History UsefulNotes / WarsOfTheRoses

The Wars of the Roses were a series of [[SuccessionCrisis dynastic civil wars]] set in [[UsefulNotes/{{Britain}} England]] between [[TheLateMiddleAges 1455 and 1485]]. They originated in a struggle between descendants of two of King Edward III [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfPlantagenet Plantagenet]]'s eight sons. [[Usefulnotes/HenryTheFourth Henry]] "Bolingbroke" of the [[TheClan House of Lancaster]] [[TheUsurper stole the throne]] from his cousin, Edward's first grandson [[UsefulNotes/RichardTheSecond Richard II]]. Although his house had a couple of strong monarchs (see Theatre/HenryV), Henry VI (son of Henry V, and grandson of IV) turned out to be a strange boy with mental issues. [[note]]There were theories suggesting that Henry's mental health declined significantly after he received the continuous stream of bad news that is England's losses in France during the final stages of the UsefulNotes/TheHundredYearsWar. On hearing of the final loss of Bordeaux in August 1453, he experienced a mental breakdown and became completely unresponsive to everything that was going on around him for more than a year. To pile on the misery, the loss of English territory was a blow to Henry's prestige, and the war effort on the continent created a whole host of problems.[[/note]] He was challenged for the throne by TheRival [[FeudingFamilies House of York]] (a cousin line descended from Edward III). After thirty years of conflict, in which almost all of the Lancastrians died, [[TakeAThirdOption Henry Tudor]] took the final victory and was crowned Henry VII. He was a cousin of the Lancastrian side (half-nephew of Henry VI), and married Elizabeth of York, a daughter of the Yorkist faction (UsefulNotes/EdwardIV, specifically), uniting the two sides into UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfTudor. However some historians claim this wasn't the end of the Wars, as there were still threats to Henry from Yorkist Pretenders, which a lot of the nobility didn't seem ready to help him against.

The Wars of the Roses were a series of [[SuccessionCrisis dynastic civil wars]] set in [[UsefulNotes/{{Britain}} England]] between [[TheLateMiddleAges 1455 and 1485]]. They originated in a struggle between descendants of two of King Edward III [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfPlantagenet Plantagenet]]'s eight sons. [[Usefulnotes/HenryTheFourth Henry]] "Bolingbroke" of the [[TheClan House of Lancaster]] [[TheUsurper stole the throne]] from his cousin, Edward's first grandson Richard II. Although his house had a couple of strong monarchs (see Theatre/HenryV), Henry VI (son of Henry V, and grandson of IV) turned out to be a strange boy with mental issues. [[note]]There were theories suggesting that Henry's mental health declined significantly after he received the continuous stream of bad news that is England's losses in France during the final stages of the UsefulNotes/TheHundredYearsWar. On hearing of the final loss of Bordeaux in August 1453, he experienced a mental breakdown and became completely unresponsive to everything that was going on around him for more than a year. To pile on the misery, the loss of English territory was a blow to Henry's prestige, and the war effort on the continent created a whole host of problems.[[/note]] He was challenged for the throne by TheRival [[FeudingFamilies House of York]] (a cousin line descended from Edward III). After thirty years of conflict, in which almost all of the Lancastrians died, [[TakeAThirdOption Henry Tudor]] took the final victory and was crowned Henry VII. He was a cousin of the Lancastrian side (half-nephew of Henry VI), and married Elizabeth of York, a daughter of the Yorkist faction (UsefulNotes/EdwardIV, specifically), uniting the two sides into UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfTudor. However some historians claim this wasn't the end of the Wars, as there were still threats to Henry from Yorkist Pretenders, which a lot of the nobility didn't seem ready to help him against.

* [[WebAnimation/FreezeFlame FreezeFlame22's]] ''Wars of Frozen Flames'' are heavily based off War of the Roses. The series serves as a way to expand upon the franchise's lore, with every character being a Koopa version of the existing characters.

* ''Literature/TheDaughterofTime'': Josephine Tey's detective novel, in which the protagonist combs through the evidence for and against Richard III murdering his nephews, is credited with heavily rehabilitating Richard's reputation in modern times.

* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: Richard III, though not so much anymore. Modern portrayals of the House of York tend to cast him as the mildest of the York brothers, an interpretation certainly more accurate than Shakespeare's.