"Divided York and Lancaster" (V.5)
Background to the Wars of the Roses: synopsis of
events, popular misconceptions. Text by Peter Hammond.
Illustrations: "Wheel of Fortune," "Choosing the
Red and White Roses," Henry A. Payne; Battle of Stoke: 1987
poster.
The Wars of the Roses
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The Wars of the Roses were, in essence, a long drawn out
dynastic quarrel. In its course many hundreds of men were
killed, including a large part of the nobility of England.
The quarrel was caused, in a sense, by the usurpation of
Henry IV, of the House of Lancaster, since by deposing Richard
II he displaced the main Plantagenet line with his own junior
branch. The senior heirs, the House of Mortimer, subsequently
the House of York, acquiesced in this for some 40 or so years.
The incapacity of Henry VI (grandson of Henry IV) and the
resulting breakdown in law and order then gave the Duke of
York an opportunity to present himself as the rightful king
and the one man who could bring peace and justice to the country.
There were in a way two such wars, between York and Lancaster
1459-1471, with a five-year peaceful period from 1464-1469,
and between York and Tudor 1483-1487. They were not unique
in Europe. In a period when kingly authority was low, stability
depended on the personal capacity of kings. An inefficient
monarch or a disputed succession could cause upheaval.
In the period between 1459 and 1487 the series of battles,
skirmishes and sieges between the Yorkists and their allies
and the Lancastrians (and Tudors) and their supporters are
what we know as the Wars of the Roses.
The actual name 'Wars of the Roses' was probably not used
until the nineteenth century but by 1487 contemporaries certainly
had the idea of the warring red and white roses.
The life of Richard of Gloucester, Richard III, (1452-1485)
almost exactly spanned the period of the 'Wars' but they did
not end with his death.
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In 1487 the Earl of Lincoln, heir of Richard III, supported an
uprising by Lambert Simnel, calling himself Edward Earl of Warwick
(son of George Duke of Clarence). Lincoln landed in Ireland with
an army in May, and Simnel was crowned in the cathedral at Dublin
as Edward VI.
Simnel and his forces landed in Lancashire in June, and marked
to Stoke, near Newark. Henry advanced against them and defeated
them later in the same month. The Earl of Lincoln and most of the
leaders were killed and Simnel was taken prisoner.
Stoke (not Bosworth) was the last battle of the Wars of the Roses.
The Wheel of Fortune
Illustration from "Divided York and Lancaster," exhibition
panel outlining the history of the Wars of the Roses. Adapted from
Entertainment and Ritual 600-1600, Peter A. Bucknell (London, Stainer
& Bell, Ltd., 1979).
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