Henry Vi Part 3

[Lise Henton]

TLDR (may contain spoilers): King Henry IV fights off a growing rebellion while his son drinks and robs people; his son redeems himself.King Henry IV is dying; Falstaff is ... Falstaff-ing; Prince John is unethical; and Hal becomes King.

King Henry IV suffers from illness, so his youngest son Prince John fights the rebels, while Prince Hal prepares to be king. Meanwhile, Hal's friend Falstaff causes trouble, recruits, and speaks ill of Hal. Henry dies, and Hal becomes King Henry V. He banishes Falstaff from court, ready to wage war on France.

Henry IV Part 2 follows King Henry IV's victory at the battle of Shrewsbury in Henry IV Part 1. The Earl of Northumberland mistakenly hears that his son, Hotspur, is actually the victor. The rebel lords meet together in council and resolve to oppose the King's forces led by Prince John, the King's second son and Hal's brother. But the word of Hotspur's death finally reaches his father. Hotspur's mother and widow persuade him not to oppose Prince John's army.

Sir John Falstaff has returned to London with praises after taking credit for killing Hotspur. The Lord Chief Justice criticises him for his past crimes. But the Chief justices ultimately wishes Falstaff well because he has just been called on to join a campaign for Prince John.

Yet before he can go, Falstaff is arrested for his debts to the Boar's Head Tavern. A fight between Falstaff and the officers ensues. The Lord Chief Justice, who returns to the tavern after hearing about the fuss, examines the fight. Falstaff persuades the owner of the tavern, Mistress Quickly, to make peace and lend him more money.

Later at the tavern, Falstaff, Nym, and Bardolph, along with Falstaff's lady friend, Doll Tearsheet, are joined by two strangers. The strangers turn out to be Prince Hal and his friend Poins in disguise. Falstaff enjoys his evening with his friends and Doll Tearsheet. But the swaggering Pistol comes to warn Falstaff he should have departed for the wars by now. When Falstaff rejects his assignment and ends up speaking badly of Hal, Hal and Poins reveal themselves and an argument ensues. Another messenger comes to fetch Falstaff for the war.

As Falstaff makes his journey, he passes through Gloucestershire. He finds his old friends Justice Shallow and Master Silence who reminisce about their youthful days. Falstaff takes the weakest of Shallow's pressed-men to serve as soldiers (allowing others to buy themselves out). And he enjoys Shallow's hospitality before setting off to join the army.

As the rebels gather to fight, Prince John agrees to look into their demands and offers a toast to future peace. The rebel armies disperse before Prince John orders the arrests of the rebel leaders for treason. Arriving late to the battle, Falstaff takes the last prisoner as the Prince orders his forces back to London, where the King is very ill.

The King is in the middle of giving advice to Hal's younger brothers when news of the peace arrives. He is close to death. As he sleeps, Hal arrives from the city. He finds his father apparently dead and, mourning his position as heir, he takes the crown from the bedside into the next room. The King awakes and believes that Hal's only aim was to become King. He gets upset, but the father and son soon make up before the King is moved into a special room to prepare to die.

When news of Henry IV's death and Hal's succession as Henry V reaches Gloucestershire, Falstaff sets off at once to London with Shallow. They travel night and day to reach London in time for the coronation, expecting to be given high office at court. Falstaff is amazed and deeply hurt, however, when Henry denies knowing him and banishes him from coming within ten miles of his court. Henry calls a Parliament, and Falstaff is left wondering if his beloved Hal will change his mind later. Prince John and the Lord Chief Justice anticipate the new King's wars in France, which take place in Henry V.

Henry IV, Part 1 (often written as 1 Henry IV) is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written not later than 1597. The play dramatises part of the reign of King Henry IV of England, beginning with the battle at Homildon Hill late in 1402, and ending with King Henry's victory in the Battle of Shrewsbury in mid-1403.[1] In parallel to the political conflict between King Henry and a rebellious faction of nobles, the play depicts the escapades of King Henry's son, Prince Hal (the future King Henry V), and his eventual return to court and favour.

Henry IV, Part 1 is the first of Shakespeare's two plays that deal with the reign of Henry IV (the other being Henry IV, Part 2), and the second play in the Henriad, a modern designation for the tetralogy of plays that deal with the successive reigns of Richard II, Henry IV, and Henry V. From its first performance on, it has been an extremely popular work both with the public and critics.[2]

The play follows three groups of characters who initially interact only indirectly. These groups grow closer as the play progresses, coming together at the climax during the Battle of Shrewsbury. The first is centred around King Henry IV and his immediate council, who contrive to suppress a growing rebellion. The second is the group of rebel lords, led by Thomas Percy, Earl of Worcester, and including his brother, the Earl of Northumberland, and energetic nephew, Harry Percy ("Hotspur"). The Scottish Earl of Douglas, the Welshman Owen Glendower, and Edmund Mortimer also join. The third group, the comic centre of the play, consists of the young Prince Hal (King Henry's eldest son) and his companions, Falstaff, Poins, Bardolph, and Peto.

From the play's outset, Henry IV's reign is beset by problems: His personal disquiet at having usurped the throne from Richard II would be solved by a crusade to the Holy Land, but trouble on his borders with Scotland and Wales make such an act impossible. Moreover, he is increasingly at odds with the Percy family, who helped him to his throne, and with Edmund Mortimer, Richard II's chosen heir.

King Henry is also troubled by the behaviour of his eldest son and heir, Hal (the future Henry V). Hal spends little time in the royal court, preferring instead to drink in taverns with lowborn and dishonourable companions. This makes him an object of scorn to the nobles and jeopardises his legitimacy as heir; early in the play, King Henry laments that he can "See riot and dishonour stain the brow of young Harry."[3] Hal's chief friend is Sir John Falstaff, a cowardly, drunken, but quick-witted knight whose charisma and zest for life captivate the Prince.

In the first scene, the political action of the play is set in motion. King Henry and Hotspur fall out after a disagreement over the treatment of hostages: Hotspur withholds, against the King's orders, hostages taken in recent action against the Scots at the Battle of Homildon Hill, while King Henry refuses to pay Owen Glendower (a Welsh rebel) the ransom for Hotspur's brother-in-law, Edmund Mortimer. This disagreement, and the King's harsh treatment of the House of Percy generally, drives them to ally with Welsh and Scot rebels, resolving to depose "this ingrate and cankered Bolingbroke."[4]

Meanwhile, Hal meets with Falstaff and his associates at the Boar's Head Tavern. Falstaff and Hal are close, but Hal enjoys insulting Falstaff, and, in a soliloquy, makes it clear that he does not plan to continue in his present lifestyle forever: Hal aims to re-assume his high place in court by proving himself to his father. Indeed, Hal reasons that by suddenly changing his ways he will be even more popular among the nobility than if he had behaved conventionally all his life. Nevertheless, he is happy to carry out a plot against Falstaff: after performing a highway robbery, Hal and Poins will slip away from Falstaff, disguise themselves, and rob Falstaff, purely for the fun of hearing the older man lie about it later, after which Hal will return the stolen money. The plot is carried out successfully.

As the revolt of Mortimer and the House of Percy grows, the Prince makes up with his father and is given the command of an army. He vows to fight and kill the rebel Hotspur, and orders Falstaff to recruit and lead a group of foot soldiers. Falstaff uses the appointment to enrich himself by taking bribes from those who do not want to be pressed into service, and, in the end, recruits only the very poor, whose wages he withholds.[5]

All the parties meet at the Battle of Shrewsbury, a crucial moment for all involved: If the rebels are not defeated outright, they will gain a considerable advantage; other forces (under Northumberland, Glendower, Mortimer, and the Archbishop of York) can be called upon in the event of a stalemate or a victory for the rebels. Though Henry outnumbers the rebels,[6] Hotspur, wild and skilled in battle, leads the opposing army personally. As the battle drags on, the king is hunted by Douglas. Prince Hal and Hotspur duel, and, in an important moment of noble virtue for the young prince, Hal prevails, killing Hotspur in single combat.

Left on his own during Hal's battle with Hotspur, Falstaff dishonourably feigns death to avoid an attack by Douglas. After Hal leaves Hotspur's body on the field, Falstaff revives in a mock miracle. Seeing he is alone, he stabs Hotspur's corpse in the thigh and claims credit for the kill.[7] Hal allows Falstaff to claim the honour of the kill. Soon after Hal's generous gesture, Falstaff states that he wants to amend his life and begin "to live cleanly as a nobleman should do".[8]

Shakespeare's primary source for Henry IV, Part 1, as for most of his chronicle histories, was the second edition (1587) of Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles, which in turn drew on Edward Hall's The Union of the Two Illustrious Families of Lancaster and York.[11] Scholars have also assumed that Shakespeare was familiar with Samuel Daniel's poem on the civil wars.[11] Another source for this (and the following Henry plays) is the anonymous The Famous Victories of Henry V.

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