Henry I of England

The death of Henry II was the most significant event that started the French Wars of Religion. With his death, Francis II became the new king. Francis II was related to a devout Catholic family know as the Guises. The Guises were in critical positions in the monarchy. Those positions were the French Army and the Church. The Guises family learned of a plot by a rival Protestant family to remove Francis II from power. Leading the Protestant family was the Bourbon Duke of Conde. He was sentenced to…

Shakespeare’s second tetralogy, Henry IV is the second play in the sequence. We talked briefly about the plot of Richard II and how Bolivar became king Henry IV. We then talked about the beginning of Henry IV in which the king is being plotted against due to his apparent forgetting of debts due, and his son whom behaves in a non-royal manner hanging out with thieves and commoners. We mentioned the idea that the central hero of Shakespeare’s historical plays was England itself always being…

everything. Risking so much for such little moral satisfaction may seem naive to most, but not to Robert Bolt’s depiction of Sir Thomas More in A Man For All Seasons. Everything Sir Thomas More does in his life; from how he deals with his friend King Henry VII to how he treats his family and ultimately how he presents himself towards his final demise are guided and controlled…

When people think of Henry VIII, they usually think all the wives he had, the palaces he built, and all the murders he committed, but many people respected what he did and he is now an important figure in France’s history. Henry VIII accomplished many tasks during his reign as King such as being involved in the English Reformation and turning his country into a Protestant Nation (“Henry VIII Biography 1). Henry VIII, although he was a bad influence to his country, still managed to be remembered…

self-serving guilt as penance. Similar boundaries to redemption exist in Henry IV, Part 1, as its characters exist in the wake of the deposition and murder of Richard II. In the work, King Henry IV seeks expiation in a planned crusade, but neglects to abdicate the throne granted to him by his denial of divine right. Similarly, Hotspur seeks to atone for his rebellion against Richard…

Henry IV, a play by the famous play writer Shakespeare, contains many themes. A major theme that plays a huge role throughout the play is that of honor. Each character has personal reasons for wanting to obtain honor. Shakespeare consistently shows throughout this play how selfish intentions can lead to negative results. The main characters in Shakespeare’s play all have separate ideas of what it means to be honorable, which Shakespeare demonstrates in his play by having each character have…

so evident, that his own son-in-law believed it to be of the utmost importance to record his life so that others could learn from and about it. Throughout his life, More worked hard and slowly moved up in the world, even becoming the Chancellor of England. But his status is not what made this man special. Thomas More’s defining trait was his steadfast devoutness in his Catholic faith. Thomas More led a full life. He had a wife, a daughter, an important job, and even money. And throughout all of…

One of most drawn out themes underlying Shakespeare’s second tetralogy is the idea of authenticity; who is authentic, who is not, what is means to be authentic. On the flip side is the opposite notion—the idea of a counterfeit, an inauthentic imitation, sometimes able to fool, sometimes not. However, Shakespeare’s second tetralogy seems to blur this supposed line between what is authentic and what is counterfeit, and in doing so reveals not simply what makes an “authentic” king, but also how…

extent by the reflection that they fail to see the opposite. In Henry V, by William Shakespeare, the Chorus describes Henry as the mirror of all Christian kings whom his men follow. Is Henry the reflection or the opposite of a Christian king? At first, Henry might seem like the true reflection of a Christian king based upon his moral and sincere actions. However, not all his acts are as virtuous as they appear and just as a mirror, Henry carries several flaws. Thus, Henry’s illusional actions…

Henry VII is remembered in history as having ended the Wars of the Roses and uniting a bitterly divided England. By defeating Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 and marrying Elizabeth of York he brought together the Houses of Lancaster and York under his new Tudor banner. However, Henry’s reign was not going to be straightforward and he had many issues which challenged his security on the throne. Henry had to ensure he dealt with rivals to the throne as well as making sure he ruled…