Medieval Europe · 1455–1485

What Were the Wars of the Roses? York, Lancaster and Richard III

By the Aurelius editorial team · 3 min read · Updated 15 October 2026

In short

Henry VI's collapse and defeat in France led to a struggle between Lancaster and York from 1455.
Edward IV won the throne in 1461 and regained it in 1471; after his death in 1483 his brother Richard III took the crown, and his nephews vanished.
Henry Tudor defeated and killed Richard at Bosworth in 1485 and founded the Tudor dynasty.

Painted portrait of a man with shoulder-length dark hair and a black hat, fingering a ring on his right hand. — King Richard III by an unknown artist, late 16th century, National Portrait Gallery, London: painted long after his death, probably from an earlier lost portrait. Unknown artist · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Last time: Joan of Arc helped Charles VII win the crown of France. The English were driven out by 1453, and the warlords who came home blamed each other.

On 22 August 1485, near the Leicestershire village of Market Bosworth, an English king who had ridden out wearing his crown charged across a battlefield straight at his rival. Richard III was the last English king to die in battle, and for more than five centuries nobody knew exactly where his body lay.

A king who lost France

Henry VI became king as a baby in 1422 and was crowned king of France in Paris in 1431. As a man he was pious, gentle and a poor ruler. The defeat at Castillon in 1453 ended the war in France, and that summer he fell into a stupor that left him unable to recognise his own son.

The country was in the hands of rivals. Richard, Duke of York, a descendant of Edward III through two lines, acted as protector while the king was ill. The king's wife, Margaret of Anjou, distrusted York and fought to protect her son's claim. The first battle was fought at St Albans on 22 May 1455.

Medieval manuscript painting of a crowned king in blue and a crowned queen in pink seated under a canopy of English royal arms, a kneeling lord in a red robe offering a red book, courtiers watching from an arcade on the left. — Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou enthroned, as John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, kneels to give the queen a book, in the Talbot Shrewsbury Book, made in Rouen c. 1444–45 (British Library, Royal MS 15 E VI, f. 2v). Talbot was killed at Castillon in 1453. The Talbot Master · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Roses, and few of them

The name Wars of the Roses comes later. The white rose was a real Yorkist badge; the red rose of Lancaster was little used until Henry Tudor made it famous, and most fighters wore the badges of their own lords. Shakespeare invented a scene in which nobles pick red and white roses in a garden, and Sir Walter Scott popularised the name in 1829.

The fighting came in bursts: St Albans in 1455, then a war from 1459. York was killed at Wakefield in December 1460, and his son Edward, Earl of March, won at Towton on 29 March 1461 in a snowstorm. A newsletter passed on the heralds' count of 28,000 dead; historians think that far too high, but Towton is often called the bloodiest battle ever fought in England. Edward was crowned Edward IV that summer.

Black-and-white engraving of armoured knights and a barded horse fighting at close quarters as snow streaks across the scene. — The Battle of Towton, 29 March 1461, in a wood engraving by Charles Oliver Murray after John Quartley, published c. 1878 in James Grant's British Battles on Land and Sea: the young Edward IV leads the Yorkists through falling snow on Palm Sunday. Charles Oliver Murray after John Quartley · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Kingmaker and comeback

Edward's chief supporter, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, fell out with him and switched sides. In 1470 Warwick, allied with Margaret of Anjou, restored Henry VI. Edward fled to the Burgundian Netherlands, came back with an army in 1471 and defeated and killed Warwick at Barnet in April, then crushed the Lancastrians at Tewkesbury in May, where Henry VI's only son was killed.

Henry VI was found dead in the Tower of London the same month, probably murdered on Edward's orders. Edward IV reigned in peace until his sudden death in April 1483, leaving two sons: Edward, aged twelve, and Richard, nine.

Painted portrait of a clean-shaven man with shoulder-length brown hair and a black cap, wearing a black and gold brocade robe. — Edward IV by an unknown artist, 16th century, Royal Collection: painted after his death, probably from an earlier lost portrait of the Yorkist king. Unknown artist · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

The princes in the Tower

Edward's brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester, was named protector. In June 1483 his supporters claimed that Edward IV's marriage to Elizabeth Woodville had been invalid, so that the boys were illegitimate, and Richard took the crown himself. The two princes were last seen in the Tower of London that summer.

What happened to them is the great unsolved mystery of the period. Richard is the usual suspect, as Tudor writers, followed by Shakespeare, insisted, but others have been named, and no evidence has ever settled it. Two skeletons found in the Tower in 1674 have never been proven to be theirs.

Painting of two fair-haired boys in black clothes huddled together on a curtained bed in a dark room, one holding a book, while a small dog looks toward a door. — Paul Delaroche, Edward V and the Duke of York in the Tower, 1831, Wallace Collection, London: a small replica of his much larger painting shown at the Paris Salon of 1831 and now in the Louvre, a Romantic scene of the two boys imagined centuries later. Daderot · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons

Bosworth

Richard's seizure of the throne split the Yorkists. In August 1485 Henry Tudor, a Lancastrian claimant through his mother Margaret Beaufort, landed in Wales with French mercenaries and marched inland. Richard met him near Market Bosworth on 22 August with an army that outnumbered him.

The Stanley brothers, Henry's stepfather Lord Stanley and Sir William Stanley, kept their men apart and waited. According to the Tudor historian Polydore Vergil, Richard charged toward Henry himself; Sir William then attacked on Henry's side, and Richard was cut down. The Crowland Chronicle's anonymous author says he fell fighting “like a brave and most valiant prince”. Henry took the crown and in January 1486 married Edward IV's daughter Elizabeth of York, uniting the two houses.

A pale stone tomb block cut with a deep cross, on a dark plinth carved RICHARD III, in a cathedral with a royal banner on the wall behind. — Richard III's tomb, Leicester Cathedral, photographed in 2016: his remains, found beneath a Leicester car park in 2012 and identified by DNA, were reburied here on 26 March 2015. The plinth carries his motto, Loyaulte me lie. Julian P Guffogg · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

In their own words

“For while fighting, and not in the act of flight, the said king Richard was pierced with numerous deadly wounds, and fell in the field like a brave and most valiant prince.”
The Second Continuator of the Crowland Chronicle, Continuation of the History of Croyland, on the Battle of Bosworth, 1486

Translation by Henry T. Riley, Ingulph's Chronicle of the Abbey of Croyland (Bohn, 1854), p. 504. The anonymous continuator, probably a well-informed royal councillor or clerk, wrote in April 1486 under Henry VII; he is hostile to Richard's seizure of the throne but credits his courage.

Why it happened

Henry VI's weakness and mental breakdown left the kingdom without effective government.
Defeat in France brought soldiers home and discredited the Lancastrian court.
Two branches of Edward III's family, Lancaster and York, each had a plausible claim to the throne.

What happened next

The Tudor dynasty began with Henry VII in 1485.
Several great noble families lost their heads and heirs, and the Tudor crown kept a tighter grip on the nobility.
Printing arrived in England during the wars: William Caxton set up his press in 1476 and printed Malory's Morte d'Arthur in 1485.

Why it still matters

In 2012 archaeologists from the University of Leicester found a skeleton under a car park on the site of the Greyfriars church, with a curved spine and battle wounds to the skull. DNA from descendants of Richard's sister matched it, and in March 2015, after his coffin had been carried past crowds through Leicestershire and the city, Richard III was reburied in Leicester Cathedral.

Key people

Henry VI: Lancastrian king, whose illness and defeat in France helped start the wars
Edward IV: Yorkist king 1461–83 who won the throne at Towton
Richard III: Edward IV's brother, king from 1483 until his death at Bosworth in 1485
Henry Tudor: Winner of Bosworth, who became Henry VII and founded the Tudor dynasty

Key terms

Lancastrians: Supporters of Henry VI and his heirs, descended from John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster.
Yorkists: Supporters of Richard, Duke of York, and his sons, descended from Edward III through two lines.
Protector: A noble named to govern for a king who was a child or incapable.
Titulus Regius: The 1484 act of Parliament declaring Edward IV's children illegitimate and confirming Richard III as king.

Test yourself

Which battle in August 1485 ended the reign of Richard III?

Towton
Barnet
Tewkesbury
Bosworth

Show the answer

Bosworth. Richard was killed at Bosworth on 22 August 1485. Towton (1461), Barnet and Tewkesbury (1471) belonged to the wars between Lancaster and York earlier on.

The full lesson in the app ends with 5 questions like this one.

Connected stories

The Hundred Years' War and Agincourt: Defeat in the Hundred Years' War discredited Henry VI and sent soldiers home to a country in crisis.
Joan of Arc: The recovery of France under Charles VII, begun with Joan, forced the English out and set off the crisis at home.
Magna Carta, 1215: In 1215 barons tried to bind the king by law; in the 1400s rival noble factions fought to decide who the king should be.

Frequently asked questions

What caused the Wars of the Roses?

Henry VI's weakness and mental breakdown left the kingdom without effective government. Defeat in France brought soldiers home and discredited the Lancastrian court. Two branches of Edward III's family, Lancaster and York, each had a plausible claim to the throne.

What happened after the Wars of the Roses?

The Tudor dynasty began with Henry VII in 1485. Several great noble families lost their heads and heirs, and the Tudor crown kept a tighter grip on the nobility. Printing arrived in England during the wars: William Caxton set up his press in 1476 and printed Malory's Morte d'Arthur in 1485.

Which battle in August 1485 ended the reign of Richard III?

Bosworth. Richard was killed at Bosworth on 22 August 1485. Towton (1461), Barnet and Tewkesbury (1471) belonged to the wars between Lancaster and York earlier on.

What is the main primary source for “The Wars of the Roses and Richard III”?

The Second Continuator of the Crowland Chronicle, Continuation of the History of Croyland, on the Battle of Bosworth (1486). Translation by Henry T. Riley, Ingulph's Chronicle of the Abbey of Croyland (Bohn, 1854), p. 504. The anonymous continuator, probably a well-informed royal councillor or clerk, wrote in April 1486 under Henry VII; he is hostile to Richard's seizure of the throne but credits his courage.

Sources

Ingulph's Chronicle of the Abbey of Croyland with the Continuations, translated by Henry T. Riley (Bohn, 1854)
Michael Hicks, The Wars of the Roses (2010)
Dan Jones, The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses and the Rise of the Tudors (2014)
Charles Ross, Richard III (1981)

Images are credited under each picture. Paintings and photographs come from public collections via Wikimedia Commons; scenes with no surviving image are marked as illustrations.