Causes Of Instability In Henry Vi's

Whilst Henry VI’s was in rule during the 1450’s, England had many issues and problems that cause such instability in the country. One of the largest factors arguably is the loss of the Hundred Years war between The French and English over France. This in turn caused many problems to occur with links to almost every feud the country faced. Yet some historians argue that Normandy wasn’t the main issue of instability in England instead of other reasons such as instability.
In England, political instability was due to the nobles (who advise the king in his decisions and fund the crown if needed) using Henry VI’s and the crown’s crippling debt for their own gains. An example of misguidance for Henry for the nobles’ gains, an example is Richard Duke

of York giving mass amounts of money to the crown and then using these ‘royal favours’ to gain more land. Historians believe this is a big reason for instability because it set up an atmosphere that eventually led to the War of the Roses as well as causing the public to see the crown as weak, therefore showing that Normandy wasn’t the main reason for instability. This constant power climb between nobles caused many fights to occur.
Feuds between different noble families that weren’t resolved by Henry VI’s assistance are a big contributing to the instability in England. A strong example of one feud is between the Nevilles and Percys which got so heated there was a siege of Heworth Moor and large scale armies being used, almost causing civil war. Although historians may see that these feuds were all caused by the Loss of Normandy since there were lots of consequences for the nobles like the loss of land they owned in France and the rapid decline in royal favours that are handed out to keep the nobles happy therefore increasing tension between the nobles about who was going to get them.
Cades Rebellion was a strong example of instability in England.

This revolt was in 1450 when William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk was exiled and killed in travel. Many believed that the people of Kent were responsible and so this led many citizens to storm London. When Cade’s Rebellion was in full effect, Henry VI fled from London which showed the people how weak the king was and how little it took to push the crown to such extremes. To make matters worse, Jack Cade, who was predicted to run the rebellion, had a rumoured to be related to Richard Duke of York, which caused the common people to think that the government isn’t a polished and well-rounded system that they were made to believe which later showed the exposure of other nobles like [fill in]. Even the matter that a rebellion occurred showed how instable England was even before Normandy was lost.
Although there are many examples of extreme factors that contributed to instability of England. Other historians talk say that the loss of Normandy did have a huge effect on England and English rule at the time and still is the major contributor to the Battle of St. Albans which would be the start of War of the

Roses.

Socially, it caused discomfort in the population of England and a rock in the solid social structure.

This is because of many refugees that occurred from the lost as they were citizens that had moved to France during the success of the Hundred Year War. This meant that there was a rapid increase in population causing homelessness to occur and this made the already poor to rich ratio incline quickly meaning it meant more citizens looking for jobs. It also meant a shortage on food since most of the refugees went to big cities for work and housing. This made the general population question their king since little to no support was ever shown by Henry VI as he still had to sort out many feuds with the nobles to keep a steady income for the crown, not to mention the support for Henry VI

drastically
Economically, it was a huge setback for all involved in the war or who were affected by it. The King suffered to its already giant debt by having to pay for damages of the war. The trade of wool could no longer complete trade routes easily since they had to use more ships to avoid Normandy, limiting the GDP of the country. The nobles were worst off, leaving them with already a giant sum of money and land they were already owed before the war by the crown had now lost their land in Normandy given to them by Henry V.
All of these factors as well as the loss of this epic war caused Henry VI’s reign to become so weak he became clinically mad. Most historians viewed his spurt of madness as the start of the War of the Roses as this caused Richard Duke of York to step in Lord protector who, arguably, used the position for his own feud with Somerset which later provoked their fight to move into the first battle of St. Albans. This weakness for the King would later cause him to be a puppet for his wife, Margaret An Anjou to gain more power in the government. If the Loss of Normandy didn’t occur, arguably it may not have pushed Henry to point of such extremes.
In conclusion personally I disagree with his view point as I believe that the main reason for the instability in England has to be because of king Henrys rule. If he had not been such a weak ruler then the nobles wouldn’t have had these internal conflicts which caused a lot of instability. With fixing this problem he would have been able to focus more on the war in France, he might not have necessarily won it however I do believe he would have been able to keep a hold of Normandy. Now I know the loss of Normandy did have huge instability repercussions for England however the reason they lost Normandy I believe was down to the king not being strong enough to stop other factors which led to the loss of it.