THE TUDORS AND THE WARS OF THE ROSES - Task 1: Read through the information in this section and create yourself a timeline of the Wars of the Roses.
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History A Level – Summer Bridging Tasks
Component 1: The Tudors: England, 1485 - 1603
The Tudors were a great Royal Family who ruled England for over 100 years. They helped
unite the English and saved the country from destruction. However, it was during this time
that England lost its continental territories in France. Although it can also be argued that
Elizabeth (the last Tudor monarch) sowed the seeds which helped create the largest
empire the world has ever seen.
Tasks: You need to read through this booklet and complete the tasks as you go along.
The purpose of it is to ensure you have a good knowledge base of the events before the
Tudor period, as they are crucial to understand the reasons behind larger decisions.
THE TUDORS AND THE WARS OF THE ROSES
Task 1: Read through the information in this section and create yourself a
timeline of the Wars of the Roses.
Put yourself in Henry VII’s position in 1485. You are the first Tudor monarch. A new,
unknown king, anxious to prevent rebellions or invasions and to unite the country.
The Wars of the Roses
Why did the War of the Roses begin? The answer simply
lies in the character of Henry VI, King since 1422 when
he was 9 months old. While Henry was a boy the
country was governed effectively by his council but
Henry took over government himself in 1437. He proved
to be a disaster, failing to meet the two basic
requirements of a Medieval king – providing security
from foreign enemies and ensuring law and order at
home.
Between 1437 and 1453 Henry lost England’s lands in
France and was unable to prevent the breakdown of
law and order in many parts of England. In 1450 there
was a major rebellion (Cade’s rebellion) in the south-
east but the targets of the rebels were the King’s ‘evil
councillors’. No-one demanded Henry’s deposition, such was the
respect for Henry because he was the anointed monarch,
chosen by God. The 1450 rebellion had little effect.
The troubles continued and in one way grew worse because
Richard, Duke of York began to appear as a rival to Henry. It is
almost certain that Henry himself saw York as a rival since he
consistently refused to allow York any part in the council. York,
the senior nobleman in the country, had a right to a leading role
in government and resented his omission but in the early 1450s he
did not seek the crown itself. In his letters and propaganda he
only ever said that he wanted to remove Henry’s leading
councillor, the Duke of Somerset and then help Henry govern the country effectively.
The first battle took place at St Albans in 1455. York, afraid of imprisonment or execution,
attacked the King’s army, intent of capturing or killing Henry’s advisers, notably Somerset.
York was successful. As soon as Somerset was killed the battle ended. York then knelt
before Henry and begged for his forgiveness. For the next nine months York acted as
Henry’s chief advisor.
If this situation had continued there need have been no further fighting. However, York’s
enemies could not leave him in power. Foremost among these enemies was Margaret of
Anjou, Henry’s wife and queen. Henry himself seemed to have become increasingly ill
and unable to play any significant role in politics. Margaret therefore took the lead,
clearly afraid that York would take the crown and therefore deprive her young son of his
royal inheritance. By her side were the sons of the noblemen killed at St Albans in 1455.
These were the Lancastrians, supporters of the house or family of King Henry of Lancaster.
Their enemies were Yorkists, followers of Richard, Duke of York. Perhaps surprisingly for us
these two parties were not based in the counties of Lancashire or Yorkshire. The
Lancastrian strongholds were in the Midlands, Cheshire and parts of the north. York’s base
was Ludlow in Shropshire, with lands on the Welsh border and Cambridgeshire as well as
West Yorkshire.
Between 1459 and 1461 these two sides fought 6 battles, by far the heaviest fighting of the
whole 30 year period. It began because Margaret had built up her strength to the point
where she felt strong enough to attack the Yorkists. They fled and were attained in
Parliament in their absence. An Act of Attainder was the worst possible punishment. Not
only did it decree execution for treason but it also meant that the family lost all its lands –
neither wives nor children nor grandchildren could inherit and so the family was totally
ruined. Faced with this, York had to fight or accept penniless exile.
The six battles saw the advantage swing between each side. York himself was killed at
Wakefield but his eldest son, Edward, together with Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, won
the decisive battle at Towton in March 1461. Towton was the largest battle in English
history with perhaps 50,000 men involved and was probably far bigger than any other
battle in the War of the Roses.
Edward became King Edward IV. He justified deposing Henry VI by arguing that his family
had really had the better claim to the throne all along. This requires close study of the
family tree but really the arguments about which was ‘the rightful family’ are misleading. If
Henry VI had been an effective monarch, York would have served him loyally and
arguments about who was descended from whom would never have been voiced. These
claims were only developed when conflict was certain in order to justify the Yorkists’
action against an anointed king.
The battles of 1459 – 1461
Sept 1459 - Blore Heath - The Yorkists were defeated and fled abroad
July 1460 - Northampton - The Yorkists, led by WarwicK and York’s son Edward, returned
and were victorious
Dec 1460 - Wakefield - York was killed by the Lancastrian army
Feb 1461 - Mortimer’s Cross - York’s son Edward defeated a small Lancastrian force
Feb 1461 - St Albans - A Yorkist army, led by Warwick, was heavily defeated
March 1461 - Towton - Edward and Warwick defeated the Lancastrian army near
Tadcaster
Most noblemen accepted Edward as king, despite the fact that nearly all of them had wanted to keep Henry as king, however much his incompetence and sickness had increased in the 1450s. However, their main objective was peace and few were so loyal as to continue the fight after Towton. There was a handful of die-hards on each side (some out of loyalty to the anointing of Henry VI, some out of self-interest) but most noblemen preferred the greater security of neutrality. For nine years Edward IV ruled England until he himself was deposed. The Earl or Warwick seems to have been disappointed with the rewards he received from Edward, although they were far greater than those given to anyone else. With the help of the King of France, Warwick constructed an amazing alliance with his old and bitter enemy, Margaret of Anjou, the remnants of the Lancastrian party and Edward’s own brother, the Duke of Clarence! Warwick invaded England in 1470 and forced Edward to flee to Burgundy. Warwick re-installed the 50 year old Henry VI as king once more – by now a pitiable figure to the people of London for he was so clearly Warwick’s puppet. Henry VI’s restoration was short-lived. In 1471 Edward landed in Yorkshire with only a few hundred men. As he marched south he won recruits and defeated and killed Warwick at the Battle of Barnet. He then beat Margaret’s army at Tewkesbury, where Margaret’s son was killed, aged seventeen. A few days later Henry VI was murdered in the Tower of London. That seemed to be the end of the House of Lancaster. For another twelve years Edward ruled England successfully and peacefully. Then in April 1483 he died suddenly aged only 40. His heir was his twelve-year-old son, also called
Edward. Young Edward’s uncle, Richard, Duke of Gloucester was to be Protector and rule the country for the years until the boy came of age. This arrangement seemed logical as Richard had always been loyal to his brother but Edward V’s reign lasted less than three months before his uncle Richard usurped the throne and became Richard III. Richard’s motives for seeking the crown are much debated. What we can be certain of is that his seizure of power was sudden and violent. At the beginning of June Edward’s coronation was being planned. Then, on 13 June, Lord Hastings, the closest friend of Edward IV and the noblemen most likely to prevent Richard’s coup, was hauled from the council chamber and beheaded without trial on Richard’s orders. The shock of this political terrorism put an end to any possibility of opposition and Richard was acclaimed king on 26 June. No-one knows for certain the fate of Edward V and his younger brother, Richard. According to Dominic Mancini, an Italian visitor to England, ‘all the king’s servants were taken away. He and his brother were moved into the inner rooms in the Tower. Day by day they were seen less and less behind the bars and windows, until they stopped being seen altogether. Dr Argentine was the last servant to see the king. He reported that the young king was like a victim preparing for sacrifice. He was praying every day for forgiveness because he thought that he was about to die. I have seen many men burst into tears when the young king was mentioned. Already people suspected that he had been done away with’. Richard’s usurpation caused opposition amongst many who had been loyal followers of Edward IV – men who also knew Richard well and were probably astonished by his actions. Plans for rebellions developed, intended to put Edward V back on the throne but the rebels became convinced that Edward was dead. Desperate for a new leader they turned to a most unlikely source – a young man who had been in exile since 1471 and who was the distant heir of Henry VI of Lancaster. This was Henry, Earl of Richmond – Henry Tudor. The first rising failed in the autumn of 1483 but by the summer of 1485 Henry had enough support to try again. The mix of Henry’s army showed the depth of opposition to Richard. A handful of old Lancastrians mingled with many Yorkists, former followers of Edward IV, including the Woodvilles, the family of Edward’s IV’s own queen, the mother of ‘The Princes in the Tower’. On 22 August 1485 the two armies met at Bosworth in Leicestershire. Richard was killed and Henry Tudor became Henry VII but who could predict after so many dramatic changes that the civil wars were over? The effects of the Wars of the Roses Had the country been ruined by these wars? Certainly, there were few survivors of the royal families of York and Lancaster but only a handful of other noble families died out, no more than in any other generation. The Neville family, headed by Warwick ‘the kingmaker’ provides a classic example of the misleading impact of the wars. Warwick and his brother were killed at the Battle of Barnet, violence seemingly ending the male Neville line and making that family a casualty of the wars. However, neither man had a male heir and so the male line would have died out in any case. Historians have also calculated that fighting and manoeuvres occupied a total of only about 400 days in 30 years. Overall the fighting brought little destruction or damage because neither side wanted to create unnecessary enemies.
Task 2. Answer the following questions. 1. In the fourteenth century the chronicler Froissart described English noblemen as ‘fickle, dangerous, arrogant and rebellious’. Does this description seem to apply to the nobles of the Wars of the Roses? You may wish to start by explaining what he meant by this. _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ 2. How might the events of 1455 – 1485 have helped Henry VII when he became king? _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________
RICHARD III
Task 3. Read and highlight/annotate.
Richard III is the most controversial king in English history.
Most historians think that his seizure of the throne was
motivated by ambition and not by his belief that the two
princes were illegitimate, making Richard himself the
rightful heir.
Nor do they doubt that the princes were murdered in the early months of Richard’s reign.
However, the fact that there is no precise and uncontestably evidence about how they
died or whether Richard gave the order to kill them has led some people to doubt
Richard’s guilt. To them, notably many members of the ‘Richard III Society’, Richard was a
hero, ever loyal to his brother, Edward IV, and incapable of taking the throne without
good cause. Some people have suggested that the Duke of Buckingham, Richard’s right
hand man during his coup, could have ordered the murder without Richard’s knowledge.
One contemporary jotting says that the boys died ‘by the vise of the Duke of
Buckingham’.
FOR: AGAINST:
- Richard had been loyal to Edward IV - Richard never produced his nephews to
in 1470-71when Edward’s older contradict rumours of their murders in 1483.
brother, George, Duke of Clarence,
had been a traitor, allied with - By marrying Anne Neville, Warwick’s
Edward’s enemies. daughter, Richard inherited Warwick’s power
and support in the north. By 1483, Richard had
- Richard had governed the north of built on this to create for himself a huge
England successfully for Edward after territory, virtually making himself a sub-king in
1471 and had given no hint of the region. However other significant northern
treachery. lords, the Earl of Northumberland and Lord
Stanley, may well have resented Richard’s
- Richard had been popular with arrival and pre-eminence in the north.
many people in the north. After his
death, the city council in York - After the rebellion in 1483 Richard gave
recorded on paper its sorrow at many lands in the south to his northern
hearing of his death - a dangerous supporters. They filled the gaps left by gentry
thing to do. Richard may even have who had rebelled and gone into exile. These
intended to be buried in York. northerners were disliked by the local people.
- He showed many signs of being a - Richard destroyed the peace of the country
good efficient king amidst the with his coup and subjected England to more
preoccupations of rebellions. years of uncertainty, rebellions and danger.
- Elizabeth Woodville, the mother of - In 1483 many Yorkists rebelled against him,
the Princes, came out of sanctuary preferring to support the unknown Henry Tudor
with her daughter to spend Christmas rather than their old king’s brother.
1484 at Richard’s court.Richard’s claim to the throne Richard claimed in June 1483 that his brother Edward’s children were illegitimate. He said that he had obtained information from a bishop that Edward had been betrothed to Eleanor Boteler before he married Elizabeth Woodville in 1464. This earlier ‘pre-contract’ meant that the king’s marriage was invalid. Edward V, his brother and sisters were bastards and could not inherit the Richard’s badge: throne. As the nearest male relative Richard was The White boar therefore the rightful heir to the crown. There is no evidence to corroborate Richard’s story. It became known for the first time in mid to late June 1483. Eleanor Boteler had died years before. Richard’s character is undoubtedly a puzzle. What conclusions can you reach about him from the material on these pages? Be warned – the material here can only touch the surface of the problem; the arguments can go on and on! Task 4. What is your interpretation of Richard III? Do you think he was a good King? Do you think he was responsible for the disappearance of his nephews? You can do some additional research to support this. _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________
THE REIGN OF EDWARD V AND RICHARD III – A CHRONOLOGY
1483 April 9 Edward IV died. Prince Edward was in Ludlow. Richard was in
Yorkshire
April 29/30
Richard and his chief supporters, the Duke of Buckingham seized
control of Edward V at Northampton. The young king’s uncle, Earl
Rivers, and other attendants were sent north as prisoners. Queen
Elizabeth fled to sanctuary with her other children when the news
May 4 reached London.
May 10 Edward V and Richard reached London
The council appointed Richard as Protector and fixed Edward’s
June 13 coronation for the end of June
Lord Hastings was executed without trial on Richard’s orders.
June 16 Hastings was likely to be young Edward’s strongest supporter.
Queen Elizabeth was persuaded to let her younger son join Edward
June 22 V in the royal apartments in the Tower.
June 26 Edward IV’s children were proclaimed bastards.
July 6 Richard was acclaimed king as Richard III. Rivers and others were
executed.
October
Richard III was crowned king.
1484 The rebellion usually known as ‘Buckingham’s rebellion’ failed.
March Buckingham described by Richard as ‘the most untrue creature
living’, was executed.
1485
March Richard’s son, Edward, died.
August 22 Richard’s wife, Anne, died.
Richard was killed at the Battle of Bosworth. Key northern lords,
Northumberland and Stanley, did not fight for Richard and Stanley
intervened on Henry’s side. One contemporary writer reported that
the night before the battle Richard had seen ‘a multitude of
demons’ in a terrible dream.
A nineteenth century painting showing the scene from
Shakespeare’s “Henry VI” when the nobility chose roses as badges.
The white rose was a Yorkist badge but there is little evidence of the
red rose being used by the Lancastrians.Task 5. In what ways can literature provide useful evidence for historians? _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ The fifteenth century was also a prosperous time for many. Ordinary people had probably never been better off because, with the population low after the Black Death, wages were high and prices were low. Housing, clothing and diet were all improving. Greater education and literacy led to the demand for more books and hence the development of printing. Therefore, historians now tend to suggest that England was far from being a chaotic, gloom-ridden country as a result of the Wars of the Roses. However, it is interesting to reflect upon the most famous book written during this period, Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte D’Arthur which retold the story of King Arthur and his knights. Malory told of ideal king who rescued his country from chaos, helped by an aristocracy of knights who abandoned their private quarrels and ambitions for the good of their country. Perhaps Malory was motivated or influenced by the political events of his own day. The people of England who had seen the war in 1455, hoped that it would be brief but then saw major conflict between 1459 – 1461. Again they hoped for peace but there were more battles in 1464 and so the pattern repeated itself in 1469 – 1471 and 1483 – 1485. Each time hopes of peace disintegrated as a few noblemen again destroyed the country’s peace. Perhaps the Wars of the Roses did have an important psychological effort on the people of England even if their lives were not directly disrupted by armies of battles.
Task 6. You need to recreate the story of the War of the Roses as a comic/story board. It needs to show support for Henry VII.
Task 7. You have just created propaganda. What do you think are the
hallmarks of effective propaganda?
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THE TUDORS: HISTORY AND PROPAGANDA
This section examines the history written during the sixteenth century and propaganda
produced more directly by governments.
Early Examples
Source A: Part of a speech prepared to welcome Henry VII to Worcester in May 1486.
Worcester had been a centre for an unsuccessful rebellion earlier in 1486. Cadwaladr,
according to the most popular history of Britain, had been the last true king of Britain.
Cadwaladr’s blood lineally descending,
Long has been told of such a Prince coming.
Wherefore Friends, if that I shall not lie
The same is the fulfiller of the Prophecy.
SOURCE B: A description from the York Civic Records of one of the pageants devised to
welcome Henry VII to York in April 1486. York had given strong support to Richard III.
At the entry to the city hall shall be built a place in the manner of heaven, of great joy
and angelic harmony. Under the heaven shall be a desolate world, full of trees and
flowers into which shall spring up a royal rich red rose conveyed by a device. Unto this
rose shall appear another rich white rose unto whom, being together, all other flowers
shall bow and give sovereignty, showing the rose to be the principal of all flowers.Task 8. Answer the following questions. 1. Why do you think each of these sources was produced? _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ 2. How do these sources provide support or praise for Henry VII? _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ 3. How reliable are these extracts as evidence about either Richard III or Henry VII? _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________
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