Lancaster and York
Historical Note
OPPOSITION to the arbitrary government of Richard II
(1377-1399), the last of the Plantagenet kings, resulted
in the giving of the crown to his cousin, the Duke of
Lancaster, who ascended the throne as Henry IV. By his
son, Henry V, the old claim to the crown of France was
renewed; and the English king was so successful that it
was promised to him when the French king should die.
After Henry's death, this claim was pressed in behalf
of the baby king of England, Henry VI, but a great
popular rising of the French people, inspired by Joan
of Arc, stripped England of all her conquests in France
except Calais and Guienne.
There were many in England who believed that the crown
should have been given to Richard of York rather than
to Henry of Lancaster. The result was the breaking-out
of civil war in 1455. The badge of the House of
Lancaster was a red rose; that of the House of York, a
white rose. Therefore the struggle which now commenced
was called the "Wars of the Roses." During the thirty
years of civil war the crown was held successively by
Edward IV of York, Henry VI of Lancaster (lifted to the
throne by the Earl of Warwick, the "king-maker"),
Edward V of York, and Richard III, his uncle. In 1485,
Richard was defeated and killed on Bosworth Field by
Henry Tudor, of the Lancaster family, and the long
struggle was at last ended.
In 1471, in the midst of the civil war, William Caxton
established at Westminster the first English
printing-press.
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