The Reign of King Henry VI: The Exercise of Royal Authority, 1422-1461

'Anyone who wishes to study the reign of Henry VI will need to start from the basis which Professor Griffiths provides' A.J. Pollard, Parliamentary History Henry VI is the youngest monarch ever to have ascended the English throne and the only English king to have been acknowledges by the French as rightfully King of France. His reign was the third longest since the Norman conquest and he came close to being declared a saint. This masterly study, unparalleled in its informative detail, examines the entire span of the king's reign, from the death of Henry V in 1422, when Henry was only nine months old, to the period of his insanity at the beginning of the Wars of the Roses and his dethronement in 1461, preceding his murder ten years later. This classic re-assessment of the third Lancastrian king is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of fifteenth-century England.