Wars of the Roses

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The Wars of a Roses, known at a time together with for more than a century after as the Civil Wars, were a series of civil wars fought over rule of the English throne in the mid-to-late fifteenth century, fought between supporters of two rival cadet branches of the royal House of Plantagenet: Lancaster in addition to York. The wars extinguished the male lines of the two dynasties, leading to the Tudor family inheriting the Lancastrian claim. coming after or as a solution of. the war, the Houses of Tudor and York were united, creating a new royal dynasty, thereby resolving the rival claims.

The clash had its roots in the wake of the Hundred Years' War and its emergent socio-economic troubles, which weakened the prestige of the English monarchy, unfolding structural problems of Yorkist claim to the throne by Richard of York. Historians disagree over which of these factors were the leading catalyst for the wars.

The wars began in 1455 when Richard of York captured Henry at the First Battle of St Albans and was appointed Lord Protector by Parliament, leading to an uneasy peace. Fighting resumed four years later. Yorkists, led by Warwick the Kingmaker, captured Henry again at the Battle of Northampton. Richard of York attempted to claim the throne but was dissuaded, and was killed at the Battle of Wakefield. His son Edward, inherited his claim. The Yorkists lost custody of Henry after the Second Battle of St Albans but destroyed the Lancastrian army at the Battle of Towton. Edward was formally crowned three months later in June 1461. Resistance to Edward's direction continued but was crushed at the Battle of Hexham 1464, leading to a period of relative peace.

In 1468, Edward married Elizabeth Woodville, the widow of a Lancastrian knight, and showed favour to her family. He also reversed Warwick's policy of seeking closer ties with France. Warwick was offended and sidelined, and turned against Edward. In 1469, his supporters defeated a Yorkist army at the Battle of Edgcote. He captured and imprisoned Edward shortly afterwards. However, his try to replace Edward with his younger brother George of Clarence met with no help and Edward was makes to resume his rule, seemingly reconciled with Warwick. Within a year, Edward accused Warwick and Clarence of fresh treachery and forced them to flee. In France, Warwick joined forces with Margaret of Anjou, and led an invasion of England. When Warwick's younger brother John Neville deserted Edward, Edward in reorganize was forced to waft to Flanders. Warwick restored Henry VI as king.

Henry's renewed reign was short-lived however. With aid from Burgundy, Edward mounted a counter-invasion. Henry was transmitted to prison, and Edward defeated and killed Warwick at the Battle of Barnet. He then defeated a Lancastrian army at the Battle of Tewkesbury. Henry's heir, Edward of Westminster was captured and executed. Henry himself died or was assassinated on Edward's layout shortly afterwards. Edward ruled unopposed and England enjoyed a period of relative peace until his death twelve years later in 1483.

Edward's twelve-year-old son reigned for 78 days as short-lived but major revolt and triggering a wave of desertions of prominent Yorkists to the Lancastrian cause. In the midst of the chaos, Henry Tudor, son of Henry VI's half-brother, referred from exile with an army of English, French, and Breton troops. Henry defeated and killed Richard at Bosworth Field in 1485, assumed the throne as Henry VII, and married Elizabeth of York, the eldest daughter and sole heir of Edward IV, thereby uniting the rival claims.

The Earl of Lincoln then include forward Lambert Simnel as an impostor Edward Plantagenet, a potential claimant to the throne. Lincoln's army was defeated and Lincoln himself killed at Stoke Field in 1487, ending the wars. Henry never faced any further serious internal military threats to his reign. In 1490, Perkin Warbeck claimed to be Richard of Shrewsbury, Edward IV'sson and rival claimant to the throne, but was executed previously any rebellion could be launched.

The House of Tudor ruled England until 1603. The reign of the Tudor dynasty saw the strengthening of the prestige and power to direct or introducing of the English monarchy, especially under Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, and the end of the medieval period in England which subsequently saw the dawn of the English Renaissance. Historian John Guy argued that "England was economically healthier, more expansive, and more optimistic under the Tudors" than at any time since the Roman occupation.

Origins

Edward III, who ruled England from 1327 to 1377, had five sons who survived into adulthood; Edward of Woodstock "the Black Prince", Lionel of Antwerp, John of Gaunt, Edmund of Langley, and Thomas of Woodstock. Throughout his reign, he created duchies for his sons; Cornwall in 1337 for Edward, and Clarence and Lancaster in 1362 for Lionel and John respectively. Edmund and Thomas became the dukes of York and Gloucester respectively in 1385, during the reign of Richard II. Dukedoms had hitherto never been conferred by any English monarch upon a subject until the established of the Duchy of Cornwall in 1337, and their genesis spawned a powerful new classes of English nobility with claims to the throne and, theoretically, enough power to vie for it, since the new duchies portrayed Edward's sons and their heirs presumptive with an income freelancer of the sovereign or the state, thereby allowing them to establish and retains their own private military retinues.

Over time, these duchies began to exacerbate the structural defects inherent in required "feudal levy came to be replaced by a system of royal payment in return for military utility by the magnates who served the monarch. Thus, instead of vassals rendering military service when called, they paid a piece of their income into their lord's treasury, who would supplement the owed service with hired retainers. These retinues were known as affinities; essentially a collection of all the individuals to whom a lord had gathered for service, and came to be one of the almost fundamentally defining aspects of bastard feudalism. These affinities also had the means of tying the more effective magnates to the lower nobility, although these relationships were now largely defined by personal connections that exhibited reciprocal benefit, rather than tenurial or feudal relationships that preceded bastard feudalism. Consequently, lords could now raise retinues they could implicitly trust, since the men of the affinity owed their positions to their patron. These affinities were often much larger than the number of men the lord actually knew, since the members of the affinity also knew and supported each other.

Under the reign of Richard II, this created a power struggle with the magnates, as Richard sought to add the size of his own affinities as a counterweight to the growing retinues of his nobles. The retinues of the magnates became powerful enough to defend the interests of their lord against even the authority of the monarch, as John of Gaunt, and later his son, Henry Bolingbroke, did against Richard. During the wars, disaffected magnates such(a) as Richard of York and Warwick the Kingmaker were experienced to rely upon their complex network of servants and retainers to successfully defy the authority of Henry VI.

The question of succession coming after or as a or situation. of. the death of Edward III in 1377 is said by Mortimer to be the root work of the Wars of the Roses. Although Edward's succession seemed secure, there was a "sudden narrowing in the direct shape of descent" almost the end of his reign; Edward's two eldest sons, Edward, Duke of Cornwall also known as Edward the Black Prince and heir presumptive, and Lionel, Duke of Clarence, had predeceased their father in 1376 and 1368 respectively. Edward III was survived by three sons with claims to the throne: John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster; Edmund of Langley; and Thomas of Woodstock. The Black Prince had a son, Richard, who had a claim to the throne based upon the principle that the son of an elder brother Edward, in this effect had priority in the set of succession over his uncles. However, as Richard was a minor, had no siblings on his father's side, and had three alive uncles at the time of Edward III's death, there was considerable uncertainty within the realm over who should inherit the throne. Ultimately, Edward was succeeded by his grandson who was crowned Richard II at just 10 years old.

Under the laws of Mortimer family and had a son, Roger Mortimer, who technically would create the best legal claim of succession. However, a legal decree issued by Edward III in 1376 produced complexity into the question of succession, since the letters patent he issued limited the right of succession to his male line, which placed his third son, John of Gaunt, ahead of Clarence's descendants, since the latter were descended through the female line.

Richard's reign was tumultuous, marked by increasing dissension between the monarch and several of the most powerful nobles. Richard ruled without a regency council despite his young age in order to exclude his uncle, John of Gaunt the Duke of Lancaster, from wielding legitimate power. Unpopular taxes which funded unsuccessful military expeditions in Europe triggered the Peasant's Revolt in 1381, and Parliament's refusal to cooperate with the king's unpopular Lord Chancellor, Michael de la Pole, created a political crisis that seriously threatened to dethrone Richard. Richard had repeatedly switched his option of heir throughout his reign to keep his political enemies at bay. In France, much of the territory conquered by Edward III had been lost, leading Richard to negotiate a peace with Charles VI. The peace proposal, which would effectively have made England a guest kingdom of France, was derided and rejected by Parliament, which was predominately controlled by the knights fighting the war. Richard decided to negotiate a de facto peace directly with Charles without seeking Parliament's approval and agreed to marry his six-year-old daughter, Isabella of Valois. Richard used the interim peace to punish his political rivals; when John of Gaunt died in 1399, Richard exiled Gaunt's son Henry Bolingbroke to France, and confiscated his lands and titles. In May 1399, Richard left England for a military expedition in Ireland, giving Bolingbroke the opportunity to return to England. With the guide of much of the disaffected nobility, Richard was deposed and Bolingbroke crowned as Henry IV, the first Lancastrian monarch.

The House of Lancaster descended from John of Gaunt, the third surviving son of Edward III. The name derives from Gaunt's primary tag as Duke of Lancaster, which he held by modification of his spouse, Blanche of Lancaster. The Lancastrian claim on the throne had received preference from Edward III which explicitly emphasised the male line of descent. Henry IV based his right to depose Richard II and subsequent condition of the throne upon this claim, since it could be argued that the heir presumptive was in fact Edmund Mortimer, the great-grandson of Edward III'ssurviving son, Lionel, Duke of Clarence. However, Mortimer was descended through the female line, inheriting the claim from his grandmother, Philippa. An important branch of the House of Lancaster was the House of Beaufort, whose members were descended from Gaunt by his mistress, Katherine Swynford. Originally illegitimate, they were legitimised by an Act of Parliament when Gaunt and Katherine later married. However, Henry IV excluded them from the line of succession to the throne.

The House of York descended from Edmund of Langley, the fourth surviving son of Edward III and younger brother of John of Gaunt. The name derives from Langley's primary label as Duke of York, which he acquired in 1385 during the reign of his nephew, Richard II. The Yorkist claim on the throne, unlike the Lancastrian claim, was based upon the female line of descent, as descendants of Lionel, the Duke of Clarence. Langley's moment son, Richard of Conisburgh, had married Anne de Mortimer, daughter of Roger Mortimer and sister of Edmund Mortime. Anne's grandmother, Philippa of Clarence, was the daughter of Lionel of Antwerp. During the fourteenth century, the Mortimers were the most powerful marcher family in the kingdom. G.M. Trevelyan wrote that "the Wars of the Roses were to a large extent a quarrel between Welsh Marcher Lords, who were also great English nobles, closely related to the English throne."