The Wars of the Roses were a series of bloody battles for the English throne that lasted 30 years, involving kings, queens, treason and more.
The story is so gripping and twisting that it inspired the Game of Thrones series.
[00:00:05] Hello, hello hello, and welcome to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English.
[00:00:12] The show where you can listen to fascinating stories, and learn weird and wonderful things about the world at the same time as improving your English.
[00:00:20] I'm Alastair Budge, and today is part three of our three-part mini-series on British Divisions.
[00:00:27] In case you haven’t listened to them yet, part one was on Scotland’s 1,000-year rivalry with England, part two was on the North-South divide, and in part three we are going to be tackling the huge subject of The Wars Of The Roses.
[00:00:43] I feel like I should give you a bit of a warning before we start this one.
[00:00:47] It is complicated, there are lots of different characters, and it is about a period of English history from the 15th century, so it is completely on the other end of the scale from an easy YouTube video where someone teaches their favourite idioms about the weather.
[00:01:03] It is not easy, but it is fascinating.
[00:01:07] It was said to be a large inspiration for the author of Game Of Thrones, and involves princes and princesses jostling for power, marriages of love, marriages of convenience, powerful men, powerful women, evil uncles, mental breakdowns, murders, executions, the French, treason, and a battle in which 3% of all men in England were slaughtered.
[00:01:31] So, if you are ready for all of that, let’s get started and talk about The Wars Of The Roses.
[00:01:39] 9 month old babies are not capable of doing very much.
[00:01:44] They can probably sit up, crawl around, perhaps take a few steps on their own, smile and make unintelligible noises.
[00:01:54] They are cute but utterly incapable of looking after themselves.
[00:01:59] But on the 31st of August 1422, a 9-month-old baby called Henry was given more responsibility than any 9-month-old should ever be given.
[00:02:13] After the death of his father, he was made not only King of England but also King of France.
[00:02:22] Of course, he wasn’t expected to actually rule as a baby; a group of powerful nobles was appointed to rule on his behalf until he was old enough to rule for himself.
[00:02:33] But this sequence of events would put into motion a series of wars and battles for the crown that would last for 30 years, from 1455 to 1487, and fundamentally reshape the British monarchy.
[00:02:52] In fact, the seeds had already been sown for this dispute many years before Henry’s birth.
[00:03:00] In 1377, the powerful and popular English king, King Edward III, died.
[00:03:08] Although he had shown remarkable foresight in planning his succession, having had 12 children, nine of whom survived to adulthood, his death would result in one of the messiest and most protracted inheritance fights in British history.
[00:03:26] His firstborn son and heir, Edward “The Black Prince”, died a year before he did, so the crown passed directly to his son and Edward III’s grandson, Richard, who was then only a 10-year-old boy but would later become King Richard II.
[00:03:48] Richard was guided by his uncle, but as he grew older and more mature, he sought to assert his own authority and make his own decisions as king.
[00:04:01] The problem was that there was now an increasing number of claimants to the English throne, people who said that they were more directly related to the deceased Edward III.
[00:04:14] One of these was Richard II’s cousin, Henry, and indeed in 1399, after raising an army and marching against Richard II, Henry proved victorious and declared himself king, becoming King Henry IV.
[00:04:32] This king Henry had a son, Henry, who became Henry V, and he had a son who was called, you’ve guessed it, Henry too.
[00:04:42] And it was this Henry who was the 9-month-old baby king, King Henry VI.
[00:04:49] Now, I know we are only a few minutes in and we’ve already had a lot of names here, and perhaps you’re thinking it’s already impossible to follow.
[00:04:59] Fear not. There are a lot of characters and different factions, but the important thing to remember is that it can all be traced back to Edward III, with his eight sons and five daughters, most of whom have multiple children.
[00:05:15] One son in particular will play an important role in our story today, and that’s his fourth son, John of Gaunt, who had a grand total of 14 children.
[00:05:28] John of Gaunt was called the Duke of Lancaster, and his descendants will all form part of the House of Lancaster, which is going to be one side of The Wars Of The Roses.
[00:05:40] Don’t worry so much about all of the names, but the point to underline is that, as you can see, there is this vastly complicated web of claims to the English throne.
[00:05:52] This is the environment into which Henry VI is thrust when he is crowned king at the age of 9 months.
[00:06:01] To further complicate the situation, as he grows into a man and takes on the responsibilities of a king, Henry VI does not turn into a strong and decisive leader.
[00:06:15] He never had a role model of what a king should look like, as his father died when he was a baby, so he could only listen to stories and learn from books.
[00:06:25] He was surrounded by a clique, a powerful group of people at court, and both at home and abroad, things were not going well for the country.
[00:06:35] England had lost territory in France, there had been a peasant rebellion, things seemed to be falling apart.
[00:06:44] Some English nobles felt that the king was surrounded by poor advisors, that he was being pushed around, and that he was incapable of providing the strong leadership that the country needed.
[00:06:58] One man, in particular, took matters into his own hands.
[00:07:03] Henry’s cousin, Richard Duke of York, believed that the situation was serious enough to take action.
[00:07:11] In 1453 the Duke of York got his chance after the king had a complete mental breakdown.
[00:07:20] We are in the 15th century here, so there is no sort of advanced psychological diagnosis, but clearly, he was mentally incapacitated in a serious way.
[00:07:30] He was completely unresponsive for almost a year and a half, unable to say or do anything.
[00:07:38] Given the king’s condition, a protector was needed, someone who could act in the country’s best interest while the king recovered.
[00:07:48] And Richard, Duke of York, was elected protector.
[00:07:52] As soon as he took power, he wasted no time in getting rid of the people he believed were a bad influence on the king, and reversing some of the king’s policy decisions.
[00:08:04] But sometime in early 1455, after a year and a half of being incapacitated, the king came to his senses and was considered mentally capable enough of ruling again.
[00:08:18] The king’s allies, who had been pushed aside by the Duke of York, were out for blood, they were seeking revenge.
[00:08:27] Most of York’s actions were reversed, and York was furious.
[00:08:33] He marched south and met the royalist forces at St Albans, just outside London.
[00:08:41] This was the first time that the two rival sides, the Lancasters and the Yorks, met in battle, and is widely considered to be the start of the Wars Of The Roses.
[00:08:54] It wasn’t a bloody battle, with as little as 50 people being killed.
[00:09:00] But there were two important developments for the York side.
[00:09:05] Firstly, the leader of the Royalists, of the king’s forces, was killed.
[00:09:11] Secondly, the king, Henry VI was captured.
[00:09:16] But he wasn’t executed or paraded through the streets. Remember, the stated objective of Richard, Duke of York, was only to help the king, to get rid of his unhelpful advisors.
[00:09:30] When the king was located, it was discovered that he had again had some form of mental breakdown.
[00:09:37] So, with the leader of the Royalist forces out of the picture and the king again mentally unfit to rule, The Duke of York declared that he would again take on the role of Protector.
[00:09:49] However, according to some historians, the Duke of York’s intention all along was to claim the throne for himself.
[00:09:58] He was Henry’s cousin, and by some measures, he had a greater claim to the English throne than Henry, because he had two grandparents who were children of Edward III, after a marriage of cousins.
[00:10:13] York ruled as Protector for another year, but then Henry recovered again, and this time when Henry retook the throne, he and his supporters wasted no time in sidelining York, even declaring him a traitor.
[00:10:32] Now, it is here that I need to introduce another character who will play an important role on the side of the Lancasters, probably more important even than the King’s.
[00:10:44] And this is Margaret of Anjou.
[00:10:48] She was a French princess, and the wife of the weak and often mentally incapacitated English King, Henry VI.
[00:10:58] She was an incredibly skilled and clever political operator, and she effectively commanded large parts of the Lancaster campaign.
[00:11:09] Her interest in the success of the House of Lancaster was for several reasons.
[00:11:14] Firstly, it was her husband.
[00:11:17] Secondly, she might well be imprisoned or executed if the House of Lancaster was defeated.
[00:11:24] And thirdly, probably most importantly, it was on behalf of her son, Edward. He would only become king if the House of York’s claim was quashed, and so as long as the Duke of York was alive, her son’s life was in danger.
[00:11:42] So, here’s the situation: on the one side we have the House of Lancaster, which is formed of Henry VI, his wife, Margaret of Anjou, their son, Edward, and noble families who have professed their support and loyalty to them.
[00:11:59] On the other side, there is the House of York, formed of Richard Duke of York, noble families loyal to his cause, and importantly, his son, who is confusingly also named Edward.
[00:12:13] And if you’re wondering why they are called the Wars Of The Roses, it is because the House of Lancaster was represented by a red rose and the House of York was represented by a white rose.
[00:12:28] In the interests of brevity and to not throw too many dates and names at you we are going to skip over some of the details, but the next major development is another battle in which King Henry is captured again.
[00:12:43] Henry was having another mental breakdown and was taken to the Tower of London, where he was to be kept prisoner for his wellbeing.
[00:12:53] Importantly, parliament then declared that Richard Duke of York would be Lord Protector for the duration of Henry’s life, and even more importantly, when Henry died the throne would pass to Richard’s son, Edward, rather than Henry’s son.
[00:13:12] Things looked like they were going pretty well for the House of York but Henry VI’s wife, Margaret of Anjou, wasn’t one to give up without a fight.
[00:13:24] She fled to Scotland, then raised an army and marched south. The two opposing forces met at the Battle of Wakefield, in Northern England, and Richard, Duke of York, was killed.
[00:13:39] And to give you some sense of the kind of person Margaret of Anjou was, she had Richard of York’s head cut off, stuck on a pike, and raised high over the walls of the city of York.
[00:13:54] Things had looked so good for Richard and the House of York, but now they were very different.
[00:14:00] The only hope for the Yorkists lay with Richard’s son, Edward.
[00:14:06] It turned out that Edward was quite a formidable military commander, and he continued to have success after success.
[00:14:16] Noble families who had previously pledged their allegiance to the Lancasters switched sides and became Yorkists, and it seemed like the tide was turning for good.
[00:14:30] And then, on a snowy March Sunday in 1461, the two armies faced off again. Lancaster vs. York at the Battle of Towton.
[00:14:44] You might not have heard of this, but it is the bloodiest battle ever fought on English soil, with an estimated 3% of the entire male population of the country losing their lives, some 28,000 men.
[00:15:00] It was incredibly bloody, but the Yorkists won.
[00:15:06] In anticipation of victory, Edward had declared himself king shortly before the battle, becoming King Edward IV. But there was a slight problem. Henry VI, from the House of Lancaster, was still alive, and he was also still king.
[00:15:26] He was also no longer in the Tower of London, having been freed after Margaret of Anjou’s victory at Wakefield.
[00:15:34] And there was another problem, but this one was entirely of Edward’s making. He had married, but he had married for love.
[00:15:46] And he didn’t marry another noble princess; he married a commoner, a woman called Elizabeth Woodville.
[00:15:55] This upset some of his closest allies, and his closest and most powerful ally, The Earl of Warwick, switched sides in protest, and supported the House of Lancaster.
[00:16:08] Warwick marched on London, went to the Tower of London and freed King Henry VI, who had in the meantime been captured and imprisoned again, and paraded him around the streets of England as the rightful king.
[00:16:24] To state the obvious, Edward IV, the other king, was not going to take this sitting down.
[00:16:31] Together with his brother, the Duke of Gloucester, they marched south to London, and did battle with their old ally, now enemy, the Earl of Warwick, at Barnet.
[00:16:42] Warwick was killed, his forces defeated, Henry VI was captured and sent back to the Tower of London, and the ball was back in the court of the House of York.
[00:16:55] But let’s not forget Henry’s wife, Margaret of Anjou.
[00:17:00] At this time she was still in France, trying to raise another army, but she rushed back to England to try to join up with her allies.
[00:17:10] The Yorkists rushed to intercept her, and there was a decisive battle in the west of the country, at Tewkesbury.
[00:17:18] Decisive because the Lancasters were defeated, decisive because Margaret was captured and then exiled to France, and decisive because Margaret and Henry’s son and heir, Edward, was killed in the battle.
[00:17:33] That evening there was a huge celebration, and the luckless King Henry VI died in the Tower of London, almost certainly murdered on the orders of King Edward IV.
[00:17:46] You could be forgiven for thinking that this was the end of The Wars Of The Roses, but no.
[00:17:51] Less than a decade later, King Edward IV died unexpectedly, at the age of 40.
[00:17:59] He had two male heirs, but they were just boys, just 9 and 12. Their uncle, Edward’s brother, the Duke of Gloucester, became their guardian, and sent them to the Tower of London for their wellbeing.
[00:18:15] After all, they were the sole heirs, and there were plenty of other noble young men with claims that they could trace back to Edward III, where this gigantic mess all started.
[00:18:27] But it turned out that the threat was closer to home.
[00:18:33] Remember that Edward IV had upset his old ally, Warwick, by marrying a commoner?
[00:18:40] Edward IV’s brother, the prince’s uncle, the Duke of Gloucester, took this as his opportunity to seize the throne for himself.
[00:18:50] He publicly declared that his brother’s, the king’s, marriage to his commoner wife was illegal, and therefore his nephews, the two princes in the tower, were illegitimate.
[00:19:04] So who was the rightful king?
[00:19:07] He was, of course, the Duke of Gloucester became Richard III of England.
[00:19:13] And what of the two princes in the Tower?
[00:19:16] Nothing more is known about them, and it is thought that the unfortunate young boys were murdered on the orders of their uncle.
[00:19:25] He might finally have had the crown on his head, but Richard III was not a popular king, and what’s more, the House of York of which he formed a part was very short on male heirs.
[00:19:40] The princes had disappeared, and Richard III had no surviving male heirs of his own.
[00:19:48] The House of Lancaster was similarly sparse, lacking in potential male heirs, but there was one.
[00:19:57] His name was Henry Tudor, and he had spent most of his young adult years living in exile in France, out of the way of the ruling York dynasty.
[00:20:09] But he sensed his opportunity to return to England and take what he saw as rightfully his, or at least what was as much his as it was Richard III’s: the English crown.
[00:20:22] In 1485, a good 30 years after the first battle and more than 100 years after the death of Edward III, Henry Tudor landed in England and raised an army. He was supported by French, Welsh and Scottish forces, and he met Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field, on the 22nd of August.
[00:20:47] It was a resounding victory for Henry and the House of Lancaster, and his opponent and rival for the throne, King Richard III, was killed, becoming the last English king to be killed on the battlefield.
[00:21:03] Henry Tudor became Henry VII, king of England, ending this monumental conflict that had plagued the country for most of the 15th century.
[00:21:13] And if you are wondering where this all fits into British history that you might be more familiar with, Henry Tudor started the period we know as The Tudors and the son of Henry VII was, surprise surprise, Henry VIII.
[00:21:30] So, there you have it, a very much whistlestop tour through this fascinating period of English history full of twists and turns, rivalries, betrayals and more.
[00:21:41] If you have managed to keep up with the story, I take my hat off to you, as it is a complicated one indeed.
[00:21:47] But it is fascinating, with drama to rival any Hollywood movie.
[00:21:52] If you are a Game of Thrones fan, I’m sure you will agree that sometimes true life is just as exciting as fiction.
[00:22:03] OK then, that is it for today's episode on The Wars Of The Roses. I hope it was a fun one, and that you managed to follow along with the general gist of the story.
[00:22:12] If you like this sort of thing, I would certainly recommend exploring the story in further detail, as we have only had the chance to do a bit of a superficial overview, and it will probably not surprise you to find out that there are amazing books and wonderful documentaries that go into the entire thing in much more detail.
[00:22:32] You've been listening to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English.
[00:22:37] I'm Alastair Budge, you stay safe, and I'll catch you in the next episode.
[00:00:05] Hello, hello hello, and welcome to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English.
[00:00:12] The show where you can listen to fascinating stories, and learn weird and wonderful things about the world at the same time as improving your English.
[00:00:20] I'm Alastair Budge, and today is part three of our three-part mini-series on British Divisions.
[00:00:27] In case you haven’t listened to them yet, part one was on Scotland’s 1,000-year rivalry with England, part two was on the North-South divide, and in part three we are going to be tackling the huge subject of The Wars Of The Roses.
[00:00:43] I feel like I should give you a bit of a warning before we start this one.
[00:00:47] It is complicated, there are lots of different characters, and it is about a period of English history from the 15th century, so it is completely on the other end of the scale from an easy YouTube video where someone teaches their favourite idioms about the weather.
[00:01:03] It is not easy, but it is fascinating.
[00:01:07] It was said to be a large inspiration for the author of Game Of Thrones, and involves princes and princesses jostling for power, marriages of love, marriages of convenience, powerful men, powerful women, evil uncles, mental breakdowns, murders, executions, the French, treason, and a battle in which 3% of all men in England were slaughtered.
[00:01:31] So, if you are ready for all of that, let’s get started and talk about The Wars Of The Roses.
[00:01:39] 9 month old babies are not capable of doing very much.
[00:01:44] They can probably sit up, crawl around, perhaps take a few steps on their own, smile and make unintelligible noises.
[00:01:54] They are cute but utterly incapable of looking after themselves.
[00:01:59] But on the 31st of August 1422, a 9-month-old baby called Henry was given more responsibility than any 9-month-old should ever be given.
[00:02:13] After the death of his father, he was made not only King of England but also King of France.
[00:02:22] Of course, he wasn’t expected to actually rule as a baby; a group of powerful nobles was appointed to rule on his behalf until he was old enough to rule for himself.
[00:02:33] But this sequence of events would put into motion a series of wars and battles for the crown that would last for 30 years, from 1455 to 1487, and fundamentally reshape the British monarchy.
[00:02:52] In fact, the seeds had already been sown for this dispute many years before Henry’s birth.
[00:03:00] In 1377, the powerful and popular English king, King Edward III, died.
[00:03:08] Although he had shown remarkable foresight in planning his succession, having had 12 children, nine of whom survived to adulthood, his death would result in one of the messiest and most protracted inheritance fights in British history.
[00:03:26] His firstborn son and heir, Edward “The Black Prince”, died a year before he did, so the crown passed directly to his son and Edward III’s grandson, Richard, who was then only a 10-year-old boy but would later become King Richard II.
[00:03:48] Richard was guided by his uncle, but as he grew older and more mature, he sought to assert his own authority and make his own decisions as king.
[00:04:01] The problem was that there was now an increasing number of claimants to the English throne, people who said that they were more directly related to the deceased Edward III.
[00:04:14] One of these was Richard II’s cousin, Henry, and indeed in 1399, after raising an army and marching against Richard II, Henry proved victorious and declared himself king, becoming King Henry IV.
[00:04:32] This king Henry had a son, Henry, who became Henry V, and he had a son who was called, you’ve guessed it, Henry too.
[00:04:42] And it was this Henry who was the 9-month-old baby king, King Henry VI.
[00:04:49] Now, I know we are only a few minutes in and we’ve already had a lot of names here, and perhaps you’re thinking it’s already impossible to follow.
[00:04:59] Fear not. There are a lot of characters and different factions, but the important thing to remember is that it can all be traced back to Edward III, with his eight sons and five daughters, most of whom have multiple children.
[00:05:15] One son in particular will play an important role in our story today, and that’s his fourth son, John of Gaunt, who had a grand total of 14 children.
[00:05:28] John of Gaunt was called the Duke of Lancaster, and his descendants will all form part of the House of Lancaster, which is going to be one side of The Wars Of The Roses.
[00:05:40] Don’t worry so much about all of the names, but the point to underline is that, as you can see, there is this vastly complicated web of claims to the English throne.
[00:05:52] This is the environment into which Henry VI is thrust when he is crowned king at the age of 9 months.
[00:06:01] To further complicate the situation, as he grows into a man and takes on the responsibilities of a king, Henry VI does not turn into a strong and decisive leader.
[00:06:15] He never had a role model of what a king should look like, as his father died when he was a baby, so he could only listen to stories and learn from books.
[00:06:25] He was surrounded by a clique, a powerful group of people at court, and both at home and abroad, things were not going well for the country.
[00:06:35] England had lost territory in France, there had been a peasant rebellion, things seemed to be falling apart.
[00:06:44] Some English nobles felt that the king was surrounded by poor advisors, that he was being pushed around, and that he was incapable of providing the strong leadership that the country needed.
[00:06:58] One man, in particular, took matters into his own hands.
[00:07:03] Henry’s cousin, Richard Duke of York, believed that the situation was serious enough to take action.
[00:07:11] In 1453 the Duke of York got his chance after the king had a complete mental breakdown.
[00:07:20] We are in the 15th century here, so there is no sort of advanced psychological diagnosis, but clearly, he was mentally incapacitated in a serious way.
[00:07:30] He was completely unresponsive for almost a year and a half, unable to say or do anything.
[00:07:38] Given the king’s condition, a protector was needed, someone who could act in the country’s best interest while the king recovered.
[00:07:48] And Richard, Duke of York, was elected protector.
[00:07:52] As soon as he took power, he wasted no time in getting rid of the people he believed were a bad influence on the king, and reversing some of the king’s policy decisions.
[00:08:04] But sometime in early 1455, after a year and a half of being incapacitated, the king came to his senses and was considered mentally capable enough of ruling again.
[00:08:18] The king’s allies, who had been pushed aside by the Duke of York, were out for blood, they were seeking revenge.
[00:08:27] Most of York’s actions were reversed, and York was furious.
[00:08:33] He marched south and met the royalist forces at St Albans, just outside London.
[00:08:41] This was the first time that the two rival sides, the Lancasters and the Yorks, met in battle, and is widely considered to be the start of the Wars Of The Roses.
[00:08:54] It wasn’t a bloody battle, with as little as 50 people being killed.
[00:09:00] But there were two important developments for the York side.
[00:09:05] Firstly, the leader of the Royalists, of the king’s forces, was killed.
[00:09:11] Secondly, the king, Henry VI was captured.
[00:09:16] But he wasn’t executed or paraded through the streets. Remember, the stated objective of Richard, Duke of York, was only to help the king, to get rid of his unhelpful advisors.
[00:09:30] When the king was located, it was discovered that he had again had some form of mental breakdown.
[00:09:37] So, with the leader of the Royalist forces out of the picture and the king again mentally unfit to rule, The Duke of York declared that he would again take on the role of Protector.
[00:09:49] However, according to some historians, the Duke of York’s intention all along was to claim the throne for himself.
[00:09:58] He was Henry’s cousin, and by some measures, he had a greater claim to the English throne than Henry, because he had two grandparents who were children of Edward III, after a marriage of cousins.
[00:10:13] York ruled as Protector for another year, but then Henry recovered again, and this time when Henry retook the throne, he and his supporters wasted no time in sidelining York, even declaring him a traitor.
[00:10:32] Now, it is here that I need to introduce another character who will play an important role on the side of the Lancasters, probably more important even than the King’s.
[00:10:44] And this is Margaret of Anjou.
[00:10:48] She was a French princess, and the wife of the weak and often mentally incapacitated English King, Henry VI.
[00:10:58] She was an incredibly skilled and clever political operator, and she effectively commanded large parts of the Lancaster campaign.
[00:11:09] Her interest in the success of the House of Lancaster was for several reasons.
[00:11:14] Firstly, it was her husband.
[00:11:17] Secondly, she might well be imprisoned or executed if the House of Lancaster was defeated.
[00:11:24] And thirdly, probably most importantly, it was on behalf of her son, Edward. He would only become king if the House of York’s claim was quashed, and so as long as the Duke of York was alive, her son’s life was in danger.
[00:11:42] So, here’s the situation: on the one side we have the House of Lancaster, which is formed of Henry VI, his wife, Margaret of Anjou, their son, Edward, and noble families who have professed their support and loyalty to them.
[00:11:59] On the other side, there is the House of York, formed of Richard Duke of York, noble families loyal to his cause, and importantly, his son, who is confusingly also named Edward.
[00:12:13] And if you’re wondering why they are called the Wars Of The Roses, it is because the House of Lancaster was represented by a red rose and the House of York was represented by a white rose.
[00:12:28] In the interests of brevity and to not throw too many dates and names at you we are going to skip over some of the details, but the next major development is another battle in which King Henry is captured again.
[00:12:43] Henry was having another mental breakdown and was taken to the Tower of London, where he was to be kept prisoner for his wellbeing.
[00:12:53] Importantly, parliament then declared that Richard Duke of York would be Lord Protector for the duration of Henry’s life, and even more importantly, when Henry died the throne would pass to Richard’s son, Edward, rather than Henry’s son.
[00:13:12] Things looked like they were going pretty well for the House of York but Henry VI’s wife, Margaret of Anjou, wasn’t one to give up without a fight.
[00:13:24] She fled to Scotland, then raised an army and marched south. The two opposing forces met at the Battle of Wakefield, in Northern England, and Richard, Duke of York, was killed.
[00:13:39] And to give you some sense of the kind of person Margaret of Anjou was, she had Richard of York’s head cut off, stuck on a pike, and raised high over the walls of the city of York.
[00:13:54] Things had looked so good for Richard and the House of York, but now they were very different.
[00:14:00] The only hope for the Yorkists lay with Richard’s son, Edward.
[00:14:06] It turned out that Edward was quite a formidable military commander, and he continued to have success after success.
[00:14:16] Noble families who had previously pledged their allegiance to the Lancasters switched sides and became Yorkists, and it seemed like the tide was turning for good.
[00:14:30] And then, on a snowy March Sunday in 1461, the two armies faced off again. Lancaster vs. York at the Battle of Towton.
[00:14:44] You might not have heard of this, but it is the bloodiest battle ever fought on English soil, with an estimated 3% of the entire male population of the country losing their lives, some 28,000 men.
[00:15:00] It was incredibly bloody, but the Yorkists won.
[00:15:06] In anticipation of victory, Edward had declared himself king shortly before the battle, becoming King Edward IV. But there was a slight problem. Henry VI, from the House of Lancaster, was still alive, and he was also still king.
[00:15:26] He was also no longer in the Tower of London, having been freed after Margaret of Anjou’s victory at Wakefield.
[00:15:34] And there was another problem, but this one was entirely of Edward’s making. He had married, but he had married for love.
[00:15:46] And he didn’t marry another noble princess; he married a commoner, a woman called Elizabeth Woodville.
[00:15:55] This upset some of his closest allies, and his closest and most powerful ally, The Earl of Warwick, switched sides in protest, and supported the House of Lancaster.
[00:16:08] Warwick marched on London, went to the Tower of London and freed King Henry VI, who had in the meantime been captured and imprisoned again, and paraded him around the streets of England as the rightful king.
[00:16:24] To state the obvious, Edward IV, the other king, was not going to take this sitting down.
[00:16:31] Together with his brother, the Duke of Gloucester, they marched south to London, and did battle with their old ally, now enemy, the Earl of Warwick, at Barnet.
[00:16:42] Warwick was killed, his forces defeated, Henry VI was captured and sent back to the Tower of London, and the ball was back in the court of the House of York.
[00:16:55] But let’s not forget Henry’s wife, Margaret of Anjou.
[00:17:00] At this time she was still in France, trying to raise another army, but she rushed back to England to try to join up with her allies.
[00:17:10] The Yorkists rushed to intercept her, and there was a decisive battle in the west of the country, at Tewkesbury.
[00:17:18] Decisive because the Lancasters were defeated, decisive because Margaret was captured and then exiled to France, and decisive because Margaret and Henry’s son and heir, Edward, was killed in the battle.
[00:17:33] That evening there was a huge celebration, and the luckless King Henry VI died in the Tower of London, almost certainly murdered on the orders of King Edward IV.
[00:17:46] You could be forgiven for thinking that this was the end of The Wars Of The Roses, but no.
[00:17:51] Less than a decade later, King Edward IV died unexpectedly, at the age of 40.
[00:17:59] He had two male heirs, but they were just boys, just 9 and 12. Their uncle, Edward’s brother, the Duke of Gloucester, became their guardian, and sent them to the Tower of London for their wellbeing.
[00:18:15] After all, they were the sole heirs, and there were plenty of other noble young men with claims that they could trace back to Edward III, where this gigantic mess all started.
[00:18:27] But it turned out that the threat was closer to home.
[00:18:33] Remember that Edward IV had upset his old ally, Warwick, by marrying a commoner?
[00:18:40] Edward IV’s brother, the prince’s uncle, the Duke of Gloucester, took this as his opportunity to seize the throne for himself.
[00:18:50] He publicly declared that his brother’s, the king’s, marriage to his commoner wife was illegal, and therefore his nephews, the two princes in the tower, were illegitimate.
[00:19:04] So who was the rightful king?
[00:19:07] He was, of course, the Duke of Gloucester became Richard III of England.
[00:19:13] And what of the two princes in the Tower?
[00:19:16] Nothing more is known about them, and it is thought that the unfortunate young boys were murdered on the orders of their uncle.
[00:19:25] He might finally have had the crown on his head, but Richard III was not a popular king, and what’s more, the House of York of which he formed a part was very short on male heirs.
[00:19:40] The princes had disappeared, and Richard III had no surviving male heirs of his own.
[00:19:48] The House of Lancaster was similarly sparse, lacking in potential male heirs, but there was one.
[00:19:57] His name was Henry Tudor, and he had spent most of his young adult years living in exile in France, out of the way of the ruling York dynasty.
[00:20:09] But he sensed his opportunity to return to England and take what he saw as rightfully his, or at least what was as much his as it was Richard III’s: the English crown.
[00:20:22] In 1485, a good 30 years after the first battle and more than 100 years after the death of Edward III, Henry Tudor landed in England and raised an army. He was supported by French, Welsh and Scottish forces, and he met Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field, on the 22nd of August.
[00:20:47] It was a resounding victory for Henry and the House of Lancaster, and his opponent and rival for the throne, King Richard III, was killed, becoming the last English king to be killed on the battlefield.
[00:21:03] Henry Tudor became Henry VII, king of England, ending this monumental conflict that had plagued the country for most of the 15th century.
[00:21:13] And if you are wondering where this all fits into British history that you might be more familiar with, Henry Tudor started the period we know as The Tudors and the son of Henry VII was, surprise surprise, Henry VIII.
[00:21:30] So, there you have it, a very much whistlestop tour through this fascinating period of English history full of twists and turns, rivalries, betrayals and more.
[00:21:41] If you have managed to keep up with the story, I take my hat off to you, as it is a complicated one indeed.
[00:21:47] But it is fascinating, with drama to rival any Hollywood movie.
[00:21:52] If you are a Game of Thrones fan, I’m sure you will agree that sometimes true life is just as exciting as fiction.
[00:22:03] OK then, that is it for today's episode on The Wars Of The Roses. I hope it was a fun one, and that you managed to follow along with the general gist of the story.
[00:22:12] If you like this sort of thing, I would certainly recommend exploring the story in further detail, as we have only had the chance to do a bit of a superficial overview, and it will probably not surprise you to find out that there are amazing books and wonderful documentaries that go into the entire thing in much more detail.
[00:22:32] You've been listening to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English.
[00:22:37] I'm Alastair Budge, you stay safe, and I'll catch you in the next episode.
[00:00:05] Hello, hello hello, and welcome to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English.
[00:00:12] The show where you can listen to fascinating stories, and learn weird and wonderful things about the world at the same time as improving your English.
[00:00:20] I'm Alastair Budge, and today is part three of our three-part mini-series on British Divisions.
[00:00:27] In case you haven’t listened to them yet, part one was on Scotland’s 1,000-year rivalry with England, part two was on the North-South divide, and in part three we are going to be tackling the huge subject of The Wars Of The Roses.
[00:00:43] I feel like I should give you a bit of a warning before we start this one.
[00:00:47] It is complicated, there are lots of different characters, and it is about a period of English history from the 15th century, so it is completely on the other end of the scale from an easy YouTube video where someone teaches their favourite idioms about the weather.
[00:01:03] It is not easy, but it is fascinating.
[00:01:07] It was said to be a large inspiration for the author of Game Of Thrones, and involves princes and princesses jostling for power, marriages of love, marriages of convenience, powerful men, powerful women, evil uncles, mental breakdowns, murders, executions, the French, treason, and a battle in which 3% of all men in England were slaughtered.
[00:01:31] So, if you are ready for all of that, let’s get started and talk about The Wars Of The Roses.
[00:01:39] 9 month old babies are not capable of doing very much.
[00:01:44] They can probably sit up, crawl around, perhaps take a few steps on their own, smile and make unintelligible noises.
[00:01:54] They are cute but utterly incapable of looking after themselves.
[00:01:59] But on the 31st of August 1422, a 9-month-old baby called Henry was given more responsibility than any 9-month-old should ever be given.
[00:02:13] After the death of his father, he was made not only King of England but also King of France.
[00:02:22] Of course, he wasn’t expected to actually rule as a baby; a group of powerful nobles was appointed to rule on his behalf until he was old enough to rule for himself.
[00:02:33] But this sequence of events would put into motion a series of wars and battles for the crown that would last for 30 years, from 1455 to 1487, and fundamentally reshape the British monarchy.
[00:02:52] In fact, the seeds had already been sown for this dispute many years before Henry’s birth.
[00:03:00] In 1377, the powerful and popular English king, King Edward III, died.
[00:03:08] Although he had shown remarkable foresight in planning his succession, having had 12 children, nine of whom survived to adulthood, his death would result in one of the messiest and most protracted inheritance fights in British history.
[00:03:26] His firstborn son and heir, Edward “The Black Prince”, died a year before he did, so the crown passed directly to his son and Edward III’s grandson, Richard, who was then only a 10-year-old boy but would later become King Richard II.
[00:03:48] Richard was guided by his uncle, but as he grew older and more mature, he sought to assert his own authority and make his own decisions as king.
[00:04:01] The problem was that there was now an increasing number of claimants to the English throne, people who said that they were more directly related to the deceased Edward III.
[00:04:14] One of these was Richard II’s cousin, Henry, and indeed in 1399, after raising an army and marching against Richard II, Henry proved victorious and declared himself king, becoming King Henry IV.
[00:04:32] This king Henry had a son, Henry, who became Henry V, and he had a son who was called, you’ve guessed it, Henry too.
[00:04:42] And it was this Henry who was the 9-month-old baby king, King Henry VI.
[00:04:49] Now, I know we are only a few minutes in and we’ve already had a lot of names here, and perhaps you’re thinking it’s already impossible to follow.
[00:04:59] Fear not. There are a lot of characters and different factions, but the important thing to remember is that it can all be traced back to Edward III, with his eight sons and five daughters, most of whom have multiple children.
[00:05:15] One son in particular will play an important role in our story today, and that’s his fourth son, John of Gaunt, who had a grand total of 14 children.
[00:05:28] John of Gaunt was called the Duke of Lancaster, and his descendants will all form part of the House of Lancaster, which is going to be one side of The Wars Of The Roses.
[00:05:40] Don’t worry so much about all of the names, but the point to underline is that, as you can see, there is this vastly complicated web of claims to the English throne.
[00:05:52] This is the environment into which Henry VI is thrust when he is crowned king at the age of 9 months.
[00:06:01] To further complicate the situation, as he grows into a man and takes on the responsibilities of a king, Henry VI does not turn into a strong and decisive leader.
[00:06:15] He never had a role model of what a king should look like, as his father died when he was a baby, so he could only listen to stories and learn from books.
[00:06:25] He was surrounded by a clique, a powerful group of people at court, and both at home and abroad, things were not going well for the country.
[00:06:35] England had lost territory in France, there had been a peasant rebellion, things seemed to be falling apart.
[00:06:44] Some English nobles felt that the king was surrounded by poor advisors, that he was being pushed around, and that he was incapable of providing the strong leadership that the country needed.
[00:06:58] One man, in particular, took matters into his own hands.
[00:07:03] Henry’s cousin, Richard Duke of York, believed that the situation was serious enough to take action.
[00:07:11] In 1453 the Duke of York got his chance after the king had a complete mental breakdown.
[00:07:20] We are in the 15th century here, so there is no sort of advanced psychological diagnosis, but clearly, he was mentally incapacitated in a serious way.
[00:07:30] He was completely unresponsive for almost a year and a half, unable to say or do anything.
[00:07:38] Given the king’s condition, a protector was needed, someone who could act in the country’s best interest while the king recovered.
[00:07:48] And Richard, Duke of York, was elected protector.
[00:07:52] As soon as he took power, he wasted no time in getting rid of the people he believed were a bad influence on the king, and reversing some of the king’s policy decisions.
[00:08:04] But sometime in early 1455, after a year and a half of being incapacitated, the king came to his senses and was considered mentally capable enough of ruling again.
[00:08:18] The king’s allies, who had been pushed aside by the Duke of York, were out for blood, they were seeking revenge.
[00:08:27] Most of York’s actions were reversed, and York was furious.
[00:08:33] He marched south and met the royalist forces at St Albans, just outside London.
[00:08:41] This was the first time that the two rival sides, the Lancasters and the Yorks, met in battle, and is widely considered to be the start of the Wars Of The Roses.
[00:08:54] It wasn’t a bloody battle, with as little as 50 people being killed.
[00:09:00] But there were two important developments for the York side.
[00:09:05] Firstly, the leader of the Royalists, of the king’s forces, was killed.
[00:09:11] Secondly, the king, Henry VI was captured.
[00:09:16] But he wasn’t executed or paraded through the streets. Remember, the stated objective of Richard, Duke of York, was only to help the king, to get rid of his unhelpful advisors.
[00:09:30] When the king was located, it was discovered that he had again had some form of mental breakdown.
[00:09:37] So, with the leader of the Royalist forces out of the picture and the king again mentally unfit to rule, The Duke of York declared that he would again take on the role of Protector.
[00:09:49] However, according to some historians, the Duke of York’s intention all along was to claim the throne for himself.
[00:09:58] He was Henry’s cousin, and by some measures, he had a greater claim to the English throne than Henry, because he had two grandparents who were children of Edward III, after a marriage of cousins.
[00:10:13] York ruled as Protector for another year, but then Henry recovered again, and this time when Henry retook the throne, he and his supporters wasted no time in sidelining York, even declaring him a traitor.
[00:10:32] Now, it is here that I need to introduce another character who will play an important role on the side of the Lancasters, probably more important even than the King’s.
[00:10:44] And this is Margaret of Anjou.
[00:10:48] She was a French princess, and the wife of the weak and often mentally incapacitated English King, Henry VI.
[00:10:58] She was an incredibly skilled and clever political operator, and she effectively commanded large parts of the Lancaster campaign.
[00:11:09] Her interest in the success of the House of Lancaster was for several reasons.
[00:11:14] Firstly, it was her husband.
[00:11:17] Secondly, she might well be imprisoned or executed if the House of Lancaster was defeated.
[00:11:24] And thirdly, probably most importantly, it was on behalf of her son, Edward. He would only become king if the House of York’s claim was quashed, and so as long as the Duke of York was alive, her son’s life was in danger.
[00:11:42] So, here’s the situation: on the one side we have the House of Lancaster, which is formed of Henry VI, his wife, Margaret of Anjou, their son, Edward, and noble families who have professed their support and loyalty to them.
[00:11:59] On the other side, there is the House of York, formed of Richard Duke of York, noble families loyal to his cause, and importantly, his son, who is confusingly also named Edward.
[00:12:13] And if you’re wondering why they are called the Wars Of The Roses, it is because the House of Lancaster was represented by a red rose and the House of York was represented by a white rose.
[00:12:28] In the interests of brevity and to not throw too many dates and names at you we are going to skip over some of the details, but the next major development is another battle in which King Henry is captured again.
[00:12:43] Henry was having another mental breakdown and was taken to the Tower of London, where he was to be kept prisoner for his wellbeing.
[00:12:53] Importantly, parliament then declared that Richard Duke of York would be Lord Protector for the duration of Henry’s life, and even more importantly, when Henry died the throne would pass to Richard’s son, Edward, rather than Henry’s son.
[00:13:12] Things looked like they were going pretty well for the House of York but Henry VI’s wife, Margaret of Anjou, wasn’t one to give up without a fight.
[00:13:24] She fled to Scotland, then raised an army and marched south. The two opposing forces met at the Battle of Wakefield, in Northern England, and Richard, Duke of York, was killed.
[00:13:39] And to give you some sense of the kind of person Margaret of Anjou was, she had Richard of York’s head cut off, stuck on a pike, and raised high over the walls of the city of York.
[00:13:54] Things had looked so good for Richard and the House of York, but now they were very different.
[00:14:00] The only hope for the Yorkists lay with Richard’s son, Edward.
[00:14:06] It turned out that Edward was quite a formidable military commander, and he continued to have success after success.
[00:14:16] Noble families who had previously pledged their allegiance to the Lancasters switched sides and became Yorkists, and it seemed like the tide was turning for good.
[00:14:30] And then, on a snowy March Sunday in 1461, the two armies faced off again. Lancaster vs. York at the Battle of Towton.
[00:14:44] You might not have heard of this, but it is the bloodiest battle ever fought on English soil, with an estimated 3% of the entire male population of the country losing their lives, some 28,000 men.
[00:15:00] It was incredibly bloody, but the Yorkists won.
[00:15:06] In anticipation of victory, Edward had declared himself king shortly before the battle, becoming King Edward IV. But there was a slight problem. Henry VI, from the House of Lancaster, was still alive, and he was also still king.
[00:15:26] He was also no longer in the Tower of London, having been freed after Margaret of Anjou’s victory at Wakefield.
[00:15:34] And there was another problem, but this one was entirely of Edward’s making. He had married, but he had married for love.
[00:15:46] And he didn’t marry another noble princess; he married a commoner, a woman called Elizabeth Woodville.
[00:15:55] This upset some of his closest allies, and his closest and most powerful ally, The Earl of Warwick, switched sides in protest, and supported the House of Lancaster.
[00:16:08] Warwick marched on London, went to the Tower of London and freed King Henry VI, who had in the meantime been captured and imprisoned again, and paraded him around the streets of England as the rightful king.
[00:16:24] To state the obvious, Edward IV, the other king, was not going to take this sitting down.
[00:16:31] Together with his brother, the Duke of Gloucester, they marched south to London, and did battle with their old ally, now enemy, the Earl of Warwick, at Barnet.
[00:16:42] Warwick was killed, his forces defeated, Henry VI was captured and sent back to the Tower of London, and the ball was back in the court of the House of York.
[00:16:55] But let’s not forget Henry’s wife, Margaret of Anjou.
[00:17:00] At this time she was still in France, trying to raise another army, but she rushed back to England to try to join up with her allies.
[00:17:10] The Yorkists rushed to intercept her, and there was a decisive battle in the west of the country, at Tewkesbury.
[00:17:18] Decisive because the Lancasters were defeated, decisive because Margaret was captured and then exiled to France, and decisive because Margaret and Henry’s son and heir, Edward, was killed in the battle.
[00:17:33] That evening there was a huge celebration, and the luckless King Henry VI died in the Tower of London, almost certainly murdered on the orders of King Edward IV.
[00:17:46] You could be forgiven for thinking that this was the end of The Wars Of The Roses, but no.
[00:17:51] Less than a decade later, King Edward IV died unexpectedly, at the age of 40.
[00:17:59] He had two male heirs, but they were just boys, just 9 and 12. Their uncle, Edward’s brother, the Duke of Gloucester, became their guardian, and sent them to the Tower of London for their wellbeing.
[00:18:15] After all, they were the sole heirs, and there were plenty of other noble young men with claims that they could trace back to Edward III, where this gigantic mess all started.
[00:18:27] But it turned out that the threat was closer to home.
[00:18:33] Remember that Edward IV had upset his old ally, Warwick, by marrying a commoner?
[00:18:40] Edward IV’s brother, the prince’s uncle, the Duke of Gloucester, took this as his opportunity to seize the throne for himself.
[00:18:50] He publicly declared that his brother’s, the king’s, marriage to his commoner wife was illegal, and therefore his nephews, the two princes in the tower, were illegitimate.
[00:19:04] So who was the rightful king?
[00:19:07] He was, of course, the Duke of Gloucester became Richard III of England.
[00:19:13] And what of the two princes in the Tower?
[00:19:16] Nothing more is known about them, and it is thought that the unfortunate young boys were murdered on the orders of their uncle.
[00:19:25] He might finally have had the crown on his head, but Richard III was not a popular king, and what’s more, the House of York of which he formed a part was very short on male heirs.
[00:19:40] The princes had disappeared, and Richard III had no surviving male heirs of his own.
[00:19:48] The House of Lancaster was similarly sparse, lacking in potential male heirs, but there was one.
[00:19:57] His name was Henry Tudor, and he had spent most of his young adult years living in exile in France, out of the way of the ruling York dynasty.
[00:20:09] But he sensed his opportunity to return to England and take what he saw as rightfully his, or at least what was as much his as it was Richard III’s: the English crown.
[00:20:22] In 1485, a good 30 years after the first battle and more than 100 years after the death of Edward III, Henry Tudor landed in England and raised an army. He was supported by French, Welsh and Scottish forces, and he met Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field, on the 22nd of August.
[00:20:47] It was a resounding victory for Henry and the House of Lancaster, and his opponent and rival for the throne, King Richard III, was killed, becoming the last English king to be killed on the battlefield.
[00:21:03] Henry Tudor became Henry VII, king of England, ending this monumental conflict that had plagued the country for most of the 15th century.
[00:21:13] And if you are wondering where this all fits into British history that you might be more familiar with, Henry Tudor started the period we know as The Tudors and the son of Henry VII was, surprise surprise, Henry VIII.
[00:21:30] So, there you have it, a very much whistlestop tour through this fascinating period of English history full of twists and turns, rivalries, betrayals and more.
[00:21:41] If you have managed to keep up with the story, I take my hat off to you, as it is a complicated one indeed.
[00:21:47] But it is fascinating, with drama to rival any Hollywood movie.
[00:21:52] If you are a Game of Thrones fan, I’m sure you will agree that sometimes true life is just as exciting as fiction.
[00:22:03] OK then, that is it for today's episode on The Wars Of The Roses. I hope it was a fun one, and that you managed to follow along with the general gist of the story.
[00:22:12] If you like this sort of thing, I would certainly recommend exploring the story in further detail, as we have only had the chance to do a bit of a superficial overview, and it will probably not surprise you to find out that there are amazing books and wonderful documentaries that go into the entire thing in much more detail.
[00:22:32] You've been listening to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English.
[00:22:37] I'm Alastair Budge, you stay safe, and I'll catch you in the next episode.
