Act I

York and his followers have won the first battle of Saint Albons, sending King Henry VI and his Lancastrian supporters to London in retreat. But York arrives in London first and, encouraged by his sons Edward and Richard as well as by Warwick, defiantly seats himself in King Henry's throne in Parliament. (York's claim to the throne, and the origins of the civil wars known as the Wars of the Roses, which were fought between the Yorkists— whose symbol is a white rose—and the Lancastrians— whose symbol is a red rose—are covered in Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part One and Two.) King Henry arrives with his supporters, and after debating with York over whose right it is to rule England, Henry finally promises to resign the crown to York and his heirs, provided that the civil war ends and that Henry is allowed to remain...