# Henry VI, Part III — Character guide

> Key figures in Henry VI, Part III by William Shakespeare.

- [King Henry VI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/henry_vi_part_iii_se/characters/king_henry_vi.md): Henry VI sits uneasily on a throne his grandfather won at Agincourt, a man of conscience surrounded by lords who measure him only in weakness. His mildness — patience he urges on others even as York plants himself in the
- [Queen Margaret](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/henry_vi_part_iii_se/characters/queen_margaret.md): Margaret is the true engine of the Lancastrian cause, a queen who argues, schemes, and shames while her husband prays. Before King Lewis she dismantles Warwick's embassy piece by piece, insisting that a 'tyrant' who lets
- [King Edward IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/henry_vi_part_iii_se/characters/edward_iv.md): Edward Plantagenet is the eldest son of York, crowned on the strength of Warwick's armies and his brothers' swords. Yet in the very scene of his triumph he pauses over Lady Grey's petition, and his brothers exchange know
- [Richard, Duke of Gloucester](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/henry_vi_part_iii_se/characters/richard_duke_of_gloucester.md): Richard is the Yorkist brother whose wit cuts as deep as his sword, the one York praises above all his sons for what he has 'deserved.' He enters the parliament house armed, tosses Somerset's severed head at his father's
- [Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/henry_vi_part_iii_se/characters/warwick.md): Warwick is the great power-broker of the realm, the peer whose backing makes and unmakes kings. In the parliament house he pledges his life to York's claim, boasting that no man dares 'stir a wing' when Warwick shakes hi
- [George, Duke of Clarence](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/henry_vi_part_iii_se/characters/george_duke_of_clarence.md): Clarence stands between two stronger brothers — Edward the crowned king and Richard the scheming wit — and his position as the middle Plantagenet makes him both valuable and vulnerable. He trades knowing asides with Rich
- [Lord Hastings](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/henry_vi_part_iii_se/characters/lord_hastings.md): Hastings belongs to the network of Yorkist peers who help plant Edward IV on the throne and then must navigate the treacherous aftermath. His position depends on the king's favor, but Edward's impulsive marriage to Lady 
- [Prince Edward of Westminster](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/henry_vi_part_iii_se/characters/prince_edward_of_westminster.md): Prince Edward stands at the center of the Lancastrian claim, a boy whose birthright his mother defends with more ferocity than his father ever musters. When Henry disinherits him in favor of York, the prince's wounded pr
- [Lord Clifford](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/henry_vi_part_iii_se/characters/clifford.md): Clifford enters the play already grieving, his father killed at St Albans, and he vows never to kneel to the man responsible. When Henry VI agrees to disinherit his own son, Clifford's fury at the king's weakness rivals 
- [Lady Elizabeth Grey](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/henry_vi_part_iii_se/characters/lady_grey.md): Lady Grey comes to court seeking only the restoration of her dead husband's confiscated estates, but Edward's interest in her quickly becomes something far more consequential. Her insistence on an immediate answer, and h
- [King Lewis XI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/henry_vi_part_iii_se/characters/king_lewis_xi.md): King Lewis sits at the fulcrum of European diplomacy, weighing Warwick's embassy for an English alliance against Margaret's warnings that Edward is a usurper. When news arrives that Edward has married Lady Grey instead o
- [Lady Bona](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/henry_vi_part_iii_se/characters/lady_bona.md): Sister of the French queen, briefly betrothed to Edward IV.
- [Edmund, Earl of Rutland](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/henry_vi_part_iii_se/characters/rutland.md): Young Yorkist prince murdered by Clifford after the Battle of Wakefield.
- [John Neville, Marquess of Montague](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/henry_vi_part_iii_se/characters/montague.md): Montague fights beside Warwick and the York brothers from the first scene, proudly displaying the blood of Lancastrian lords he has killed. As Warwick's brother, he is bound to the man who made Edward king, yet the king'
- [Henry Holland, Duke of Exeter](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/henry_vi_part_iii_se/characters/exeter.md): Lancastrian nobleman loyal to Henry VI.
- [Edmund Beaufort, Duke of Somerset](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/henry_vi_part_iii_se/characters/somerset.md): Somerset belongs to the Lancastrian faction that surrounds the pious King Henry, and his death at York's hands is announced before the play's first scene has finished. His head, thrown down by Richard of Gloucester, beco
- [Sir John Montgomery](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/henry_vi_part_iii_se/characters/sir_john_montgomery.md): Yorkist knight who helps Edward IV reclaim the throne.
- [John de Vere, Earl of Oxford](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/henry_vi_part_iii_se/characters/oxford.md): Lancastrian nobleman who fights for Henry VI.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/henry_vi_part_iii_se/characters