Henry VI, Part I

The beginning of Shakespeare's 'First Tetralogy,' which includes two other plays about King Henry VI and one on Richard III, it is so named because it was written in 1588, among some of the Bard's earliest works. This first history play in the cycle commences just after the death of Henry V, when England is at war with France. Across the Channel, Sir John Talbot battles Joan of Arc, or 'La Pucelle,' while the dissention that leads to the War of the Roses begins in England. Full of political and military machinations, "Henry VI, Part I" provides a solid introduction to this king's reign, as well as a segue to the remainder of his rule as depicted by Shakespeare's sequential plays.