Wars of the Roses

dynastic civil war in England from 1455 to 1487

The Wars of the Roses (1455–1489), known contemporaneously as the Cousin's War, were a series of fifteenth-century English civil wars fought over control of the throne of England, between supporters of two rival cadet branches of the royal House of Plantagenet: the House of Lancaster, represented by a red rose, and the House of York, represented by a white rose. Eventually, the wars eliminated the male lines of both families leading to the end of the Plantagenet reign and subsequent rise of the Tudor Dynasty.

The Wars of the Roses
Battle of Tewkesbury
Plucking the Red and White Roses in the Old Temple Gardens by Henry Payne.

Quotes

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  • I know of no one in the realm who would not more fitly to come to me than I to him.
  • Who that woll make ony more lette hym seke other bookis kynge Arthure or of sir Launcelot and sir Trystrams; for this was drawen by a knyght presoner, sir Thomas Malleoré, that God send him good recover.
  • Somewhat musing
    And more mourning,
    In remembering
    Th’unsteadfastness;
    This world being
    Of such wheeling,
    Me contrarying,
    What may I guess?

    I fear, doubtless,
    Remediless
    Is now to seize
    My woeful chance;
    For unkindness,
    Withoutenless,
    And no redress,
    Me doth advance.

    With displeasure,
    To my grievance,
    And no surance
    Of remedy;
    Lo, in this trance,
    Now in substance,
    Such is my dance,
    Willing to die.

    Methinks truly
    Bounden am I,
    And that greatly,
    To be content;
    Seeing plainly
    Fortune doth wry
    All contrary
    From mine intent.

    My life was lent
    Me to one intent.
    It is nigh spent.
    Welcome Fortune!
    But I ne went
    Thus to be shent
    But she it meant:
    Such is her won.

  • England hath long been mad and scarred herself,
    The brother blindly shed the brother’s blood,
    The father rashly slaughtered his own son,
    The son, compelled, been butcher to the sire;
    All this divided York and Lancaster.
  • Above, below, the rose of snow,
      Twined with her blushing foe, we spread:
    The bristled boar in infant-gore
      Wallows beneath the thorny shade.
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