Henry VI, Part 3 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Henry named York as his heir, disinheriting his son

Act I Scene I of 'Henry VI, Part 3' opened with the Duke of York being encouraged by his entourage to sit on King Henry's throne in anticipation of winning his crown. Henry turned up in time to witness this and the two argued over their competing claims to the kingdom. When it became clear to Henry that he was in serious danger of being deposed, he adopted the plan of naming York as his heir in order to secure his position. Needless to say, his wife, Queen Margaret, was less than impressed about her son being summarily disinherited. She dismissed her husband as a "timorous wretch" and stalked off to gather her army to bring about the "utter ruin of the house of York".

Shakespeare's version of these events does have some similarity to the real history, although both the details and the timings are not terribly accurate. After the First Battle of St. Albans in 1455, Henry was captured and York was appointed Lord Protector of England by parliament. It was not until the aftermath of the Battle of Northampton in 1460 that York openly declared his wish to replace the king and there is no evidence to suggest that he ever actually seated himself on the throne during the subsequent negotiations. It was parliament and York that came to the agreement that Henry would remain king, but that York would be named as his heir - a decision that was then set in law through the Act of Accord of October 1460. Henry was simply forced to accept the situation.

Answer: Edmund, Earl of Rutland

Edmund, Earl of Rutland and his tutor were attempting to flee the scene of the battle when they ran into Lord Clifford. Unfortunately Clifford was set on obtaining revenge against the Duke of York for killing his father at the First Battle of St. Albans, an event depicted in the penultimate scene of 'Henry VI, Part 2'. He achieved his aim by stabbing young Rutland after uttering the line: "Thy father slew my father; therefore, die."

Although history records that Clifford's father was a Lancastrian military leader who lost his life during the First Battle of St. Albans, it is far from clear that he was actually directly slain by the Duke of York. Shakespeare's version of events is believed to be correct in attributing Rutland's death to Clifford, but incorrectly depicts Rutland as both York's youngest son and a defenceless child. In fact, Rutland was York's 17-year-old second son, who had actively taken part in the battle.

William, John and Thomas were three real-life sons of the Duke of York who died in infancy and therefore did not feature in Shakespeare's version of events. The title of Earl of March was originally held by York's eldest son Edward, while the Earls of Pembroke and Salisbury were both Yorkist supporters and minor characters in the play.

Answer: Queen Margaret and Lord Clifford

York was captured on the field of the Battle of Wakefield by Queen Margaret, Lord Clifford, the Earl of Northumberland and Prince Edward (the son of King Henry VI and Queen Margaret), who then proceeded to humiliate him and taunt him with the news of the death of his son, Rutland. Although Northumberland appeared to show some sympathy for him and Prince Edward remained silent throughout, Clifford stabbed him in revenge "for my father's death" and the Queen stabbed him "to right our gentle-hearted king". The humiliation didn't end there though - Margaret then gave the order to have his head cut from his corpse and placed on the gates of the city of York.

Shakespeare's version of the Duke of York's death definitely has a few holes in it. Although the Duke of York died in battle at Wakefield in 1460, there is no evidence to suggest who actually killed him, let alone any suggestion that the Queen turned up to do the job herself. However, his head did end up on display on a pike over one of York's gates on the orders of the victorious Lancastrian army - possibly on the orders of the Queen herself - and it was given a paper crown...

Answer: Three suns rising in the sky

"Three glorious suns, each one a perfect sun;
Not separated with the racking clouds,
But sever'd in a pale clear-shining sky."

These lines were the future King Richard III's initial reaction to the vision of three suns rising in the sky. The missing brother who was not present to witness this phenomenon was George Plantagenet, who turned up shortly afterwards with an army supplied by his aunt the Duchess of Burgundy. Edward swiftly acted on the vision by declaring himself to be King Edward IV and setting off to battle Henry's forces at Towton to consolidate his new position.

Shakespeare obviously deployed a lot of artistic licence in this scene, as clearly it would have been scientifically impossible for three suns to have risen in the sky. The less obvious artistic licence came in his depiction of the three brothers as fellow warriors. The Battle of Towton took place in 1461, when George and Richard were just twelve and nine years old respectively. The three brothers also did not have an aunt in Burgundy - Edward did receive military support from Burgundy, but not until after his sister, Margaret, married the Duke of Burgundy in 1468.

Answer: False

In fact, the scene featured Henry witnessing the grief of two soldiers, one of whom was a son who discovered he had killed his father; while the other was a father who discovered that he had killed his son. While the son contemplated what his mother would say when she discovered he had killed her husband, the father was distressed by the realisation that he would have to tell his wife that he had murdered their only son. Henry's reaction was equally distraught: "Was ever king so grieved for subjects' woe? Much is your sorrow; mine ten times so much". The scene then ended with the appearance of Henry's own son to tell his father that they had been defeated and that he needed to flee for his life.

The Wars of the Roses pitched both noble families and their dependents against each other in battle. In addition, families often swapped sides depending on which side appeared to be winning at any given time, a ploy which resulted in allies turning into enemies on a regular basis. Although families usually fought together depending on their allegiance to either Lancaster or York, it is probable that many fathers and sons ended up on opposing sides. In total, tens of thousands of men were killed over the course of this series of civil wars.

Answer: She must agree to marry him

Act III, Scene II of the play depicts King Edward's infatuation with the young widow, Lady Grey. She and Edward debated her loyalty and love, but she refused to become his mistress in order to reclaim her lands and he therefore offered her marriage instead. His brothers, the newly designated Dukes of Clarence and Gloucester, provided comedic asides on the progress of discussion - including Clarence's line: "He is the bluntest wooer in Christendom". Gloucester alone remained on stage at the end to address a soliloquy to the audience in which he revealed his plans for becoming king himself and lamented the fact that he would never find love because of his withered arm and humped back - the famous Shakespearean description that became associated with him as King Richard III.

Shakespeare's description of the hasty marriage between the newly crowned King Edward IV and Lady Elizabeth Grey nee Woodville is not far off the mark historically. However, he incorrectly identified Elizabeth's first husband as Sir Richard Grey rather than Sir John Grey and ascribed them three children rather than the two known to history. The reference to Gloucester's deformities was often assumed by historians to be a Shakespearean slander, but when the former king's body was discovered under a car park in Leicester in 2012 it turned out that he did suffer from a severe scoliosis of the spine.

Answer: King Louis XI

Warwick had just succeeded in convincing King Louis XI of France to support Edward's rule and approve the marriage, when word came from England that Edward had married the widow, Lady Grey. Humiliated, Warwick turned traitor on his former friend and protégé and instead pledged his support to Queen Margaret, King Henry and their son, Prince Edward. Louis followed suit and duly supplied an army of French soldiers to help their cause.

Lady Bona was the sister-in-law of King Louis XI, the younger sister of his second wife, Charlotte of Savoy. She was briefly betrothed to King Edward IV before his secret marriage to Elizabeth Grey became known, but went on to marry the Duke of Milan in 1468. Warwick did switch sides to support the Lancastrian cause, but not as a direct result of Edward's marriage (although he was significantly displeased). He remained a trusted member of the king's court until the late 1460s, when a combination of frustration with Edward's policies and the increasing amount of power granted to members of Edward's wife's family led to his defection.

The incorrect options were all French kings during the reign of the Queen Elizabeth I (King Edward IV's great-granddaughter).

Answer: Middleham Castle

After declaring his support for King Henry VI, Warwick set out to capture King Edward and remove him from the throne. He greeted his former protégé as a duke, refused to acknowledge his claim to the throne and forcibly removed the crown from his head. However, he simply ordered his imprisonment at Middleham Castle, with his (Warwick's) brother as his gaoler, rather than killing him - a somewhat surprising act given the amount of bloodshed that had previously occurred. Fortunately for Edward, Warwick's brother's idea of imprisonment included allowing the prisoner out of the castle to hunt in the grounds. He was thus promptly rescued by his brother Richard and some supporters and escaped to set sail for Burgundy to raise his own army. Warwick described the development as "Unsavoury news!" but simply commented that "My brother was too careless in his charge".

Middleham Castle in North Yorkshire was owned by the Earl of Warwick's family from 1270 until King Richard III (who had married Anne Neville) ascended the throne in 1483. Both the future Richard III and his brother George, Duke of Clarence were brought up at Middleham alongside Warwick's own children and Richard and Anne made it their main home from the early 1470s. It is also true that it briefly served as a prison for King Edward IV in 1469 - however, Shakespeare's version diverges from the real history at this point as Edward was eventually released on Warwick's orders and no hunting-based rescue party was ever necessary.

Answer: Queen Margaret

The defeated and seriously injured Earl of Warwick was dragged on stage by King Edward at the start of Act V Scene II and left "to lie thou there: die thou, and die our fear". He died shortly after the Dukes of Somerset and Oxford brought him news of the death of his brother Montague. King Edward then ordered "For Somerset, off with his guilty head" at the start of Act V Scene V. Prince Edward, the son of King Henry VI and Queen Margaret (also known as Edward, Prince of Wales or Edward of Westminster), was captured at Tewksbury and brought before King Edward and his brothers who all took it in turns to stab him. Although Queen Margaret begged to be killed alongside her son, the Duke of Clarence refused her request with the line "By heaven, I will not do thee so much ease".

In general, Shakespeare's version of the fates of these characters was fairly accurate - the Earl of Warwick was killed in battle at Barnet, Prince Edward was killed in the Battle of Tewkesbury and the Duke of Somerset was executed in the aftermath (although only after being dragged out of sanctuary in Tewkesbury Abbey). Queen Margaret did survive these events; she was held prisoner by King Edward until 1475, when she ransomed and sent to France to live in exile. She died in 1482.

Answer: Richard, Duke of Gloucester

In the play, Richard, Duke of Gloucester - the future King Richard III - rushed from the scene of the Battle of Tewkesbury to return to the Tower of London and dispose of the imprisoned King Henry VI. In reality the death of King Henry VI remains shrouded in mystery, however Shakespeare's Henry lamented the fate of both himself and his son and prophesised that Richard would go on to cause much more bloodshed, death and pain in the future:

"And many an old man's sigh and many a widow's,
And many an orphan's water-standing eye -
Men for their sons, wives for their husbands,
And orphans for their parents timeless death -
Shall rue the hour that ever thou wast born".

The play closed with the future of King Edward, his wife Queen Elizabeth and their baby son looking bright and prosperous, aside from the malevolent presence of Richard, carefully watching for an opportunity to seize power - a story that Shakespeare went on to address in the play 'Richard III'.