The Wars of the Roses were a series of battles fought in mediëval Britain from 1455 to 1487 between the royal houses of Lancaster and York.
The name Wars of the Roses is based on the badges used by the two sides, the red rose for the Lancastrians and the white rose for the Yorkists. Major causes of the conflict include:
Both houses were direct descendents of king Edward III.
The ruling Lancastrian king, Henry VI, surrounded himself with unpopular nobles and the untimely episodes of his mental illness did not do much good either.
The beginning of the Wars of the Roses
By 1453, the political storm clouds were once again gathering over the country. By this year, England's possessions in France had been almost lost as the disastrous Hundred Years War had all but come to an end . It was this that brought the first period of mental illness for Henry VI. What type of illness it was is not recorded, but it seems that it was, as we know today, a form of paralysis. Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, with the king out of action, was made protector of England and took the opportunity to seek revenge on his earlier enemies, Henry Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, who was sent to the Tower on a revised charge of treason for his poor supervision of the war in France, in September 1453. The Earl of Salisbury, Richard Neville and his eldest son Richard, Earl of Warwick, also took the opportunity given by the king's illness and, under the shelter of their kinsman's protectorate started to seek their revenge against the Percy family, the Earls of Northumberland, with whom, they had held a long running feud, over the issue of ownership of property in Northumberland and Yorkshire .
England was thrown into a series of minor wars between the land's most powerful lords to which the Duke of York, as protector was able to use his authority to the advantage of his family and supporters. However, this all came to an end when the king recovered from his illness in January 1455.
Somerset was released from the Tower, and immediately formed a natural alliance with Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland and Percy's ally in the north, Lord Cliffor), against the Duke of York, who was now stripped of his powers as protector. With this the 'Wars of the Roses' was born.
The union between Somerset, Northumberland and Clifford, supported by King Henry VI would in later years go by the name of Lancastrians, taken from the family name of the House of Lancaster to which the lineage of Henry VI was derived. While the followers of the House of York, Richard, Duke of York, Warwick and Salisbury became known as the Yorkists.
The name Wars of the Roses is based on the badges used by the two sides, the red rose for the Lancastrians and the white rose for the Yorkists. Major causes of the conflict include:
Both houses were direct descendents of king Edward III.
The ruling Lancastrian king, Henry VI, surrounded himself with unpopular nobles and the untimely episodes of his mental illness did not do much good either.
The beginning of the Wars of the Roses
By 1453, the political storm clouds were once again gathering over the country. By this year, England's possessions in France had been almost lost as the disastrous Hundred Years War had all but come to an end . It was this that brought the first period of mental illness for Henry VI. What type of illness it was is not recorded, but it seems that it was, as we know today, a form of paralysis. Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, with the king out of action, was made protector of England and took the opportunity to seek revenge on his earlier enemies, Henry Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, who was sent to the Tower on a revised charge of treason for his poor supervision of the war in France, in September 1453. The Earl of Salisbury, Richard Neville and his eldest son Richard, Earl of Warwick, also took the opportunity given by the king's illness and, under the shelter of their kinsman's protectorate started to seek their revenge against the Percy family, the Earls of Northumberland, with whom, they had held a long running feud, over the issue of ownership of property in Northumberland and Yorkshire .
England was thrown into a series of minor wars between the land's most powerful lords to which the Duke of York, as protector was able to use his authority to the advantage of his family and supporters. However, this all came to an end when the king recovered from his illness in January 1455.
Somerset was released from the Tower, and immediately formed a natural alliance with Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland and Percy's ally in the north, Lord Cliffor), against the Duke of York, who was now stripped of his powers as protector. With this the 'Wars of the Roses' was born.
The union between Somerset, Northumberland and Clifford, supported by King Henry VI would in later years go by the name of Lancastrians, taken from the family name of the House of Lancaster to which the lineage of Henry VI was derived. While the followers of the House of York, Richard, Duke of York, Warwick and Salisbury became known as the Yorkists.