Queen Margaret

Plays

Henry VI, Part 2, Henry VI, Part 3, Richard III

Summary

Margaret of Anjou, Queen of England, is perhaps the fiercest and most driven character in Shakespeare's history plays. She begins as a French princess captured by and then beloved of Suffolk, becomes the dominant force behind the Lancastrian war effort — commanding armies, taunting captured enemies with paper crowns — and ends in Richard III as a broken, cursing prophet who outlives her world and gloats over her enemies' ruin.

Notable Quotations

"What, dost thou turn away and hide thy face? / I am no loathsome leper — look on me!" *(2 Henry VI, 3.2)*

"What! was it you that would be England's king? / Was't you that revell'd in our parliament / And made a preachment of your high descent?" *(3 Henry VI, 1.4)*

"And where's that valiant crook-back prodigy, / Dicky your boy, that with his grumbling voice / Was wont to cheer his dad in mutinies?" *(3 Henry VI, 1.4)*

"I called thee then vain flourish of my fortune; / I called thee then poor shadow, painted queen... / Where is thy husband now? where be thy brothers? / Where be thy two sons? wherein dost thou joy?" *(Richard III, 4.4)*

"So now prosperity begins to mellow / And drop into the rotten mouth of death." *(Richard III, 4.4)*

Cross-references

• Henry VI, Part 2 — the play (Part 2)
• Henry VI, Part 3 — the play (Part 3)
• Richard III — the play
• Suffolk (2 Henry VI) — her lover
• King Henry VI — her weak husband
• York (3 Henry VI) — her great enemy, whom she taunts with a paper crown
• Richard III — the man she curses with prophetic accuracy
• Histories