So many Henries, so little time!

It is a good thing we recently did a review of Roman numerals.  Trekking through the Medieval Times can be tricky because of the commonalities of the first names.  For example, there were at least 8 King Henries that ruled England.  Roman numerals were used following the names to keep them straight.

image Henry IV

We are beginning our study with Henry IV but focusing mostly on Henry VI.  He seemed to be a pretty interesting character.

Henry V

Henry V was king from 1413 until 1422.  He died at the age of 35.

Henry VI

Henry VI (son of Henry V and grandson of  Charles VI) was considered to be a weak man with a touch of insanity but I guess we all suffer from a touch of insanity from time to time.  Because of this, he was not considered a good leader for England.  His officials were also corrupt individuals and his queen (Queen Margaret) was power hungry.  This is when the House of York, a rival family of nobles, decided to gain control of the nation.  This is known as the War of the Roses .

Temple Garden

The House of York versus the House of Lancaster.  There were many bloody battles.  In the Battle of St. Albans, the Yorkist defeated the Lancastrians but the Yorkists failed to make their leader, the duke of York, the next king.  Crazy Henry VI was still king.  The duke of York basically ran the country due to King Henry's mental issues.  Queen Margaret wanted her son to be king but knew this would not happen as long as the duke of York had power so she devised a plan to fight against the duke and this was known as the bloody Battle of Wakefield.  The duke of York was killed in this battle.  Queen Margaret had the duke of York's head mounted on the town gates of York.  (sounds like a lovely woman.)  Her plan did not work though.  The English Parliament named the duke of York's son Edward the next king of England.  There were a lot of Edwards too but I will save that for later.  Anyway, Edward had poor, feeble Henry locked away in the Tower of London, the queen fled to Scotland, and Edward IV was the new king of England at only 19 years old.  

Henry VI was finally let out of the tower and took his place back on the throne thanks to the help of the earl of Warwick (the kingmaker).  Poor Henry really had no clue what was going on and only stayed king for a few months but he was there long enough to partake in another war waged by Edward IV.  Edward won and regained the throne.  He had Henry executed and had Queen Margaret kept in prison.

This is really fascinating stuff!  Of course, this is not the end of the story.  The story continues on through more battles and more Henries, Edwards, and a Richard or two but I will stop here for now.

It is very difficult to keep all these guys straight.  Henry IV, Richard III, Edward IV..........They also used a lot of other titles such as duke of this, and earl of that, lionhearted this and the great that.  I still cannot label them correctly but I am glad I am finally understanding a little more of the history of England.  I can tell you certainly that I do not recall 95% of this from my school days.  I am pretty sure that this information will not make too much difference in day to day life but it is very interesting and it helps a lot when we watch Jeopardy!