Background: What led to the Wars of the Roses?
Henry VI became King when he was very young so he relied on the important
men of England to manage his lands for him. He was the King of both England
and France but not everybody agreed with this, particularly some of the French
who chose their own, different King called Charles VII. Henry’s England fought
wars with France and in the beginning were very successful. But when a young
girl called Joan of Arc inspired the French to victories the tide soon turned
against the English. When Henry VI finally took full control at the age of 16 he
proved to be a poor leader. He tried to bring the wars with France to an end
and even married Margaret of Anjou (A French Princess). But the French were
organised under Charles and swept the English from France. This led to trouble
at home. Henry’s poor government led to a rebellion in which the King very
nearly lost power. He then suffered a mental collapse. In his place the Yorkist,
Richard, Duke of York, was given the role of ‘Protector’ and he ran the country
in the King’s absence. He ruled well for 18 months rejecting Margaret’s
attempts at more power. But Henry recovered from his illness and Richard was
cast out. The Lancastrians were back in power. A great council was called in
1455 and the Yorkist’s feared they would be arrested so they fled, gathered
3000 men and marched to fight the King. They met at St Alban’s and won,
killing key Lancastrian nobles and also taking the king, by force, under their
control. Henry VI was now a puppet ruler of the Yorkist’s. Margaret and the
other Lancastrians were very unhappy that Richard, Duke of York had such
power over the king and so she tried to force her own important men into key
positions in government. War broke out in full in 1459.
The First War of the Roses:
In 1459 Queen Margaret organised both her army and parliament. She
declared the Yorkist’s traitors and they fled in exile. However, the Richard
returned and with the Duke of Warwick as an ally, the Yorkist’s marched to
London, capturing King Henry VI. But when Richard tried to make himself king,
even his own supporters wavered. In light of this, Richard and Henry VI
reached the ‘Act of Concord’ which meant Henry VI could remain King but on
his death the throne would pass to Richard. Margaret was furious. She raised
troops in the North and surprised Richard at the Battle of Wakefield, killing
him. She then marched towards London, defeating Warwick and capturing
Henry VI, This should have been the end but the city of London did not open its
gates to her. At the same time Edward, the Duke of York’s son claimed the
throne, he joined with Warwick and marched to London, taking the city and
forcing the Lancastrians north. In London Edward was crowned Edward IV and
the Yorkist’s followed the Lancastrians North defeating them at the Battle of
Towton in 1461. Margaret escaped but Edward was now firmly established as
King.
Edward tries to secure power:
Edward needed support and allies and so he strengthened his ties with
Warwick and his brothers George and Richard gave him their support.
However, Edward then married Elizabeth Woodville in secret and began
putting her family into important positions. Warwick felt he was being
undermined and so he broke from Edward, taking his younger brother, George,
Duke of Clarence with him. They defeated Edward and captured him but he
escaped and forced Warwick to France. Warwick then switched sides again,
this time siding with Margaret and the old King Henry VI. They invaded in 1470
and Edward was forced to leave the country.
The Second War of the Roses:
Edward returned, however and raised an army, supported by his brother
George, who had also now changed sides. Edward faced Warwick at Barnet in
1471, where he killed him. He then followed this up by capturing Margaret and
Prince Edward’s army and defeating it at Tewkesbury. The young Prince
Edward was then killed and upon his return to London he also had the old King,
Henry VI, killed. Edward was now secure in his position. He ruled well for the
next 12 years. George was seen as too untrustworthy and drowned in a barrel
of Malmsey wine. However his youngest brother Richard had been loyal
throughout.
Richard III claims the crown
In April 1483 Edward, who really liked to drink, dance and hunt, ate
so much and was so full that he caught a fever and died. His son,
Prince Edward was 12 years old and Edward’s brother, Richard was 9.
They were going to need someone to look after them until Edward
was old enough to rule. There were two groups who fought to look
after him, firstly their mother’s family, the Woodville’s, and also their
uncle Richard, who would later become Richard III.
Richard had to fight the Woodville’s for control of the young Princes;
he executed any potential threats and was quite ruthless in making
sure he was to have control of the boys.
The two boys were then given to their uncle, Richard, for
safekeeping before Edward was to be crowned. Once Richard had
put them in the tower a rumour began to swirl that Edward IV had
not married Elizabeth Woodville and therefore Prince Edward could
not be King.
So Richard had himself crowned King Richard III. The question was,
what happened to the two princes? They were seen in the Tower for
a time after Richard’s coronation but then they were seen no more.
Did Richard have them put to death?
Did he murder the princes?
There is great controversy over what happened to the young princes,
Edward and Richard. The fact is that the Tudor’s took the crown from
Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth and the most famous playwright
of the Tudor age – William Shakespeare – wrote plays which showed
Richard to be an evil king and so historians have agreed with
Shakespeare’s interpretation. But, let’s weigh up the evidence for
ourselves, did he really have his nephews murdered so he could take
the throne?
Evidence For
 The Princes stood in the way of Richard being crowned king so
he had a strong motive.
 They were imprisoned in the Tower of London by Richard.
 It was written in the Chronicle of London in 1512 that the boys
were seen in the garden until Easter 1484 and then there were
whispers the king (Richard) had had them put to death.
 Thomas More wrote an account of the murder. More stated
that Richard thought his nephews needed to be murdered and
so he asked a trusted servant James Tyrell to carry out the act:
‘Sir James Tyrell devised that they should be murdered in their bed, to
the execution whereof he appointed Miles Forest; to him he joined
one John Dighton. Then, all the others being removed from them, this
Miles Forest and John Dighton about midnight came into the
chamber and suddenly lapped them up among the clothes, and so
bewrapped them and entangled them, keeping down by force the
featherbed and pillows hard into their mouths, that they gave up to
God their innocent souls into the joys of heaven, leaving to the
tormentors their bodies dead in the bed’. More also reported that the
murderer’s had buried the bodies at the bottom of the stars but that
a priest had then dug up the bones and moved them to place known
only unto the priest.
 In 1674 some workmen were working on a staircase in the
Tower of London when they discovered a box full bones buried
under the stairs.
 Charles II, king in 1674, made a speech proclaiming Richard as
the murderer.
Evidence against
 More was brought up in the household of John Morton, a man
who hated Richard III as he had taken Morton’s land. More also
later served as Chancellor to Henry VIII.
 If the Princes lived Henry Tudor would have a huge motive to
kill them as they would have a stronger claim to the throne
than he did.
 There were many rumours at the time explaining the boy’s
deaths, some said they had fallen from a bridge, others that
only Edward had fallen ill and died. There is no evidence for the
truth of these rumours but people did pretend to be Richard to
claim the throne back for the Yorkist’s, none pretended to be
Edward.
 Doctors in 1955 examined the bones that had been found at
the bottom of the stairs and they concluded the bones were
incomplete, from boys younger than the two princes and that
the bones showed no signs of suffocation as the cause of death.
The Battle of Bosworth 1485
The Battle of Bosworth took place on the 22nd August 1485 and was a
crucial moment in the Wars of the Roses.
King Richard took his place on Ambion Hill, just outside the town of
Market Bosworth. He was met here by Henry Tudor who wanted to
take his throne. Richard outnumbered Henry and had the tactical
advantage of being on the hill.
Key points that affected the outcome of the battle.
But there two important factors counting against Richard. Firstly, he
could not trust his commanders, particularly the Earl of
Northumberland, who was supposed to provide support from the
rear. Secondly, he could not trust the Stanley’s who provided a
significant number of his troops. Lord Thomas Stanley and his
Brother William Stanley were untrustworthy because Lord Thomas
Stanley was married to Margaret Beaufort, Henry Tudor’s mother. To
counter this Richard had possession of Lord Thomas’s son, Lord
Strange, and he was holding him hostage ensuring that Lord Stanley
would fight for him. What this actually meant during the battle was
that both the Stanley forces, who numbered around 3000 simply
stood to the side and awaited developments to see which on which
side they would join the battle.
What happened?
Henry Tudor’s army marched around the marsh at the bottom of the
hill and turned to face Richard’s army who then fired a barrage of
arrows at them. The Duke of Norfolk led Richard’s first wave of
attack down the hill to meet the Earl of Oxford and Henry Tudor. A
vicious struggle began and the battle developed as momentum
swung between both sides.
Richard stood at the top of the hill and watched. Both sides fed
more men into the battle. The Stanley’s still stood and watched,
waiting to see who would most likely win.
Henry Tudor’s army had been left deliberately weak at the point
nearest the Stanley’s, showing that he expected the Stanley’s to join
him. Richard then decided he would take the battle into his own
hands, he led his cavalry into the battle making a charge for Henry
Tudor’s flag. He cut down many on his way including the man holding
Henry’s flag. It was then at this point that the Stanley’s moved, they
joined the battle, attacking Richard’s forces from behind. The Earl of
Northumberland who was supposed to defend Richard’s rear stood
on the hill and watched, doing nothing to help Richard. All sources
from the time agree that Richard went down in the thick of the
action, fighting and bearing the brunt of the opposition’s efforts,
more so than any of his soldiers.
When Richard was killed, his army fled and Lord Stanley greeted his
stepson, Henry Tudor – who was now Henry VII. The story goes that
Richard’s crown had fallen during the fighting onto a Hawthorne
bush, it was recovered and placed on Henry’s head by Lord Stanley.
Pause for thought– How far do you agree that Henry was not a bad
king but an unlucky one?
The end of the Wars of the Roses
Henry VII was now the king of England. He had to unite the kingdom
to end the civil wars that were so hampering its progress. The first
step he took was to marry Elizabeth, the daughter of the Yorkist King
Edward IV and sister of the two Princes in the tower.
He faced two serious rebellions to his rule. The first came from
Edward IV’s sister, Margaret of Burgundy. She created a plot
whereby a man called Lambert Simnel was pretending to be Edward,
the Earl of Warwick and son of the dead George, Duke of Clarence.
The real Earl of Warwick had been locked up in the Tower of London.
Simnel landed in Ireland in 1487, was declared the true King of
England gathered support from Margaret and the Duke of Lincoln.
Henry VII was well prepared however and defeated the Yorkist’s at
the Battle of Stoke. Simnel was captured and Henry VII gave him a
job in the royal kitchens. Most historians see the Battle of Stoke as
the end of the War of the Roses as it was after this battle he had his
wife, the Yorkist Queen Elizabeth, crowned Queen.
There was one other plot worthy of note however, that occurred
after the Battle of Stoke. In 1491 a man called Perkin Warbeck
arrived in Ireland whereby he was convinced by a group of Yorkist’s
to pretend to be Richard, the younger of the two princes in the
tower. He then travelled to Burgundy where Margaret of Burgundy
proclaimed he was her nephew. Henry, however, found out about
the plot and even found out members of his own household were
involved, including William Stanley, who had supported him at
Bosworth. The attempted invasion in 1495 failed.