SOURCE: “Elizabethan Civic Pageantry in Henry VI,” in University of Toronto Quarterly, Vol. 60, No. 2, Winter, 1990, pp. 244-64.

In the essay below, Martin surveys Shakespeare's use of the emblems of Elizabethan civic pageantry to create his “reinterpretive presentation of history” in Henry VI.

At the point in Henry VI Part One where the private quarrel between Somerset and York is about to turn into open conflict marking the start of the Wars of the Roses, their respective supporters Vernon and Basset ask the king to arbitrate between wearing either red or white roses as badges of dynastic superiority. Henry spurns their dispute as frivolous, however, and demonstrates his point by casually plucking the closest rose to hand:

I see no reason if I wear this rose, [Putting on a red rose.] That any one should therefore be suspicious I more incline to Somerset than York: Both are my kinsmen...