Wars of Roses

Edward III

Edward III (1327-1377)
Edward III asserted his position and became sole ruler in 1330.
a passionate fighter, who was fond of tournaments, chivalry and battles.
He cultivated the spirit of chivalry at his court.
He won a victory over the Scots in 1333 at Halidon Hill.
In 1337 he initiated the Hundred Years' War (1338-1453) to vindicate his claim to the French throne.
The war was carried during the reign of 5 English kings (Edward III, Richard II, Henry IV, Henry V, Henry VI). 1453 is the year of the end of the war with French defeating England at Castilon.

The War with France

The Later Middle Ages
Wealth, Population and Social Change
England’s wealth in the later Middle Ages was its land.
The exploitation of land comprised growing corn, producing dairy goods, tending livestock.
England’s most important industry was textile, producing the finest wool in Europe from large sheep flocks.
St. Peter’s Abbey (Gloucester) owned over 10 000 sheep by 1300. The total number is thought to have been of 15 to 18 mln.
Cornish tin mining was internationally famous but less significant.
York, Coventry and London were centers of international trade. Fairs were popular. The thousand and more markets and fairs dotted about the English and Welsh countryside.

Wealth, Population and Social Change
England’s population reached its peak over 4 mln about the end of the 13th century.
At that time there was insufficient cultivable land for all peasant families to have a good livelihood.
It meant poverty, famine, disease and mortality.
The weather was exceptionally bad in the beginning of the 14th century.
Harvests of 1315, 1316, 1320, 1321 were very poor.
In 1324-6 parts of England had severe floods which drowned thousands of sheep in Kent.
In 1315 because of famine and disease 15% of males died in Halesoveen Manour (Worcester).
England gradually recovered only in the 1320s.

The consequences of plague
The Black Death struck England in 1348/9, reducing the population by a third.
It progressed from the ports where it arrived in rat-fested ships.
Only 1 in 10 was left alive.
More local outbreaks of plague re-occured in 1360-2, 1369, 1375.
The population steadily declined to about 2,5 mln.
The living standards of peasants rose.

Wealth, Population and Social Change
After the Black death social unrest was spreading.
A severe labour shortage.
The Statute (Ordinance) of Labourers (1351) tried to freeze wages and prevent serfs and workers from taking advantage of the resulting labour shortage
All adults aged 12-60 had to be employed; those who escaped were brand-ironed, put in the stocks and yoked.

Edward, “the Black Prince”
(1330-1376)
The tomb in Canterbury cathedral. Above the tomb hung his helmet, shield.
Edward, “the Black Prince” established a European reputation as one of the bravest warriors of his day.
He fought at Crecy at the age of 16,
Was given independent command in 1356, won a sensational victory at Poitiers, capturing the French king.

Richard II

Richard II
Richard II, Edward III’s grandson succeeded to a crown weakened by the demands of the French war.
The period of his personal rule was tyrannical
the Peasants’ Revolt (1381) , provoked by the heavy taxation.

The Peasants' Revolt
The rebels led by Wat Tyler and John Ball, a clergyman, a radical opponent of the church
marched to London
captured the Tower
killed the archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord Chancellor.
They supported the ideas of John Wycliffe (1330-1384)
The ideas of social justice: “When Adam delved and Eve span who was the gentleman?”

The Peasants' Revolt
The Peasants revolt made far reaching demands:
A charter of liberties;
The end of all lordship except the king’s;
The end of serfdom;
Return of church land to people.

The Peasants' Revolt
Richard II met the rebels at Smithfield.
Wat Tyler pronounced their demands.
During the negotiations Wat Tyler was treacherously killed
The rebels were shocked and morally destroyed.
They disbanded, but were physically tortured and executed.
John Ball was hanged.
The punitive actions continued into autumn, but Pall Tax withdrawn.

The Peasants’ Revolt

Richard II
As an adult he governed moderately until 1397
In 1399 his cousin, Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Lancaster, forced him to abdicate and became king in his place as Henry IV.
Richard was imprisoned and finally murdered in Pontefract Castle.

The Lancastrian and Yorkist Kings

Henry IV, Richard III, Henry V

The Lancastrian and Yorkist Kings
Henry IV claimed the throne not by conquest , but by parliamentary election and was the founder of the House of Lancaster.
Henry IV, the son of John of Gaunt, Edward III's fourth son, had no claim to the throne.
The rightful heir was Edmund, Earl of March, who was descended from Edward's third son.
Henry and his Lancastrian successors were not secure in their claim to the throne.

Henry V
Henry V wanted to duplicate Edward III's military exploits in France.
He was a capable , fearless, energetic monarch.
Charles VI was insane.
He renewed the war with France in 1413.
He won at Agincourt in 1415 and had his success confirmed in the Treaty of Troyes (1420).

Henry V

the Treaty of Troyes (1420)
It gave Henry:
the French king’s daughter’s hand in marriage
the regency of the country
the succession to the throne of France
He became the regent of Charles VI, married Katherine of Valois, assumed control of the French government.
In 1422 after the birth of the heir he died.

In 1422 Charles VI died, bringing the nine-month-old Henry VI to the throne of both countries.
Henry's uncles, John of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford, and Humphrey of Gloucester ruled in France and in England.
In 1429 Joan of Arc inspired French resistance to English rule.
Joan was captured and burned as a heretic in 1431.

The Wars of the Roses
The war in France emphasized Henry's inability at home.
The loss of Normandy in 1450.
The loss of everything in France, except Calais, in 1453, was a prelude to the Wars of the Roses.

The Wars of the Roses
After the defeat at Castillion (June 1453) Henry suffered mental and physical collapse which lasted 17 months.
The supporters of the rival House of York began to claim the throne
Richard, Duke of York as a more direct descendant of Edward III.
The issue was complicated in 1453, when the king's wife, Margaret of Anjou, gave birth to a son, destroying Richard's status as heir apparent.
In 1455 civil war broke out, and continued until 1485.

The Wars of the Roses
The Yorkists were successful at St Albans in 1455, and Henry VI became their prisoner.
The turning point in the wars came in 1460. Richard was killed in battle at Wakefield by Margaret of Anjou, and his cause was taken up by his son, Edward.
In 1461 Edward entered London and was proclaimed king by a council of peers as Edward IV.
He defeated Margaret at Towton in 1461.

The Wars of the Roses
Edward IV’s chief adviser, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, called the “Kingmaker”, dictated the policy of the country.
They quarrelled and the earl backed the Lancastrians. Warwick landed from France, forcing Edward into exile, and proclaiming Henry VI again in 1470.

The Wars of the Roses
Edward returned in 1471 from exile
defeated and killed Warwick at Barnet
three weeks later killed Henry VI’s only son, Prince Edward at Tewkesbury.
Thus Edward IV was firmly established on the throne.

Edward IV
During his reign the revenues of the Crown greatly improved.
He was a typical Renaissance prince, a patron of new learning and of the art of printing.
When he died in 1483 his son Edward V was 12.
was deposed three months later by his uncle, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who became king as Richard III.
The boy and his younger brother, who was declared illegitimate, were confined to the Tower of London where they died.
Two years later, Henry Tudor, asserting a weak Lancastrian claim, defeated Richard at Bosworth and became Henry VII.

Richard III