Henry VI of England Henry VI ( 6 December 1421 – 21 May 1471 ) was King of England from 1422 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471 , and disputed King of France from 1422 to 1453 . Until 1437 , his realm was governed by regents . Contemporaneous accounts described him as peaceful and pious , not suited for the dynastic wars , such as the Wars of the Roses , which commenced during his reign . His periods of insanity and his inherent benevolence eventually required his wife , Margaret of Anjou , to assume control of his kingdom , which contributed to his own downfall , the collapse of the House of Lancaster , and the rise of the House of York . Child King . Henry was the only child and heir of King Henry V . He was born on 6 December 1421 at Windsor Castle , being named Henry of Windsor , and succeeded to the throne at the age of nine months as King of England on 31 August 1422 when his father died , thus making him the youngest person ever to succeed to the English throne . Two months later , on 21 October 1422 , he became titular King of France upon his grandfather Charles VI ' s death in accordance with the Treaty of Troyes in 1420 . His mother , Catherine of Valois , was then 20 years old and , as Charles VI ' s daughter , was viewed with considerable suspicion by English nobles and prevented from having a full role in her son ' s upbringing . On 28 September 1423 , the nobles swore loyalty to Henry VI . They summoned Parliament in the King ' s name and established a regency council until the King should come of age . One of Henry V ' s surviving brothers , John , Duke of Bedford , was appointed senior regent of the realm and was in charge of the ongoing war in France . During Bedford ' s absence , the government of England was headed by Henry V ' s other surviving brother , Humphrey , Duke of Gloucester , who was appointed Protector and Defender of the Realm . His duties were limited to keeping the peace and summoning Parliament . Henry V ' s half - uncle Henry Beaufort , Bishop of Winchester ( after 1426 also Cardinal ) , had an important place on the Council . After the Duke of Bedford died in 1435 , the Duke of Gloucester claimed the Regency himself , but was contested in this by the other members of the council . From 1428 , Henry ' s tutor was Richard de Beauchamp , Earl of Warwick , whose father had been instrumental in the opposition to Richard II ' s reign . Henry ' s half - brothers , Edmund and Jasper , the sons of his widowed mother ' s relationship with Owen Tudor , were later given earldoms . Edmund Tudor was the father of Henry Tudor , later to gain the throne as Henry VII . In reaction to Charles VII Valois ' s coronation as French King in Reims Cathedral on 17 July 1429 , Henry was soon crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey on 6 November 1429 , followed by his own coronation as King of France at Notre Dame de Paris on 16 December 1431 . Although it was not until a month before his sixteenth birthday on 13 November 1437 that he obtained some measure of independent authority , indications of a growing willingness to involve himself in administration were apparent in 1434 when writs temporarilly changed their dating from Westminster ( where the Privy Council was ) to Cirencester ( where the king was ) . He finally assumed full royal powers when he came of age . Assumption of government and French policies . Henry was declared of age in 1437 , the year in which his mother died , and he assumed the reins of government . Henry , shy and pious , averse to deceit and bloodshed , immediately allowed his court to be dominated by a few noble favourites who clashed on the matter of the French war . After the death of King Henry V , England had lost momentum in the Hundred Years ' War , while , beginning with Joan of Arc ' s military victories , the Valois gained ground . The young king came to favour a policy of peace in France , and thus favoured the faction around Cardinal Beaufort and William de la Pole , Earl of Suffolk , who thought likewise , while Humphrey , Duke of Gloucester , and Richard , Duke of York , who argued for a continuation of the war , were ignored . Marriage to Margaret of Anjou . Cardinal Beaufort and the Earl of Suffolk persuaded the king that the best way of pursuing peace with France was through a marriage with Margaret of Anjou , the niece of King Charles VII . Henry agreed , especially when he heard reports of Margaret ' s stunning beauty , and sent Suffolk to negotiate with Charles , who agreed to the marriage on condition that he would not have to provide the customary dowry and instead would receive the lands of Maine and Anjou from the English . These conditions were agreed to in the Treaty of Tours , but the cession of Maine and Anjou was kept secret from parliament , as it was known that this would be hugely unpopular with the English populace . The marriage took place at Titchfield Abbey on 23 April 1445 , one month after Margaret ' s 15th birthday . She had arrived with an entire ( ' ready - made ' ) household , composed primarily , not of Angevins , but of members of Henry ' s Royal servants ; this increase in the size of the royal household ( and a concomitant increase , on the birth of their son in 1453 ) led to proportionately greater expense but also to greater patronage opportunities at Court . Henry had wavered in yielding Maine and Anjou to Charles , knowing that the move was unpopular and would be opposed by the Dukes of Gloucester and York . However , Margaret was determined to make him see it through . As the treaty became public knowledge in 1446 , public anger focused on Duke of Suffolk , but Henry and Margaret were determined to protect him . The ascendancy of Suffolk and Somerset . In 1447 , the King and Queen summoned the Duke of Gloucester before parliament on the charge of treason . This move was instigated by Gloucester ' s enemies , the Earl of Suffolk , the ageing Cardinal Beaufort and his nephew , Edmund Beaufort , Earl of Somerset . Gloucester was put in custody in Bury St Edmunds , where he died , probably of a heart attack , although there were contemporaneous rumours of poisoning , before he could be tried . The Duke of York , now Henry ' s heir presumptive , was excluded from the court circle and sent to govern Ireland , while his opponents , the Earls of Suffolk and Somerset were promoted to Dukes , a title at that time still normally reserved for immediate relatives of the monarch . The new Duke of Somerset was sent to France to lead the war . In the later years of Henry ' s reign , the monarchy became increasingly unpopular , due to a breakdown in law and order , corruption , the distribution of royal land to the king ' s court favourite s , the troubled state of the crown ' s finances , and the steady loss of territories in France . In 1447 , this unpopularity took the form of a Commons campaign against the Duke of Suffolk , who was the most unpopular of all the King ' s entourage and widely seen as a traitor . He was impeached by Parliament to a background that has been called " " the baying for Suffolk ’ s blood " [ by ] " a London mob " " , to the extent that Suffolk admitted his alarm to the king . Ultimately , Henry was forced to send him into exile , but Suffolk ' s ship was intercepted in the English Channel . His murdered body was found on the beach at Dover . In 1449 , the Duke of Somerset , leading the campaign in France , reopened hostilities in Normandy , but by the autumn had been pushed back to Caen . By 1450 , the French had retaken the whole province , so hard won by Henry V . Returning troops , who had often not been paid , added to the lawlessness in the southern counties of England . Jack Cade led a rebellion in Kent in 1450 , calling himself " John Mortimer " , apparently in sympathy with York , and setting up residence at the White Hart Inn in Southwark ( the white hart had been the symbol of the deposed Richard II ) . Henry came to London with an army to crush the rebellion , but on finding that Cade had fled kept most of his troops behind while a small force followed the rebels and met them at Sevenoaks . The flight proved to have been tactical : Cade successfully ambushed the force in the Battle of Solefields and returned to occupy London . In the end , the rebellion achieved nothing , and London was retaken after a few days of disorder ; but this was principally because of the efforts of its own residents rather than the army . At any rate the rebellion showed that feelings of discontent were running high . In 1451 , the Duchy of Guyenne , held since Henry II ' s time , was also lost . In October 1452 , an English advance in Guyenne retook Bordeaux and was having some success but by 1453 , Bordeaux was lost again , leaving Calais as England ' s only remaining territory on the continent . Insanity , and the ascendancy of York . In 1452 , the Duke of York was persuaded to return from Ireland , claim his rightful place on the council and put an end to bad government . His cause was a popular one , and he soon raised an army at Shrewsbury . The court party , meanwhile , raised their own similar - sized force in London . A stand - off took place south of London , with York presenting a list of grievances and demands to the court circle , including the arrest of Edmund Beaufort , 2nd Duke of Somerset . The king initially agreed , but Margaret intervened to prevent the arrest of Beaufort . By 1453 , his influence had been restored , and York was again isolated . The court party was also strengthened by the announcement that the Queen was pregnant . However , on hearing of the final loss of Bordeaux in August 1453 , Henry slipped into a mental breakdown and became completely unaware of everything that was going on around him . This was to last for more than a year , and Henry failed even to respond to the birth of his own son and heir , who was christened Edward . Henry possibly inherited his illness from Charles VI of France , his maternal grandfather , who was struck by intermittent periods of insanity over the last thirty years of his life . The Duke of York , meanwhile , had gained a very important ally , Richard Neville , Earl of Warwick , one of the most influential magnates and possibly richer than York himself . York was named regent as Protector of the Realm in 1454 . The queen was excluded completely , and Edmund Beaufort was detained in the Tower of London , while many of York ' s supporters spread rumours that the king ' s child was not his , but Beaufort ' s . Other than that , York ' s months as regent were spent tackling the problem of government overspending . Wars of the Roses . On Christmas Day 1454 , King Henry regained his senses . Disaffected nobles who had grown in power during Henry ' s reign ( most importantly the Earls of Warwick and Salisbury ) took matters into their own hands by backing the claims of the rival House of York , first to the Regency , and then to the throne itself , due to York ' s better descent from Edward III . It was agreed York would become Henry ' s successor , despite York being older . After a violent struggle between the houses of Lancaster and York , during which the Duke of York was killed by Margaret ' s forces on 30 December 1460 , Henry was deposed and imprisoned on 4 March 1461 by the Duke of York ' s son , Edward of York , who became king , as Edward IV . By this point , Henry was suffering such a bout of madness that he was apparently laughing and singing while the Second Battle of St Albans raged , which secured his release . But Edward was still able to take the throne , though he failed to capture Henry and his queen , who fled to Scotland . During the first period of Edward IV ' s reign , Lancastrian resistance continued mainly under the leadership of Queen Margaret and the few nobles still loyal to her in the northern counties of England and Wales . Henry , who had been safely hidden by Lancastrian allies in Scotland , Northumberland and Yorkshire was captured by King Edward in 1465 and subsequently held captive in the Tower of London . Return to the throne . Queen Margaret , exiled in Scotland and later in France , was determined to win back the throne on behalf of her husband and son . By herself , there was little she could do . However , eventually Edward IV had a falling - out with two of his main supporters : Richard Neville , Earl of Warwick , and his own younger brother George , Duke of Clarence . At the urging of King Louis XI of France they formed a secret alliance with Margaret . After marrying his daughter to Henry and Margaret ' s son , Edward of Westminster , Warwick returned to England , forced Edward IV into exile , and restored Henry VI to the throne on 30 October 1470 . However , by this time , years in hiding followed by years in captivity had taken their toll on Henry . Warwick and Clarence effectively ruled in his name . Henry ' s return to the throne lasted less than six months . Warwick soon overreached himself by declaring war on Burgundy , whose ruler responded by giving Edward IV the assistance he needed to win back his throne by force . Edward IV returned to England in early 1471 , after which he was reconciled with Clarence and killed Warwick at the Battle of Barnet . The Yorkists won a final decisive victory at the Battle of Tewkesbury on 4 May 1471 , where Henry ' s son Edward was killed . Imprisonment and death . Henry was imprisoned in the Tower of London , in whose Wakefield Tower he died during the night of 21 / 22 May 1471 . In all likelihood , Henry ' s opponents had kept him alive up to this point rather than leave the Lancasters with a far more formidable leader in Henry ' s son Edward . According to the " Historie of the arrivall of Edward IV " , an official chronicle favourable to Edward , Henry died of melancholy on hearing news of the Battle of Tewkesbury and his son ' s death . It is widely suspected , however , that Edward IV , who was re - crowned the morning following Henry ' s death , had in fact ordered his murder . Sir Thomas More ' s " History of Richard III " explicitly states that Richard killed Henry , but is the only contemporary source that makes this claim . Another contemporary source , " Wakefield ' s Chronicle " , gives the date of Henry ' s death as 23 May , on which date Richard is known to have been away from London . King Henry VI was originally buried in Chertsey Abbey ; then , in 1485 , his body was moved to St George ' s Chapel , Windsor Castle , by Richard III . Legacy . Henry ' s one lasting achievement was his fostering of education ; he founded both Eton College and King ' s College , Cambridge . Continuing a career of architectural patronage begun by his father , these ( King ' s College Chapel and Eton College Chapel respectively ) and most of his other architectural commissions ( like his completion of his father ' s foundation of Syon Abbey ) each consisted of a late Gothic or Perpendicular - style church with a monastic and / or educational foundation attached . Each year on the anniversary of Henry VI ' s death , the Provosts of Eton and King ' s College , Cambridge lay white lilies and roses , the floral emblems of those colleges , on the spot in the Wakefield Tower at the Tower of London where the imprisoned Henry VI was , according to tradition , murdered as he knelt at prayer . Arms . As Duke of Cornwall , Henry ' s arms were those of the kingdom , differenced by a label argent of three points . Upon his accession , he inherited use of the arms of the kingdom and impaled them with those of France to reflect the " de jure " dual monarchy of France and England . Hence on ( our ) right , the Royal Arms of his father , Henry V , and on the left , the three fleur - de - lys pattern of the French Royal Arms of the day . Posthumous cult . Miracle s were attributed to the king , and he was informally regarded as a saint and martyr , addressed particularly in cases of adversity . The anti - Yorkist cult was encouraged by Henry VII Tudor , as dynastic propaganda . A volume was compiled of the miracles attributed to him at St George ' s Chapel , Windsor , where Richard III had reinterred him , and Henry VII began building a chapel at Westminster Abbey to house Henry VI ' s relics . A number of Henry VI ' s miracles possessed a political dimension , such as his cure of a young girl afflicted with the " King ' s evil " , whose parents refused to bring her to the usurper , Richard III . By the time of Henry VIII ' s break with Rome , canonisation proceedings were under way . Hymns to him still exist and until the Reformation his hat was kept by his tomb at Windsor where pilgrims would put it on to enlist Henry ' s aid against migraines . Numerous miracles were credited to the dead king , including his raising the plague victim Alice Newnett from the dead and appearing to her as she was being stitched in her shroud . He also intervened in the attempted hanging of a man who had been unjustly condemned to death , being accused of stealing some sheep . Henry placed his hand between the rope and the man ' s windpipe , thus keeping him alive , after which he revived in the cart as it was taking him away for burial . He was also capable of inflicting harm , such as when he struck John Robyns blind after Robyns cursed " Saint Henry " . Robyns was healed only after he went on a pilgrimage to the shrine of King Henry . A particular devotional act that was closely associated with the cult of Henry VI was the bending of a silver coin as an offering to the " saint " in order that he might perform a miracle . One story had a woman , Katherine Bailey , who was blind in one eye . As she was kneeling at mass , a stranger told her to bend a coin to King Henry . She promised to do so , and as the priest was raising the communion host , her partial blindness was cured . Although his shrine was enormously popular as a pilgrimage destination during the early decades of the 16th century , over time , with the lessened need to legitimise Tudor rule , the cult of Henry VI faded . Shakespeare ' s " Henry VI " and after . In 1590 William Shakespeare wrote a trilogy of plays about the life of Henry VI : " Henry VI , Part 1 " , " Henry VI , Part 2 " , and " Henry VI , Part 3 " . His dead body and his ghost also appear in " Richard III " . Shakespeare ' s portrayal of Henry is notable in that it does not mention the King ' s madness . This is considered to have been a politically - advisable move so as to not risk offending Elizabeth I whose family was descended from Henry ' s Lancastrian family . Instead Henry is portrayed as a pious and peaceful man ill - suited to the crown . He spends most of his time in contemplation of the Bible and expressing his wish to be anyone other than a king . Shakespeare ' s Henry is weak - willed and easily influenced allowing his policies to be led by Margaret and her allies , and being unable to defend himself against York ' s claim to the throne . He only takes an act of his own volition just before his death when he curses Richard of Gloucester just before he is murdered . In screen adaptations of these plays he has been portrayed by : James Berry in the 1911 silent short " Richard III " ; Terry Scully in the 1960 BBC series " An Age of Kings " which contained the history plays " Richard II " and " Richard III " ; Carl Wery in the 1964 West German TV version " König Richard III " ; David Warner in " Wars of the Roses " , a 1965 filmed version of the Royal Shakespeare Company performing the three parts of " Henry VI " ( condensed and edited into two plays , " Henry VI " and " Edward IV " ) and " Richard III " ; Peter Benson in the 1983 BBC version of all three parts of " Henry VI " and " Richard III " ; Paul Brennen in the 1989 film version of the full cycle of consecutive history plays performed , for several years , by the English Shakespeare Company ; Edward Jewesbury in the 1995 film version of " Richard III " with Ian McKellen as Richard ; and James Dalesandro as Henry in the 2008 modern - day film version of " Richard III " . Miles Mander portrayed him in " Tower of London " , a 1939 horror film loosely dramatising the rise to power of Richard III . J . K . Rowling mentions Henry VI in her book " The Tales of Beedle the Bard " , in which it is implied that his advisor may have been a witch .