What do you think?
Rate this book
Routledge Historical Biographies
Henry VI
In this new assessment of Henry VI, David Grummitt synthesizes a wealth of detailed research into Lancastrian England that has taken place throughout the last three decades to provide a fresh appraisal of the house s last King. The biography places Henry in the context of Lancastrian political culture and considers how his reign was shaped by the times in which he lived.
Henry VI is one of the most controversial of England s medieval kings. Coming to the throne in 1422 at the age of only nine months and inheriting the crowns of both England and France, he reigned for 39 years before losing his position to the Yorkist king, Edward IV, in the early stages of the Wars of the Roses. Almost a decade later, in 1470, he briefly regained the throne, only for his cause to be decisively defeated in battle the following year, after which Henry himself was almost certainly murdered. Henry continues to perplex and fascinate the modern reader, who struggles to understand how such an obviously ill-suited king could continue to reign for nearly forty years and command such loyalty, even after his cause was lost.
From his coronation at nine months old, to the legacy of his reign in the centuries after his death, this is a balanced, detailed and engaging biography of one of England s most enigmatic kings and will be essential reading for all students of late medieval England, and the Wars of the Roses. "
Henry VI is one of the most controversial of England s medieval kings. Coming to the throne in 1422 at the age of only nine months and inheriting the crowns of both England and France, he reigned for 39 years before losing his position to the Yorkist king, Edward IV, in the early stages of the Wars of the Roses. Almost a decade later, in 1470, he briefly regained the throne, only for his cause to be decisively defeated in battle the following year, after which Henry himself was almost certainly murdered. Henry continues to perplex and fascinate the modern reader, who struggles to understand how such an obviously ill-suited king could continue to reign for nearly forty years and command such loyalty, even after his cause was lost.
From his coronation at nine months old, to the legacy of his reign in the centuries after his death, this is a balanced, detailed and engaging biography of one of England s most enigmatic kings and will be essential reading for all students of late medieval England, and the Wars of the Roses. "
- GenresBritish Literature
284 pages, Paperback
First published May 18, 2015
5 people are currently reading
47 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 20, 2023
Henry VI often comes across a as almost a secondary character in his own life, which has made him a challenging figure for biographers to approach. He ruled disastrously during a particularly pivotal moment in medieval English history, a time that has been famously captured in some of Shakespeare’s more boringly titled plays - yet another element that has bolstered his name recognition while pushing the real person further away. David Grummitt's very approachable biography of the king does not overcome this challenge, in fact it does almost the exact opposite and embraces a perspective of Henry VI that largely holds the person at arms length to examine the systems and culture that shaped him. This makes for an engaging account of not only the life of Henry VI but also of the broader Lancastrian era of the English monarchy: its goals and its failings, and how they shaped and were shaped by the dynasty’s longest ruling monarch.
Grummitt proposes to frame his biography of Henry VI within a discussion of what it was to be a Lancastrian king, with the notion that this broader cultural framework will be informative in terms of understanding and judging the kingship of Henry VI specifically. If I were to boil down the impetus for this biography to one idea, I would say that Grummitt was seeking to answer the question of how a king who was so obviously unfit for the job still commanded such loyalty that he survived several attempts to remove him from power and was even once restored to the throne. Henry was even venerated as a saint after he died, a not unprecedented but still remarkable event for so unpopular a deposed king. Grummitt’s answer is this idea of Lancastrian kingship; essentially a set of principles that created an environment in which Henry’s kingship was perceived by contemporaries.
To do this effectively Grummitt begins far before Henry VI, even before when his grandfather Henry IV seized the throne in 1399, to look at the earldom, later duchy, of Lancaster and the descendants of Edmund, younger brother of King Edward I. A key figure is Thomas of Lancaster, Edmund’s son who was executed in 1322 as part of a baronial revolt against Edward II. This long look at the history of one noble institution is fascinating and I think probably the best part of the book. It is a ready reminder that medieval people were not ignorant of their own history and, in many cases, the Lancastrians were acting within a framework laid out decades before that they were consciously embracing. Grummitt also includes one of the more detailed and interesting discussions of Henry IV’s 1399 coup and the political unrest that followed that I’ve read. In attempting to place Henry VI within a broader framework of Lancastrian kingship I think Grummitt easily succeeds.
In approaching the individual of Henry VI himself, I think Grummitt is less successful. The king is not absent from this biography and he is not presented as entirely at the whims of a wider political culture, but at the same time this is not a detailed character study. During the period of Henry’s early reign, from 1422 until 1450, I found the book interesting and engaging. It dealt as much with the wider administration of the realm as with Henry’s own preferences, and I think Grummitt does a good job staking out his position on where he falls between seeing Henry VI as the source of all his eventual misfortune and Henry as a disengaged monarch swept along by the currents of his advisors. Grummitt embraces a more active portrayal of Henry VI but his Lancastrian framework helps to incorporate the council into more of the narrative without restricting himself to a dichotomy of just whether Henry made a decision or if his advisors did.
The narrative from 1450 on is where the book somewhat lost me. To be fair, this is not entirely the author’s fault. The end of the Hundred Years War and the outbreak of the Wars of the Roses, especially after Henry’s first bout of illness in 1453, renders the king very nearly a sideshow in the climax of his reign. Grummitt provides a lucid and coherent narrative of the beginnings and early stages of the Wars of the Roses, as well as Henry’s posthumous career as a figure of veneration, but the absence of Henry’s own will in this period made it a less engaging read for me. At times I could forget that the book was meant to be about Henry as he would only occasionally appear in the narrative. This was still well written, and it is a reasonable representation of what happened, I suppose I just found that my general lack of interest in the Wars of the Roses bled over into the final chapters and nothing in the book was sufficient to combat that.
Over all, this was an excellent and approachable biography of a king I’ve never found particularly fascinating. I don’t think I will be recommending it to everyone under the sun, but should you be looking for a biography of Henry VI or something on the Lancastrian kings more generally I would definitely recommend it.
This review was originally posted on my blog at https://www.stuartellisgorman.com/blo...
Grummitt proposes to frame his biography of Henry VI within a discussion of what it was to be a Lancastrian king, with the notion that this broader cultural framework will be informative in terms of understanding and judging the kingship of Henry VI specifically. If I were to boil down the impetus for this biography to one idea, I would say that Grummitt was seeking to answer the question of how a king who was so obviously unfit for the job still commanded such loyalty that he survived several attempts to remove him from power and was even once restored to the throne. Henry was even venerated as a saint after he died, a not unprecedented but still remarkable event for so unpopular a deposed king. Grummitt’s answer is this idea of Lancastrian kingship; essentially a set of principles that created an environment in which Henry’s kingship was perceived by contemporaries.
To do this effectively Grummitt begins far before Henry VI, even before when his grandfather Henry IV seized the throne in 1399, to look at the earldom, later duchy, of Lancaster and the descendants of Edmund, younger brother of King Edward I. A key figure is Thomas of Lancaster, Edmund’s son who was executed in 1322 as part of a baronial revolt against Edward II. This long look at the history of one noble institution is fascinating and I think probably the best part of the book. It is a ready reminder that medieval people were not ignorant of their own history and, in many cases, the Lancastrians were acting within a framework laid out decades before that they were consciously embracing. Grummitt also includes one of the more detailed and interesting discussions of Henry IV’s 1399 coup and the political unrest that followed that I’ve read. In attempting to place Henry VI within a broader framework of Lancastrian kingship I think Grummitt easily succeeds.
In approaching the individual of Henry VI himself, I think Grummitt is less successful. The king is not absent from this biography and he is not presented as entirely at the whims of a wider political culture, but at the same time this is not a detailed character study. During the period of Henry’s early reign, from 1422 until 1450, I found the book interesting and engaging. It dealt as much with the wider administration of the realm as with Henry’s own preferences, and I think Grummitt does a good job staking out his position on where he falls between seeing Henry VI as the source of all his eventual misfortune and Henry as a disengaged monarch swept along by the currents of his advisors. Grummitt embraces a more active portrayal of Henry VI but his Lancastrian framework helps to incorporate the council into more of the narrative without restricting himself to a dichotomy of just whether Henry made a decision or if his advisors did.
The narrative from 1450 on is where the book somewhat lost me. To be fair, this is not entirely the author’s fault. The end of the Hundred Years War and the outbreak of the Wars of the Roses, especially after Henry’s first bout of illness in 1453, renders the king very nearly a sideshow in the climax of his reign. Grummitt provides a lucid and coherent narrative of the beginnings and early stages of the Wars of the Roses, as well as Henry’s posthumous career as a figure of veneration, but the absence of Henry’s own will in this period made it a less engaging read for me. At times I could forget that the book was meant to be about Henry as he would only occasionally appear in the narrative. This was still well written, and it is a reasonable representation of what happened, I suppose I just found that my general lack of interest in the Wars of the Roses bled over into the final chapters and nothing in the book was sufficient to combat that.
Over all, this was an excellent and approachable biography of a king I’ve never found particularly fascinating. I don’t think I will be recommending it to everyone under the sun, but should you be looking for a biography of Henry VI or something on the Lancastrian kings more generally I would definitely recommend it.
This review was originally posted on my blog at https://www.stuartellisgorman.com/blo...
January 18, 2025
Interesting and concise biography of the King. Not all that engaging but, on reflection, that may be an issue with the subject, who often seems to be a cipher, rather than the author. Henry seems rather like that nice, quiet bloke in accounts, who might fit very well into a C21 office, but is utterly unsuited to be a C15 English King.
April 26, 2016
Well written for the non historian
At times I found the book to be a bit too detailed in ways I couldn't follow. Lists of names of people gotta me totally confused. But I learned a great deal and liked the fact that there were summary conclusions at the end of each chapter. The author does not put in his personal opinion like so many other historical writers do. Not sure it was worth such a high price, but not many readable books out there about this king.
At times I found the book to be a bit too detailed in ways I couldn't follow. Lists of names of people gotta me totally confused. But I learned a great deal and liked the fact that there were summary conclusions at the end of each chapter. The author does not put in his personal opinion like so many other historical writers do. Not sure it was worth such a high price, but not many readable books out there about this king.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews