Peter Lake
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780300222715
- eISBN:
- 9780300225662
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300222715.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, Shakespeare Studies
This chapter focuses on 1 Henry VI. Some critics see it as the first part of a trilogy. Others have identified it as a sort of prequel, written after the success of the plays that have become known ...
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This chapter focuses on 1 Henry VI. Some critics see it as the first part of a trilogy. Others have identified it as a sort of prequel, written after the success of the plays that have become known as 2 Henry VI and 3 Henry VI had rendered a return to the same subject a profitable prospect. Ultimately, 1 Henry VI reshuffles the pack of narrative tropes and ideological materials it inherited from parts II and III. It relocates the threat of female political agency outside England and organises it under the sign not merely of witchcraft but of popery. It similarly displaces the locus of ancient political virtue from civil to military affairs, and downgrades the role of the king. Still central is the topos of noble faction, but that faction is centred not on the succession but rather on the conduct of the war.Less
This chapter focuses on 1 Henry VI. Some critics see it as the first part of a trilogy. Others have identified it as a sort of prequel, written after the success of the plays that have become known as 2 Henry VI and 3 Henry VI had rendered a return to the same subject a profitable prospect. Ultimately, 1 Henry VI reshuffles the pack of narrative tropes and ideological materials it inherited from parts II and III. It relocates the threat of female political agency outside England and organises it under the sign not merely of witchcraft but of popery. It similarly displaces the locus of ancient political virtue from civil to military affairs, and downgrades the role of the king. Still central is the topos of noble faction, but that faction is centred not on the succession but rather on the conduct of the war.
Teofilo F. Ruiz
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780823284146
- eISBN:
- 9780823286126
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823284146.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History
This introductory chapter provides a brief overview of Alfonso VIII's role in the development of Castilian and European society. Born in November 1155, the son of Sancho III of Castile-León and ...
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This introductory chapter provides a brief overview of Alfonso VIII's role in the development of Castilian and European society. Born in November 1155, the son of Sancho III of Castile-León and Blanche of Navarre, Alfonso VIII ascended to the throne in 1158 on the death of his father. His minority was a troubled period. Noble factions fought for control of the regency, seeking to appropriate as much of the royal prerogatives and domain as possible. Once he came of age and assumed control of his kingdom, it took Alfonso VIII a great deal of his adult life to recover the lands illegally seized by his uncles and to diminish the influence of noble factions. However, threats came from other sources. By the middle of the twelfth century, the Almoravids fell to the rising Almohad power. By the second half of the twelfth century, the Almohads built an expansive and successful Western Mediterranean empire. In many respects, Alfonso VIII's reign would be defined by his defeats at the Almohads' hands and by his eventual victories over them, culminating with the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212.Less
This introductory chapter provides a brief overview of Alfonso VIII's role in the development of Castilian and European society. Born in November 1155, the son of Sancho III of Castile-León and Blanche of Navarre, Alfonso VIII ascended to the throne in 1158 on the death of his father. His minority was a troubled period. Noble factions fought for control of the regency, seeking to appropriate as much of the royal prerogatives and domain as possible. Once he came of age and assumed control of his kingdom, it took Alfonso VIII a great deal of his adult life to recover the lands illegally seized by his uncles and to diminish the influence of noble factions. However, threats came from other sources. By the middle of the twelfth century, the Almoravids fell to the rising Almohad power. By the second half of the twelfth century, the Almohads built an expansive and successful Western Mediterranean empire. In many respects, Alfonso VIII's reign would be defined by his defeats at the Almohads' hands and by his eventual victories over them, culminating with the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212.
