Shakespeare's plays about the English monarchy reveal a world of power and poison. There are few characters of glowing virtue and no ambition. The virtuous ones are usually done in by not controlling their unscrupulous kin. Betrayal and murder were as sure a path to the throne as any bloodline. Only Henry V stands out as an able king who was not overtly ruthless, remaining to this day a hero whose short reign brought great glory to England. There aren't many really ugly truths about him.

There are ugly truths aplenty in the rest of the lot, although Shakespeare is careful which truths are included and which are glossed over or ignored entirely. He was a playwright, not a propagandist (well, mostly not). Shakespeare was there to write good theatre that would attract a large paying audience. It must also be remembered that he didn't write the plays in chronological order. Most books agree that he wrote the three parts of Henry VI first, followed by Richard III, then Richard II, Henry IV, 1&2, and sometime after that Henry V.

This might explain inconsistencies in the timeline presented. For instance, at the end of Henry VI, part 1 Edward IV is celebrating his reclaiming the throne and the birth of his baby son Edward. Henry VI has just been murdered in the Tower. At the beginning of Richard III Edward IV is dying, his son is 12 years old and Henry VI's body is being prepared for burial, mourned by Anne Neville. Richard's reign of 26 months is shrunk to a matter of a few weeks at most. But, of course, it is necessary to get all the groundlings home in time for dinner and one can suppose that Shakespeare didn't require a lot of time to vilefy Richard's character.

Most modern audiences find the history plays hard to follow because the relationships and conspiracies of 15th century royal politics fly by with little explanation. To an audience of Shakespeare's time a play like Richard II would be relatively recent history -- like our generation viewing a program about the Revolutionary War. The audience who first watched Richard III had grandparents who had lived during his reign. And the life of Henry VIII was within their own memory.

For those who have trouble following the historical soap opera, with characters and events of one play continuing into the next, with the shifting titles, similar names, and convoluted marriages, I offer an abbreviated super-quickie synopsis of the British crown with comments on Shakespeare's view of each king.

Everyone wanted a hat, a fancy hat, one with gold and gems and a lot of ego-boo attached to wearing it. Men fought wars over such hats, committed murders, did whatever they had to. No act was too unpleasant if it brought in the royal gold. Having sex with someone who had a hat was a viable strategy for women (and for some men, it seems). Marrying one's child to someone with a hat or who might one day get a hat -- these were part of the game, too.

Of course, a hat is only of real value if you have a head on which to set it.

Edward III, an able ruler, died in 1377. His eldest son, Edward the Black Prince, had been killed the year before, therefore the throne passed to the Black Prince's 10 year old, Richard II. Edward III had a number of other sons and it is their decendants that caused the havoc over the next 200 years. Those descended from Lionel, Duke of Clarence, produced the House of York, while those from John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster created the House of Lancaster. Edward III's 4th son Edmund, Duke of York, had one son that was killed at Agincourt in 1415, and another son, Richard, Earl of Cambridge, who was executed that same year for conspiring the death of his cousin Henry V.

The Wars of the Roses were covered by Shakespeare's plays Richard II, Henry IV (parts 1&2), Henry V, Henry VI (parts 1,2,&3), and Richard III. The reigns of Edward IV and Edward V were covered in Richard III. Although I have plenty to say about Henry VII, Shakepeare seems to have skipped him in favor of his son, Henry VIII. And so we come to the colourful world of Shakespeare's kings, fact and fiction, in the Wars of the Roses.