page_title: Henry VI, Part 2
section_title: Justice
hierarchical_section_title: Henry VI, Part 2 / Analysis and criticism / Themes / Justice
caption_attribution_description: English: Jack Cade's rebellion in Henry VI
context_page_description: Henry VI, Part 2 is a history play by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1591 and set during the lifetime of King Henry VI of England. Whereas Henry VI, Part 1 deals primarily with the loss of England's French territories and the political machinations leading up to the Wars of the Roses, and Henry VI, Part 3 deals with the horrors of that conflict, 2 Henry VI focuses on the King's inability to quell the bickering of his nobles, the death of his trusted adviser Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, the rise of the Duke of York and the inevitability of armed conflict. As such, the play culminates with the opening battle of the War, the First Battle of St Albans.
  Although the Henry VI trilogy may not have been written in chronological order, the three plays are often grouped together with Richard III to form a tetralogy covering the entire Wars of the Roses saga, from the death of Henry V in 1422 to the rise to power of Henry VII in 1485. It was the success of this sequence of plays that firmly established Shakespeare's reputation as a playwright.
context_section_description: Ideas of justice are paramount throughout the play, especially the notion of where justice comes from and who determines it. This is hinted at when Thump first meets Henry, and Henry asks Gloucester's opinion. Gloucester says,
  And let these have a day appointed them
  
  For single combat in convenient place,
  
  For he hath witness of his servant's malice.
  
  This is the law, and this Duke Humphrey's doom.
   (1.3.208–211)
  Of this scene, Michael Hattaway has commented, "the feudal ritual of trial by combat is reduced to the grotesque fights between the drunken armourer and his apprentice [...] It serves to mirror the realities of the play: instead of seeing justice determined by God with regards to the rights of the adversaries, here we see simply a trial of might." As Henry himself says,
  For by his death we do perceive his guilt.
  
  And God in justice hath revealed to us
  
  The truth and innocence of this poor fellow,
  
  Which he had thought to have murdered wrongfully.
   (2.3.101–104)
  He returns to this notion later, again arguing that truth is a defence against death and defeat:
  What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted?
  
  Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just;
  
  And he but naked, though locked up in steel,
  
  Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted.
   (3.2.232–235)
  Henry believes in the purity of justice, and cannot imagine how it could possibly be corrupt; "And poise the cause in justice' equal scales/Whose beam stands sure, whose rightful cause prevails" (2.1.199–200).
  However, the perversion of justice is also a dominant theme throughout the play, despite Henry's inability to see it. One of the most famous lines in the play, spoken by the rebel Cade's sidekick Dick the Butcher, is "the first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers". Whether this means that lawyers are the protectors of justice, or the agents of its corruption is disputed.
  Gloucester assures Eleanor that as long as he has truth on his side, his enemies cannot destroy him: "I must offend before I be attainted,/And had I twenty times so many foes,/And each of them had twenty times their power,/All these could not procure me any scathe/So long as I am loyal, true, and crimeless" (2.4.60–64). His claims prove false, however, as he is arrested on false charges and then assassinated before his trial. Later in the play, Lord Saye makes a similar claim. When Buckingham warns him to be careful as the rebels are targeting people like him, Saye responds "The trust I have is in mine innocence,/And therefore am I bold and resolute" (4.4.58–59). Like Humphrey, his "innocence" does not save him, and both he and his son-in-law are killed by the rebels.
  The nobles disdain for justice is revealed more forcibly when Henry, unaware that Gloucester is dead, asks the court to treat him fairly, and Margaret, knowing he is both innocent and dead, responds, "God forbid any malice should prevail/That faultless may condemn a noble man" (3.2.23–24). As Hattaway points out "In England under Henry, law bears little relation to divinity and stands divorced from equity. The regal and judicial roles of the king's court are hopelessly confused, so that the status of the institution itself is compromised."
  The lords' failure to understand the need for an impartial and functioning judiciary is echoed in the rebellion; "The virulent ambition and hostility to law that characterised the barons equally characterise the workmen," suggesting there is no difference between the old order and the new. This is evident in Cade's speech after ordering the execution of Lord Saye; "The proudest peer in the realm shall not wear a head on his shoulders unless he pay me tribute. There shall not a maid be married but she shall pay to me her maidenhead ere they have it. Men shall hold of me in capite. And we charge and command that their wives be as free as heart can wish or tongue can tell" (4.7.112–117). In this proposed new world order, Cade envisions establishing an autocracy where all will pay fealty to him, and where his laws, which he can make arbitrarily, stand for everyone. As such, in this poli
caption: H.C. Selous' illustration of the Cade Rebellion in Act 4, Scene 2; from The Plays of William Shakespeare: The Historical Plays, edited by Charles Cowden Clarke and Mary Cowden Clarke (1830)
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