By: Amalia Vélez

The War of The Roses

In our history, there has been several civil wars. One of these wars was fought in England in 1455. This war was called The War of the Roses . It has indeed, an interesting name; it was called like this because the two royal houses fighting, the House of Lancaster and the House of York, had roses as a badge. The House of Lancaster had a red rose as a badge, and The House of York had a white rose. After all, The War of the Roses was an imprudent war caused by the struggles between two cousins that created an impact on the community.

Introduction

The House of York and the House of Lancaster were both descendants from the Plantagenet dynasty. At the moment, the Lancastrian king Henry V was ruling. Finally in 1422 when Henry V died, his son, Henry VI was crowned king of England and France. During Henry’s reign, his country lost the Hundred Years War. In addition, they lost all their French territories except for Calais. Then, in 1455, Henry suffered his first mental illness. As an effect, Richard, Duke of York, got the control of the country.

BEFORE THE WAR

1. The main reason that caused the war were family struggles. Recall that after Henry´s mental illness, Richard, Duke of York, replaced Henry. The year after, Henry recovered, so he and Richard went into a fight over who would be ruling England. This broke out the war.

2. Another reason was because Henry was surrounding himself of unpopular nobles. In addition, there was a lot of powerful lords available to provide private armies.

Causes Towards the War

The opening battle for the war was called The First Battle at St. Albans. Richard sent an army of about 3,000 men to London. Henry, sent one army of 2,500 men out of London to restrain Richard´s army. Henry stopped at the town in St. Albans and waited for him. Finally Richard arrived and defeated Henry leaving 300 victims. Henry´s wife and son were sent into exile.

During the war, many of the battles were led by Henry´s wife, Margaret of Anjou. Margaret was angered because her son Edward wasn´t going to inherit the throne like she had planned, instead, Richard´s son was getting that position.

There were many battles between the royal houses, however, the House of York won the majority of them. In the next there´s a list of the mayor battles the two royal houses fought.

During the War

First St. Albans Blore Heath Ludford Bridge Northampton Wakefield Mortimor´s Cross Second St. Albans Ferry bridge Towtown Hedgeley Moor Hexham Edgecote Moor Losecote Field Barnet Tewkesbury

List of the Mayor battles

KEY = Victory of House of Lancaster = Victory of House of York

After The War After the war, Margaret of Anjou ended up really angry because after all the fighting she did, her son Edward, didn´t inherit the throne. At the battle of Wakefield in 1460, Richard Duke of York died. Then in 1461, Richard´s son, that was also called Edward IV, inherited the throne. Edward continued fighting against Henry and the war between them ended in the battle of Tewkesbury in 1471. Then, Edward executed Henry in the Tower of London on May 21, 1471.

The War of the Roses was important because it was a war that left several victims to it. In only the first war there were already 300 victims. A second reason the war is important is because it left two very important royals, Henry VI and Richard, Duke of York, dead.

A very important accomplishment the war left was The House of Tudor. After Richard III was defeated in 1485, Henry VII, wanted to stop the fighting between the royal houses of the War of the Roses so he being from the Lancastrians married Elizabeth of York. This uniting formed the new dynasty of the Tudors. There was no more fighting between the royal houses anymore. This established the end of the war. So now the new badge of the house was a rose with the colors of both houses.

The importance of this war

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We have to remember that The War of the Rose was fought in the Middle Ages. During this era many unfortunate events happened, for example, the Black Death, the Hundred Years War, etc. So by that era a war caused by family struggles is just something that shouldn´t have happened, it was a time in which the country was not ready for another war.

The War of the Roses affects us now because it teaches us that we shouldn´t fight to solve family and power struggles. It just causes lots of consequences. But it also teaches us that there is always a solution to things, as Henry VII did, he just got tired of the fighting and married with a woman form their enemies to unite all England again.

More reasons of its importance

More about the royal housesThe House of Lancaster The House of Lancaster was a cadet branch, or a junior family branch, of the House of Plantagenet. In the 15th century, it had 3 kings of England: Henry V, Henry VI, and Henry VII. This house lost The War of the Roses, defeated by The House of York. The Lancaster name was first acquired by the title of Earl of Lancaster that was given to Edmund, son of Henry III in 1267.

The House of YorkThe House of York was a also a cadet branch of the Plantagenet House. In the 15th century it took hold of the British throne after the House of Lancaster. It gave three kings for England, Edward IV, Edward V, and Richard III. This house was later defeated by Henry VII with the claims of the House of Tudor.

More about the royal houses

In conclusion, I think The War of the Roses was a very interesting and conflictive war that caused both good and bad impacts on England. After all, what I liked the best about this war was when the two royal houses finally solved their problems uniting both houses to form the Tudors. Also, I think it has a very creative name for a war. In fact, The War of the Roses was also the name of a movie from the 80´s. Even though The War of the Roses was just a civil war, it has an important mark in the British history.

Conclusion

Kings and Queens

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Chapter One: A Family Squabble

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Chapter Two: The Civil War

Continues

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