• [3] The second tetralogy The term Henriad was popularized by Alvin Kernan in his 1969 article, The Henriad: Shakespeare’s Major History Plays to suggest that the four plays
  of the second tetralogy (Richard II; Henry IV, Part 1; Henry IV, Part 2; and Henry V), when considered together as a group, or a dramatic tetralogy, have coherence and characteristics that are the primary qualities associated with literary
  epic: “large-scale heroic action involving many men and many activities tracing the movement of a nation or people through violent change from one condition to another.”

• [20][21][22] King John is not included in the Henriad because it is said to have a style that is of a different order than the other history plays.

• [39] The four plays that Mistress Quickly appears in are The Merry Wives of Windsor, the two parts of Henry IV, and Henry V. Voltaire’s Henriade The French critic and playwright,
  Voltaire, is known for making extreme criticisms of Shakespeare that he would then balance with more positive comments.

• [13] The eight plays, when considered together, are said to tell a unified story of a significant arc of British history from Richard II to Richard III.

• In this sense, the eight Henry plays are known as the Henriad, and when divided in two, the group written earlier may be known as the “first Henriad” with the group that was
  written later known as the “second Henriad”.

• [25] Authorship Shakespeare is well established as the sole author of the plays of the second Henriad, but there has been speculation regarding possible co-authors of the
  Henry VI plays of the first Henriad.

• 2, and Henry V, saying “taken together the three plays form a Henriade, a trilogy, whose central figure is the hero of Agincourt, whose subject is his development from the
  madcap prince to the conqueror of France”.

• After Tillyard’s book, these plays have often been combined in performance, and it would be a very rare occurrence for Henry VI, part 2 or 3, for example, to be performed
  individually.

• The Tudor myth is a theory that suggests that Shakespeare, with his history plays, contributes to the idea that the civil wars of the Henriad were all part of a divine plan
  that would ultimately lead to the Tudors — which in turn would support Shakespeare’s monarch, Elizabeth.

• )[9][10] Eight-play Henriad The term Henriad, following after Kernan, acquired an expanded second meaning, which refers to two groups of Shakespearean plays: The tetralogy
  mentioned above (Richard II; Henry IV, Part 1; Henry IV, Part 2; and Henry V), and also four plays that were written earlier and are based on the historic events and civil wars now known as The Wars of the Roses; Henry VI, Part 1, Henry VI,
  Part 2, Henry VI, Part 3, and Richard III.

• [14][15][16] The eight-play Henriad is also known as The First Tetralogy and The Second Tetralogy; a terminology that had been in use,[17] but was made popular by the influential
  Shakespearean scholar E.M.W.

• [26][27][28] Literary background The plays that may have influenced, inspired, or provided a tradition for Shakespeare’s Henriad plays would include popular morality plays,
  which contributed to the evolution of British drama.

• This is not universally accepted, but it is the first time a major critical edition of Shakespeare’s works has listed Marlowe as a co-author.

• [31][32] Criticism In his book, Shakespeare’s History Plays, E. M. W. Tillyard’s mid-20th century theories regarding the eight-play Henriad, have been extremely influential.

• 2, and Henry V, as “our English Henriade”, and says the “ripest fruit of historic or national drama, the consummation and the crown of Shakespeare’s labours in that line,
  must of course be recognised and saluted by all students in the supreme and sovereign trilogy of King Henry IV and King Henry V.” They are, according to Swinburne, England’s “great national trilogy”, and Shakespeare’s “perfect triumph in the
  field of patriotic drama.

• [38] An earlier use An earlier use of the word “Henriad” to refer to a group of Shakespeare’s plays occurs in a book published in 1876 titled Shakespeare’s Diversions; A Medley
  of Motley Wear.

• Gorboduc (1561) is considered the first Senecan tragedy in the English language, though it is a chronicle play written in blank verse; it has numerous serious speeches, a
  unified dramatic action, and its violence is kept off-stage.

• Then in 2016 the editors of the New Oxford Shakespeare, led by Gary Taylor, announced that Marlowe and “anonymous” would be listed on their title pages of Henry VI, Parts
  2 and 3 as co-author side-by-side with Shakespeare, and that Marlowe, Thomas Nashe and “anonymous” would be listed as the authors of Henry VI, Part 1, with Shakespeare listed only as the adaptor.

• It is sometimes used to refer to a group of four plays (a tetralogy), but some sources and scholars use the term to refer to eight plays.

• These plays cover this history, while going beyond the English chronicle play; they include some of Shakespeare’s greatest writing.

• Notable morality plays that focus on British history include John Skelton’s Magnificence (1533), David Lyndsay’s A Satire of the Three Estates (1552), and John Bale’s play
  King John (c. 1538).

• [11][12] The two Shakespearean tetralogies share the name Henriad, but only the “second Henriad” has the epic qualities that Kernan had in mind in his use of the term.

• In Shakespearean scholarship, the Henriad refers to a group of William Shakespeare’s history plays depicting the rise of the English kings.

• [33] Critics including Paul Murray Kendall and Jan Kott, challenged the idea of the Tudor myth, and these newer ideas caused the image of Shakespeare to change so much he
  now seemed to become instead a prophetic voice in the wilderness who saw the existential meaninglessness of this history of warfare.

• In the 19th century, Algernon Charles Swinburne used the term to refer to three plays, but that use is not current.

• The argument against Tillyard’s theory is that when these plays were written Elizabeth was approaching the end of her life and reign, and how her successor would be determined
  was causing the idea of a civil war to be a source of concern, not glorification.

• The source also indicates that the number of plays she appears in is four — “one more than is granted to Falstaff”.

• [23] Three-play Henriad In Algernon Charles Swinburne’s book A Study of Shakespeare (1880), he refers to three plays, Henry IV pt.

• However, there is no evidence that these plays were written with the intention that they be considered as a group.

 

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Photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/franklinheijnen/3238068295/’]