ABSTRACT
All this tissue of misrepresentation is reproduced in the plays. The germ of it is to be found in the words of a Yorkist chronicler, who writes of the wedding of Henry VI to Margaret as ‘ a dear marriage for England’; because of which ‘ what loss hath the realm of England had, by losing of Normandy and Guienne, by division of the realm, the rebelling of commons against the princes and lords ; what division against the lords ! what murder and slaying of them! what fields fought and made !’ 1 To the same writer Humphrey of Gloucester is a noble man and a great clerk, who had worshipfully ruled the realm, and never could be found fault in him. Suffolk, by bringing about the marriage of Margaret, had caused the loss of Normandy, and his own end was the reward for the death of the good duke. Margaret ruled all about the King, who was a good, simple, innocent man.
