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The 100 Years War Peasants' Revolts |
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The Reformation Henry VIII. |
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| The War of the Roses |
With King RICHARD II. being deposed in 1399, there PLANTAGENET DYNASTY split in two lines, the HOUSES OF LANCASTER and YORK. Between 1399 and 1461, England was ruled by Kings from the House of Lancaster (Henry IV., Henry V. and Henry VI.
The WAR OF THE ROSES, a dynastic English civil war, broke out in 1453 - the King was temporarily incapacitated because of an attack by a mental disease he had inherited from his Valois mother. Duke Richard of York had been appointed regent. Queen Margaret had political ambitions of her own. When King Henry recovered, Margaret contested Richard's rule. Both sides assembled armed forces; the Queen's forces were defeated in 1455, King Henry taken captive in 1460. After escape and another defeat, he was sent into exile to Scotland; Richard's son Edward was proclaimed king. Henry VI., imprisoned in the Tower since 1470, in 1470 was restored to the throne by RICHARD NEVOILLE, EARL OF WARWICK. However, Edward IV. defeated the Lancastrian side once again in the BATTLE OF TEWKESBURY in 1471 and had Henry VI. executed.
Edward IV. died in 1483, succeeded by his son Edward V. However, Edward IV.'s ambitious brother had a faction of English nobles declare Edward's succession illegal, had Edward and his brother Richard arrested in the Tower (never to be seen again) and had himself declared king instead. A rebellion lead by HENRY STAFFORD, DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM, supporting the candidacy of HENRY TUDOR, was crushed, but Tudor emerged victorious from the BATTLE OF BOSWORTH FIELD in 1485, ending the Wars of the Roses and establishing the TUDOR DYNASTY.
The House of York wore a badge featuring the WHITE ROSE; the House of Lancaster was associated with a RED ROSE, hence the name of the civil war. The Wars of the Roses had their origin in the weakness of monarchy, which in cases of the minority of an heir, in case of no heir apparent or in case of a king capacitated left the door open for ambitious persons to pursue their personal goals. England's noblemen were too much focussed on pursuing their own family policy, not acting as a corporate body to represent the interests of the nation. The NEVILLE FAMILY, for instance, was heavily involved in the Wars of the Roses, Richard Neville reinstating King Henry VI. in 1470, and both the mother and the first wife of Richard III. being Nevilles.
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List of English Kings, 1399-1485 Source : British Monarchs, from britannia.com history department |
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1399-1413 1413-1422 1422-1461 1470-1471 |
HOUSE OF LANCASTER Henry IV. Henry V. Henry VI. Henry VI. (2nd time) |
1461-1470 1471-1483 1483 1483-1485 |
? HOUSE OF YORK Edward IV. Edward IV. (2nd time) Edward V. Richard III. |
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EXTERNAL FILES |
Biographies from britannia.com : Henry VI.,
Edward IV. Wars of the Roses, from Warrwykk Articles from Infoplease : Wars of the Roses |
| DOCUMENTS |
| VIDEOS | Wars of the Roses, 55 min., documentary from Cromwell Productions |
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This page is part of World History at KMLA First posted in 2000, last revised on November 9th 2004 Click here to go Home Click here to go to Information about KMLA, WHKMLA, the author and webmaster Click here to go to Statistics |
