The War of The Roses

Introduction
In our history, there has been several civil wars. One of
these wars was fought in England in 1455. This war was
called The War of the Roses . It has indeed, an
interesting name; it was called like this because the two
royal houses fighting, the House of Lancaster and the
House of York, had roses as a badge. The House of
Lancaster had a red rose as a badge, and The House of
York had a white rose. After all, The War of the Roses
was an imprudent war caused by the struggles between
two cousins that created an impact on the community.
BEFORE THE WAR
The House of York and the House of Lancaster were
both descendants from the Plantagenet dynasty. At the
moment, the Lancastrian king Henry V was ruling.
Finally in 1422 when Henry V died, his son, Henry VI
was crowned king of England and France. During
Henry’s reign, his country lost the Hundred Years War.
In addition, they lost all their French territories except
for Calais. Then, in 1455, Henry suffered his first
mental illness. As an effect, Richard, Duke of York, got
the control of the country.
Causes Towards the War
1. The main reason that caused the war were family
struggles. Recall that after Henry´s mental illness,
Richard, Duke of York, replaced Henry. The year
after, Henry recovered, so he and Richard went into a
fight over who would be ruling England. This broke
out the war.
2. Another reason was because Henry was surrounding
himself of unpopular nobles. In addition, there was a
lot of powerful lords available to provide private
armies.
During the War
 The opening battle for the war was called The First Battle at St. Albans.
Richard sent an army of about 3,000 men to London. Henry, sent one
army of 2,500 men out of London to restrain Richard´s army. Henry
stopped at the town in St. Albans and waited for him. Finally Richard
arrived and defeated Henry leaving 300 victims. Henry´s wife and son
were sent into exile.
 During the war, many of the battles were led by Henry´s wife, Margaret
of Anjou. Margaret was angered because her son Edward wasn´t going
to inherit the throne like she had planned, instead, Richard´s son was
getting that position.
 There were many battles between the royal houses, however, the House
of York won the majority of them. In the next there´s a list of the
mayor battles the two royal houses fought.
List of the Mayor battles
 First St. Albans
 Blore Heath
KEY
 Ludford Bridge  = Victory of House of Lancaster
 Northampton  = Victory of House of York
 Wakefield
 Mortimor´s Cross
 Second St. Albans
 Ferry bridge
 Towtown
 Hedgeley Moor
 Hexham
 Edgecote Moor
 Losecote Field
 Barnet
 Tewkesbury
After The War
After the war, Margaret of Anjou ended up really angry
because after all the fighting she did, her son Edward,
didn´t inherit the throne. At the battle of Wakefield in
1460, Richard Duke of York died. Then in 1461, Richard´s
son, that was also called Edward IV, inherited the
throne. Edward continued fighting against Henry and
the war between them ended in the battle of Tewkesbury
in 1471. Then, Edward executed Henry in the Tower of
London on May 21, 1471.
The importance of this war
The War of the Roses was important because it was a war that
left several victims to it. In only the first war there were already
300 victims. A second reason the war is important is because it
left two very important royals, Henry VI and Richard, Duke of
York, dead.
A very important accomplishment the war left was The House of
Tudor. After Richard III was defeated in 1485, Henry VII, wanted
to stop the fighting between the royal houses of the War of the
Roses so he being from the Lancastrians married Elizabeth of
York. This uniting formed the new dynasty of the Tudors. There
was no more fighting between the royal houses anymore. This
established the end of the war. So now the new badge of the
house was a rose with the colors of both houses.
http://www.mundesleyjuniorschool.com/Pr
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More reasons of its importance
We have to remember that The War of the Rose was fought in
the Middle Ages. During this era many unfortunate events
happened, for example, the Black Death, the Hundred Years
War, etc. So by that era a war caused by family struggles is
just something that shouldn´t have happened, it was a time
in which the country was not ready for another war.
The War of the Roses affects us now because it teaches us
that we shouldn´t fight to solve family and power struggles. It
just causes lots of consequences. But it also teaches us that
there is always a solution to things, as Henry VII did, he just
got tired of the fighting and married with a woman form
their enemies to unite all England again.
More about the royal houses
The House of Lancaster
The House of Lancaster was a cadet branch, or a junior
family branch, of the House of Plantagenet. In the 15th
century, it had 3 kings of England: Henry V, Henry VI,
and Henry VII. This house lost The War of the Roses,
defeated by The House of York. The Lancaster name was
first acquired by the title of Earl of Lancaster that was
given to Edmund, son of Henry III in 1267.
More about the royal houses
The House of York
The House of York was a also a cadet branch of the
Plantagenet House. In the 15th century it took hold of the
British throne after the House of Lancaster. It gave three
kings for England, Edward IV, Edward V, and Richard III.
This house was later defeated by Henry VII with the
claims of the House of Tudor.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I think The War of the Roses was a very
interesting and conflictive war that caused both good
and bad impacts on England. After all, what I liked the
best about this war was when the two royal houses
finally solved their problems uniting both houses to
form the Tudors. Also, I think it has a very creative
name for a war. In fact, The War of the Roses was also
the name of a movie from the 80´s. Even though The
War of the Roses was just a civil war, it has an
important mark in the British history.