v56_0036 - HENRY VI OF LANCASTER Petit blanc aux écus n.d. Paris

HENRY VI OF LANCASTER

Henry VI is the son of Henry V and Catherine of France; he was born in Windsor on December 6, 1421. When his father died, he was only ten and a half months old. A period of regency began and it was his uncle, the Duke of Bedford, who administered the kingdom of England. The Duke of Bedford had Henry VI crowned in Paris on December 14, 1431. During his reign, the English lost almost all their possessions in France, keeping only Calais after the capitulation of Bordeaux on October 19, 1453. In 1445, he married to Marguerite d'Anjou, to whom he gave up part of his power, suffering from fits of madness like his maternal grandfather, the King of France Charles VI. The loss of French territories was at the origin of the Wars of the Roses which began in 1455 and ended with the coronation of Edward IV in 1461 and the flight of Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou to Holland. In 1470, he was returned to the throne by Warwick, but Edward IV ended up having him imprisoned in the Tower of London where he died on May 21, 1471, probably assassinated..