The War of the Roses:

NOTE: large sections of thistext are adapted from

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What Was It?The War of the Roses was a civil war in England that lasted from 1455-1487. These thirty years of warfare were even more destructive to England than the Hundred Years War had been in the previous century. (Most of the fighting in the Hundred Years War took place in France, which meant most of the military damage affected the French peasantry rather than the English. In the War of the Roses, most of the fighting occurred in England, and thus the loss of lifeand property was much greater for English citizens.) It was a struggle to claim the throne between the families descended from Edward III and the families descended from Henry IV. The last Angevin ruler, King Richard II diedwithout an heir. He had been overthrown and murdered by Henry IV (Henry Bolingbroke, who was of the House of Lancaster through his father John of Gaunt). Henry IV's descendants and their supporters were the Lancastrian faction. The other branch, descended from Edward IV, were associated with families in the North of England, particularly the House of York and Richard of York. They are called the Yorkist faction.

What's All This Stuff About Flowers?The exact image of warring flowers was a late invention, and the general idea of each rose being a factional symbol originates in Shakespeare’s day. In Renaissance literature, writers linked the House of York with a white rose andthe House of Lancaster with a red rose. For instance, in Henry VI, Part One, Act II, scene iv, lines 25-135, Shakespeare depicts the minor lords as choosing their factions symbolically by plucking either white or red roses from a garden. The play dates back to 1592 or so. For instance, in lines 124-128, we read the following:

Warwick: And here I prophesy: this brawl today,Grown to this faction in the Temple garden,Shall send, between the Red Rose and the White,

A thousand souls to death and deadly night. Mind you, Shakespeare is being anachronistic. He’s following chroniclers like Holinshed and such who popularized the image of warring roses for Renaissance readers. In actual point of fact, during the medieval War of the Roses, neither faction cared much about the roses. The red and white roses were only insignia worn as part of the household servants for the Houses of Lancaster and York. They were not part of the official coat-of-arms for either aristocratic house. The servants of each house wore emblems with these flowerson their liveries (servant uniforms). The phrase "War of the Roses" is even later.

How Did It Start?The war began in 1455 when Richard, Duke of York challenged the current king'sright to the throne. (This was not the same Richard as Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who becomes King Richard III later.) Richard, Duke of York, descended ultimately from the same family as King Richard II, whom Henry Bolingbroke (Henry IV) deposed. The king at the time was the Lancastrian HenryVI, a pious but weak ruler prone to bouts of insanity. He descended from HenryIV, our "hero" in Shakespeare's play Richard II. Richard, Duke of York, argued that Henry IV's descendants have no right to the throne because Henry IV usurped the position unlawfully. Richard's son Edward becomes King Edward IV in 1461 and Henry VI flees the country for nine years.

What Happened in a Nutshell? Edward IV ruled for nine years without too much trouble until 1470, when HenryVI returned with an army. Henry VI briefly regained the throne in 1470, but Edward IV ultimately wrestled power away from him again.

On Edward IV's death in 1483, his son Edward V was the next Yorkist ruler slated to ascend to the throne. However, though Edward was unusually precocious and capable, he was still a child. His uncle Richard, Duke of Gloucester (the guy who later becomes King Richard III) set himself up as regent (temporary ruler) until the boy Edward reached adulthood. After doing this, Richard declared martial law under his "protectorate government." Richard of Gloucester sent young Edward and Edward's younger brother into the Tower of London ("for the princes' protection"). There, the two child-princes mysteriously vanished, presumably murdered. Richard then declared himself The struggle ended abruptly at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 when the

Lancastrian faction won a decisive victory. Henry Tudor, an obscure Welsh prince, raised an army to fight Richard III. The Tudors had blood-ties to the House of Lancaster, and Henry Tudor had a strong claim to the throne since most of the major Lancastrian and Yorkist candidates had killed each other during the thirty years of warfare. Henry Tudor declared himself King Henry VII. In the first few years of his reign, he eliminated all his rivals. He then married Edward IV's daughter Elizabeth to strengthen his descendant's claim to the throne. The marriage was a brilliant move politically; Elizabeth carried matrilineally the Yorkist claim to the throne, and Henry carried patrilineally the Lancastrian claim to the throne. Thus, Henry VII's children would have both Yorkist and Lancastrian blood. Their son became Henry VIII, and he in turn fathered Queen Elizabeth I, the illustrious monarch who ruled during Shakespeare's early career.

Outline of Major Events:This bit is primarily interesting to military buffs and historians. It contains the outline of events, with the two major battles in bold red print. The most important part for Shakespeare students is the Battle of Bosworth Field (see below at year 1485), which is central to Shakespeare's Richard III.

(1454) Richard, Duke of York, is appointed regent during Henry VI's insanity.

(1455) Henry VI recovers his sanity. He fears Richard of York has grown too powerful, and he puts the Duke of Somerset in Richard of York's government position, and he excludes Richard from the Royal Council--at once limiting Richard's political power, but also alienating him from the king.

(1455) The First Battle of St. Albans: This is the opening battle in the Wars of the Roses. Richard of York leads a force of about 3,000 on a march toward London. Henry VI moves from London to intercept the Yorkist army. Henry halts his march in the town of Saint Albans and waits. Richard attacks and defeats Henry inflicting about 300 casualties. The Queen and her young son Edward fleeinto exile. The Yorkist faction also kills the Lancastrian ally Somerset, the primary supporter of Henry VI.

(1459) Battle of Blore Heath: After four years of uneasy peace, combat flares up again at the battle of Blore Heath. Over the past three years, Margaret of Anjou has maintained pressure to end Yorkist claims to the throne. Finally, Richard, duke of York decides it is time to act before his forces lose their momentum. He centralizes his forces around Ludlow and then attacks the Lancastrian forces. During the march to the concentration point, a Lancastriangeneral (Lord Audley) intercepts him; Margaret ordered him to attack the Yorkist army. The Yorkists win a victory.

(1459) Battle of Ludford: After the losing the battle of Blore Heath, the Yorkist faction regroups at Ludford bridge at the town of Ludlow and starts toadvance towards Worcester. They quickly fall back when they encounter a largerenemy force led by Henry VI. The Lancastrians take a position opposite the Yorkists across the Teme river. That night, a significant number of the Yorkist army deserts, leading to a full scale retreat the next morning. The catalyst of the defections is Andrew Trollope, captain of the Calais troops. Trollope switches sides after accepting the king's pardon. After the engagement, Richard returns to Ireland and the earl of Salisbury flees back toCalais in France.

(Early 1460) Battle of Northampton: In June 1460, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, his father (Earl of Salisbury), and Edward, Earl of March (the futureEdward IV) sail from Calais and land at Sandwich on their way to London. Afterwaiting a few weeks to establish a siege force around a small Lancastrian armydefending the Tower of London, Warwick marches north to attack the Lancastrianarmy that marches south from Coventry. The Lancastrian army learns of the Yorkist plans. They stop at the town of Northampton to build a defensive position. When Warwick arrives, he spends hours trying to contact the King andnegotiate a settlement. Finally, around 2:00 p.m., the Yorkist force attacks. During the middle of the battle, Lord Grey, who commands a wing of the King's army, switches sides to the Yorkist cause. This is the deciding action; the Yorkist sweep away the Lancastrians. The king is now under Yorkist control, and in November he agrees that the Yorks are the rightful heirs to the crown. Many think this capitulation would end the civil wars; however, the queen is busily assembling an army in Wales to continue the struggle.

The Earl of Warwick (known as Warwick the Kingmaker) captures London and turnsit over to the Yorkist faction.

(Early 1460) Battle of Wakefield (sometimes erroneously listed as "Westfield" in modern sources): Richard, Duke of York, travels north with Richard Neville,Earl of Salisbury, to meet the threat of a large Lancastrian force assembling near the city of York. Upon reaching the area, Richard takes up a defensive position at Sandal Castle. For some unknown reason, Richard leaves his stronghold and directly attacks the Lancastrian force even though it is twice the size of his army. While Richard holds out for some time, he is eventually overwhelmed and his forces take a sound a thumping. Richard dies during the battle. The Earl of Salisbury along with York's son are captured and executed,marking the beginning of a less chivalrous form of warfare that lasted until the end of the wars.

(1461) Battle of Mortimor's Cross: When Edward, Earl of March, hears of the disaster at Wakefield he decides to move east to link-up with Warwick in London. During his movement, he learns of a Lancastrian force located in central Wales. Edward decides to change direction and engage the enemy. His army of mostly Welshmen routes the Lancastrian army of mercenaries from France

and Ireland and Wales. After the battle, Edward continues his march eastward to join Warwick near London; within two months he would be crowned king.

(1461) Second Battle of St. Albans: On February 17, 1461, Warrick "the Kingmaker" positions his army at St. Albans (about 20 miles northwest of London). Here he waits for Edward's army, victorious at Mortimer's Cross, to join him. Before the Yorkists can unite, the Lancastrians attack. Warrick flees and leaves his hostage, King Henry VI, under a tree.

(1461) Battle of Ferrybridge and Towton: On March 28, 1461, Ferrybridge is a small engagement before the larger battle of Towton. After proclaiming himselfking, Edward IV gathers together a large force and marches north toward the Lancastrian position behind the Aire River. On March 28, the forces engage andthe Yorkist army is pushed back; during the fight, their leader, Lord Fitzwalter, is killed. However, more Yorkist forces arrive later on in the dayand beat back the Lancastrians. On March 29, 1461, the day after the battle ofFerrybridge, the Yorkist forces attack the Lancastrians in a driving snowstormup a sloping hill at Towton. Using the snow and the wind direction as an aid, the Yorkist archers are able to shoot farther than their adversaries. The Lancastrians believe their best strategy is to charge like the knights of old.After many hours of intense fighting, the Yorkist line shows signs of strain. Fortunately, the Duke of Norfolk, John Mowbray, arrives with reinforcements and the Yorkist army defeats the Lancastrians. King Henry VI, the Queen, and their son flee to Scotland for nine years. Edward IV, Richard's son, marches into the city of York. On June 28, he is formally crowned king at Westminster.Edward IV rules England to 1483.

(1464) To offset the political power of the unhappy Lancastrians, Edward IV marries Elizabeth Woodville, whose wealth and family connections make a new powerful alliance--however, his connection to the moneygrubbing Woodvilles also upsets some of his other allies.

(1464) Battle of Hedgeley Moor (April 25, 1464) On his way to the border of Scotland to meet a group of envoys to discuss peace, John Neville (Lord Montague), brother of Warwick, clashes with a Lancastrian force of similar size. During the battle, the Lancastrian wings commanded by Lords Hungerford and Roos flee, leaving Sir Ralph Percy with the only holding force. Percy's troops are crushed miserably. Montague continues north and the Duke of Somerset leads the remaining Lancastrian army south to Hexham.

(1464) Battle of Hexham: On May 15, after completing his mission at the borderof Scotland, Lord Montague marches south and engages the Lancastrian forces atHexham. His army rapidly charges downhill and crushes the Lancastrian forces. The Lancastrian leaders are executed, ending most of the Lancastrian resistance.

(1465) Edward IV imprisons Henry VI.

(1466) The Earl of Warwick begins to quarrel with Edward IV. Warwick feels theking "owes him," especially since Warwick was pivotal in helping him to the throne. He basically wants a puppet king under his own control. When King Edward refuses to obey, Warwick forms a traitorous alliance with Louis XI of France.

(1467) Charles the Bold becomes duke of Burgundy. He is the chief rival to Louis XI. (Louis XI is alllied with Warwick, and Warwick is now enemies with the Yorkist faction, becoming a de facto supporter of the Lancastrians.)

(1468) Margaret of York marries Charles the Bold.

(1469) Battle of Edgecote Moor: After eight years of rule, Edward IV alienatesmany of the nobles including Warwick because of his marriage to Elizabeth Woodville and his alliances with Burgundy. In 1469, Edward rallies an army to put down an uprising in Yorkshire. A Lancastrian force intercepts him and swiftly defeats his army on July 26 of 1469 on the plains of Edgecoate. Meanwhile Warwick and Edward's brother, George duke of Clarence, have already landed from Calais and are on their way to join forces with Robin of Redesdale, the field leader of the Lancastrian force. After the battle, Warwick orders his brother, George Neville, the archbishop of York, to intercept and capture King Edward.

(1470) Warwick switches his alliance again. He allies himself with the Lancastrian faction and wages war against the Yorkist faction. He defeats Edward IV, and he restores Henry VI to the throne. Edward IV retreats and begins rallying troops.

Battle of Losecote Field: At the defeat of his forces at the battle of Edgecote Moor, Edward waits for another opportunity to strike. In early 1470, under the guise of putting down an uprising, Edward raises a new army and attacks the rebels at Empingham. On March 12, 1470, the king's forces win and the defeated rebels shed their coats to flee more quickly (hence the name of the battle). Edward was back in control and Warwick and George flee to France to make an alliance with Margaret of Anjou.

(1471) Battle of Barnet. Edward IV defeats and kills Warwick. Henry VI dies, probably murdered..

(1474) In a tangled web of alliances, Louis XI of France (who was allied with Warwick previously and still has connections to the Yorkists) declares war against Charles the Bold in France. The Yorkist faction under Edward IV alliesitself with Charles the Bold.

(1475) Edward IV invades France to protect Charles the Bold, the one ally in France who acts as a check on the Lancastrian faction's allies there.

(1483) Death of Edward IV. The child-king, Edward V, is deposed by his uncle Richard, Duke of Gloucester. Richard becomes King Richard III, rules until 1485. Edward V and his brother are murdered in the Tower of London.

(1485) Battle of Bosworth Field: Henry Tudor (soon to be King Henry VII), Earlof Richmond, lands in Wales on August 7, 1485 to challenge Richard III for thecrown. Richard moves to meet Henry's army south of the village of Market Bosworth. After the armies engage, Lord Thomas Stanley and his brother Sir William switch sides and fight for Henry. Henry defeats the Yorkist forces, Richard is killed, and Henry ushers in the rule of the house of Tudor effectively ending the Wars of the Roses.

Henry VII spends the next two years wiping out any other claimants to the throne.

(1487) Battle of Stoke: Many historians consider Stoke the final conflict in the Wars of the Roses, even though the 1485 Battle of Bosworth Field is the crushing blow against the Yorkists. A group of Yorkist loyalists concoct a scheme in a last-gasp attempt to regain the crown. Richard Simons, a priest, and others instruct a commoner by the name of Lambert Simnel to impersonate the earl of Warwick, grandson of the late Warwick the Kingmaker. Lambert claims he escaped from the Tower of London where the real Warwick is imprisoned. Upon his "escape," he is crowned king in Dublin, Ireland, on May 24, 1487. The new Yorkist group lands in England in June 4 and begins to collect an army of English soldiers and German and Irish mercenaries. Henry VII moves to intercept the force at East Stoke on June 16. He crushes the rebel army. King Henry's forces capture Simon, imprison him, and make him a servant of the king. King Henry's army ruthlessly kills all soldiers who fought for the Yorkist faction.

King Richard III as the next Yorkist in line for the throne. After all, he wasbrother to Edward IV, and all the male offspring of Edward were now out of theway.

However, King Richard III's rule was troubled by rebellion on the part of the Lancastrian faction. While he had strong support in the northern regions of England, many southerners were outraged by the (presumed) murders of the fine young princes in the tower. The house of Lancaster continued its warfare against Richard III.

Name and symbols

The White Rose of the House of York

The Red Rose of the House of Lancaster

The name "Wars of the Roses" refers to the Heraldic badges associated with the two royal houses, the White Rose of York and the Red Rose of Lancaster. It is not thought to have been used during the time of the wars. Rather, it came into common use in the nineteenth century after the publication of Anne of Geierstein bySir Walter Scott. Scott based the name on a scene in William Shakespeare's play Henry VI Part 1, set in the gardens of the TempleChurch, where a number of noblemen and a lawyer pick red or whiteroses to show their loyalty to the Lancastrian or Yorkist factionrespectively.

Although the roses were occasionally used as symbols during the wars, most of the participants wore livery badges associated withtheir immediate lords or patrons under the prevailing system of

so-called "bastard feudalism". For example, Henry Tudor's forces at Bosworth fought under the banner of a red dragon, while the Yorkist army used Richard III's personal device of a white boar. It is not even certain whether the Red Rose was used. However, after the wars ended, and his Yorkist marriage, King Henry VII adopted the badge of the single red and white Tudor Rose to symbolise the reunion of the houses of York and Lancaster.

Though the names of the rival houses derive from the cities of York and Lancaster, the corresponding duchies had little to do with these cities. The lands and offices attached to the Duchy ofLancaster were mainly in Gloucestershire, North Wales and Cheshire, while the estates and castles which were part of the Duchy of York (and the Earldom of March, which Richard of York also inherited) were widespread throughout England, although there were many in the Welsh Marches.

Lancaster, York and Richmond (Tudor) are all represented by theirown rose and all three are named for districts in the North of England, not a traditional power base for the English monarchy, which had hitherto usually been drawn from dynasties originating further south, in Normandy and Anjou, Mercia and Wessex. The Tudor fief of Richmondshire lay squarely between the duchies of Lancaster and York and on the forefront of the Anglo-Scottish border country.

[edit] Magnates and armiesEngland in the fifteenth century was ruled by kings who claimed divine right and were believed by the people to be the "Lord's anointed", directed and guided by the hand of God.[1] The king's chief functions were to protect his people by defending them against their enemies, to govern justly and to preserve and enforce the law of the land.[1] The character of the sovereign, insuch a society, was all-important because on it depended the security and well-being of his subjects.[2] Although the king wielded vast power by ruling as well as reigning, the complexity of government in a nation of some 3 million people had led to

increasing delegation of power through a growing number of state departments.[2]

Richard II (depicted c. 1390)

The law of succession to the throne was ill-defined but, generally, the rule of primogeniture applied with the succession of the eldest son and his heirs. From the brief rule of Empress Matilda in the twelfth century to the fall of Richard II in 1399,primogeniture had not been seriously tested because of the sufficiency of male heirs produced by the House of Plantagenet.[3]

From 1399 to the end of the fifteenth century however, the crown became the object of feuds because of the rise of what Sir John Fortescue, writing in the 1460s, called "the over-mighty subject".[4] There were too many powerful magnates who had a claimto the throne or who aspired to be the power behind it.[3] As a result, a new and disturbing element was added to the

determination of the royal succession: the prevalence of might over right.[3]

Defence of the realm was especially important and most English people are believed to have placed great value on success in arms: hence, the king had to be seen as a competent warrior. A crucial point about the series of conflicts that came to be knownas The Wars of the Roses was that the king did not maintain a standing army. Rather, he relied upon his nobles to furnish him with troops when necessary, so it was vital that he maintained good relations with aristocracy and gentry who, if provoked, might use their armed strength against him. It followed that the king was duty bound to prevent power struggles between the magnates, especially if these could impact the stability of the realm.[2]

The Wars of the Roses were fought primarily by the great magnatesof the landed aristocracy. These were the royal dukes, marquessesand earls who were relatively few in number; and a greater numberof barons, knights and landed gentry.[5] Besides the huge estates they controlled, many enhanced their wealth by investment in trade and expanded their influence through political marriage alliances.[4] They were supported by armies of feudal retainers and tenants, sometimes with the aid of foreign mercenaries; this practice of controlling large numbers of paid men-at-arms was known as "maintenance". Besides the size of his private army, a nobleman's prestige was measured by his "affinity" (i.e., those bound by contract to serve him).[4] The retainer who became a member of an affinity wore the nobleman's "livery" (a uniform andbadge) and accompany him on military campaigns; in return, the nobleman would pay him a pension, provide protection and grant rewards such as land or a lucrative office.[4] This unofficial system of "livery and maintenance" largely came about through thedecline of feudalism in the wake of the Hundred Years War to be replaced by what some historians call "bastard feudalism" wherebythe retainer did not serve the nobleman as a feudal vassal but asa liveried retainer under contract or indenture.[4]

Most armies fought entirely on foot. In several cases, the magnates dismounted and fought among the common foot-soldiers, to

inspire them and to dispel the notion that in the case of defeat they might be ransomed while the common soldiers, being of littlevalue, faced death. It was often claimed, however, that the nobles faced greater risks than the ordinary soldiers. The Burgundian observer Philippe de Commines reported that once Edward IV had seen that victory was certain on the battlefield, he would call out that the fleeing common soldiers were to be spared but no mercy was to be shown to the lords. Furthermore, while the capture of a high-ranking noble would have promised a wealthy ransom in the wars against France, an attainted traitor was of no value to his captor.[6]

[edit] Social changeThe fifteenth century was an age of escalating change in society with a middle class grown more prosperous and influential throughits mercantile interests and a lower class, fuelled by the teachings of the Lollards, that increasingly questioned the established order. Among the consequences were a degree of socialanarchy and a lessening of respect for authority and the law. Theissues escalated from the beginning of Henry VI's reign in 1422 with widespread complaints about corruption, public disorder, riots and the maladministration of justice.[7]

By the 1450s, the situation had become urgent with law and order in a state of collapse and crime on the increase. The biggest problem was that soldiers returning from the wars in France foundlittle to welcome them at home and found themselves destitute. Already inured to violence but now freed from military discipline, many took to a life of brigandage and law-breaking. Some of these became employed by noblemen as armed thugs whose job was to intimidate, assault and even murder their employer's enemies. Enforcement of law and order was the responsibility of the King's Council, which effectively governed the country in thename of the king, but throughout the reign of Henry VI, the Council did nothing to promote order and failed to control the magnates. The chronicler John Hardyng wrote: "In every shire, with jacks and sallets clean, misrule doth rise and maketh neighbours war". Most criminals appear to have got away with

their crimes. Of those who were caught, many were acquitted whileothers were granted pardons issued in the name of Henry VI.[7]

The prevailing disorder of the period did not stem the creation of wealth by the merchant class. The wool trade slowly declined after 1450 but this was offset by increased demand from abroad for woollen cloth, tin, lead, leather and other products. Calais,which remained in English hands after the rest of England's French territories were lost in 1453, was the chief wool market, attracting merchants from all over Europe. The stability of Calais was therefore crucial to the merchant classes, but it was undermined during the Wars of the Roses when feuding magnates regarded it as a refuge in exile or, more alarmingly, as a springboard for invasion of England.[8]

[edit] Disputed succession

Henry IV

Henry V

The antagonism between the two houses started with the overthrow of King Richard II by his cousin, Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Lancaster, in 1399. Richard II's government had been highly unpopular and Bolingbroke returned from exile, initially to reclaim his rights as Duke of Lancaster. With the support of mostof the nobles, Bolingbroke then deposed Richard and was crowned as Henry IV. As an issue of Edward III's third son John of Gaunt,Bolingbroke had a comparatively poor claim to the throne. According to precedent, the crown should have passed to the male descendants of Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence, Edward III's second son, and in fact, the childless Richard II had named Lionel's grandson, Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March as heir presumptive. Roger Mortimer had died the previous year however, and no nobles immediately championed his young son Edmund's claimto the crown. Within a few years of taking the throne, Henry faced several rebellions in Wales, Cheshire and Northumberland, which used the Mortimer claim to the throne both as pretext and rallying point. All these revolts were suppressed, although with difficulty.

Henry IV died in 1413. His son and successor, Henry V, inherited a temporarily pacified nation. Henry was a great soldier, and his

military success against France in the Hundred Years' War bolstered his enormous popularity, enabling him to strengthen theLancastrian hold on the throne.

There was one conspiracy against Henry during his nine-year reign: the Southampton Plot led by Richard, Earl of Cambridge, a son of Edmund of Langley, the fourth son of Edward III. Cambridgewas executed in 1415 for treason at the start of the campaign which led to the Battle of Agincourt. Cambridge's wife, Anne Mortimer, who had died in 1411, also had a claim to the throne, being the daughter of Roger Mortimer and thus a descendant of Lionel of Antwerp. Her brother Edmund, Earl of March, who had loyally supported Henry, died childless in 1425 and his claim andtitles therefore passed to Anne's descendants.

Richard, the son of Cambridge and Anne Mortimer, was four years old at the time of his father's execution. Although Cambridge wasattainted, Henry later allowed Richard to inherit the title and lands of Cambridge's elder brother Edward, Duke of York, who diedfighting alongside Henry at Agincourt and had no issue. Henry, who had three younger brothers and was himself in his prime and recently married, had no doubt that the Lancastrian right to the crown was secure. After Henry's death, when his only son proved incapable of rule and his brothers produced no surviving legitimate issue, leaving only distant cousins (the Beauforts) asalternate Lancaster heirs, Richard of York's claims to the thronebecame important. They were eventually held by supporters of the House of York to be stronger than those of the Lancastrian kings.

[edit] Henry VIHenry V died unexpectedly in 1422 and his son, King Henry VI of England, ascended the throne as an infant only nine months old. After the death of his uncle, John, Duke of Bedford in 1435, he was surrounded by mostly unpopular regents and advisors. In addition to Henry's surviving paternal uncle, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, who deliberately courted the popularity of the commonpeople for his own ends,[9] the most notable of these were Cardinal Beaufort and William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk,

who were blamed for mismanaging the government and poorly executing the continuing Hundred Years' War with France. Under Henry VI, virtually all English holdings in France, including theland won by Henry V, were lost.

Suffolk eventually succeeded in having Humphrey of Gloucester arrested for treason. Humphrey died while awaiting trial in prison at Bury St Edmunds in 1447. Some authorities date the start of the War of the Roses from the death of Humphrey. However, with severe reverses in France, Suffolk was stripped of office and was murdered on his way to exile. Edmund Beaufort, 2ndDuke of Somerset succeeded him as leader of the party seeking peace with France. The Duke of York, who had succeeded Bedford asLieutenant in France, meanwhile represented those who wished to prosecute the war more vigorously, and criticised the court, and Somerset in particular, for starving him of funds and men during his campaigns in France. In all these quarrels, Henry VI had taken little part. He was seen as a weak, ineffectual king. In addition, he suffered from episodes of mental illness that he mayhave inherited from his grandfather Charles VI of France. By 1450many considered Henry incapable of carrying out the duties and responsibilities of a king.

Henry VI

In 1450, there was a violent popular revolt in Kent, Jack Cade's rebellion. The grievances were extortion by some of the king's officials and the failure of the courts to protect the local property-owners of all classes. The rebels occupied parts of London, but were driven out by the citizens after some of them fell to looting. The rebels dispersed after they were supposedly pardoned but several, including Cade, were later executed.[10]

Two years later, Richard of York returned to England from his newpost as Lieutenant of Ireland and marched on London, demanding Somerset's removal and reform of the government. At this stage, few of the nobles supported such drastic action, and York was forced to submit to superior force at Blackheath. He was imprisoned for much of 1452 and 1453[11] but was released after swearing not to take arms against the court.

The increasing discord at court was mirrored in the country as a whole, where noble families engaged in private feuds and showed increasing disrespect for the royal authority and for the courts of law. The Percy-Neville feud was the best-known of these private wars, but others were being conducted freely. In many cases they were fought between old-established families, and formerly minor nobility raised in power and influence by Henry IVin the aftermath of the rebellions against him. The quarrel between the Percys, for long the Earls of Northumberland, and thecomparatively upstart Nevilles was one which followed this pattern; another was the feud between the Courtenays and Bonvilles in Cornwall and Devon.[12] A factor in these feuds was the presence of large numbers of soldiers discharged from the English armies that had been defeated in France. Nobles engaged many of these to mount raids, or to pack courts of justice with their supporters, intimidating suitors, witnesses and judges.

This growing civil discontent, the abundance of feuding nobles with private armies, and corruption in Henry VI's court formed a political climate ripe for civil war. With the king so easily manipulated, power rested with those closest to him at court, in other words Somerset and the Lancastrian faction. Richard and theYorkist faction, who tended to be physically placed further away from the seat of power, found their power slowly being stripped

away. Royal power also started to slip, as Henry was persuaded togrant many royal lands and estates to the Lancastrians.

In 1453, Henry suffered the first of several bouts of complete mental collapse, during which he failed even to recognise his new-born son, Edward of Westminster. A Council of Regency was setup, headed by the Duke of York, who still remained popular with the people, as Lord Protector. York soon asserted his power with ever-greater boldness (although there is no proof that he had aspirations to the throne at this early stage). He imprisoned Somerset and backed his Neville allies (his brother-in-law, the Earl of Salisbury, and Salisbury's son, the Earl of Warwick), in their continuing feud with the Earl of Northumberland, a powerfulsupporter of Henry.

Henry recovered in 1455 and once again fell under the influence of those closest to him at court. Directed by Henry's queen, the powerful and aggressive Margaret of Anjou, who emerged as the de facto leader of the Lancastrians, Richard was forced out of court.Margaret built up an alliance against Richard and conspired with other nobles to reduce his influence. An increasingly thwarted Richard (who feared arrest for treason) finally resorted to armedhostilities in 1455.

[edit] First St. Albans and the Love Day

The Lancastrian siege of London in 1471 is attacked by a Yorkist sally.

Richard the Duke of York led a small force toward London and was met by Henry's forces at St Albans, north of London, on 22 May 1455. The relatively small First 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. The result was a Lancastrian defeat. Several prominent Lancastrian leaders, including Somerset and Northumberland, were killed. After the battle, the Yorkists found Henry sitting quietly in histent, abandoned by his advisors and servants, apparently having suffered another bout of mental illness. (He had also been slightly wounded in the neck by an arrow.)[13] York and his alliesregained their position of influence. With the king indisposed, York was again appointed Protector, and Margaret was shunted aside, charged with the king's care.

For a while, both sides seemed shocked that an actual battle had been fought and did their best to reconcile their differences, but the problems which had caused conflict soon re-emerged, particularly the issue of whether Richard the Duke of York, or Henry and Margaret's infant son Edward, would succeed to the

throne. 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.

Henry recovered and in February 1456 he relieved York of his office of Protector.[14] In the autumn of that year, Henry went onroyal progress in the Midlands, where the king and queen were popular. Margaret did not allow him to return to London where themerchants were angry at the decline in trade and the widespread disorder. The king's court was set up at Coventry. By then, the new Duke of Somerset was emerging as a favourite of the royal court. Margaret persuaded Henry to revoke the appointments York had made as Protector, while York was made to return to his post as lieutenant in Ireland.

Disorder in the capital and the north of England (where fighting between the Nevilles and Percys had resumed[15]) and piracy by French fleets on the south coast were growing, but the king and queen remained intent on protecting their own positions, with thequeen introducing conscription for the first time in England. Meanwhile, York's ally, Warwick (later dubbed "The Kingmaker"), was growing in popularity in London as the champion of the merchants.

In the spring of 1458, Thomas Bourchier, the Archbishop of Canterbury, attempted to arrange a reconciliation. The lords had gathered in London for a Grand Council and the city was full of armed retainers. The Archbishop negotiated complex settlements toresolve the blood-feuds which had persisted since the Battle of St. Albans. Then, on Lady Day (25 March), the King led a "love day" procession to St. Paul's Cathedral, with Lancastrian and Yorkist nobles following him, hand in hand.[15] No sooner had the procession and the Council dispersed than plotting resumed.

[edit] Resumption of fighting, 1459–1460, and the Act of Accord

Ludlow Castle, South Shropshire

The next outbreak of fighting was prompted by Warwick's high-handed actions as Captain of Calais. He led his ships in attacks on neutral Hanseatic League and Spanish ships in the Channel on flimsy grounds of sovereignty. He was summoned to London to face enquiries, but he claimed that attempts had been made on his life, and returned to Calais. York, Salisbury and Warwick were summoned to a royal council at Coventry, but they refused, fearing arrest when they were isolated from their own supporters.[16][17]

York summoned the Nevilles to join him at his stronghold at Ludlow Castle in the Welsh Marches. On 23 September 1459, at the Battle of Blore Heath in Staffordshire, a Lancastrian army failedto prevent Salisbury from marching from Middleham Castle in Yorkshire to Ludlow. Shortly afterwards the combined Yorkist armies confronted the much larger Lancastrian force at the Battleof Ludford Bridge. Warwick's contingent from the garrison of Calais under Andrew Trollope defected to the Lancastrians, and the Yorkist leaders fled. York returned to Ireland, and his eldest son, Edward, Earl of March, Salisbury and Warwick fled to Calais.

The Lancastrians were back in total control. York and his supporters were attainted as traitors. Somerset was appointed Governor of Calais and was dispatched to take over the vital fortress on the French coast, but his attempts to evict Warwick were easily repulsed. Warwick and his supporters even began to launch raids on the English coast from Calais, adding to the sense of chaos and disorder. Being attainted, only a successful invasion would restore the Yorkists' lands and titles. Warwick travelled to Ireland to concert plans with York, evading the royal ships commanded by the Duke of Exeter.[18]

In late June 1460, Warwick, Salisbury and Edward of March crossedthe Channel and rapidly established themselves in Kent and London, where they enjoyed wide support. Backed by a papal emissary who had taken their side, they marched north. King Henryled an army south to meet them while Margaret remained in the north with Prince Edward. At the Battle of Northampton on 10 July, the Yorkist army under Warwick defeated the Lancastrians, aided by treachery in the king's ranks. For the second time in the war, King Henry was found by the Yorkists in a tent, abandoned by his retinue, having apparently suffered another breakdown. With the king in their possession, the Yorkists returned to London.

In the light of this military success, Richard of York moved to press his claim to the throne based on the illegitimacy of the Lancastrian line. Landing in north Wales, he and his wife Cecily entered London with all the ceremony usually reserved for a monarch. Parliament was assembled, and when York entered he made straight for the throne, which he may have been expecting the Lords to encourage him to take for himself as they had acclaimed Henry IV in 1399. Instead, there was stunned silence. York announced his claim to the throne, but the Lords, even Warwick and Salisbury, were shocked by his presumption; they had no desire at this stage to overthrow King Henry. Their ambition was still limited to the removal of his councillors.

The next day, York produced detailed genealogies to support his claim based on his descent from Lionel of Antwerp and was met with more understanding. Parliament agreed to consider the matter

and accepted that York's claim was better, but by a majority of five, they voted that Henry VI should remain as king. A compromise was struck in October 1460 with the Act of Accord, which recognised York as Henry's successor, disinheriting Henry'ssix year old son, Edward. York accepted this compromise as the best offer. It gave him much of what he wanted, particularly since he was also made Protector of the Realm and was able to govern in Henry's name.

[edit] Lancastrian counter-attack

Ruins of Sandal Castle, near Wakefield, West Yorkshire

Queen Margaret and her son had fled to north Wales, parts of which were still in Lancastrian hands. They later travelled by sea to Scotland to negotiate for Scottish assistance. Mary of Gueldres, Queen Consort to James II of Scotland, agreed to give Margaret an army on condition that she cede the town of Berwick to Scotland and Mary's daughter be betrothed to Prince Edward. Margaret agreed, although she had no funds to pay her army and could only promise booty from the riches of southern England, as long as no looting took place north of the River Trent.

The Duke of York left London later that year with the Earl of Salisbury to consolidate his position in the north against the Lancastrians who were reported to be massing near the city of York. He took up a defensive position at Sandal Castle near Wakefield over Christmas 1460. Then on 30 December, his forces left the castle and attacked the Lancastrians in the open, although outnumbered. The ensuing Battle of Wakefield was a complete Lancastrian victory. Richard of York was slain in the

battle, and both Salisbury and York's 17-year-old second son, Edmund, Earl of Rutland, were captured and executed. Margaret ordered the heads of all three placed on the gates of York.

Parhelion at sunset

The Act of Accord and the events of Wakefield left the 18-year-old Edward, Earl of March, York's eldest son, as Duke of York andheir to his claim to the throne. With an army from the pro-Yorkist Marches (the border area between England and Wales), he met Jasper Tudor's Lancastrian army arriving from Wales, and he defeated them soundly at the Battle of Mortimer's Cross in Herefordshire. He inspired his men with a "vision" of three suns at dawn (a phenomenon known as "parhelion"), telling them that itwas a portent of victory and represented the three surviving Yorksons; himself, George and Richard. This led to Edward's later adoption of the sign of the sunne in splendour as his personal device.

Margaret's army was moving south, supporting itself by looting asit passed through the prosperous south of England. In London, Warwick used this as propaganda to reinforce Yorkist support throughout the south – the town of Coventry switched allegiance to the Yorkists. Warwick's army established fortified positions north of the town of St Albans to block the main road from the north but was outmanoeuvred by Margaret's army which swerved to the west and then attacked Warwick's positions from behind. At the Second Battle of St Albans, the Lancastrians won another decisive victory. As the Yorkist forces fled they left behind King Henry, who was found unharmed, sitting quietly beneath a tree.

Henry knighted thirty Lancastrian soldiers immediately after the battle. In an illustration of the increasing bitterness of the war, Queen Margaret instructed her seven-year-old son Edward of Westminster to determine the manner of execution of the Yorkist knights who had been charged with keeping Henry safe and had stayed at his side throughout the battle.

As the Lancastrian army advanced southwards, a wave of dread swept London, where rumours were rife about savage northerners intent on plundering the city. The people of London shut the citygates and refused to supply food to the queen's army, which was looting the surrounding counties of Hertfordshire and Middlesex.

[edit] Yorkist triumph

Edward IV

Meanwhile, Edward of March advanced towards London from the west where he had joined forces with Warwick's surviving forces. This coincided with the northward retreat by the queen to Dunstable, allowing Edward and Warwick to enter London with their army. Theywere welcomed with enthusiasm, money and supplies by the largely Yorkist-supporting city. Edward could no longer claim simply to be trying to free the king from bad councillors; it had become a battle for the crown. Edward needed authority, and this seemed forthcoming when Thomas Kempe, the Bishop of London, asked the

people of London their opinion and they replied with shouts of "King Edward". This was quickly confirmed by Parliament, and Edward was unofficially crowned in a hastily arranged ceremony atWestminster Abbey amidst much jubilation, although Edward vowed he would not have a formal coronation until Henry and Margaret were executed or exiled. He also announced that Henry had forfeited his right to the crown by allowing his queen to take uparms against his rightful heirs under the Act of Accord, though it was being widely argued that Edward's victory was simply a restoration of the rightful heir to the throne, which neither Henry nor his Lancastrian predecessors had been. It was this argument which Parliament had accepted the year before.

Edward and Warwick marched north, gathering a large army as they went, and met an equally impressive Lancastrian army at Towton. The Battle of Towton, near York, was the biggest battle of the Wars of the Roses. Both sides agreed beforehand that the issue was to be settled that day, with no quarter asked or given. An estimated 40,000—80,000 men took part, with over 20,000 men beingkilled during (and after) the battle, an enormous number for the time and the greatest recorded single day's loss of life on English soil. Edward and his army won a decisive victory, and theLancastrians were routed, with most of their leaders slain. Henryand Margaret, who were waiting in York with their son Edward, fled north when they heard the outcome. Many of the surviving Lancastrian nobles switched allegiance to King Edward, and those who did not were driven back to the northern border areas and a few castles in Wales. Edward advanced to take York where he replaced the rotting heads of his father, his brother, and Salisbury with those of defeated Lancastrian lords such as the notorious John Clifford, 9th Baron de Clifford of Skipton-Craven,who was blamed for the execution of Edward's brother Edmund, Earlof Rutland, after the Battle of Wakefield.

[edit] Edward IVEdward IV's official coronation took place in June 1461 in Londonwhere he received a rapturous welcome from his supporters. Edwardwas able to rule in relative peace for ten years.

Harlech Castle, Gwynedd, Wales

In the north, Edward could never really claim to have complete control until 1465. After the Battle of Towton, Henry and Margaret had fled to Scotland, where they stayed with the court of James III and followed through on their promise to cede Berwick to Scotland. Later in the year, they mounted an attack onCarlisle but, lacking money, they were easily repulsed by Edward's men who were rooting out the remaining Lancastrian forces in the northern counties. Several castles under Lancastrian commanders held out for years. Dunstanburgh, Alnwick (the Percy family seat), and Bamburgh were some of the last to fall.

There were Lancastrian revolts in the north of England in 1464. Several Lancastrian nobles, including the third Duke of Somerset,who had apparently been reconciled to Edward, readily led the rebellion. The revolt was put down by Warwick's brother, John Neville. A small Lancastrian army was destroyed at the Battle of Hedgeley Moor on 25 April, but because Neville was escorting Scottish commissioners for a treaty to York, he could not immediately follow up this victory. Then on 15 May, he routed Somerset's army at the Battle of Hexham. Somerset was captured and executed.

The deposed King Henry was later captured for the third time at Clitheroe in Lancashire in 1465. He was taken to London and held prisoner at the Tower of London where, for the time being, he wasreasonably well treated. About the same time, once England under Edward IV and Scotland had come to terms, Margaret and her son

were forced to leave Scotland and sail to France, where they maintained an impoverished court in exile for several years.[19]

The last remaining Lancastrian stronghold was Harlech Castle in Wales, which surrendered in 1468 after a seven-year-long siege.

[edit] Warwick's rebellion and the death ofHenry VI

Middleham Castle

The powerful Earl of Warwick ("the Kingmaker") had meanwhile become the greatest landowner in England. Already a great magnatethrough his wife's property, he had also inherited his father's estates and had been granted much forfeited Lancastrian property.He also held many of the offices of state. He was convinced of the need for an alliance with France and had been negotiating a match between Edward and a French bride. However, Edward had married Elizabeth Woodville, the widow of a Lancastrian knight, in secret in 1464. He later announced the news of his marriage asfait accompli, to Warwick's considerable embarrassment.

This embarrassment turned to bitterness when the Woodvilles came to be favoured over the Nevilles at court. Many of Queen Elizabeth's relatives were married into noble families and otherswere granted peerages or royal offices. Other factors compounded

Warwick's disillusionment: Edward's preference for an alliance with Burgundy rather than France and reluctance to allow his brothers George, Duke of Clarence and Richard, Duke of Gloucester, to marry Warwick's daughters Isabel and Anne. Furthermore, Edward's general popularity was on the wane in this period with higher taxes and persistent disruptions of law and order.

Louis XI of France

By 1469, Warwick had formed an alliance with Edward's jealous andtreacherous brother George, who married Isabel Neville in defiance of Edward's wishes in Calais. They raised an army which defeated the king's forces at the Battle of Edgecote Moor. Edwardwas captured at Olney, Buckinghamshire, and imprisoned at Middleham Castle in Yorkshire. (Warwick briefly had two Kings of England in his custody.) Warwick had the queen's father, Richard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers, and her brother John executed. However, he made no immediate move to have Edward declared illegitimate and place George on the throne.[20] The country was in turmoil, with nobles once again settling scores with private armies (in episodes such as the Battle of Nibley Green), and Lancastrians being encouraged to rebel.[21] Few of the nobles wereprepared to support Warwick's seizure of power. Edward was

escorted to London by Warwick's brother George, the Archbishop ofYork, where he and Warwick were reconciled, to outward appearances.

When further rebellions broke out in Lincolnshire, Edward easily suppressed them at the Battle of Losecoat Field. From the testimony of the captured leaders, he declared that Warwick and George had instigated them. They were declared traitors and forced to flee to France, where Margaret of Anjou was already in exile. Louis XI of France, who wished to forestall a hostile alliance between Edward and Edward's brother-in-law Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, suggested the idea of an alliance betweenWarwick and Margaret. Neither of those two formerly mortal enemies entertained the notion first, but eventually they were brought round to realise the potential benefits. However, both were undoubtedly hoping for different outcomes: Warwick for a puppet king in the form of Henry or his young son; Margaret to beable to reclaim her family's realm. In any case, a marriage was arranged between Warwick's daughter Anne and Margaret's son Edward, and Warwick invaded England in the autumn of 1470.

Battle of Tewkesbury

Edward IV had already marched north to suppress another uprising in Yorkshire. Warwick, with help from a fleet under his nephew, the Bastard of Fauconberg, landed at Dartmouth and rapidly secured support from the southern counties and ports. He occupied

London in October, and paraded Henry VI through the streets of London as the restored king. Warwick's brother John Neville, who had recently received the empty title Marquess of Montagu and wholed large armies in the Scottish marches, changed loyalties to support his brother. Edward was unprepared for this event and hadto order his army to scatter. He and Gloucester fled from Doncaster to the coast, and thence to Holland and exile in Burgundy. They were proclaimed traitors, and many exiled Lancastrians returned to reclaim their estates.

Warwick's success was short-lived, however. He overreached himself with his plan to invade Burgundy in alliance with the King of France, tempted by King Louis' promise of territory in the Netherlands as a reward. This led Edward's brother-in-law, Charles of Burgundy, to provide funds and troops to Edward to enable him to launch an invasion of England in 1471. Edward landed with a small force at Ravenspur on the Yorkshire coast. Initially claiming to support Henry and to be seeking only to have his title of Duke of York restored, he soon gained the city of York and rallied several supporters. His brother Clarence turned traitor again, abandoning Warwick. Having outmanoeuvred Warwick and Montagu, Edward captured London. His army then met Warwick's at the Battle of Barnet. The battle was fought in thickfog, and some of Warwick's men attacked each other by mistake. Itwas believed by all that they had been betrayed, and Warwick's army fled. Warwick was cut down trying to reach his horse. Montagu also was killed in the battle.

Margaret and her son Edward had landed in the West Country only afew days before the Battle of Barnet. Rather than return to France, Margaret sought to join the Lancastrian supporters in Wales and marched to cross the Severn but was thwarted when the city of Gloucester refused her passage across the river. Her army, commanded by the fourth successive Duke of Somerset, was brought to battle and destroyed at the Battle of Tewkesbury. Prince Edward, the Lancastrian heir to the throne, was killed. With no heirs to succeed him, Henry VI was murdered shortly afterwards, on 14 May 1471, to strengthen the Yorkist hold on thethrone.

[edit] Richard III

Richard III

The restoration of Edward IV in 1471 is sometimes seen as markingthe end of the Wars of the Roses proper. Peace was restored for the remainder of Edward's reign. His youngest brother, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and Edward's lifelong companion and supporter, William Hastings, were generously rewarded for their loyalty, becoming effectively governors of the north and midlandsrespectively.[22] George of Clarence became increasingly estrangedfrom Edward, and was executed in 1478 for association with convicted traitors.

When Edward died suddenly in 1483, political and dynastic turmoilerupted again. Many of the nobles still resented the influence ofthe queen's Woodville relatives (her brother, Anthony Woodville, 2nd Earl Rivers and her son by her first marriage, Thomas Grey, 1st Marquess of Dorset), and regarded them as power-hungry upstarts and parvenus. At the time of Edward's premature death, his heir, Edward V, was only 12 years old and had been brought upunder the stewardship of Earl Rivers in Ludlow.

On his deathbed, Edward had named his surviving brother Richard of Gloucester as Protector of England. Richard had been in the north when Edward died. Hastings, who also held the office of Lord Chamberlain, sent word to him to bring a strong force to London to counter any force the Woodvilles might muster.[23] The Duke of Buckingham also declared his support for Richard.

Richard and Buckingham overtook Earl Rivers, who was escorting the young Edward V to London, at Stony Stratford in Buckinghamshire on 28 April. Although they dined with him amicably, they took him prisoner the next day, and declared to Edward that they had done so to forestall a conspiracy by the Woodvilles against his life. Rivers and his nephew Richard Grey were sent to Pontefract Castle in Yorkshire and executed there atthe end of June.

Edward entered London in the custody of Richard on 4 May, and waslodged in the Tower of London. Elizabeth Woodville had already gone hastily into sanctuary at Westminster with her remaining children, although preparations were being made for Edward V to be crowned on 22 June, at which point Richard's authority as Protector would end. On 13 June, Richard held a full meeting of the Council, at which he accused Hastings and others of conspiracy against him. Hastings was executed without trial laterin the day.

Princes in the Tower, painted by John Everett Millais

Thomas Bourchier, the Archbishop of Canterbury, then persuaded Elizabeth Woodville to allow her younger son, the 9-year-old Richard, Duke of York, to join Edward in the Tower. 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. Parliament agreed, and enacted the Titulus Regius, which officially named Gloucester as King RichardIII. The two imprisoned boys, known as the "Princes in the Tower", disappeared and were possibly murdered; by whom and underwhose orders remains controversial. There was never a trial or judicial inquest on the matter.

Having been crowned in a lavish ceremony on 6 July, Richard then proceeded on a tour of the Midlands and the north of England, dispensing generous bounties and charters and naming his own son as the Prince of Wales.

[edit] Buckingham's revoltOpposition to Richard's rule had already begun in the south when,on 18 October, the Duke of Buckingham (who had been instrumental in placing Richard on the throne and who himself had a distant claim to the crown), led a revolt aimed at installing the Lancastrian Henry Tudor. It has been argued that by supporting Tudor rather than either Edward V or his younger brother, Buckingham was aware that both were already dead.[24]

The Lancastrian claim to the throne had descended to Henry Tudor on the death of Henry VI and his son in 1471. Henry's father, Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond, had been a half-brother of Henry VI, but Henry's claim to royalty was through his mother, Margaret Beaufort. She was descended from John Beaufort, who was a son of John of Gaunt and thus a grandson of Edward III. John Beaufort had been illegitimate at birth, though later legitimisedby the marriage of his parents. It had supposedly been a condition of the legitimation that the Beaufort descendants forfeited their rights to the crown. Henry had spent much of his

childhood under siege in Harlech Castle or in exile in Brittany. After 1471, Edward IV had preferred to belittle Henry's pretensions to the crown, and made only sporadic attempts to secure him. However his mother, Margaret Beaufort, had been twiceremarried, first to Buckingham's uncle, and then to Thomas, Lord Stanley, one of Edward's principal officers, and continually promoted her son's rights.

Buckingham's rebellion failed. Some of his supporters in the south rose up prematurely, thus allowing Richard's Lieutenant in the South, the Duke of Norfolk, to prevent many rebels from joining forces. Buckingham himself raised a force at Brecon in mid-Wales. He was prevented from crossing the River Severn to join other rebels in the south of England by storms and floods, which also prevented Henry Tudor landing in the West Country. Buckingham's starving forces deserted and he was betrayed and executed.

The failure of Buckingham's revolt was clearly not the end of theplots against Richard, who could never again feel secure, and whoalso suffered the loss of his wife and eleven-year-old son, putting the future of the Yorkist dynasty in doubt.

[edit] Henry VII

Henry VII

Many of Buckingham's defeated supporters and other disaffected nobles fled to join Henry Tudor in exile. Richard made an attemptto bribe the Duke of Brittany's Minister to betray Henry, but Henry was warned and escaped to France, where he was again given sanctuary and aid.[25]

Confident that many magnates and even many of Richard's officers would join him, Henry set sail from Harfleur on 1 August 1485 with a force of exiles and French mercenaries. With fair winds, he landed in Pembrokeshire six days later. The officers Richard had appointed in Wales either joined Henry or stood aside. Henry gathered supporters on his march through Wales and the Welsh Marches, and defeated Richard at the Battle of Bosworth Field. Richard was slain during the battle, supposedly by the Welsh man-at-arms Rhys ap Thomas with a blow to the head from his poleaxe. (Rhys was knighted three days later by Henry VII.)

Henry, having been acclaimed King Henry VII, then strengthened his position by marrying Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IVand the best surviving Yorkist claimant. He thus reunited the tworoyal 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 any excuse was offered, a policy his son Henry VIII continued.

Many historians consider the accession of Henry VII to mark the end of the Wars of the Roses. Others argue that they continued tothe end of the fifteenth century, as there were several plots to overthrow Henry and restore Yorkist claimants. Only two years after the Battle of Bosworth, Yorkists rebelled, 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. The conspirators produced a pretender to the throne, a boy named Lambert Simnel, who bore a close physical resemblance to the young Edward, Earl of Warwick (son of Clarence), the best surviving male claimant of the House of York. This plan was on very shaky ground, because the young earl was still alive and in

King Henry's custody and was paraded through London to expose theimpersonation. At the Battle of Stoke, Henry defeated Lincoln's army. Simnel was pardoned for his part in the rebellion and was sent to work in the royal kitchens.

Henry's throne was again challenged in 1491 with the appearance of the pretender Perkin Warbeck, who claimed to be Richard, Duke of York (the younger of the two Princes in the Tower). Warbeck made repeated attempts to incite revolts, with support at varioustimes from the court of Burgundy and James IV of Scotland. He wascaptured after the failed Second Cornish Uprising of 1497, and executed in 1499 after attempting to escape imprisonment.

During the reign of Henry VII's son Henry VIII, the possibility of Yorkist challenges to the throne remained until as late as 1525, in the persons of Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, Edmund de la Pole, 3rd Duke of Suffolk and his brother Richard dela Pole, all of whom had blood ties to the Yorkist dynasty but were excluded by the pro-Woodville Tudor settlement. To an extent, England's break with Rome was prompted by Henry's fears of a disputed succession should he leave only a female heir to the throne, or an infant who would be as vulnerable as Henry VI had been to antagonistic or rapacious regents.

[edit] Aftermath and effects

Tudor Rose

Historians still debate the true extent of the conflict's impact on medieval English life, and some revisionists, such as the Oxford historian K.B. McFarlane, suggest that the conflicts during this period have been radically overstated, and that therewere, in fact, no Wars of the Roses at all.[26]

With their heavy casualties among the nobility, the wars are thought to have continued the changes in feudal English society caused by the effects of the Black Death, including a weakening of the feudal power of the nobles and a corresponding strengthening of the merchant classes, and the growth of a strong, centralised monarchy under the Tudors. It heralded the end of the medieval period in England and the movement towards the Renaissance.

On the other hand, it has also been suggested that the traumatic impact of the wars was exaggerated by Henry VII to magnify his achievement in quelling them and bringing peace. Certainly, the effect of the wars on the merchant and labouring classes was far less than in the long drawn-out wars of siege and pillage in France and elsewhere in Europe, which were carried out by mercenaries who profited from the prolonging of the war. Althoughthere were some lengthy sieges, such as at Harlech Castle and Bamburgh Castle, these were in comparatively remote and sparsely inhabited regions. In the populated areas, both factions had muchto lose by the ruin of the country and sought quick resolution ofthe conflict by pitched battle.[27]

The kings of France and Scotland as well as the dukes of Burgundyplayed the two factions off against each other, pledging militaryand financial aid and offering asylum to defeated nobles and pretenders, to prevent a strong and unified England from making war on them. The post-war period was also the death knell for thelarge standing baronial armies, which had helped fuel the conflict. Henry VII, wary of any further fighting, kept the barons on a very tight leash, removing their right to raise, arm,and supply armies of retainers so that they could not make war oneach other or the king. As a result the military power of individual barons declined, and the Tudor court became a place

where baronial squabbles were decided with the influence of the monarch.

Few noble houses were actually exterminated during the wars. For example, in the period from 1425 to 1449, before the outbreak of the war, there were as many extinctions of noble lines (25) as occurred during the period of fighting (24) from 1450 to 1474.[28]

However, the most openly ambitious nobles died, and by the later period of the wars, fewer nobles were prepared to risk their lives and titles in an uncertain struggle.

Another aftermathWith the Battle of Bosworth won, Henry Tudor, now known as King Henry VII, hadto solve the problem of ending any future conflict or further civil war.

The two major short-term problems to solve were:

1. To end the power of powerful families and great Lords who might in the future rebel against him.

2. To find a way in which both the Yorkists and Lancastrians can begin to put their differences aside.

In the long-term Henry has to find a way to create a united and strong Englandwith an important role to play in Europe.

Ending the Power of the LordsHenry abolished all private armies of the great Lords. This became a crime of treason punishable by death for anyone to disobey the royal command.

Henry then taxed the Lords heavily in order to reduce their wealth and to restrict their opportunities to rebel against the King. The money Henry raisedby this taxation paid for his own royal army which kept the Lords in check.

This tactic was further strengthened through the 'Court of the Star Chamber'. This was a court of law, run by men loyal to Henry, which tried and fined Lords who were thought to be disrespectful to the King.

Peace between Lancaster and YorkThis was never going to be easy after long years of rivalry and bitterness. Henry managed to gain some time to put his plans into action by marrying Elizabeth of York, the daughter of King Edward IV. By doing this, Henry showed

that it was possible to put family differences aside. This meant that the hatred which had existed for so many decades between the Houses of Lancaster and York could now begin to subside.

The Long-term planHenry's policies proved successful. England without the internal conflicts of civil war was able to enter a period of relative peace. Trade improved both within England and with other countries. Henry's vision of a united, powerful country began to take shape. England was able to play an important role in theTudor exploration of the 'New World'.

Henry VII's great legacy was to lay the foundations for the future developmentof England as a nation state and for its powerful position in the world.

The Wars of the Roses were a series of civil wars fought in medieval England from 1455 to 1487 between the House of Lancaster and the House of York. The name Wars of the Roses is based on the badges used by the two sides, the red rose for the Lancastrians and the white rose for the Yorkists. Major causes ofthe conflict include: 1) both houses were direct descendents of king Edward III; 2) the ruling Lancastrian king, Henry VI, surrounded himself with unpopular nobles; 3) the civil unrest of much of the population; 4) the availability of many powerful lords with their own private armies; and 5) the untimely episodes of mental illness by king Henry VI. Please see the origins page for more information on the start of the wars.

This site presents a clear and easy-to-follow survey of the Wars of the Roses including major players and important battles. We hope this site will pique your interest in a very fascinating and rich period of history -- welcome to the Wars of the Roses.

Royal Timeline

Royals:   Henry V   Henry VI   Edward IV   Edward V   Richard IIIHenry VII Other Important People:   Margaret of Anjou   Richard, Duke of YorkWarwick, the Kingmaker

 Battle Timeline

In the opening battle of England's War of the Roses, the Yorkistsdefeat King Henry VI's Lancastrian forces at St. Albans, 20 milesnorthwest of London. Many Lancastrian nobles perished, including Edmund Beaufort, the duke of Somerset, and the king was forced tosubmit to the rule of his cousin, Richard of York. The dynastic struggle between the House of York, whose badge was a white rose,and the House of Lancaster, later associated with a red rose, would stretch on for 30 years.

Both families, closely related, claimed the throne through descent from the sons of Edward III, the king of England from 1327 to 1377. The first Lancastrian king was Henry IV in 1399, and rebellion and lawlessness were rife during his reign. His son, Henry V, was more successful and won major victories in the Hundred Years War against France. His son and successor, Henry VI, had few kingly qualities and lost most of the French land hisfather had conquered. At home, chaos prevailed and lords with private armies challenged Henry VI's authority. At times, his ambitious queen, Margaret of Anjou, effectively controlled the crown.

In 1453, Henry lapsed into insanity, and in 1454 Parliament appointed Richard, duke of York, as protector of the realm. Henryand York's grandfathers were the fourth and third sons of Edward III, respectively. When Henry recovered in late 1454, he dismissed York and restored the authority of Margaret, who saw York as a threat to the succession of their son, Prince Edward. York raised an army of 3,000 men, and in May the Yorkists marchedto London. On May 22, 1455, York met Henry's forces at St. Albanswhile on the northern road to the capital. The bloody encounter lasted less than an hour, and the Yorkists carried the day. The duke of Somerset, Margaret's great ally, was killed, and Henry was captured by the Yorkists.

After the battle, Richard again was made English protector, but in 1456 Margaret regained the upper hand. An uneasy peace was broken in 1459, and in 1460 the Lancastrians were defeated, and York was granted the right to ascend to the throne upon Henry's death. The Lancastrians then gathered forces in northern England

and in December 1460 surprised and killed York outside his castlenear Wakefield.

York's son Edward reached London before Margaret and was proclaimed King Edward IV. In March 1461, Edward won a decisive victory against the Lancastrians at the Battle of Towton, the bloodiest of the war. Henry, Margaret, and their son fled to Scotland, and the first phase of the war was over.

Yorkist rivalry would later lead to the overthrow of Edward in 1470 and the restoration of Henry VI. The next year, Edward returned from exile in the Netherlands, defeated Margaret's forces, killed her son, and imprisoned Henry in the Tower of London, where he was murdered. Edward IV then ruled uninterrupteduntil his death in 1483. His eldest son was proclaimed Edward V, but Edward IV's brother, Richard III, seized the crown and imprisoned Edward and his younger brother in the Tower of London,where they disappeared, probably murdered. In 1485, Richard III was defeated and killed by Lancastrians led by Henry Tudor at theBattle of Bosworth Field.

Henry Tudor was proclaimed King Henry VII, the first Tudor king. Henry was the grandson of Catherine of Valois, the widow of HenryV, and Owen Tudor. In 1486, he married Edward IV's daughter Elizabeth of York, thereby uniting the Yorkist and Lancastrian claims. This event is seen as marking the end of the War of Roses; although some Yorkists supported in 1487 an unsuccessful rebellion against Henry, led by Lambert Simnel. The War of Roses left little mark on the common English people but severely thinned the ranks of the English nobility.

Battles fought during the Wars of the RosesThe battles which were fought during the Wars of the Roses were:

1455: The First Battle of St Albans

OverviewFirst Saint Albans was the opening battle in the Wars of the Roses. Richard of York led a force of about 3,000 on a march toward London. Henry VI moved from London to intercept the Yorkist army. Henry halted his march in the townof Saint Albans and waited. Richard attacked and defeated Henry inflicting about 300 casualties. The Queen and her young son Edward fled into exile. Key PointsDate of Battle: May 22, 1455Victor: YorkistsYork Leadership: Richard of York

Richard Neville, earl of WarwickRichard Neville, earl of Salisbury

Lancaster Leadership:

King Henry VIQueen MargaretEdmund Beaufort, duke of SomersetHumphrey Stafford, duke of Buckingham

Size of forces: Yorkists - 3,000Lancastrians - 2,500

Notable deaths Edmund Beaufort,duke of Somerset; Thomas de Clifford; Henry Percy, 2nd earl of Northumberland

The First Battle of St Albans, fought on 22 May 1455 at St Albans, 22 miles (35 km) north of London, traditionally marks thebeginning of the Wars of the Roses. Richard, Duke of York and hisally, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, defeated the Lancastriansunder Edmund, Duke of Somerset, who was killed. York also captured Henry VI, who appointed him Constable of England.

FightingThe Lancastrian army of 2,000 troops arrived at St Albans first, and proceeded to defend it by placing troops along the Tonman Ditch and at the bars in Sopwell Lane and Shropshire Lane. The 3,000-strong Yorkist army arrived and camped in Keyfield to the east. Lengthy negotiations ensued with heralds moving back and

forth between the rival commanders. After several hours, Richard,despairing of a peaceful solution, decided to attack. The bulk ofHenry's forces were surprised by the speed of Richard's attack; most of the army was expecting a peaceful resolution similar to the one at Blackheath in 1452. However, two frontal assaults downthe narrow streets against the barricades made no headway and resulted in heavy casualties for the Yorkists.

Warwick took his reserve troops through an unguarded part of the town's defences, through back lanes and gardens. Suddenly the Earl appeared in the Market Square where the main body of Henry'stroops were talking and resting. There is evidence they were not yet expecting to be involved in the fighting, as many were not even wearing their helmets. Warwick charged instantly with his force, routing the Lancastrians and killing the Duke of Somerset.[1]

On the Earl's orders, his archers then shot at the men around theKing, killing several and injuring the King and the Duke of Buckingham. The Lancastrians manning the barricades realised the Yorkists had ouflanked them, and fearing an attack from behind abandoned their positions and fled the town.

The First Battle of St Albans was relatively minor in military terms, but politically was a complete victory for York and Warwick: York had captured the King and restored himself to complete power, while his rival Somerset and Warwick's arch-enemies Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland, and Lord de Clifford both fell during the rout.

Shakespeare's history play Henry VI, Part 2 ends with the result of this battle.

1460: Battle of Northampton

he Battle of Northampton was a battle in the Wars of the Roses, which took place on 10 July 1460.

Background

The Yorkist cause seemed finished after the previous disaster at Ludford Bridge. Some of the Yorkist commanders (the Earl of Warwick, his father the Earl of Salisbury and York's son Edward, Earl of March) reached Calais on 2 November 1459, where Warwick found his uncle Lord Fauconberg. Meanwhile York and his second son Edmund, Earl of Rutland, retired to the relative safety of Ireland.

On the English mainland, the Lancastrians were quick to exploit the Yorkist flight. The Earl of Wiltshire was appointed Lieutenant of Ireland and the Duke of Somerset became Captain of Calais. Neither however succeeded in occupying their new posts asthe Irish refused to dislodge York and the gates of Calais remained firmly closed to their new 'Captain'.

The Lancastrians gave Somerset an army to storm Calais, but firstthey had to cross the Channel, so the construction of a fleet wasstarted at Sandwich in Kent. No sooner had the ships been finished than Warwick made a raid on Sandwich and stole them. In May 1460, Warwick crossed the channel again and destroyed the newfleet under construction there. Warwick left his uncle in Sandwich with a small force of Yorkists to act as a bridgehead for his planned invasion of England.

The battleOn 26 June 1460, Warwick, Salisbury and Edward landed at Sandwichwith 2,000 men at arms. King Henry VI and his Queen, Margaret of Anjou, were at Coventry with their small army. Warwick entered London on 2 July with an army of supporters numbering between 20,000 and 30,000.

The King's forces took up a defensive position at Northampton, inthe grounds of Delapré Abbey, with their backs to the River Nene,with a water-filled ditch in front of them topped with stakes. The defending army was 10,000 to 15,000 strong, consisting mainlyof men-at-arms. The Lancastrians also had a quantity of field artillery.

While approaching, Warwick sent a delegate to negotiate with the King on his behalf. The Lancastrian commander, the Duke of Buckingham, replied "The Earl of Warwick shall not come to the King's presence and if he comes he shall die." During Warwick's advance to Northampton he was twice more denied access to the King's person. Once in position, he sent a message that read "At 2 o'clock I will speak with the King or I will die."

At two o'clock the Yorkists advanced. The men were in column, butthe hard rain blowing in their faces somewhat hindered them. As they closed with the Lancastrians, Warwick was met by a fierce barrage of arrows; luckily for them, though, the rain had rendered the Lancastrian collection of cannon quite useless.

When Warwick reached the Lancastrian right flank, commanded by Lord Grey of Ruthin, treachery ensued. Grey had his men lay down their weapons and simply allow the Yorkists to have easy access into the camp beyond. This treachery was the result of a secret message from Lord Grey to March saying that he would change sidesif the Yorkists would back him in a property dispute with Lord Fanhope.[1] Certainly Warwick had ordered his men not to lay violent hands on ordinary soldiers - especially those wearing theblack ragged staff of Lord Grey's men. There may also have been inducements and promises of high office by Warwick. Grey became Treasurer of England in 1463. After this, the battle lasted a mere thirty minutes. The defenders were unable to manoeuvre inside the fortifications, and fled the field as their line was rolled up by attacking Yorkists.

The Duke of Buckingham, the Earl of Shrewsbury, Thomas Percy, 1stBaron Egremont and John Beaumont, 1st Viscount Beaumont, 6th Baron Beaumont all died trying to save Henry from the Yorkists closing on his tent. Three hundred other Lancastrians were slain in the battle. King Henry VI was captured and once more became a puppet in the hands of the Yorkists.

1460: The Battle of Wakefield

The Battle of Wakefield was fought December 30, 1460, during the Wars of the Roses (1455-1485).

Armies & Commanders:

Lancastrians

Duke of Somerset Earl of Northumberland Lord Clifford as high as 18,000 men

Yorkist

Duke of York Earl of Salisbury Earl of Rutland as high as 9,000

Battle of Wakefield - Background:

In the wake of the their defeat at the Battle of Ludford Bridge in October 1459, the leader of the Yorkist cause, Richard, Duke of York, fled to Ireland. Several of his commanders including theEarl of Salisbury and his son, the Earl of Warwick, escaped to Calais. There they were joined by York's son Edward, Earl of March. Despite Lancastrian efforts to assert their control over Calais and Ireland, they were unable to do so due to the strong Yorkist presence. In 1460, Warwick re-crossed the Channel and quickly raised an army to confront King Henry VI.

Advancing through London, he met the Lancastrian army on July 10 at the Battle of Northampton. Crushing the enemy, Warwick captured the Henry. With the deranged king imprisoned in London, York landed in northern Wales and rode to the capital. Attemptingto claim the throne, he was blocked by the House of Lords. Unwilling to crown him king, they passed the Act of Accord which stated that Henry would remain king, but that York's children would inherit the throne. In lieu of the crown, York was made Lord Protector with powers to govern as the king's intermittent insanity prevented him from ruling.

Battle of Wakefield - Moving to Battle:

While events were unfolding in London, Henry's wife, Queen Margaret, worked to rally the Lancastrians. Retreating to HarlechCastle in Wales, she worked with loyal nobles to raise a new army. Similar efforts were moving forward in the north of Englandunder the guidance of Lords Clifford and Ros. Mustering at Kingston upon Hull, the Lancastrian army may have numbered around15,000. Taking action, these troops soon encamped at Pontefract and began attacking estates belonging to York and Salisbury. Withthe Lancastrians threatening his power as Lord Protector, York began military preparations.

Dispatching the Earl of March to the Welsh Marches to contain enemy forces there, he left Warwick at London and moved north with around 9,000 men. Accompanied by his younger son, the Earl of Rutland, and Salisbury, York departed on December 9. After a skirmish with Lancastrian forces at Worksop on December 16, York reached his fortress at Sandal Castle, near Wakefield, five days later. Having occupied this commanding position, he sent scouts to Lancastrian camp nine miles away at Pontefract. These scouts were turned back, leading York to request additional men from hisson on the Welsh border.

Battle of Wakefield - Armies Clash:

Entrenched in his fortifications to await aid, York was aware that multiple Lancastrian forces were operating in the area. For reasons that are not clear, York sortied from the protection of Sandal Castle on December 30. Possible explanations for this action include a rescue attempt for a foraging party that was under attack or a Lancastrian ruse which led York to believe thathe had numerical superiority. In the latter case, it is thought that part of the Lancastrian army, led by the Duke of Somerset and Lord Clifford, advanced in the open across Wakefield Green, while the remainder hid in nearby woods.

Regardless of his motivation, York's forces emerged from the gateon the south side of the castle. Marching around the castle to deal with the visible Lancastrians who were approaching from the

north, the Yorkists were soon attacked in the flank and rear. Quickly surrounded, the Yorkists were overwhelmed and destroyed. In the fighting, York was unhorsed and killed. Rutland attempted to escape over Wakefield Bridge but was cut down. The battle lost, Salisbury managed to depart the field, but was caught that night and executed in the Lancastrian camp.

Battle of Wakefield - Aftermath:

Precise casualties for the Battle of Wakefield are not known withcertainty, but sources suggest that the Lancastrians lost around 200 men, while the Yorkists incurred 700 to 2,500 dead. In the wake of the battle, the heads of York, Salisbury, and Rutland were placed on pikes overlooking the western gate of York. Thougha decisive Lancastrian victory, Wakefield failed to end the dynastic conflict. Fighting continued for another twenty-seven years with the final actions coming at Bosworth Field and Stoke Field in 1485 and 1487.

1471: Battle of Barnet

Battle of Barnet14th April 1471

The alliance between King Edward IV and the powerful Earl of Warwick was broken by 1469. Once Edward’s most loyal ally Warwickwas now a bitter enemy. This break in allegiance was good news for the Lancastrian cause which grumbled on despite Henry VI being imprisoned in the Tower and most of the principals being inexile abroad. A resurgence of Lancastrian activity over the course of the next year resulted in Warwick driving Edward from England in October 1470 and restoring Henry to the throne.

In March 1471 Edward returned to England, with the assistance of his brother-in-law the Duke of Burgundy. Landing in Yorkshire Edward assembled troops and equipment and headed south, gatheringmore troops as he went. Edward reached London unopposed on 12 April. Aware of Edward’s movements, the Earl of Warwick, who had been in the Midlands raising troops, marched towards London to

confront him. With a Lancastrian army of some 15,000 troops he took up position about a mile north of Barnet on 13 April. Edwardarrived that evening with a force of between 10,000 - 12,000 troops and took up position to the south of the Lancastrians. In spite of the dark Edward chose to deploy his troops on arrival rather than wait for the morning. Whether by accident or design he deployed very close to Warwick’s lines, down in a marshy valley, instructing his men to light no fires and keep silent. The Yorkist proximity to the Lancastrians proved fortuitous as the artillery bombardment that Warwick now launched passed over the heads of Edward’s troops.

The scene was now set for a major confrontation between Edward and his erstwhile ally, the Earl of Warwick. This battle at Barnet did not resolve the Wars of the Roses but it was nethertheless of enormous significance. Edward IV secured a resounding victory and in doing so had despatched the second mostpowerful man in the kingdom, the Earl of Warwick.

The exact location of the battlefield is in dispute. We have suggested here a new conjectural interpretation of the location of the battle, some distanc to the north of the Registered battlefield. This is based on a re-examination of the evidence for the historic terrain, of the battle accounts, and the important research by Brian Warren as to the site of the battle chapel. This has returned the battle to the site where from at least the early 17th century throug to the 19th century it has been depicted on maps - ie the traditional site.

Within this area there is little development although suburban expansion is encroaching in the eastern and southern sides. Much of this land was within Enfield Chase in 1471 and would have beenopen heath and common at the time of the battle. Today it si fully enclosed agricultural land and parkland. There are no public footpaths across the battlefield but the A1000, which runsacross the battlefield, is safe to walk and offers the best views. A short distance north of the monument on the A1000 there is a track running east towards the Monken Mead brook, down which it is possible to walk and gain a view closer to the heart

of the battlefield and particularly the marshy valley from which EWdward's army probably launched its attack.

The Battlefields Trust, in collaboration with BrianWarren and others, is developing a project toinvestigate the battlefield, to refine and test thenew hypothesis as to the location of the battle.

KEY FACTS

Name: Battle of BarnetType: BattleCampaign: War period: Wars of the RosesOutcome: Yorkist victoryCountry: EnglandCounty: Hertfordshire / Greater London AuthorityPlace: South Mimms / Enfield / Monken HadleyLocation: secureTerrain: open heath/commonDate: 14th April 1471Start: 5amDuration: 4 hoursArmies: Yorkist under King Edward VI; Lancastrians under Earl ofWarwickNumbers: Yorkist: circa 10,000; Lancastrians: circa 15,000Losses: Yorkist: circa 5,000; Lancastrian: circa 10,000Grid Reference: TQ245975 (524566,197567)OS Landranger map: 166OS Explorer map: 173

1471: Battle of Tewkesbury

Battle of Tewkesbury4th May 1471

On the same day as the Lancastrians were defeated atthe battle of Barnet, on 14th April 1471, QueenMargaret with Prince Edward and supporters arrived

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back in England from exile in France. Landing at Weymouth, the Queen was joined by Lancastrian supporters led by the Duke of Somerset. After Barnet, Somerset would not attempt an assault upon the Yorkist forces without superior numbers and so, in orderto reinforce his army, Somerset headed for Wales where he could count upon the support of Jasper Tudor.

King Edward meanwhile was at Windsor and, learning of the Lancastrian manoeuvres, he headed for the West Country in an attempt to intercept the Queen and Somerset before they could reach Wales. The Lancastrian advance to Wales was delayed, first when they made a detour to Bristol for much needed supplies, and second when the city of Gloucester refused them entry. Instead they headed north to make the crossing of the River Severn at Tewkesbury. Edward, at the nead of his army, having narrowly missed an opportunity to confront the enemy at Sodbury, followed in pursuit.

The Lancastrians arrived at Tewkesbury first on 3rd May. They hadmarched swiftly for several days, covering the last twenty four miles in just sixteen hours, and so their troops were exhausted. With Edward hard on their heels Somerset chose to stand and fight, rather than risk his army being caught in a bottle-neck asthey attempted the difficult crossing of the Severn at Lower Lode, a mile south of the Abbey.

Somerset had the choice of ground and he chose to set his camp ina pasture close called ‘Gastum’ (now The Gastons) to the south ofthe Abbey. The next morning, the 4th May, he probably deployed his army between the Gastons and Gupshill Manor, with his left flank against the Swillgate River (little more than a stream) andhis right across the gently sloping ground to a stream on the west. Thus Edward arrived to find the Lancastrians already deployed and so he arrayed his army to the south of and parallel to Somerset’s.

The battle of Tewkesbury was to prove a decisive encounter, whichended the second phase of the Wars of the Roses. Edward IV's victory and the death of Henry VI’s son and heir, shortly followed by Henry’s own death and Queen Margaret’s imprisonment,

destroyed hopes of a Lancastrian succession and led to fourteen years peace.

Much of the land to the east of the Gloucester Road (previously the A38, before the bypass was built) is now covered by modern development. Only a small area around and including 'Margaret’s camp', a Scheduled Ancient Monument, remains open. However the western half of the battlefield remains largely as agricultural, although there has been significant development to the south-eastof Bloody Meadow in what was the Gastons.

There is some dispute as to teh exact positioning of the two armies and hte extent oft he action and thus it is not wholly clear how much of the battlefield lies within the undeveloped area.

Access is possible along the Gloucester Road, which becomes the A38, from which there are good views. Footpaths allow access to Bloody Meadow, Lincoln Green and Southwick Park. It is in the latter that the probable ‘hillock’ used by Somerset in his flank attack can be found. Footpaths also cross the Vineyards in front of the Abbey where the battle monument is located.

KEY FACTS

Name: Battle of TewkesburyType: BattleCampaign: War period: Wars of the RosesOutcome: Yorkist victoryCountry: EnglandCounty: GloucestershirePlace: TewkesburyLocation: secureTerrain: ?open field, meadow, enclosuresDate: 4th May 1471Start: morningDuration: ?several hours

Armies: Yorkist under King Edward IV; Lancastrian under Duke of SomersetNumbers: Yorkist: circa 4,000; Lancastrian: circa 5,000Losses: Yorkist ?500; Lancastrian circa 2,000Grid Reference: SO890316 (389078,231653)OS Landranger map: 150OS Explorer map: 190

 

1485: Battle of Bosworth Field

   Prelude

In 1483, the mighty warrior king, Edward IV died leaving to his12-year-old son the crown of England. Edward’s will declared hisbrother, the experienced Richard, Duke of Gloucester, asProtector of his heir and realm until the young King could becrowned. Meanwhile though, the former Queen’s unpopularrelations, the Woodvilles, made a pre-emptive coup in a bid tohang on to their former power and influence and seized the Royaltreasury and fleet while making efforts to have the young princecrowned (and thus make Gloucester’s protectorate worthless). Fortunately for Gloucester, he and his party managed to apprehendhis nephew and it was he, and not the Woodvilles, who enteredLondon with the prince, now known as Edward V.

In London however, events took an unpredicted turn when RobertStillington, Bishop of Bath and Wells disclosed to Gloucester andthe council the existence of a pre-contract between Edward IV andEleanor Butler. The pre-contract rendered Edward’s later marriageinvalid and his children illegitimate. In view of this evidenceParliament declared Gloucester England’s King. Obviously, theDuke had much to gain from this episode and the story about thepre-contract could easily have been fabricated. Nevertheless,Richard became England’s legal sovereign. 

Richard III’s reign, however, was destined to be exceptionallyshort, for in 1485, for the second time in two years, an obscure

Welshman known as Henry Tudor crossed the channel with aninvasion force.

Henry Tudor, the Earl of Richmond, was a relation of the deceasedHenry VI. While his claim to the throne was not a strong one, hewas a focusing point for the many exiled Lancastrians and severaldiscontented Yorkists (including the Woodvilles) who wished torid England of Richard III. He had spent most of his life inexile, but in 1483, after the powerful Duke of Buckingham’spromise to rebel against Richard, he finally obtained thefinances needed to invade England. Buckingham’s rebellion,however, was crushed and Tudor barely reached the English coastbefore hearing the news and heading home.

The Campaign

In 1485, back in France, the Lancastrian pretender received freshfinancial aid for a rebellion – and just as importantly, promisesof support from several leading Welsh land owners. Thusencouraged, he set off to invade England with a force of 2,000French mercenaries and his own little band of followers led bythe Earl of Oxford and Jasper Tudor. The invasion force landed inPembrokeshire on 7 August and besieged Dale Castle before headinginland looking for the promised support.  

Through his spies Richard had been aware of the planned invasionfor some time and had chosen to await it at Nottingham, hoping tomake the most of the town’s location in central England to reachthe rebels quickly wherever they landed.  As is became apparentthat the invasion was near, the powerful Lord Stanley asked leaveof Richard to go home to his estates. Rightly suspecting hismotives – Stanley had already secretly promised support to Tudor,who was a relation through marriage – the king ordered Stanley toleave his son behind, making him a hostage for his father’s goodbehavior.

Upon receiving news of the rebels’ landing, Richard sent ordersto his captains to muster their men and meet him at Leicester.Despite his custody of Lord Stanley’s son, the former and hisbrother Sir William made no attempt to stop Tudor as he passedthrough Wales, nor to join Richard with his army, gravelyconfirming what suspicions the king already had. While the Dukeof Norfolk and his son, the Earl of Surrey were ever loyal, theresults from his other captains were not very encouraging either.Richard learnt though his friends in York that Henry Percy, Earlof Northumberland was not recruiting properly, while many othermen, tired of war and its dangers simply ignored the royalsummons. 

The rebel Tudor was also worried by the lack of men joining hisarmy. The crowds did not flock to his banner as some hadpredicted and he was in a dangerous position for some time untilfinally joined by local powers such as Rhys ap Thomas and Sir

Walter Herbert. Like King Richard, he was disappointed in LordStanley and his family who did not rush to join him, saying thetime was not ripe – yet. 

The Battle

While Henry advanced eastwards through Wales, Richard marchedWest to meet him. On the 22 of August 1485, four armies convergedon the small village of Market Bosworth, two of them intent onlyon fighting; two on joining the winning side. For, whileRichard’s 9000 men and Tudor’s 5000 prepared to do battle, thosewho would ultimately decide the issue watched from the sideline.

Sir William Stanley and Thomas, Lord Stanley with combined armies6000 strong took up positions perhaps to the north and south ofthe battlefield, or, more likely side by side to the south.Meanwhile the King advanced over Ambion Hill with the intentionof deploying his army in the traditional manner, with three‘battles’ drawn up in line opposite the enemy. The Earl ofNorthumberland however brought his ‘battle’ to a halt on the hillwhile still far away from the rebels – ostensibly to betterdefend against an attack by the Stanleys – in reality to awaitthe outcome of the battle.

Tudor chose not to attack with three battles but instead sent thebulk of his army with the experienced Earl of Oxford to attackthe enemy vanguard under Norfolk, while the remainder was kept astwo reserves. He was obviously still counting on the Stanleys forsupport to risk this, but they remained motionless as Richard waskeeping Lord Stanley’s son hostage. In response to Richard’s ownrepeated threats, Stanley replied that he had other sons. He didnot engage though, and Richard kept the traitor’s son alive,perhaps in the hope the Stanleys might yet fight on his behalf.

The battle, once joined, according to Vergil was short, lastingonly two hours. It started with the traditional bout of archeryand cannon fire but men soon switched to hand-to-hand combat. Inresponse to Oxford’s all out attack on his vanguard, Richard drewup his centre behind Norfolk and proceeded to reinforce him. Atfirst Oxford pushed his counterpart’s men back up the hill some

distance, but with the help of Richard’s reinforcements it wassoon the rebels turn to give ground. While the Earl of Oxford wasslowly pushed back, the Stanley brothers remained non-committalto either side. Knowing victory depended on their intervention,Tudor set forth with his small reserve force to persuade them tojoin him. Seeing the rebel leader’s banner traverse the field ata fair distance from his main army, Richard decided to lead adownhill charge in the hope of killing him and thus ending thebattle. At about that time the King received the disappointingnews that Norfolk had been killed. On hearing this, somecounseled retreat and ‘urged [Richard] to fly’ but puttingconfidence in Norfolk’s son, Surrey, Richard persisted in leadinga charge. Surrounded by several hundred mounted men of hishousehold, he undertook the dangerous charge past the Stanleys toengage Tudor. At first the cavalcade seemed likely to succeed inkilling the Welshman; in fact several of the men about him,including his standard bearer Sir William Brandon, were killed.It was at this moment, however, that outright treachery ensued…Sir William Stanley, seeing an opportunity to end the battle andput Tudor in his debt engaged the King’s small force. Richard wassuddenly cut off from his main army as 2,500 men swirled roundhim and his household. The cry of ‘treason’ went up from his menas they were cut down, one by one. Many men of Richard’shousehold died trying to save him before he was completelysurrounded and killed.

With Richard dead his army disintegrated, having nothing left tofight for.

Aftermath

King Richard was both the second and last English King to die inbattle. After the victory, Tudor had him stripped and paradedignominiously through the streets of Leicester.

Having married Edward IV’s eldest daughter, Henry furthercemented his power by dating his reign from the day beforeBosworth, making it possible to attain all those who foughtagainst him as traitors. This unprecedented move allowed him toseize the extensive lands belonging to the dead King Richard, as

well as the lands of his Yorkist supporters. Under Henry VII, thelords of England were weakened and the crown grew richer andstronger leading to the relatively peaceful and prosperous realmthat would be inherited by the successful Tudor dynasty.

Timeline of the Wars of the RosesThe following timeline of the Wars of the Roses charts the battles fought by the clashing factions and the reigns of the Kings of England during the period of the Wars of the Roses.

Timeline ofKeyDates

Timeline of the Wars of the RosesKey events

1455May 22, 1455: The First Battle of St Albans was the start of Civil war in England called the Wars of the Roses

1455 -1460

There were constant clashes between the Lancastrian faction of King Henry VI, his wife Margaret of Anjou and the Yorkist forces led by Richard, Duke of York andthe Earl of Warwick

1460Battle of Northampton, on July 10, 1460: The Yorkist army under Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick ( the Kingmaker ) captured King Henry

1460King Henry VI again suffered a bout of madness and Richard Duke of York was again appointed Regent of England

1460October 1460 the Act of Accord: Richard, Duke of York was named as  successor to the throne, disinheriting Henry's six year old son Prince Edward

1460 The Battle of Wakefield: Richard took a strong positionat Sandal castle and far out numbered the Lancastrian

army. Unbelievably Richard left Sandal castle and was defeated by the Lancastrian army. Richard was killed inthe battle. His son, Edward of York, now pressed his claim to the throne of England

1461 March 4: Edward of York was declared King Edward IV in London

1470A rebellion led by Warwick and Clarence failed and theywere forced to flee to France where they made an alliance with Margaret of Anjou

1470 The French support an English invasion led by Margaret,Warwick and Clarence.

1470 King Edward IV was forced to flee when Warwick's brother, John Neville changed to the Lancastrian side

1470 3 October 1470, Readeption of Henry VI: Henry VI was briefly restored to the throne of England

1470 December 1470: Prince Edward was married to Anne Neville, Warwick's younger daughter

1471 March: King Edward IV lands with an invasion force in England

1471 Battle of Barnet -14 April:  King Edward IV wins the battle and Warwick is killed.

1471 King Henry VI is imprisoned in the Tower of London

1471

Battle of Tewkesbury - May 4:  King Edward IV wins a decisive victory and the Lancastrian male line are virtually destroyed. Edward, Prince of Wales was one ofthose who were killed

1471 May: Queen Margaret and her daughter-in-law, Anne Neville, are taken as prisoners by King Edward IV

1471May 22, 1471: The death of King Henry VI at the Tower of London. The cause of his death is unknown, but he isbelieved to have been murdered.

  King Edward IV reigned as King of England from March 4,1461 - Oct 31,1470 and April 11, 1471 - April 9, 1483

1471May 22, 1471: The death of King Henry VI at the Tower of London. The cause of his death is unknown, but he isbelieved to have been murdered.

1471 King Edward IV continues on his role as King of England

1483

Easter: Edward fell ill during Easter 1483. He named his brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester as Protector after his death and entrusted his young sons and littleprinces, Edward and Richard, to his care

1483 King Edward IV died: April 9, 1483 at Westminster

1483

The young prince ascended the throne as Edward V when his father died in 9th April 1483. Edward V was joined by his brother Prince Richard at the Tower of London toawait his coronation

1483 16th June 1483:  The coronation of Edward V was cancelled

1483

June 25 1483: Parliament declared the two little princes illegitimate and, as next in line to the throne, their uncle and Protector, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, was declared the true King. The two little Princes in the Tower were never seen again

1483 26 June 1483: Richard, Duke of Gloucester was declared King Richard III

1484April 9 1484: Edward of Middleham, also known as EdwardPlantagenet the only son of King Richard III of Englanddied suddenly, cause unknown

1485

Battle of Bosworth Field 22 August 1485: King Richard III  was killed and his supporters defeated at the Battle of Bosworth Field in Leicestershire against Lancastrian forces led by Henry Tudor

1485

Richard was the last king of the Plantagenet family, who had ruled over England for more than three hundred years. Richard's defeat at Bosworth Field by Henry Tudor ended the Plantagenet dynasty and the War of the Roses and heralded the Tudor dynasty

Timeline ofKeyDates

Timeline of the Wars of the RosesKey events