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Lancaster and York
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Lancaster and York
Outlines
The Wars of the Roses were a series of struggles for the Crown between the descendants of Edward III. The Lancastrian kings were descended from the third son, John of Gaunt. The Yorkists drew their claim from a union of the line of the second and fourth sons, Lionel of Clarence and Edward of York. The wars ended with the marriage of the heiress of the Yorkists with a remote descendant of John of Gaunt, Henry Tudor. Looked at in this light the Wars of the Roses begin with the first battle of St. Albans in 1455, when Richard Duke of York defeated Henry VI, and end with the battle of Bosworth in 1485, where Richard III was left dead on the field, and Henry VII reigned in his stead. This is a period of thirty years.
The First Act of the Tragedy: The Overthrow of the Legitimate Line by the House of Lancaster
The story of the reign of Richard II is the story of a prolonged struggle between the party of the king and the party of Lancaster. At first, John of daunt was master of England; but the Peasant Revolt seems to have terrified him. He realized that he was bitterly hated. After 1381 he retired from taking an active share in politics, and from 1386 till 1389 was busy in pushing a claim to the throne of Castile. He left, however, his policy to his son Henry (then Earl of Derby), who, with Thomas of Gloucester (Richard II's youngest uncle) and the Earls of Warwick, Nottingham, and Arundel, continued to harass King Richard...
The Percy-Mortimer Alliance against the House of Lancaster
The accession of Henry IV is usually dwelt on as a landmark in our constitutional history. It is held to display again the fact that the throne of England is not hereditary but elective. It is argued that Richard II by his misgovernment had forfeited the throne; his declarations - or those that his enemies put in his mouth - that the law of England resided in his own breast, and that he alone could frame it, and that the life and lands of all his lieges lay at the mercy of his royal will, were certainly unconstitutional: accordingly his cousin, a butter man than he, is put in his place...
The Third Act of the Tragedy: The Wars of the Roses
Between Bramham Moor in 1408 and the first battle of St. Albans in 1455 there was no actual outbreak of civil war. Yet the fire was smothered and not quenched - down below the surface the embers of discontent with the house of Lancaster were still glowing. On the eve of sailing for his campaign of Agincourt, Henry V found out a conspiracy against him. The chief plotters, Richard of Cambridge, and Lord Scrope and Sir Thomas Grey, paid forfeit with their lives. Their mere names, however, tell us a good deal. Scrope was a relative of the archbishop whom Henry IV had beheaded; Richard of Cambridge was even more notorious, being a son of Edmund, I hike of York, and the husband of Anne Mortimer, the heiress of the line of Clarence and Mortimer. Thus he represented the legitimate line against the usurping Lancastrian. He died on the scaffold and left his claims to his son. We shall hear much of this son. He is that Richard, Duke of York, who was to win St. Albans and to die at Wakefield.
York against Somerset
The first campaign is simple and may be speedily dismissed. It was not so much York against Lancaster as York against Somerset. The object was not yet to seize the Crown: it was a struggle for the regency - the reins of power but not the name. York's army, moving on London, found the king's forces holding St. Albans. An attack was made on the little town. The deciding point in the fight came when Warwick and his men, making their way through the houses in St. Peter's Street, burst into the middle of the Lancastrians. Somerset was killed and King Henry captured. As the fruit of victory York again became Protector, and filled the great offices of State with his friends. Somerset being dead, all the blame could conveniently be put on him, and as the Yorkists were profuse in promises of better government, it might be hoped that the country would settle down.
The Seizure of the Crown by the House of York
It is needless to go fully into all the politics and warfare of this troubled time. All that can be done is to outline them, dwelling on the more salient points. Since the overthrow at St. Albans Margaret never left plotting, but it was not till 1459 that she felt strong enough to risk a blow. Even then the Lancastrians were beaten at Bloreheath; but they had their revenge a month later, when the Yorkist force deserted wholesale at Ludford, and the leaders had to flee the country, Warwick and Salisbury to Calais, York to Ireland...
The Quarrel of York and Neville
The Yorkists had now nothing to fear but themselves. Hitherto the alliance of York and Neville, united by a common foe, had proved irresistible; but, the danger over, the interests of the two drifted apart. Edward IV had won the throne; but what reward could be enough for the man who put him there? To owe too much is the strongest temptation to repay nothing. A King cannot endure the continual presence of a Kingmaker. The thought must be present to the minds of both that it is even easier to unmake than to make.
The Break-up of the Yorkist Power
Suddenly in 1483 Edward died, at the early age of forty-two, leaving his kingdom to his young son Edward V, and England was again thrown into confusion by the ambition of Richard of Gloucester, that uncle who personifies the wickedness of so many historical uncles. Richard had already given proof of that ruthless and unscrupulous ability which was the mark of his house. Battle, murder, and sudden death were his constant companions. He had fought well at Barnet and Tewkesbury; men believed that he had helped to stab Prince Edward; the murder of King Henry VI was laid at his door;
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Chronology
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