showered her with thoughtful, chivalrous gifts. Her wedding band was the same ruby ring that Henry had worn at his French coronation, an item that must have held tremendous significance for him as a symbol of commitment to his French subjects.’

‘In 1440, what could not be doubted was that Henry was seeking a very different form of kingship from that exercised by his father. Government had remained in stasis since 1422, the will of the dying Henry V maintaining its vice-like grip on the policy of his kinsmen and councillors. Warfare had been its defining characteristic. This was a course that Henry VI could no longer follow.’