Roses, Wars of the

I

Introduction

Roses, Wars of the, series of dynastic civil wars in England fought by the rival houses of Lancaster and York between 1455 and 1485. The struggle was so named because the emblem of the House of Lancaster was a red rose and that of the House of York a white rose. The initial opponents were the Lancastrian king of England, Henry VI, aided by his queen, Margaret of Anjou, and Richard, 3rd Duke of York, who adopted the surname Plantagenet to try to emphasize the superiority of his dynastic claim over the Lancastrians.

II

Causes

The civil wars were between two cadet branches of the House of Plantagenet, and were triggered by the incapacity and mental breakdown of Henry VI. A contributory factor was the nobility’s loss of their lands in France following English military defeats during the last phase of the so-called Hundred Years’ War, from 1337 to 1453. Edward III had been succeeded by his grandson, Richard II , who was the last of the main Plantagenet line. However, Richard II was deposed and murdered by Henry Bolingbroke, the son of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. Bolingbroke usurped the throne as Henry IV and was the first Lancastrian king. Henry IV was succeeded by his son, Henry V, but the latter died young, leaving the throne to his infant son, Henry VI. A crucial event was the subsequent marriage of Henry V’s widow, Katherine, to Owen Tudor, the grandfather of Henry Tudor, since it was Henry Tudor (the future Henry VII) who ended the Wars of the Roses at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485.

Henry VI was weak and effete. The authority and prestige of the Crown were so badly shaken by 1454 that Richard, 3rd Duke of York, was nominated Lord Protector of the Realm. Richard, like Henry VI himself, was a direct descendant of Edward III. He soon decided that he did not merely want to be Protector but also King, since he had a good claim to the throne. The civil wars began in 1455 between Richard’s side, the Yorkists, and Henry VI’s side, the Lancastrians. They were a series of struggles for the succession to the throne, but several of the nobility were ambitious for themselves and their families and raised their retinues as much to achieve patronage and rewards as to support the rival dynastic claimants.

III

Principal Events

The Lancastrians and Yorkists mustered their forces in 1455, when the first battle took place at St Albans. The Duke of York was victorious and began to take command of Henry VI’s government. He reasserted his control at the Battle of Northampton (1460) and claimed the throne before Parliament as “heir” to Richard II. When he was slain at the Battle of Wakefield, he was succeeded by his son, Edward, who won the Battle of Towton (1461) and usurped the throne. He was crowned King Edward IV and, for a while, was highly successful. Henry VI and Margaret fled from England. In 1465 Henry was captured and imprisoned in the Tower of London.

The war was revived because of divisions within the Yorkist faction; when Edward IV married a commoner, Elizabeth Woodville, he upset Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick. Warwick, aided by George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, younger brother of Edward, made an alliance with Margaret and led an invasion from France in 1470. Edward IV was driven into exile and Henry VI restored to the throne. In 1471, however, Edward returned and, aided by Clarence, defeated and killed Warwick at the Battle of Barnet. Shortly afterwards, the Lancastrians were decisively routed at the Battle of Tewkesbury. Prince Edward, Henry VI’s heir, was killed in the battle, and Henry VI was murdered in the Tower of London.

Edward IV died in 1483 and left the throne to his young son, Edward, who became Edward V. However, his brother, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, quickly usurped the throne. He was crowned King Richard III, and put Edward V and his younger brother in the Tower. They disappeared and were most probably murdered. The Lancastrians turned for leadership to Henry Tudor, then Earl of Richmond. In August 1485 the forces of Richard III and Henry Tudor fought the decisive Battle of Bosworth Field, the last major encounter of the wars. After Richard’s death in battle, Henry ascended the throne. He was crowned as Henry VII and married Edward IV’s daughter, Elizabeth, thus uniting the houses of Lancaster and York.

IV

Consequences

Opinion is divided on the effects of the Wars of the Roses. Chroniclers exaggerated the “dynastic” element in the conflict and the length and scale of the fighting. Although the “wars” lasted for 30 years, the total period of active campaigning was little more than one year. The effects on trade and the economy were limited, and there was no general or prolonged breakdown of law and order. The damage to ordinary people and their way of life was relatively minor. However, there were more casualties and damage than is sometimes claimed. There were 14 pitched battles and numerous skirmishes. In 1461, 28,000 men were killed on a single day at the Battle of Towton. The main results of the wars were seen during the reign of Henry VII, who mistrusted the nobility and applied the coercive methods he had learned in exile in France and Brittany to buttress his rule. Henry also adopted the reforms introduced by Edward IV to strengthen the financial resources of the monarchy. Battle and execution had severely depleted the old nobility, and the financial resources of the monarchy were further strengthened by the confiscation of estates.

The triumphant union by Henry VII of the houses of Lancaster and York became a major theme of Tudor literary and artistic propaganda (see Tudor Period). This may be seen in the Life of Henry VII by Bernard André, the History of England by Polydore Vergil, and The Union of the Two Noble and Illustrious Families of Lancaster and York by Edward Hall. The Chronicles by Richard Grafton and Raphael Holinshed tell the same story, which achieved its most dramatic representation in Richard III by William Shakespeare. A more nuanced literary account is The History of King Richard III by Sir Thomas More.