The Significance Of The Wars Of The Roses In The Nineteenth Century

These occasional, brief civil wars in England began in the 1450s led by Richard, duke of York, who had been excluded from power at court by Henry VI. From 1461-1471, the wars escalated into struggles for the throne between those who supported Henry and those who supported Duke Richard’s son, Edward IV. A badge used by the house of York and the red rose adopted by the first Tudor king, Henry VII , to symbolize his claim to be rightful heir of the house of Lancasterled, to the coining of the phrase “the Wars of the Roses” in the nineteenth century.

The wars included more than sixty weeks of large-scale campaigning in England. The many battles surrounded both skirmishes fought by small numbers (for example, St. Albans, 1455) and large-scale engagements involving heavy casualties (notably Towton, 1461). The principal strategic objectives were York and London. These places were well-fortified; but most English and Welsh urban fortifications and castles had been neglected for a very long time, so few important sieges occurred.

Their limited personal resources, and them not wanting to alienate their supporters by imposing taxation and by extortion, they molded the character of the wars. Lords’ kinsmen, officials, rural tenants, and clients rallied willingly for short periods; levies raised by cities, boroughs, and shires had a fixed term of service. These forces were sometimes reluctant and ill equipped: large-scale levying was affected by its unpopularity, shortages of good recruits, and the need for rapid deployment. Both sides relied mainly on companies of knights and esquires-the long-term retainers of kings and nobles-and on foreign mercenary companies, such as the French and Scots who formed the backbone of Henry Tudor’s army in