The Houses of York and Lancaster (War of the Roses, Richard III)

The Hundred Years' War, in which England lost practically all its lands in France, ended in 1453, but there was no peace in the country. Long before the end of this war, a feudal struggle had broken out between the descendants of Edward III.

When the Magna Carta was signed in 1215, the Norman barons were united with the Saxon nobles and the growing bourgeoisie of the big towns, and they took part in governing the country. During the hundred Years' War some of the barons, who were professional soldiers, built castles with high walls and kept private armies of thousands of men. They wished to lead their armies over to France to seize lands there. These big barons formed a small group of their own. They thought more about their " family politics" than about national politics and were a real threat to the king's power. Realizing the danger which these big barons represented to the Crown, Edward III tried to marry his sons to their daughters, the heiresses of these Houses. Thus representatives of the royal family became relatives of many big barons. But that did not help to strengthen the position of the House of Plantagenets. During the reign of Richard II (1377-1399), the last king of the Plantagenet dynasty, Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Lancaster, seized the crown and became the first king of the Lancaster dynasty, Henry IV (1399-1413).

The interests of the House of Lancaster supported by the big barons collided with the interests of the lesser barons and merchants of the towns, who supported the House of York. The feudal struggle grew into an open war between the Lancastrians and the Yorkists. The Lancasters had a red rose in their coat of arms

the Yorkists had a white rose. That's why the war between them got the name of the War of the Roses. The war, which lasted for thirty years (1455-1485), turned into a bitter struggle for the Crown, in which each party murdered every likely heir to the throne of the opposite party. It was a dark time for England, a time of anarchy, when the kings and nobles were busy fighting and murdering each other and had no time to take care of the common people, who suffered greatly.

The War of the Roses ended with the battle of Boswortha in 1485. King Richard III of the House York was killed in the battle, and, right in the field, Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, was proclaimed King of England. The war was over at last, and everybody sighed with relief.

Henry Tudor was head of the House of Lancaster. A year later, in 1486, he married the Yorkist heiress Princess Elizabeth of York. This marriage was of great political importance. It meant the union of the red rose of the House of Lancaster with white rose of the House of York.

1.7. The Tudors (Henry VIII, the Protestant- Catholic struggle, Mary I – “Bloody Mary”, Elizabeth I)

1.7.