King Henry IV, The Second Part

By William Shakespeare

In this second part of Henry IV, the Battle of Shrewsbury is over, the rebels temporarily beaten but not defeated. Prince Henry defeated "Hotspur" Percy in single combat, but other rebel leaders have taken his place. King Henry, drained by the civil war, is deathly ill. Prince Henry, knowing he must soon assume the throne, tries to distance himself from the rowdy and reprobate friends of his youth, including Falstaff. As rebel forces gather at the Forest of Gaultree and King Henry grows sicker, will Prince Henry be able to prove to his father that he has become worthy of wearing the crown? First published in 1600, this unabridged version of William Shakespeare's history play is the third in his tetralogy about the rise of the English royal House of Lancaster.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lerner Publishing
• Release date: Jan 1, 2016
• ISBN: 9781512405484

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was born in April 1564 in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, on England’s Avon River. When he was eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway. The couple had three children—an older daughter Susanna and twins, Judith and Hamnet. Hamnet, Shakespeare’s only son, died in childhood. The bulk of Shakespeare’s working life was spent in the theater world of London, where he established himself professionally by the early 1590s. He enjoyed success not only as a playwright and poet, but also as an actor and shareholder in an acting company. Although some think that sometime between 1610 and 1613 Shakespeare retired from the theater and returned home to Stratford, where he died in 1616, others believe that he may have continued to work in London until close to his death.