History Revealed

1 min read

A woman who was arguably most successful in taking charge of her own destiny was Margaret Beaufort, a vital cog in the machine of Lancastrian succession. A descendant of John of Gaunt, it was through Margaret that the bloodline survived, though (perh

The Christian Science Monitor

3 min read

English history recounts many tales of bloody battles, but the infighting among “The Brothers York” was legendary for its ferocity.

All About History

2 min read

The second cadet branch of the parent House of Plantagenet, descended down the male line of the house from Edmund of Langley, the 1st Duke of York and the fourth surviving son of King Edward III. Three of its members down the ages became kings of the

Discover Britain

7 min read

Whether defined by anguished love letters or record-breaking diamonds, marriage or chastity, politics or poetry, the British in love are not easily pigeon-holed. In fact, our nation’s greatest romances have little in common with one another – except

History Revealed

4 min read

The house of Lancaster was founded in 1267, almost 200 years before the Wars of the Roses began. King Henry III created the earldom of Lancaster for his second son, Edmund Crouchback, who was also Earl of Leicester and held the lands of Derby, too. I

History Revealed

1 min read

The 15th-century series of civil wars, fought between the houses of Lancaster and York and widely known as the Wars of the Roses, boasts some of the most famous individuals in British history and has inspired countless authors, playwrights and filmma

History Revealed

6 min read

Q: What was the relationship like between the houses of Lancaster and York before the Wars of the Roses? A: It was fairly congenial. I think one of the most amazing things in 15th-century history is that King Henry VI, despite being a baby when he

Stamp Collector

1 min read

Royal Mail recently revealed a set of eight stamps being issued to mark the 550th anniversary of the Battle of Tewkesbury, one of the defining battles of the Wars of the Roses. The stamps feature illustrations by Graham Turner, a leading medieval and

History Revealed

3 min read

As a committed Ricardian attempting to restore the reputation of Richard III, I read your Essential Guide to the Wars of the Roses (November 2021) with increasing dismay. The writers you chose to give their views on Richard’s accession and reign are

History Revealed

1 min read

Never before had England seen a conflict that split the nation so dramatically than during the mid to late 15th century, when two dynastic houses clashed in the Wars of the Roses. The weak rule and eventual incapacitation of King Henry VI had allowed

History of War

1 min read

On the morning of 2 February 1461, a Yorkist army of 5,000 men commanded by Edward (who was then duke of York) intercepted a Lancastrian force led by Owen Tudor and the earls of Pembroke and Wiltshire. The two armies met at Mortimer’s Cross in Herefo

British Heritage Travel

4 min read

With 2,000 years of recorded history, you do not have to travel far anywhere on our island to stumble across the site of a battle or skirmish of some sort. Wars of national identity, dynasty, invasion, conquest and treaty have left their mark on the

History Revealed

1 min read

Lauren Johnson tells the remarkable and sometimes shocking story of Henry VI – the pious, gentle, well-intentioned man, plagued by bouts of mental illness, who lost his throne and saw his kingdom descend into the violent chaos of the Wars of the Rose

All About History

2 min read

St Albans saw Richard of York lead a force of over 3,000 soldiers on a direct course for London to take down Henry VI. Henry rode out to meet the Yorkist army and took up a defensive position at St Albans. Richard attacked the city with a great fury

All About History

10 min read

It was 1453 and England was still at war with its old enemy France. Since the legendary days of King Henry V, the warrior king who spilled the blood of the noble enemy in spades at Agincourt and secured England’s claim to the tactically important pro

History of War

3 min read

Perkin Warbeck was a determined imposter who claimed to be Richard, Duke of York Lambert Simnel was pardoned by Henry VII and was sent to work in the royal kitchens “FOR ALL HIS HIGH WORDS ABOUT HIS JUST TITLE, IT WAS IN FACT AS SHAKY AS CAN BE WITH

History of War

1 min read

During the Wars of the Roses both sides had small artillery forces, and on the battlefield light field pieces were attached to infantry regiments. There were various sizes of guns, the most ideal being a ‘saker’. This fired a six-pound iron ball up t

All About History

5 min read

The son of warrior king Henry V and Catherine de Valois, Henry VI was crowned king of both England and France during infancy. He would proceed to oversee England’s final losses in the Hundred Years’ War and famously married the strong and powerful Ma

History of War

1 min read

Richard III’s infamy rests on his usurping the throne from his infant nephew Edward V and likely ordering his subsequent murder in the Tower of London along with his younger brother Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York. Richard’s exact motives or whet

Literary Hub

6 min read

During the mid-15th century, England was crippled by civil war. The conflict dragged on for three decades and more, successive waves of violence engulfing the country before subsiding again, leaving behind a wreckage of mutual mistrust, suspicion and

All About History

3 min read

1390-1411 The mother of Richard Plantagenet and grandmother of King Edward IV and King Richard III, Anne de Mortimer was descended from royalty through her mother and grandparents. She died during childbirth. 1375-1415 The father of Richard Plantagen

History of War

2 min read

“THE RESULTING CLASH AT TOWTON IS PROBABLY THE LARGEST AND BLOODIEST BATTLE FOUGHT ON BRITISH SOIL” The wars officially begin when a force led by Richard, Duke of York is intercepted at St Albans by a Lancastrian army including Henry VI and Edmund, D

Country Life

1 min read

HAVING spent my childhood making (and selling) rose-petal perfume, to have a beautiful bottle of the proper stuff on a dressing table is a daily excitement—and feels very grown-up. Penhaligon’s Elisabethan Rose is inspired by the Tudor rose, the symb

Military History

4 min read

On Aug. 9, 1941, Winston Churchill, the pugnacious prime minister of embattled Britain, sailed into Placentia Bay off the coast of Newfoundland aboard HMS Prince of Wales to secretly meet with U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt aboard USS Augusta.

History Revealed

1 min read

Anne O’Brien is a Sunday Times bestselling author who has written extensively on the medieval period, as well as the British Civil War and Regency eras. Before becoming a successful writer, Anne was a history teacher. She lives in the Welsh Marches o

History Revealed

1 min read

BORN: 23 or 24 March 1430 DIED: 25 August 1482 QUEEN FROM: 22 April 1445 to 4 March 1461, and again from October 1470 to May 1471 during her husband’s brief restoration to the throne PARENTS: René of Anjou and Isabelle of Lorraine CHILDREN: Edwar

History Revealed

1 min read

Richard, fourth son of the Duke of York, was not destined to be king of England, even after his brother won the crown in the Wars of the Roses and became Edward IV. When Edward died in 1483, his son Edward V ascended the throne, but Richard, chosen a

BBC History Magazine

2 min read

On wresting the crown from Richard III at Bosworth in 1485, Henry VII sought to present himself as the unity candidate – the man chosen by God to reconcile the houses of York and Lancaster. Three decades of chaos and bloodletting were over –or so Hen

History Revealed

1 min read

By Anne O’Brien HarperCollins, £18.99 England, 1459: during the devastating chaos of the Wars of the Roses, one of history’s forgotten women will attempt to secure her family's place in history and claim the throne. Cecily Neville is the wife of Ric

Stamp Collector

1 min read

Between 1455 and 1487, England was torn apart by a series of violent struggles for the throne. The period witnessed the deposition of three kings, and the violent death of two of them, in a series of bloody battles known as the Wars of the Roses, fou