ABSTRACT
E.M.W. Tillyard said of Henry VI, Part III that when Shakespeare wrote it he was “tired or bored: or perhaps both” (Tillyard 1944:190). Editors are no longer sure that Shakespeare was the sole author of this play, but contemporary critics, especially feminist ones, have found it considerably more interesting than Tillyard did. Civil war dominates Henry VI, Part III. The cast of characters is narrowed almost exclusively to members of the nobility, and battle scenes regularly punctuate the action. With the sitting king, Henry VI, impossibly weak, the English crown becomes a trophy various factions attempt to seize, rather than a lineal and sacred inheritance. But while chaos is the word probably used most often in conjunction with this particular play, that chaos allows interesting and anomalous figures to emerge and social boundaries and roles to be tested and contested, including those of gender. The most prominent of these transgressive figures is Margaret. Assuming male prerogatives, she initiates much of the action. She takes charge of Prince Edward when his father in effect disinherits him; she leads the Lancastrian forces repeatedly into battle against their Yorkist foes; when defeated in battle, she goes to France for aid; finally captured, she continues to inveigh against her enemies. Quick, decisive and clever, Margaret gives the lie to those who feel they have nothing to fear because “a woman’s general” (I.ii.68). In fact, this woman is one of the play’s most impressive and most successful martial figures.
