"There are only two ways to feel about the Wars of the Roses. Either the endless violent seizures of the Crown makes you thrill to one of the great English epics, or else it leaves you feeling slightly numbed. If you're in the dazed and confused camp, the temptation is to write off the whole sorry mess as the bloody bickering of overgrown schoolboys whacking each other senseless on the fields of Towton, Barnet and Bosworth."
-Simon Schama's A History of Britain
The Wars of the Roses were a series of dynastic civil wars set in England between 1455 and 1485. They originated in a struggle between descendants of two of King Edward III Plantagenet's eight sons. Henry of the House of Lancasterstole the throne from his cousin, Edward's first grandson Richard II. His house had a couple of strong monarchs (see Henry V), Henry VI turned out to be a strange boy with mental issues. He was challenged for the throne by The RivalHouse of York (a cousin line descended from Edward III). After thirty years of conflict, is which almost all of the Lancastrians died, Henry VII from The House Of Tudor was crowned. He was a cousin of the Lancastrian side, and married a daughter of the Yorkist faction, uniting the two sides.
On a side note, the "Wars of the Roses" were never called that by contemporaries. While the name does come from the White and Red Rose badges of the Yorkists and Lancastrians, respectively, it wasn't until Shakespeare and Walter Scott 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 rather more ideological conflict) or perhaps as the War of the English Succession (which later became a now-disused name for the Nine Years' War).
Wars of the Roses in works of fiction and historical fiction:
Shakespeare's Henry VI and Richard III. To an extent Richard II and Henry IV 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.
Philippa Gregory's 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 Arcia Chronicles 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 Final Fantasy Tactics game.
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.
The symbol of House Tyrell, one of the major power players in the series, is dipicted in the TV adaptation Game Of Thrones as a dead ringer for the Tudor double rose.
Yu Gi Oh The 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 video game War of the Roses by the Swedish indie studio Fatshark.
Tropes invoked during the Wars of the Roses include:
Asskicking Equals Authority: 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 Gambit Pileup, that was considered enough.
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.
Dark Horse Victory: 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.
Distant Finale: The Battle of Bosworth Field and the overthrow of the House of York took place 14 years after the crushing Lancastrian defeat at Tewksbury.
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 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.
Everybody's Dead, Dave: Pretty much the entirety of the House of Plantagenet was killed off during this war. Henry VII later had the rest killed.
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.
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.
The Power of the Sun: 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.
Pyrrhic Victory: The war is considered to have ended with a Lancastrian victory, yet during the course of the war, almost the entire house was killed off.
Running Gag: 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 Hundred Years War, 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 Hundred Years War itself was only officially ended by the treaty of Picquigny in 1475.
Took a Level in Badass: The Lancastrians. 99% of this war consisted of them kicked into the dirt until the very end when they finally managed to win the war at Bosworth Field. But by then, only Henry Tudor was left.
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 The President's Daughter, 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.
You Have Failed Me: 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.
