What was the War of the Roses?

The Wars of the Roses were a series of civil wars fought in medieval England from 1455 to 1487. For thirty - two years, a bitter struggle for the English throne was waged between two branches on the same family, the House of York and the House of Lancaster, both descended from Edward III

The War of the Roses began in 1455, when many barons resented the way that the Lancaster family had seized the throne in 1399 and felt that Henry V, IV or VI were not the rightful kings. (Henry IV, the first Lancastrian King, came to the English throne by force. He made his cousin Richard ll, abdicate, and then seized the crown himself.) According to the barons, the York family, cousins of the Lancasters, were truly entitled to reign.

Each house was represented by a rose

The Struggle for power was know as the War of the Roses because the Lancaster emblem was a red rose and the York emblem a white rose.

House of York was a White Rose

House of Lancaster was a Red Rose

​

What happened at the battle of Bosworth?

Henry Tudor, (Henry VII), earl of Richmond and a Lancastrian, defeated King Richard III, a Yorkist, at the battle of Bosworth Field on 22 August 1485.

​Richard III was killed

Henry Tudor landed at Milford Haven on 7 August in an attempt to claim the throne of England. He gathered supporters on his journey through Wales, and by the time he arrived in the Midlands, he had amassed an army of an estimated 5,000 men. Richard III, on the other hand, had an army of nearly 8,000.

After the battle, Henry Tudor was crowned as King Henry VII, marking the beginning of the 118-year reign of the Tudor dynasty in England.

​Happily ever after?

Henry Vll (representing the Lancaster family) married Elizabeth of York (representing the York family). This marriage united the two families. Henry created the Tudor rose, containing both the White Rose of York and the Red Rose of Lancaster. It symbolized the end of a struggle between York and Lancaster,