The Hollow Crown - Henry VI, Part I [2016]

Welcome back to My Year of Shakespeare, the blog series where I am in no way qualified to talk about the things I have perceived. This week we are starting series two of The Hollow Crown, with their first part of Henry VI that aligns poorly with the play of the same name.

Let's start with an exercise, before even watching —

What is our understanding of what a King is, at this point?

You can read into the second tetralogy of the Henriad to understand the rights and responsibilities of a King; a bold and hardly substantiated claim, I know. But it's useful to have this as a sort of diagrammatic view to compare with the liberal worldview we presently live in - frankly the closest I've found for thinking of it is the role of the executive in a company.

• The power of the King comes from God.
  • The word of the King is to be binding to his subjects; when it is not, it is implying there is something untoward of the King.
• The King speaks for the country
  • When the King is rightful, the country prospers; when a King is wicked, it suffers
  • This establishes the country as a populace chosen by God
  • The rights the King grants to his subjects are precisely that — "right"; so when King Henry V threatens to unleash his men at Harfleur, he is doing so in saying any wickedness that his subjects partake in will not be punished by him, and that it is done in the name of God.
• The King delegates who attends to which estates
  • The King can revoke those estates should their holder rebel/revolt/sin against the country/crown
• There is a sort of sacrament that occurs upon the assumption of the throne where a rightful King must put down any venial ways and understand the weight with which his words now possess.
• The King rules by assent of his court, which then rules their respective domains - a strict hierarchy.
• The issue of a King's rightness or wickedness is independent to him; a King's issue's rightness/wickedness is assessed on their merits.

And with that out of the way, let's talk about Henry VI. Part one of this is bits and bobs of the first two play-parts of Henry VI; from what I understand from looking online, it is NOT an especially accurate adaptation of any single part, due to how they broke it apart to make two coherent episodes.

Consequently a summary is in order.

King Henry V has died young and unexpectedly. He leaves behind an infant heir in King Henry VI and tumult in France, where his victory at Agincourt has turned to a subjugation of much of Normandy. The young king is clearly Too Young to rule, so the Duke of Gloucester steps in as protector of the realm.

Seventeen years later, the boy-king sits in the back as Gloucester administers his kingdom.

Mortimer, the former heir presumptive to Richard II [and whose imprisoning of Owain Glyndwr lead to the elderly King Henry IV facing the rebellion from Northumberland and Henry Percy back in Henry IV Part One], on his death bed, tells his heir, the Duke of York, that he has a stronger claim to the throne than Henry VI. York announces this to an assembly of nobles, that he should be crowned. Lord Talbot and the Earl of Warwick back his claim; the Dukes of Suffolk and Somerset do not. However, they table the revolt, for first they must secure the territories in Orléans, where Joan of Arc has been successfully repelling their forces at least in part due to Somerset and York sending insufficient numbers of troops (for whoever overcommits in France will have weakened forces afterward to face the other); they lose many troops to the French forces, but ultimately re-capture the region and take Joan la Pucelle prisoner.

Somerset, in France, also captures Margaret of Anjou and schemes with her to have her marry the young king. Henry is so smitten with her, he forgoes a dowry. Gloucester fumes. Gloucester's wife suggests they could dabble in magic to seize the throne; it goes poorly for both of them, his wife arrested and Gloucester killed. York makes moves to reveal his claim to the throne by sowing distrust with Somerset and Suffolk, moving Henry VI to banish them. Margaret, now lacking allies, spirals. York and Warwick reveal their plot and vow war. It ends on a cliffhanger, with York greeting his issue, particularly Richard, who is obscured in silhouette.

This was a much easier watch once I realized it was Truly Just Game of Thrones

Or, that Game of Thrones is this but chopped and screwed, some parts expanded, some duplicated and remixed.

The language in this isn't as ... strong? colorful? both of those make it sound like Shakespeare's more florid work is cussing up a storm, but I mean both without their usual ironic connotation. There's no "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune", no "is this a dagger i see before me", it's all fairly straightforwardly describing the action while hinting at interiority in a way that makes it feel "lesser" than some of his other work. Not bad, mind you, just weaker. I guess he wrote this one earlier.

Some notes on players:

Anton Lesser (Major Partagaz in Andor; Qyburn in Game of Thrones) is great in this as the Duke of Exeter; He's not so much a character with a huge degree of agency/free will like Somerset or York, but is more of a character that acts as a foil to the others, and he does a fantastic job at keeping the audience eyes glued to the screen.

Ben Miles (Tay Kolma in Andor) is here and for some reason hot? Like he has abs despite being fifty years old. This assists in his schemes, I'm given to understand.

Tom Sturridge (Dream in the ill-fated Sandman adaptation that Netflix did) looks so much like instagram comedian Sean Dolan in a wig throughout this, it's uncanny. He doesn't talk like him though, which would be a very comedic interpretation.

I think I'm going to hold off on any sweeping judgments until I've seen its concluding episode next week. Our upcoming schedule is

• October 11 - The Hollow Crown, S02/E02: Henry VI part 2
• October 18 - The Hollow Crown, S02/E03: Richard III
• October 25 - The King (2019)
• November 1 - Chimes at Midnight (1966)
• November 8 - My Own Private Idaho (1991)
• November 15 - Henry V (1989)
• November 22 - The Black Adder [series one] (1983)
• November 29 - The Goodbye Girl (1977)