Queen Margaret: The She-Wolf of France
First appears: Act 1, Scene 1
Margaret takes command of the Lancastrian war effort in Part III because Henry will not. She leads armies, negotiates with foreign courts, and refuses to accept defeat even after the cause should be lost.
Her crowning of York with a paper crown and her taunting of him with his son's death is the play's most savage scene. York calls her a tiger ('O tiger's heart wrapt in a woman's hide'), and the line sticks because it is both an insult and an acknowledgment of her power.
Her cause ends at Tewkesbury, where her son Edward is killed. After that, she has nothing. But she fought harder for Henry's line than Henry ever did.
Key Scenes
Famous Quotes
“Great lords, wise men ne'er sit and wail their loss, But cheerly seek how to redress their harms.”
Queen Margaret — Act 5, Scene 4
Themes
Other Characters in Henry VI, Part III
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