Abstract
This chapter examines the inversion of the gender order in the Henry VI plays. The plays show a good deal of this disorder stemming from women either aspiring to get or else successfully climbing ‘on top’. This process can be seen quite clearly—in the first half of part II—in the pairing of the duchess of Gloucester with Queen Margaret, and throughout both plays in the progression of Queen Margaret from ambitious and unfaithful wife and subject to faction leader, warrior and ruler, until finally she becomes the virtual personification of violent revenge pursued for its own sake. From the outset, the play portrays both duchess and queen as disobedient, proud, and ambitious women, aspiring to a degree of power and influence first over their husbands, and then over the wider political system, far greater than anything a properly obedient and ordered woman and wife ought to aspire to.
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