The War of the Roses

The War of the Roses (1455-1485) was the set of conflicts intermittent civil war between the House of Lancaster wing against the House of York. Both royal families had a common origin in the Royal House of Plantagenet, as descendants of King Edward III. The name "War of the Roses" was not used at the time, but comes from the emblems of the two royal houses. On one side was the red rose of Lancaster and the white rose of another York, which were used as emblems in the war.

The war was mainly between members of the landed aristocracy and armies of feudal lords. Support for each of the sides depended largely dynastic marriages among the nobility. The patriarch of the house of Lancaster, John of Gaunt had the first title the Earl of Richmond, the same that would show Henry VII at the end of the war. The leader of the House of York was Edmund of Langley, who held the Lordship of Cambridge. Later, during the reigns of the Tudors and the Stuarts, Richmondshire and Cambridgeshire would become major foci of recusants and Puritans, respectively. Notably, the fight between factions continued beyond the time of Henry, as the monarchs that followed prompted clashes continued.

The War of the Roses, largely caused the fall of the Plantagenets, as it produced a high number of deaths among the nobility, and generate widespread social discontent. This period marked the decline of British influence in Europe, the weakening of the feudal power of the nobles and, in return, increased influence by traders, and the growth and strengthening of a centralized monarchy under the Tudors . This war marks the end of the English feudal era and the beginning of the Renaissance.

This last rose is the Tudor rose, created at the end of the civil war, uniting both emblems.