Coming Together

Every day when you read the news, there’s always one or more articles about the war in Ukraine, or more recently Israel and the middle east conflicts. There’s always a war going on someplace on the planet, so the fact of a war isn’t really big news. Of course some wars have gotten more publicity and become more “famous” than others over the years. 

One war, or actually, wars, has gotten its fair share of press over the years — the Wars of the Roses. 
The Wars of the Roses were a series of bloody civil wars for the throne of England between two competing royal families: the House of York and the House of Lancaster, both members of the age-old royal Plantagenet family……

To get things started, when King Richard II of England came back from a trip to Ireland, there was somebody else sitting on his throne. And, as they say, the fireworks began.
The Yorks ruled Britain for almost 250 years from 1154 to 1399 — and were successful enough to add Scotland and Wales to the list of countries under British rule. But in 1399 Henry Bolingbroke, of the Lancaster branch of the family, took the throne from his cousin King Richard II, a York.

Henry threw Richard in prison, where he died — probably by starving himself. The whole episode ticked off Richard’s branch of the family to no end. They kept pretty quite because Henry, now King Henry IV, and his son, Henry V, were popular kings (the younger Henry added lots of territory to the British Kingdom including most of France.) Tensions were kept to a minimum between the Lancastrians and Yorkists for a long time after Henry IV took the throne.

It was during the reign of King Henry VI, that England lost control of her holdings in France (thanks in part to Joan of Arc) and unrest began to brew. And there was the question of Henry’s sanity (most thought he was cuckoo) that led to real trouble. Suddenly, it was remembered how Henry VI’s grandfather had taken the throne from Richard II — that was all the Yorkists needed.

The two branches of the Plantagenet family really started carrying on — they sniped at and feuded with each other whenever time and distance permitted. The Lancasters assumed they were the rightful rulers because, let’s face it, possession is nine-tenths of the law. The York side wanted to even the score for Richard’s sake, and for the next 20 years, Merry Olde England wasn’t so merry. Every skirmish between the Lancastrians and the Yorkists was another War of the Roses. 

Finally — in 1471, Henry VI was deposed (probably murdered by the Yorks.) The Yorks took over and put their own Edward IV on the throne. Things were merry again — until — Edward died, leaving behind only an infant son. His name was also Edward, naturally, and he took over the throne as Edward V. But because he was a baby, Edward Jr. wasn’t particularly intimidating. The boys uncle, Richard, one of the folks not intimidated in the least by the baby king, seized the throne as Richard III and little Eddie was never seen or heard from again. Richard III ruled until 1485, during which there were more skirmishes between the Yorkists and Lancastrians, and bad feelings grew throughout the kingdom.

Richard II was generally disliked, so you can probably figure out what his fate was. On August 22, 1485, Henry Tudor defeated King Richard II’s forces at the Battle of Bosworth (which is famous because it signaled the end of the Wars of the Roses — and — because it lasted only two hours…. I’m sure that must be some kind of record.)
Henry Tudor was crowned King Henry VII — he married Elizabeth, the daughter of Edward IV, to unite the two branches of the family. Their son was the famous Henry VIII.

So if you haven’t given up by now, or your computer battery hasn’t failed, and you’re still confused about all the Henrys, Richards, Plantagenets, Yorks, Lancasters, and Tudors — and — the Edwards, you’re not alone. Shakespeare wrote seven plays trying to set the record straight as to the history of the Wars of the Roses. The plays, titled after the Henrys and Richards involved in the wars, are known as Shakespeare’s  history cycle.

If you’re still here, why were they called the Wars of the Roses? Obvious — well, maybe not so obvious — each family, or “house,” had a symbol: the Lancaster’s was the red rose, the York’s was the white rose.
When Henry VII took the throne, he designed what’s called the “Tudor Rose,” a rose with alternating red and white petals signifying the unification of the houses of York and Lancaster.
The Tudor Rose is a common sight in England even today — it is a representation of the merging of two waring houses, and the end of years of conflict.
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