Edward IV: The King Warwick Made
First appears: Act 1, Scene 1
Edward IV wins the throne through Warwick's military power and his own battlefield courage. He is brave, charismatic, and politically careless. His secret marriage to Lady Grey, announced while Warwick is in France arranging a different marriage on his behalf, is the single act that turns the play's second half into a Yorkist civil war.
He gets back his throne in Act 5, but only after fighting Warwick, recapturing it from Henry, and winning at Barnet and Tewkesbury. The path is messier than it needed to be.
He represents a kind of kingship (energetic, personal, sensual) that is completely different from Henry's piety and already different from what his brother Richard is becoming.
Key Scenes
Famous Quotes
“Once more we sit in England's royal throne, Re-purchased with the blood of enemies.”
King Edward IV — Act 5, Scene 7
“Thus far our fortune keeps an upward course, And we are graced with wreaths of victory.”
King Edward IV — Act 5, Scene 3
Themes
Other Characters in Henry VI, Part III
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