Battles of the Wars of the Roses

By David Cohen

The Wars of the Roses saw a series of bloody battles during one of the most turbulent periods of English history. The houses of Lancaster and York fought for control of the crown, devastating the nobility and bringing an end to the illustrious Plantagenet dynasty.

Starting with an overview of the politics and events that culminated in the wars, this new history focuses on the seventeen battles that took place around the country between 1455 and 1487. It considers the causes, course and result of each battle, beginning with the first battle of St Albans on 22 May 1455, which was won by the Yorkist faction lead by Richard, Duke of York.

The bloodiest battle ever known on English soil at Towton on 29 March 1461, and the victory there of the first Yorkist King Edward IV is described here in vivid detail. The battle of Tewkesbury on 4 May 1471 saw the death of Edward Prince of Wales, the last male heir of the Lancastrians, and the subsequent murder of King Henry VI at the Tower of London. The defeat and death of King Richard III at the battle of Bosworth on 22 August 1485 marked the end of the Plantagenet dynasty. The last battle of the Wars of the Roses was at East Stoke on 16 June 1487 where the first Tudor King Henry VII crushed the Yorkist revolt.

The final chapter of the book is devoted to the mystery of the Princes in the Tower, who disappeared at the Tower of London during the reign of King Richard III in 1483, and the suspects to their likely murders.

Written with the most up-to-date archaeological and documentary research, and including many images of the main protagonists, battle sites, maps and genealogical charts, this is a fascinating new insight into the Wars of the Roses.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pen and Sword
• Release date: Apr 6, 2023
• ISBN: 9781399083119

Book preview

Chapter 1

York and Lancaster

The origins of the Wars of the Roses can be traced back to King Edward III of the Plantagenet dynasty in England, who reigned from 1327 to 1377. King Edward married Philippa of Hainault in 1328 and had five sons who survived infancy: Edward, the Black Prince; Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence; John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster; Edmund of Langley, Duke of York; and Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester.

In the following century, descendants of John of Gaunt (known as Lancastrians) and of Edmund of Langley (Yorkists) fought a prolonged dynastic battle for the throne of England that lasted from 1455 to 1487. In fact, the fifteenth century was one of the bloodiest in English history, with four kings deposed, three kings probably murdered in secret and one killed in battle. The wars also saw the deaths of several princes of the royal blood as the noble families of the realm destroyed each other in bloody battles.

King Edward III from his tomb effigy at Westminster Abbey.

The term ‘Wars of the Roses’ is a nineteenth-century invention and may have originated from a scene in William Shakespeare’s Henry VI Part 1 in the Temple Gardens, where the Duke of Somerset plucks a red rose and the Duke of York a white rose for their emblems. There is no truth to this legend, although the Duke of York did use the white rose as one of his badges, as well as the falcon and fetterlock. There is evidence of the red rose of Lancaster in a genealogical record, but the Lancastrians used several badges on their banners. It should be noted that the terms Yorkist and Lancastrian bear no relation to the counties of Yorkshire and Lancashire as, in fact, the Yorkists drew most of their support from the south and east of England and the Lancastrians from the north and west. King Henry VII married Elizabeth of York in 1486 to unite the warring factions of York and Lancaster and the Tudor rose of red and white became a symbol of their union.

King Edward III had laid claim to the throne of France in 1337 as grandson of the French King Philip IV, marking the beginning of the Hundred Years’ War, with lasting repercussions in the following century. Victories for the English in the Battles of Crecy in 1346 and Poitiers in 1356 eventually led to the peace treaty of Bretigny in 1360. The terms of the treaty meant that King Edward was able to retain some of his land holdings in France, but at the same time he renounced his claim to the French throne.

Effigy of Edward the Black Prince at Canterbury Cathedral 1376.

The Black Death of 1348–9 in England had decimated the country and many villages were depopulated or abandoned. Farm labourers were able to negotiate cash wages and many bettered themselves as land was enclosed for farming and sheep grazing. The structure of the English feudal system showed signs of crumbling and this eventually led to the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381, which was provoked by the proposal of a Poll Tax.

John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster 1340–99.

King Edward III died in 1377, but he was predeceased by his eldest son, the Black Prince, in 1376, leaving the ten-year-old son of the Black Prince to take the throne as King Richard II. The young king showed his courage and stood firm against the rebels during the Peasants’ Revolt and his uncle, John of Gaunt, the effective ruler, was loyal to him during his reign.

Late fifteenth-century depiction of the marriage of King Henry V to Katherine of Valois.

John of Gaunt died in 1399 and his son, Henry Bolingbroke, rebelled against his cousin, the king, and deposed him after being disinherited from his lands and sent into exile. Bolingbroke took the throne as King Henry IV. It is thought that King Richard II died of starvation in 1400 while imprisoned in Pontefract Castle in Yorkshire and the new king faced several rebellions during his reign, although he was able to keep his throne.

King Henry IV died in 1413 and his eldest son, who became King Henry V, was the victor of the Battle of Agincourt in 1415 when he renewed the Hundred Years’ War with France. After a series of victories and the capture of Normandy, the Treaty of Troyes with France in 1420 recognised King Henry V as the heir to the French throne and marriage to Katherine of Valois, daughter of the French King, followed. However, before he was able to take the throne of France, Henry died of dysentery in 1422 while on military campaign and was succeeded by his eight-month-old son, who became King Henry VI. The government in England was then taken up by a Regency Council led by the king’s uncles, Humphrey Duke of Gloucester, who became Protector and Defender of the Realm, and John Duke of Bedford, who took the role of Regent of France.

On Whitsuntide, 19 May 1426, the four-year-old King Henry VI was knighted by his uncle John Duke of Bedford at St Mary de Castro Church in Leicester. The young king then proceeded to create forty-four other knights, including the fourteen-year-old Richard Duke of York, his distant relation.

Stained glass image of Richard Duke of York at St Laurence Church, Ludlow.

Richard, third Duke of York, was born on 21 September 1411, the son of Anne Mortimer (who died shortly after he was born) and Richard of Conisburgh, Earl of Cambridge. Conisburgh was executed in 1415 after the failed Southampton Plot to depose King Henry V. The Duke of York was the grandson of Edmund of Langley, fourth surviving son of King Edward III and, through his mother, great-great-grandson of Lionel Duke of Clarence, the second surviving son of King Edward III. Consequently, many thought that he had a better claim to the throne than King Henry VI, who was the great-grandson of John of Gaunt, third surviving son of King Edward III, and this was to lead to serious conflict in the years to come. At this time, however, the Duke of York remained a loyal subject of the king. He was brought up by Sir Robert Waterton, a retainer of the Lancastrian king at Pontefract Castle. In 1423, York was taken into the wardship of Ralph Neville, Earl of Westmorland, and married his youngest daughter Cecily in 1429.

The Duke of York was allowed to inherit his title from his uncle, Edward of Norwich, who was killed at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415 and had died childless, as he was not seen as a threat to the throne. In 1425, his maternal uncle, Edmund Mortimer, fifth Earl of March, also died childless of plague in Ireland and, in 1432, the Duke of York inherited the vast Mortimer estates and consequently became the wealthiest and most powerful noble in the land, second only to King Henry VI.

Ralph Neville, Earl of Westmorland, father of Cecily, wife of the Duke of York, had married Joan Beaufort as his second wife in 1396 and by her had nine sons and five daughters. Joan Beaufort was the youngest daughter of John of Gaunt by his mistress Katherine Swynford, who together had four illegitimate children known as the Beauforts, after a possession once owned by him in France. The four children were legitimised by the Pope in 1396, which was confirmed by Parliament in 1397 after their parents’ marriage in 1396 and allowed to have titles and lands. However, in 1407, their half-brother King Henry IV added by Letters Patent excepta dignitate regali to the Act of Parliament, meaning that they and their descendants were barred from the throne. This was of dubious legality because it was not passed by Parliament and was challenged decades later, but the four Beaufort children, John Earl of Somerset, Henry Cardinal Beaufort, Thomas Duke of Exeter and Joan Beaufort, were to remain loyal Lancastrians. Descendants of the Earl of Somerset were also to become strong Lancastrian supporters in the fifteenth century.

Plantagenet family tree.

The widowed Queen Katherine had formed a romantic attachment around 1429 to a Welshman by the name of Owen Tudor, who was Keeper of the Wardrobe in the royal household. Their marriage was not proved, but the liaison produced up to four children, Edmund Tudor born about 1430, Jasper Tudor born approximately 1431, Owen Tudor who became a monk and possibly a daughter who became a nun. The eldest two were to become strong allies of their half-brother King Henry VI in the decades to come.

In the meantime, the war with France had continued under the direction of John Duke of Bedford, who achieved a number of military victories against the French. However, in 1429, Joan of Arc, a peasant girl who claimed to have heard angelic voices instructing her to free France from English rule, appeared at the French court. Her inspiration helped the French to defeat the English in their defence of Orleans in 1429 and this victory marked a turn of fortunes for France in the war. That same year saw the coronation of the Dauphin of France at Rheims as King Charles VII and also the coronation of King Henry VI at Westminster Abbey. In 1431, King Henry VI was crowned King of France at Notre-Dame de Paris, the only monarch ever to have been crowned King of both England and France. Joan of Arc was captured in 1430 by the Burgundians, allies of the English, handed over to the Duke of Bedford and burnt at the stake for witchcraft at Rouen in 1431. However, her death did not lead to a change in fortunes for the English in France and, in 1435, the French and Burgundians signed the peace treaty of Arras.

In 1435, John Duke of Bedford died and was replaced as Governor of Normandy and Regent of France by Richard Duke of York as Lieutenant-General, who had little military experience, although he was able to drive the French out of Normandy. The Duke of York was not given sufficient finance for the military campaigns and had to fund them from his own income and, consequently, he resigned from his post in 1437 to be replaced by Richard Beauchamp, thirteenth Earl of Warwick.

Queen Katherine retired to the Abbey of Bermondsey in 1436 and died in 1437, after giving birth to a daughter who sadly did not survive, and was later buried at Westminster Abbey. King Henry VI had now come of age and took control of the government, which was split by factions led by Cardinal Beaufort (who sought peace) and Humphrey Duke of Gloucester (who wanted to continue the war with France). However, King Henry VI was not a strong king, nor a military leader; he suffered with melancholy and was more interested in religion.

King Henry VI, nonetheless, had a great interest in education and many grammar schools were founded during his reign. In 1440, he founded Eton College near Windsor for the education of poor scholars and, in 1441, King’s College Cambridge for the continuing education of poor students from Eton. However, he was not seen as a good king and did not deal well with a kingdom that was near to bankruptcy, factions in court, a legal system corrupted by local magnates and their armed retainers, and a war with France that could not be won.

House of Lancaster and Beaufort family tree.

In 1440, the Duke of York was appointed Lieutenant-General of France once again for a period of five years, where he enjoyed better fortune in his military campaigns against the French.

In a plot to weaken Humphrey Duke of Gloucester, who spoke against peace with France, his rival Cardinal Beaufort accused Gloucester’s wife Eleanor Cobham and her accomplices of witchcraft and treason against the king. They were found guilty and her clerk Roger Bolingbroke was hanged, drawn and quartered, Margery Jourdemain (known as ‘the Witch of Eye’) burnt at the stake and Eleanor Cobham imprisoned.

In 1444, William de la Pole, fourth Earl of Suffolk, was sent to France with a delegation to negotiate a peace treaty with the French. He was reluctant to go because he knew that the proposed peace would not be popular with the English public, but realised that prolonging the war would be hopeless. The Treaty of Tours was signed, by which a two-year truce was agreed with the French, the counties of Maine and Anjou were to be returned to France and England was to keep Normandy, Aquitaine and all the other territories won by King Henry V. In order to secure the treaty, a marriage was to be arranged between Margaret, daughter of Rene Duke of Anjou, and King Henry VI. The ceding of the hard-won counties of Maine and Anjou to France were kept secret because it was known that the English public would be aghast at those terms. The proposed marriage of the king with Margaret of Anjou was also not popular with the public because the new Queen did not bring a dowry.

On 23 April 1445, King Henry VI married Margaret of Anjou at Titchfield Abbey in Hampshire in a quiet ceremony officiated by the Bishop of Salisbury. On 30 May 1445, Margaret was crowned at Westminster Abbey by Archbishop of Canterbury John Stafford, followed by a banquet at Westminster Hall and three days of tournaments.

When Humphrey Duke of Gloucester found out about the secret treaty to cede Maine and Anjou, he was furious. He also enjoyed great popularity among the populace, so he was viewed as a threat to the peace party. To silence him, a Parliament was called at Bury St Edmunds in February 1447, where he was arrested for treason. However, he died before his trial in circumstances that were never explained, with rumours that he had been murdered. His greatest rival, Cardinal Beaufort, lived only a few weeks longer and died in March 1447.

House of York family tree.

Fifteenth-century French depiction of the marriage of King Henry VI to Margaret of Anjou.

In March 1448, King Henry VI finally handed the counties of Maine and Anjou to the French after a siege of Le Mans by King Charles VII of France. The same year, Henry created Edmund Beaufort second Duke of Somerset and William de la Pole Duke of Suffolk, who then became the leaders of the court party. At that time, Richard Duke of York adopted the surname Plantagenet, the first time it had ever been used, but there was no evidence that he had designs on the throne – although a fierce rivalry had developed between him and the Duke of Somerset.

House of Lancaster family tree (Plantagenet).

In 1449, the Duke of York was dispatched as Lieutenant of Ireland and the Duke of Somerset was created Governor of Normandy and chief commander, where he took up residence at Rouen.

The Duke of Somerset, however, was a failure as commander-in-chief and did not have the ability or capacity for the job. The English attack on the town of Fougeres gave King Charles VII the excuse to declare war in July 1449 and the French quickly captured about thirty fortified towns in Normandy. In October 1449, Rouen was captured by the French and the Duke of Somerset fled to Caen, but surrendered the city to the French in July 1450 and then returned to London on 1 August 1450. On 15 April 1450, a small English army led by Sir Thomas Kyriell had also been defeated by the French at Formigny and, by the end of August, the last English garrison in Normandy had surrendered. The only remaining English possessions left in France were therefore Calais, which had been captured by King Edward III, and the duchy of Aquitaine.

On 9 December 1449, Adam Moleyns, Bishop of Chichester, who had been a member of the court party, resigned the Privy Seal. On 9 January 1450, he was in Portsmouth to pay sailors and attempted to explain the Duke of Suffolk’s misdeeds. When he paid the sailors less than their due, they wounded him, such was the lawlessness that had appeared throughout the land, and he later died.

The Duke of Suffolk had become the target of the people’s anger because it was perceived that he had been taking decisions independently of the Royal Council. Suspicions were further aroused when he secured in 1450 a marriage between his son John and the seven-year-old Lady Margaret Beaufort, who was a wealthy descendant of John of Gaunt. The Lords and the Commons combined to bring him down. The Duke of Suffolk was in effect a scapegoat for the recent disasters in France and was sent to the Tower, while the Commons prepared a Bill of Indictment. He was accused of plotting an invasion of England with the French ambassador, divulging intelligence to the French, ceding Maine and Anjou to King Charles VII without consent, and wishing to set his son on the throne with the betrothal to Lady Margaret Beaufort. He was further accused by the Commons of embezzlement of Crown funds and taxes, the impoverishment of the monarchy, corruption, extortion and murders. However, the Duke of Suffolk was a favourite of King Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou, and consequently he received a relatively light sentence of five years in exile.

On 30 April 1450, the Duke of Suffolk sailed from Ipswich to Calais with three ships. However, he was intercepted at the straits of Dover by a flotilla of small vessels that had been lying in wait for him. A ship called the Nicholas of the Tower, which was part of the royal fleet, met with him and a small boat picked him up to be taken on board. He was tried on the ship, found guilty, taken into a boat and beheaded. His body was placed in Dover beach, with his head on a pike for a month before burial.

It has never been established who was behind the killing of the Duke of Suffolk, but the murder showed the anger of the populace at his failings.

By the reign of King Henry VI, feudalism had given way to what is now described as ‘bastard feudalism’. Many who had returned from France had profited from the Hundred Years’ War and had established landed families. They placed themselves under protection of powerful magnates, not as feudal vassals but as liveried retainers under contract. The retainer would become a member of the lord’s affinity and would wear his livery, a uniform and badge, and accompany him on military campaigns. In return, the retainer would gain the protection of his lord, an income and sometimes land or a good office. The wealthy magnates were therefore able to gather substantial fighting forces around them, without which the Wars of the Roses could not have taken place, as they were primarily wars between the magnates. They were a class that consisted of a small number of dukes usually related to the royal house, marquesses, earls and viscounts as well as barons, knights and the gentry. They also owned most of the landed wealth of the kingdom, exercised the greatest influence in their territories, and were respected and feared.

Chapter 2

Jack Cade’s Rebellion

The Lancastrian government was bankrupt by 1450, with massive debts and a lavish household, as well as the expensive war in France. King Henry VI had given away much of the royal lands to his favourites and consequently he had lost the resultant income. The country was united in its desire for law and order, an end to corruption and political stability. English troops had begun to return from Normandy after the French victories and trudged along the roads from the Channel ports, begging and stealing as they went.

On Whitsuntide, 24 May 1450, the people of Kent gathered for the festival, but not to celebrate, as armed men led by Jack Cade rose up in rebellion against the corrupt government. The king and Parliament were in Leicester at the time and sent an army south to London to confront the rebels. Jack Cade used the name John Mortimer, probably to show connection to Richard Duke of York. He published a manifesto with a list of grievances against the government, which included the giving away of Crown lands, cruel taxes, bribery and corruption by local officials, election rigging, loss of lands in France and government