Some Notes on The History Plays of William Shakespeare

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Some Notes onThe History PlaysofWilliam
Shakespeare
Eng 255 Shakespeare on Film Terra Community
College
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Overview of Chronology
History Plays describe the lives and times of
important events in the cultural legends of the
English people. The vast majority of the History
plays written during the era of Shakespeare cover
some 300 years of English Monarches

• Edward II 1307-27
• Edward III 1327-77
• Richard II 1377-99
• Henry IV 1399-1412
• Henry V 1413-22
• Henry VI 1422-61
• There have been several Civil Wars in England.
  One of the bloodiest, known to history as the
  War of the Roses, brought the defeat of the
  House of Lancaster (the Red Rose) by the House of
  York (the White Rose). Henry VI was killed and
  Edward, Duke of York, ascended the throne,
• Edward IV1461-83
• Edward V 1483
• Richard III 1483-5

The Platagenet royal family started its line with
the reign of Richard I The Lion-Hearted, famous
for bit parts in legends of Robin Hood and
Ivanhoe. It ended its line with three weak Kings
who preferred the attention of their paramours to
the attention of the kingdom. Goeffrey Chaucer
was a civil servant under the last two Kings.
The Lancastrian line starts with Henry
Bolingbroke, the Earl of Derby (grandson to
Edward III) acclaimed King by right of conquest
(regicide) and ended with his saintly grandson
"more suited to be Pope than King" defeated in
the legendary Civil War-- the "War of the Roses."
The York line developed Machiavellian intrigue to
new highs. Both Edward IV, and both of his sons
(including the 12 year old Edward V) were killed
by Richard of Gloucester (Richard III).
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Chronology 2
Henry VII 1485-1509 Henry VIII
1509-47 Edward VI 1547-53 Mary I
1553-58 Elizabeth I 1558-1603 James I
1603-25
The Tudor line began with Henry VII who was the
son of a Lancastrian mother and married a
Yorkist wife an attempt to heal the wounds of
the Civil War. His son, Henry VIII, first of
the truly Renaissance Kings, had legendary
problems with establishing his succession. The
story of Henrys political need for seven wives
is the grist not only of political but also
religious legend. Henrys breaking the Church of
England off from its traditional dependance on
the Church of Rome starts the English
Reformation movement. Edward was his only male
heir who survived infancy. He was crowned as a
young lad of ten and died when he was 16. Since
he was not yet of legal age, regents ruled on his
behalf. He was succeeded by his half-sister Mary,
known to legend as Bloody Mary because of her
fierce desire to return to a pre-Henry
religious milieu. Eventually Elizabeth
succeededer and the country returned to a sense
of stability. Her reign was long, prosperous,
generally peaceful, and one where the arts and
literature flourished. The Elizabethan era is
often considered the highpoint of English
culture. Elizabeth, while responding to courters,
refused to marry. She had no descendants so her
cousin, James, who was reigning as King of
Scotland, was acclaimed as king. He was the
first of what was to be known as the Stuart line.
It lasted for less than a century and was
interrupted by another major civil war.

William Shakespeare 1564-1616 lived during the
Elizabethan and Jacobean eras. Most of his best
works were from 1596-1611, when he "retired."
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History vs Legend

• 1. From the earliest of times, the process of
  writing and telling history has been influenced
  by political realities. Each successive
  monarchial line believed in the importance of
  having their stories told. Kings sponsored and
  patronized chroniclers to write down what was
  important. This is best described as "rhetorical
  historiography" writing history and showing a
  rhetorical skill by proving a political point of
  view.
• 2. Just as often, as monarchial lines changed, so
  did the stories. It was "politically correct" to
  write these histories this way because the
  monarch was paying you to do it that individual
  was your sole audience and your sole source of
  income and prestige.
• 3. In trying to sort out legend from fact, then,
  one often encounters very ambivalent and
  contradictory written accounts into what
  happened, how it happened, and why it happened.
  We have Lancastrian myths being replaced by
  Yorkist myths being replaced by Tudor myths.
  We, in the XX century, are interested in all of
  this and do not carry any political baggage.
• 4. It is the why it happened which will be
  important to us.

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How Legends are Made
1. Most people still could not read nor write.
The printing press, while pioneered by William
Caxton early in this era (1476), still did not
bring about universal education or literacy. As
a result, the common folk and a large number of
the gentry still received their adult education
from oral sources including both the pulpit and
the theater. Orality of literature and culture,
theology and history is a primary trait. 2. The
historic events portrayed were perceived by the
audience as accurate--even though their standard
of accuracy fails under the tests of the
Twentieth Century. 3 Remember, Shakespeare is
writing history in a dramatic form. He is a
secondary source he extensively copies his
story lines from other sources including the
Chronicles of Raphael Holinshead, who was under
the royal sponsorship of Elizabeth's father,
Henry VIII. 4. He does, however, add his own
unique insight and even changes factual history
for the proper dramatic effect.
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Socio-Political Issues

• 1. Remember that "common players" were officially
  criminals in Elizabethan and Jacobean England.
  They were treated as undesirables and a second
  arrest for that crime was quite serious.
• 2.. To avoid that, your dramatic company
  attached itself to an aristocratic sponsor. You
  were then identified as that person's "men" or
  servants and often wore attire with the "coat of
  arms" of your sponsor--making you no longer
  "common"--just to keep things legal.
• 3.. Shakespeare spent all of his career in one
  dramatic company. Early in his career they were
  called "The Lord Chamberlain's Men."
• 4. During the reign of James I, they were adopted
  by the king and were known as "The King's Men."
• 5. This put them in a prominent position of
  influence and prestige but it carried a price.
  Censorship was very real and so were the dramatic
  themes they could produce. Their very existence
  was deeply entwined with the "realpolitik" of
  that era.
• 6. And "realpolitik" it was. History Plays were
  very popular with Elizabethan audiences. They
  inspired powerful feeling of nationalism and
  cultural awareness. Plays were often dramatic
  metaphors of current events! The court perceived
  them, however, as potentially very dangerous
  because "Matters of the Realm" were forbidden
  topics for non-aristocratic classes.

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Realpolitik
Realpolitik is a term of the mid-nineteenth
century German political reformers. It describes
a very cynical and Machiavellian attitude toward
politics and current history. In those years,
however, just as society was beginningal era and
into the Renaissance, there was still the
pervasive cultural belief that matters of the
realm could not be discussed by mere commoners.
In fact, it was dangerous! That danger is best
explained as follows a group of anti-Elizabeth
rebels, led by her young favorite, Philip
Deveroux, the Second Earl of Essex paid for and
received a full production of Shakespeare's
Richard II and used it as a "pep-rally" of sorts
the night before an aborted coup. One of the
rebels had probably been one of Shakespeare's
court sponsors years before. After the coup
failed, the members of the production company
were interrogated by the authorities. They
escaped any penalty the coup leaders were
beheaded. History plays were an Elizabethan
experience. After James I became king, censorship
became very tight! The only Shakespearean history
play produced from that point was Henry VIII--a
play suggested by James himself.
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The "History Plays"
William Shakespeare was not the only author/
producer of "History Plays." Christopher Marlowe
produced one on Edward II we also have plays
about Edward III and Richard III from unknown
authors of the era.

• William Shakespeare's Ten History Plays can be
  broken down into two "tetralogies" four-play
  sequences and two isolated dramas.
• The First Tetralogy written was the second
  historically Henry VI Part One, Henry VI
  Part Two, Henry VI Part Three, and Richard III
  are all based upon events of the English Civil
  War--"The War of the Roses." Events of such a
  traumatic nature as Civil Wars are always
  culturally popular for later generations. Their
  success, no doubt, encouraged Shakespeare to
  write the next series.
• The Second Tetralogy written historically
  predated the first set. Richard II, Henry IV
  Part One, Henry IV Part Two, and Henry V
  have the chronology which leads up to the first
  set. These are far more mature productions.
• The isolated two dramas are King John (Magna
  Carta) and Henry VIII (English Reformation)
  both significant events in the myth of English
  supremacy.