Henry VI was the Lancastrian king who was captured and later murdered in the Tower of London. His troubled reign became one of the central causes of the Wars of the Roses.
Henry inherited the English throne as an infant in 1422 and also became king of France through his father's claims. He was deeply pious but suffered periods of severe mental illness, leaving government vulnerable to factional struggles. His marriage to Margaret of Anjou and the loss of most English territories in France further damaged his political position.
Henry was deposed by Edward IV in 1461, briefly restored in 1470, and then captured again after Edward's return to power. Henry was imprisoned in the Tower following the Yorkist victory at Tewkesbury. He died there on 21 May 1471. Contemporary and later accounts generally treated his death as murder, probably arranged to remove the last viable Lancastrian claimant, although the precise manner of the killing is uncertain.