#012 - Henry VI, Part 1

"Awake, awake, English nobility!"

In episode #12, we look at Shakespeare's early history play Henry VI, Part 1, which sets the tone for the Wars of the Roses. It's a rip-roaring, Hollywoodised tour of history. Come along to the Gates of Ruin, pick your favourite-coloured rose, and mercilessly mock the French. Why not? Everyone else here is doing it!

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Links mentioned:

The bloody British history that inspired Game of Thrones (iNews)

Victoria (2016 TV series)

E.M.W Tillyard and the "Tudor Myth"

A genealogy of the English monarchs

A genealogy of the French monarchs

The fleur-de-lis, symbol of the French nobility

Key source: Edward Hall, The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Families of Lancaster and Yorke (1548)

Key source: Raphael Holinshed, Chronicles of England, Scotland ,and Ireland (1577)

Jeanne d'Arc (Joan of Arc)

M.M. Mahood, Playing Bit Parts in Shakespeare's Plays (1998)

The Prophet Muhammad was alleged to have trained a dove - see Waleed Aly, People Like Us: How arrogance is dividing Islam and the West, 2007,p. 21 (Google Books)

Sybil of Cumae

The "Cardinal's Hat" (former brothel, Southwark)

The Parliament of Bats (1426)

John Barton and Peter Hall, The Wars of the Roses (Wikipedia)

Daedalus and Icarus

Michelangelo's Pietà

Authorship of the play:

At Wikipedia

Christopher Marlowe as the new theory (Folger Shakespeare Library, 2017)

Audio:

Henry VI, Part 1 (LibriVox recording) with John Fricker (Sentinel) and peac (Charles the Dauphin)

The First Part of Henry the Sixt (BBC TV, 1983, d: Jane Howell) with Brenda Blethyn (Joan La Pucelle), Paul Chapman (Suffolk), Julia Foster (Margaret), Alex Guard (Young John Talbot), Trevor Peacock (Lord Talbot)

Henry VI, Part 1 (Arkangel Shakespeare) with Amanda Root (Joan of Arc), Trevor Martin (Edmund Mortimer), Anthony Jackson (Duke of Exeter), David Yelland (Charles, Dauphin of France), and Company

Music:

Sergei Prokofiev, "Montagues and Capulets", from Romeo and Juliet (ballet), 1935

Anthony Holborne, Galliard: The Tears of the Muses (c. 1600)

William Byrd, The Carman's Whistle (late 16th c.)

Tchaikovsky, The Maid of Orléans (excerpts), 1879

Henry Ley, A Prayer of King Henry VI (c. 1940)

Patrick Doyle, original soundtrack to Kenneth Branagh's Henry V

Paul Mealor, A Prayer of King Henry VI (2013)

Giuseppe Verdi, Overture from Giovanna d'Arco (Joan of Arc), 1845