Crash course on the Wars of the Roses | The cousins’ war. The Yorks & the Lancasters @HistoryCalling

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]Ever wanted a crash course on the history of the Wars of the Roses, including why they're called that? If so, you're in the right place, my friend, because that's what this video is. From Edward III to Richard III, the princes in the Tar, Lady Margaret Bowfort, and the rise of the Tutors, the decadesl long struggle between the Yorks and the Lancasters for the throne of England is all here. Let's dig in.

[00:00:35]Now, I already have a playlist on the Wars of the Roses, which contains a lot of videos, but they look at particular individuals involved or at specific episodes in the wars, like the disappearance of the Princess and the Tar or the execution of George Duke of Clarence. I've never provided an overview of the conflict, which is why I thought this video would be useful. I'll leave the playlist linked for you and if there's a particular incident or person you want a deeper dive on, take a look at it and see if I have a video on that specifically. Though you will hear much of the same information here, I will of course have to summarize events a bit for this video.

[00:01:12]We start with Edward III and his wife Philippa of Anu. They had five surviving sons, but by the time Edward died in 1377, his eldest boy, Edward, Prince of Wales, known as the Black Prince, was already deceased. The throne therefore went to the prince's son, who became Richard II. He had no children by either of his wives, an of Bohemia, and Isabella of Valwan, who was only a child. And so his heir was Edmund Earl of March, a descendant of Edward III's second surviving son, Lionel of Antworp, Duke of Clarence. In 1399, Richard II was deposed by his cousin Henry Bowlingbrook, who was the son of Edward III's third son, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and his first wife, Blanch of Lancaster. This is why one of the branches of the Plantaginets are known as the Lancasters. Bowling Brook became Henry IVth, and Richard II died soon afterwards in 1400, having probably been murdered. Things then seemed to calm down for a while. Henry IVth's eldest son became Henry V. Married Isabella of Valwa's sister Katherine of Valwa and had a son with her who became Henry V 6th in 1422 at the age of 9 months after Henry V's early death. Katherine of Valwa went on to make a second secret marriage to a Welsh man called Owen Tudtor and had two more sons with him Edmund and Jasper Tudtor born in the early 1430s though the exact dates are unknown. They might have had a couple of other children too, by the way, but the jury is still out on that. King Henry V 6th married Margaret of Anonju in 1445.

[00:02:52]And eventually in 1453, they had a son called Edward, Prince of Wales, one of several people in our story to hold that name and title, by the way. Now, as this branch of the Plantaginets was descended from Edward III's third son, their blood claim on the throne was arguably weaker than the descendants of his second son, Lionel of Antworp. Lionel's descendant, Edmund, Earl of March, was long dead and had had no children, but he had passed his claim to the throne onto the descendants of his sister, Anne Mortimer. She had married her distant cousin, Richard Earl of Cambridge, who was also a descendant of Edward III, this time through his fourth son, Edmund of Langley, Duke of York. This is why the other branch of the family involved in the Wars of the Roses are known as the Yorks. It is because the Lancasters sometimes used a red rose as one of their badges, and the Yorks sometimes used a white that the conflict is known as the Wars of the Roses. Edmund and Anne's son was Richard Duke of York and he was born in 1411. He married his cousin Cesaly Neville who was actually a Lancaster by birth and her grandfather was John of Gaunt. This brings us to Juke John's complex marital history which you'll also need to know about to understand where all the major players in the later Wars of the Roses sprang from. John was married three times. As I've said, Henry IVth was the product of his first union with Blanch of Lancaster.

[00:04:21]His second union with Constance of Castile produced only one surviving daughter, but he was engaged in a long-term affair with a woman called Catherine Swinford, which produced numerous children given the surname Bowford. They were born illegitimate, but after Constance's death, Jon made the shocking decision to not only marry Catherine in 1396, but to have their children retroactively declared legitimate in 1397.

[00:04:49]There was an attempt by Henry IVth to ensure that these half siblings and their offspring would have no claim on the throne, but as we'll see, that ultimately didn't end up being worth much. Cesaline Neville, Duchess of York, wasn't the only woman of note to be descended from John and Catherine either. Lady Margaret Bowford was as well, and she would ultimately marry Henry V 6th halfbrother, Edmund Chud, and have a son in 1457 at the age of 13 and having already been widowed, who would become Henry VIIth. That's all in the future, however. For now, let's travel back to the year 1453.

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[00:05:59]I've told you that in the year 1453, Henry V 6th and Margaret of Anju finally had a child, their son, Prince Edward of Wales. What I didn't mention earlier though was that at that time King Henry was in the midst of a serious breakdown which left him catatonic and unable to even recognize the baby when the child was presented to him. When it became clear that his condition was not going to resolve quickly, a protector had to be appointed to care for the realm. This protector was Richard Duke of York who assumed the position on the 27th of March 1454 and who quote governed the whole realm of England most nobly and in the best way according to the chronicler John Bennett. York did not get along well with Queen Margaret who felt her son's position was under threat from the man who was second in line for the throne after baby Prince Edward.

[00:06:54]However, thankfully, King Henry recovered his senses at the end of 1454, and the protectorate was terminated on the 9th of February, 1455.

[00:07:03]The relationship between the two clans, York and Lancaster, was already approaching boiling point, however, and a few months later, we get what is often cited as the official start of the Wars of the Roses.

[00:07:16]This was the first battle of St. Albins's on the 22nd of May, 1455. And yes, we will be discussing the second battle of the CM in a little while. On the side of the Yorks were Richard, Juke of York, his brother-in-law, Richard Earl of Salsbury, and Salsbury's son, Richard Earl of Warick, known to history as the kingmaker. As you may have noticed, there are a ridiculous number of Richards, Henry's, and Edwards in this story, and I will try to help you keep track of them as much as possible.

[00:07:46]But please be kind if I accidentally say the wrong name at some point. It's hard for me to keep them all straight in my mind, too. And that particular slip is one that's happened to me before, so I'm a bit paranoid it could happen again. On the side of the Lancasters were Henry V 6th and one of his greatest supporters, the Duke of Somerset. Somerset was killed in the battle, which was won by the Yorks. Henry ended up being little more than a pawn of the Yorks, and the Duke of York was again made protector of the realm in November that year, though the reasons why are unclear. That protectorate lasted only 3 months, though. This highly fractured family stumbled on for another few years, trying to run the country and not murder each other. But there was only so long they could keep it up. In March 1458, there was an attempt at a public show of unity with the so-called love day celebrations in which Duke Richard and Queen Margaret walked hand in hand through London. But by the following year, it was all out war again. On the 23rd of September 1459, the battle of Blure Heath was fought in which the Yorks led by the Earl of Salsbury defeated the Lancastrians. But just three weeks later, there was a turnaround when the Lancastrians beat the Yorks at the Battle of Lutford Bridge after one of York's allies, Sir Andrew Trollup, defected. The Duke was forced to flee to Ireland with his second son, the Earl of Rutland, while his eldest, Edward Earl of March, made for France along with his Neville relations. Cesaly Neville, Duchess of York, was left behind with some of her younger children in the nearby Lloo Castle and taken prisoner. She was then placed into the custody of her sister and Duchess of Buckingham, probably at Max Sto Castle. Her husband was attained and most of his money and goods seized, though 1,000 marks were set aside to support the Duchess and her children, perhaps because she had begged Henry V 6th for mercy in person. It looked pretty dire for the Yorkcs, but such was the nature of the Wars of the Roses that you could never really count someone out unless they were confirmed dead. And before long, the pendulum of fate swung again, this time against the Lancasters.

[00:09:57]In July 1460, Edward Earl of March, his uncle the Earl of Salsbury, and his cousin the Earl of Warick were back from France and engaged Henry V 6th's forces at the Battle of Northampton. On the 10th of that month, the Yorks won. King Henry was captured and Queen Margaret fled to Wales with her son, where they went to her brother-in-law, Jasper Tudtor, who was by then the Earl of Pembrook. The Duke of York returned to England, too, and it looked a lot like he was about to be made king. Thanks to the intrigence of Parliament, things never went quite that far. But an act of accord was passed on the 31st of October 1460, stating that York and his descendants would now inherit the throne after Henry's death, thereby cutting his son, Edward, Prince of Wales, out of the picture entirely. Queen Margaret issued letters denouncing both this turn of events and York himself. And by the end of 1460, she had taken her son to Scotland, where she appealed for help to Mary of Gelders, who was then acting as Queen Regent for her young son, James III.

[00:10:59]Richard, Duke of York, was on the cusp of getting everything he wanted. But then he did something inexplicably stupid.

[00:11:09]Having traveled north, he was enscconced in Sandal Castle with his second son, Lord Rutland, when on the 30th of December 1460, he left the safety of its walls for reasons unknown and was promptly killed by Lancastrian forces at the Battle of Wakefield. The 17-year-old Rutland died too, and Lord Ssbury was executed. The heads of all three and a number of others were placed on the walls of the city of York with a paper crown on the dukes in order to mock his pretentions to the throne. Events now moved very fast in medieval terms at least. Queen Margaret who was one tough cookie and who is known as one of the sheolves of France for good reason marched back into England in January with Scottish troops hooked up with Lancastrian troops in York and made for London. Meanwhile, Jasper Tudtor and his father Owen engaged the Earl of March's troops at the Battle of Mortimer's Cross in early February. They lost. And though Jasper made it out alive and fled into exile, spending much of the next few years in Scotland and France, his father Owen, the widowerower of Queen Catherine of Valwa, was captured, executed, and his head spiked.

[00:12:22]Meanwhile, in London, the Earl of Warick took the imprisoned King Henry and an army and left the city to go fight the approaching forces of Queen Margaret.

[00:12:31]Why he took the king with him, we can only guess that, but perhaps he hoped the monarch's presence would lower the chances of Lancastrian troops fighting and doing anything that might risk Henry's life. It proved to be a bad gamble. At the second battle of St. Albins, didn't I promise you we'd get there? On the 17th of February, Warrick was defeated and King Henry was freed and reunited with his wife. Warrick did a runner and went to join forces with his cousin, Lord March, who was technically the Duke of York now after his father's death, but you'll rarely see him referred to as such, and I'm just going to continue to call him March for now to avoid confusion.

[00:13:09]Now, you would think that Henry and Margaret would have no trouble just walking back into their capital city, but the Londoners heard about the Lancastrian army plundering their way from St. Albins's to the city, and frightened of what was coming for them, they locked the city gates against the king and queen. As March's forces approached, the Lancastrians opted to make a retreat. And on the 26th of February, it was Edward Earl of March who entered the city instead. Barely a week later on the 4th of March, this tall, handsome 18-year-old boy who had proven himself to be a deadly military commander was declared King Edward IVth.

[00:13:48]Henry had been deposed. There was a frantic attempt to get the crown back at the Battle of Titan on the 29th of March, which cost as many as 28,000 lives. Sources vary on how high the casualty rate was, but the Yorks won.

[00:14:03]And the next day, Henry, Margaret, and their son fled to Scotland. It seemed as though the Wars of the Roses could be over with the Yorks victorious, but look at how long this video is. We're nowhere near done yet.

[00:14:18]The first rein of Edward IV, and the word first should give you a good idea of what's coming, was marked by his scandalous and initially secret marriage to the English Lancastrian widow Elizabeth Gray Noodville in 1464.

[00:14:35]This went against the wishes of his advisers, most notably his cousin Richard Earl of Warick, who wanted him to make a grand alliance with a European princess called Bona of Seavoi. And the new queen was unpopular partly as a result of her background and lowly birth and partly because she had a huge extended family who soaked up a lot of money and prime marriages within the aristocratic marriage market as they rose up the ranks along with her.

[00:15:01]Together the king and queen had three daughters in the 1460s, Elizabeth, Mary, and Cesley born in 1466, 1467, and 1469, respectively. The lack of a son was frustrating to be sure, especially as Elizabeth had produced two healthy boys for her first husband. But King Edward could take comfort in the fact that he had at least captured King Henry in July 1465 after Henry had gone on the run after losing the Battle of Hexom in May, which had been an attempt to regain his throne. He was locked up in the Tar of London, though his wife and son remained at large on mainland Europe. Other problems for Edward were closer to home where his cousin Lord Warrick and brother George Duke of Clarence were proving to be a real headache.

[00:15:48]The once close bond with Warick and George fractured over things like the Woodville marriage, differences in approaches to foreign policy, and the fact that Edward would not allow Clarence to marry Warick's daughter, Isabelle. Tensions only really flared up though when Warrick and Clarence took the girl to France where George married her anyway in July 1469.

[00:16:12]They then returned to England and went into open revolt against the king.

[00:16:16]Having joined forces with a group of northern rebels led by a man calling himself Robin of Reedsteel, though his real name is unknown, they clashed with Edward's forces at the Battle of Edgecoat on the 26th of July and the king lost. He was taken prisoner and locked up in Warick Castle while his father-in-law Earl Rivers and brother-in-law Sir John Woodville were captured at Cheapto, taken to Kennallworth Castle near Coventry and executed there on the 12th of August without trial. The Queen's mother, Jaketta of Luxembourg, Daarder Duchess of Bedford, was accused of using witchcraft to bring about the marriage between her daughter and the king. The Yorks were tearing themselves apart. The situation was unsustainable for Clarence and Warick, however, as the English nobility began to use the uncertainty and weak government caused by the king's absence to sink into petty feuds with each other and the country started to destabilize, they were forced to release Edward in the autumn. So now what?

[00:17:18]Just like his father had once had to pretend to make nice with Margaret Aonju, so Edward now tried to make nice, at least outwardly, with his treasonous brother and cousin. Though they were punished with the losses of some of their titles and privileges, they were not imprisoned, let alone executed, and for a few months there was an uneasy truce. Clarence and Warick just couldn't stay loyal, though. After another failed uprising against him in March 1470, they fled to France, taking Isabelle, who was heavily pregnant and miscarried on the boat, and her younger sister Anne Neville with them. Once there, they threw in their lot with Queen Margaret and her son, who were then living there.

[00:18:00]On the 22nd of July that year, Warick pledged his allegiance to her, promised to help to recover the throne for her husband Henry V 6th, and had Anne marry the Lancastrian Prince of Wales. In September, they made their move. While King Edward and his youngest brother, Richard Duke of Glouester, who had always been much more loyal and trustworthy than Clarence, were up in the north of England putting down the rebellion of Warick's brother-in-law, Henry Fitzu of Ravensworth. Warrick and Clarence returned to the country with their forces, joined up with other Lancastrian supporters, including King Henry's half-brother, Jasper Tudtor, and retook London. They freed the imprisoned king, and restored him to the throne. an event known as the redeption of Henry V 6th. It was now Edward who had been ousted and his pregnant wife Elizabeth Woodfell had to flee into sanctuary in Westminster Abbey with her children and mother while Edward and Glouester went to mainland Europe. Who knew if they'd ever be back?

[00:19:00]This second reign of Henry V 6th proved to be very short and came to a tragic end, but a few things of note happened during it. Queen Elizabeth gave birth in sanctuary to her long- awaited son by King Edward, who was called after his father and born on around the 1st of November 1470.

[00:19:18]He would be known as the Yorkest Prince of Wales, not to be confused with Henry's own son, who was the Lancastrian Edward Prince of Wales. He is better known to history as the elder of the princes in the Tar. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. King Henry was also visited by his half nephew, the now 13-year-old Henry Tudtor. sometime Earl of Richmond. He'd actually been stripped of that title as a four-year-old and Clarence of all people now held it.

[00:19:45]You'll recall that he was the son of the long deadad Edmund Tudtor and Lady Margaret Bowfort. And supposedly, according to much later sources, Henry V 6th told his nephew at this meeting that the boy would someday be king. Consider that a spoiler alert.

[00:20:01]It would be a long time before Henry Tudtor would make good on that supposed prophecy. And Henry V 6th would be many years in the grave before it would come to pass.

[00:20:12]As usual, the person who messed up so many well-laid plans was George Duke of Clarence, cuz he really was a disloyal little plunker. Now that Henry V 6th was back on the throne, Warick's daughter was the Lancastrian Princess of Wales and in line to be queen someday, and Elizabeth Woodfell had produced a son, it seems it might have dawned on him that he was never going to get the throne, to which she'd had a good claim before the birth of Elizabeth's son, as there was no precedent in England for a daughter successfully inheriting it.

[00:20:43]What then was the point of staying loyal to Warick, Henry V 6th, and Margaret of Anonju? helping to put his brother back on the throne instead seemed like the most advantageous course of action for him. This slippery little eel therefore defected back to Edward when the latter arrived back in England in March 1471 along with their other brother Gloucester. King Edward marched on London, freed his wife and children from their sanctuary and promptly put Henry V 6th back into prison in the Tor of London. On the 14th of April, the Earl of Warick's forces were defeated at the Battle of Barnett in Hertfordshire and Warick was killed. Meanwhile, Margaret dean and her son were on their way from France with Anne Neville. They heard what had happened and tried to get to Wales to meet up with Jasper and Henry Tudtor, but Edward IV caught up with them at Chuksbury on the 4th of May. And in the ensuing battle, her 17-year-old son Edward, the Lancastrian Prince of Wales, was killed. Margaret and Anne were taken prisoner and Henry V 6th mysteriously died. He almost certainly was murdered in fact in the tower on the 21st of May supposedly on a spot marked in the floor in one of its tars though to be honest that's unlikely to be the actual place of his death. 14-year-old Henry Chudter, despite the taint of illegitimacy caused by his descent from the marriage of John of Gaunt and Katherine Swinford, and the supposed bar on anyone of that line holding the crown, was now the senior male Lancastrian claimment to the throne, and that put him in mortal danger. He and his uncle Jasper fled from Pemrick Castle into exile in modern-day France ASAP, and the chances of them ever returning looked slim. Once again, just as in 1461, the Yorkist's victory in the Wars of the Roses seemed insurmountable.

[00:22:30]But again, look at the length of the video. There are so many more unbelievable plot twists in this story yet to come.

[00:22:40]With the main Lancastrian line extinguished, Henry Tudtor out of the picture and a new Prince of Wales in the Royal Nursery who was joined by a little brother called Richard of Shrewsbury in 1473.

[00:22:51]Things were comparatively calm and stable in England for the next 12 years.

[00:22:56]Margaret of Anonju was allowed to return to France where she died in poverty in 1482 and Anne Neville, the sometime princess of Wales, was married off to Richard Duke of Glouester in 1472.

[00:23:07]They had one known child, another Edward, born in around 1474 to 1476, though the exact date is unknown.

[00:23:15]The Duke of Clarence could always be relied upon to cause a problem, though, and after his wife Isabelle died in December 1476, followed days later by their recently born son. He spiraled out of control. He accused her maid servant Anchoret Twino of having poisoned Isabelle and the baby in October, which made no sense given that they didn't die until late December and the 1st of January, respectively, and had the woman seized, tried, found guilty of murder, and executed all in one day. It was judicial murder and user the king's power. Further insults to Edward soon followed, and the upshot of it all was that the king had his brother executed in the Tower of London in February 1478 by being drowned in a vat of wine.

[00:24:00]George left behind him two orphan children called Edward Earl of Warick and Margaret, later known as Margaret Paul, Countess of Salsbury. As he had been attended, though, they had supposedly lost their claims to the throne, a point which will become very important in a few minutes.

[00:24:18]We now move forward in time to April 1483 when King Edward IV, not quite 41 years old, suddenly died. He left the throne to his now 12-year-old son, who became Edward V. He was being raised at Lello Castle in the care of his maternal uncle, Anthony Woodville, Second Earl Rivers, and his much older half-brother on his mother's side, Richard Gray. his younger brother, another Richard, this time Richard of Shrewsbury, who was Duke of York, was in London with their mother and sisters. Richard, juke of Gloucester, and try to keep up with all the Richards. I know it's insane how many there are, had been nominated as protector for his young nephew, but of course, the Woodvilles wanted to keep him in their par. What happened next has gone down in history as one of England's greatest royal mysteries and tragedies.

[00:25:06]I have a whole video on the princes in the tower, though, so I'm just going to give you the cliffnotes version of the tale here.

[00:25:13]The new king set out for London for his coronation on the 24th of April in the company of his uncle, Lord Rivers. On the way there, they were intercepted by Gloucester at Northampton on the 29th of April. At some point, the sources are a little confused as to the chronology, Henry Duke of Buckingham also arrived.

[00:25:33]He was a cousin of Gloucester, but also the husband of Elizabeth Woodville's sister, Catherine, and therefore yet another of Edward V's uncles. Also present was Edward the F's half-brother, Richard Gray. The men all dined together, though the new king was not there, as he was lodged nearby in Stony Stratford, and then all retired for the night. The next day, the 30th of April, Gloucester had Rivers Gray and their companion, Sir Thomas Vaughn, arrested on charges of treason and sent north, while he and Buckingham took custody of the new king and continued on for London. When the Daer Queen Elizabeth heard what had happened, she took all her remaining children, including Richard of Shrewsbury and her other son from her first marriage, Thomas Grey Marquis of Dorset, into sanctuary in Westminster Abbey on the 1st of May.

[00:26:22]When the king arrived in London on the 4th of May, he was placed in the tower to await his coronation scheduled for the 22nd of June. Things now took an even more serious turn, though.

[00:26:33]Apparently, on the 9th of June, the exact chronology is a little fuzzy again. At a meeting of the royal council held at Westminster Palace, Bishop Robert Stillington announced to those present that Edward V could not be crowned king because he was illegitimate.

[00:26:48]Stillington claimed that he had married Edward IVth to the English noble woman Ellanar Talbot, daughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury, several years before Edward married Elizabeth Woodville in 1464, and that the Woodville marriage was therefore boyed and its children had no claim on the throne. As Clarence's children, who would otherwise be next in line, were supposedly barred from the throne due to their father's attainer.

[00:27:12]Told you that would be important. This made the dead king's youngest brother, Richard Duke of Gloucester, the next heir.

[00:27:20]One of Edward V's strongest supporters was Lord Hastings, but he was sumearily executed on the 13th of June on Gloucester's orders. 3 days later, the Duke of Buckingham and the Archbishop of Canterbury went to Westminster Abbey, where Queen Elizabeth handed over her youngest son, Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York. We don't know if she did so voluntarily or not. He was immediately locked in the Tower of London with Edward V. And the next day, the coronation was postponed for 4 months. It would never actually happen.

[00:27:52]On about the 20th of June, Edward and all his siblings were declared illegitimate by a gathering known as the Three Estates of the Realm, made up of the men who had congregated in London in anticipation of a parliament which was to have been opened by the young king after his coronation. Two days later, Frier Ralph Sha or Shaw was asked to preach a sermon at Paul's Cross against the rights of illegitimate children. It was seen as a clear reference to the children of Edward IV by Elizabeth Woodville. Shortly afterwards, her brother and son, Earl Rivers and Richard Gray, plus their associates, Sir Thomas Vaughn, were executed at Pontiffract Castle on the 25th of June on the almost certainly false charge that they had planned the death of Richard of Gloucester.

[00:28:38]Seeing that Woodville support was being brutally decimated and knowing that the bounds of sanctuary couldn't protect him from an armed assault, the Marquis of Dorset soon after fled to France where he joined Henry Tudtor. Also on the 25th of June, the Duke of Buckingham made a speech at the Guild Hall in London in which he said that the Woodville marriage was voided. And at Bayard's Castle on the 26th of June, Gloucester formally accepted the crown as King Richard III. He and his queen and Neville were crowned on the 6th of July.

[00:29:08]As for his nephews, after a few sightings within the Tower of London, they disappeared from view and were never seen again. A rescue attempt in July failed, and it was widely assumed then and now that they were killed that summer on their uncle's orders. In 1674, workmen at the tower found the skeletons of two boys buried beneath a staircase which were believed to be them and which were interred in an ern in Westminster Abbey on the orders of King Charles II.

[00:29:37]Back to the year 1483, however, believing her royal sons to be dead, Queen Elizabeth Woodville, now known as Dame Elizabeth Gray, as her second marriage had been declared null, conspired from her sanctuary with Lady Margaret Bowfort, to have Margaret's son, Henry Tudtor, take the crown and marry Edward IV's eldest daughter, Elizabeth of York. They had the support of the Duke of Buckingham, who, for reasons unknown, had turned against Richard III. The plan was that Buckingham would raise an army in England which would join up with a force coming over from France under Henry's control. It failed, however, as Buckingham rebelled too soon and he was ultimately caught and executed on the 2nd of November. Henry Tudtor never landed in England and his mother lost her money and lands and was placed under house arrest in the custody of her pro- Ricardian husband, Lord Stanley.

[00:30:29]Nevertheless, Henry Tudtor still swore on Christmas Day 1483 in Hen Cathedral in France that he would marry Elizabeth of York. Eventually, with no income and no other options, Elizabeth Woodville and her daughters had to come out of sanctuary in early 1484 with assurances from King Richard that they would be well treated and not locked up in the Tor of London. Richard seemed to be riding high, but the final big plot twist in the Wars of the Roses was coming for him. In April 1484, his only child, yet another Edward, Prince of Wales, died. Then, in March 1485, so too did his queen and Neville. That August, he faced the most serious threat to his reign, and the one which would finish the Wars of the Roses for good, the Battle of Bosworth.

[00:31:20]Henry Tudtor landed at Milford Haven on the 7th of August with a small army which included Elizabeth Woodville's remaining brothers Edward and Richard Woodville. Though her son the Marquis of Dorset had been left behind as a hostage to the French to make sure Henry paid them back the money they had given towards this expedition.

[00:31:38]Marching through Wales and into England, Chud finally clashed with Richard's forces at Bosworth Field on the 22nd of August and he was victorious. We know from the discovery of Richard's skeleton in 2012 that he suffered a brutal death with severe blows to the head and humiliation injuries inflicted on his body afterwards. Henry, according to one source, was crowned on the battlefield with Richard's own crown. He married Elizabeth of York in January 1486, having first relegitimized her. and together they are the ancestors of every monarch of England, Britain, and the UK ever since, plus the final few independent Scottish monarchs. The unlikely accession of Henry VIIIth, a royal outsider with a very weak blood claim on the throne, brought to an end a 30-year conflict which had originated, ironically enough, with the decision of another Henry, Henry IV, to seize the crown from another Richard, Richard II, even though he didn't have the best blood claim to it. Of course, Henry VIIIth didn't know in 1485 that he would be able to hang on to the throne, and he faced several attempts to take it from him over the years, most notably from pretenders claiming to be either Clarence's son, Edward Earl of Warick, or one of Henry's lost brothers-in-law, Richard of Shrewsbury. All failed, however, and the real Warrick, along with a man called Peran Warbeck, who had pretended to be Shrewsbury, were executed in 1499.

[00:33:07]When Henry VIIIth died in 1509, the crown passed peacefully to his 17-year-old son, Henry VIII. It was the first time there had been such a smooth transfer of power since Henry V's death in 1422.

[00:33:22]I hope you enjoyed that crash course on the history of the Wars of the Roses.

[00:33:26]Before I go, just a quick thank you to those of you who support the channel using the thanks button underneath videos. It's much appreciated. Also, please note that you can join my free mailing list on my website, historyallingofficial.com to get two complimentary downloads right away about spotting good history books and doing your family tree, plus my newsletter. You can also get my book, Find Your Irish Ancestors Online from Amazon, and it is linked below for you.

[00:33:50]Let me know in the comments who your favorite figure from the conflict is.

[00:33:54]And to learn more about many of those people and incidents mentioned in this video, remember to check out my playlist on the Wars of the Roses. Whatever you choose, please enjoy.