Henry VI

Henry VI

Henry V died unexpectedly in 1422 and his son, King Henry VI of England, ascended the throne as an infant only nine months old. Under Henry VI, virtually all English holdings in France, including the land won by Henry V, were lost.

Suffolk eventually succeeded in having Humphrey of Gloucester arrested for treason. Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset succeeded him as leader of the party seeking peace with France. In all these quarrels, Henry VI had taken little part. The increasing discord at court was mirrored in the country as a whole, where noble families engaged in private feuds and showed increasing disrespect for the royal authority and for the courts of law. This growing civil discontent, the abundance of feuding nobles with private armies, and corruption in Henry VI's court formed a political climate ripe for civil war. With the king so easily manipulated, power rested with those closest to him at court, in other words Somerset and the Lancastrian faction. Royal power also started to slip, as Henry was persuaded to grant many royal lands and estates to the Lancastrians.

Henry recovered in 1455 and once again fell under the influence of those closest to him at court.