Among the most charitable observers of English history, Henry VI has been judged a gentle and pious king who was sadly unfit for the kingship of England, however even a cursory reading of history shows Henry to be nothing other than a failure: a feeble-minded simpleton and a weakling who was physically incapable of carrying out even the most elementary duties of his station. He was certainly not a great military leader like his father, Henry V, and his legacy was forever stained by the loss of English imperial lands in France. Henry’s reign was also egregiously marred by widespread popular unrest and growing factionalism at his court, all of which culminated in the destructive civil war later known as “The War of the Roses.”
Henry was a deeply pious man; well-educated, gentle, and infirm. He was tall, slender, and something of a religious scholar -he founded Eton College and…
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