Abstract:

William Shakespeare (1554-1616), English national poet and the most distinguished English literary playwright, produced his most well-known works between 1589 and 1613. He first began his literary career as a comedy and chronicle writer, but he did not confine his literary genius with comedies and chronicles. He also produced very prestigious tragedies, tragi-comedies, romances and poems. His history plays deal mainly with the events from King John to Henry VIII. His main concern was order, disorder, importance and continuity of monarch in these plays, in which he also emphasized the Englishness and advised on the destructive influences of civil wars and disobedience against the monarchs. The Wars of the Roses, in which the Houses of York and Lancaster, fought on the monarch of England between 1455 and 1487, was an important historical event for the history plays. Henry Tudor defeats Richard III and succeeds to the throne as Henry VII. He achieves to unite the two families, marrying Elizabeth of York. Tudor dynasty ruled England and Wales until 1603. Shakespeare lived under the reign of Elizabeth I, who was the last monarch from Tudor dynasty. Shakespeare advises the audince against the dangers of civil wars and speaks well of the Tudor dynasties in his history plays, such as King John, Edward III, Richard II, Henry IV (Part I, II), Henry V, Henry VI (Part I, II, III), Richard III, Henry VIII. This plays were about the English history. In this study some important historical events before the Elizabethan period and how Shakespeare used historical events in his plays will be discussed.

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