Innocent and Simple: The Making of Henry VI’s Kingship in Fifteenth-Century England

Abstract

This chapter explores John Lydgate’s interpreting and constructing of Henry VI’s kingship through his royal image in his lifetime and his martyr-saint image in his posthumous cult. The making of Henry VI’s royal and martyr-saint images has been maneuvered via such epithets as innocent, simple and chaste in diverse texts by both supporters and opponents. By tracing the epithets of Henry VI’s images, this chapter argues that they fabricate a coherent discourse on constructing Henry’s kingship, which not only reflects fifteenth-century understanding and frustration of an incompetent king but also responds to anxiety and political tensions of the English court.