Elizabeth Woodville

PRINCIPAL COMBATANTS: Earl of Warwick vs. King Edward IV

PRINCIPAL THEATER(S): England

DECLARATION: None

MAJOR ISSUES AND OBJECTIVES: Warwick sought to overthrow the king.

OUTCOME: Warwick’s Rebellion was defeated, Warwick was killed in battle, and Edward IV returned to the throne.

APPROXIMATE MAXIMUM NUMBER OF MEN UNDER ARMS: Unknown

CASUALTIES: Unknown

TREATIES: None

Richard Neville (1428–71), earl of Warwick, was the power behind the throne of England’s Edward IV (1442–83). While he had been negotiating a grand diplomatic marriage between Edward and some French bridal candidates, Warwick discovered that Edward had already secretly wed Elizabeth Woodville (1437–92), an English woman, the widow of a Lancastrian knight, and well outside of the royal circle. She was an extraordinary beauty who refused to be kept as Edward’s mistress; he yielded and married her. Warwick kept his outrage to himself—until Edward dared to replace certain government appointees chosen by Warwick with those nominated by Elizabeth Woodville, who, it was clear, was emerging as a political power. Even worse, in 1467, Edward struck an alliance with Burgundy, the traditional rival of France, thereby wrecking Warwick’s negotiations with that nation. Edward cemented the alliance by marrying his sister Margaret of York (fl. 1470s) to Burgundy’s Charles the Bold (1433–77).

 

This was the final straw. In 1469, Warwick led an outright rebellion. Warwick defied the king in June 1469 by marrying his eldest daughter, Isobel (fl. 1460s), to the king’s brother, George, duke of Clarence (1449–78). A figure known to history as Robin of Redesdale, and subsequently identified as Sir John Conyers (1433–69), assembled a force of discontented northerners. Edward sent an army against this band. As a battle developed at Edgecote, an army under Warwick suddenly appeared and immediately sided with Conyers’s rebels. Together, Conyers and Warwick defeated the royal army and gave chase to Edward, whom they ran to ground at Coventry and took prisoner. Warwick held Edward for three months, but, finding that he had little support from his fellow nobles, he released the king.

 

The new-found freedom did not make Edward grateful. In March 1470, with the rebellion renewed, Edward dispatched an army to confront the rebels at Losecoat Field. This time, it was the king’s forces that emerged victorious. Edward declared Warwick a traitor, sending him fleeing to France for his life. There he plotted with Queen Margaret of Anjou (c. 1430–82), the consort of Henry VI (1421–71), the deposed English king who was then languishing in the Tower of London.

 

After recruiting a French force, Warwick invaded England in 1470, stormed the Tower, and freed Henry. This time, Edward fled—to Burgundy. He returned to England in 1471, however, and fought Warwick at the Battle of Barnet. Warwick was slain in this battle. Henry VI was subsequently recaptured and, once again, sent to the Tower, where he died, leaving Edward IV the undisputed king of England.

 

Further reading: Andrew Boardman, The Medieval Soldier in the Wars of the Roses (Stroud: Sutton, 1998); Christine Carpenter, The Wars of the Roses: Politics and Constitution in England 1437–1509 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997); Phillip A. Haigh, The Military Campaigns of the Wars of the Roses (Stroud: Sutton, 1999); A. J. Pollard, Richard III and the Princes in the Tower (New York: St. Martin’s, 1991).

PRINCIPAL COMBATANTS: The House of York vs. the House of Lancaster

PRINCIPAL THEATER(S): England

DECLARATION: No formal declaration

MAJOR ISSUES AND OBJECTIVES: An episode in the continuing struggle, called the War of the Roses, between the House of York and the House of Lancaster, two families of English royalty battling for the throne

OUTCOME: The throne passed to Henry VII.

APPROXIMATE MAXIMUM NUMBER OF MEN UNDER ARMS: Totals unknown; contemporary correspondence mentions 20,000 led by Richard converging on London.

CASUALTIES: Totals unknown. Little fighting occurred.

TREATIES: No formal treaties

 

The WARS OF THE ROSES (1455–1485) that gripped England for three decades were a sanguinary affair between the Yorkists and the Lancastrians that saw the crown pass back and forth between the two houses. The final phase of the war began in 1483 with the death of Edward IV (1442–83) and preparations for the ascension of his 12- year-old son, Edward V (1470–83) in April. Two months later a rebellion of nobles, led by Richard of Gloucester (1452–85), the brother of Edward IV and uncle of Edward V, and Henry Stafford (c. 1452–83), duke of Buckingham, placed Richard of Gloucester on the throne as Richard III.

 

For his support Buckingham was handsomely rewarded, but for some unknown reason he suddenly switched his loyalty. The earl of Richmond, Henry Tudor (r. 1485–1509), a Lancastrian supporter, conspired with Buckingham to rise against Richard in a coordinated rebellion in several regions of England. In October Buckingham led Lancastrian forces in Brecknock and Kent, but autumn rains kept him from uniting with supporters in the south. The rebellion quickly fell apart, and Buckingham went into hiding. He was betrayed and on November 2 arrested and executed in Salisbury for treason a short time later. Nevertheless, Henry was able to maintain Lancastrian support and two years later defeated Richard at the Battle of Bosworth, ending the Wars of the Roses and placing Henry on the throne as Henry VII.

Further reading: Antonia Fraser, ed., The Wars of the Roses (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000); A. J. Pollard, ed., Wars of the Roses (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1995); Alison Weir, Wars of the Roses (New York: Random House, 1996).