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ROSES, WARS OF THE

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Originally appearing in Volume V23, Page 736 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ROSES, See also:WARS OF THE , a name given to a See also:series of See also:civil wars in See also:England during the reigns of See also:Henry VI., See also:Edward IV. and See also:Richard III. Their importance in the See also:general See also:history of England is dealt with elsewhere, and their significance in the history of the See also:art and practice of See also:war is small. They were marked by a ferocity and brutality which are practically unknown in the history of See also:English wars before and since. The honest See also:yeoman of Edward III.'s See also:time had evolved into a professional soldier of See also:fortune, and had been demoralized by the prolonged and See also:dismal See also:Hundred Years' War, at the See also:close of which many thousands of ruffians, whose occupation had gone, had been let loose in England. At the same time the See also:power of See also:feudalism had become concentrated in the hands of a few See also:great lords, who were wealthy enough and powerful enough to become See also:king-makers. The disbanded mercenaries enlisted indifferently on either See also:side, corrupting the See also:ordinary feudal tenantry with the evil habits of the See also:French wars, and pillaged the countryside, with accompaniments of See also:murder and violence, wherever they went. It is true that the sympathies of the See also:people at large were to some extent enlisted: See also:London and, generally, the trading towns being Yorkist, the See also:country people Lancastrian—a See also:division of factions which roughly corresponded to that of the See also:early See also:part of the Great See also:Rebellion, two centuries later, and similarly in a measure indicative of the opposition of hereditary See also:loyalty and See also:desire for See also:sound and effective See also:government. But there was this difference, that in the 15th See also:century the feeling of loyalty was to a great extent focused upon the great lords. Each See also:lord could depend on his own tenantry, and he could, further, pay large bands of retainers. Hence, much as the See also:citizen desired a See also:settlement, the issue was in the hands of the magnates; and as accessions to and defections from one party and the other constantly shifted the See also:balance of power, the war dragged on, becoming more and more brutal with every See also:campaign. It is from the Wars of the Roses that there originated the deep-rooted dislike of the professional soldier which was for nearly four centuries a conspicuous feature of the English social and governmental See also:system, and it is therefore in their results rather than their incidents that they have affected the See also:evolution of war. They withdrew the English See also:army system from See also:European battlefields precisely at the moment of transition when the regimental and technical organization of armies was becoming a See also:science and seeking See also:models, and the all-powerful English longbow at the moment when the early, scarcely effective firearms were, so to speak, struggling for recognition as army weapons.

On the other See also:

hand, they destroyed the See also:British military organization. The See also:national army, aloof from the See also:main streams of military progress, remained for 150 years an See also:aggregation of See also:county levies armed with bills and bows. In so far as the king was permitted or able to raise armies, they were small See also:mercenary forces formed, on a basis of unemployed professionals, from pressed men and criminals, and they were disbanded as soon as the brief occasion for their services had passed. The first campaign, or rather See also:episode, of these wars' began with an armed demand of the Yorkist lords for the dismissal of the Lancastrian See also:element in the king's See also:council, Henry VI. himself being incapable of governing. The Lancastrians, and the king with them, marched out of London to meet them, and the two small armies (3000 Yorkists, 2000 Lancastrians) met at St Albans (May 22, 1455). The encounter ended with the See also:dispersion of the weaker force, and the king See also:fell into the hands of the Yorkists. Four years passed before the next important See also:battle, Blore See also:Heath, was fought (See also:Sept. 23, 1459). In this the See also:earl of See also:Salisbury trapped a Lancastrian army in unfavourable ground near See also:Market See also:Drayton, and destroyed it; but new See also:political combinations rendered the Yorkist victory useless and sent the leaders of the party into See also:exile. They made a fresh See also:attempt in 146o, and, thanks partly to See also:treason in the Lancastrian See also:camp, partly to the generalship of See also:Warwick, won an important success and for the second time seized the king at See also:Northampton (See also:July ro, 146o). Shortly afterwards, after a See also:period of negotiation and threats, there was a fresh conflict. Richard See also:duke of See also:York went See also:north to fight the hostile army which gathered at York and consisted of See also:Lancashire and Midland Royalists, while his son Edward, earl of See also:March, went into the See also:west.

The See also:

father was ambushed and killed at See also:Wakefield (Dec. 30, 1460), and the Lancastrians, inspired as always by See also:Queen See also:Margaret of See also:Anjou, moved See also:south on London, defeated Warwick at St Albans (Feb. 17, 1461), and regained See also:possession of the king's See also:person. But the See also:young earl of March, now duke of York, having raised an army in the west, defeated the earl of See also:Pembroke (Feb. 2, 1461) at See also:Mortimer's See also:Cross (5 m. W. of See also:Leominster). This was the first battle of the war which was characterized by the See also:massacre of the See also:common folk and See also:beheading of the See also:captive gentlemen—invariable accompaniments of Edward's victories, and conspicuously absent in Warwick's. Edward then pressed on, joined Warwick, and entered London, the army of Margaret retreating before them. The excesses of the See also:northern Lancastrians in their advance produced See also:bitter See also:fruit on the See also:retreat, for men flocked to Edward's See also:standard. Marching north in pursuit, the Yorkists brought their enemy to See also:bay at See also:Towton (q.v.), 3 rn. S. of Tadcaster, and utterly destroyed them (March 29, 1461). For three years after Towton the war consisted merely of desultory See also:local struggles of small bodies of Lancastrians against the inevitable.

The duke of York had become King Edward IV., and had established himself firmly. But in 1464, in the far north of England, the Red See also:

Rose was again in the See also:field. Edward acted with his usual decision. His See also:lieutenant See also:Montagu (Warwick's See also:brother) defeated and slew See also:Sir See also:Ralph See also:Percy at Hedgley See also:Moor, near Wooler (See also:April 25, 1464), and immediately afterwards destroyed another Lancastrian army, with which were both Henry VI. and Queen Margaret, at See also:Hexham (May 8, 1464). The massacres .and executions which followed effectively crushed the revolt. For some years thereafter Edward reigned peacefully, but Warwick the king-maker and all the See also:Neville following having turned against him (1470), he was driven into exile. But at a favour-able moment he sailed from See also:Flushing with 1500 retainers and Burgundian mercenaries, and eluding the Lancastrian See also:fleet and the See also:coast See also:defence troops, landed at Ravenspur (Spurn See also:Head) in See also:Yorkshire in March 1471. His force was hardly more than a bodyguard; the See also:gates of the towns were shut against him, and the country people fled. But by his See also:personal See also:charm, See also:diplomacy, See also:fair promises and an See also:oath of See also:allegiance to King Henry VI., sworn solemnly at York, he disarmed hostility and, eluding Montagu's army, reached his own estates in the See also:Wake-field See also:district, where many of his old retainers joined him. As ' The name, as is well known, comes from the "See also:white rose of York" and the " red rose of See also:Lancaster " ; but these badges, though more or less recognized as party distinctions, by no means superseded the private devices of the various great lords, such as the " See also:falcon and fetterlock " of Richard duke of York, the " rose in See also:sun " of Edward IV., the " crowned See also:swan " of Margaret, the See also:Vere See also:star, and even the revived " white See also:hart " of Richard II.he advanced south, a few Yorkist nobles with their following rallied to him, but it was far more the disunion of the Warwick and the real Lancastrian parties than his own strength which enabled him to meet Warwick's forces in a pitched battle. At See also:Barnet, on See also:Easter See also:Eve, April 14, 1471. the decisive engagement was fought. But in the midst of the battle reinforcements coming up under the earl of See also:Oxford to join Warwick came into conflict with their own party, the badge of the Vere star being mistaken for Edward's Rose-en-soleil.

From that point all the mutually distrustful elements of Warwick's army fell apart, and Warwick himself, with his brother Montagu, was slain. For the last time the unhappy Henry VI. fell into the hands of his enemies. He was relegated to the See also:

Tower, and Edward, disbanding his army, reoccupied the See also:throne. But Margaret of Anjou, his untiring opponent, who had been in See also:France while her cause and Warwick's was being lost, had landed in the west shortly after Barnet, and Edward had to take the field at once. Assembling a fresh army at See also:Windsor, whence he could march to interpose between Margaret and her north Welsh See also:allies, or directly See also:bar her road to London, he marched into the west on the 24th of April. On the 29th he was at See also:Cirencester, Margaret, engaged chiefly in recruiting an army, near See also:Bath. Edward hurried on, but Margaret eluded him and marched for See also:Gloucester. At that See also:place the See also:governor refused the Lancastrians admittance, and seeking to cross the See also:Severn out of reach of the Yorkists, they pushed on by forced See also:marches to See also:Tewkesbury. But Edward too knew how to march, and caught them up. The battle of Tewkesbury (May 4, 1471) ended with the destruction of Margaret's force, the captivity of Margaret, the See also:death of her son Edward (who, it is sometimes said, was stabbed by Edward IV. himself after the battle) and the See also:execution of sixteen of the See also:principal Lancastrians. This was Edward's last battle. The See also:rest of his eventful reign was similar in many ways to that of his contemporary See also:Louis XI., being devoted to the consolidation of his power, by fair means and foul, at the expense of the great feudatories.

But the Wars of the Roses were not yet at an end. For fourteen years, except for local outbreaks, the See also:

land had See also:peace, and then Richard III.'s See also:crown, struck from his head on See also:Bosworth Field (Aug. 22, 1485), was presented to Henry earl of See also:Richmond, who, as Henry VII., established the kingship on a secure See also:foundation. A last feeble attempt to renew the war, made by an army gathered to uphold the pretender See also:Lambert See also:Simnel, was crushed by Henry VII. at Stoke Field (4 m. S.W. of See also:Newark) on the 16th of See also:June 1487.

End of Article: ROSES, WARS OF THE

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