Summary A determined King Henry strongly reproves the Earls of Northumberland and Worcester, and Hotspur, who have obeyed his summons to appear before him. His threat to use force if necessary to curb their opposition leads Worcester to remind him that they, the Percies, were largely responsible for his rise […]

Read more Summary and Analysis Act I: Scene 3

Summary The action now shifts to the prince’s apartment in London, and the participants are Prince Hal himself, Sir John Falstaff, and Poins. Prince Hal, far from engaging enemies of the Crown in armed combat, is amusing himself in witty verbal exchange with Falstaff. The subject of this discourse ranges […]

Read more Summary and Analysis Act I: Scene 2

Summary An exhausted King Henry describes the horrors of civil conflict which his realm has endured during the twelve months that he has ruled England. At last he will be free to lead a united force of English soldiers to fight the enemies of Christendom in Jerusalem. But the Earl […]

Read more Summary and Analysis Act I: Scene 1

King Henry IV The eldest son of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and grandson of Edward III, Henry had returned from banishment on July 4, 1399, to claim the Crown denied to him by Richard II. As these events were dramatized in Shakespeare’s Richard II, he led a revolt […]

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In the Stationers’ Register, the official record of licensed booksellers and publishers in London, appeared the following entry for February 25, 1598: The historye of Henry iiiith with his battaile of Shrewsburye against Henry Hottspurre of the Northe with the conceipted mirth of Sir John Ffalstoff. Later in the same […]

Read more About King Henry IV, Part 1

The main plot of Henry IV, Part 1 is about the rebellion of the Percies, the northern baronial family who had helped Henry depose Richard II and become king. They are joined by the Scottish Earl of Douglas, Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, claimant to the throne, and Owen Glendower, […]

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