Home > Navigation > History > Reigns > Henry VI

Henry VI (1421-71) King of England (1422-61, 1470-71):

Only son of Henry V and Catherine of Valois. Henry became king of England at the age of nine months. England was then ruled by his uncle Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, and France by John, Duke of Bedford. Henry was crowned in England in 1429 and two years later at Paris as king of France. In 1445 he married Maragret of Anjou. By 1453 Henry had lost all the English territories in France except Calais. From then on he suffered from periodic assaults of insanity. A year later Henry's army was defeated by Richard, Duke of York, at St Albans. This was the first battle of the Wars of the Roses, during which Henry was deposed in 1461 by Edward IV and exiled to Scotland. Henry was reinvested as king in 1470, but on Edward's return he was captured after the battle of Tewkesbury, imprisoned and killed in the Tower. His only son was killed in the same battle.