The Wars of the Roses

The Wars of the Roses were a sporadic series of battles and rebellions, fought between 1455 and 1485, by the royal houses of Lancaster and York. Present day Lancashire and Yorkshire.

They started with the Battle of St. Albans on May 22, 1455, when Henry VI (Lancastrian) was made prisoner, and Edward IV became king. This was, therefore, a Yorkist victory. A lull in the fighting occurred between1455 and 1459, and between 1459 and 1461. Edward IV reasserted his position as King with a Yorkist victory at Towton on March 29, 1461.

Another Lancastrian uprising occurred in 1470, when the Earl of Warwick, a former supporter of Edward IV, allied himself with Henry VI's widow, Margaret of Anjou. This rebellion was again quashed by the Yorkists, this time on April 24, 1470, at Barnet and on May 4, 1470, at Tewkesbury.

The Wars of the Roses ended on August 22, 1485, with the death of Richard III and the eventual defeat of the Yorkist regime at Bosworth Field. The Lancastrian, Henry VII, became king in August 1485.

The Yorkists had won most of the first battles of the Wars of the Roses and had a monarch on the English throne for 30 years. Eventually, though, the Lancastrians won the war and had a monarch on the English throne for the next 118 years, ending only with the death of the childless Elizabeth in 1603. 

There is a final twist in the tale, though, for Henry VII married Elizabeth of York in an attempt to reconcile rifts in England between the families of York and Lancaster. Therefore, in a way both sides won the Wars of the Roses because when Henry VIII, son of Elizabeth of York and Henry VII came to the throne, both houses had their bloodline on the throne of England.