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King Henry VI, Part 1

Chapter 2: Dramatis Personæ
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About This Book

The play follows the political and military collapse of English authority in France after the celebrated king's death, focusing on a feeble child monarch and competing nobles who vie for control as resources and loyalties unravel. Scenes alternate between funeral and council, sieges and pitched battles, courtroom maneuvers and street politics, tracing Talbot’s martial exploits and capture, the rise of a charismatic young woman who rallies resistance, and the jealousies and intrigues among regents and bishops. Fragmented strategy, personal ambition, factional rivalries, and questions of legitimacy drive a mounting crisis that foreshadows civil strife, while the work contrasts battlefield valor with the corrosive effects of disunity and misrule.

Dramatis Personæ

KING HENRY the Sixth
DUKE OF GLOUCESTER, uncle to the King, and Protector
DUKE OF BEDFORD, uncle to the King, and Regent of France
DUKE OF EXETER, (Thomas Beaufort), great-uncle to the King
BISHOP OF WINCHESTER (Henry Beaufort), great-uncle to the King, afterwards Cardinal
DUKE OF SOMERSET (John Beaufort)
RICHARD PLANTAGENET, son of Richard, late Earl of Cambridge, afterwards Duke of York
EARL OF WARWICK
EARL OF SALISBURY
EARL OF SUFFOLK
LORD TALBOT, afterwards Earl of Shrewsbury
JOHN TALBOT, his son
Edmund MORTIMER, Earl of March
SIR JOHN FASTOLF
SIR WILLIAM LUCY
SIR WILLIAM GLANSDALE
SIR THOMAS GARGRAVE
MAYOR of London
WOODVILLE, Lieutenant of the Tower
VERNON, of the White-Rose or York faction
BASSET, of the Red-Rose or Lancaster faction
A LAWYER
Mortimer’s JAILERS

CHARLES, Dauphin, and afterwards King of France
REIGNIER, Duke of Anjou, and titular King of Naples
DUKE OF BURGUNDY
DUKE OF ALENÇON
BASTARD OF ORLEANS
Governor of Paris
MASTER GUNNER of Orleans and BOY, his son
General of the French forces in Bordeaux
A French Sergeant.
A Porter
An old Shepherd, father to Joan la Pucelle

MARGARET, daughter to Reignier, afterwards married to King Henry
COUNTESS OF AUVERGNE
JOAN LA PUCELLE, commonly called Joan of Arc

Lords, Warders of the Tower, Heralds, Officers, Soldiers, Messengers, and Attendants.

Fiends appearing to Joan la Pucelle

SCENE: Partly in England and partly in France