Asterisk denotes entries on real places.
Magic
*St. Albans. English town north of London. St. Albans is a setting at both the beginning and the end of this play and highlights the play’s main actions: the duke of Gloucester’s fall and the coming of civil war. First, while King Henry vacations in the town, the political conspiracy against the upright Gloucester bears fruit when he is publicly disgraced by his wife’s crime of witchcraft. Second, the Wars of the Roses begin in St. Albans with the first Battle of St. Albans. This fight occurs within the town rather than on an outlying battlefield, emphasizing the breakdown of law and order. The town’s sufferings foreshadow those of England itself.
*Jack Cade’s camp. Headquarters of a popular revolt against King Henry, which ended in London. Shakespeare transforms the historical Cade’s Revolt into a violent, anarchic affair, suggesting the fragility of England under Henry VI. Cade promises his followers a carnival England of social equality, commonly held property, and free-flowing wine and beer. However, his camp is a bloody tyranny in which men are killed for being literate or for failing to call Cade by his assumed title. The violence in Cade’s camp parodies and foreshadows the duke of York’s impending coup.