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In this instance he appears to lack the political skill and foresight to see that he must keep his supporters happy.Īpparently this is a misjudgement on the part of Henry, as opposed to the failure of his rule because he was not divinely appointed. In this way it seems that Henry is in trouble, not because he does not fit into the divine succession of monarchs, but because he has forgotten the people who brought him to his current position. Hotspur makes this explicit when he regrets that they have set “the crown / Upon the head of this forgetful man (I. Till he hath found a time to pay us home” (I. The reason for the Percys’ actions against Henry IV has nothing to do with the fierce legitimist claims made by these one time rebels it is the age old concern of self interest: “The King will always think him in our debt And think we think ourselves unsatisfied
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55) and they are now “unappreciated and vulnerable 2 under the new leadership of Henry IV. The dissatisfaction of the Percys is abundantly clear since they believe that they “did give him that same royalty he wears (IV. From this perspective it could be argued that Henry is guilty of neglect of the people that brought him to the throne, which is especially foolish since they helped him to power by rebelling against the King, exactly the threat he now fears most. With usurping Richard, there came not only the moral dilemma of taking the place of a man who only needed to answer to God, but also the practical issue of the nobles who helped Henry IV come to power. Perhaps, this can be linked to the notion of divinely appointed heads of state, Richard being God favoured is the “sweet lovely rose nd Henry the illegitimate usurper is merely a “thorn. There is an almost corrupt quality to the image of a rose and a thorn and definitely a sense of hierarchy that one is beautiful and the other ugly and sharp. In Act 1 scene 3 Hotspur even unfavourably compares Henry with his predecessor: “Richard, that sweet lovely rose / And plant this thorn, this canker, Bolingbroke” (I. D S Kastan1 claims “The real source of instability” rests in the manner in which Henry has become king nd it is undeniable that the memory of Richard haunts these plays. One obvious explanation for the current troubles plaguing Henry is that he is not the rightful king, since he deposed his cousin Richard, making his reign unlawful. In the uncertain world which we are presented with in the opening scenes of 1 Henry IV we are liable to ask we are likely to question the legitimacy of the monarch in relation to the volatility of the country and the consequences of rebelling against a ruler. In addition there is the threat from the Welsh, which is intensified by the marriage of Edmund Mortimer (a captive Englishman) to the daughter of the Welsh leader, troubling since Mortimer arguably has a better claim to the throne than the King’s own. The threat of the Scottish is made all the more ominous since they are aided by the northern nobles, who assisted Henry when he usurped Richard, as they have already proved their efficiency when it comes to removing a crowned monarch. The bleak opening lines spoken by Henry IV: “so shaken as we are, so wan with care are understandable when considering that the nation he rules over is threatened on two borders and that the very nobles who brought him to power are now attempting to unseat him. By setting the opening of “Henry IV,” amid political instability and fierce rebellion, questions of kingship and the legitimacy of that power are immediately thrust to the forefront of audience consciousness yet, it is these tensions which drive the plot.