Shakespeare’s Histories

Shakespeare wrote two tetralogies about the period of English history beginning with the closing years of the reign of Richard II, who was deposed and probably murdered in 1399, and the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, which initiated the Tudor dynasty. The first tetralogy in order of composition, Henry VI Parts One, Two and Three and Richard III, deals with the saintly but ineffectual Henry VI, who became King in infancy and was no match for the villainous Richard III, whose other victims were the 'Princes in the Tower'. This interpretation of events was naturally favoured by the Tudors but has since been challenged. But it produces exciting drama, in which virtue does not necessarily lead to political success.