The Wars of Roses

The Wars of Roses
Henry VI, who had become king as a baby, grew up to be simple-minded and book
-loving. He hated the warlike nobles, and was an unsuitable king for such a violent
society. But he was a civilized and gentle man. He founded two places of learning
that still exist, Eton College not far from London, and King's College in
Cambridge. He could happily have spent his life in such places of learning.
But Henry's simple- mindedness gave way to periods of mental illness. England
had lost a war and was ruled by a mentally ill king who was bad at choosing
advisers. It was perhaps natural that the nobles began to ask questions about who
should be ruling the country. They remembered that Henry's grandfather Henry of
Lancaster had taken the throne when Richard II was deposed.
There were not more than sixty noble families controlling England at this time.
Most of them were related to each other through marriage. Some of the nobles
were extremely powerful. Many of them continued to keep their own private
armies after returning from the war in France, and used them to frighten local
people into obeying them. Some of these armies were large. For example, by 1450
the duke of Buckingham had 2,000 men in his private army.
The discontented nobility was divided between those who remained loyal to Henry
VI, the "Lancastrians", and those who supported the duke of York, the
"Yorkists". The duke of York was the heir of the earl of March, who had lost the
competition for the throne when Richard II was deposed in 1399.
In 1460 the duke of York claimed the throne for himself. After his death in battle,
his son Edward took up the struggle and won the throne in 1461. Edward IV put
Henry into the Tower of London, but nine years later a new Lancastrian army
rescued Henry and chased Edward out of the country. Like the Lancastrians,
Edward was able to raise another army. Edward had the advantage of his popularity
with the merchants of London and the southeast of England. This was because the
Yorkists had strongly encouraged profitable trade, particularly with Burgundy.
Edward returned to England in 1471 and defeated the Lancastrians. At last Edward
IV was safe on the throne. Henry VI died in the Tower of London soon after,
almost certainly murdered.
The war between York and Lancaster would probably have stopped then if
Edward’s son had been old enough to rule, and if Edward 's brother, Richard of
Gloucester, had not been so ambitious. But when Edward IV died in 1483, his own
two sons, the twelve-year-old Edward V and his younger brother, were put in the
Tower by Richard of Gloucester. Richard took the Crown and became King
Richard Ill. A month later the two princes were murdered. Richard III had a better
reason than most to wish his two nephews dead, but his guilt has never been
proved. Richard III was not popular. Lancastrians and Yorkists both disliked him.
In 1485 a challenger with a very distant claim to royal blood through John of
Gaunt landed in England with Breton soldiers to claim the throne. Many
discontented lords, both Lancastrians and Yorkists, joined him. His name was
Henry Tudor, duke of Richmond, and he was half Welsh. He met Richard III at
Bosworth. Half of Richard's army changed sides, and the battle quickly ended in
his defeat and death. Henry Tudor was crowned king immediately, on the
battlefield. The war had finally ended, though this could not have been clear at the
time.
Much later, in the nineteenth century, the novelist Walter Scott named these wars
the "Wars of the Roses", because York 's symbol was a white rose, and
Lancaster's a red one. The Wars of the Roses nearly destroyed the English idea of
kingship forever.
After 1460 there had been little respect for anything except the power to take the
Crown. Tudor historian s made much of these wars and made it seem as if much of
England had been destroyed. This was not true. Fighting took place for only a total
of fifteen months out of the whole twenty-five-year period. Only the nobles and
their armies were involved. It is true, however, that the wars were a disaster for the
nobility. For the first time there had been no purpose in taking prisoners, because
no one was interested in payment of ransom. Everyone was interested in destroying
the opposing nobility. Those captured in battle were usually killed immediately. By
the rime of the battle of Bosworth in 1485, the old nobility had neatly destroyed
itself. Almost half the lords of the sixty noble families had died in the wars. It was
this fact which made it possible for the Tudors to build a new nation state.

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