Tudor Rose

Armies and contestants of Wars of the Roses

The wars were fought largely by the landed aristocracy and armies of feudal retainers, with some foreign mercenaries. Support for each house largely depended upon dynastic factors, such as blood relationships, marriages within the nobility, and the grants or confiscations of feudal titles and lands.

The unofficial system of livery and maintenance, by which powerful nobles would offer protection to followers who would sport their colours and badges (livery), and controlled large numbers of paid men-at-arms (maintenance) was one of the effects of the breakdown of royal authority which preceded and partly caused the wars. Another aspect of the decline in respect to the crown was the development of what was called bastard feudalism by later historians, although the term and definition were disputed. Service to a lord in return for title to lands and the gift of offices remained important, but the service was given in support of a faction rather than as part of a strict hierarchical system in which all ultimately owed their loyalty to the monarch.

Given the conflicting loyalties of blood, marriage and ambition, it was not uncommon for nobles to switch sides and several battles were decided by treachery.

The armies consisted of nobles’ contingents of men-at-arms, with companies of archers and foot-soldiers (such as billmen). There were also sometimes contingents of foreign mercenaries, armed with cannon or handguns. The horsemen were generally restricted to “prickers” and “scourers”; i.e. scouting and foraging parties. Most armies fought entirely on foot. In several cases, the magnates dismounted and fought among the common foot-soldiers, to inspire them and to dispel the notion that in the case of defeat they might be ransomed while the common soldiers, being of little value, faced death.

The name “Wars of the Roses” refers to the badges associated with the two royal houses, the White Rose of York and the Red Rose of Lancaster. It is not thought to have been used during the time of the wars. Rather, it came into common use in the nineteenth century after the publication of Anne of Geierstein by Sir Walter Scott. Scott based the name on a fictional scene in William Shakespeare’s play Henry VI Part 1, where the opposing sides pick their different-coloured roses at the Temple Church. Although the roses were occasionally used as symbols during the wars, most of the participants wore livery badges associated with their immediate lords or patrons under the prevailing system of so-called “bastard feudalism”. For example, Henry’s forces at Bosworth fought under the banner of a red dragon, while the Yorkist army used Richard III’s personal device of a white boar. However, after the wars ended, and his Yorkist marriage, King Henry VII adopted the badge of the single red and white Tudor Rose to symbolize the reunion of the houses of York and Lancaster.

Though the names of the rival houses derive from the cities of York and Lancaster, the corresponding duchies had little to do with these cities. The lands and offices attached to the Duchy of Lancaster were mainly in Gloucestershire, North Wales and Cheshire, while the estates and castles which were part of the Duchy of York (and the Earldom of March, which Richard of York also inherited) were widespread throughout England, although there were many in the Welsh Marches.

Lancaster, York and Richmond (Tudor) are all represented by their own rose and all three are named for districts in the North of England, not a traditional power base for the English monarchy, which had hitherto usually been drawn from dynasties originating further south, in Normandy and Anjou, Mercia and Wessex. The Tudor fief of Richmondshire lay squarely between the duchies of Lancaster and York and on the forefront of the Anglo-Scottish border country.

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Tudor Rose

Queen Bess Silverplated Flatware by Community / Oneida – 1946 – Discontinued Pattern …

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