740 Wars of the Roses
The CRUSADESwere military invasions of the Islamic
world from about 1100. The period 1350 to 1450 was
characterized by many wars between national states and
city-states all trying to control more territory. The church
tried to control these violent tendencies but more often
tried to exploit them for its own ends. Lay society turned
to the ideas of CHIVALRYto pacify or domesticate the drive
toward military aggression. ISLAM initially expanded
through the use of force and maintained the idea of JIHAD
throughout its history. The MONGOLSdestroyed much of
Islamic civilization but did open links between Islam and
Europe and central Asia and the Far East. By 1500 Euro-
pean society was structured around militarism and eager
for internal and external conquest. It was, moreover, now
armed with impressive and effective gunpowder weapons
and the naval and land technologies to deploy them.
See alsoCASTLES AND FORTIFICATIONS; CAVALRY; CON-
DOTTIERI, COMPANIES, AND MERCENARIES; FEUDALISM AND
THE FEUDAL SYSTEM; FIREARMS; HUNDRED YEARS’ WAR;
JUST WAR; KNIGHTS AND KNIGHTHOOD;MAMLUKS; NOBILITY
AND NOBLES;PEACE ANDTRUCE OFGOD;RECONQUEST;
TOURNAMENTS; WEAPONS AND WEAPONRY.
Further reading: John Beeler, Warfare in Feudal
Europe, 730–1200(Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press,
1971); Philippe Contamine, War in the Middle Ages,trans.
Michael Jones (1980; reprint, Oxford: Basil Blackwell,
1984); Kelly DeVries, A Cumulative Bibliography of
Medieval Military History and Technology(Leiden: E. J.
Brill, 2002); Bert S. Hall, Weapons and Warfare in Renais-
sance Europe: Gunpowder, Technology, and Tactics(Balti-
more: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997); Maurice
Keen, ed., Medieval War: A History(Oxford: Oxford Uni-
versity Press, 1999); Hugh Kennedy, The Armies of the
Caliphs: Military and Society in the Early Islamic State
(London: Routledge, 2001); J. F. Verbruggen, The Art of
Warfare in Western Europe during the Middle Ages: From
the Eighth Century to 1340,trans. Sumner Willard and R.
W. Southern, 2d ed. (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1997).
Wars of the Roses The Wars of the Roses was the
name given to the English civil, factional, and dynastic
wars between 1455 and 1485. The Roses referred to the
badges worn by the two sides. The Lancastrians wore
red roses and the Yorkists wore white. This took place
in the context of a declining prosperity for the landed
classes, who had become tied to a few major families in
a system called bastard FEUDALISM. The richest families
contested for control over the weak King Henry VI
(r. 1422–61, 1470–71) and then for the throne itself.
Succession to that throne had been questionable since
the end of the reign and deposition of RICHARD II.
Besides reflecting the general lawlessness of society,
these wars reflected the problem of exercising a central
authority in the 15th century, when local ambitious
magnate families had ready access to military resources
and the Crown had financial difficulties.
The Wars of the Roses began in the 1450s when
Richard, the duke of York (d. 1460), with the backing of
Richard Neville, the duke of Warwick (1428–71), the
Kingmaker, tried to control the royal government and
person of Henry VI. They failed and had to flee abroad
in 1459. The Lancastrian line and its forces regrouped
and won two major victories, in 1460 at Sandal, where
York lost his life, and in 1461 at Saint Albans. However,
the Lancastrians and Henry’s queen, Margaret of Anjou
(1430–82), failed to gain the support of LONDON. They
were forced to retreat to the north. The duke of York’s
son, the future EDWARDIV, won a victory over another
Lancastrian army at Mortimer’s Cross on February 2,
1461, and marched on London to proclaim and install
himself as king again with the backing of the duke of
Warwick. At Towton on March 29, 1461, Edward IV’s
forces won a major victory in the largest battle of the
war. Edward ruled during the 1460s but had a falling
out with Warwick, who, with French help, put Henry
back on the throne in 1470. Edward then left the coun-
try but returned in 1471 and defeated the Lancastrians
and his former supporters again at the Battles of Barnet
on April 14, 1471, and decisively at Tewkesbury on May
4, 1471. Warwick was killed; the captured Henry VI
soon died in the Tower of London under mysterious cir-
cumstances; and Queen Margaret was imprisoned and
then exiled. With Henry dead, the Lancastrian line was
no longer a factor in the closing years of the conflict in
the 1480s.
Edward was secure on the throne. After his death in
1483, he was succeeded by his son, Edward V (1470–83).
Edward IV’s brother, the future RICHARDIII, acted as
regent but soon usurped the throne for himself. Edward
V and his brother might have been murdered in the
Tower of London to secure Richard’s kingship. In 1485
Henry TUDOR, a distant Lancastrian, profited from the
problems and discontents of Richard III’s reign and
invaded England. He defeated Richard at the BATTLE OF
BOSWORTHFIELDin 1485 and took the throne for himself,
ending the Wars of the Roses.
See alsoLOUISXI, KING OFFRANCE.
Further reading:Edward Powell, “Lancastrian En-
gland,” in The New Cambridge Medieval History.Vol. 7, c.
1415–c. 1500, ed. Christopher Allmand (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1998), 457–476; Rosemary
Horrox, “Yorkist and Early Tudor England,” in The New
Cambridge Medieval History.Vol. 7, c. 1415–c. 1500,ed.
Christopher Allmand (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1998), 477–495; John A. Wagner, ed., Encyclope-
dia of the Wars of the Roses(Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-
CLIO, 2001); J. R. Lander, The Wars of the Roses(New
York: St. Martin’s Press, 1990); Charles Derek Ross, The
Wars of the Roses: A Concise History(London: Thames
and Hudson, 1976).water SeeIRRIGATION; MILLS, WIND AND WATER.