49 Fun Facts About Wars of the Roses

Which fantasy television series took its feuding noble houses from the Wars of the Roses?

Game of Thrones. George R. R. Martin, who wrote the novels behind the show, turned the rival houses of Lancaster and York into his warring Lannisters and Starks.

England's final defeat in which war came two years before the Wars of the Roses?

The Hundred Years' War ended in defeat at Castillon in 1453. Henry VI suffered a mental collapse weeks later, and the nobles' struggle to rule in his place turned into civil war.

Which novelist's 1829 book Anne of Geierstein brought the name 'Wars of the Roses' into common use?

Sir Walter Scott's label stuck more than 300 years after the fighting ended, even though Lancaster's red rose was hardly used as a badge until the wars were almost over.

Which famous English school did Henry VI, king from infancy, found in 1440?

Eton College. Henry set it up to house and teach 70 poor boys free of charge, then founded King's College, Cambridge, a year later for them to move on to.

What term, coined in 1885, describes the system of paid retinues that let late-medieval magnates defy the crown?

Bastard feudalism. The crown itself fed the system by raising its armies for France under paid contracts; when those wars ended, the lords could use their armed retainers for their own ends at home.

Where was the 1455 clash in which York captured Henry VI, regarded as the opening of the wars?

St Albans. The fighting ran through the town's narrow streets, where York's great rival Somerset was killed, leaving the king in York's hands.

At which battle in December 1460 was Richard, Duke of York, killed?

Wakefield. The victors displayed his head on Micklegate Bar in the city of York wearing a mock crown, a jibe at the throne he had claimed that autumn.

Which sky effect made three suns appear before Edward's 1461 victory at Mortimer's Cross?

A sun dog, known to science as a parhelion, sets a bright mock sun on either side of the real one. Edward declared the eerie sight a sign that God favoured him, and went on to win.

Which 1461 Palm Sunday snowstorm battle is called 'the largest and bloodiest on English soil'?

Towton. Victory in the blizzard won the crown for the teenage Edward IV, while the deposed Henry VI fled north to Scotland with his queen and son.

Whom did Edward IV marry in 1464 against the advice of the Earl of Warwick?

Elizabeth Woodville was the widow of a Lancastrian knight, and Edward wed her in secret. Warwick found out months later, while he was still arranging a French royal bride for the king.

By what nickname is Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, known?

The Kingmaker helped put Edward IV on the throne in 1461, then fell out with him and restored the deposed Henry VI in 1470, only to die in battle six months later.

Which of Edward IV's brothers married Warwick's daughter Isabel and joined the earl's rebellion against the king?

George, Duke of Clarence, later made his peace with Edward, plotted again and was put to death in the Tower in 1478, drowned in a butt of malmsey wine if the rumour of the time is true.

To where did Edward IV flee in 1470 when Warwick invaded and put Henry VI back on the throne?

Flanders belonged to his brother-in-law, the Duke of Burgundy. Edward sailed back from there in March 1471 and had retaken his crown within a few weeks.

At which battle on Easter Day 1471 was the Earl of Warwick killed?

Barnet. Warwick was cut down as he tried to get away, and Edward had the body put on show at St Paul's Cathedral so that nobody could claim the earl was still alive.

What made Lancastrian troops mistake an ally's star badge for Edward IV's sun and attack their own side in 1471?

Thick fog. The Earl of Oxford's men, coming back from a chase, were shot at by their own army; each group thought the other had changed sides, the cry of treason spread and the line broke.

At which battle in May 1471 was Henry VI's only son, the Lancastrian heir, killed?

Tewkesbury. Edward of Westminster was 17 when he died in the rout; his mother the queen was captured days later, and within three weeks his father was dead in the Tower.

How was Henry VI's death in the Tower of London officially explained?

Great melancholy was the story put out by Edward IV's court. Few have ever believed it: Henry is widely thought to have been murdered on Edward's orders.

Which French-born queen led the Lancastrian cause while her husband Henry VI was unfit to rule?

Margaret of Anjou took charge whenever her husband's mind failed and fought on for their son's inheritance. Captured in 1471, she was ransomed four years later and died in France.

Which great church did Edward IV begin rebuilding in 1475 and choose for his own tomb?

St George's Chapel, at Windsor Castle. The body of Henry VI, the rival he had deposed, was moved there a year after Edward's burial, so the two enemy kings now lie in the same church.

Which boy-king reigned for just eleven weeks in 1483 before his uncle took the throne as Richard III?

Edward V was never crowned. That June he was declared illegitimate, and he and his younger brother were last seen inside the Tower of London.

Richard III's skeleton, found in 2012, showed which spinal condition behind the hunchback of Tudor legend?

Scoliosis. The sideways curve set in during his teens and cost him some height, but the bones showed no trace of the withered arm that Shakespeare gave him.

Where did Charles II rebury two small skeletons dug up at the Tower in 1674, taken to be the princes?

Westminster Abbey. The bones were sealed in a white marble urn designed by Sir Christopher Wren, and nobody has yet proved that they belong to the two boys.

In Shakespeare's Richard III, what does the king offer his kingdom for at Bosworth?

A horse. Shakespeare's king shouts 'my kingdom for a horse', and the real Richard did lose his mount in boggy ground, fighting on foot until he was cut down.

Which noble family's forces were the 'wildcard' at Bosworth, ultimately turning against Richard III?

The Stanleys kept their private army out of the fight until Richard charged at Henry Tudor, then closed in on the king. Lord Stanley, the head of the family, was Henry's stepfather.

Under what banner did Henry Tudor's forces fight at Bosworth?

A red dragon on white and green was the standard of Cadwaladr, a legendary British king whom Henry's family claimed as an ancestor. The beast later held up one side of the Tudor royal arms.

What was Richard III's personal device, used by his army at Bosworth?

A white boar. His modern defenders took the badge as their own: the Richard III Society, which campaigns to clear his name, began in 1924 as the Fellowship of the White Boar.

Whom did Henry VII marry in January 1486 to unite the two houses?

Elizabeth of York was Edward IV's eldest daughter, so the couple's children carried both bloodlines. Their second son grew up to be Henry VIII.

Which battle in June 1487 is considered the last of the Wars of the Roses?

Stoke Field. Two years after Bosworth the Earl of Lincoln led German mercenaries and Irish troops in a last Yorkist bid for the crown, and Henry VII's army destroyed them.

What job did Henry VII give the boy pretender Lambert Simnel after pardoning him?

Spit-turner in the royal kitchen. Henry treated the boy, crowned 'King Edward VI' in Dublin only weeks before, as the tool of grown conspirators, and chose to humble him instead of hanging him.

In which city was Richard III's skeleton discovered under a car park in 2012?

Leicester. DNA from a living descendant of his sister proved that the bones were Richard's, and in 2015 he was reburied in the city's cathedral.

Which Richard III Society member drove the 'Looking for Richard' project that found his grave?

Philippa Langley became sure of the spot while researching a screenplay, then commissioned the dig and raised money from fellow members to pay for it. The 2022 film The Lost King tells her story.

Which 1450 uprising in Kent is often seen as a precursor to the wars?

Jack Cade's rebellion put an army of Kentish men inside London for several days. Cade called himself Mortimer, borrowing the family name behind the Duke of York's claim to the throne.

From which son of Edward III did the House of Lancaster descend?

John of Gaunt never reigned himself, but after his death in 1399 his son deposed Richard II and took the throne as Henry IV, the seizure that York's line later challenged.

As captain of which English-held port across the Channel did Warwick command a standing garrison and raid foreign shipping?

Calais gave Warwick paid soldiers and ships beyond the court's reach. He used them to attack Spanish and German fleets in 1458, and two years later to invade England itself.

At which July 1460 battle was Henry VI captured by the Yorkists for a second time?

Northampton. Heavy rain ruined the royal cannon, and then Lord Grey of Ruthin, holding one end of the king's line, changed sides and let the Yorkists walk in.

What was the 1460 settlement recognising York as Henry VI's heir, disinheriting the Prince of Wales, called?

The Act of Accord let Henry VI keep the crown for life but gave the succession to York and his sons. The queen raised an army against it, and within ten weeks York was dead.

After which 1469 battle, won by Warwick's supporters, was Edward IV briefly imprisoned?

Edgcote. Warwick held the king captive and had the queen's father and brother executed, but he found too little support to rule in Edward's name and had to set him free within weeks.

Which queen's death in March 1485 sparked rumours that her husband Richard III meant to marry his own niece?

Anne Neville died on the day of a solar eclipse. Two weeks later Richard had to stand before London's leading men and deny that he had poisoned her to marry his niece.

Which duke helped Richard III seize the throne in 1483, then rebelled against him within months and was beheaded?

The Duke of Buckingham's rising collapsed when floods on the River Severn stopped his army. A follower he was hiding with gave him up for the reward, and he was beheaded at Salisbury.

How was Henry Tudor descended from Edward III?

Through his mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort. She was thirteen and already a widow when he was born, her only child, and she plotted for years to win him the crown.

Which Tudor statesman's History of King Richard III painted him as a crook-backed villain?

Thomas More was seven when Richard died, and he wrote under the dynasty that had overthrown him. He never finished the book, but Shakespeare took its portrait and made it stick.

Where did Henry Tudor's invasion force land unopposed in August 1485, two weeks before Bosworth?

South-west Wales. Henry came ashore at Milford Haven, a few miles from his own birthplace at Pembroke Castle, counting on local loyalty to swell his small army of exiles and French troops.

Which captured Lancastrian, husband of Henry V's widow, was executed after the 1461 Battle of Mortimer's Cross?

Owen Tudor was beheaded in Hereford market-place, where, the story goes, a madwoman combed the hair of his severed head and ringed it with candles. His grandson became Henry VII.

In which Shakespeare play does the rose-picking scene in the Temple Church gardens appear?

Henry VI, Part 1. In the scene Richard of York and the Duke of Somerset fall out over a point of law, and each dares the lords around them to pluck a white or a red rose to show whose side they take.

The mnemonic 'Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain' helps people remember the order of what?

The colours of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. The phrase is said to recall the Duke of York's death in 1460, weeks after he had been named heir to the throne.

Which mad French king, Henry VI's grandfather, at times believed he was made of glass?

Charles VI of France, remembered as Charles the Mad, is said to have had iron rods sewn into his clothes so that he would not shatter. His grandson Henry VI suffered his own first collapse in 1453, aged 31.

Which French king reconciled Warwick with the exiled Lancastrian queen in 1470 and backed Warwick's invasion?

Louis XI wanted England turned against his great enemy, the Duke of Burgundy, so he brought the two old foes together. Warwick's invasion that September put Henry VI back on the throne within weeks.

On what did Edward IV meet the French king in 1475, a grille between them, to be bought off?

A bridge over the Somme at Picquigny. The French king handed over 75,000 crowns and promised 50,000 more every year, and in return Edward took his army back to England.

Which sister of Edward IV publicly recognised the pretender Perkin Warbeck as Richard of Shrewsbury?

Margaret of York, the widowed Duchess of Burgundy, sheltered Yorkist exiles at her court and backed one pretender after another against Henry VII. Warbeck ended on the gallows in 1499.