Patriotism Theme Analysis

In Henry VI Part 2, English patriotism is a double-edged sword for England’s king. On the one hand, nobles and commoners alike use patriotic language to criticize actions taken by the current king, Henry VI. Yet, on the other hand, the king’s supporters also use patriotic language to quell outright rebellion against the monarchy. Near the play’s beginning, Henry agrees to surrender Maine and Anjou, French territories taken by his father Henry V, as part of a peace treaty negotiated by the English Duke of Suffolk and solemnized by Henry’s marriage to impoverished French princess Margaret of Anjou. The treaty horrifies many English people, who criticize it in patriotic terms. Henry’s uncle the Duke of Gloucester calls it “the common grief of all the land” and bemoans the effort Henry V and other English nobles took to win Maine and Anjou only for them to be given away. Similarly, the Duke of York curses the treaty as an insult to “the honor of this warlike isle.” When York secretly instigates a soldier named John Cade to start a commoners’ rebellion against Henry, Cade drums up public anger against various aristocrats by accusing them of involvement with the surrender of England’s French territories, a surrender he bluntly compares to castrating the. Yet conversely, a noble loyal to King Henry, Lord Clifford, eventually persuades Cade’s followers to abandon Cade and the rebellion by appealing to their pro-English and anti-French patriotic sentiments. Clifford claims that the rebellion could make England vulnerable to French invasion, urges the rebels to spare their “native coast,” and encourages them to join England’s army and invade France instead. In this way, the play represents English patriotism as distinct from support for England’s monarchy but nevertheless a potential tool to quell rebellion against the monarchy.