War of the Roses

Origins of the War of the Roses

The houses of York and Lancaster were both descended from King Edward III (1312-1377). He had four sons who lived to adulthood with his queen Philippa of Hainault. However, his eldest son, Edward the Black Prince, died before his father, and according to the law of the land, the crown passed to the Black Prince's son, who became Richard II (r. 1377-1399). However, Richard's kingship was not popular with Edward's other son, John of Gaunt (1340-1399).

John instilled his dissatisfaction with not inheriting the throne in his son, Henry of Bolingbroke, who overthrew Richard II to become King Henry IV in 1399. Thus the two branches of the War of the Roses were born–those descended from Henry IV became the Lancasters, and those descended from Edward III's elder son Lionel, Duke of Clarence (Richard II had no children), became the Yorks.

Wars of the Roses Flags

The Wars of the Roses are called such because each side, York and Lancaster, chose a different color of rose to symbolize them. The Yorks used the white rose to represent them, and the Lancasters chose red. Tudor King Henry VIII took Elizabeth of York as his queen when the Wars ended. They combined the white and red roses to make the Tudor Rose.

Fig. 1 Metal plaque showing the Red Lancaster Rose flag

Causes of the War of the Roses

King Henry V conquered France in a decisive victory in the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453) at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. He died suddenly in 1422, leaving his one-year-old son as King Henry VI (1421-1471). However, unlike his hero father, Henry VI was weak and mentally unstable, quickly squandering England's victory and causing political unrest. The king's weakness caused those closest to him to doubt his ability to rule England effectively.

Two opposite factions in the nobility appeared. On the one hand, Henry's cousin Richard, Duke of York, openly objected to the monarchy's domestic and foreign policy decisions.

However, Richard had a formidable opponent in Henry VI's queen, Margaret of Anjou (1430-1482), who would stop at nothing to keep the Lancastrians in power. She formed the royalist party around her weak husband, and the clash between York and Lancaster began.

Margaret of Anjou was a shrewd political player in the War of the Roses, earning the title "She-Wolf of France" from William Shakespeare. She married Henry VI as part of a treaty with France to end the Hundred Years War and controlled the Lancastrian government for much of her reign. Seeing Richard of York as a challenge to her husband's rule, in 1455, she called a Great Council of government officials and did not invite Richard or his family. This snub sparked the thirty-year War of the Roses between the Yorks and the Lancasters.

Fig. 3 Plucking Red and White Roses by Henry Payne

Wars of the Roses Map

Even though the War of the roses involved the whole kingdom, not every region of England saw the same grade of violence. Most battles happened south of the Humber and north of the Thames. The first and last battles were the Battle of St. Alban (May 22, 1455) and the Battle of Bosworth (August 22, 1485).

Fig. 4 War of the Roses Map

War of the Roses Timeline

Let us take a look at the timeline

War of the Roses: A Summary of the End

The new King Henry VII married Edward IV's daughter, Elizabeth of York (1466-1503). This alliance merged the York and Lancaster houses under a shared banner, the Tudor Rose. Although there would still be power struggles to maintain the Tudor dynasty's power during the new king's reign, the War of the Roses was over.

Fig. 5 Tudor Rose