The wars ended when Richard III, the last Yorkist king, was defeated at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 by Henry Tudor – founder of the house of Tudor.

Here are 30 facts about the Wars:

1. The seeds of war were sown as far back as 1399

That year Richard II was deposed by his cousin, Henry Bolingbroke who would go on to be the Henry IV. This created two competing lines of the Plantagenet family, both of which thought they had the rightful claim.

On the one side there were the descendants of Henry IV – known as the Lancastrians – and on the other the heirs of Richard II. In the 1450s, the leader of this family was Richard of York; his followers would come to be known as the Yorkists.

2. When Henry VI came to power he was in an incredible position…

Thanks to the military successes of his father, Henry V, Henry VI held vast swathes of France and was the only King of England to be crowned King of France and England.

3. …but his foreign policy soon proved disastrous

Over the course of his reign Henry gradually lost almost all England’s possessions in France.

It culminated in the disastrous defeat at Castillon in 1453 – the battle signalled the end of the Hundred Years War and left England with only Calais from all their French possessions.

The Battle of Castillon: 17 July 1543

4. King Henry VI had favourites who manipulated him and made him unpopular with others

The King’s simple mind and trusting nature left him fatally vulnerable to grasping favourites and unscrupulous ministers.

5. His mental health also affected his ability to rule

Henry VI was prone to bouts of insanity. Once he had suffered from a complete mental breakdown in 1453, from which he never fully recovered, his reign morphed from concerning to catastrophic.

He was certainly incapable of containing the mounting baronial rivalries that eventually culminated in out-and-out civil war.

6. One baronial rivalry outshone all others

This was the rivalry between Richard, 3rd Duke of York and Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset. York deemed Somerset responsible for the recent military failures in France.

Both nobles made several attempts to destroy each other as they vied for supremacy. In the end their rivalry was only settled through blood and battle.

7. The first battle of the civil war occurred on 22 May 1455 at St Albans

Troops commanded by Richard, Duke of York, resoundingly defeated a Lancastrian royal army commanded by the Duke of Somerset, who was killed in the fighting. King Henry VI was captured, leading to a subsequent parliament appointing Richard of York Lord Protector.

It was the day that launched the bloody, three decades long, Wars of the Roses.

8. A surprise attack paved the way for a Yorkist victory

It was a small force led by the Earl of Warwick that marked the turning point in the battle. They picked their way through small back lanes and rear gardens, then burst into the town’s market square where the Lancastrian forces were relaxing and chatting.

The Lancastrian defenders, realising they were outflanked, abandoned their barricades and fled the town.

A modern day procession as people celebrate the Battle of St Albans. Credit: Jason Rogers / Commons.

9. Henry VI was captured by Richard’s army at the Battle of St Albans

During the battle, Yorkist longbowmen rained arrows onto Henry’s bodyguard, killing Buckingham and several other influential Lancastrian nobles and wounding the king. Henry was later escorted back to London by York and Warwick.

10. An Act of Settlement in 1460 handed the line of succession to Henry VI’s cousin, Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York

It recognised York’s strong hereditary claim to the throne and agreed that the crown would pass to him and his heirs after Henry’s death, thereby disinheriting Henry’s young son, Edward, Prince of Wales.

11. But Henry VI’s wife had something to say about it

Henry’s strong willed wife, Margaret of Anjou, refused to accept the act and continued fighting for the rights of her son.

12. Margaret of Anjou was famously bloodthirsty

After the Battle of Wakefield, she had the heads of York, Rutland and Salisbury impaled on spikes and displayed over Micklegate Bar, the western gate through the York city walls. York’s head had a paper crown as a mark of derision.

On another occasion, she allegedly asked her 7-year-old son Edward how their Yorkist prisoners should be put to death – he replied they should be beheaded.

Margaret of Anjou

13. Richard, Duke of York, was killed at the Battle of Wakefield in 1460

The Battle of Wakefield (1460) was a calculated attempt  by the Lancastrians to eliminate Richard, Duke of York, who was a rival of Henry VI’s for the throne. 

Little is known about the action, but the Duke was successfully enticed out from the safety of Sandal Castle and ambushed. In the subsequent skirmish his forces were massacred, and both the Duke and his second eldest son were killed.

14. No one is sure why York sortied from Sandal Castle on 30 December

This inexplicable move resulted in his death. One theory says that some of the Lancastrian troops advanced openly towards Sandal Castle, while others hid in the surrounding woods. York may have been low on provisions and, believing that the Lancastrian force was no larger than his own, decided to go out and fight rather than withstand a siege.

Other accounts suggest that York was deceived by John Neville of Raby’s forces displaying false colours, which tricked him into thinking that the Earl of Warwick had arrived with aid.

Earl of Warwick submits to Margaret of Anjou

15. And there are a lot of rumours about how he was killed

He was either killed in battle or captured and immediately executed.

Some works support the folklore that he suffered a crippling wound to the knee and was unhorsed, and that he and his closest followers then fought to the death at the spot; others relate that he was taken prisoner, mocked by his captors and beheaded.

16. Richard Neville became known as the Kingmaker

Richard Neville, better known as the Earl of Warwick, was famously known as the Kingmaker for his actions in deposing two kings. He was the wealthiest and most powerful man in England, with his fingers in every pie. He would end up fighting on all sides before his death in battle, supporting whoever could further his own career.

Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York (Variant). The inescutcheon of pretence showing the arms of the House of Holland, Earls of Kent, represents his claim to represent that family, derived from his maternal grandmother Eleanor Holland (1373-1405), one of the six daughters and eventual co-heiresses to their father Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent (1350/4-1397). Credit: Sodacan / Commons.

17. Yorkshire Yorkists?

The people in the county of Yorkshire were actually mostly on the Lancastrian side.

18. The biggest battle was…

The Battle of Towton, where 50,000-80,000 soldiers fought and an estimated 28,000 were killed. It was also the biggest battle ever fought on English soil. Allegedly, the number of casualties caused a nearby river to run with blood.

19. The Battle of Tewkesbury resulted in the violent death of Henry VI

After the decisive Yorkist victory against Queen Margaret’s Lancastrian force on 4 May 1471 at Tewkesbury, within three weeks the imprisoned Henry was killed in the Tower of London.

The execution was likely ordered by King Edward IV, son of Richard Duke of York.

20. A field on which part of the Battle of Tewkesbury was fought is to this day known as the “Bloody Meadow”

Fleeing members of the Lancastrian army attempted to cross the River Severn but most were cut down by the Yorkists before they could get there. The meadow in question – which leads down to the river – was the location of the slaughter.

21. The War of the Roses inspired Game of Thrones 

George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones’s author, was heavily inspired by the War of the Roses, with the noble north pitted against the cunning south. King Joffrey is Edward of Lancaster.

22. The rose was not the primary symbol for either house

In fact, both Lancasters and Yorks had their own coat of arms, which they displayed much more often than the alleged rose symbol. It was simply one of the many badges used for identification.

The white rose was an earlier symbol as well, because the red rose of Lancaster was apparently not in use until the late 1480s, that is not until the last years of the Wars.

Credit: Sodacan / Commons.

23. In fact, the symbol is taken directly from literature…

The term The Wars of the Roses only came into common use in the 19th century after the publication in 1829 of Anne of Geierstein by Sir Walter Scott.

Scott based the name on a scene in Shakespeare’s play Henry VI, Part 1 (Act 2, Scene 4), set in the gardens of the Temple Church, where a number of noblemen and a lawyer pick red or white roses to show their loyalty to the Lancastrian or Yorkist house.

24. Treachery happened all the time…

Some of the nobles treated the War of the Roses a bit like a game of musical chairs, and simply became friends with whoever was most likely to be in power in a given moment. The Earl of Warwick, for example, suddenly dropped his allegiance to York in 1470.

25. …but Edward IV had a relatively secure rule

Aside from his treacherous brother George, who was executed in 1478 for stirring up trouble again, Edward IV’s family and friends were loyal to him. Upon his death, in 1483, he named his brother, Richard, as Protector of England until his own sons came of age.

26. Though he did cause quite a stir when he got married

Despite the fact that Warwick was organising a match with the French, Edward IV married Elizabeth Woodville – a woman whose family were gentry not noble, and who was supposed to be the most beautiful woman in England.

Edward IV and Elizabeth Grey

Image Credit: Landscape

27. It resulted in the famous case of the Princes in the Tower

Edward V, King of England and Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York were the two sons of Edward IV of England and Elizabeth Woodville surviving at the time of their father’s death in 1483.

When they were 12 and 9 years old they were taken to the Tower of London to be looked after by their uncle, the Lord Protector: Richard, Duke of Gloucester.

This was supposedly in preparation for Edward’s upcoming coronation. However, Richard took the throne for himself and the boys disappeared – the bones of two skeletons were found under a staircase in the tower in 1674, which many assume were the skeletons of the princes.

28. The last battle in the War of the Roses was the Battle of Bosworth Field

After the boys disappeared, many nobles turned on Richard. Some even decided to swear allegiance to Henry Tudor. He faced Richard on 22 August 1485 in the epic and decisive Battle of Bosworth Field. Richard III suffered a deathly blow to the head, and Henry Tudor was the undisputed winner.

The Battle of Bosworth Field.

29. The Tudor rose comes from the symbols of the war

The symbolic end to the Wars of the Roses was the adoption of a new emblem, the Tudor rose, white in the middle and red on the outside.

30. Two more smaller clashes occurred after Bosworth

During Henry VII’s reign, two pretenders to the English crown emerged to threaten his rule: Lambert Simnel in 1487 and Perkin Warbeck in the 1490s.

Simnel claimed to be Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick; meanwhile Warbeck claimed to be Richard, Duke of York – one of the two ‘Princes in the Tower’.

Simnel’s rebellion was quashed after Henry defeated the pretender’s forces at the Battle of Stoke Field on 16 June 1487. Some consider this battle, and not Bosworth, to be the final battle of the Wars of the Roses.

Eight years later, Warbeck’s supporters were similarly defeated in a small clash in the port town of Deal in Kent. The fighting took place on the steeply sloping beach and is the only time in history – apart from Julius Caesar’s first landing on the island in 55 BC – that English forces resisted an invader on Britain’s coastline.

After 30 years of political manipulation, horrific carnage and brief periods of peace, the wars ended and a new royal dynasty emerged: the Tudors.

Here are 16 key figures from the wars:

1. Henry VI

All was not well in King Henry’s court. He had little interest in politics and was a weak ruler, and also suffered from mental instability that plunged the kingship into turmoil.

This incited rampant lawlessness throughout his realm and opened the door for power-hungry nobles and kingmakers to plot behind his back.

King Henry VI

2. Margaret of Anjou

Henry VI’s wife Margaret was a noble and strong-willed Frenchwoman whose ambition and political savvy overshadowed her husband’s. She was determined to secure a Lancastrian throne for her son, Edward.

3. Richard, Duke of York

Richard of York—as great-grandson of King Edward III—had a strong competing claim on the English throne.

His conflicts with Margaret of Anjou and other members of Henry’s court, as well as his competing claim on the throne, were a leading factor in the political upheaval.

Richard eventually attempted to take the throne, but was dissuaded, although it was agreed that he would become king on Henry’s death. But within a few weeks of securing this agreement, he died in battle at Wakefield.

4. Edmund Beaufort

Edmund Beaufort was an English nobleman and Lancastrian leader whose quarrel with Richard, Duke of York was infamous. In the he 1430s obtained control—with William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk— of the government of the weak king Henry VI.

But he was later imprisoned when Richard, Duke of York became ‘Lord Protector’, before dying at the Battle of St Albans.

5. Edmund, Earl of Rutland

He was the fifth child and second surviving son of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, and Cecily Neville. #

By the laws of primogeniture, Edmund’s father, Richard of York had a good claim to the English throne, being descended from the second surviving son of Edward III, giving him a slightly better claim to the throne than the reigning king, Henry VI, who descended from Edward’s third son.

He was killed aged just 17 at the Battle of Wakefield, possibly murdered by the Lancastrian Lord Clifford who sought revenge for the death of his own father at St Albans five years earlier..

6. Edward IV

He was the first Yorkist King of England. The first half of his rule was marred by the violence associated with the Wars of the Roses, but he overcame the Lancastrian challenge to the throne at Tewkesbury in 1471 to reign in peace until his sudden death.

7. Richard III

The alleged remains of Richard III.

Richard III was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. His defeat at Bosworth Field, the last decisive battle of the Wars of the Roses, marked the end of the Middle Ages in England.

He is the Machiavellian, hunchbacked protagonist of Richard III, one of William Shakespeare’s history plays – famous for supposedly murdering the two Princes in the Tower.

8. George, Duke of Clarence

He was the third surviving son of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, and Cecily Neville, and the brother of Kings Edward IV and Richard III.

Though a member of the House of York, he switched sides to support the Lancastrians, before reverting to the Yorkists. He was later convicted of treason against his brother, Edward IV, and was executed (allegedly by being drowned in a butt of Malmsey wine).

9. Edward, Earl of Lancaster

Edward of Lancaster was the only son of King Henry VI of England and Margaret of Anjou. He was killed at the Battle of Tewkesbury, making him the only heir apparent to the English throne to die in battle.

10. Richard Neville

Known as Warwick the Kingmaker, Neville was an English nobleman, administrator, and military commander. The eldest son of Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury, Warwick was the wealthiest and most powerful English peer of his age, with political connections that went beyond the country’s borders.

Originally on the Yorkist side but later switching to the Lancastrian side, he was instrumental in the deposition of two kings, which led to his epithet of “Kingmaker”.

11. Elizabeth Woodville

Elizabeth was Queen consort of England as the spouse of King Edward IV from 1464 until his death in 1483. Her second marriage, to Edward IV, was a cause célèbre of the day, thanks to Elizabeth’s great beauty and lack of great estates.

Edward was the first king of England since the Norman Conquest to marry one of his subjects, and Elizabeth was the first such consort to be crowned queen.

Her marriage greatly enriched her siblings and children, but their advancement incurred the hostility of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, ‘The Kingmaker’, and his various alliances with the most senior figures in the increasingly divided royal family.

Edward IV and Elizabeth Grey

Image Credit: Landscape

12. Isabel Neville

In 1469 Isabel’s power-hungry father, Richard Neville, the Earl of Warwick, defected from King Edward IV after his marriage to Elizabeth Woodville. Instead of ruling England through Edward, he planned a marriage for Isabel to Edward’s brother George Duke of Clarence.

George also saw benefit in the union, as the Neville family was extremely wealthy. The marriage took place in secret in Calais, as part of the rebellion of George and Warwick against Edward IV.

13. Anne Neville

Anne Neville was an English queen, the daughter of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick. She became Princess of Wales as the wife of Edward of Westminster and then Queen of England as the wife of King Richard III.

A watercolour recreation of the Wars of the Roses.

14. Elizabeth of York

Elizabeth of York was the eldest daughter of the Yorkist king Edward IV, sister of the princes in the Tower, and niece of Richard III.

Her marriage to Henry VII was hugely popular – the union of the white rose of York and the red rose of Lancaster was seen as bringing peace after years of dynastic war.

15. Margaret Beaufort

Margaret Beaufort was the mother of King Henry VII and paternal grandmother of King Henry VIII of England. She was the influential matriarch of the House of Tudor.

16. Henry VII

Henry VII was the King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizure of the crown on 22 August 1485 to his death on 21 April 1509. He was the first monarch of the House of Tudor.

17. Jasper Tudor

Jasper Tudor, Duke of Bedford, Earl of Pembroke, was the uncle of King Henry VII of England and a leading architect of his nephew’s successful accession to the throne in 1485. He was from the noble Tudor family of Penmynydd in North Wales.

Although he had an evident interest in public affairs and a desire to try and reconcile his warring subordinates, his inability to prevent powerful individuals influencing him – each with their own agendas – caused him to make poor decisions that helped plunge his kingdom into anarchy.

Here are 15 facts about Henry VI, the last Lancastrian monarch.

1. He was the only son of Henry V

Following his heroic victory at Agincourt on 25 October 1415 King Henry V subsequently married Catherine of Valois, daughter of the French king Charles VI, in 1420.

A year later, on 6 December 1421, Catherine gave birth to a son, named after his father.

Henry V’s finest hour came at the Battle of Agincourt on 25 October 1415. Dan discusses the major English victory in the Hundred Years’ War with Tobias Capwell, Curator of Arms and Armour at The Wallace Collection. Listen Now

2. He was only nine months old when his father died

Henry V died on 31 August 1422, making his infant son the youngest person to ever succeed to the English throne.

For the next 15 years a regency council ruled for the young Henry. It was dominated by Henry V’s two brothers: John, Duke of Bedford (who oversaw the ongoing war in France) and Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester (who acted as Lord Protector and oversaw affairs at home).

Both Bedford and Gloucester proved capable leaders and administrators during the regency period.

3. During the early years of the regency, English power in France reached its zenith

Bedford’s victory at Verneuil on 14 August 1424 marked the high-tide of English power in France – described by English contemporaries as a second Agincourt.

It was during the regency of Henry VI that Joan of Arc rose to prominence.Watch Now

4. He was the only English king to be also crowned King of France

It occurred because of the Treaty of Troyes, agreed between Henry V and Charles VI in 1420: Henry would marry Charles’ daughter Catherine and both he and his sons would inherit the French throne following Charles’ death.

Thus, when Charles died in 1422 (only two months after Henry V), the infant Henry became the (disputed) successor to the French throne.

He was crowned King Henry VI of England at Westminster Abbey on 6 November 1429; two years later on 16 December 1431 he was also crowned King Henry II of France at Notre Dam in Paris.

5. He was controlled by powerful figures

The most prominent of these figures was Edmund Beaufort, 2^nd Duke of Somerset, and Margaret of Anjou, Henry’s wife. Many suspect Margaret and Edmund were lovers.

6. His reign saw the collapse of almost all English holdings in France

The Royal Council’s choice to appoint Beaufort as commander of the English forces in France proved highly unpopular – especially by the previous commander Richard, Duke of York, who had expected to have his posting renewed.

Somerset’s tenure was plagued by countless military failures and concessions: he surrendered Maine, then lost control of Normandy and finally Gascony following the disastrous Battle of Castillon (17 July 1453).

The Battle of Castillon.

7. He suffered a severe mental breakdown in August 1453…

News of the decisive English defeat at Castillon proved the final straw for Henry, who consequently suffered from a mental breakdown of some kind. For over a year he proved completely unresponsive to anything.

To avert the crisis, the ambitious Richard Duke of York was recalled to London and made Lord Protector – effectively regent.

8. …but he recovered a year later

Henry VI recovered from his insanity at around Christmas time in 1454. Edmund Clere wrote to his cousin John Paston to celebrate the news:

“Blessed be God, the King is well amended, and hath been since Christmas Day; and on Saint John’s Day [27th December] commanded his almoner to ride to Canterbury with his offering, and commanded the secretary to offer to Saint Edward.”

In hindsight however, many describe Henry’s recovery as a national disaster.

9. He was captured at the opening battle of the Wars of the Roses

Henry’s decisions following his recovery would help plunge his country into civil war: the Wars of the Roses. Having alienated the Duke of York and his followers, enmity between the Yorkists and the Lancastrians reached breaking point and hostilities erupted.

The opening engagement at St Albans on 22 May 1455 proved ill-fated for Henry and his army. York and his supporters gained a decisive victory, the Dukes of Somerset and Clifford – two of Henry’s most prominent allies – were killed in the fighting and a wounded Henry was captured.

10. He made a valiant attempt to reconcile his warring nobles

On 25 March 1458 Henry attempted to bring an end to the tumultuous civil war by organising a reconciliation event between prominent Yorkists and Lancastrians at St Paul’s Cathedral.

Although Henry’s attempt at reconciliation was genuine and initially successful, the peace gained at the ‘Loveday’ was short-lived; hostilities broke out again soon after.

11. He was captured a second time

It followed the Lancastrian defeat to the forces of York’s son Edward at the Battle of Northampton on 10 July 1460.

12. Henry was temporarily restored to the English throne on 3 October 1470

The defection of ‘the Kingmaker’ Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, to the Lancastrian cause in 1470 shifted the pendulum of power in English politics. Edward IV fled into exile and Henry was once again restored as king, albeit in name only – the real power lay with Warwick.

13. His only son died at the Battle of Tewkesbury

The murder of Prince Edward. One version of events states he was taken to Edward IV and executed after he remarked, “I came to recover my father’s heritage.”

On 4 May 1471 Edward and his Yorkists won a decisive victory against Queen Margaret and her Lancastrians at Tewkesbury.

What followed was a massacre, The fleeing force attempted to cross the river Severn and reach safety, but the Yorkists, in hot pursuit, cut down large swathes of them in a meadow by the riverbank – today known as ‘the Bloody Meadow.’

It was during this rout that Henry’s only son, Edward Duke of Westminster, was discovered by Edward IV’s brother the Duke of Clarence, and swiftly beheaded.

14. Henry met his end on 23 May 1471 in the Tower

Some say he died out of grief after he learned of the death of his son at Tewkesbury; others believe he was murdered on the orders of King Edward IV. Archaeological study of Henry’s skull suggests he suffered a violent end, adding further credence to the latter belief.

Likely in an attempt to blacken his name, the Tudor polymath Thomas Moore claimed Richard III personally carried out the murder.

15. He formed the historical basis for one of Shakespeare’s greatest plays

Shakespeare’s trilogy of plays, ‘Henry VI’, is set during the lifetime of Henry; the Lancastrian monarch is a central character:

“Would I were dead, if God’s good will were so; For what is in this world but grief and woe?”

It was first performed on 3 March 1592.

16. (Bonus) Henry VI is very similar to the monarch who succeeded Alexander the Great

The similarities between Henry VI and Philip Arrhidaeus III, the man who was crowned king in the aftermath of Alexander the Great’s death, are staggering. Both suffered from mental impairments that hindered their ability to rule effectively; both were easily controlled by more powerful, ambitious figures.

Both oversaw the descent of their kingdom from its zenith into a bloody civil war; both were later murdered; both were the last of their royal dynasties to assume the kingship.

Philip III as pharaoh on a relief in Karnak

A solemn procession on 24 March 1458 marked the culmination of King Henry VI’s personal attempt to prevent civil war following the outbreak of the Wars of the Roses in 1455.

Despite the public display of unity this effort – instigated by a peace-loving ‘simple-minded’ monarch – was ineffective. The Lords’ rivalries ran deep; within a few months petty violence had broken out, and within the year York and Lancaster faced each other at the Battle of Blore Heath.

Growing factionalism

English politics had become increasingly factional throughout Henry VI’s reign.

His ‘catatonic’ illness in 1453, which effectively left the government leaderless, exacerbated tension. Richard Plantagenet the Duke of York, the king’s cousin, himself with a claim to the throne, was appointed Lord Protector and First Councillor of the Realm.

King Henry VI, who organised the Loveday in an attempt to pacify his nobility, which by 1458, had divided down clear partisan lines into armed camps.

When the King returned to health in 1454 the protectorship of York and his powerful Neville family allies ended, but partisanship within government did not.

York, increasingly excluded from the exercise of royal power, questioned Henry VI’s ability to perform royal duties due to his infamously gentle nature and persistent illness.

In May 1455, possibly fearing an ambush by his enemies under the Duke of Somerset’s command, he led an army against the King’s Lancastrian army and staged a bloody surprise attack at the First Battle of St Albans.

The personal enemies of York and the Nevilles – the Duke of Somerset, the Earl of Northumberland, and Lord Clifford – perished.

Relatively minor in military terms, the insurgency was important politically: the King had been captured and after escorting him back to London, York was appointed Protector of England by parliament a few months later.

Richard, Duke of York, leader of the Yorkist faction and bitter enemy of the King’s favourites, the Dukes of Suffolk and Somerset, whom he believed had excluded him from his rightful position in government.

Aftermath of the First Battle of St Albans

York’s victory at St. Albans hadn’t brought him any permanent increase in power.

His Second Protectorate was short-lived and Henry VI ended it early in 1456. By then his male heir, Prince Edward, had survived infancy and his wife, Margaret of Anjou, emerged as a major player in the Lancastrian revival.

By 1458, Henry’s government urgently needed to deal with the unfinished problem that the Battle of St Albans had created: younger magnates craved revenge on the Yorkist lords who had killed their fathers.

Noblemen of both parties recruited large retinues of armed followers. The ever-present threat of a power grab by their French neighbours also loomed large. Henry wanted to bring the Yorkists back into the fold.

The King’s attempt at reconciliation

Taking the initiative, the Loveday – a common form of arbitration in medieval England, more often used for local matters – was intended to be Henry’s personal contribution to a lasting peace.

The English peerage was summoned to a great council in London in January 1458.  To prevent a violent outbreak between the gathered retinues, concerned city officials maintained an armed watch.

The Yorkists were lodged within the city walls and the Lancastrian Lords remained outside. Despite these precautions, Northumberland, Clifford, and Egremont tried unsuccessfully to ambush York and Salisbury as they rode from London to nearby Westminster.

The King mediated over long and acrimonious discussions. These deliberations were carried out through intermediaries. Henry’s councillors met the Yorkists in the City, at the Blackfriars, in the mornings; in the afternoons, they met the Lancastrian lords at the Whitefriars on Fleet Street.

The settlement eventually accepted by all parties called for York to pay Somerset 5,000 marks, for Warwick to pay Clifford 1,000 marks and for Salisbury to forgo fines previously levied for hostile actions against the Nevilles.

The Yorkists were also to endow the abbey at St Albans with £45 per year for masses to be sung in perpetuity for the souls of the battle dead. The only reciprocal undertaking by a Lancastrian was Egremont’s payment of a 4,000 mark bond to maintain peace with the Neville family for ten years.

Blame for St Albans had been placed squarely on the Yorkist Lords.

Symbolic significance of pomp and ceremony

The agreement was announced on 24 March, sealed on the same day with a solemn procession to St Paul’s Cathedral for a mass.

Members of the two factions went hand in hand. Queen Margaret was partnered with York, and other adversaries were paired off accordingly, the sons and heirs of noblemen killed at St Albans with the men responsible for their fathers’ deaths.

Henry’s Queen, Margaret of Anjou, who by the end of the 1450s had become a political force in her own right and an implacable enemy of the Duke of York.

The procession was also important as a public relations campaign meant to reassure Londoners that war, which had disrupted trade and daily life in the capital, was over.

A ballad composed to commemorate the event described the public display of political affection:

At Paul’s in London, with great renown,

On our Ladyday in Lent, this peace was wrought.

The King, the Queen, with Lords many one …

Went in procession …

In sight of all the commonality,

In token that love was in heart and thought

Religious symbolism, such as the start point of Westminster Abbey and the timing of the event on Lady’s day, which marks the Virgin Mary’s receipt of the news she would bear child, highlighted the mood of reconciliation.

Short-lived stability

The Loveday proved to be a temporary triumph; the war it intended to prevent was merely deferred. It had failed to resolve the key political issue of the day- the exclusion of York and the Nevilles from government.

Henry VI retreated politically once again and Queen Margaret took the helm.

Less than two months after the short-lived peace accord, the Earl of Warwick directly flouted the law by engaging in casual piracy around Calais, where he had been virtually exiled by the Queen. He was summoned to London and the visit descended into a brawl. Following a close escape and retreat to Calais, Warwick refused orders to return.

Margaret officially accused the Earl of Warwick, the Duke of York, and other Yorkist nobility of treason in October 1459, decrying the duke’s “most diabolical unkindness and wretched envy.”

Each side blaming each other for the outbreak of violence, they prepared for war.

The Lancastrians were initially better prepared and Yorkist leaders were forced into exile after abandoning their armies at Ludford Bridge. They returned from a short exile and captured Henry VI at Northampton 10 July 1460.

By the end of that year, Richard Duke of York found himself marching north to deal with Margaret of Anjou and several prominent nobles who opposed the Act of Accord, which displaced young Prince Edward and named York heir to the throne. In the ensuing Battle of Wakefield, the Duke of York was killed and his army destroyed.

Within two years of the Loveday procession, most of the participants would be dead. The Wars of the Roses would rage on for nearly three more decades.

Plucking the Red and White Roses by Henry Payne

Henry was also the first king since the Conquest to be deposed and restored, meaning a new word had to be invented for the phenomenon: Readeption. Although he was restored in 1470, he was deposed again in 1471 by Edward IV, and his death marked the end of the dynastic dispute between Lancaster and York that makes up part of the Wars of the Roses.

So, how and why did Henry meet his end in 1471?

A young king

Henry VI became king on 1 September 1422 following the death of his father, Henry V, from illness while on campaign in France. Henry VI had only been born nine months earlier on 6 December 1421 at Windsor Castle. There was going to be a long minority period before Henry would be able to rule himself, and minorities were usually problematic.

Henry grew into a man interested in peace, but at war with France. His court was divided into those who favoured peace, and those who wanted to pursue Henry V’s policy of war. These divisions would be the forerunner to the Wars of the Roses that divided England in the second half of the 15th century.

Breakdown and deposition

By 1450, Henry’s mismanagement of government was becoming a problem. In 1449, the annual cost of Henry’s household was £24,000. That had risen from £13,000 in 1433, while his revenues had halved to £5,000 a year by 1449. Henry was generous to a fault and gave away so much land and so many offices that he made himself poor. His court developed a reputation for not paying that made it hard to get goods delivered. In 1452, parliament recorded the royal debts at an astonishing £372,000, which equates to about £170 million in today’s money.

Depiction of Henry enthroned, from the Talbot Shrewsbury Book, 1444–45

Image Credit: British Library, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

In 1453, while on the way to try and resolve one of the local feuds that were erupting around England, Henry arrived at the royal hunting lodge at Clarendon in Wiltshire. There, he had a complete collapse. Precisely what afflicted Henry is unclear. His maternal grandfather Charles VI of France had mental health issues, but was usually manic, and sometimes believed he was made of glass and would shatter. Henry became catatonic. He could not move, talk or feed himself. This breakdown led to York being offered the Protectorate. Henry recovered on Christmas Day 1454 and dismissed York, undoing much of his work to rebalance royal finances.

This intensified the factional feuding at Henry’s court and led to violence at the First Battle of St Albans on 22 May 1455. In 1459, after the Battle of Ludford Bridge, York and his allies were attainted; declared traitors in parliament and stripped of all their lands and titles. In 1460, York returned from exile and claimed Henry’s crown. The Act of Accord settled that Henry would remain king for the rest of his life, but York and his heirs would succeed him.

York was killed at the Battle of Wakefield on 30 December 1460, and his oldest son Edward accepted the crown when it was offered to him on 4 March 1461. Henry was deposed.

The Readeption

Edward IV, the first Yorkist king, seemed secure enough throughout the 1460s, but he was falling out with his cousin and former mentor Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, the man remembered by history as the Kingmaker. Warwick rebelled against Edward, initially planning to put Edward’s younger brother George, Duke of Clarence on the throne. When that failed, Warwick made an alliance with Margaret of Anjou, Henry VI’s queen, to restore the House of Lancaster.

King Edward IV, the first Yorkist king, a fierce warrior, and, at 6’4″, the tallest man ever to sit on the throne of England or Great Britain.

Image Credit: via Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain

When Warwick landed in England from France, Edward was driven into exile in October 1470, only to return in early 1471. Warwick was defeated and killed at the Battle of Barnet on 14 April 1471. At the Battle of Tewkesbury on 4 May 1471, Henry’s only child Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales, was killed, aged 17. On 21 May, Edward IV and the victorious Yorkists returned to London. The following morning, it was announced that Henry VI had died during the night.

The death of Henry VI

Precisely how Henry VI died is not conclusively known, but stories have surrounded that night in May 1471 for centuries. The one most often discounted is the official account that appears in a source known as The Arrivall of King Edward IV. Written by a contemporary eyewitness to Edward’s campaigning and return to the throne in 1471, it reflects the Yorkist view and is therefore frequently propagandist.

The Arrivall states Henry died “of pure displeasure, and melancholy” at the news of his son’s death, his wife’s arrest and the collapse of his cause. This source is usually dismissed out of hand on the basis of its bias and the convenient timing. However, it should be remembered that Henry was 49, and had been in poor mental and physical health for at least eighteen years by this point. Whilst it can not be dismissed out of hand, it remains an unlikely explanation.

Robert Fabyan, a London draper, wrote a chronicle in 1516 which claimed that “of the death of this prince diverse tales were told: but the most common fame went, that he was sticked with a dagger, by the hands of the duke of Glouceter.” The Duke of Gloucester was Richard, the youngest brother of Edward IV, and the future Richard III. As with all stories about Richard III written after his death at Bosworth, this source needs to be treated with as much caution as The Arrivall.

A more contemporary source is Warkworth’s Chronicle, which states that “the same night that King Edward came to London, King Henry, being inward in prison in the Tower of London, was put to death, the 21 day of May, on the Tuesday night, betwixt 11 and 12 of the clock, being then at the Tower the Duke of Gloucester, brother to King Edward, and many other.” It is this reference to Richard being at the Tower during that night that has been used to assert that he was the killer of Henry VI.

King Richard III, late 16th century painting

Image Credit: National Portrait Gallery, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

While it is possible that Richard, both as Constable of England and brother to the king, might have been tasked with doing away with Henry, it is far from proven. The truth is that we simply don’t know what really happened in the Tower of London on the night of 21 May 1471. If Henry was put to death, though, it was surely on the orders of Edward IV, and if anyone is to take blame for a murder, it must be him.

Henry’s story is a tragic one of a man deeply unsuited to the role into which he was born. Deeply pious and a patron of learning, founding Eton College among other institutions, Henry was disinterested in war, but failed to control the factions that had emerged during his minority, ultimately causing the kingdom to slip into the bitter conflict known as the Wars of the Roses. The Lancastrian dynasty died with Henry on 21 May 1471.

Royal Connections

Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset was a grandson of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster and his third wife, previously his mistress, Katherine Swynford.

Edmund’s father John was the oldest of the illegitimate children born to Gaunt and Swynford who would be legitimised after their parents’ scandalous marriage. Although it is often believed the Beaufort line was barred from the throne, this was not part of their legitimisation and was never approved by parliament.

Born around 1406, Edmund’s family became critical allies to the Lancastrian dynasty. Edmund’s father was half-brother to Henry IV, and so the Beaufort fortunes were closely tied to those of the House of Lancaster. As the Wars of the Roses loomed Edmund was a second cousin once removed to King Henry VI.

That was the same relationship as Richard, Duke of York. Both Somerset and York were great-grandsons of Edward III, and Henry VI was a great-great-grandson. As long as Henry remained without a son, there was a question mark over who might succeed him.

Lieutenant-General in France

Richard, Duke of York served as Lieutenant-General in France from 1436-7 and again from 1440-5. During his second term, he was forced to fund much of the effort himself and was unhappy when Edmund and his older brother John were given men and money for a campaign.

Drawing of Richard, Duke of York. (Image credit: CC / British Library).

The expedition was a terrible failure, and John died in disgrace shortly afterwards. When York returned to England in December 1445, he appears to have expected to be reappointed. The position meant responsibility for maintaining the lands England held in France and was prestigious, though increasingly difficult.

In early 1446, York found himself faced with charges of mismanagement in France by some members of Henry’s court. On Christmas Eve 1446, Edmund Beaufort was handed the position of Lieutenant-General and York was made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. He perhaps suspected the charges were an excuse to make this swap.

Edmund was handed what was probably by now a poisoned chalice. France, under Charles VII, had been rebuilding its military to be more than a match for England. Henry VI, who favoured peace, had married Margaret of Anjou with no dowry and had promised to hand back Maine and Anjou to France.

Edmund was Count of Mortain, had control of Maine, and was given cash and the post of Lieutenant-General to smooth his acceptance of the loss of this territory. Edmund stumbled into trouble, which Charles VII sought as an excuse to reopen hostilities, when he used language that allowed the French king to take offence.

French heralds refused to deliver one set of letters from Edmund ‘because they were in a style derogatory to the honour of the king, and different from what had been used in time passed by the duke of York’.

The King’s Favourite

A French army entered Normandy on 26 August 1449 and the capital, Rouen, was surrendered by Somerset on 29 October. Edmund fell back to Caen, a city that belonged to the Duke of York. On 1 July 1450, Somerset surrendered it against the protestations of York’s man Sir David Hall.

During the siege, a gun stone had reportedly landed between Somerset’s wife and their children, at which point she insisted her husband give up and get them to safety.

Somerset returned to England, but not under a cloud. Cade’s Rebellion, a popular revolt, had rocked England in June and July, and Henry’s chief advisor, the Duke of Suffolk, had been murdered on 1 May.

Somerset slid into the space left at Henry’s right hand with an ease that, after his failures in France, raised many eyebrows. Amongst those raised highest were York’s.

Friction with York

Whether their personal feud began with the Beaufort campaign in France, or Edmund’s surrender of York’s city of Caen, or as a result of both men’s return to a tense and incendiary England is hard to pinpoint. York arrived home from Ireland after Somerset and found the place at Henry’s side firmly taken.

Henry was still childless, and although York was widely viewed as the heir to the throne, nothing was certain, and Somerset might have able to use his influence to promote his claim.

Edmund Beaufort surrenders towns and hostages to Charles VII at Rouen during the Hundred Years’ War. Illuminated manuscript page from Vol 6 of the Anciennes chroniques d’Angleterre by Jean de Wavrin. (Image credit: CC / Master of the Flemish Boethius).

In February 1452, York wrote a letter to Shrewsbury, and probably other towns along the Welsh border, asking for support and blaming Edmund Beaufort to a whispering campaign against York at court.

By the end of February, York was at Dartford, east of London, with an army of 23,000 men. When a delegation sent by the king asked what he wanted, he told them Somerset should be arrested and tried for treason. The king agreed, and York disbanded his army immediately.

When he came before Henry, York was shocked to see Somerset at the king’s side. York was taken into custody and paraded through London as a prisoner. Somerset had outmanoeuvred York, but it only served to intensify the bitter rivalry.

The War Begins

When Henry VI fell ill in 1453, York was appointed Protector of the Realm, and he had Somerset arrested, though not tried or executed. Henry recovered on Christmas Day 1455, and it has been said that if the king’s illness was a disaster, his recovery was a catastrophe.

Henry dismissed York, who most felt had done a good job, undid many of the reforms York had begun and released Somerset.

York had, by now, been joined by his wife’s family, the powerful Neville affinity, in opposition. When they were summoned to a great council, they suspected a trap and took an army. Confronting the king at St Albans, with the royal contingent within the town, York initiated a parlay.

There has been suspicion ever since that the messages from York never reached the king, but that Somerset intercepted them and replied. There would be no negotiation. The First Battle of St Albans took place on 22 May 1455. Yorkist forces broke into the town and won the day. Edmund was killed in the fighting.

Legend has it he made a brave stand outside the Castle Inn, fulfilling a prophesy he had heard years earlier that he would die beneath a castle.

Blue plaque outside the Castle Inn. (Image credit: CC / spudgun67).

Often given as the starting date for the Wars of the Roses, St Albans was, in reality, a private feud between York and Somerset for the right to advise the king. Somerset’s son would seek vengeance for his father, though the figting would not become a dynastic scrap for the crown for another five years.

The sons of those killed at St Albans took revenge at the Battle of Wakefield in 1460, only to create another cycle of violent retribution. The French chronicler Basin described Edmund as handsome, with gentle and cultured manners, but an insatiable greed. He managed to become the favourite of Henry VI, but his bitter rivalry with the Duke of York cost him his life and set England on a course to civil war.

Richard’s reign was beset by problems of ruling in a minority at a time of great social upheaval – particularly caused by economic pressures of the Black Death. Richard was also a capricious king who made powerful enemies, and his appetite for revenge ended with him being deposed by his cousin, Henry Bolingbroke – who became Henry IV.

The descendants of Edward III and Philippa of Hainault.

However, Henry’s usurpation made the line of kingship more complex, with the Plantagenet family now in competing cadet branches of ‘Lancaster’ (descended from John of Gaunt) and ‘York’ (descended from Edmund, Duke of York as well as Lionel, Duke of Clarence). This complicated backdrop set the stage for dynastic conflict and open civil war amongst the English nobiity in the mid 15th century. Here are the 3 Lancastrian and 3 Yorkist kings in order.

Henry IV

As Richard II fell into tyranny through the 1390s, his exiled cousin Henry of Bolingbroke, son of the Duke of Lancaster, returned to England to claim the throne. The childless Richard was forced to abdicate, and Lancastrian rule began on 30 September 1399.

Henry was a famed knight, serving with the Teutonic Knights on crusade in Lithuania and undertaking a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Henry faced continual opposition to his rule. In 1400, Owain Glyndŵr declared himself Prince of Wales and launched a prolonged rebellion.

The Earl of Northumberland became disaffected in 1402, and a plot was hatched to carve up the kingdom, replacing Henry with Edmund Mortimer, giving Wales to Glyndŵr, and the north to Northumberland.

The Battle of Shrewsbury on 21 July 1403 brought an end to the threat, but Henry struggled to find security. From 1405 onwards, his health declined, mainly due to a skin condition, possibly leprosy or psoriasis. He eventually died on 20 March 1413 aged 45.

Henry V

The second Lancastrian king was Henry V. At 27, he had a playboy image. Henry had been at the Battle of Shrewsbury aged 16. He was hit in the face by an arrow that left a deep scar on his cheek. In the instant he became king, Henry set aside the companions of his riotous princely lifestyle in favour of piety and duty.

Aware that he could face the same threats as his father, Henry organised an invasion of France to unite the kingdom behind him. Although he exposed the Southampton Plot as he prepared to leave, another effort to put Edmund Mortimer on the throne, his plan worked.

A common cause and the chance of glory and riches distracted those who questioned his rule. At the Battle of Agincourt on 25 October 1415, Henry wore a crown on top of his helm, and the unexpected victory against overwhelming numbers sealed his position as king, approved by God.

In 1420, Henry secured the Treaty of Troyes which recognised him as Regent of France, heir to Charles VI’s throne, and saw him married to one of Charles’s daughters. He died on campaign on 31 August 1422 of dysentery aged 35, just weeks before Charles passed away. His death sealed his reputation at the very height of his powers.

King Henry V

Henry VI

King Henry VI was 9 months old when his father died. He is the youngest monarch in English and British history, and within weeks he became King of France on the death of his grandfather Charles VI. Child kings were never a good thing, and England faced a long minority government.

Henry was crowned at Westminster Abbey on 6 November 1429 aged 7 and in Paris on 16 December 1431 just after his 10th birthday. He is the only monarch ever to be crowned in both countries, but factions developed and tore at the fabric of England, some favouring war and others championing its end.

Henry grew into a man who craved peace. When he married Margaret of Anjou, a niece of the Queen of France, not only did she bring no dowry, but Henry gave huge parts of his French territories to Charles VII, who had also been crowned King of France.

The rifts in Henry’s kingdoms widened until the Wars of the Roses erupted. Henry was deposed by the Yorkist faction, and although he was briefly restored in 1470, he lost the crown again the following year and was killed within the Tower of London on 21 May 1471, aged 49.

Edward IV

On 30 December 1460, Edward, son of Richard, Duke of York, was proclaimed king in place of Henry VI. Edward was 18, at 6’4” the tallest monarch in English or British history, charismatic but prone to overindulgence. In 1464, he announced that he had married a Lancastrian widow in secret.

The match outraged the nobility, who had been planning a marriage to a foreign princess, and as the decade progressed he fell out with his cousin Richard, Earl of Warwick, who is remembered as the Kingmaker. Edward’s brother George joined the rebellion, and in 1470 Edward was driven from England into exile in Burgundy.

Henry VI was restored as Warwick took the reins of government, but Edward returned with his youngest brother Richard in 1471. Warwick was defeated and killed at the Battle of Barnet, and Henry’s only son died at the subsequent Battle of Tewkesbury.

Henry was done away with when Edward returned to London, and the Yorkist crown seemed secure. Edward’s unexpected death from illness on 9 April 1483, aged 40, led to one of the most controversial years in English history.

Detail of historiated initial of Edward IV. Image credit: British Library / CC

Edward V

Edward’s oldest son was proclaimed King Edward V. His father’s early death when his heir was just 12 raised the spectre of minority government again at a time when France was renewing aggression against England. Edward had been raised in his own household at Ludlow since he was 2 years old in the care of his mother’s family.

Edward IV appointed his brother Richard to act as regent for his son, but the queen’s family tried to bypass this by having Edward V crowned immediately. Richard had some of them arrested and sent north, executing them later.

In London, Richard was recognised as Protector but caused uncertainty when he had Edward IV’s closest friend William, Lord Hastings beheaded on a charge of treason.

A story emerged that Edward IV had already been married when he wed Elizabeth Woodville. The precontract made his marriage bigamous and the children of the union illegitimate and incapable of inheriting the throne.

Edward V and his brother Richard were set aside, and their uncle was offered the crown as Richard III. Remembered as the Princes of the Tower, the boys’ final fates remain the subject of debate.

The Princes in the Tower by Samuel Cousins.

Richard III

Richard, Duke of Gloucester ascended the throne as King Richard III on 26 June 1483. He distanced himself from his brother’s reign, launching a scathing attack on its corruption.

A combination of this, his unpopular policies to reform the realm, the uncertainty surrounding his nephews, and efforts to promote the cause of the exiled Henry Tudor caused problems from the beginning of his reign. By October 1483, there was rebellion in the south.

The most senior rebel was Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, who had been at Richard’s right hand since the death of Edward IV. The falling out might have revolved around the Princes in the Tower – Richard or Buckingham having murdered them, outraging the other.

The rebellion was crushed, but Henry Tudor remained at large in Brittany. In 1484, Richard’s parliament passed a set of laws that have been praised for their quality and fairness, but personal tragedy struck.

His only legitimate son died in 1484, and in the early months of 1485, his wife passed away too. Henry Tudor invaded in August 1485, and Richard was killed fighting bravely at the Battle of Bosworth on 22 August. The last King of England to die in battle, his reputation suffered during the Tudor era that followed.

By the Autumn one figure could tolerate the stasis no longer. Forced into a political corner, Richard, Duke of York, believed that the only solution to the current crisis was for him to finally cross his Rubicon and put forward his own, better, claim to the Throne of England.

And so in Autumn 1460 Richard rode into Parliament, put his hand on Henry VI’s throne and stated that he was claiming the Throne for the House of York.

Richard, himself a grandson of the great warrior king Edward III, believed that this was his only option to alleviate the current political stasis.

Triggering civil war

But it proved an unwise move. Claiming the Throne was a drastic step and this shocked even York’s own supporters for several reasons.

The first was the ‘unconventional’ route York had chosen to make this proclamation. York’s supporters had already warned him that he could not yet make this claim for the kingship – in their eyes Richard first needed to assume clear control over Henry’s government.

The second shock was such a direct attack on Henry VI himself. This was a time when the Church dominated secular life: when people considered a king to be God’s anointed – chosen to rule by God. Defying a king was defying God’s appointment.

This dilemma was only increased by the fact that Henry’s father and predecessor had been Henry V. Deposing this much-loved legendary warlord’s son was far from popular. York could not simply hope to topple a king with such strong religious and secular links.

Henry VI also had time on his side. Richard did have a better claim to the throne, but by 1460 Lancastrian rule was embedded within English society. Ever since Henry Bolingbroke had forced Richard II to abdicate in 1399 a Lancastrian monarch had ruled the country. Changing a dynasty that had ruled for several (medieval) generations was far from popular.

York’s attempt to claim the Throne of England shocked friend and foe alike. In the Parliamentary settlement that followed – the Act of Accord – an agreement was reached. Henry VI would remain as king, but Richard and his heirs were named Henry’s successors.

The Lancastrian dynasty were pushed, well and truly, down the line of succession; the Yorkists were back in the royal picture.

The agreement polarised England like never before. Furious at seeing her son cut out from the succession, Queen Margaret of Anjou started recruiting troops. It was the trigger for civil war.

Richard of York, claiming the throne of England, 7 October 1460. Image shot 1896. Exact date unknown.

Trouble in Yorkshire

Two months later Richard headed north. Civil disturbances had broken out on his Yorkshire estates and Henry VI’s heir marched with a small force to quell this unrest.

After an arduous journey on 21 December 1460 Richard and his army reached Sandal Castle, a strong Yorkist bastion near Wakefield.

There they remained for over a week, spending Christmas within the stronghold. But while Richard and his men were resting within the Castle a large approaching enemy force was spotted.

It was a Lancastrian army loyal to Henry VI’s queen, Margaret of Anjou. From the Lancastrian stronghold, Pontefract Castle, this force had marched to catch Richard and his army by surprise as they recuperated behind the walls of Sandal Castle.

The Lancastrians looking for blood

Vengeance-seeking commanders dominated the top tier of the Lancastrian army. Two prominent generals had lost fathers at the First Battle of St Albans and now sought revenge against Richard and his family.

First there was Henry Beaufort, commander of the Lancastrian army and the son of York’s fallen arch-enemy Edmund Beaufort, Duke of Somerset.

Second there was John Clifford, one of Henry’s senior subordinates. Like his commander-in-chief, John’s father had also perished during the First Battle of St Albans.

Despite being outnumbered Richard decided to fight. Why he decided to leave the safety of Sandal’s defences with an outnumbered force to fight a pitched battle remains a mystery.

Several theories have been touted: miscalculation, too few provisions to withstand a siege or some element of Lancastrian deception are all candidates for the explanation. The truth, however, remains unclear. What we do know is that York gathered his men and sallied out for battle on Wakefield Green, below the stronghold.

The remains of the motte of Sandal Castle. (Credit: Abcdef123456 / CC).

The Battle of Wakefield: 30 December 1460

The fight did not last long. As soon as York’s army descended onto the plain, the Lancastrian forces closed in from all sides. Chronicler Edward Hall described Richard and his men becoming trapped – ‘like a fish in a net’.

Quickly surrounded Richard’s army was annihilated. The Duke himself was killed during the fighting: wounded and unhorsed before his enemies dealt him the death blow.

He was not the only prominent figure to meet his end. The Earl of Rutland, Richard’s 17 year old son, also died. As he tried to escape over Wakefield Bridge the young nobleman had been overtaken, captured and killed – probably by John Clifford in revenge for his father’s death at St Albans 5 years earlier.

The Earl of Salisbury was another prominent Yorkist casualty of Wakefield. Like Rutland he was captured after the main battle. Although the Lancastrian nobles might have been prepared to allow Salisbury to ransom himself due to his substantial wealth, he was dragged out of Pontefract Castle and beheaded by local commoners – to whom he had been a harsh overlord.

Aftermath

Margaret of Anjou was determined to send a strong message to the Yorkists after the Lancastrian victory at Wakefield. The Queen ordered the heads of York, Rutland and Salisbury to be impaled on spikes and displayed over Micklegate Bar, the western gate through the York city walls.

Richard’s head had a paper crown as a mark of derision, and a sign that said:

Let York overlook the town of York.

Richard, Duke of York, was dead. But Lancastrian celebrations would prove short-lived. York’s legacy lived on.

The following year Richard’s son and successor Edward would win a decisive victory at the Battle of Mortimer’s Cross. Marching down to London, he was crowned King Edward IV, later going on to win his most famous victory: the bloody Battle of Towton.

Richard may have died without laying hands on the kingship, but he paved the way for his son to fulfil this aim and secure the English Throne for the House of York.

Richard, Duke of York is often considered an ambitious war monger who dragged England into the Wars of the Roses in his relentless pursuit of the crown worn by his second cousin once removed, Henry VI.

The truth is very different.

York’s early years

Born in 1411, York was orphaned in 1415. His mother Anne Mortimer died shortly after his birth and his father, Richard, Earl of Cambridge was executed by Henry V for treason as he prepared to leave for the Agincourt campaign.

After his father’s death, York became a ward of the crown and was placed into the care of Robert Waterton.

Waterton also had custody of some of the most famous prisoners taken at the Battle of Agincourt, including Marshal Boucicaut, Charles Duke of Orleans, and Arthur, son of the Duke of Brittany.

A depiction of the imprisonment of Charles, Duke of Orléans, in the Tower of London from a 15th-century manuscript. The White Tower is visible, St Thomas’ Tower (also known as Traitor’s Gate) is in front of it, and in the foreground is the River Thames.

It is tempting to see these men, sat around a fire in the evening, telling an impressionable boy stories of what happens to a country cursed with a weak king, threatened with invasion, and torn apart by factions.

As he grew, York watched Henry’s uncle Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester and his great-uncle Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester indulge in a rivalry that was a precursor to the Wars of the Roses as Henry VI showed himself weak and disinterested in ruling. It must have rung alarm bells.

Richard’s inheritances as a threat

Richard’s uncle Edward, Duke of York was killed at Agincourt, his title passing to his young nephew, along with his crippling debts.

In 1425, Richard also acquired the rich inheritance of his maternal uncle Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March. The Mortimer family were problematical, since they arguably held a better claim to the throne than the Lancastrian kings.

Richard represented a convergence of inheritances that meant he was perceived as a threat even before he became politically active.

On 8 May 1436, aged 24, Richard was appointed lieutenant-general of France after the death the previous year of Henry VI’s uncle John, Duke of Bedford. Bedford had been regent, and Richard held watered down powers, but performed the role well during his one-year commission.

He returned to England in November 1437, unpaid and having used his own money to fund efforts in France.

When York’s successor died, he was reappointed to the office in July 1440. He served until 1445, when he was surprised to find himself replaced with Edmund Beaufort, Duke of Somerset.

Henry VI (right) sitting while the Dukes of York (left) and Somerset (centre) have an argument.

Opposition to the House of Lancaster

It was the beginning of a bitter personal feud between the dukes. By now, York was owed more than £38,000 by the crown, equivalent to over £31 million in today’s money.

Willingly or otherwise, York also became associated with Henry VI’s last remaining uncle Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, who began to name York first amongst those he believed were being unfairly excluded from power.

In 1447, Humphrey fell victim to his nephew’s paranoia. Henry became convinced his fifty-six-year-old childless uncle meant to steal his throne. Humphrey was arrested and suffered a stroke, dying in custody a few days later.

The face of a popular desire to pursue war with France, Humphrey’s death caused his supporters to turn to York. For the first time, opposition to the increasingly unpopular government of Henry VI had a focus outside the House of Lancaster.

York was sent to Ireland as lieutenant. His tenure was cut short by Cade’s Rebellion in 1450, a populist revolt that saw London stormed by men of Kent. Rumours abounded that York was behind the uprising, but his return may well have been born of a sense of duty.

As the senior nobleman and heir presumptive to the king, his responsibility was to help keep law and order, but he was viewed with ever-increasing suspicion and excluded from power.

A failed attempt to force himself on the government in 1452 at Dartford led to an embarrassing arrest, more suspicion and deeper exclusion.

York as Lord Protector 1453

When Henry had a mental breakdown and became incapacitated in 1453, his wife Margaret of Anjou made a bid for power, but the misogynistic lords turned instead to York, appointing him Lord Protector.

York’s rule was moderate and inclusive, though Somerset was imprisoned in the Tower. When Henry suddenly recovered at Christmas 1454, he immediately excluded York again, undid most of his work and freed Somerset.

If Henry’s illness was a crisis for England, his recovery was to prove a disaster.

First Battle of St Albans

When Henry tried to move to the Midlands in 1455, York gathered an army and marched south. Despite writing letters each day explaining where he was and that he meant Henry no harm, York received no response.

He reached Henry at St Albans, with the king’s army inside the town and the gates barred. York had around 6,000 men and the king’s army only numbered about 2,000, but most of the nobility were firmly on Henry’s side.

At 7 o’clock on the morning of 22 May, York’s army arrayed on Key Fields outside St Albans. A parlay failed and hostilities began just after 11 o’clock.

Finding the gates heavily fortified, the Earl of Warwick eventually broke into some gardens and made his way to the market square, unleashing his archers on the king’s unprepared forces. The distraction allowed York to breach the gates and a vicious slaughter ensued in the streets.

Edmund Beaufort, York’s rival, was killed. Henry himself was wounded by an arrow in the neck. When York found the king, he fell to his knees and pledged his loyalty before seeing to it that Henry’s wound was treated.

A modern day procession as people celebrate the Battle of St Albans.

Road to the Wars of the Roses

York took control of the government again for a time as Protector, but it was short-lived. His financial reforms threatened those who had prospered under Henry’s slack rule.

The First Battle of St Albans is often seen as the violent birthing of the Wars of the Roses, but it was not a dynastic dispute at this point. The real rivalry was between York and Somerset over the right to advise the weak king.

York would not claim the throne until 1460, when he had been backed into a corner and left with nothing to lose.

York’s second eldest son, Edmund, was killed at the Battle of Wakefield, 1460

It came after a decade of opposition to the regime which was less about his burning ambition and more about the responsibility he felt to help see the kingdom properly governed.

He had done all he could to avoid it before eventually igniting the Yorkist claim to the throne.

Matt Lewis is an author and historian of the middle ages with a focus on the Wars of the Roses. He has written books covering The Anarchy and the Wars of the Roses as well as biographies of Henry III, Richard, Duke of York, and Richard III.

His books also include The Survival of the Princes in the Tower. Matt can be found on Twitter (@MattLewisAuthor), Facebook (@MattLewisAuthor) and Instagram (@MattLewisHistory).

Richard Duke of York, by Matt Lewis, published by Amberley Publishing (2016)

He was an able administrator and a charismatic commander with several powerful friends; yet his power, lineage, ambition and fame also ensured he gained some mighty enemies, holding deep-felt enmity that, ultimately, proved resolvable only by the sword.

Here are ten facts about Richard, Duke of York.

1. He had royal blood

Richard had multiple connections to the English warrior-king Edward III. He was the king’s great-grandson through his father Richard, Earl of Cambridge; meanwhile through Anne de Mortimer, his mother, Richard was the great-great-great-grandson of the same king.

2. He served in France during the tail-end of the Hundred Years War

In May 1436 Richard became the commander of the English forces in France at a time when England’s power in the continent was waning – the glory days of Agincourt and Verneuil seemed a distant memory.

Although his posting was dominated by administrative tasks, he did take the field on several occasions and gained some success. His highlight was briefly lifting the Siege of Pontoise in 1441.

During his commands (1436-37 & 1441-45), Richard maintained England’s control over Normandy and stabilised English losses on the continent.

3. Richard had a famous rivalry with Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset

It began when he was replaced by Somerset as commander of the English forces in France in 1445 – York had expected Henry VI’s council to reappoint him.

York deemed Somerset responsible for the military failures that soon followed in France, particularly Somerset’s decision to surrender Maine to France.

4. He was sent to Ireland…

Somerset’s surrendering of Maine proved too much for York, as soon after this event Henry VI’s council appointed him Lieutenant of Ireland, far away from the ongoing struggle for France. The role made him chief authority on the Emerald Isle, but it also removed him from the political theatre of the Hundred Years War.

York gained a lot of support among prominent Irish nobles during his time on the island – support he was sure to count on in the coming years.

5. …but he did not stay there for long

On 7 September 1450, as unrest in England brewed and English control of Normandy collapsed, York landed on Anglesey and started gathering supporters to overthrow Henry VI’s unpopular, disaster-ridden government – spearheaded by Somerset.

Over the next two years, he made two bids for power to destroy Somerset. Both attempts proved unsuccessful.

6. Henry’s mental breakdown offered York opportunity

On 17 July 1453 the final, decisive clash of the Hundred Years War occurred at Castillon, Gascony. The French forces gained a decisive victory and eradicated English authority in the region (Calais remained the only bastion in English hands).

The Battle of Castillon.

News of the disaster soon reached the ill Henry VI in England and it appears this contributed heavily to a severe mental breakdown he suffered in August that year.

As it became clear the king would not recover quickly, the council appointed York ‘Protector of the Realm’ – effectively regent of the kingdom.

7. He resoundingly defeated the royal Lancastrian army at St Albans

Following Henry’s recovery at Christmas 1454, his subsequent removal of York as Lord Protector and the restoration of Somerset to royal favour, hostilities erupted between the Crown (the Lancastrians) and York’s supporters (the Yorkists). The first clash occurred on 22 May 1455 at St Albans.

The battle was a resounding victory for York and his followers. The decisive moment occurred when Richard Neville, Duke of Warwick outflanked the Lancastrians and forced them to flee.

The battle’s death toll was low, but it did include some notable commanders on the Lancastrian side, including Somerset. The Yorkists also captured Henry VI and York resumed his position as Lord Protector.

8. He was killed at the Battle of Wakefield

Five years later in late 1460, Lancastrian loyalists began to gather in the north to oppose York – who was then a de facto ruler of the country.

York marched with an army to face this new threat, arriving at his stronghold of Sandal Castle in late December 1460 with a significantly smaller army than his Lancastrian counterparts.

Little is known about the ensuing battle at Wakefield, but the Duke was successfully enticed out from the safety of Sandal Castle and ambushed. In the subsequent skirmish his forces were massacred, and both the Duke and his second eldest son, Edmund Plantagenet were killed.

The Murder of Rutland by Lord Clifford. York’s second eldest son, Edmund, was killed at the Battle of Wakefield, possibly by the Lancastrian Lord Clifford (pictured here), who sought revenge for the death of his own father at St Albans five years earlier.

9. York’s defeat helps us remember the colours of the rainbow

The mnemonic ‘Richard of York Gave Battle in Vain’ refers to York’s bizarre sortie from Sandal Castle and his subsequent death at Wakefield.

10. Two of his sons went on to be kings of England

These were York’s eldest surviving son, Edward (Edward IV) and also his youngest: Richard.

Although York was king in all but name during his time as Protector, he never acquired the title of king himself.