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Amberon
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Sep 16 2009, 11:41 PM
Post #11
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Amberon
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Nov 2 2009, 05:06 PM
Post #12
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Amberon
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Nov 2 2009, 05:20 PM
Post #13
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Amberon
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Nov 16 2009, 07:09 PM
Post #14
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Amberon
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Nov 16 2009, 07:13 PM
Post #15
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Amberon
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Nov 16 2009, 07:40 PM
Post #16
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Amberon
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Nov 16 2009, 08:53 PM
Post #17
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Amberon
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Nov 16 2009, 08:54 PM
Post #18
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Administrator
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Spoiler: click to toggle The Wars of the Roses were a series of bloody dynastic civil wars between supporters of the rival houses of Lancaster and York, for the throne of England. They are generally accepted to have been fought in several spasmodic episodes between 1453 and 1487 (although there was related fighting both before and after this period.) The war ended in 1487 with the victory of Henry Tudor of the House of Lancaster who in turn set up the House of Tudor, the royal dynasty which would go on to rule England for 116 years.
Henry of Bolingbroke had established the House of Lancaster on the throne in 1399 when he deposed his cousin Richard II, whose rule had prompted widespread opposition among the nobles. Bolingbroke (who was crowned as Henry IV) and his son Henry V maintained their hold on the crown through sound administration and especially through military prowess, but when Henry V died, his heir was the infant Henry VI, who grew up to be mentally unstable, and dominated by quarrelsome regents.
The Lancastrian claim to the throne descended from John of Gaunt, the third son of Edward III. Henry's inability to rule the Kingdom ultimately resulted in a challenge to his right to the crown by Richard, Duke of York, who could claim descent from Edward's second and fourth sons, Lionel of Antwerp and Edmund of Langley, and had also proved himself to be an able administrator, holding several important offices of state. York quarrelled with prominent Lancastrians at court and with Henry's queen, Margaret of Anjou, who feared that he might later supplant her son, the infant Edward, Prince of Wales.
Although armed clashes had occurred previously between supporters of York and Lancaster, the first open fighting broke out in 1455 at the First Battle of St Albans. Several prominent Lancastrians died but their heirs remained at deadly feud with Richard. Although peace was temporarily restored, the Lancastrians were inspired by Margaret of Anjou to contest York's influence.
Fighting resumed more violently in 1459. York was forced to flee the country, but one of his most prominent supporters, the Earl of Warwick, invaded England from Calais and captured Henry at the Battle of Northampton. York returned to the country and became Protector of England, but was dissuaded from claiming the throne. Margaret and the irreconcilable Lancastrian nobles gathered their forces in the north of England, and when York moved north to suppress them, he was killed in battle at the end of 1460. The Lancastrian army advanced south and recaptured the hapless Henry at the Second Battle of St Albans, but failed to occupy London, and subsequently retreated to the north. York's eldest son was proclaimed King Edward IV. He gathered the Yorkist armies and won a crushing victory at the Battle of Towton early in 1461.
After minor Lancastrian revolts were suppressed in 1464 and Henry was captured once again, Edward fell out with his chief supporter and advisor, the Earl of Warwick (known as the "Kingmaker"), and also alienated many friends and even family members by favouring the upstart family of his queen, Elizabeth Woodville, whom he had married in secret. Warwick tried first to supplant Edward with his jealous younger brother George, Duke of Clarence, and then to restore Henry VI to the throne. This resulted in two years of rapid changes of fortune, before Edward IV once again won a complete victory in 1471. Warwick and the Lancastrian heir Edward, Prince of Wales died in battle and Henry was murdered immediately afterwards.
A period of comparative peace followed, but Edward died unexpectedly in 1483. His surviving brother Richard of Gloucester first moved to prevent the unpopular Woodville family of Edward's widow from participating in government during the minority of Edward's son, Edward V, and then seized the throne for himself, using the suspect legitimacy of Edward IV's marriage as pretext. This usurpation, and suspicions that Richard had murdered Edward V and his younger brother (the "Princes in the Tower"), provoked several revolts. Henry Tudor, a distant relative of the Lancastrian kings who had nevertheless inherited their claim, overcame and killed Richard in battle at Bosworth in 1485.
Yorkist revolts flared up in 1487, resulting in the last pitched battles. Although most of the surviving descendents of York were imprisoned, sporadic rebellions continued to take place until Perkin Warbeck, a fraudulent Yorkist pretender, was executed in 1499.
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Amberon
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Dec 19 2009, 08:29 PM
Post #19
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Amberon
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Jan 22 2010, 05:46 PM
Post #20
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