Henry VI, Part 1

The reason we call the Wars of the Roses the ‘Wars of the Roses’ is because of a scene in this play. Assorted noblemen, and what we would now call ‘stakeholders,’ choose their allegiance by selecting either red or white roses in the garden of London’s Temple Church. While the scene itself happens in this play, this play has more to do with the loss of England’s French holdings, so I decided to use this little French knight figure. I chose instead to use red and white roses on the cover of Henry VI, Part 2, which confusingly, was probably written before Part 1. Anyway, along with the knight shown on Henry IV, Part 2, these little figures are some of the earliest toys I can remember having. I suspect my mother bought them for me at the Scarborough Town Centre when I was about three or four. If you’re looking for historical accuracy forget it, but he’s got a fleur-de-lys on his shield and is therefore French; the play involves the loss of England’s French territories, and the knight is in an awesome suit of armour – do I need to go on? Well I will, just to say that this was one of the first shots I did using little inserts I constructed out of ribbon and craft foam to provide background colour in certain cases – I’m quite pleased with the effect here.