What were the Wars of the Roses?
The Wars of the Roses were a series of civil wars fought in England between 1455 and 1487 for control of the throne. They were fought between two branches of the royal Plantagenet family: the House of Lancaster and the House of York.
The name comes from the badges associated with the two houses: a red rose for Lancaster and a white rose for York. The name became popular in the 1800s.
The wars began during the reign of Henry VI, a Lancastrian king who suffered from mental illness and was considered a weak ruler.
Key battles and kings
Major battles included Towton in 1461, often described as the bloodiest battle fought on English soil, and Tewkesbury in 1471.
The Yorkist kings included Edward IV and Richard III. Richard III was killed at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 by Henry Tudor, who became Henry VII.
Henry VII married Elizabeth of York, uniting the two houses and creating the Tudor rose, which combined the red and white roses.
The wars inspired Shakespeare's history plays and, more recently, influenced the story of Game of Thrones.