James Francis Edward Stuart, later known as the Old Pretender, depicted c. 1703, having been recognised in 1701 by King Louis XIV of France as the rightful claimant to the English, Irish, and Scottish thrones
A pretender is someone who claims to be the rightful ruler of a country although not recognized as such by the current government. The term may often be used to either refer to a descendant of a deposed monarchy or a claim that is not legitimate.
In addition, it may also refer to that of a deposed monarch, a type of claimant referred to as head of a house. In addition, it may also refer to a former monarchy.
Queen Anne popularized this word, using it to refer to her Roman Catholic half-brother James Francis Edward Stuart, the Jacobite heir, in an address to Parliament in 1708: "The French fleet sailed from Dunkirk ... with the Pretender on board."
In 1807 the French Emperor Napoleon complained that the Almanach de Gotha continued to list German princes whom he had deposed.
This episode established that publication as the pre-eminent authority
on the titles of deposed monarchs and nobility, many of which were
restored in 1815 after the end of Napoleon's reign.
Etymology
The noun "pretender" is derived from the French verb prétendre, itself derived from the Latin praetendere ("to stretch out before", "to hold before (as a pretext)", "to extend [a claim] before"), from the verb tendo ("to stretch"), plus the preposition prae ("before, in front"). The English, French and Latin words have prima facie no pejorative connotation,
although one who pretends to a position with no plausible claim or with
an entirely false claim, may be differentiated as a "false pretender",
see for example Perkin Warbeck.
These are customarily referred to as the Thirty Tyrants, which was an allusion to the Thirty Tyrants of Athens
some five hundred years earlier; although the comparison is
questionable, and the Romans were separate aspirants, not (as the
Athenians were) a Committee of Public Safety. The Loeb translation of the appropriate chapter of the Augustan History therefore represents the Latin triginta tyranni by "Thirty Pretenders" to avoid this artificial and confusing parallel. Not all of them were afterwards considered pretenders; several were actually successful in becoming emperor at least in part of the empire for a brief period.
Greek pretenders
Byzantine Empire
Successions to the Roman Empire long continued at Constantinople. Most seriously, after the fall of Constantinople to the Fourth Crusade in 1204, and its eventual recovery by Michael VIII Palaiologos,
there came to be three Byzantine successor states, each of which
claimed to be the Roman Empire, and several Latin claimants (including
the Republic of Venice and the houses of Montferrat and Courtenay) to the Latin Empire the Crusaders had set up in its place. At times, some of these states and titles were subjected to multiple claims.
Cypriot pretenders
Following the defeat and death of King James IIIKing of Cyprus in 1474, his younger and illegitimate brother, Eugène Matteo de Lusignan, also styled d'Arménie (died 1523) removed to Sicily, then to Malta. He was acknowledged as rightful heir to the thrones of Cyprus, Armenia, Jerusalem, and Antioch,
although he never made serious efforts to pursue the claims. The title
of "Barone de Baccari" was created in 1508 for Jacques Matteo (sives
Eugene Matteo) d'Armenia with the remainder to his descendants in
perpetuity.
Eugene, illegitimate son of King Jacques II of Cyprus, had, when his
family were exiled, first gone to Naples, then Sicily, then settled on
Malta, marrying a Sicilian heiress, Donna Paola Mazzara (a descendant of the Royal House of Aragon of Sicily and Aragon), with issue.
The establishment of the First Republic and the execution of Louis XVI in 1793 led to the king's son becoming pretender to the abolished throne, styled as Louis XVII. As Louis XVII was a child and imprisoned in Paris by the revolutionaries, his uncle, the Comte de Provence,
proclaimed himself regent in his nephew's name. After Louis XVII died
in 1795, the Comte de Provence became pretender himself, as Louis XVIII.
Louis XVIII was restored to the throne in 1814, and was succeeded by his brother Charles X in 1824. Charles X was, however, forced into exile by the July Revolution. Charles X and his son, Louis-Antoine, Duke of Angoulême, abdicated their claims in favor of Charles's grandson, Henri, Count of Chambord; however, their cousin the Duke of Orléans, a descendant of Louis XIV's younger brother, mounted the throne as Louis Philippe I, King of the French.
For most of the July Monarchy, the legitimists,
as supporters of the exiled senior line came to be known, were
uncertain of whom to support. Some believed the abdication of Charles
and his son legal, and recognized the young Chambord as king, while
others maintained that abdication was unconstitutional in France of the ancien régime,
and continued to recognize first Charles X and then Louis-Antoine,
until the latter's death in 1844. On his uncle's death, Chambord claimed
the crown, but lived in exile and upon his death in 1883, the direct
male-line of Louis XV became extinct.
In 1848, Louis Philippe was himself overthrown by the February Revolution, and abdicated the throne in favor of his young grandson, Philippe, Comte de Paris.
However, a republic was proclaimed, leaving Paris, like his cousin
Chambord, merely a pretender to a no longer existing crown.
Over the next several decades, there were several attempts at a
so-called "fusion", to unite both groups of monarchists in support of
the childless Chambord as king, who would recognize the Count of Paris
as his heir. Those efforts failed in the 1850s, but after the
establishment of the Third Republic in 1870, when a royalist majority was elected to the Chamber of Deputies,
fusion again became the monarchist strategy. As a result, in 1873 the
Count of Paris withdrew his own bid for the throne and recognized
Chambord as legitimate pretender to the French crown. In spite of this apparent unity among royalist forces, restoration of the monarchy was not to be; Chambord refused to accept the Tricolor flag, which rendered him unacceptable to most Frenchmen as a constitutional king. The monarchists hoped that after Chambord's death they could unite and crown the Orléanist candidate. But Chambord lived until 1883, while France's royalists had lost their majority in parliament by 1877. The erstwhile Orléanist Adolphe Thiers thus called Chambord "The French Washington", i.e. the true "founder" of the Republic.
By 1883 most French monarchists accepted the Count of Paris as head of royal house. A minority of reactionaries, the so-called Blancs d'Espagne ("Spanish Whites"), continued to withhold support from the House of Orléans and chose instead Juan, Count of Montizon, the Carlist pretender to the Spanish throne, who also happened to be the senior male descendant of Louis XIV.
The arguments are, on one side, that Louis XIV's younger grandson, Philip de Bourbon, Duke of Anjou
renounced any future claim to the French throne when he left France to
become king of Spain as Philip V in 1700 (the renunciation was ratified
internationally by the Treaty of Utrecht), ostensibly leaving the Dukes of Orléans as heirs to the throne of France in the event of extinction of descendants of Louis XIV's elder grandson Louis, Duke of Burgundy, which occurred in 1883.
On the other side, Anjou's renunciation is held to be invalid because
prior to the revolution it was a fundamental tenet of the French
monarchy that the crown could never be diverted from the rightful (senior line) heir of Hugh Capet. Moreover, although the Orléans volunteered to defer their rival claim to the throne after 1873, the regicidal vote of their ancestor Philippe Égalité
in 1789 and the usurpation of Louis Philippe in 1830 are alleged to
have extinguished all rights to the throne for the Orléans branch.
The schism has continued to the present day, with supporters of the
senior line reclaiming the title of "Legitimist", leaving their opponent
royalists to be known, once again, as "Orléanists". The current
representative of the senior line is Louis Alphonse, Duke of Anjou, the senior legitimate living descendant of Hugh Capet (and of Philip V d'Anjou of Spain) who was born and raised in Spain. The Orléanist line, which returned to live in France when the law of banishment was repealed in 1950, is represented by Prince Jean, Duke of Vendôme, senior male-line descendant of King Louis Philippe.
In addition to these two claims to the historic royal throne of
France, there have also been pretenders to the imperial throne of
France, created first by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1804 and recreated by his nephew Emperor Napoleon III in 1852 (abolished 1870). This claim is today disputed between Jean-Christophe, Prince Napoléon and his own father, the self-avowed republican Prince Charles Napoléon (deemed to be excluded from the succession due to a non-dynastic re-marriage), both descendants of Napoleon I's youngest brother, Jérôme Bonaparte.
Russian pretenders
There is much debate over who is the legitimate heir to the Russian throne, and bitter dispute within the family itself. Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna is considered by some to be the legitimate heir. She is the only child of Grand Duke Vladimir who died in 1992, a great-grandson of Tsar Alexander II, whom some considered the last male dynast of the House of Romanov.
Some of her opponents believe she is ineligible to claim the throne
because she was born of a marriage that would have been deemed morganatic under Russia's monarchy, which was abolished in 1917.
Others oppose her for reasons similar to those of the anti-Orleanist
rationale: her grandfather's perceived disloyalty and dynastic ambition
are seen as removing any rights which might otherwise have belonged to
her branch of the former dynasty.
Still others maintain that the restrictive, pre-revolutionary marital rules of the Romanovs leave no one who can claim to be rightful heir to the dynasty's legacy. Others recognized Nicholas Romanov, Prince of Russia as head of the family, being a descendant of Emperor Nicholas I and the elected president of the Romanov Family Association, which consists of most living male-line descendants of the Romanov emperors. Neither he nor his younger brother, Prince Dimitri Romanov, had sons and since their deaths no new claims have been advanced by this branch.
Anna Anderson attempted to prove she was Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, the lost daughter of Nicholas II, but DNA testing on her remains eventually proved her to be an impersonator. Although she did not claim the throne, per se,
as women could not succeed to the Russian throne so long as any male
dynast survived, she became more famous than any of the various Romanov
claimants to the throne.
Karl Emich of Leiningen, also known under his Christian Orthodox name Nikolai Kirillovich Romanov
Prince Karl Emich of Leiningen (born 1952), who converted to the Eastern Orthodoxy in 2013, is the latest pretender to the Russian throne under the name of Prince Nikolai Kirillovich of Leiningen. He is the grandson of Grand Duchess Maria Cyrillovna of Russia, (sister of Vladimir, and aunt of Maria Vladimirovna), and great-grandson of Cyril Vladimirovich, Grand Duke of Russia. The Monarchist Party of Russia
supports Prince Nikolai as the heir of the Russian throne, since they
are of the opinion that Maria Vladimirovna Romanova and Nicholas Romanov
are not dynasts. In early 2014, Nikolai Kirilovich declared himself Emperor Nicholas III (successor to Nicholas II).
In 2007 Nicholas married Countess Isabelle von und zu Egloffstein and in 2010 had a son, Emich.
After the execution by the English Parliament of Stuart King Charles I in 1649, his son Charles II
was proclaimed king in Scotland (where he was crowned in 1651) and
Ireland; but those two countries were invaded by English forces and
annexed to the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell
in 1653. Thus, Charles II was pretender to the throne of England from
1649 to the restoration of 1660, and exiled/deposed King of Scots and
King of Ireland, 1653 to 1660. He died in 1685 and his brother James II and VII
came to the throne. He had converted to Catholicism but this only
became a worry when his second wife bore a son who would precede his two
Protestant daughters. James was thus deposed by his elder daughter and
his son-in-law (who was also his nephew, son of his sister Mary) during
the Glorious Revolution
in December 1688; they were formally offered the English and Scottish
thrones by their respective parliaments a month later – which was still
1688 in England (where New Year's Day was 25 March until 1752) but was
already 1689 in Scotland (which adopted 1 January as New Year's Day in
1600). James made several attempts to regain the throne before his death
in 1701, the most important of which was an effort he made with Irish
support – that country having not yet acceded to the succession of William andMary – which led to the Battle of the Boyne and the Battle of Aughrim, and set the stage for the subsequent Jacobite risings
(or rebellions). These were a series of uprisings or wars between 1688
and 1746 in which supporters of James, his son ("The Old Pretender") and
grandson ("The Young Pretender") attempted to restore his direct male
line to the throne.
James Francis Edward Stuart, the Roman Catholic son of the deposed James II and VII, was barred from the succession to the throne by the Act of Settlement 1701. Notwithstanding the Act of Union 1707,
he claimed the separate thrones of Scotland, as James VIII, and of
England and Ireland, as James III, until his death in 1766. In Jacobite terms, Acts of Parliament (of England or Scotland) after 1688 (including the Acts of Union) did not receive the required royal assent
of the legitimate Jacobite monarch and, therefore, were without legal
effect. James was responsible for a number of conspiracies and
rebellions, particularly in the Highlands of Scotland. The most notable
was the Jacobite rising of 1715–16.
Charles Edward Stuart ("Bonnie Prince Charlie"), James Francis' elder son and the would-be Charles III, who led in his father's name the last major Jacobite rebellion, the Jacobite rising of 1745–46. He died in 1788 without legitimate issue.
Henry Benedict Stuart (best known as the Cardinal-Duke of York), the younger brother of Charles Edward and a Roman Catholic Cardinal,
who took up the claim to the throne as the would-be Henry IX of
England, though he was the final Jacobite heir to publicly do so. He
died unmarried in 1807.
After 1807, the line of James VII and II became extinct. The
Jacobites had ceased to have much political significance after the
failure of the 1745 uprising, and the movement essentially became
completely dormant after Henry's death. Genealogically, the next most
senior line to the English and Scottish thrones was through James II's
youngest sister, Henriette Anne, whose daughter had married into the House of Savoy.
To the very limited extent that Jacobitism survived the death of
Cardinal York, they supported the claims of this line. Its current
representative is Franz, Duke of Bavaria, though he himself does not claim the title, his secretary having announced once that "HRM (sic) is very content being a Prince of Bavaria".
Owain Glyndŵr
(1349–1416) is probably the best-known Welsh pretender, though whether
he was pretender or Prince of Wales depends upon one's source of
information. Llywelyn ap Gruffydd ap Llywelyn,
who died in 1282, was the only Prince of Wales whose status as ruler
was formally recognised by the English Crown, though three of the four
men who claimed the throne of Gwynedd between the assumption of the
title by Owain Gwynedd in the 1160s and the loss of Welsh independence in 1283 also used the title or similar. Madog ap Llywelyn also briefly used the title during his revolt of 1294–95.
Since 1301, the title of Prince of Wales has been given to the eldest
living son of the King or Queen Regnant of England (subsequently of
Great Britain, 1707, and of United Kingdom, 1801). The word "living" is
important. Upon the death of Arthur, Prince of Wales,
Henry VII invested his second son, the future Henry VIII, with the
title. The title is not automatic, however, but merges into the Crown
when a prince dies or accedes to the throne, and has to be re-conferred
by the sovereign.
Nevertheless, it is Glyndŵr whom many remember as the last native
Prince of Wales. He was indeed proclaimed Prince of Wales by his
supporters on 16 September 1400, and his revolt in quest of Welsh
independence was not quashed by Henry IV until 1409. Later, however, one of Glyndŵr's cousins, Owain Tudor, would marry the widow of Henry V, and their grandson would become Henry VII, from whom the current British monarch is descended (through his daughter Margaret Tudor, who married James IV of Scotland).
The various minor kingdoms that came together to form what is
today known as the Principality of Wales each had their own royal
dynasty. The most important of these realms were Gwynedd, Powys and Deheubarth. After 878 the ruling dynasties in these kingdoms each claimed descent from the sons of Rhodri Mawr who had conquered them or otherwise achieved their thrones during his reign. Merfyn Frych, the father of Rhodri Mawr, had come to power in Gwynedd because the native dynasty, known as the House of Cunedda
had expired. Merfyn was descended from royalty through his own father
Gwriad and claimed ancestors from among the rulers of British Rheged (in particular Llywarch Hen). It was acknowledged by all of the realms of Wales after the time of Rhodri Mawr that the House of Gwynedd (known as the House of Aberffraw) was senior and homage should be paid by each of them to the king of Gwynedd. After the reign of Owain ap Gruffudd of Gwynedd the realm began to merge with the concept of a Principality of Wales. This was realised by Owain's descendant Llywelyn ap Gruffudd
in 1267. It was not to last and this new Wales was invaded by England
and dismantled between 1277 and 1284. All of the descendants of Llywelyn
"the last" and his brothers were either imprisoned or killed.
Irish pretenders
The
business of Irish pretenders is rather more complicated because of the
nature of kingship in Ireland before the Norman take-over of 1171. In
both Ireland and early Gaelic Scotland, succession to kingship was
elective, often (if not usually) by contest, according to a system known
as Tanistry.
The High King of Ireland (Ard Rí) was essentially a ceremonial, federal overlord, who exercised actual power only within the realm which was his dynastic seat.
Because of the laws of succession, there could not be a pretender to
this title in the sense it is normally understood. From the 5th century
onwards the kingship tended to remain within the dynasty of the Uí Néill until Brian Boru of Munster wrested control of much of Ireland from Máel Sechnaill mac Domnaill
in 1002. Following his death in 1014 and that of Máel Sechnaill in
1022, the struggle for dominance resulted in Norman intervention from Henry II of England in 1171.
There were later attempts by Irish rulers fighting against the Normans to revive the High Kingship such as in 1258 when Brian Ua Néill of Cenel Eoghan was so acknowledged, in 1262 when the crown was offered to Haakon IV of Norway and in 1315 when an offer was made to the Scottish Edward Bruce. Effectively, the title fell into abeyance. Apart from the coronation oath, the title was not even used by the Kings of England, each of whom styled himself Lord of Ireland. In 1542 Henry VIII, styled himself "King of Ireland".
Cem Sultan, eldest of the sons of Mehmet the Conqueror
born during his reign, claimed the Sultanate after the death of his
father; he was defeated in battle months later by his eldest brother (by
birth) Bayezid II. He fled to the island of Rhodes, then eventually to the Papal States. His descendants claimed his rights until the Knights Hospitaller defeated the Ottomans in the 16th century. After the Ottoman Empire was abolished and the Republic of Turkey
came into power, the successive heads of the Ottoman family claimed the
throne of the Ottoman Empire. The latest pretender to the Imperial House of Osman is Harun Osman, since 18 January 2021.
Kingdom of Jerusalem
The Emperors of Ethiopia held the title of "King of Zion" through their claim of descent from the Biblical House of David through his son King Solomon. Menelik II
dropped the use of this title. The Ethiopian Emperors continued to use
the honorific of "Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah" up until the
monarchy ended with the fall of Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974.
Since the fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem,
many European rulers have claimed to be its rightful heir. None of
these, however, have actually ruled over a part of the former Kingdom.
Today there are several potential European claimants on the basis of the
inheritance of the title. None of the claimants have any power in the
area of the former Kingdom.
Asian pretenders
Japan
In the fourteenth century, two lines of the Imperial clan, Northern Court and Southern Court, claimed the throne.
Their rivalry was resolved in 1392: while every emperor of the Southern
Court enthroned prior to 1392 was established as legitimate, the throne
was determined by Emperor Go-Komatsu of the Northern Court and his successors.
Since 1911, the Japanese government
has declared the southern claimants were actually the rightful emperors
despite the fact that all subsequent emperors including the then-Emperor Meiji were descended from the Northern Court, reasoning the Southern Court retained possession of the Three Sacred Treasures,
thus converting the emperors of the former Northern court into mere
pretenders. In other words, six former emperors of the Northern Court
have been counted as pretenders instead since then. As a result of this
compromise, the present Japanese Imperial Family is descended of the Northern Court Emperors.
Kumazawa Hiromichi publicly challenged Emperor Hirohito, disputing the legitimacy of his bloodline. Kumazawa claimed to be the 19th direct descendant of Emperor Go-Kameyama, the last Emperor of the Southern Court.
Singapore
Sultan Hussein Shah of Johor
ceded the territory of Singapore to the British in the 19th century,
but their descendants lived in the former royal palace until expelled by
the government. They now live in obscurity.
Heraldry
Pretence is demonstrated in heraldry by placing on the shield of the pretender an inescutcheon
of the arms of the former holder of the title pretended to, known as an
"inescutcheon of pretence". As well as being used by royalty, the
inescutcheon of pretence is also used by English aristocratic and gentry
families where a husband of an heraldic heiress (i.e. a daughter with
no brothers) will display his wife's paternal arms on an inescutcheon
placed within his own coat of arms. Following the husband's death the
couple's son and heir will remove the inescutcheon and show it instead
as a quartering.
Throughout history people have claimed fraudulently to be
displaced monarchs or heirs who had disappeared or supposedly died under
mysterious circumstances.
Some of them were look-alikes.
Such false pretenders include:
William of Ockham was born in Ockham, Surrey, in 1287. He received his elementary education in the London House of the Greyfriars. It is believed that he then studied theology at the University of Oxford from 1309 to 1321, but while he completed all the requirements for a master's degree in theology, he was never made a regent master. Because of this he acquired the honorific title Venerabilis Inceptor, or "Venerable Beginner" (an inceptor was a student formally admitted to the ranks of teachers by the university authorities).
During the Middle Ages, theologian Peter Lombard's Sentences (1150) had become a standard work of theology, and many ambitious theological scholars wrote commentaries on it.
William of Ockham was among these scholarly commentators. However,
William's commentary was not well received by his colleagues, or by the
Church authorities. In 1324, his commentary was condemned as unorthodox by a synod of bishops, and he was ordered to Avignon, France, to defend himself before a papal court.
An alternative understanding, recently proposed by George Knysh,
suggests that he was initially appointed in Avignon as a professor of
philosophy in the Franciscan school, and that his disciplinary
difficulties did not begin until 1327. It is generally believed that these charges were levied by Oxford chancellorJohn Lutterell.The Franciscan Minister General, Michael of Cesena, had been summoned to Avignon, to answer charges of heresy. A theological commission had been asked to review his Commentary on the Sentences,
and it was during this that William of Ockham found himself involved in
a different debate. Michael of Cesena had asked William to review
arguments surrounding Apostolic poverty. The Franciscans believed that Jesus and his apostles owned no property either individually or in common, and the Rule of Saint Francis commanded members of the order to follow this practice. This brought them into conflict with Pope John XXII.
Because of the pope's attack on the Rule of Saint Francis, William of Ockham, Michael of Cesena and other leading Franciscans fled Avignon on 26 May 1328, and eventually took refuge in the court of the Holy Roman EmperorLouis IV of Bavaria, who was also engaged in dispute with the papacy, and became William's patron.
After studying the works of John XXII and previous papal statements,
William agreed with the Minister General. In return for protection and
patronage William wrote treatises that argued for Emperor Louis to have
supreme control over church and state in the Holy Roman Empire. "On June 6, 1328, William was officially excommunicated for leaving Avignon without permission",
and William argued that John XXII was a heretic for attacking the
doctrine of Apostolic poverty and the Rule of Saint Francis, which had
been endorsed by previous popes. William of Ockham's philosophy was never officially condemned as heretical.
He spent much of the remainder of his life writing about
political issues, including the relative authority and rights of the
spiritual and temporal powers. After Michael of Cesena's
death in 1342, William became the leader of the small band of
Franciscan dissidents living in exile with Louis IV. William of Ockham
died (prior to the outbreak of the plague) on 9 April 1347.
Philosophical thought
In scholasticism,
William of Ockham advocated reform in both method and content, the aim
of which was simplification. William incorporated much of the work of
some previous theologians, especially Duns Scotus.
From Duns Scotus, William of Ockham derived his view of divine
omnipotence, his view of grace and justification, much of his
epistemology and ethical convictions.
However, he also reacted to and against Scotus in the areas of
predestination, penance, his understanding of universals, his formal
distinction ex parte rei (that is, "as applied to created things"), and his view of parsimony which became known as Occam's razor.
Faith and reason
William of Ockham espoused fideism,
stating that "only faith gives us access to theological truths. The
ways of God are not open to reason, for God has freely chosen to create a
world and establish a way of salvation within it apart from any
necessary laws that human logic or rationality can uncover." He believed that science was a matter of discovery and saw God as the only ontological necessity.
His importance is as a theologian with a strongly developed interest in
logical method, and whose approach was critical rather than system
building.
Nominalism
William of Ockham was a pioneer of nominalism, and some consider him the father of modern epistemology, because of his strongly argued position that only individuals exist, rather than supra-individual universals,
essences, or forms, and that universals are the products of abstraction
from individuals by the human mind and have no extra-mental existence. He denied the real existence of metaphysical universals and advocated the reduction of ontology.
William of Ockham is sometimes considered an advocate of conceptualism
rather than nominalism, for whereas nominalists held that universals
were merely names, i.e. words rather than extant realities,
conceptualists held that they were mental concepts,
i.e. the names were names of concepts, which do exist, although only in
the mind. Therefore, the universal concept has for its object, not a
reality existing in the world outside us, but an internal representation
which is a product of the understanding itself and which "supposes" in
the mind the things to which the mind attributes it; that is, it holds,
for the time being, the place of the things which it represents. It is
the term of the reflective act of the mind. Hence the universal is not a
mere word, as Roscelin taught, nor a sermo, as Peter Abelard
held, namely the word as used in the sentence, but the mental
substitute for real things, and the term of the reflective process. For
this reason William has sometimes also been called a "Terminist", to distinguish him from a nominalist or a conceptualist.
William of Ockham was a theological voluntarist
who believed that if God had wanted to, he could have become incarnate
as a donkey or an ox, or even as both a donkey and a man at the same
time. He was criticized for this belief by his fellow theologians and
philosophers.
Efficient reasoning
One
important contribution that he made to modern science and modern
intellectual culture was efficient reasoning with the principle of
parsimony in explanation and theory building that came to be known as Occam's razor. This maxim, as interpreted by Bertrand Russell,
states that if one can explain a phenomenon without assuming this or
that hypothetical entity, there is no ground for assuming it, i.e. that
one should always opt for an explanation in terms of the fewest possible
causes, factors, or variables. He turned this into a concern for
ontological parsimony; the principle says that one should not multiply
entities beyond necessity—Entia non sunt multiplicanda sine necessitate—although this well-known formulation of the principle is not to be found in any of William's extant writings.
He formulates it as: "For nothing ought to be posited without a reason
given, unless it is self-evident (literally, known through itself) or
known by experience or proved by the authority of Sacred Scripture." For William of Ockham, the only truly necessary entity is God; everything else is contingent. He thus does not accept the principle of sufficient reason, rejects the distinction between essence and existence, and opposes the Thomistic doctrine
of active and passive intellect. His scepticism to which his
ontological parsimony request leads appears in his doctrine that human
reason can prove neither the immortality of the soul; nor the existence,
unity, and infinity of God. These truths, he teaches, are known to us
by revelation alone.
Natural philosophy
William wrote a great deal on natural philosophy, including a long commentary on Aristotle's Physics.
According to the principle of ontological parsimony, he holds that we
do not need to allow entities in all ten of Aristotle's categories; we
thus do not need the category of quantity, as the mathematical entities
are not "real". Mathematics must be applied to other categories, such as
the categories of substance or qualities, thus anticipating modern
scientific renaissance while violating Aristotelian prohibition of metabasis.
Theory of knowledge
Depiction of William of Ockham
In the theory of knowledge, William rejected the scholastic theory of
species, as unnecessary and not supported by experience, in favour of a
theory of abstraction. This was an important development in late
medieval epistemology.
He also distinguished between intuitive and abstract cognition;
intuitive cognition depends on the existence or non-existence of the
object, whereas abstractive cognition "abstracts" the object from the
existence predicate. Interpreters are, as yet, undecided about the roles
of these two types of cognitive activities.
Political theory
William
of Ockham is also increasingly being recognized as an important
contributor to the development of Western constitutional ideas,
especially those of government with limited responsibility. He was one of the first medieval authors to advocate a form of church/state separation,
and was important for the early development of the notion of property
rights. His political ideas are regarded as "natural" or "secular",
holding for a secular absolutism. The views on monarchical accountability espoused in his Dialogus (written between 1332 and 1347) greatly influenced the Conciliar movement and assisted in the emergence of democratic ideologies.
William argued for complete separation of spiritual rule and earthly rule.
He thought that the pope and churchmen have no right or grounds at all
for secular rule like having property, citing 2 Timothy 2:4. That
belongs solely to earthly rulers, who may also accuse the pope of
crimes, if need be.
After the Fall
he believed God had given humanity, including non-Christians, two
powers: private ownership and the right to set their rulers, who should
serve the interest of the people, not some special interests. Thus he
preceded Thomas Hobbes in formulating social contract theory along with earlier scholars.
William of Ockham said that the Franciscans avoided both private
and common ownership by using commodities, including food and clothes,
without any rights, with mere usus facti, the ownership still belonging to the donor of the item or to the pope. Their opponents such as Pope John XXII
wrote that use without any ownership cannot be justified: "It is
impossible that an external deed could be just if the person has no
right to do it."
Thus the disputes on the heresy of Franciscans led William of
Ockham and others to formulate some fundamentals of economic theory and
the theory of ownership.
Logic
In logic, William of Ockham wrote down in words the formulae that would later be called De Morgan's laws, and he pondered ternary logic, that is, a logical system with three truth values; a concept that would be taken up again in the mathematical logic of the 19th and 20th centuries. His contributions to semantics, especially to the maturing theory of supposition, are still studied by logicians.
William of Ockham was probably the first logician to treat empty terms
in Aristotelian syllogistic effectively; he devised an empty term
semantics that exactly fit the syllogistic. Specifically, an argument is
valid according to William's semantics if and only if it is valid
according to Prior Analytics.
Theological thought
Church authority
William of Ockham denied papal infallibility and often went into conflict with the pope. As a result, some theologians have viewed him as a proto-Protestant. However, despite his conflicts with the papacy he did not renounce the Roman Catholic Church.
Ockham also held that councils of the Church were fallible, he held
that any individual could err on matters of faith, and councils being
composed of multiple fallible individuals could err. He thus foreshadowed some elements of Luther's view of sola scriptura.
Ockham
opposed Pope John XXII on the question of the Beatific Vision. John had
proposed that the souls of Christians did not instantly get to enjoy
the vision of God, rather such vision would be postponed until the last
judgement.
Literary Ockhamism/nominalism
William
of Ockham and his works have been discussed as a possible influence on
several late medieval literary figures and works, especially Geoffrey Chaucer, but also Jean Molinet, the Gawain poet, François Rabelais, John Skelton, Julian of Norwich,
the York and Townely Plays, and Renaissance romances. Only in very few
of these cases is it possible to demonstrate direct links to William of
Ockham or his texts. Correspondences between Ockhamist and Nominalist
philosophy/theology and literary texts from medieval to postmodern times
have been discussed within the scholarly paradigm of literary nominalism. Erasmus, in his Praise of Folly, criticized him together with Duns Scotus as fuelling unnecessary controversies inside the Church.
Works
Sketch labelled "frater Occham iste", from a manuscript of Ockham's Summa Logicae, 1341Quaestiones in quattuor libros sententiarum
The standard edition of the philosophical and theological works is: William of Ockham: Opera philosophica et theologica, Gedeon Gál, et al., eds. 17 vols. St. Bonaventure, New York: The Franciscan Institute, 1967–1988.
The seventh volume of the Opera Philosophica contains the doubtful and spurious works.
The political works, all but the Dialogus, have been edited in H. S. Offler, et al., eds. Guilelmi de Ockham Opera Politica, 4 vols., 1940–1997, Manchester: Manchester University Press [vols. 1–3]; Oxford: Oxford University Press [vol. 4].
Abbreviations: OT = Opera Theologica vol. 1–10; OP = Opera Philosophica vol. 1–7.
Expositionis in Libros artis logicae prooemium, 1321–1324, OP 2).
Expositio in librum Porphyrii de Praedicabilibus, 1321–1324, OP 2).
Expositio in librum Praedicamentorum Aristotelis, 1321–1324, OP 2).
Expositio in librum in librum Perihermenias Aristotelis, 1321–1324, OP 2).
Tractatus de praedestinatione et de prescientia dei respectu futurorum contingentium (Treatise on Predestination and God's Foreknowledge with respect to Future Contingents, 1322–1324, OP 2).
Expositio super libros Elenchorum (Exposition of Aristotle's Sophistic refutations, 1322–1324, OP 3).
Expositio in libros Physicorum Aristotelis. Prologus et Libri I–III (Exposition of Aristotle's Physics) (1322–1324, OP 4).
Expositio in libros Physicorum Aristotelis. Prologus et Libri IV–VIII (Exposition of Aristotle's Physics) (1322–1324, OP 5).
Brevis summa libri Physicorum (Brief Summa of the Physics, 1322–23, OP 6).
Summula philosophiae naturalis (Little Summa of Natural Philosophy, 1319–1321, OP 6).
Quaestiones in libros Physicorum Aristotelis (Questions on Aristotle's Books of the Physics, before 1324, OP 6).
Theological writings
In libros Sententiarum (Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard).
Book I (Ordinatio) completed shortly after July 1318 (OT 1–4).
Books II–IV (Reportatio) 1317–18 (transcription of the lectures; OT 5–7).
Quaestiones variae (OT 8).
Quodlibeta septem (before 1327) (OT 9).
Tractatus de quantitate (1323–24. OT 10).
Tractatus de corpore Christi (1323–24, OT 10).
Political writings
Opus nonaginta dierum (1332–1334).
Epistola ad fratres minores (1334).
Dialogus (before 1335).
Tractatus contra Johannem [XXII] (1335).
Tractatus contra Benedictum [XII] (1337–38).
Octo quaestiones de potestate papae (1340–41).
Consultatio de causa matrimoniali (1341–42).
Breviloquium (1341–42).
De imperatorum et pontificum potestate [also known as Defensorium] (1346–47).
Doubtful writings
Tractatus minor logicae (Lesser Treatise on logic) (1340–1347?, OP 7).
Elementarium logicae (Primer of logic) (1340–1347?, OP 7).
Spurious writings
Tractatus de praedicamentis (OP 7).
Quaestio de relatione (OP 7).
Centiloquium (OP 7).
Tractatus de principiis theologiae (OP 7).
Translations
Philosophical works
Philosophical Writings, tr. P. Boehner, rev. S. Brown (Indianapolis, Indiana, 1990)
Ockham's Theory of Terms: Part I of the Summa logicae, translated by Michael J. Loux (Notre Dame; London: University of Notre Dame Press, 1974) [translation of Summa logicae, part 1]
Ockham's Theory of Propositions: Part II of the Summa logicae, translated by Alfred J. Freddoso and Henry Schuurman (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1980) [translation of Summa logicae, part 2]
Demonstration and Scientific Knowledge in William of Ockham: a Translation of Summa logicae III-II, De syllogismo demonstrativo, and Selections from the Prologue to the Ordinatio, translated by John Lee Longeway (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame, 2007)
Ockham on Aristotle's Physics: A Translation of Ockham's Brevis Summa Libri Physicorum, translated by Julian Davies (St. Bonaventure, New York: The Franciscan Institute, 1989)
Kluge, Eike-Henner W., "William of Ockham's Commentary on Porphyry: Introduction and English Translation", Franciscan Studies33, pp. 171–254, JSTOR41974891, and 34, pp. 306–382, JSTOR44080318 (1973–74)
Predestination, God's Foreknowledge, and Future Contingents, translated by Marilyn McCord Adams and Norman Kretzmann (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1969) [translation of Tractatus de praedestinatione et de praescientia Dei et de futuris contigentibus]
Quodlibetal Questions, translated by Alfred J. Freddoso and
Francis E. Kelley, 2 vols (New Haven; London: Yale University Press,
1991) (translation of Quodlibeta septem)
Paul Spade, Five Texts on the Mediaeval Problem of Universals: Porphyry, Boethius, Abelard, Duns Scotus, Ockham (Indianapolis, Indiana: Hackett, 1994) [Five questions on Universals from His Ordinatio d. 2 qq. 4–8]
Theological works
The De sacramento altaris of William of Ockham, translated by T. Bruce Birch (Burlington, Iowa: Lutheran Literary Board, 1930) [translation of Treatise on Quantity and On the Body of Christ]
Political works
An princeps pro suo uccursu, scilicet guerrae, possit recipere bona ecclesiarum, etiam invito papa, translated Cary J. Nederman, in Political thought in early fourteenth-century England: treatises by Walter of Milemete, William of Pagula, and William of Ockham (Tempe, Arizona: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2002)
A translation of William of Ockham's Work of Ninety Days, translated by John Kilcullen and John Scott (Lewiston, New York: E. Mellen Press, 2001) [translation of Opus nonaginta dierum]
Tractatus de principiis theologiae, translated in A compendium of Ockham's teachings: a translation of the Tractatus de principiis theologiae, translated by Julian Davies (St. Bonaventure, New York: Franciscan Institute, St. Bonaventure University, 1998)
On the Power of Emperors and Popes, translated by Annabel S. Brett (Bristol, 1998)
Rega Wood, Ockham on the Virtues (West Lafayette, Indiana: Purdue University Press, 1997) [includes translation of On the Connection of the Virtues]
A Letter to the Friars Minor, and Other Writings, translated by John Kilcullen (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995) [includes translation of Epistola ad Fratres Minores]
A Short Discourse on the Tyrannical Government, translated by John Kilcullen (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992) [translation of Breviloquium de principatu tyrannico]
William of Ockham, [Question One of] Eight Questions on the Power of the Pope, translated by Jonathan Robinson
The people, divided in their affections, took different symbols of
party: the partisans of the house of Lancaster chose the red rose as
their mark of distinction; those of York were denominated from the
white; and these civil wars were thus known over Europe by the name of
the quarrel between the two roses.
The modern term Wars of the Roses came into common use in the early 19th century following the publication of the 1829 novel Anne of Geierstein by Sir Walter Scott. Scott based the name on a scene in William Shakespeare's play Henry VI, Part 1 (Act 2, Scene 4), set in the gardens of the Temple Church,
where a number of noblemen and a lawyer pick red or white roses to
symbolically display their loyalty to the Lancastrian or Yorkist faction
respectively. During Shakespeare's time, the conflict was simply
referred to as the "civil wars".
The Yorkist faction used the symbol of the white rose from early
in the conflict, but the red rose of Lancaster was introduced only after
the victory of Henry Tudor at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485. After Henry's victory and marriage to Elizabeth of York, the heir of Edward IV, the two roses were combined to form the Tudor rose, to symbolise the union of the two claims. The use of the rose itself as a cognizance stemmed from Edward I's use of "a golden rose stalked proper". Often, owing to nobles holding multiple titles, more than one badge was used: Edward IV, for example, used both his sun in splendour as Earl of March, but also his father's falcon and fetterlock as Duke of York. Badges were not always distinct; at the Battle of Barnet, Edward's 'sun' was very similar to the Earl of Oxford'sVere star, which caused fatal confusion in the fighting.
Many participants wore livery badges
associated with their immediate liege lords or patrons. The wearing of
livery was confined to those in "continuous employ of a lord", thus
excluding, for example, mercenary companies. For example, Henry Tudor'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.
Edward III, who ruled England from 1327 to 1377, had five sons who survived into adulthood; Edward of Woodstock "the Black Prince", Lionel of Antwerp, John of Gaunt, Edmund of Langley, and Thomas of Woodstock. Throughout his reign, he created duchies for his sons; Cornwall in 1337 for Edward, and Clarence and Lancaster in 1362 for Lionel and John respectively. Edmund and Thomas became the dukes of York and Gloucester respectively in 1385, during the reign of Richard II. Dukedoms had hitherto never been conferred by any English monarch upon a subject until the creation of the Duchy of Cornwall in 1337, and their genesis spawned a powerful new class of English nobility with claims to the throne
and, theoretically, enough power to vie for it, since the new duchies
provided Edward's sons and their heirs presumptive with an income
independent of the sovereign or the state, thereby allowing them to establish and maintain their own private military retinues.
Over time, these duchies began to exacerbate the structural defects inherent in so-called "bastard feudalism", a somewhat controversial term coined in 1885 by historian Charles Plummer but largely defined by Plummer's contemporary, William Stubbs. During the reign of Edward's grandfather, Edward I, Stubbs describes a substantive shift in social dynamics in which the conscription-based feudal levy came to be replaced by a system of royal payment in return for military service by the magnates who served the monarch. Thus, instead of vassals
rendering military service when called, they paid a portion of their
income into their lord's treasury, who would supplement the owed service
with hired retainers. These retinues were known as affinities;
essentially a collection of all the individuals to whom a lord had
gathered for service, and came to be one of the most fundamentally
defining aspects of bastard feudalism.
These affinities also had the means of tying the more powerful magnates
to the lower nobility, although these relationships were now largely
defined by personal connections that exhibited reciprocal benefit,
rather than tenurial or feudal relationships that preceded bastard feudalism.
Consequently, lords could now raise retinues they could implicitly
trust, since the men of the affinity owed their positions to their
patron.
These affinities were often much larger than the number of men the lord
actually knew, since the members of the affinity also knew and
supported each other.
Under the reign of Richard II,
this created a power struggle with the magnates, as Richard sought to
increase the size of his own affinities as a counterweight to the
growing retinues of his nobles.
The retinues of the magnates became powerful enough to defend the
interests of their lord against even the authority of the monarch, as
John of Gaunt, and later his son, Henry Bolingbroke, did against Richard. During the wars, disaffected magnates such as Richard of York and Warwick the Kingmaker were able to rely upon their complex network of servants and retainers to successfully defy the authority of Henry VI.
Claims of the two Houses
Lancastrian claim
The House of Lancaster
descended from John of Gaunt, the third surviving son of Edward III.
The name derives from Gaunt's primary title as Duke of Lancaster, which
he held by right of his spouse, Blanche of Lancaster. The Lancastrian claim on the throne had received preference from Edward III which explicitly emphasised the male line of descent. Henry IV based his right to depose Richard II and subsequent assumption of the throne upon this claim, since it could be argued that the heir presumptive was in fact Edmund Mortimer, the great-grandson of Edward III's second surviving son, Lionel, Duke of Clarence. However, Mortimer was descended through the female line, inheriting the claim from his grandmother, Philippa. An important branch of the House of Lancaster was the House of Beaufort, whose members were descended from Gaunt by his mistress, Katherine Swynford.
Originally illegitimate, they were legitimised by an Act of Parliament
when Gaunt and Katherine later married. However, Henry IV excluded them
from the line of succession to the throne.
Yorkist claim
The House of York
descended from Edmund of Langley, the fourth surviving son of Edward
III and younger brother of John of Gaunt. The name derives from
Langley's primary title as Duke of York, which he acquired in 1385
during the reign of his nephew, Richard II. The Yorkist claim on the throne, unlike the Lancastrian claim, was based upon the female line of descent, as descendants of Lionel, the Duke of Clarence. Langley's second son, Richard of Conisburgh, had married Anne de Mortimer, daughter of Roger Mortimer and sister of Edmund Mortimer. Anne's grandmother, Philippa of Clarence, was the daughter of Lionel of Antwerp. During the fourteenth century, the Mortimers were the most powerful marcher family in the kingdom. G.M. Trevelyan wrote that "the Wars of the Roses were to a large extent a quarrel between Welsh Marcher Lords, who were also great English nobles, closely related to the English throne."
The Black Prince had one surviving son, Richard,
who had a claim to the throne based upon the principle that the son of
an elder brother (Edward, in this case) had priority in the line of
succession over his uncles. Thus, Richard had a superior claim to the
throne than his much older uncles: John, Edmund and Thomas. However,
Richard was a minor; had no siblings; and his three living uncles (at
the time of Edward III's death) were politically powerful and ambitious,
so there was considerable uncertainty within the realm over who should
inherit the throne. Ultimately, Edward was succeeded by his grandson who was crowned Richard II at just 10 years old.
Under the laws of primogeniture,
if Richard died without a legitimate heir, his successors would be the
descendants of Lionel of Antwerp the Duke of Clarence, Edward III's
second eldest son. Clarence's only child, his daughter Philippa, married into the Mortimer family and had a son, Roger Mortimer,
who technically would have the best legal claim of succession. However,
a legal decree issued by Edward III in 1376 introduced complexity into
the question of succession, since the letters patent he issued limited the right of succession to his male line, which placed his third son, John of Gaunt, ahead of Clarence's descendants, since the latter were descended through the female line.
Reign of Richard II
Richard II, also known as Richard of Bordeaux, was King of England from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. During Richard's first years as king, government was in the hands of a series of regency councils, influenced by Richard's uncles John of Gaunt and Thomas of Woodstock. England then faced various problems, most notably the Hundred Years' War. A major challenge of the reign was the Peasants' Revolt
in 1381, and the young king played a central part in the successful
suppression of this crisis. Less warlike than either his father or
grandfather, he sought to bring an end to the Hundred Years' War. A firm
believer in the royal prerogative, Richard restrained the power of the aristocracy and relied on a private retinue
for military protection instead. In contrast to his grandfather,
Richard cultivated a refined atmosphere centred on art and culture at
court, in which the king was an elevated figure.
Richard's reign as Richard II of England was tumultuous, marked by increasing dissension between the monarch and several of the most powerful nobles.
Richard ruled without a regency council despite his young age in order
to exclude his uncle, John of Gaunt the Duke of Lancaster, from wielding
legitimate power. Unpopular taxes which funded unsuccessful military expeditions in Europe triggered the Peasant's Revolt in 1381, and Parliament's refusal to cooperate with the king's unpopular Lord Chancellor, Michael de la Pole, created a political crisis that seriously threatened to dethrone Richard. Richard had repeatedly switched his choice of heir throughout his reign to keep his political enemies at bay.
The king's dependence on a small number of courtiers caused
discontent among the influential, and in 1387 control of government was
taken over by a group of aristocrats known as the Lords Appellant. By 1389 Richard had regained control, and for the next eight years governed in relative harmony with his former opponents.
In France, much of the territory conquered by Edward III had been lost, leading Richard to negotiate a peace treaty known as Truce of Leulinghem with Charles VI
in July 1389. The peace proposal, which would effectively have made
England a client kingdom of France, was derided and rejected by
Parliament, which was predominately controlled by the knights fighting
the war. Richard decided to negotiate a de facto peace directly with Charles without seeking Parliament's approval and agreed to marry his six-year-old daughter, Isabella of Valois.
Richard used the interim peace to punish his political rivals. In 1397,
he took his revenge on the Appellants, many of whom were executed or
exiled. The next two years have been described by historians as
Richard's "tyranny".
Deposition by Henry Bolingbroke (1399)
When John of Gaunt died in 1399, Richard confiscated the lands and titles of Gaunt's son Henry Bolingbroke whom he had exiled to France in 1398. In May 1399, Richard left England for a military expedition in Ireland, giving Bolingbroke the opportunity to return to England.
Henry invaded England in June 1399 with a small force that quickly grew
in numbers, meeting little resistance. With the support of much of the
disaffected nobility, Bolingbroke deposed Richard and was crowned as
Henry IV, the first Lancastrian monarch. Richard is thought to have been starved to death in captivity, although questions remain regarding his final fate.
Richard's posthumous reputation has been shaped to a large extent by William Shakespeare, whose play Richard II
portrayed Richard's misrule and his deposition as responsible for the
Wars of the Roses. Modern historians do not accept this interpretation,
while not exonerating Richard from responsibility for his own
deposition. While probably not insane, as many historians of the 19th
and 20th centuries believed, he may have had a personality disorder,
particularly manifesting itself towards the end of his reign. Most
authorities agree that his policies were not unrealistic or even
entirely unprecedented, but that the way in which he carried them out
was unacceptable to the political establishment, leading to his
downfall.
Almost immediately after assuming the throne, Henry IV faced an attempted deposition known as the "Epiphany Rising" in 1400 by John Montagu, 3rd Earl of Salisbury, John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter, Thomas Holland, 1st Duke of Surrey, and the Thomas Despenser, 1st Earl of Gloucester,
to re-install the imprisoned Richard as king. The attempt failed, all
four conspirators were executed, and Richard died shortly thereafter "by
means unknown" in Pontefract Castle. Further west in Wales,
the Welsh had generally supported Richard's rule, and, welded to a
myriad of other socio-economic problems, the accession of Henry
triggered a major rebellion in Wales led by Owain Glyndŵr, a member of the Welsh nobility. Glyndŵr's rebellion would outlast Henry's reign, and would not end until 1415. During the revolt, Glyndŵr received aid from members of the Tudors,
a prominent Anglesey family and maternal cousins of Glyndŵr himself,
who would come to play a defining role in the coming Wars of the Roses. Disputes over promises of land, money, and royal favour in exchange for their continued support drove the House of Percy, led by Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland and Thomas Percy, 1st Earl of Worcester, to rebel multiple times against Henry. The first challenge was defeated at Shrewsbury in 1403 and Worcester was executed, while a second attempt failed at Bramham Moor in 1408, at which Northumberland was killed. Henry himself died in 1413, and was succeeded by his son, Henry of Monmouth, who was crowned Henry V.
To cement his position as king both domestically and abroad, Henry revived old dynastic claims to the French throne, and, using commercial disputes and the support France loaned to Owain Glyndŵr as a casus belli, invaded France in 1415.
While not plagued by constant rebellions as his father's reign was,
Henry V faced a major challenge to his authority on the eve of his
expedition to France in the form of the Southampton Plot. This was led by Sir Thomas Grey, Henry, Baron Scrope, and Richard of Conisburgh,
the latter of whom was the second son of Edmund of Langley the 1st Duke
of York. They intended to replace Henry with the young Edmund Mortimer,
Richard of Conisburgh's maternal uncle, who was a great-great-grandson
of Edward III and at one time the heir presumptive to Richard II. Mortimer remained loyal and informed Henry of the plot, who had all three ringleaders executed.
Henry captured Harfleur on 22 September and inflicted a decisive defeat on the French at Agincourt on 25 October which wiped out a significant part of the French nobility. Agincourt and Henry's subsequent campaigns firmly entrenched the legitimacy of the Lancastrian monarchy and Henry's pursuit of his claims on the French throne. In 1420, Henry and Charles VI of France signed the Treaty of Troyes. The treaty disinherited the French Dauphin Charles from the line of succession, married Charles' daughter Catherine of Valois to Henry, and acknowledged their future sons as legitimate successors to the French throne.
Richard of York, the son of Richard of Conisburgh, was four years old when his father was executed. As his paternal uncle, Edward, 2nd Duke of York, had died at Agincourt without issue, Henry permitted Richard of York to inherit the title and lands of the Duchy of York.
When Edmund Mortimer died childless in 1425, Richard of York also
inherited the Earldom of March and Mortimer's claim to the throne
through his late mother, Edmund Mortimer's sister.
Henry, who himself had three younger brothers and had recently
married Catherine, did not doubt that the Lancastrian claim on the crown
was secure. On 6 December 1421, Catherine gave birth to a son, Henry. The following year, Henry V died of dysentery, and his son ascended to the throne at just nine months old.
Henry V's younger brothers produced no surviving legitimate heirs,
leaving only the Beaufort family as alternative Lancastrian successors.
As Richard of York grew into maturity and Henry VI's rule deteriorated,
York's claim to the throne became more attractive. The revenue from his
estates also made him the wealthiest magnate in the kingdom.
From early childhood, Henry VI was surrounded by quarrelsome councillors and advisors. His younger surviving paternal uncle, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, sought to be named Lord Protector until Henry came of age, and deliberately courted the popularity of the common people for his own ends, but was opposed by his half-uncle, Cardinal Henry Beaufort. On several occasions, Beaufort called on John, Duke of Bedford, Gloucester's older brother and nominal regent
to Henry, to return from his post as the king's commander in France,
either to mediate or defend him against Gloucester's accusations of
treason. Overseas, the French had rallied around Joan of Arc and had inflicted major defeats on the English at Orléans, and Patay, reversing many of the gains made by Henry V and leading to the coronation of the Dauphin as Charles VII in Reims on 17 July 1429. Henry was formally crowned as Henry VI, aged 7, shortly thereafter on 6 November in response to the coronation of Charles. Around this time, Henry's mother Catherine of Valois had remarried to Owen Tudor and bore two surviving sons; Edmund Tudor and Jasper Tudor, both of whom would play key roles in the concluding stages of the coming wars.
Henry came of age in 1437 at age sixteen.
However, Bedford had died two years earlier in 1435, and Beaufort
largely withdrew himself from public affairs sometime thereafter, in
part because of the rise to prominence of his ally William de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk as the dominant personality in the royal court.
Like Beaufort, Suffolk favoured a diplomatic rather than a military
solution to the deteriorating situation in France, a position which
resonated with Henry, who was by nature averse to violence and
bloodshed. Suffolk was opposed by Gloucester and the rising Richard of York,
both of whom favoured a continued prosecution of a military solution
against France. Suffolk and the Beaufort family frequently received
large grants of money, land, and important government and military
positions from the king, who preferred their less hawkish
inclinations, redirecting much-needed resources away from Richard and
Gloucester's campaigns in France, leading to Richard developing a bitter
resentment for the Beauforts.
Suffolk continued to increase his influence at court as the principal architect of the Treaty of Tours in 1444 to broker peace between England and France. Suffolk successfully negotiated the marriage to Henry of Margaret of Anjou,
only a distant relation of Charles VII through marriage rather than
blood, in exchange for the strategically important lands of Maine and Anjou.
Though Suffolk earned a promotion from Earl to Marquess (and would be
made a Duke in 1448) for his efforts, the clauses of the treaty that
required cession of lands to France were kept secret from the English
public due to fears of a significant backlash, but Henry insisted on the
treaty.
Two years later in 1447, Suffolk succeeded in having Gloucester
arrested for treason. Gloucester died while awaiting trial, with some at
the time suspecting that Suffolk had had him poisoned. Richard of York was stripped of his prestigious command in France and sent to govern the relatively distant Lordship of Ireland with a ten-year term of office, where he could not interfere with affairs at court.
During this time, England continued to suffer reversals in France. Suffolk, who was now the principal power behind the throne,
could not avoid taking the blame for these losses. Additionally, the
blame of the unfavourable request to cede Maine and Anjou to the French
was laid at Suffolk's feet, though he continued to insist he made no
promises during negotiations to such a demand. In 1450, Suffolk was arrested, imprisoned in the Tower of London,
and impeached in the Commons. Henry intervened and instead exiled
Suffolk for five years, but en route to Calais, Suffolk was captured and
executed on 2 May 1450. Suffolk was succeeded by Edmund Beaufort, Duke of Somerset,
nephew of Henry Beaufort, as the leader of the faction pursuing peace
with France, who had been appointed as Richard's replacement as
commander in France in 1448. Somerset's political position was somewhat
fragile, as English military failures in 1449 following a resumption of
hostilities left him vulnerable to criticism from Richard's allies at
court. Somerset had by this time become a close ally of Henry's wife, Margaret of Anjou. Margaret herself wielded almost complete control over the pliable king Henry,
and her close friendship with Somerset led many to suspect the two were
having an affair; indeed, upon the birth of Henry and Margaret's son, Edward of Westminster in 1453, there were widespread rumours that Somerset was the father.
On 15 April 1450, the English suffered a major reversal in France at Formigny, which paved the way for the French reconquest of Normandy. That same year, there was a violent popular uprising in Kent, which is often seen as a precursor to the Wars of the Roses. The rebel manifesto, The Complaint of the Poor Commons of Kent,
written under the stewardship of rebel leader Jack Cade, accused the
crown of extortion, perversion of justice, and election fraud. The
rebels occupied parts of London, and executed James Fiennes, the unpopular Lord High Treasurer. They dispersed after they were supposedly pardoned but several ringleaders, including Cade, were later executed.
After the rebellion, the grievances of Cade and his followers formed
the basis of Richard of York's opposition to a royal government from
which he felt unduly excluded.
Richard of York used the opportunity to return from Ireland and went to
London. Angling himself as a reformer to demand better government, he
was eventually imprisoned for much of 1452 and 1453. By the summer of the latter year, Richard seemed to have lost the power struggle.
Throughout these quarrels, Henry himself had taken little part in
proceedings. He displayed several symptoms of mental illness, possibly
inherited from his maternal grandfather, Charles VI of France.
His near-total lack of leadership in military matters had left the
English forces in France scattered and weak, which left them ripe for
defeat at Formigny in 1450.
Henry was described as more interested in matters of religion and
learning, which, coupled with his timid and passive nature and, if not
well-intentioned, aversion to warfare, made him an ineffectual king for
the time. On 17 July 1453, the English forces in southern France suffered a catastrophic defeat at Castillon, and England lost all her possessions in France except for the Pale of Calais, shifting the balance of power in Europe, and ending the Hundred Years' War.
Perhaps in reaction to the news, Henry suffered a complete mental
breakdown, during which he failed to recognise his newborn son, Edward. On 22 March 1454, Cardinal John Kemp, the Lord Chancellor,
died, and Henry could not be induced to nominate a successor, thus
making government in the king's name constitutionally impossible.[83]
The lack of central authority led to a continued deterioration of
the unstable political situation, which polarised around long-standing
feuds between the more powerful noble families, in particular the Percy-Neville feud, and the Bonville-Courtenay feud, creating a volatile political climate ripe for civil war.
To ensure the country could be governed, a Regency Council was
established and, despite the protests of Margaret, was led by Richard of
York, who was appointed Lord Protector and Chief Councillor on 27 March 1454. York appointed his brother-in-law, Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury to the post of Chancellor, backing the Nevilles against their chief adversary, Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland. In backing the Nevilles, York gained a key ally, Salisbury's son Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick,
one of the wealthiest and most powerful magnates in the kingdom. York
removed Somerset from his position and imprisoned him in the Tower of
London.
In 1455, Henry made a surprise recovery from his mental
instability, and reversed much of Richard of York's progress. Somerset
was released and restored to favour, and York was forced out of court
into exile. However, disaffected nobles, chiefly the Earl of Warwick and his father the Earl of Salisbury, backed the claims of the rival House of York to control of the government. Henry, Somerset, and a select council of nobles elected to hold a Great Council at Leicester
on 22 May, away from Somerset's enemies in London. Fearing that charges
of treason would be brought against them, York and his allies gathered
an army to intercept the royal party at St Albans, before they could reach the Council.
York's revolt (1455–1460)
St. Albans
Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York led a force of around 3,000–7,000 troops south toward London, where they were met by Henry's force of 2,000 at St Albans, north of London, on 22 May 1455. Though the ensuing struggle resulted in fewer than 160 casualties combined, it was a decisive Yorkist victory. King Henry VI had been taken prisoner by York's men, who had found the monarch hiding in a local tanner's shop, abandoned by his courtiers and advisors.
Despite the paucity of casualties on either side, many of York and the
Neville family's most influential foes were killed, including Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset, Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland, and Thomas Clifford, 8th Baron de Clifford. With the king in his custody and many of his key rivals dead, York was again appointed Lord Protector by Parliament, and the Yorkist faction regained their position of influence.
York's allies were soon in ascendancy thanks to the temporarily stabilised situation, particularly the young Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, who, in his capacity as Captain of Calais, had conducted anti-piracy operations in the English Channel. Warwick rapidly overtook his father, Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury, as York's key ally, protecting York from retribution in Parliament. Warwick's position as commander of the strategically important port of Calais also gave him command of England's largest standing army. Henry's consort, Margaret of Anjou, considered Warwick a serious threat to the throne and attempted to cut off his supplies, however a French attack on Sandwich
in August 1457 ignited fears of a French invasion, forcing Margaret to
concede and provide Warwick with the funding he required to protect the
realm.
However, in February 1456, Henry recovered his mental faculties, and
once again relieved York of his office as Lord Protector, reassuming
personal governance over the realm. Despite the tenuous peace, disorder was returning to the kingdom as sporadic fighting once more broke out between the Neville and Percy families. To quell the growing discontent, Henry attempted to broker a public display of reconciliation between the two sides at St. Paul's Cathedral on 25 March 1458, however, no sooner had the procession dispersed than the plotting resumed.
Meanwhile, as Henry attempted in vain to secure peace in England,
Warwick, in disregard of royal authority, had conducted attacks against
the Castilian fleet in May 1458, and against a fleet of the Hanseatic League a few weeks later. His position in Calais also enabled him to establish relations with Charles VII of France, and Philip the Good of Burgundy, international connections that would serve him in the future.
In response to the attacks, Warwick was summoned to London to face
inquiries along with York and Salisbury. However, fearing arrest once
they were isolated from their allies, they refused. York instead summoned the Nevilles to rendezvous at his stronghold of Ludlow Castle in the Welsh Marches; Warwick departed Calais with a portion of the garrison there to join the main Yorkist forces.
Margaret had not been idle during this time and had been actively
recruiting armed support for Henry, distributing a livery emblem of a
silver swan to knights and squires enlisted by her personally.
Before Warwick could join them, the Yorkist army of 5,000 troops under
Salisbury was ambushed by a Lancastrian force twice their size under James Tuchet, 5th Baron Audley at Blore Heath on 23 September 1459. The Lancastrian army was defeated, and Baron Audley himself killed in the fighting. In September, Warwick crossed over into England and made his way north to Ludlow. At nearby Ludford Bridge, the Yorkist forces were scattered due to the defection of Warwick's Calais troops under Andrew Trollope.
Forced to flee, York, who was still Lieutenant of Ireland, left for Dublin with his second son, Edmund, Earl of Rutland, while Warwick and Salisbury sailed to Calais accompanied by York's heir, Edward, Earl of March. The Lancastrian faction appointed the new Duke of Somerset, Henry Beaufort to replace Warwick in Calais, however, the Yorkists managed to retain the loyalty of the garrison. Fresh from their victory at Ludford Bridge, the Lancastrian faction assembled a "Parliament of Devils" at Coventry with the sole purpose of attainting York, his sons, Salisbury, and Warwick, however, the actions of this assembly caused many uncommitted lords to fear for their titles and property. In March 1460, Warwick sailed to Ireland under the protection of the Gascon Lord of Duras to concert plans with York, evading the royal fleet commanded by Henry Holland, 3rd Duke of Exeter, before they returned to Calais.
In late June 1460, Warwick, Salisbury, and Edward of March
crossed the Channel and rode north to London, where they enjoyed
widespread support. Salisbury was left with a force to besiege the Tower of London, while Warwick and March pursued Henry northward.
That September, York returned from Ireland, and, at the
Parliament of October that year, he made a symbolic gesture of his
intention to claim the English crown by placing his hand upon the
throne, an act which shocked the assembly. Even York's closest allies were not prepared to support such a move. Assessing York's claim, the judges felt that common law
principles could not determine who had priority in the succession, and
declared the matter "above the law and passed their learning".
Finding a lack of decisive support for his claim among the nobility who
at this stage had no desire to usurp Henry, a compromise was reached:
the Act of Accord was passed on 25 October 1460, which stated that following Henry's death, his son Edward would be disinherited, and the throne would pass to York. However, the compromise was quickly found to be unpalatable, and hostilities resumed.
Death of Richard of York
Queen Margaret and her son had fled to Lancastrian-held Harlech Castle, where they joined Henry's half-brother Jasper Tudor and Henry Holland, 3rd Duke of Exeter, who were recruiting troops in Wales and the West Country. Margaret headed north to Scotland, where she successfully negotiated the use of Scottish troops and other aid for the Lancastrian cause from Queen Regent Mary of Guelders, in return for the surrender of Berwick, which a year prior, James II of Scotland, using the turmoil of the war as an opportunity tried to retake as well as Roxburgh. The latter, though successful, cost him his life. A similar successful negotiation was made for the use of French troops and aid for the Lancastrians cause that same year, this time in return for the surrender of Jersey, thus having the Auld Alliance backing the Lancastrian side to prevent the Yorkist ruled England from joining the Burgundian State in its war with France, a scenario that neither ally had the stomach for. The Lancastrians rallied in the North of England, where the Percy family were gathering support. They were joined by Somerset and the Thomas Courtenay, 6th/14th Earl of Devon. York, his son the Earl of Rutland, and Salisbury left London to contain the Lancastrian threat in the north.
On 16 December 1460, York's vanguard clashed with Somerset's forces from the West Country at the Battle of Worksop, and was defeated. On 21 December, York reached his fortress of Sandal Castle near the town of Wakefield, with the Lancastrians encamped just 9 mi (14 km). For reasons unclear, York sortied from the castle on 30 December, and in the ensuing Battle of Wakefield, York, Rutland, and Warwick's younger brother Thomas Neville were all killed. Salisbury was captured the following night and executed.
Following the Yorkist defeat at Wakefield, Richard, 3rd Duke of York's 18-year-old son, Edward, Earl of March was now heir to the Dukedom of York, and thereby inherited Richard's claim to the throne. Edward sought to prevent the Lancastrian armies gathering under the Tudors in western England and Wales from joining the main Lancastrian forces opposing him in the north.
On 2 February 1461, he decisively defeated the Lancastrian armies at Mortimer's Cross, and the captured Owen Tudor, husband to Henry V's widow Catherine of Valois, was executed by his troops. As dawn broke across the field, a meteorological phenomenon known as parhelion
occurred, giving the appearance of a trio of suns rising. Edward calmed
his frightened troops by convincing them it represented the Holy Trinity, and therefore evidence of divine blessing upon their cause. Edward would later take the heraldic symbol of the sunne in splendour as his personal device.
In the north, having defeated and killed Richard, Margaret's troops and the victorious Lancastrians moved south, while Warwick, with the captive Henry in tow, moved his forces to meet them astride the ancient Roman road of Watling Street at St Albans. Warwick's forces were well-entrenched, but were ultimately defeated in the Second Battle of St Albans on 17 February.
Henry was freed by the Lancastrians, and knighted his young son Edward of Westminster, who in turn knighted thirty Lancastrian leaders.
Warwick and his troops marched to rendezvous with the Yorkist troops in
the Marches under Edward, fresh from their victory at Mortimer's Cross.
Although the Lancastrians had the strategic advantage after St Albans,
the Lancastrian cause was unpopular in London, and the citizenry refused
entry to Margaret's troops. Warwick and Edward, seizing the initiative,
marched rapidly to London, where Edward was proclaimed Edward IV of England by a hastily gathered assembly. Edward was a more attractive prospect as a monarch for the people of England; contemporaries such as Philippe de Commines describe him as energetic, handsome, affable,
and struck an imposing sight in full armour and resplendent clothing, a
deliberate move on the part of his supporters to contrast him with
Henry, whose physical and mental frailties had fatally undermined his
support.
To cement his position, Edward and Warwick moved north to
confront the Lancastrians. Warwick, leading the Yorkist vanguard,
inconclusively clashed with the Lancastrians at Ferrybridge on 28 March, at which Warwick was wounded, and the Lancastrian commanders, the BaronsClifford, and Neville (a distant relative of Warwick), were killed. Edward engaged the Lancastrian's main army the following day on 29 March near Towton, Yorkshire. The battle that followed was the largest and bloodiest ever fought on English soil, and resulted in a decisive triumph for Edward which broke the power of the Lancastrians in the north. The lynchpins of Lancastrian control in the royal court were either killed or fled the country; Henry Percy, 3rd Earl of Northumberland was killed, Andrew Trollope, one of the most astute Lancastrian field commanders, was also killed, while James Butler, 5th Earl of Ormond was captured and executed. Henry, Margaret, and their son Prince Edward fled north to Scotland. Edward returned to London for his coronation, while Warwick remained in the north to pacify further Lancastrian resistance.
The Battle of Towton confirmed to the English people that Edward was
the uncontested ruler of England, at least for the time being; as a result, Edward used this opportunity to employ a bill of attainder to forfeit the titles of 14 Lancastrian peers and 96 knights and minor members of the gentry.
Edward was formally crowned King of England on 28 June 1461 in Westminster Abbey. Edward sought to win the affections
of his vanquished foes; he pardoned many of the Lancastrians he
attainted following his victory at Towton after they submitted to his
rule, and permitted them to retain their property and titles.
For his part, Warwick benefited generously from Edward's patronage and became the most powerful noble in the country. He had inherited the lands and titles of both his parents, and was made High Admiral of England, Steward of the Duchy of Lancaster, along with several other offices of importance. In the summer of 1462, Warwick successfully negotiated a truce with Scotland, while at Piltown in Ireland, Yorkist forces under Thomas FitzGerald, 7th Earl of Desmonddecisively defeated the Lancastrians under John Butler, 6th Earl of Ormond, forcing the Ormonds into exile and ending Lancastrian designs on Ireland. That October, Margaret of Anjou invaded England with troops from France, and captured the castles of Alnwick and Bamburgh, although they were back in Yorkist hands within just three months.
In the spring of 1463, the north of England rose in revolt in support of Henry when Sir Ralph Percy laid siege to Norham Castle. Separate truces had been agreed with both Scotland and France by late 1463, allowing Warwick to recover much of the territory lost in the north by 1464. The main Lancastrian army moved south through Northumberland, however, it was destroyed by a Yorkist force under John Neville at Hexham on 15 May 1464. All three Lancastrian commanders, Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset, the Baron Ros, and the Baron Hungerford, were captured and executed. Yorkist troops captured the deposed king Henry in the woods near the River Ribble, and was taken to London where he was imprisoned in the Tower. With Somerset's army defeated and Henry captured, all effective resistance to Edward's rule had been wiped out.
Edward saw no profit in killing Henry while his son remained
alive, instead preferring to keep the Lancastrian claim with a frail
captive. Margaret and Prince Edward were compelled to leave Scotland and sailed for the court of Margaret's cousin, Louis XI of France, where they maintained an impoverished court in exile for many years.
With his position upon the throne secure, Edward was free to pursue
his domestic and foreign ambitions. Internationally, Edward favoured a strategic alliance with the Duchy of Burgundy but Warwick persuaded him to negotiate a treaty with Louis XI of France; at the negotiations, Warwick suggested Edward would be disposed to a marriage alliance with the French crown, the intended bride either being Louis' sister-in-law Bona of Savoy, or his daughter, Anne of France.
To his considerable embarrassment and rage, Warwick discovered in
October 1464 that four months earlier on 1 May, Edward had secretly
married Elizabeth Woodville, the widow of a Lancastrian noble.
Elizabeth had twelve siblings, some of whom married into prominent
families, turning the Woodvilles into a powerful political establishment
independent of Warwick's control. The move demonstrated that Warwick was not the power behind the throne as many had assumed and the marriage was criticised by Edward's Privy Councillors, who felt that marriage to a woman who was the daughter of neither a duke nor an earl was unbefitting a man of royal blood. Warwick attempted to restore his lost influence by accusing Elizabeth and her mother Jacquetta of Luxembourg of witchcraft, a ploy which failed but did not break the relationship between Warwick and Edward.
Edward's choice of bride plagued him politically for the rest of his reign.
Politically, it opened Edward up to accusations that Warwick had been
deceiving the French into believing the king was committed to the
marriage proposal. Elizabeth's family began to ascend to positions of great importance; Edward's father-in-law, the Earl Rivers, was appointed as Lord High Treasurer, and supported the king's position for a Burgundian alliance.
Without Warwick's knowledge, Edward had already concluded a treaty in
secret with Burgundy in October 1466, while leaving Warwick to continue
with doomed negotiations with the French court. In 1467, Edward removed Warwick's brother, the Archbishop of York, from his office of Lord Chancellor, while the king refused to entertain a marriage proposal between Warwick's eldest daughter, Isabel and Edward's brother, George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence. For various reasons, Clarence greatly resented his brother's interference. In 1468, Edward retook Jersey from the French.
Redesdale's rebellion
In April 1469, a rebellion broke out in Yorkshire under a leader known only as Robin of Redesdale. A second pro-Lancastrian revolt broke out the following month, which demanded the restoration of Henry Percy as Earl of Northumberland.The revolt was quickly crushed by the earl, John Neville, though he made little attempt to quell Redesdale's actions.
Warwick and Clarence had spent the summer assembling troops, officially
to suppress the revolt but in early July they travelled to Calais,
where Clarence and Isabel were married in a ceremony overseen by
Warwick. They returned to London, where they assembled their troops,
ostensibly to remove 'evil councillors' from the king's company and
re-establish good governance and moved north to link with the Yorkshire
rebels. Privately, Warwick hoped to depose Edward and install the nineteen-year-old Clarence on the throne.
Redesdale defeated royal troops at Edgcote on 26 July 1469; although Redesdale was reportedly killed, the two royal commanders, William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke and Humphrey Stafford, 1st Earl of Devon were both captured and executed. Elizabeth Woodville's father, Lord Rivers, and brother Sir John Woodville were apprehended and murdered. After the battle, Edward was taken captive by George Neville and held at Middleham Castle.
It soon became clear to the rebels that neither Warwick nor Clarence
enjoyed significant support, and unable to quell the growing disorder,
Edward was released in September of that year and re-assumed his duties
as king. In March 1470, Warwick and Clarence exploited political instabilities to incite the 1470 Lincolnshire Rebellion, hoping to lure Edward north where he could be taken by Warwick's men. On 12 March 1470, Edward routed the Yorkist rebels at the Battle of Losecoat Field and captured the rebel leader, the Baron Willoughby, who named Warwick and Clarence as the "partners and chief provokers" of the rebellion. Physical evidence also came to light which proved the complicity of the two men, who fled to France in May. Willoughby was beheaded and his lands seized.
Rebellion by Warwick and Readeption of Henry VI (1470–1471)
1885 lithograph portraying the rout of Warwick's forces at Barnet in the manner of Paolo Uccello
Seeking to capitalise on Warwick's disfavour with the king, Louis XI of France
arranged a reconciliation between Warwick and his bitter rival,
Margaret of Anjou, with the objective to restore Henry to the throne.
As part of the arrangement, Warwick agreed to marry his daughter Anne
to Edward of Westminster, Margaret and Henry's son and heir apparent;
while the marriage was solemnised, it may not have been consummated, as
Margaret was hoping to find a better match for her son once he became
king. Staging a diversionary uprising in the north, Warwick and Clarence launched a two-pronged invasion of England at Dartmouth and Plymouth on 13 September 1470. Warwick's brother, the Marquess of Montagu
joined him, bitter with the king that his support for the crown during
the preceding revolts did not result in the restoration of his earldom.
Edward rushed south to meet the invasion, while Montagu's forces
advanced from the north, and the king found himself surrounded. With few options, Edward, his younger brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and several hundred retainers fled to Flanders on 2 October, then part of the Duchy of Burgundy, his ally.
The Readeption of Henry VI restored him as king, a throne which Warwick was now indisputably in effective control of. In November, Edward was attainted, and his brother Clarence was awarded the title of Duke of York. Burgundy was ruled by Charles the Bold,
husband of Edward's sister Margaret. Charles rendered precious little
assistance to his brother-in-law, something Edward would never forget. However, unfortunately for Warwick and Clarence, Henry's new regime was precariously unstable; Edmund Beaufort, 4th Duke of Somerset held Warwick responsible for his father's death in 1455, and the ensuing internal disputes eventually left Warwick and Clarence politically isolated. With the backing of Flemish merchants, Edward landed at Ravenspurn in Yorkshire on 14 March 1471, supported by the Earl of Northumberland. Edward was joined by troops under Sir William Parr and Sir James Harrington, a move which convinced Clarence, who was politically disadvantaged by his agreement with the Lancastrians, to abandon Warwick and Henry and join his brother. Edward's army made rapidly for London, where they took the by now feeble king Henry prisoner and sent him to the Tower of London.
Poor weather contained French troops under Margaret and Edward of
Westminster on the continent, preventing Warwick from being reinforced. Despite this and Clarence's defection, Warwick marched in pursuit of Edward's growing army, and the two sides met in battle at Barnet on 14 April 1471. Poor visibility due to thick mist and the similarity of Edward's heraldic sun to the Earl of Oxford's star led to the Lancastrians attacking their own men, and, coupled with Edward's determined attack, Warwick's army was destroyed. During the rout, Warwick was unhorsed and killed, along with his brother the John Neville, 1st Marquess of Montagu, while Henry Holland, 3rd Duke of Exeter was apprehended and imprisoned in the Tower of London.
In 1475, Exeter would be sent on a Yorkist expedition to France, where
he was reputed to have fallen overboard while at sea, and drowned
without any witnesses. Warwick's defeat and death was a catastrophic blow for the Lancastrian cause, and the Neville family's political influence was irrevocably broken.
The return of Henry VI to the throne did not last long. Though the
Nevilles had been defeated, on the same day of the clash at Barnet,
Margaret had managed to land her forces at Weymouth, and augmented her army with recruits from the Welsh Marches. Despite the heavy defeat they had suffered at Barnet, survivors from the battle rallied around the Lancastrian queen. Edward moved to intercept the Lancastrian army, realising they are attempting to cross the River Severn into Wales. Acting upon correspondence sent by Henry VI, Sir Richard Beauchamp, governor of Gloucester, barred the gates to Margaret's troops, preventing the Lancastrians from crossing in time. On 4 May 1471, Edward intercepted and engaged Margaret's army at Tewkesbury, defeating it. Henry VI and Margaret's only son, Edward of Westminster, was killed by Clarence's men, while the Duke of Somerset and John Courtenay, 15th Earl of Devon were both killed.
The royal propagandist of the Historie of the arrivall of Edward IV
suggests the royal army was, "though small, well-armed and determined"
and that Edward claimed he had returned solely for his duchy of York. However, Henry VI could not start raising a force of any numbers until well to the south (of England), in Lord Hastings's estates in the Midlands (about 3,000 men in Nottingham, where he was joined by William Parr and James Harrington,
with their personal forces of sixty men-at-arms). Whereas, in the
north, came "not so many as supposed would have come", reported the Arrivalist.
Edward IV entered London on 21 May. Henry VI died that night, or
soon afterwards, perhaps on Edward's orders. A contemporary chronicle
(favourable to Edward IV) reported Henry's death as caused by
"melancholy" after hearing of his son's death. It is widely suspected however, that with Henry's only heir dead, Edward had ordered the former king's murder. Margaret of Anjou was imprisoned until she was ransomed by Louis XI in 1475 to France, where she would live for the remainder of her life, dying on 25 August 1482.
Second reign of Edward IV
With
the defeats at Barnet and Tewkesbury, armed Lancastrian resistance
appeared to be at an end. However, Edward IV's regime was progressively
fractured by a worsening feud between his brothers, George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence and Richard, Duke of Gloucester. On 22 December 1476, Clarence's wife Isabel died. Clarence accused one of the late Isabel's ladies-in-waiting, Ankarette Twynyho, of having murdered her, and, in turn, Clarence murdered
her. Ankarette's grandson received a retrospective pardon for Ankarette
from Edward in 1478, illustrating the quasi-monarchical attitude of
Clarence which Edward was growing wary of. In 1477, Clarence was proposed as a suitor for Mary, who had just become Duchess of Burgundy, but Edward objected to the match, and Clarence left the royal court.
For his part, Gloucester was married to Anne Neville; both Anne and Isabel were daughters of the Countess of Warwick, and therefore heirs to their mother's considerable fortune.
Many of the estates held by the two brothers had been bestowed upon
them by Edward's patronage (who retained the right to revoke them). This
was not the case with property acquired through marriage; this
difference fuelled the disagreement.
Clarence continued to fall out of favour with Edward; persistently
widespread claims he was involved in a revolt against Edward led to his
imprisonment and execution at the Tower of London on 18 February 1478.
Edward's reign was relatively peaceful domestically; in 1475 he invaded France, however he signed the Treaty of Picquigny with Louis XI whereby Edward withdrew after receiving an initial payment of 75,000 crowns plus an annual pension of 50,000 crowns,
while in 1482, he attempted to usurp the Scottish throne but was
ultimately compelled to withdraw back to England. Nevertheless, they
were successful in retaking Berwick.
In 1483, Edward's health began to fail and he fell fatally ill that
Easter. Prior to his death, he named his brother Richard to act as Lord
Protector for his twelve-year-old son and successor, Edward. On 9 April 1483, Edward IV died.
Yorkist rule under Richard III and defeat (1483–1485)
Overview
Richard III (2 October 1452 – 22 August 1485) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. His defeat and death at the Battle of Bosworth Field, the last battle of the Wars of the Roses, marked the end of the Middle Ages in England. Richard was created Duke of Gloucester in 1461 after the accession of his brother King Edward IV. In 1472, he married Anne Neville, daughter of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick. He governed northern England during Edward's reign, and played a role in the invasion of Scotland in 1482. When Edward IV died in April 1483, Richard was named Lord Protector of the realm for Edward's eldest son and successor, the 12-year-old Edward V.
Arrangements were made for Edward V's coronation on 22 June 1483.
Before the king could be crowned, the marriage of his parents was
declared bigamous and therefore invalid.
Officially illegitimate, their children were barred from
inheriting the throne. On 25 June, an assembly of lords and commoners
endorsed a declaration to this effect and proclaimed Richard as the
rightful king. He was crowned on 6 July 1483. Edward and his younger
brother Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, called the "Princes in the Tower",
were not seen in public after August and accusations circulated that
they had been murdered on King Richard's orders, after the Tudor dynasty
established their rule a few years later. There were two big rebellions
against Richard during his reign. In October 1483, an revolt was led by
staunch allies of Edward IV and Richard's former ally, Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham. Then, in August 1485, Henry Tudor and his uncle, Jasper Tudor, landed in southern Wales with a contingent of French troops and marched through Pembrokeshire, recruiting soldiers. Henry's forces defeated Richard's army near the Leicestershire town of Market Bosworth. Richard was slain, making him the last English king to die in battle. Henry Tudor ascended the throne as Henry VII.
Edward V's claims to the throne
King Richard III reigned 1483–1485 as the final York monarch (artist unknown)
During Edward IV's reign, his brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester had risen to become the most powerful magnate in the north of England, particularly in the city of York where his popularity was high. Prior to his death, the king had named Richard as Lord Protector to act as regent to his twelve-year-old son, Edward V. Richard's allies, particularly Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham and the powerful and wealthy Baron William Hastings, the Lord Chamberlain, urged Richard to bring a strong force to London to counter any move the Woodville family might make. Richard departed Yorkshire for London, where he intended to meet the young king at Northampton and travel to London together. Following Edward IV's death, the Dowager QueenElizabeth instructed her brother, Anthony Woodville, Earl Rivers, to escort her son Edward V to London with an armed escort of 2,000 men.
However, upon reaching Northampton, Richard discovered that the king had already been sent onward to Stony Stratford in Buckinghamshire.
In response, and to forestall any Woodville family attempts on his
person, on 30 April 1483, Richard had Earl Rivers, Edward's half-brother
Richard Grey, and Edward's chamberlain Thomas Vaughan arrested and sent to the north. Richard and Edward journeyed to London together, where the young king took up residence at the Tower of London on 19 May 1483, joined the following month by his younger brother, Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York.
Richard III takes the throne
Despite his assurances to the contrary, Richard had Earl Rivers, Grey, and Vaughan beheaded in June 1483.
Acting as Lord Protector, Richard repeatedly stalled the coronation of
Edward V, despite the urging of the king's councillors, who wished to
avoid another protectorate. That same month, Richard accused the Lord Chamberlain, the Baron Hastings, of treason, and had him executed without trial on 13 June.
Hastings had been popular, and his death created considerable
controversy, not least because his loyalty to Edward and his continued
presence would have presented a major obstacle to Richard's path to
securing the throne. A clergyman, likely Robert Stillington, the Bishop of Bath and Wells, informed Richard that Edward IV's marriage to Elizabeth Woodville was invalid because of Edward's earlier union to Eleanor Butler, thereby making Edward V and his siblings illegitimate heirs to the throne.
On 22 June, the selected date for Edward's coronation, a sermon was preached outside St. Paul's Cathedral declaring Richard the rightful king, a post which the citizenry petitioned Richard to accept. Richard accepted four days later, and was crowned at Westminster Abbey on 6 July 1483.
Conflicts and actions against opposing claims
Edward and his brother Richard of Shrewsbury, who were still in residence in the Tower of London, had completely disappeared by the summer of 1483.
The fate of the two princes following their disappearance remains a
mystery to this day, however, the most widely accepted explanation is
that they were murdered on the orders of Richard III.
Woodville proposed to strengthen Henry's claim by marrying him to her daughter Elizabeth of York,
the only living heir to Edward IV. Convinced of the need for Yorkist
support, Henry promised his hand to Elizabeth well before his planned
invasion of England, a factor which caused many Yorkists to abandon Richard.
By September 1483, a conspiracy against Richard began to be formulated
among members of the disaffected English gentry, many of whom had been
staunch supporters of Edward IV and his heirs.
Buckingham's Rebellion
Since Edward IV had regained the throne in 1471, Henry Tudor had lived in exile at the court of Francis II, Duke of Brittany.
Henry was half-guest half-prisoner, since Francis regarded Henry, his
family, and his courtiers as valuable bargaining tools to barter for the
aid of England, particularly in conflicts with France, and therefore
shielded the exiled Lancastrians well, repeatedly refusing to surrender
them. Henry, in particular, was supported by the Breton treasurer Pierre Landais, who hoped that an overthrow of Richard would cement a joint Anglo-Breton alliance. Now in alliance with Richard's former supporter, Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham,
Francis provided Henry with 40,000 gold crowns, 15,000 troops, and a
fleet of ships to invade England. However, Henry's forces were scattered
by a storm, compelling Henry to abandon the invasion. Nevertheless, Buckingham had already launched a revolt against Richard on 18 October 1483 with the aim of installing Henry as king. Buckingham raised a substantial number of troops from his Welsh estates, and planned to join his brother the Earl of Devon.
However, without Henry's troops, Richard easily defeated
Buckingham's rebellion, and the defeated duke was captured, convicted of
treason, and executed in Salisbury on 2 November 1483.
Following the rebellion in January 1484, Richard stripped Elizabeth
Woodville of all the lands bestowed upon her during her late husband's
reign. For the sake of outward appearances, the two appeared to reconcile.
Following Buckingham's failed revolt, some 500 Englishmen fled to Rennes, the capital of Brittany to join Henry in exile.
Richard opened negotiations with Francis for Henry's extradition to
England, however, the Duke continued to refuse, hoping for the
possibility of extracting more generous concessions from Richard in
exchange.
By mid-1484, Francis was incapacitated from illness, leaving Landais to
take the reins of government. Richard made overtures to Landais,
offering military support to defend Brittany against a possible French
attack; Landais agreed, however, Henry escaped to France by mere hours. Henry was warmly received at the court of Charles VIII of France, who supplied Henry with resources for his coming invasion.
Upon the recovery of Francis II, Charles offered the remaining
Lancastrians in Brittany safe conduct to France, paying for their
expenses himself. For Charles, Henry and his supporters were useful
political pawns to ensure Richard did not intervene with French designs
on the acquisition of Brittany.
On 16 March 1485, Richard's wife, Anne Neville, died. Rumours quickly spread that she had been murdered to allow Richard to marry his niece, Elizabeth of York, rumours which alienated Richard's northern supporters.
Richard's marriage to Elizabeth had the potential of unravelling the
Tudor plans, and split the Yorkists who supported Henry from their
cause. Henry secured the patronage of the French regent Anne of Beaujeu, who supplied him with 2,000 troops in support. Overseas, Henry relied heavily on his mother Margaret of Beaufort to raise troops and support for him in England.
Anxious to press his claim, with the backing of the Woodvilles, Henry
set sail from France on 1 August with a force consisting of his English
and Welsh exiles, along with a large contingent of French and Scottish
troops, landing near Dale, Pembrokeshire, in Wales. Henry's return to his Welsh homeland was regarded by some as the fulfilment of a Messianic prophecy, as "the youth of Brittany defeating the Saxons" and restore their country to glory. Henry amassed an army of approximately 5,000 troops to confront Richard.
Richard's lieutenant in Wales, Sir Walter Herbert, failed to move
against Henry, and two of his officers deserted to the Tudor claimant
with their troops. Richard's lieutenant in West Wales, Rhys ap Thomas, also defected. By mid-August, Henry crossed the English border, advancing on Shrewsbury.
Richard, who had been well-informed of Henry's movements, had ordered a mobilisation of his troops. The powerful Stanleys
had assembled their bannermen upon hearing of Henry's landing; while
they had been communicating on friendly terms with Henry both prior to
and during his landfall in England, their forces were a wildcard, and would not support Henry until a decisive juncture in the coming battle. On 22 August 1485, Henry Tudor's outnumbered forces engaged Richard's army in the Battle of Bosworth Field. Stanley's forces entered the fray on behalf of Henry, decisively defeating Richard's army. Polydore Vergil,
Henry's official historian, records that "King Richard, alone, was
killed fighting manfully in the thickest press of his enemies", and became the last English king to die in battle. Richard's ally the Earl of Northumberland fled, while the Duke of Norfolk was killed, and Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey was taken captive. Henry claimed the throne by right of conquest, retroactively dating his claim to the day prior to Richard's defeat.
Henry was crowned as Henry VII of England on 30 October 1485 in Westminster Abbey. As per his pledge, Henry married Elizabeth of York on 18 January 1486, and Elizabeth gave birth to their first child just 8 months later, Prince Arthur. The couple's marriage appears to have been a happy one; Henry in particular was noted for being uncharacteristically faithful for a king of the time. Henry and Elizabeth's marriage united the rival Lancastrian and Yorkist
claims since their children would inherit the claims of both dynasties;
however, paranoia persisted that anyone with blood ties to the
Plantagenets were secretly coveting the throne.
Challengers to Henry VII
Despite the union of the two dynasties, Henry's position as king was not immediately secure. That same year he faced a rebellion of the Stafford brothers, aided and abetted by Viscount Lovell, but the revolt collapsed without any open fighting. The Stafford brothers claimed sanctuary at a church belonging to Abingdon Abbey in Culham, however, Henry had the Staffords forcibly removed by the knight Sir John Savage on 14 May and tried before the Court of the King's Bench, which ruled that sanctuary was inapplicable in matters of treason. Protests over Henry's actions were lodged with Pope Innocent VIII, which resulted in a papal bull that agreed to some modifications over the right of sanctuary. Henry also dealt with other potential threats to his reign; the heir to the male-line Yorkist claim was Edward, Earl of Warwick, the ten-year-old son of Edward IV's brother, George, Duke of Clarence. Henry had Warwick arrested and imprisoned at the Tower of London.
Lincoln's rebellion
Around
this time, a Yorkist-sympathising priest by the name of Richard Symonds
had noticed a striking similarity between a young boy, Lambert Simnel, and Richard of Shrewsbury, one of the Princes in the Tower,
and began tutoring the boy in the manners of the royal court, perhaps
hoping to put forth Simnel as an impostor Prince Richard.
The rumour spread that Edward IV's children were still alive, however,
the false report of the death of the imprisoned Earl of Warwick changed
the impersonation, who was roughly the same age as Simnel. John de la Pole, 1st Earl of Lincoln, who himself had a claim on the throne as a Plantagenet descendant and Richard III's nephew, left the royal court on 19 March 1487 for Burgundy to capitalise on the rumours. His aunt, Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy
provided him with financial and military support. The Yorkist exiles
sailed for Ireland, where the Yorkist cause was popular, to gather
support. Simnel was proclaimed King Edward VI in Dublin despite Henry's efforts to quell the rumours, which included parading the real Earl of Warwick through the streets of London.
While nominally supporting the impostor king, Lincoln likely saw the
whole affair as an opportunity to claim the throne for himself.
Lincoln had no intention of remaining in Ireland, and with
Simnel, 2,000 German mercenaries and an additional large host of Irish
troops, landed on Piel Island in Lancashire and proceeded to march on York. Though the Yorkist march avoided Henry's main army, they were repeatedly harassed by Tudor cavalry under Sir Edward Woodville. While Henry's army was outnumbered, they were far better equipped than the Yorkists, and Henry's two principal commanders, Jasper Tudor and John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford, were more experienced than any of the Yorkist leaders. The two armies met in battle at Stoke Field on 16 June 1487, and resulted in the destruction of the Yorkist force. The Earl of Lincoln was killed in the fighting, while the Viscount Lovell disappeared, likely to Scotland.
Henry pardoned the young Simnel, likely recognising he was merely a
puppet in the hands of adults, and put him to work in the royal kitchens
as a spit-turner. Simnel later became a falconer, and died around 1534.
Henry persuaded the Pope to excommunicate the Irish clergy who
supported the revolt, and had Symonds imprisoned, but not executed. Stoke Field proved to be the last military engagement of the Wars of the Roses.
Warbeck's rebellion
In 1491, Perkin Warbeck, a young man hired in the service of a Breton merchant, was regarded favourably as an inheritor of the Yorkist claim to the throne by the pro-York citizens of Cork in Ireland, who allegedly decided to put Warbeck forth as an impostor Richard of Shrewsbury.
Warbeck first claimed the throne at the Burgundian court in 1490,
claiming to indeed be Richard, and that he had been spared due to his
young age. He was publicly recognised as Richard by Margaret of York, sister of Edward IV, and was recognised as Richard IV of England at the funeral of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III, and had become recognised as the Duke of York in international diplomacy, despite Henry's protests. Some nobles in England were prepared to recognise Warbeck as Richard, including Sir Simon Montfort, Sir William Stanley, Sir Thomas Thwaites,
and Sir Robert Clifford. Clifford, who visited Warbeck, wrote back to
his allies in England confirming Warbeck's identity as the lost prince.
In January 1495, Henry crushed the conspiracy with six of the
conspirators imprisoned and fined, while Montfort, Stanley, and several
others were executed. Warbeck courted the Scottish royal court, where he was well received by James IV, who hoped to use Warbeck as leverage in international diplomacy.
In September 1496, James invaded England with Warbeck, however the army
was forced to withdraw when it expended its supplies, and support for
Warbeck in the north failed to materialise. Having now fallen out of favour with James, Perkin sailed to Waterford.
On 7 September 1497, Warbeck landed in Cornwall, hoping to capitalise
on the Cornish people's resentment to Henry VII's unpopular taxes,which had induced them into revolt just three months earlier. Warbeck's presence triggered a second revolt; he was declared as Richard IV on Bodmin Moor, and his army of 6,000 Cornishmen advanced on Taunton.
However, when Warbeck received word the king's troops were in the area,
he panicked and deserted his army. Warbeck was captured, imprisoned,
and on 23 November 1499, he was hanged.
That same year, Henry had the captive Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick,
who had shared a cell with Warbeck and made an escape attempt together,
executed. With Warwick's death, the direct male-line descent of the
Plantagenet dynasty was rendered extinct.
Impact
Immediate social effects
Some
historians question the impact the wars had on the fabric of English
society and culture; revisionists, such as the Oxford historian K. B. McFarlane, suggests that the effects of the conflict were greatly exaggerated. Many parts of England were largely unaffected by the wars, particularly East Anglia.
In the densely populated regions of the country, both factions had far
more to lose by the ruin of the country through protracted sieges and pillaging, and sought a quick resolution to the conflict through a pitched battle. The lengthy sieges that did occur, such as at Harlech and Bamburgh were in comparatively remote and sparsely populated areas. Contemporaries such as Philippe de Commines
observed in 1470 that England was a unique case compared to wars that
befell the continent, in that the consequences of war were only visited
upon soldiers and nobles, not citizens and private property.
The instability caused by the Wars of the Roses allowed nobles to
take advantage and promote their own position at the expense of others.
This was because the 15th century CE witnessed the phenomenon of
'bastard feudalism' which involved the partial degradation of medieval
feudalism. Rich landowners were able to possess private armies of
retainers, accumulate wealth, and diminish the power of the Crown at a
local level. Many areas undertook little effort to improve their defences; city walls
were either left in prior ruinous states or only partially rebuilt, as
was the case in London,
whereby the citizenry was able to avoid devastation by persuading the
Yorkist and Lancastrian troops to stay out, after the inability to
reconstruct adequate walls, thereby rendering the city indefensible.
"It is true that the wars were largely fought between nobles and their
private armies, and they were also intermittent with fewer than 24
months of actual fighting over the entire period. Nevertheless, the
local populace was sometimes dragged into the conflict, especially if
nobles formed militia from their estate workers."
Among the lords, few noble houses were extinguished entirely by
the wars; between 1425 and 1449, before the outbreak of fighting, there
were as many extinctions of noble lines from natural causes (25), as
occurred between 1450 and 1474 (24), during the heaviest period of
combat. However, several preeminent noble families had their power crippled because of the fighting, such as the Neville family, while the direct male line of the Plantagenet dynasty
was rendered extinct. Nevertheless, every subsequent monarch of England
and its successor states has been a direct descendant of Edward III of
England through three of his sons, but through the female line. The
reign of the monarchy was broken briefly only by Cromwell's Commonwealth of England and The Protectorate.
Despite the relative paucity of violence undertaken against
civilians, the wars claimed the lives of 105,000 people, approximately
5.5 per cent of the population in 1450. By 1490 England had experienced a 12.6 per cent increase in population compared to 1450, despite the wars.
Question of succession
Henry VIII of England's anxiety over producing a male heir was driven by fears of a continuation of the Wars of the Roses
Although there would be no more serious military threat to Henry's
rule or the Tudor claim to the throne that threatened a repeat of the
Wars of the Roses, individuals claiming descent from the Plantagenets
continued to present challenges to the Tudor dynasty; when Henry
ascended the throne, there were eighteen Plantagenet descendants who may
be considered to have a stronger claim to the throne, and by 1510 this
number had increased by the birth of sixteen Yorkist children. The De La Pole family continued to lay claim to the throne; Edmund de la Pole, 3rd Duke of Suffolk, brother of the executed Earl of Lincoln, was executed in 1513 by Henry VIII for this claim, while his brother Richard, known as the White Rose and who had conspired to invade England to claim the throne, was killed in battle at Pavia in 1525.
As late as 1600, before the death of Elizabeth I, there were twelve competitors for succession, which included seven Plantagenet descendants. The Tudor dynasty's
tenuous claim to the throne and the potentially stronger claims of
Plantagenet inheritors was a significant factor in driving Henry VIII's
considerable anxiety over the need to produce a male heir.
Henry was well aware of the potential instability that could follow a
succession crisis, and wished to avoid a repeat of the Wars of the
Roses.
Tudor dynasty
The
English monarchy prior to the wars exerted only weak influence, unable
to prevent the growing factional rivalries that undermined the political
structure of the country. When Henry VII ascended the throne, he inherited a government that had been significantly weakened.
Although the Tudor claim on the throne was weak and the new regime
faced several rebellions, Henry's rule provided much-needed stability to
the realm that prevented further outbreaks of war. Trade, commerce, and
culture flourished and war would not return to England for 155 years. Upon his death, Henry VII had left to his successors a thriving economy, in part thanks to his frugal spending. Slavin (1964) considers Henry VII to be a member of the "New Monarchs", defined as a ruler who centralised power in the monarchy and unified their nation.
Though the monarchy saw a strengthening under the Tudors, they
generally operated within the established legal and financial
boundaries, which compelled the monarch to cooperate closely with the
nobility, rather than against them. Tudor monarchs, particularly Henry VIII, defined the concept of the "divine right of kings" to help reinforce monarchical authority, a philosophical concept which would come to plague England under the reign of Charles I, leading to the English Civil War.
The ascension of the Tudor dynasty saw the end of the dawn of the English Renaissance, an offshoot of the Italian Renaissance, that saw a revolution in art, literature, music, and architecture. The English Reformation, England's break with the Roman Catholic Church, occurred under the Tudors, which saw the establishment of the Anglican Church, and the rise of Protestantism as England's dominant religious denomination.
Henry VIII's need for a male heir, impelled by the potential for a
crisis of succession that dominated the Wars of the Roses, was the prime
motivator influencing his decision to separate England from Rome. The reign of Henry VIII's daughter, Elizabeth I, is considered by historians to be a golden age in English history, and is widely remembered today as the Elizabethan era.
Historian John Guy
argued that "England was economically healthier, more expansive, and
more optimistic under the Tudors" than at any time since the Roman
occupation. Historians such as Kendall, Walpole, and Buck
contend that the characterisation of the Wars of the Roses as a period
of bloodshed and lawlessness, contrasted with the Tudors ushering in a
period of law, peace, and prosperity, served the political interests of
the Tudors to present the new regime positively. Contemporaries of the Tudors, such as William Shakespeare and Sir Thomas More, wrote fictional and non-fictional works respectively which were hostile to the Yorkists, particularly Richard III. Horspool
observes that More's work (which likely influenced Shakespeare) was a
private endeavour published only after his death, as opposed to a
state-sponsored commission.
Armies and warfare
Strategy
Military strategy in the medieval period was predominated by siege warfare;
fortifications provided a powerful bastion of defence for a regional
populace to shelter from large-scale pillaging that characterised groups
such as the Vikings or Mongols, and castles
evolved as a central point of control and protection for local elites
to exercise their authority over a given area. Fortifications also
nullified the dominant weapon of the medieval battlefield: heavy cavalry. Pitched battles were generally rare compared to the Classical period due to a dramatic reduction in logistical capability,
and those that were fought tended to be decisive encounters that risked
the deaths of the leaders and the potential destruction of the army as a
fighting force, discouraging them from taking place.
The Wars of the Roses were anomalous in this regard; nobles had a great
deal to lose by the ruin of the countryside in a protracted conflict,
so they tended to deliberately seek pitched battles to resolve their
grievances quickly and decisively.
Battlefield
Decline of chivalry
The code of chivalry
governed the actions of nobles in medieval warfare; in particular,
nobles would often go to great lengths to take a fellow noble prisoner
during combat in order to ransom them for a sum of money, rather than simply killing them. However, the concept of chivalry had been in decline for many years prior to the Wars of the Roses; for example, the battle at Crecy
in 1346 (over a century prior) saw the cream of French nobility cut
down by English archers, and the killing of many wounded French knights
by common soldiers. The Wars of the Roses continued this trend; Edward IV was noted by contemporary Philippe de Commines as ordering his troops to spare common soldiers and kill the nobles.
Ensuring the deaths of nobles in battle often led to one side wielding
lopsided political control in the aftermath as a result, as occurred
after Towton at which 42 captured knights were executed, and Barnet, which irrevocably broke the influence of the powerful Neville family. Nobles who escaped battle may be attainted, thereby being stripped of their lands and titles, and would therefore be of no value to a captor.
Knights during the Wars of the Roses typically valued money,
land, and sabotaging other factions, even within or allied to the same
house, they perceived as not supporting them enough.
Tactics, arms, and equipment
Much like their campaigns in France, the English gentry fought on foot. Though heavy cavalry had been the dominant class of soldier on the medieval battlefield for centuries, the relative inexpensiveness to train and outfit an infantryman compared to an expensive mounted knight incentivised leaders for expanding their use, and the late medieval battlefield saw an increased use of infantry and light cavalry. In particular, English armies were characterised by their use of massed longbowmen, which often proved decisive in their encounters with French cavalry, however, as the English nobility fought on foot, and due to advances in fluted plate armour, neither side possessed a decisive tactical advantage from the use of these archers. An exception to this was at Towton,
where the Yorkist archers took advantage of the high winds to extend
their maximum range, dealing disproportionate damage to their
Lancastrian opponents.
English armies of the time tended to favour a mix between infantry equipped with bills supported by massed longbowmen, a combination they would continue to use well into the Tudor period. Despite their frequent association with medieval warfare, swords were rare among the common soldiery and were instead favoured by men-at-arms or knights as a personal weapon indicating prestige and wealth. Other weapons commonly used by infantry and men-at-arms include axes, halberds, crossbows, and daggers. Hand cannon and arquebuses were used by both sides, however their numbers were limited. While artillery was used as early as 1346 at Crecy, these were crude ribauldequins firing metal arrows or simple grapeshot, and were rendered obsolete by the bombards that came in the late 15th century. Bamburgh Castle, previously thought impregnable, was captured thanks to bombards in 1464. Field artillery was used but sparingly; Northampton was the first battle on English soil to use artillery. Early cannon were expensive to cast as they were often made from bronze, as such few commanders were willing to risk their capture on the field; at Barnet in 1471, the Yorkist artillery withheld their fire so as not to betray their location.
The invention of the blast furnace in Sweden in the mid-14th century increased and improved iron production, which led to advances in plate armour to protect soldiers from the powerful crossbows, longbows, and the advent of gunpowder weaponry, such as the hand cannon and the arquebus, that began to emerge around the same time. By the 15th century, plate armour had become cheaper than mail,
although mail continued to be used to protect joints which could not be
adequately protected by plate, such as the armpit, crook of the elbow,
and groin. Contrary to the popular preconception of medieval armour as excessively heavy, a full suit of medieval armour in the 15th century seldom weighed more than 15 kg (33 lbs), substantially less than the loads that modern ground combat troops carry.
Recruitment
Half of an indenture contract, the randomly cut (or indented) edge at the top proves a match to the counterpart document
Following the climax of the Hundred Years' War,
large numbers of experienced unemployed soldiers returned to England
seeking work in the growing forces of the local nobility. England
drifted towards misrule and violence as feuds between powerful families,
such as the Percy-Neville feud, increasingly relied on their retainers to settle disputes. It became common practice for local landowners to bind their mesnie knights to their service with annual payments. Edward III had developed a contractual system whereby the monarch entered into agreements named indentures
with experienced captains who were obliged to provide an agreed-upon
number of men, at established rates, for a given period. Knights,
men-at-arms, and archers were often sub-contracted. Skilled archers could often command wages as high as knights. The complex feudal structures that existed in England enabled nobles to raise large retinues, with armies large enough that could challenge the power of the crown.
Lancastrians are those who supported the Lancastrian claim to the throne, principally by supporting the incumbent monarch, Henry VI.
Tudors are those who supported Henry VII's claim to the throne by right of conquest in 1485.
Yorkist rebels are Yorkists who, while not aligned with the
claims of the Lancastrian dynasty, nevertheless rebelled against Edward
IV during his reign.
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