French history in the English-speaking theatre no dowry is given (Treaty of Tours, 1445). In the final scene, the Yorkists are victorious after the First Battle of St Albans (1455) during the War of the Roses. In the first scene of "Henry VI part 3", the Yorkists confront the supporters of Henry VI, who discuss whether the king should accept the issue of the duke of York as king. Queen Margaret refuses to accept that her son, Edward, be disinherited. With her principal commander, Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset, she fights successfully for a while the Yorkists but is eventually defeated by them, whereby the
The Wars of the Roses (adaptation) become more aware of Shakespeare's political absorption and inspired interpretations of man's difficulty in governing himself and others." Barton and Hall were also influenced by certain politically focused literary theory of the time; both were subscribers to Antonin Artaud's theory of the "Theatre of Cruelty", and both had attended the 1956 London visit of Bertolt Brecht's Berliner Ensemble. Brecht's influence on "The Wars of the Roses" was especially pronounced, and many scholars have since cited Brecht's theories on drama in general, and historical drama in specific, as the impetus behind the 'rediscovery' of the "Henry VI" plays in the 1960s.