Another excellent publication written by a member of the Richard III Society giving concise biographies of the major participants in the Wars of the Roses. Pogmore, Pauline Harrison: Rosabella Press (the publishing group of the Yorkshire Branch of the Richard III Society) 2005: Medieval Warfare in Manuscripts.
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(later Henry VII) defeated and killed at on August 22, 1485, bringing the Wars of the Roses to a close. By his marriage to ’s daughter Elizabeth of York in 1486, Henry united the Yorkist and Lancastrian claims. Henry defeated a Yorkist rising supporting the pretender on June 16, 1487, a date that some historians prefer over the traditional 1485 for the termination of the wars.
Competing claims to the throne and the beginning of civil warBoth houses claimed the throne through descent from the sons of. Since the Lancastrians had occupied the throne from 1399, the Yorkists might never have pressed a claim but for the near prevailing in the mid-15th century. After the death of in 1422 the country was subject to the long and factious minority of (August 1422–November 1437), during which the English kingdom was managed by the king’s council, a predominantly aristocratic body. That arrangement, which probably did not accord with Henry V’s last wishes, was not maintained without difficulty. Like before him, Henry VI had powerful relatives eager to grasp after power and to place themselves at the head of factions in the state.
The council soon became their battleground. Henry VI, oil painting by an unknown artist; in the National Portrait Gallery, London Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, LondonBetween 1450 and 1460, had become the head of a great baronial league, of which the foremost members were his kinsmen, the Nevilles, the Mowbrays, and the Bourchiers. Among his principal lieutenants was his nephew, a powerful man in his own right, who had hundreds of adherents among the gentry scattered over 20 counties. In 1453, when Henry lapsed into insanity, a powerful baronial clique, backed by Warwick, installed York, as protector of the realm. When Henry recovered in 1455, he reestablished the authority of Margaret’s party, forcing York to take up arms for self-protection. The first battle of the wars, at (May 22, 1455), resulted in a Yorkist victory and four years of uneasy truce.
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Get exclusive access to content from our 1768 First Edition with your subscription.A new phase of the civil war began in 1459 when York, goaded by the queen’s undisguised preparations to attack him, rebelled for the last time. The Yorkists were successful at Blore Heath (September 23) but were scattered after a skirmish at Ludford Bridge (October 12). York fled to, and the Lancastrians, in a packed parliament at (November 1459), obtained a judicial condemnation of their opponents and executed those on whom they could lay hands.From then on the struggle was bitter.
Both parties laid aside their scruples and struck down their opponents without mercy. The coldblooded and calculated ferocity that now entered English political life certainly owed something to the political ideas of the Italian, but, arguably, it was also in part a of the lawless habits acquired by the nobility during the.In France Warwick regrouped the Yorkist forces and returned to in June 1460, decisively defeating the Lancastrian forces at Northampton (July 10). York tried to claim the throne but settled for the right to succeed upon the death of Henry. That effectively disinherited Henry’s son, Prince Edward, and caused Queen Margaret to continue her opposition.Gathering forces in northern England, the Lancastrians surprised and killed York at in December and then marched south toward London, defeating Warwick on the way at the Second Battle of St.
Albans (February 17, 1461). Meanwhile, York’s eldest son and heir, had defeated a Lancastrian force at (February 2) and marched to relieve London, arriving before Margaret on February 26. The young duke of York was proclaimed at on March 4. Then Edward, with the remainder of Warwick’s forces, pursued Margaret north to.
There, in the bloodiest battle of the war, the Yorkists won a complete victory. Henry, Margaret, and their son fled to. The first phase of the fighting was over, except for the reduction of a few pockets of Lancastrian resistance.
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