The Historical Background
Shakespeare's history plays were not published in the sequence of the events they relate--nor, in fact, were some of them published as "histories" at all. The original publications of 3 Henry VI, Richard III, and Richard II were labeled as "tragedies," while the later publications of 1 Henry IV and Henry V were classified as "histories."
The editors of the First Folio, however, seem to have made an effort to straighten out this confusion. The English histories proper were grouped together and they were arranged in an order reflecting the sequence of events in British history that they relate: Richard II; 1, 2, and 3 Henry IV; Henry V; 1 and 2 Henry VI; and Richard III. Shakespeare's other two history plays, King John and Henry VIII, stand at the beginning and end of this sequence, respectively, with Henry VIII heralding the birth of Queen Elizabeth and thus the glorious Tudor monarchy.
Shakespeare's second group of history plays dealing with the lives of Richard II, Henry IV, and Henry V, deal with English history in the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. Richard II, the son of the Black Prince who died in 1376, succeeded his grandfather Edward III in 1400. While he was still a minor, the country was governed by his two uncles, John of Gaunt and Thomas of Woodstock. During Henry's reign the Peasant's Revolt of 1381 occurred. Richard provoked Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Lancaster, to rebellion by seizing his lands upon the death of his father, John of Gaunt. Bolingbroke consequently invaded England, imprisoned Richard, and had himself proclaimed Henry IV, king of England; Richard was murdered by an enthusiastic follower of the new king who acts on his hint that he wishes Richard to be out of the way. From this civil insurrection came the seeds of the conflict within the English royal line that continued until the restoration of the true king in the person of Henry Tudor or Henry VII, a descendant of the line of John of Gaunt, the son of Edward III.
Henry IV, Part 1, begins with Henry planning a trip to the Holy Land to assuage his guilt for having brought about Richard's murder. A central character in the two Henry IV plays is the young Prince Hal, son of Henry IV and later to become Henry V. After putting down a rebellion by Henry Percy, also known as Hotspur, Prince Hal is named king (Henry V) on his father's deathbed.
In Henry V, the English king pursues his claims to the French throne and invades France, defeating the French army at Agincourt (1415). He is to marry Catherine, daughter of Charles VI, king of France, and thus inherit the French crown when the French king dies. Eventually, through subsequent losses in battle, the English lay claim only to the territory of Calais in France.
Shakespeare's first group of history plays picks up where the story of Henry V leaves off. In the three Henry VI, plays Shakespeare deals with the English Civil wars, otherwise known as the Wars of the Roses, a 30-year conflict between two branches of English royalty, the houses of York and Lancaster, for the throne of England. In Part 1 of Henry VI, we see the beginnings of the civil strife that reached a climax in Richard III and are resolved at the end of that play by the victory of Henry Tudor. While the young Henry VI is controlled by his uncles as regents, the stage is set for the civil wars to follow as Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, quarrels with the Lancastrian family of the Beauforts. Richard, Duke of York is only temporarily out of the political scene when a truce is arranged. In the meantime, Henry VI marries Margaret of Anjou (France). After a great deal of civil unrest, Henry VI went insane, and Richard, Duke of York was appointed regent because of his strong line of descent from Edward III. It seemed as if he might be a likely candidate for the throne of England. The birth of a son (Edward) to Henry VI and Margaret in 1453, however, precluded Richard's pressing his claims to the throne for the time being. Two years later Richard took up arms for himself and the other Yorkists against the king and queen, who were aligned with the house of Lancaster.
Part II of Henry VI ends with Richard's victory over the king's forces at St. Albans in 1455. Part III of Henry VI is concerned with King Henry's loss of the throne and the eventual triumph of the house of York through Edward IV, son of Richard of York. Richard at first agrees to let Henry reign for the rest of his lifetime, but Henry's queen, Margaret of Anjou, takes military action against Richard, killing him at the battle of Wakefield in 1460. By so doing she hopes to preserve the right of succession for her own son Edward. However, Richard's oldest son, also named Edward (later to become Edward IV) joins forces with his brother Richard (later Richard III) and Richard Neville, the earl of Warwick, also called the "kingmaker." In 1461 Warwick the "kingmaker" proclaims Edward king with the title of Edward IV. Henry VI is imprisoned in the Tower of London. Edward IV, in the meantime, marries Elizabeth Grey, who was a member of the house of Lancaster, and his promotion of her relatives at court only adds fuel to the conflict between York and Lancaster. After reverses in battle, Edward IV is forced to flee the country and the aged Henry VI is once again put on the throne by the "kingmaker," who is disgusted with Edward IV's martial alliance with the Lancastrians. Warwick is at this time aligned with George, the duke of Clarence, who is a brother to Edward IV, Richard (later Richard III), and Edmund, Earl of Rutland, all sons of Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York. Clarence turns traitor to Warwick, and in 1471 Edward IV returns and defeats and kills Warwick. Edward IV goes on to fight Margaret of Anjou, who is leading the forces of Henry VI, and defeats her at the battle of Tewkesbury in 1471. In this battle, Henry VI's son Edward is killed and Margaret is captured; shortly after, Henry VI is murdered in the Tower by Richard (later the III). This ends the direct Lancastrian line--and the play--and establishes a Yorkist victory.
At the beginning of Richard III, Richard, at this point Duke of Gloucester and the younger brother of King Edward IV, resolves to kill the king and get rid of all those who because of their claims to the throne by birth or marriage might stand in his way of claiming the kingship for himself. He uses a ruse to bring about the death of his brother George, Duke of Clarence. Then, to insure that there is no future descendent of Henry VI to threaten him, he marries Anne Neville, the widow of Henry VI's son Edward, who was killed at the battle of Tewkesbury. (Richard's other brother, Edmund, the Earl of Rutland, was previously killed in battle of Wakefield along with his father, Richard Duke of York.) Edward IV dies. Richard then imprisons Edward's two young sons (Edward and Richard) in the Tower of London, where they are subsequently murdered. Richard is crowned as king Richard III in 1483. Again, to insure his position, he disposes of his wife Anne and pursues the hand of Edwards IV's daughter, Elizabeth, in marriage. Richard is challenged in his claim to the throne, however, by Henry Tudor, Earl of Richard whose mother was a descendant of John of Gaunt, the son of Edward III. Henry Tudor's father, too, was descended from Henry V through a later marriage of Henry's widow. He seemed the appropriate choice to challenge Richard and reestablish a legitimate claim to the throne of England.
Henry Tudor defeated Richard III in 1485 at the battle of Bosworth Field, during which Richard was slain. By act of Parliament Henry Tudor was declared King Henry VII. He subsequently married Elizabeth, the daughter of Edward IV; one of their sons would become King Henry VIII, known for his numerous wives and his famous daughter, Queen Elizabeth I of England.