This analysis investigates Shakespeare's portrayal of kingship and its connection to apocalypse in his Henriad plays.
The protestors cry “No Kings,” yet, we see—Kings. At a time when kingship is being invested with new psychological energy of all qualities, this paper returns to the author who worked out the phenomenology of the King perhaps more than any other, that is, William Shakespeare. This is the first of two parts of “The King of the End of the World,” which represents the text of a live presentation first given in November 2025. It investigates Shakespeare’s Henriad—Henry IV Pts. 1 & 2 and Henry V—to see what these plays can teach us about the King archetype, and why he seems to be flanked by the archetype of Apocalypse, both “then” and now.
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Joel Crichton (2026) studied this question.
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