Wars of the Roses

It is called the Wars of the Roses because it was a war between the houses of York whose symbol was a white rose, and Lancaster, whose symbol was a red rose. When Henry Tudor won the crown, the two symbols were joined together to make the Tudor Rose.

It all started, I suppose, with the black death. So many labourers and skilled workers died, that the peasants realised their worth. They were no longer tied to the land and could command higher wages by going elsewhere.

The King and his noblemen did not want the peasants to have so much freedom and the King even passed a law to keep wages at pre-plague rates. They increased taxes till the peasants were barely surviving and all their hard work was going to nothing.

The peasants' revolt, although nearly thirty years later, was a gradual progression of the disgruntlement and the whole of the south of England rose up to march on London.

The revolt was supposedly started by Wat Tyler, but there were many other peasant leaders who joined in. It was bloody and violent and many were killed. But the target was John of Gaunt. 

He was the uncle of the King and probably the richest man in England.

This is Richard II, the King who reigned during the Peasants' Revolt. He was only fourteen at the time, having ascended the throne at the age of only ten.

Richard was the grandson of King Edward III. His father was Edward, the Black Prince, who died before he could claim his inheritance. The Black Prince was also the Duke of Cornwall, the very first English Dukedom. Today, that title is held by Prince William.

The Peasants marched into London with their demands and the King agreed to meet with them. He also agreed to all their demands and they went away happy.

But Richard had no intention of keeping his word and as soon as the peasants had gone home, thinking they had an agreement, he sent his soldiers to arrest the leaders, who were subsequently hanged.

Richard was a pretty awful King. He liked his comforts, his fancy clothes and his jewels but he was kept in check while his wife, Anne of Bohemia, lived. When she died, at the age of only twenty eight, Richard seemed to go off the rails and became something of a tyrant.

When his uncle, John of Gaunt died, Richard disinherited his cousin, Henry of Bolingbroke, but he was not one to put up with it and he raised an army to depose Richard and snatch the throne for himself. 

It is believed that Richard was locked away and forgotten, starved to death. Perhaps this is where the saying 'lock him up and throw away the key' derives from.

Henry was a traitor, but the name of Henry seems to be another royal name that has had unfortunate associations.

Edward was a strong King, which the people needed, but he didn't have much luck with his brothers, especially his brother, George, Duke of Clarence.

George fought against his brother, tried to steal the throne from him, but every time Edward forgave him. That was his only weakness.

Edward had a lot of help from his cousin, the Earl of Warwick, in gaining the throne, which is why Warwick earned the nickname of Kingmaker. 

Things were going well until Edward fell out with Warwick. 

Warwick was a great friend of Edward and had helped him win the throne in the first place. But he got a bit too big for his boots and wanted Edward to allow a marriage between Edward's brother, George, and Warwick's eldest daughter, Isabel. 

Edward refused. He not only refused, he sent Warwick off to France to arrange a marriage for himself, but while he was gone, negotiating for months for a marriage that would bring about a treaty with France, Edward was getting himself married to Elizabeth Woodville. She was a very unpopular choice. She was not only a commoner, she was a widow with two sons and a Lancastrian.

Elizabeth was middle class, obviously no virgin and her husband had died fighting for the Lancastrian side. She set about integrating her family with the royal family by marrying her relatives to Edward's, even marrying one seventeen year old boy to a countess in her sixties.

It was always said that Edward was led by his loins and that he only married Elizabeth because he couldn't get her into bed any other way. Despite this, they seemed to have had a happy, if not totally faithful, marriage and she became grandmother to King Henry VIII.

Warwick was not best pleased when he came home from France, pleased to have negotiated an important match for the King. Edward had made a complete fool of him, so he took off, taking Edward's brother George with him (whom he married to his daughter without the King's consent) and joined Margaret of Anjou, Henry VI's queen, in raising an army to win the crown back for Henry.

Edward, meanwhile, went into exile, but Henry did not sit securely on the throne. Edward returned as England's King and this time he had run out of forgiveness for his treacherous brother, George.

George was condemned to death but Edward gave him the opportunity to choose his own form of execution. He replied that he would like to drown in a vat of wine.

This was his fate, but I believe that, having been forgiven so many times, he did not believe his brother was serious. I think he chose it as a joke, not believing for one minute that Edward would really not forgive him again.

He was wrong.

It is hard for us to imagine, since our dear Queen Elizabeth did not rule, but for people whose laws, whose very existence depended on who was on the throne of England, it must have been tumultuous.

After the Tudor Rose was established the title of Duke of Lancaster passed to Henry VII and has been held by every monarch since, even if that monarch were female. Until the recently, sad death of Queen Elizabeth, she was Duke of Lancaster. Now that title with pass to our new King Charles III.