Shakespeare - King Henry VI - Part 2 - two-colour woodcut and lithograph from The Library Shakespeare, illus. by John Gilbert, Geo. Cruikshank and R. Dudley. c.1885 - The play we know as King Henry VI Part II was originally known as The First Part of the Contention betwixt the Two Famous Houses of York and Lancaster. It was the first half of a two-part play on the popular theme of the 'Wars of the Roses'. It was this two-part play that established Shakespeare's reputation as a major playwright in the 1590s. - (C)TopFoto / Charles Walker