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The Wars of the Roses, 1455 to 1487, is the title generally given to the intermittent civil war
fought over the throne of England between adherents of the House of Lancaster and the House of York. Both houses were branches of the Plantagenet royal house, tracing their descent from King Edward III. The name Wars of the Roses was not used at the time, but has its origins in the
badges chosen by the two royal houses, the Red Rose of Lancaster and the White
Rose of York.
Shakespeare's Henry VI, depicts the wars' beginning with the plucking of
two roses in the Temple gardens in London The Wars were fought largely by armies of mounted knights and their feudal retainers. The House of Lancaster found most of its support in the north and west of the
country, while support for the House of York came mainly from the south and east. The Wars of the Roses, with their heavy
casualties among the nobility, were a major factor in the weakening of the feudal
power of the nobles, leading to the growth of a strong, centralised monarchy under the Tudors.
Causes
The House of York, headed by the powerful and popular Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, challenged the fitness and legitimacy of the Lancastrian King Henry VI. The King
was surrounded by unpopular regents and advisors who were blamed for mismanaging the government and poorly prosecuting the
Hundred Years War in France, having lost nearly all of the land
conquered by Henry V. Henry VI was a weak, ineffectual king,
and he suffered from embarassing episodes of mental illness. By the 1450s many considered Henry incapable of rule. The short line
of Lancastrian kings had already been plagued by questions of legitimacy, and the House of York believed they had a slightly stronger claim to the throne. Growing civil discontent, the
abundance of feuding nobles with private armies, and corruption in Henry VI's court made the political climate ripe for civil
war.
When, in 1453, King Henry suffered the first of several bouts of mental illness, a
Council of Regency was set up, headed by Richard, Duke of
York, in the role of Lord Protector. Richard now began to press his claim to the throne with ever greater boldness. Henry's
recovery in 1455 thwarted Richard's ambitions, and he was soon after driven from the royal
court by Henry's queen, Margaret of Anjou. Since Henry was an
ineffectual leader, the powerful and aggresive Queen Margaret emerged as the de facto leader of the Lancastrian faction. Queen
Margaret built up an alliance against Richard and conspired to reduce his assets. Richard resorted to armed hostilities in
1455 at the Battle of St
Albans.
The Disputed Succession
Opinions may vary as to when the Wars of the Roses began and ended, but the armed conflict was concentrated in the period
1455-1485. The antagonism between the two houses,
however, originated with the overthrow of King Richard II of
England by his cousin, Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Lancaster, in 1399. Bolingbroke, crowned as Henry IV, had a poor claim to the throne and was tolerated as king only because Richard had been unpopular. Henry's heir, Henry V of England, was a great soldier and gained a firm hold on the
reins of power but did not lack enemies. One of these was
Richard, Earl of Cambridge, a son of Edmund of Langley and thus grandson of King Edward III of England. Cambridge was executed (1415) for treason
at the start of the campaign leading up to the Battle of
Agincourt.
Cambridge's wife, Anne Mortimer, also had a claim to the throne, being
descended from Lionel of Antwerp, an older son of Edward III.
Their son, Richard, Duke of York, grew up to challenge
the feeble King Henry VI of England for the crown. At first
appointed "Protector", he grew more ambitious and was at loggerheads with Henry's queen, Margaret of Anjou, especially after the birth of her son, Edward of Westminster.
The Initial Phase
Richard, Duke of York, led a small force toward
London, and was met by Henry VI's forces at St Albans, north of London, on May 22, 1455. The relatively small Battle of St Albans was the first open conflict of the civil war.
Richard's aim was ostensibly to remove "poor advisors" from King Henry's side. With his victory, the Duke of York regained his position as Protector, and was also
promised the succession by Henry, thus disinheriting Prince
Edward of Westminster, much to the disgust of Queen Margaret.
After the Battle of St Albans attempts were made to
achieve a permanent settlement of the grievances which had given rise to the conflict, and for a while the compromise of 1455
seemed to enjoy some success. However, the problems which had caused conflict soon re-emerged, particularly the issue of whether
the Duke of York, or Henry and Margaret's son, Edward would succeed to the throne. Queen Margaret refused to accept any solution
that would disinherit her son, and it became clear that she would only tolerate the situation for as long as the Duke of York and
his allies retained the military ascendancy. In the years up to 1459 both sides continued
to raise armed support, with the Queen introducing conscription for the
first time in England.
Hostilities resumed on September 23, 1459 at the Battle of Blore Heath in Staffordshire, when a large Lancastrian army failed to prevent a Yorkist force
under Lord Salisbury marching from Middleham Castle in Yorkshire and linking up with
York at Ludlow Castle. The Battle of Northampton on July 10, 1460 proved even more disastrous for the Lancastrian cause. A Yorkist army under Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick - "the
Kingmaker", aided by treachery in the Lancastrian ranks, captured King Henry.
Queen Margaret, however, managed to escape, and immediately began raising a new army in Wales and the north of England, moving
her headquarters to York. She gained a major success at the Battle of Wakefield on December 30, 1460, when the army of the Duke of York and the Earl of
Salisbury was destroyed. Margaret ordered the beheading of the Duke of York and the Earl of Salisbury and the placing of their
heads on the gates of the city of York. Margaret followed up with a victory at St Albans on 22 February 1461, at which she defeated the Yorkist forces of the
Earl of Warwick and
recaptured her husband.
Yorkist triumph
Lancastrian success proved to be illusory, however, since the Duke of York's claim to the throne was immediately taken forward
by his eldest son, Edward, an outstanding warrior who prevailed over the Lancastrians at the Battle of Towton in 1461 to become King Edward IV of England. With Margaret fleeing the country, Edward was
able to rule in relative peace for ten years.
There were two Lancastrian revolts in 1464 and twice the houses of York and Lancaster clashed; once at the Battle of Hedgeley Moor on the 25 April and once at the Battle of Hexham, soon after on 15 May 1464. Both revolts were put down by Lord Montagu.
However, Edward's mentor, the powerful Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick - "the Kingmaker" - changed sides after being slighted by
the young king, and transferred his allegiance to Henry VI's queen, Margaret of Anjou, triumphing over Edward at the Battle of Edgecote Moor on July 26, 1469, and restoring Henry briefly to the throne in 1470.
Warwick's success was short-lived. With assistance from Burgundy, Edward
returned and defeated Warwick at the Battle of Barnet in 1471. The remaining Lancastrian forces were destroyed at the Battle of Tewkesbury and Edward of Lancaster, the Lancastrian heir to the throne was killed.
Henry VI was murdered shortly afterwards (14 May 1471), to strengthen the Yorkist hold on
the throne.
Richard III
Peace was restored for the remainder of Edward's reign, but the Yorkist king died suddenly, in 1483, when his heir, Edward V, was a mere
12-year-old boy. Edward IV's brother, Richard III took
charge of both the boy king and his younger brother, keeping them "protected" in the Tower of London. Having secured the boys, Richard then alleged that Edward IV's marriage to Elizabeth Woodville had been illegal, and that the two boys were
therefore illegitimate. The two Princes in the Tower soon
"disappeared", (believed murdered), and Parliament gave the throne to
Richard III.
Richard was the finest general on the Yorkist side, and so many accepted him as a ruler better able to keep the Yorkists in
power than a boy who would have to rule through a committee of regents. Lancastrian
hopes, on the other hand, now centred on Henry Tudor, whose father, Edmund
Tudor, Earl of Richmond, had been an illegitimate half-brother of Henry VI. It was through his mother, however, Margaret Beaufort, a descendant of Edward III, that Henry's claim to the
throne rested, but it was derived from a grandson of Edward III's who was also illegitimate.
The Final Phase
Henry Tudor's forces defeated Richard's at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 and Henry Tudor became King
Henry VII of England. Henry then strengthened his position
by marrying Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV, and the
best surviving Yorkist claimant. He thus reunited the two royal houses, merging the rival symbols of the red and white roses into
the new emblem of the red and white Tudor Rose. Henry shored up his position by executing all other possible claimants whenever
he could lay hands on them, a policy his son Henry VIII
continued.
Many historians would consider the accession of Henry VII to mark the end of the Wars of the Roses. However some would argue
that the Wars of the Roses concluded only with the Battle of Stoke in
1487, which arose from the appearance of a pretender to the throne, a boy named Lambert Simnel who
bore a close physical resemblance to the young Earl of Warwick, the best surviving male claimant of he House of York. (The plan
was doomed from the start, because the young earl was still alive and in King Henry's custody, so no one could seriously doubt
Simnel was an imposter.) It was at the Battle of Stoke that Henry defeated forces led by John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln - who
had been named by Richard III as his heir, but had been reconciled with Henry after Bosworth - thus effectively removing the
remaining Yorkist opposition. Simnel was pardoned for his part in the rebellion and sent to work in the royal kitchens.
Genealogy
The following is a simplified family tree including members of the English royal family. To facilitate the reading and to respect the conventions
of the War, the Lancastrians are shown in red and the yorkists in white.
External links
Books
- The Military Campaigns of the Wars of the Roses by Philip A Haigh ISBN 0750909048
See also
- The War of the Roses is the popular name for the annual Roses Tournament fought between the Athletic's Unions of
Lancaster University and the University of York for the Carter-James Trophy. It takes its name from
the war and the rivalry between the two cities.
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