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Roses, Wars of the, series of dynastic civil wars in England fought by the rival houses of Lancaster and York between 1455 and 1485 (see Lancaster, House of; York, House of). The struggle was so named because the badge of the house of Lancaster was a red rose and that of the house of York a white rose. The initial opponents were the Lancastrian king of England Henry VI, aided by his queen, Margaret of Anjou, and Richard Plantagenet, 3rd duke of York. Because of the insanity of the king and military losses in France during the last phase of the Hundred Years' War, the authority of the house of Lancaster was badly shaken. York asserted his claim to the throne in 1460, after having defeated the Lancastrian armies at St. Albans in 1455 and at Northampton in 1460. In the latter year York was defeated and killed at Wakefield. In 1461, however, his son was proclaimed king as Edward IV and shortly thereafter he decisively defeated Henry and Margaret, who then fled from England. In 1465 Henry was captured and imprisoned in the Tower of London. The war was revived because of division within the Yorkist faction. Richard Neville, Earlof Warwick, aided by George Plantagenet, duke of Clarence, younger brother of Edward, made an alliance with Margaret and led an invasion from France in 1470. Edward was driven into exile and Henry restored to the throne. In 1471, however, Edward returned and, aided by Clarence, defeated and killed Warwick at the Battle of Barnet. Shortly thereafter, the Lancastrians were totally defeated at the Battle of Tewkesbury, and Henry was murdered in the Tower. After the death of Edward in 1483, his brother Richard usurped the throne, becoming king as Richard III, and the Lancastrians turned for leadership to Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, who later became King Henry VII, founder of the Tudor dynasty. In 1485 the forces of Richard and Henry fought the decisive Battle of Bosworth Field, the last major encounter of the war. After Richard's death in battle, Henry ascended the throne and married Edward's daughter, thus uniting the houses. The chief result of the war was an increase in the power of the Crown. Battle and execution all but destroyed the old nobility, and the financial resources of the monarchy were strengthened by the confiscation of estates. Tudor, name of the dynasty that occupied the throne of England from 1485 to 1603. The house was founded by the Welsh nobleman Owen Tudor, who married Catherine of Valois, the widow of the English king Henry V. Their eldest son, Edmund Tudor, married Margaret Beaufort, a descendant of John of Gaunt, son of King Edward III. In 1485 Edmund and Margaret's son, Henry, killed Richard III of the house of York and became Henry VII, the first Tudor monarch. The successive Tudor sovereigns were Henry VIII and his son and two daughters, Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I; the three died childless. The Tudors reunited the country after a period of civil strife and made the English church independent of the pope. They were followed in royal succession by the Stuart family. [Back] |