General Notes

Henry VI, b. Dec. 6, 1421, d. May 21, 1471, Lancastrian king of England
(1422-61, 1470-71), succeeded as a baby to the crowns of England and France
after the death of his father, Henry V. English-occupied France was governed
until 1435 by his uncle John, duke of Bedford, as regent; England, until 1437,
was governed by a minority council, often disrupted by the rivalries of
Cardinal Henry Beaufort and Humphrey, duke of Glouchester After the defeat by
Joan of Arc at Orleans in 1429, English power in France waned.

From 1437, Henry himself ruled England, influenced at first by Beaufort and
later by William de La Pole, duke of Suffolk. In 1445, Henry married Margaret
of Anjou as part of a truce with France. Suffolk, the architect of this
unpopular truce, was impeached in Parliament and murdered in 1450. In the same
year the uprising led by Jack Cade revealed widespread social discontent.

The influence of the Beaufort family, the king's bouts of insanity, and the
loss of the last French lands by 1453 led Richard, duke of York, to seek
power. In 1461, during the ensuing Wars of the Roses (between the houses of
York and Lancaster), Henry was deposed by Edward IV.

Henry fled to Scotland; he returned to England in 1464, but was captured in
1465 and imprisoned in the Tower of London. In 1470 he was restored to the
throne by Richard Neville, earl of Warwick. The following year, however, he
was defeated again, captured, and murdered.