..nor should she! One of lifes ironies that the great warrior king, Henry V, should be succeeded by pretty much the antithesis of him! Henry was better fitted for a monk than a king, depite succeeding to his fathers crown at the tender age of 9 months.

If anything, we might like to describe him as partial, prejudiced and ignorant ;-) his wife, Margaret of Anjou didn't help matters, nor the fact that she brought no dowry and parts of the Angevin empire had to be surrendered to France! She was beautiful, but only 15 when she married. She was probably twice the man Henry was!! My sympathies, like Jane's are definetly Yorkist, but I also have some admiration for Margaret.

There was a 1470-71 readeption, where the throne was briefly retaken for Henry VI, but the Yorkists fought back to regain the throne for Edward. Warwick the kingmaker met his maker at Barnet, and the Yorkist Prince of Wales (Edward again ;-)) was killed during or after the battle of Tewkesbury. Henry then met his sticky end in the Tower by some means. Margaret was eventually ransomed back by Lous XIV (I think that's the right number??!) and lived pretty much in poverty the rest of her days.

As I said yesterday, the uspurpation of Henry IV was the root of the Wars of the Roses, but these were the wars proper. If Henry had been like his father, there might have been less trouble! Trouble was, he wasn't cut out to be king, and had a faction riven court, with powerful Magnates such as the Duke of Youk and the Earls of Sailsbury and Warwick excluded from power - meaning they could offer less Good Lordship to those below them in the feudal heirachy. And of course York had a claim to the throne that some might consider to be superior..... He and his second son, Edmund, Earl of Rutland, were piteously slain at Wakefield - Edward, Earl of March, later Edward IV, fought on.

Obviously Henry VI's bouts of madness made things interesting - this was inherited from his French Grandfather, Charles (can't remember which number!). The end of the hundered Years War didn't help matters - lots of soldiers returning to England in want of food and employment - probably quite happy to carry on with their previous occupation....