what problems did Henry VI's advisers cause?

the contrasting views of suffolk :

1. 'evil counsel' - seen as taking advantage of the king's weakness for his own personal gain, by favouring his own men, wasting the king's money on gifts, land & titles for himself and his supporters. they claim he was responsible for pursuing a bad peace policy with france, where england were defeated & he is accused of having an affair with the queen

2. 'doing his best' - John Watts saw him as trying to do his best to keep the government running smoothly & acting in the best interests of the country whilst filling the void left by the king

how valid are these views?

1. the highest ranked nobles are those who are closely related to the king & therefore should be the most important (kings uncle = gloucester & king's cousin = york), but henry listened to suffolk & made people believe suffolk was preventing york & gloucester from advising the king

1. he & his followers did gain lots of land, wealth & positions, whilst his position in the king's household game him the opportunity to limit the access of others - the commons were angered by the grants, as the king struggled to cover the costs of his & queens households & due to the money not being in the war chest, the commons had to vote for more taxes

1. his underfunded campaign was a failure, as the french captured normandy, meaning money was wasted & england was humiliated

how valid are these views PT 2

1. Maine was meant to be handed over to the french as part of the marriage agreement between Henry & Margaret was originally kept secret, but suffolk denied that there were any secret deals in the truce

1. protected William Tailboys from prosecution for murder (sneaky)

how did this reflect on the king?

- henry was blamed for taking poor advice or blamed privately for the decisions himself

- henry's government had become to be dominated by a small group of men with suffolk at its heart (by early july 1450, all these men had been murdered by different mobs of angry men)

what happened to suffolk?

- Rouen blamed the duke of suffolk & suffolk was charged with treason & committed to the tower of london Jan 1450

- he was blamed for the losses in france & the financial corruption, corrupting the legal system & misgovernment and encouraging the king of france Charles VII to start a war on England

- henry intervened, exiling suffolk for 5 years, sparing him a trial - suffolks ship was intercepted by pirates off Dover & he was KILLED

when was suffolk killed?

1450

how was suffolk killed?

on his way to exile, off dover, pirates intercepted his boat & he was killed