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Henry VI was the only child and heir of King Henry V of England, and great things were therefore expected of him from birth. He was born on December 6, 1421 at Windsor, but his father died when he was only a few months old. His mother, Katherine of Valois, was French and only twenty years old. Because of general suspicion of her nationality, she was prevented from having much to do with her son's upbringing, and regents ruled the kingdom on his behalf until he came of age and assumed the reins of government in 1437 - in which year his mother died. His half-brothers, Edmund and Jasper Tudor, the sons of his mother's second marriage, were later given earldoms, Edmund being the father of Henry Tudor, later King Henry VII of England.

Henry V had left England in possession of considerable territories in France, but the momentum was lost on his death, and, during his son's reign, most of the ground he had gained would be lost. Henry VI had proved to be a deeply spiritual man, lacking the worldly wisdom necessary to allow him to rule effectively. His wife, Margaret of Anjou, whom he married in 1445, was far more capable. By the time of the birth of their first and only child, Edward Prince of Wales, in 1453, the king had suffered a mental breakdown, and it was rumoured that the child was not his. After a violent struggle between the houses of Lancaster and York who contested the throne, Henry was deposed in 1461 by a cousin who became King Edward IV of England.

Queen Margaret was determined to win back the throne on behalf of her husband and son, and eventually formed an alliance with Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, who had fallen out with the new king. After marrying off his daughter to the Prince of Wales, Warwick returned to England, defeated the Yorkists in battle, and restored Henry VI to the throne on October 30, 1470. His return to power lasted a very short time. Warwick overreached himself by declaring war on Burgundy, whose ruler responded by giving Edward IV the assistance he needed to win back his throne by force. The Prince of Wales was killed at the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471, and Henry VI was imprisoned in the Tower of London, where he was murdered some time during May, 1471.