This is an enquiry into the historiographical quality of Shakespeare's histories. The main assumption is that Shakespeare's staging of English history helped to shape a new historiographical outlook. In particular, multi-perspectivism in the treatment of political issues produced a problem-oriented kind of historical perspective. This explored the opportunities offered by the theatrical medium, and inaugurated a perspective which considered history as critical outlook on a world of problems and retrospective possibilities rather than as unconditional belief in, or even worship of, a world of facts.