15th Century

Edward III had a very large family.  His second son William died young, but his third son, Lionel, Duke of Clarence had a daughter, Philipa.  His fourth son, John of Gaunt ruled the north of England with an iron fist.  John had a life-long mistress, Katherine Swynford, with whom he raised a family, called Beaufort (remember them), whom he legitimized in his later life, when he finally married their mother.  In addition, John was married first to Blanch of Lancaster, thereby becoming Duke of Lancaster.  WIth Blanch he had a son Henry.  Thus began the house of Lancaster.

The fourth son of Edward III was Edward, Duke of York, whose grand-son, Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, married his second cousin, Anne Mortimer, the grand-daughter of Philipa, the daughter of Edward III's third son.  Together they had a son, Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, with a direct line to Edward III through both his parents, although muddied by occasional female progenitors.  Thus began the house of York.

Edward III left his kingdom to the infant son of the Black Prince, Richard II.  Richard was beloved for his father's sake until he was condemned for the brutal repression of the Peasant Revolt which took place during his childhood.  Upon reaching his majority, Richard was considered a very weak monarch and his Cousin, Henry of Lancaster (to be the IV), essentially stole the throne from him, shutting him into the Tower of London, where he eventually died under somewhat suspicious circumstances.

The reign of Henry IV was fairly calm and it was his son, Henry V who became the darling of two continents when he won the Battle of Agincourt and married Catherine of Valois, the princess of France.  Unfortunately, Henry V lived barely long enough to father his own son, the infant Henry VI.  Upon his death, Catherine of Valois married Own Tudor and had a second son, Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond.  Thus began the house of Tudor.

During the first half of his reign, Henry VI's England was ruled by an assortment of regents, among whom, the Beaufort family loomed large.  Upon reaching his majority, Henry VI turned out to be a kindly, but weak king.  He was unable to hold France after a series of startling disasters there. (i.e.: The female knight, Joan of Arc, helped the Dauphin, Louis XI to the throne and was subsequently burned at the stake.)  He eventually married Margaret of Anjou, an extremely strong woman, much disliked by the people of England.  Together they had a son, Edward.

This is where the play opens, so to speak.  The war was made possible due to the power and rivalry of the great lords of England, almost all of whom could, after three or four generations, claim some connection with Edward III.  The disastrous turn of events in France coupled with the long and factious minority movement in England led to civil unrest, but reverence for the King delayed a Yorkist claim to the crown for many years.

The first battle of the War of the Roses took place at St. Albans, near London, in 1455, because Richard, Duke of York had become convinced that Queen Margaret and Edmund Beaufort, duke of Somerset, were scheming to destroy him.  The battle ended in less that an hour with the death of the duke of Somerset and the capture of King Henry, who thereby became, temporarily, something of a Yorkist puppet.   For a while, the Yorkist cause was in the ascendancy, however in 1459, the war broke out again, when the Lancastrians tried, at Blore Heath in Staffordshire, to stop Richard Neville, earl of Salisbury, from bringing reinforcements from Yorkshire to join York's forces at Ludlow.  The Yorkists won a hard fraught battle.  However, when the King himself arrived, the reluctance to fight against their king led to a Yorkists retreat.  York fled to Ireland and his eldest son, Edward, fled to Calais with his cousin Warwick who was the captain of the port there.  Warwick commanded the Channel with his fleet and on June 26, 1460, he landed with Edward and Salisbury at Sandwich and advanced to Northampton to meet Henry and his army.  The two armies met and the Yorkists won a complete victory, when within half an hour, the King was captured.  York returned from Ireland and claimed his throne.  A compromise allowed Henry to remain king with the understanding that Richard would succeed him, disinheriting Queen Margaret's son, Edward.  Margaret stirred up opposition in the countryside and when York went north to still the Lancastrian defiance in Yorkshire, he was killed just outside of his castle near Wakefield, on December 30, 1460.

The war grew more bitter, and on February 2, 1461, York's heir, Edward, a great general, though young, defeated a Lancastrian concentration at Mortimer's Cross, then marched quickly toward London where he hoped to meet Margaret and the Lancastrian army, which was also marching south.  Margaret, having allied herself to the ancient enemies of England, Scotland and France, had allowed unlimited pillage after crossing the Trent, not thereby endearing herself to her English subjects.  Meanwhile Warwick marched north from London to oppose Margaret's forces at St. Albans.  There, on February 17, 1461, he was defeated and the way to London lay open to the Lancastrian forces.  While Margaret hesitated and parlayed with the Londoners, young Edward arrived.  The hatred of the English toward Margaret and anger at the misdeeds of the Lancastrian army were the final catalysts and Edward was hailed as King in Westminster Hall on March 4.  Margaret and Henry retreated hastily to the north. Edward and Warwick sped after them and they were captured at Towton, in Yorkshire.  The Lancastrians suffered a bloody and crushing defeat on March 29, 1461.  Henry, Margaret, and their son fled to Scotland.

Henry was captured by Yorkist troops in July of 1465, but a growing rift between Edward IV and Warwick followed the king's marriage to the commoner, Elizabeth Woodville.  Warwick, working together with Edward's brother George, Duke of Clarence, defeated Edward's troops at Edgecote in Northampton shire in July 1469.  King Edward was captured, but was released within three months due to popular pressure.  In March 1470, Warwick and Clarence were forced to flee to France where they accepted aid from Louis XI on his terms, reconciliation with their bitter foe, Queen Margaret.  In support of the Lancastrian cause, they landed in Devon on September 13, 1470, where they surprised Edward IV who was forced to flee to Holland with his brother, Richard and a few other faithful supporters.  IN March 1471, he returned with Burgundian help.  By his personal charm and speed he gathered forces, outmaneuvering Warwick and gaining possession of London.  In April, he won a complete victory at Barnet, where Warwick was slain on the field.  Edward caught up with Margaret and her son at Tewkesbury in May of 1471.  Margaret's son, Edward, was killed and she was captured.  In the same month, a Lancastrian attack on London was warded off and Henry VI was murdered.  It looked as though the Lancastrian cause was dead.  Edward IV was safe during his lifetime.

With the death of Edward IV, however, the war resumed.  His brother, Richard, who had remained loyal to him throughout his lifetime, began the preparations for the coronation of Edward IV's young son, Edward, but something happened about which historians are still uncertain.  The legality of Edward's marriage may have been questioned and the legitimacy of his children placed in doubt.  Edward IV's two sons seemingly disappeared.  In very short order Richard was himself crowned, Richard III.  The Lancastrian cause had found on small reed to lean on in the person of Henry Tudor, the son of Margaret Beaufort, the last of the legitimized second family of John of Gaunt, and Edmond Tudor, the son of Owen Tudor and Catherine of Valois, the window of Henry V.  In 1485, on the field of Bosworth, Richard III was killed, and Henry emerged victorious.  Henry VII (Tudor) married Elizabeth Plantagenet (the daughter of Edward IV).  Their child, Henry VIII, wore the combined roses of the Houses of York and Lancaster as "The Tudor Rose" which has remained the family badge of his daughter, Queen Elizabeth I.

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