Introduction The Wars of the Roses were a series of battles fought over the throne of England in the 15th century between 1455 and 1485. The thirty-year conflict is so named based on the symbols of the rival houses, House York (a white rose) and House Lancaster (a red rose). This era consisted of several battles and control of the throne changed five times as both factions gained and lost power. The cause of the conflict has been heatedly debated by historians but is actually a myriad of socio-political and economic causes coming to a boiling point all around the same time.
Some of these causes began taking effect over a century before, others were more immediate. Among the long-term causes we have the legitimacy of both factions as descendants of King Edward III of England, the system of bastard feudalism leading to multiple high lords with great armies at their disposal, and dwindling finances. More immediate causes generally have to deal with Henry VI being a weak and ineffective king. Henry VI of England was unpopular, lost most of the gains his father had won from the French, and the resulting unrest is generally regarded as opening the door for the wars.
Analysis King Edward III of England was king from 1327-1377, the second-longest reign by the fourteenth century. It is important to start with Edward III because he was the one who gave both claimants legitimacy as the last ruler of the House of Plantagenet. Henry VI (House of Lancaster) and Richard, Duke of York (House of York) were both descended from Edward III. Henry VI was the great-great-grandson of Edward III by John of Gaunt, Edward III’s third surviving son. Richard of York was the great-grandson of Edward III by Edmund of Langley, Edward IIl’s fourth surviving son.
Between 1348 and 1350, the black death ravaged England, causing an unprecedented death toll, estimated by most historians to be between 25% and 35% of England’s population, though contemporary chroniclers estimated numbers as high as 90%. The consequence of this sudden loss of population is that the labor force was heavily reduced, driving up wages and inflation. The social order was also disrupted, with more minor landholders gaining wealth and status as wealthier landowners succumbed to the plague.
In the following 100 years, the lower social classes endured several harsh periods of famine. Another long-term cause is the system of bastard feudalism, by which tenants of a lord had obligations to that lord. In return for living on the lord’s land and the lord using his influence on their behalf, the tenant was expected to pay taxes and provide military service under the lord’s banner. This led to many wealthy landowners becoming quite powerful, and even greater lords assembling vast armies of their own.
Effectively each of these lords ruled a small country of their own, some of which with armies large enough to challenge the king’s. King Henry V reigned from 1413 until his untimely death in 1422 due to dysentery at the age of thirty-five. He had a rather significant victory in the Hundred Years’ War with France at the Battle of Agincourt, which enabled him to negotiate himself into the French throne under the Treaty of Troyes, marrying Charles Vl’s daughter, Catherine of Valois. With Henry V’s unexpected early death, his only heir was Henry
VI at nine months old. Henry VI was born December 6, 1421, became king of England on September 1, 1422, and finally king of France as well when his maternal grandfather, Charles VI passed two months later. Due to his minority, a council of regents was appointed to handle the governance from Henry V’s relations: brothers Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester and John, Duke of Bedford, his uncle Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter, and another uncle, Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester. Bedford also served as Henry VI’s heir.
Henry V left England at the height of its power, with his devastating victory in the Battle of Agincourt, essentially giving France to his descendants. Gloucester and Bedford were effective leaders, leaving Henry VI a prosperous England and an even larger France than he had originally inherited. However, as time went on, a rivalry grew between Dukes Gloucester and Exeter. As Henry VI approached the end of his minority, Bedford died and Gloucester and Beaufort sought to establish for themselves future positions of power as advisors to Henry VI.
With Bedford’s death, Gloucester was now the heir presumptive. The unfinished conflict with France had already left the crown with heavy debt and Henry VI focused too much on France, ignoring unrest and lawlessness in England. In Henry VI’s name, his uncle John, Duke of Bedford continued expanding England’s French territories but the tide of battle had changed with the appearance of Joan of Arc at the battle of Orleans in 1429. In 1435, the Duke of Burgundy broke his alliance with England and made a new one with Charles VII of France.
Bedford also died in 1435, leaving England to suffer a series of defeats to the French, costing the crown increasing amounts of money and resources. In 1437 at the age of sixteen, Henry VI declared he had come of age, and that he was ready to rule in his own name. Henry VI’s reign was where all the blocks came crashing down. This Henry was almost the polar opposite of his father. Unlike his father, Henry was a weak and ineffective ruler, and under his rule the crown had great financial difficulties as well.
Once he was of age and ruling himself, he allowed himself to be easily influenced by friends and other nobles, weakening the crown’s finances and reputation with an unprecedented distribution of titles, offices, and lands. This excessive generosity is credited with doubling the crown’s debt from ? 164,000 in 1433 to ? 372,000 in 1450. Under Richard II, the crown had been taking in roughly ? 120,000 per year. By the last few years of Henry VI’s reign, this amount had dropped to ? 40,000. In 1441, Henry VI had Gloucester’s wife Eleanor of Cobham arrested for bewitching the king.
With the help of suggestions from Gloucester’s rivals, Henry VI had become paranoid, believing Gloucester sought his throne. Despite weak evidence, she was convicted, publicly shamed, and imprisoned, where she remained until her death. In 1445, Henry VI further alienated those around him when he surrendered Maine and Anjou in order to wed Margaret of Anjou in the Treaty of Tours. While the wedding was part of the agreement, the surrendering of Maine and Anjou were kept secret from the public, and not even Henry’s advisors had been consulted.
When this secret became public knowledge, there was great outrage, especially from Dukes Gloucester and York, who considered the decision to be very foolish. Maine and Anjou were good strategic footholds and provided the English possession of Normandy with necessary defenses. Following the transfer of Maine and Anjou and sensing weakness, Charles VII took the opportunity to invade Normandy, which Henry quickly lost entirely as well. Henry VI had now lost most of the French territories that his father had conquered.
In 1447, Henry Vl’s uncle Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, was rrested on charges of treason by William de la Pole, duke of Suffolk, another of Henry VI’s advisors, who had disagreed with him. While Suffolk endorsed the king’s policy of appeasement with regard to France, Gloucester was the most influential detractor, proposing conquest. Gloucester was dead a few days later, with Henry Beaufort soon after, leaving Suffolk the dominant voice among Henry VI’s advisors. During this time, Richard, Duke of York had mostly been serving in Ireland and was gaining influence as a champion of the public’s discontent with the crown after its series of losses in France and economic difficulties.
As Henry VI was still childless, Richard was now the heir presumptive, as a distant relative of Henry VI through a different son of King Edward III. William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk was widely believed to be at fault for the loss of Normandy, and was directly accused of such by Richard, Duke of York. Suffolk was then sentenced to exile, but was murdered during his flight. In the course of a decade and a half, Henry Vl’s kingdom was unrecognizable, with Henry’s chief advisors Dukes Bedford, Gloucester, Suffolk, and Henry Beaufort now dead, most of England’s French territories retaken, and the crown’s debts at an all-time high.
In 1453, Henry VI was said to have suffered a mental breakdown. With Charles VII’s capture of Bordeaux, yet another defeat in the Hundred Years’ War, Henry VI was said to have gone mad. For eighteen months he was “completely incapacitated,” with only a partial eventual recovery. While the king was unable to rule, Richard, Duke of York took advantage of the opportunity to press his claim to the throne, earning the regency. Once Henry VI partially recovered from his illness, Richard sought to obtain the throne entirely, citing Henry VI’s weakness.
Henry VI defended his claim, with the assistance of his wife, Margaret of Anjou, who largely led his military in his stead. Conclusion In conclusion, King Henry VI of England was a poor and ineffective leader, and a stronger and more effective monarch than Henry VI would likely have been capable of preventing these problems from erupting into civil war. At the same time, without the economic problems setting the stage for problems during Henry VI’s rule, the country may have endured a weak king without significant conflict.
