Seven Ages

History · c. 1592

Shakespeare’s Henry VI, Part 1

The opening of Shakespeare’s first tetralogy (the three Henry VI plays plus Richard III), written near the very start of his career.

Track this play
By the Seven Ages editors2 min read

Henry V is dead, his infant son inherits, and England’s French conquests unravel while the nobility begins choosing sides — the scene where lords pluck red and white roses in the Temple Garden invents the Wars of the Roses as theatre.

Its scenes with Joan of Arc (here Joan la Pucelle, seen through hostile English eyes) are fascinating and uncomfortable. This is apprentice work with flashes of the master; read it for where it all begins rather than for polish.

Henry VI, Part 1 on screen

1The Hollow Crown: Henry VI, Part 1 (2016)

TV film · dir. Dominic Cooke

Condenses Parts 1 and 2 of the trilogy

Reading Henry VI, Part 1 this year?

Mark it in your record when you finish — one seat, kept for decades.

Track Henry VI, Part 1