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2nd Jan '13 11:42:53 AM MarkLungo

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''For the novel/film, see Film.TheWarOfTheRoses.''

The WarsOfTheRoses was a series of [[SuccessionCrisis dynastic civil wars]] set in [[UsefulNotes/{{Britain}} England]] between [[TheLateMiddleAges 1455 and 1485]]. It started off with the [[TheHouseOfPlantagenet Plantagenet]] King Edward III having begotten too many legitimate children. Henry of The [[TheClan House of Lancaster]], stole the throne from his cousin and Edward's first grandson Richard II. Although they had a couple of strong monarchs (see Henry V), Henry VI turned out to be a strange boy with mental issues. And so he was challenged for the throne by TheRival [[FeudingFamilies House of York]] (a cousin line descended from Edward III). Long story short, [[TakeAThirdOption Henry VII]] from TheHouseOfTudor was crowned after thirty years of conflict. He was from the Lancastrian side and only a loose cousin, but he was really their last real hope as all the other Lancastrians had died. His action of marrying the daughter of the Yorkist faction united the two sides.

On a side note, "Wars of the Roses" were [[BeamMeUpScotty never called that by contemporaries]]. While the name does come from the [[FlowerMotifs White and Red Rose]] badges of the Yorkists and Lancastrians, respectively, it wasn't until Creator/{{Shakespeare}} and Creator/WalterScott that the conflict became known by its now common name. Earlier commentators might have called it the English Civil War (a name later taken by a [[EnglishCivilWar rather more ideological conflict]]) or perhaps as the War of the English Succession (which later became a now-disused name for the [[HanoverStuartWars Nine Years' War]]). 
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!! Wars of the Roses in works of fiction and historical fiction:

* Creator/{{Shakespeare}}'s ''Theatre/HenryVI'' and ''Theatre/RichardIII''. To an extent ''Theatre/RichardII'' and ''Theatre/HenryIV'' also deal with them despite taking place a generation earlier: modern scholars tend to disagree, but Shakespeare portrays Henry Bolingbroke's usurpation of the throne from Richard II and crowning of himself as Henry IV as the first move of the wars.
* The first season of ''{{Blackadder}}''.
* Philippa Gregory's ''[[TheCousinsWarSeries Cousins' War]]'' series, which covers the period from the perspective of women who were prominent figures at the time but have been largely forgotten by history.
* In Terry Pratchett's ''{{Nation}}'' it's mentioned that one of Daphne's ancestors fought in the War of the Roses... wearing a '''pink''' rose and thus ended up fighting both sides at once. Because everyone thought it was bad luck to kill a madman, he lived through it. Fanshaws may be pigheaded and stupid, but they fight.
* The second duology of ArciaChronicles is a {{fantasy}} retelling of the Wars of the Roses, dubbed "War of the Daffodils".
* Another fantasy retelling is the "War of the Lions" that drives the plot of the original ''FinalFantasyTactics'' game.
* ...and yet another in ''ASongOfIceAndFire'', with Stark and Lannister FeudingFamilies being less than subtle clues.
** And, even more directly, brief mentions are made of the Red and Green "Apple" Fossoways, who appear to have their own squabbles over titles and are two branches of a house.
* ''{{Gemfire}}'', by {{KOEI}}, is best described as "''RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms'' [[XMeetsY in a]] StandardFantasySetting [[XMeetsY version of the Wars of the Roses]]," down to the king being from House ''[[MeaningfulName Lankshire]]''. And Ishmeria being shaped like England and Wales (including the Isle of Man) and the king's bastard heading up House Tudoria.
* AvalonHill had a [[TabletopGames game]] based on the war called ''Kingmaker''.
* Sharon Penman's ''TheSunneInSplendour''.
* ''The Black Arrow'' by Creator/RobertLouisStevenson.
* [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical Subtly referred]] to in TimBurton's ''Film/AliceInWonderland''.
* ''[[Music/{{Genesis}} The Battle of Epping Forest]]'': "You ain't seen nothin' like it... not since the Civil War"
* ''Franchise/YuGiOh Duelists of the Roses'' Has a plot loosely based on this war (changing characters to those from the franchise and turning battles into card games, but following the locations and general conflict.)
* The upcoming game ''VideoGame/WarOfTheRoses'' by the Swedish indie studio Fatshark.
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!!Tropes invoked during the Wars of the Roses include:

* AristocratsAreEvil: Played Straight; a number of those participating are.
* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: Though this was not talked about overmuch at the time lest someone be embarrassed, this was effectively Henry Tudor's chief claim. As everyone was tired of a constant GambitPileup, that was considered enough.
* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking. And sometimes because of the above.
** Though there's a notable exception in Henry VI, who is mostly known as Henry the Pious. Religious? Yes, oh hell yes. Good with a sword? Not so much.
* BattleInTheRain: The nightmarish [[CurbstompBattle battle of Towton]] (rain ''and'' snow, actually).
** The number of casualties varies wildly, but one number often spouted is 28,000 casualties. If this is true, it would represent almost 1% of England's entire population.
* CainAndAbel: Played very much straight on both sides.
* TheChessmaster: Warwick the Kingmaker.
* TheClan: Lancaster and York.
* ClearMyName: A number of people consider it SeriousBusiness to do this for RichardOfGloucester.
* DarkHorseVictory: Does King Henry VI end up on the throne? What about his son? Or one of the Yorkists? Nope, it's some distant cousin of the old Lancastrian king who was living in Wales.
* DeadlyDecadentCourt
* DoomsdayDevice: Gunpowder was just coming into fashion and was probably thought of as something like this.
* EnemyCivilWar: The French would view it as this.
** It can be said to have worked both ways, as the Wars of the Roses and the inner-French conflict between the House of Valois and its younger Burgundian branch influenced each other on a number of occasions. Edward IV was supported with money and ships by his brother-in-law, Duke Charles the Bold of Burgundy, while [[TheChessmaster King Louis XI of France]] supported his relative, Queen Margaret of Anjou, consort of Henry VI, with money when it suited his purposes. He also improved his position vis-à-vis Charles the Bold by concluding the Peace of Picquigny with England in 1475.
* FeudingFamilies: Lancaster and York.
** The Neville-Percy feud was it's own little sub-war that entangled itself into the larger conflict. Hatred between these two families ran so deep that when the Nevilles switched sides from York to Lancaster, the Percies did vice versa.
* GambitPileup
* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: Margaret of Anjou, consort of Henry VI, also known as "the She-Wolf of France".
* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: Richard III.
* KingMaker: Warwick is probably the TropeNamer.
* KnightInShiningArmor: English men-at-arms, both on foot and horseback. Subverted quite often.
* NamesTheSame: Almost everyone involved was named Edward, Henry, or Richard. 
* OffWithHisHead: A common means of dealing with prisoners after a battle. At one notable time it was a way of dealing with [[YouHaveFailedMe an incompetent or treacherous officer]].
** Played straight by Edward Beaufort, Duke of Somerset during the Battle of Tewkesbury 1471. He killed his subordinate commander, Baron Wenlock, who had failed to support him, by smashing his head with warhammer.
** While in the HundredYearsWar noble prisoners were usually spared to be ransomed for large amounts of money, the Wars of the Roses [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown did not play by those rules]].
* ThePowerOfTheSun: The Sun of York was actually more commonly used as the Yorkist symbol than the white rose (often the white rose is seen ''on'' the sun). This led to friendly fire incidents because it was easily confused with the Star of Oxford and Oxford was aligned with the Lancastrians.
* RapePillageAndBurn
** Partially subverted, both sides preferred to fight pitched battles rather than ruin the country with long, drawn out sieges.
* RainOfArrows
* RunningGag: Henry VI being repeatedly left behind in his tent whenever the side that had him (he was captured numerous times over the course of the wars) was retreating from a lost battle.
* {{Spinoff}}: The Anglo-Hanseatic War (1469-1474) over the privileges of merchants from the Hanseatic League trading in England. Waged mainly as a commercial war and on the diplomatic front, it ended with the treaty of Utrecht, by which England had to restore Hanseatic privileges and their establishments (notably the Steelyard in London) and pay 10,000 pounds in damages. The war did not stop Hanseatic ships from intervening on Edward IV's behalf and helping him to return to the English throne in 1471.
** The Wars of the Roses themselves can be seen as a spin-off of the HundredYearsWar, since the English military defeat in France and the return of now jobless soldiers to England was conducive to the outbreak of the dynastic war. Note that the HundredYearsWar itself was only officially ended by the treaty of Picquigny in 1475.
* WeAreStrugglingTogether
* TheWoobie: The Princes in the Tower.
** Henry VI arguably counts as well. He was pretty much little more than a feeble-minded puppet who was captured and re-captured during various points of the wars, suffered from frequent bouts of (likely hereditary) mental illness, and really had little stomach for war, being more interested in religion and learning when he was actually of sound mind. Henry was less a king than he was ThePresidentsDaughter, a pawn to be used in the machinations of the Duke of York and Margaret of Anjou. To top it all off, he was likely murdered while in captivity, a few weeks after his only son and presumptive heir had already been killed at the Battle of Tewkesbury. Sometimes, it just sucks to be the king.
* YouHaveFailedMe: played straight by Edward Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, during the Battle of Tewkesbury 1471. He killed his subordinate commander, Baron Wenlock, who had failed to support him, by smashing his head with a warhammer in the midst of the battle. 
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12th Dec '12 10:45:33 AM theLibrarian

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3rd Dec '12 3:39:05 PM karstovich2

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3rd Dec '12 2:03:34 PM karstovich2

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