Act I is very important to set the play and the situation. The play starts with a quarrel between Bullingbrook and Mowbray. Richard is the king and controls the situation, although we already see a bit of hollowness in his character. "We were not born to sue, but to command". The authority of his office sustains his words, but in a way he is still scared of not being listened.
When Europe finally emerged out of the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance, Europeans despised everything about the Middle Ages. In the Middle Ages, queens and kings were decided by “divine power” which opposes the notion of rulership in Machiavelli’s The Prince. Erasmus, another key player in the Renaissance, once stated, “Men are made, not born” which totally contradicts the idea of divine power. Another new idea Machiavelli developed in The Prince that goes against Middle age thought was to use soldiers that one possesses in their state, instead of using mercenaries or auxiliary soldiers. In the Renaissance, the humility of the Middle Ages was completely thrown out, only to be replaced with people wearing extravagant clothing and consuming themselves in their image.
The play’s central conflict ascends with More’s negation to conform to the King’s wishes. In the sixteenth century it was imperative for a King to be able to produce a male heir to the throne in order to ensure the family’s control of the republic. Believing that the fault lay with his current wife, Catherine who was his brother’s widow, King Henry sought to annul his marriage when he became infatuated with the lusty and seemingly more fertile Anne Boleyn - “Catherine’s his wife and she’s barren as a brick”. He disregarded any immoral claims to his decision citing Leviticus 18: “Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy brother’s wife” however it is evident that his actions were not out of goodwill and was indeed immoral to the extent of going against the Catholic Church. Sir Thomas More’s “adamantine” “sense of his own self” is juxtaposed with Henry’s conniving disposition.
This becomes apparent in the early stages of the drama when Gaunt in extremis says ‘Methinks I am a prophet new inspired’ and wishes that his father had been gifted with foresight ‘had thy grandsire with a prophet's eye’ for he would have barred Richard from the throne. Prophetic vision comes to the fore when the relationship between king and subject is closely examined. The canon of the era was the divine right of kings and the duty of subjects to an anointed king. Gaunt states the case succinctly in defining the king as ‘God's substitute/ His deputy anointed in His sight’. The subject is precluded from taking action against the king, be he ever so unjust, for as Gaunt says ‘I may never lift an angry arm against His minister’.
His death posed the question of who was to succeed him, and while Charles II ultimately returned, alternative leaders attempted to govern first. To answer the question this essay must analyse the situation under Cromwell and the events that followed to ascertain whether the Commonwealth could have survived, or whether the power vacuum could only have been filled by the monarchy. In the civil war Parliament fought to preserve the ‘ancient constitution’[1] of King, Lords and Commons. Parliament made generous offers to the king, such as the ‘Heads of Proposals’ drawn up by Cromwell and army officers. Charles would have kept his crown and most of his power and be assured of the retention of bishops.
Explain how Henry II quickly established himself as a secure and powerful king of England? Henry II used many different techniques and strategies to establish himself as a powerful king of England. Firstly, Henry was already a powerful man even before he became King of England. He inherited a huge section of France including Normandy and Anjou, as well as receiving Aquitaine when he married Eleanor. This huge amount of land that was under his controlled was known as the Angevin Empire, this land meant that Henry wasn’t going to be just King of England but also lord of half of France.
Is Richard II about Bolingbroke’s ambition or Richard’s incompetency? At the core of William Shakespeare’s allegorical play Richard II, the disparities between the abilities of Bolingbroke’s ambitions and Richard incompetence are explored in depth. Shakespeare’s prime impetus was to investigate a warning and voice concerns to the reigning monarch Queen Elizabeth I, that there could be catastrophic consequences if the Great Chain of Being was disrupted. Shakespeare projects Richard as a conniving and calculating character who overestimates his authority to such an extent that he fails to fulfil the duties of kingship. Richard shows a dangerous capacity for poor judgment and fascination with luxury, which deviate from the expectations of royalty.
This shows the control he has over his men and also gives a strong idea of who is in power at this early point in the play . Here arises a similarity with Henry V . In king Henry's first scene , Shakespeare presents the protagonist in an equally respected way. This is seen in Act 1 Scene 2 when Canterbury says, 'God and his angels guard your sacred throne , and make you long become it .' The use of "sacred" together with the support of the church show that Henry is a greatly powerful and respected man.
Over the course of Shakespeare's play’s, Henry IV and Henry V, the character of Henry V evolves from a crazy kid to a solid King. In Henry IV, the Prince’s irresponsible behavior is expressed to the audience as a joke, and that he means to grow up and mature once he becomes king, so that his miraculous transformation will be more magnificent. Henry's development as he evolves from Prince Hal to King Henry V of England is significant, but not complete. Despite the seeming perfection of his courtly manners, traces of the disorderly Prince Hal still emerge in King Henry's behavior, particularly when he is in stressful or emotional situations. Henry V seems to be prone to using deceit when it is the easiest way to obtain a goal, liable to play mean-spirited pranks when he feels the urge and susceptible to making rash decisions when angry.
Bolt portrays King Henry VIII as a person with power and strength that has the ability to do anything to meet his personal needs. King Henry VIII is also impatient and reckless; for example, he makes an unexpected visit to More’s place to try and convince More to accept his point of view on the Acts of Succession and Supremacy. The Act of Succession is a law that King Henry VIII wants to pass to allow him to declare an official divorce to his marriage to Catherine of Aragon and to remarry his recurrent love, Anne Boleyn. He wants to divorce Catherine of Aragon because she is unable to produce children. “ No, Catherine's his wife and she's barren as a brick; are you going to pray for a miracle?” (Bolt 12).