Wars of the Roses

The Wars of the Roses (1455–1487) were a series of civil wars fought over the throne of England between adherents of the House of Lancaster and the House of York. Both houses were branches of the Plantagenet royal house, tracing their descent from King Edward III.

The name "Wars of the Roses" was not used during the time of the wars, but has its origins in the badges associated with the two royal houses, the Red Rose of Lancaster and the White Rose of York. The term itself came into common use only in the nineteenth century, after the publication of Anne of Geierstein by Sir Walter Scott. Scott based the name on a fictional scene in Shakespeare's play Henry VI Part 1, where the opposing sides pick different-coloured roses at the Temple Church.

Although the roses were occasionally used as symbols during the wars themselves, most of the participants wore badges associated with their immediate feudal lords or protectors. The unofficial system of livery and maintenance, by which powerful nobles would offer protection to followers who would sport their colours and badges (livery) was one of the effects of the breakdown of royal authority which preceded and partly caused the wars. For example, Henry's forces at Bosworth fought under the banner of a red dragon, while the Yorkist army used the symbol of a white boar.

The Wars were fought largely by the landed aristocracy and armies of feudal retainers. Support for each house largely depended upon dynastic marriages with the nobility, feudal titles, and tenures. It is sometimes difficult to follow the shifts of power and allegiance as nobles acquired or lost titles through marriage, confiscation or attainture. For example, the Lancastrian patriarch John of Gaunt's first title was Earl of Richmond, the same title which Henry VII later held, while the Yorkist patriarch Edmund of Langley's first title was Earl of Cambridge.