Ranking History: The Wars of the Roses Historical Figures: Henry VI

Most of us have probably seen those reels or videos of people ranking objects, people, or things as crazy as personality types on a scale of S-D (S being superb and D being the worst). It’s like the five star rating system for anything other than physical products, but like the star system, it’s all based on personal preference and bias rather than absolute facts. Oftentimes too, unlike the star system, it’s ranking and comparing these subjects with others based on certain criteria.

If you’ve been around the blog for a while or follow my Goodreads account (which you can check out here!), you know medieval history is a huge interest of mine. Recently, I’ve been specifically studying about the event known as The Wars of the Roses, listening to episodes on it which History Hit‘s podcast Gone Medieval has put out (they’re great by the way; I highly recommend them!) and reading Dan Jones’s awesome and informative book aptly titled The Wars of the Roses(also highly recommend!)

Having been wanting to share some of what I’ve learned in a fun and not-so-info-dumpy way, I played around with some ideas, including creating a take-for-fun quiz, but the ideas all felt like they would require some substantial explanations in order to be truly meaningful.

And then I thought about this ranking system! While it will of course, require a little bit of explanation, it will be fun explanations as I will be explaining these things while explaining my reasons for why I give the historical figures the rankings I give them.

And since these rankings and explanations might be a little long to all go in one post, I’m going to release one a day over the course of a week (and a day haha) to make things fun and bite-sized!

Since this is my first ranking series, I’ll just be starting out with eight of the major figures in the Wars of the Roses which I have learned about. I will be ranking these figures on a scale of one to ten by how I perceive how well they succeeded in their duties and/or goals, their skill in battle, and by what we know (if anything) about their general personalities as normal people.

Our lucky eight figures which I will be ranking over the course of the next week (and their symbol in my chart) are:

• Henry VI (The crown labeled H)
• Edward IV (The sun labeled E–his emblem was a parhelion)
• Margaret of Anjou (The woman with the crown labeled M)
• Richard, Duke of York (The blue flag labeled Y; Blue was one of York’s colors)
• Edmund Beaufort, Duke of Somerset (The throne labeled S)
• Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick (The castle labeled W, as he was most known as Warwick)
• Richard III (The white boar labeled R; a boar was his emblem)
• Henry Tudor (Henry VII) (The field labeled T)

Of course, these are just my opinions on these figures. You may have an entirely different perspective on them–and if you do, feel free to share them in the comments!

But enough of the explaining! Let’s dive into my first ranking with one of the most important figures in the Wars of the Roses–King Henry VI!

Henry VI

Henry VI was, of course, the King of England, the son of Henry V, and the last of what is known as the Lancastrian line of British kings. Without getting too much into the mechanics of it all, the Lancastrians–one of the two sides in the wars–supported Henry VI as king.

So how good of a king was Henry VI? Well, Henry VI was eventually disposed, so that says something. But unlike his predecessors Edward II and Richard II who were disposed because they were tyrants, Henry VI was disposed because, well, he just wasn’t cutting it as a king. But Henry himself was certainly NOT a tyrant. The original cause for the dispute which evolved into what is known as The Wars of the Roses was not a dynastic dispute, but rather who Henry’s advisors were. Henry was quite childlike in that he liked other people to lead for him–so his advisors were essentially running the kingdom, not him. And oftentimes, these advisors had their own agendas they wanted to further at the expense of others.

But all around, it doesn’t seem like Henry was a disliked king (though his favorites were often detested). He just didn’t do much, instead letting his favorites do the work and make the rules. It’s only when things come to an extreme head between Henry’s favorites and Richard, Duke of York and his supporters do the Wars of the Roses turn into the dynastic struggle everyone thinks of today.

So job-wise, I’d give Henry a four. Not the best king, but certainly not hated, either. Just sort of there.

So how skilled was Henry in battle? As a British king in the medieval times, with the famed warrior king Henry V as his father, Henry VI seems like a likely candidate for a skilled fighter or strategist.

But, unfortunately, Henry was not. There were occasions he led battles, but more often than not, his senior Lancastrian supporters, such as Somerset, Northumberland, and others, led his forces for him. At times, Henry wasn’t even present on the battlefield. Some of this might seem strategic today, but in medieval times, it was highly important for a king to be with his men, to champion his own cause. And Henry just wasn’t too keen on battling. Or much to do with actual kingship, for that matter.

So we’ll give Henry a generous three in warrior skills, only because he was present at some battles and none of the sources say he was a coward. Just not very militaristically inclined.

As we can already see from this, Henry had quite a laid back personality. Chroniclers mention he was generous, pious and kind–he only swore a single mild oath, for example, staying away from the coarser language others spoke. He was quite the passive character as said before, and seemed quite introverted, speaking simply and in short sentences with a preference for studying Scriptures over attending governmental meetings. And he was certainly no tyrant.

While not having the personality cut out for a king, I think as an actual human being, Henry had a very pleasant and non-confrontational personality, and, if he was a normal person and not a king, would be someone you could just go up to and have a nice chat with. And he’d probably buy you a coffee, if he could. So personality wise, we’ll give him a seven.

Success: 4

Warrior Skills: 3

Personality: 7

While Henry VI has a decent personality, he just lacks in so many other kingly ways, I rather find myself rooting for Richard of York over him in my studying of the events of his life. I do like the fellow though and feel bad for him to an extent. So I’ll put him in the C category. Not a terrible guy, but certainly not someone I could spend hours and hours studying from sheer fascination.

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What do you think of my ranking? Do you think it’s accurate, or would you have placed him somewhere else? What fact do you find the most interesting? How do you think I’ll rank the next historical figures? Let me know in the comments below! ~ Kay Adelin