History Fix

Ep. 128 War of the Roses: How the Real Life Game of Thrones Ended With An Unexpected Victor

• Shea LaFountaine • Episode 128

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Link to family tree! Game of Thrones is typically considered to be the most popular television show of all time based on its massive global reach and deep cultural impact. If you haven’t seen it, it’s an 8 season historical fantasy series based on a book series by George R. R. Martin about different houses, different families, the Starks, the Lannisters, the Targaryens, the Baratheons, all battling and plotting and backstabbing each other to try to sit on the iron throne. It’s pretty awesome. It’s definitely worth watching. But this episode isn’t about Game of Thrones, not the fictional one anyway. It’s about the real life game of thrones that went down in 15th century England, the inspiration for the books and the show, the War of the Roses. In today's story the House of Lancaster and the House of York will duke it out, not for the iron throne, but for the throne of England an an unlikely victor will arise. 

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Game of Thrones is typically considered to be the most popular television show of all time based on its massive global reach and deep cultural impact. If you haven’t seen it, it’s an 8 season historical fantasy series based on a book series by George R. R. Martin about different houses, different families, the Starks, the Lannisters, the Targaryens, the Baratheons, all battling and plotting and backstabbing each other to try to sit on the iron throne. It’s pretty awesome. It’s definitely worth watching. But this episode isn’t about Game of Thrones, not the fictional one anyway. It’s about the real life game of thrones that went down in 15th century England, the inspiration for the books and the show, the War of the Roses. Let’s fix that.  


Hello, I’m Shea LaFountaine and you’re listening to History Fix where I discuss lesser known true stories from history you won’t be able to stop thinking about. The War of the Roses, the real life inspiration for the wildly popular Game of Thrones TV series. No, there weren’t really zombies or dragons but the true story is every bit as riveting. So we’re going back once again my friends, into Tudorland. We’re going to get this whole diabolical family hammered out here soon. I know I’m sort of jumping around chronologically but whatever that’s just how it’s coming out. Go with it. This story really predates the Tudors by quite a bit but it explains how they came to sit on the English throne. 


This story is awesome, obviously or it wouldn’t be the inspiration for epic works of fiction like Game of Thrones but also like multiple Shakespeare plays, Richard II, Henry VI parts 1, 2, and 3, Richard III. Shakespeare was super into the War of the Roses too. And it’s no surprise really, this is an incredibly fascinating true story. But it’s also very potentially very confusing. Everyone’s name is either Edward, Richard, or Henry and they’re not even all fathers and sons. Like, Richard II was not Richard III’s father. Edward III was not Edward IV’s father. Henry VI was not Henry VII’s father. It’s very confusing but I’m gonna do my thing and make it the least amount confusing and the most amount interesting that I possibly can. Challenge accepted. 


Okay, the first thing you should know is that this conflict was not called the War of the Roses at the time. It wasn’t called that actually until the 1800s. It was just called the civil wars. These were a series of violent conflicts, battles, wars between two branches of the same family that were both trying to gain control of the English throne, the Lancasters and the Yorks. Now, back in the day, prominent families like this would have a symbol that represented them. Right, like in Game of Thrones, for example, the symbol of the Stark family is a direwolf. Which is a real animal you guys, oh my gosh I’m about to spiral so hard, I can’t. Just so quick direwolves were extinct and we just used science, de-extinction technology to bring them back from extinction. So crazy and so unrelated to this story that I have to stop there but just google direwolf you’ll get so sucked in. So the Starks have the direwolf, the Lannisters are a lion, the Baratheons are a stag, etc. etc. In this story, the symbol of the house of York was a white rose and then, later actually after this conflict, the Lancasters adopted a red rose as their symbol so that’s why, much later, it became known as the war of the roses. Some people also refer to it as the cousin wars which will make sense as we dig into what caused all of this. 


So what did cause all of this? Oddly enough, this story starts at almost the exact same place as the story of Joan of Arc a few weeks ago, episode 123. That story was really the story of the Hundred Years War between England and France for control of French territory and the French crown. Both that story and this story start with the same man, Edward III, King of England. Edward was part of the Plantagenet dynasty that ruled England for 331 years between 1154 and 1485. These kings, these Plantagenets were actually French originally. They were all descendents of a French count named Geoffrey of Anjou. The son of this count, Henry II acquired the English throne back in 1154, beginning the Plantagenet dynasty. Seven kings later we have Edward III, the fifth great grandson of Henry II. Edward was also the grandson of the French king which is how he got wrapped up in the start of the hundred years war with France but that was the Joan of Arc episode, we’re talking about a different war this week. Edward and his wife Phillipa had at least 12 children, 9 of whom survived to adulthood and 5 of those were boys. And you may be thinking, “great! All kings want boys. They want lots of boys. Lots of spare heirs to ensure the continuation of the dynasty.” And yes, a spare heir or two isn’t such a bad thing but 5 is pushing it. Turns out five sons is far more trouble than it’s worth in terms of heirs. That’s way too many possible claimants to the throne. And that is essentially what happens here. Edward III dies in 1377 but right before he died, his two oldest sons also died. Okay so the way this works typically is his oldest son would have been the next king but he’s dead. So then it goes to the oldest son’s son, who is alive, his name is Richard and he’s only 10 years old. So we have Richard who has the best claim to the throne but then we also have Edward’s three youngest sons who are Richard’s uncles, John of Gaunt, Edmund of Langley, and Thomas of Woodstock. These guys are deeply rooted in English politics. They are powerful, ambitious dudes. So England comes to a bit of a crossroads. Do we put this 10 year old boy on the throne or do we pick one of his very kingly experienced uncles instead and ultimately they decide to adhere to the traditional line of succession and they put Richard on the throne. He becomes King Richard II at just 10 years old. 


Richard was not a very popular king. I mean he was a child but even when he grew up he didn’t do a great job in the minds of the English who were, from the start, questioning their choice to even put him on the throne. Richard did away with his regency council even when he was still quite young in order to get rid of his oldest uncle, John of Gaunt who was the Duke of Lancaster. So he’s sort of ruling without advisors even as a very young king which made people nervous. During Richard’s reign, England lost a lot of the territory they had gained in France in the hundred years war during Edward III’s reign. There was a major peasant revolt because of unfair taxes. It just didn’t go super well and a lot of people were dissatisfied with Richard. 






One person who was especially dissatisfied with Richard, was Henry Bolingbroke, the son of Richard’s uncle John of Gaunt who had been, remember, sort of kicked off the advisory council. So Henry was Richard’s cousin and Richard had actually taken Henry’s lands and titles and exiled him to France. Henry’s over it. He’s sick of his cousin bullying him and destroying the country. So he returns to England and he uses his connections, his claim to the throne as a fellow grandson of Edward III, and he exploits national dissatisfaction with Richard’s rule, he stokes the flames, and he eventually forces Richard to abdicate the throne which he then takes. He usurps Richard with the eventual support of most of the country. Richard is imprisoned in Pontefract Castle where he is thought to have been starved to death. Fun. But anyway, Henry Bolingbroke becomes King Henry IV of England. Now Henry is a Lancaster, these are the Lancasters, because his father, John of Gaunt, was the Duke of Lancaster. Okay, so enter the house of Lancaster. They are sitting on the throne right now with Henry IV. I mean they’re all Plantagenets remember but Henry is the first Plantagenet king from the Lancaster branch of the family. This is all one big very unhappy family. I’m going be popping up this family tree from time to time if you’re watching the video version to help you keep track of how all these dudes are related. If you are listening to audio only there is a link at the very top of the description that will bring up the family tree but it’s like the whole completed thing. In the video I can sort of add to it gradually which helps. But whatever better than nothing. 


Henry IV is succeeded by his son Henry V who gains fame with his defeat of the French at the battle of Agincourt, part of the Hundred Years War, I talked about this in the Joan of Arc episode. Part of the spoils of winning this battle, the Battle of Agincourt, is getting to marry the French king’s daughter and become king of France when that guy dies. Henry V gets the French throne but he has to wait till the French king dies. The problem is, Henry dies before the French king, like less than 2 months before. The good news is, Henry has managed to have a son with his French princess wife before he dies but the bad news is, that son is only 8 months old. So this literal baby becomes King Henry VI of England at just 8 months old. Now the French had agreed that Henry V would become their king and then his male heirs would succeed him. So the English are like “okay France, see this little baby? Henry VI? He’s your king now too.” And they are like “heck no, we’re not doing that. We never signed up for a baby English king,” and that’s the hundred years war with Joan of Arc and all that. Different war, different conflict. Over in England, baby Henry VI is very much king. He never really becomes king of France, thanks to Joan whose whole mission was to get the French dauphine crowned king. 


France kind of dodged a bullet there because Henry is not an ideal king to say the least, and not just because he’s a baby. He’s still not a great king even when he grows up. He was very shy and passive. He was very sensitive. He was not very kingly at all. He’s not into politics at all. He was a very weak ruler overall. Despite his father’s success at Agincourt, the Hundred Years War takes a major turn for the worst during Henry VI’s reign. He’s getting beat by a teenage peasant girl with no military training. You really should revisit the Joan of Arc episode if you missed that one. Henry marries a French noblewoman named Margaret of Anjou. And I find that very interesting because England has been at war with France for almost 100 years but here he is, the king of England marrying a French woman. This was strategic though. The marriage of Henry and Margaret was actually part of a truce between England and France. 


Margaret is kind of awesome. You know I think part of the reason Game of Thrones is so popular, why it has such a wide audience is because it has these really powerful badass female characters in it, Cersei Lannister, Daenerys Targaryen, Lady Olenna Tyrell. the women are kind of running the show and that’s very refreshing because you don’t often see that in like historical fantasy type stories. Well, amazingly enough that sort of happens in this true story as well with Margaret of Anjou and you almost never see that in real life. Margaret of Anjou was the inspiration for Cersei Lannister’s character. So if you’ve seen the show then you know, that’s a big deal. Margaret of Anjou was a big deal. History.com describes Margaret as quote “a noble and strong-willed Frenchwoman whose ambition and political savvy overshadowed her husband’s,” end quote. So Margaret is running the show over in England, or at least trying to. Henry’s weakness as a ruler quote “incited rampant lawlessness throughout his realm and opened the door for power-hungry nobles and kingmakers to plot behind his back,” end quote. Loss of land in France and heavy taxation led to a revolt in 1450 led by a guy named Jack Cade. Cade and his posse basically marched to London and presented Henry with a list of demands one of which was to bring in a guy named Richard of York to help him rule. Richard and Henry were both descendants of Edward III. So if you’re watching the video version I’m putting up the family tree. If you’re just listening I’ll try to explain their relationship as best I can. Henry, remember, descended from Edward III’s third son John of Gaunt who was the Duke of Lancaster. So Henry was Edward’s great great grandson. Richard of York descended from Edward’s fourth son, Edmund of Langley who was Duke of York. Richard was Edward’s great grandson. So Richard is actually more directly related to Edward than Henry, he was a great grandson and Henry was a great great grandson. But Henry is descended from an older son than Richard. John of Gaunt was older than Edmund of Langley. So Cade and his posse come in and they demand that Henry bring in Richard. They’re like “he’ll do a way better job and he may actually have a better claim to the throne anyway.”


Henry of course disagrees and he quashes the rebellion pretty quickly. He pardons the men involved except for Cade who is killed after being mortally wounded during his arrest. Henry gets all in his head about this. He starts thinking Richard of York was actually behind this rebellion, that he put Jack Cade up to it in order to get the throne. However, there is no evidence to support that then or now. Historians do not believe Richard of York was involved in Cade’s Rebellion. But Henry’s getting all conspiratorial and suspicious and this will set the stage for what’s to come between the Lancasters and the Yorks because Henry, of course, is a Lancaster, and Richard is a York. 


Now Richard, who really wasn’t involved in the rebellion at all is like, I gotta go fix this, I gotta go set the record straight. And he now marches into London of his own accord. But not to take the throne. He marches in to declare fealty to Henry, right he is loyal to Henry, he’s on Henry’s side. He’s in his corner. But, you know, now that he’s in London, he may as well make some positive changes around here to help the monarchy. He is eyeing Henry’s super corrupt advisors who have risen up in the power vacuum created by Henry’s weakness as a leader. The country is really being ruled by these guys and they’re blowing it, especially Edmund Beaufort, the Duke of Somerset. So Richard tries to convince Henry to get rid of Sommerset, this corrupt advisor. Somerset holds on though for a couple more years, his claws are sunk deep. Then something major happens in 1454. Henry has a mental breakdown. He succumbs to insanity. If you listened to episode 11 about Mad Kings you already know about this, Henry VI was one of my featured mad kings. For over a year, Henry just sits in his room in a catatonic state just sort of slumped over, mostly unresponsive. It becomes clear that he can no longer run the country, not like this. So Richard of York is made Lord Protector of England, regent to the king, and one of the first things he does is imprison the Duke of Somerset, this corrupt advisor, in the Tower of London. 


So even though we kind of don’t think Richard was involved in Cade’s Rebellion, he sort of ends up ruling England in the King’s place anyway. But, his own claims to the throne have weakened considerably because just before he went mad, a year before, Henry and Margaret had a son. This makes Richard’s claims slightly more dubious. But he’s ruling as Lord Protector for now. About a year later, in 1455, Henry snaps out of this weird catatonic state and seems to come back to his senses. Everyone is like “alright people, he’s back.” They send Richard away, Richard is out and they bring Somerset back in as advisor. Richard though, of course, despite having declared fealty to Henry and all that, he’s not cool with this reversal of everything he had done while Henry was unable to rule. He faces off with Henry at the Battle of St. Albans in 1455. They are no longer on the same team. It is now officially Lancaster vs. York. The Yorks win this battle. They kill Somerset and capture Henry. Richard becomes Lord Protector again and Margaret and her infant son go into exile. 


But here’s where Margaret snaps into action. She’s mostly sat by as her husband failed at kinging, as he was overrun by corrupt advisors, as he lost territory in France, as he faced rebellions and revolts, as he succumbed to insanity and was replaced by his distant cousin. Margaret has mostly just sat by and watched all of this. But now she has a son. She is the mother of the future king of England and she would like to keep it that way. Now she has a reason to fight for the Lancaster line to continue as rulers of the country. Nothing motivates a woman like a fresh baby with threatened potential. So she turns on mama bear mode and she pits herself against Richard of York. She raises a large and well equipped army while in exile and they face off against Richard’s much smaller army at the Battle of Blore Heath in September of 1459. Despite being outnumbered two to one, Richard, once again, wins this battle, soundly defeating the Lancastrians. 


But Margaret isn’t done with him yet. She gathered up another army, which included many York deserters, people who had turned on Richard she’s like “come on y’all let’s take him down” and they face off again at the Battle of Ludford Bridge. This battle goes Margaret’s way, ending with Richard fleeing the country in October of 1459. By the following June 1460, Richard has gathered more supporters over in Ireland and he’s ready to try to take down Henry and Margaret once again. He returns to London and is victorious this time at the battle of Northampton, capturing Henry and forcing Margaret to flee with their young son again. At this point, Richard has Henry held prisoner, Margaret is gone, she’s fled the country. Richard gets Henry to agree, because Henry is still king. He’s being held captive but he’s still technically the king and Richard gets him to agree to change the line of succession so that Richard will be the next king and then his, Richard’s, heirs after that. This would completely cut out Henry and Margaret’s son but Henry agrees to it, so long as he can continue to be king for the rest of his life. It’s passed by parliament and officially called the Act of Accord. 


Margaret, of course, ain’t on board with this. I get the feeling that she didn’t really care what happened to Henry so long as her son still got to be king. But this new arrangement, the Act of Accord, would change that. It would put Richard and Richard’s heirs on the throne next. The Lancasters would be replaced by the Yorks when Henry died. Margaret ain’t having it and once again she raises an army from exile to take on Richard. Richard gets word that Margaret is raising another army to try to defeat him once again. He gathers his forces and he goes out to settle this matter once and for all. The two armies clash at Wakefield Green in West Yorkshire but things do not go Richard’s way this time. He is defeated and his severed head is displayed wearing a paper crown. Ouch. Margaret ain’t playing around. 


But Richard has a son, Edward who is now in line for the throne when Henry dies according to the Act of Accord and so he has reason to defend it against Margaret’s plot to overthrow it too. Edward springs into action for the Yorks and the battles continue. It just goes back and forth back and forth. The Yorks beat the Lancasters at the Battle of Mortimer Cross. Then the Lancasters beat the Yorks at the Second Battle of St. Albans. Then the Yorks beat the Lancasters again at the battle of Towton. This is remembered as the bloodiest one day battle in English history. Over 50,000 men fought and some 28,000 died. But the Yorks, led by Edward, emerge victorious. Henry, Margaret, and their son flee once again into exile in Scotland and Edward becomes King Edward IV of England. 


Back and forth back and forth back and forth but we aren’t even done yet folks. Margaret does what she does yet again and raises supporters from exile. She is able to oust Edward and put Henry back on the throne in 1470. But not for long. Edward pulls a Margaret and rallies an army while in hiding, he wins York victories at the battles of Barnett and Tewksbury where Henry and Margaret’s son and heir, also Edward, is killed and they are captured and held in the Tower of London. Edward becomes king of England once again. In may of 1471 Henry died supposedly of sadness, that’s what they said “he was just so sad that he died.” But some historians believe that Edward actually had him killed which like, yeah, makes sense. Amazingly, Margaret was eventually released and made her way back to France where she died some time later. Semi-shocked that she was not executed but France was able to pay a ransom to get her back. 


Okay so that was a lot. After all that, what’s happened is the Lancaster kings which were Henrys IV, V, and VI have officially been replaced by the Yorks with King Edward IV, the fourth son’s descendants replacing the third son’s descendants of those original five sons we talked about. Too many sons. That was the problem here. The OG, Edward III had too many sons. Yorks are on the throne. Edward IV is on the throne. He dies in 1483 probably of pneumonia or something like that, some natural causes. He dies, leaving his 12 year old son Edward the V on the throne. This new Edward is too young to rule on his own at 12 so he has a regent of course and that regent is his father’s brother, so his uncle, who is also named Richard. I told you everyone was Edward, Richard, and Henry didn’t I? This Richard sees an opportunity to claim the throne for himself. He’s not happy with Lord Protector. He’s not happy playing regent to a child. He wants to be the king. So he carries out a plot to have 12 year old Edward V and his 9 year old little brother Richard of Shrewsbury, declared illegitimate. He says they were not the legitimate children and heirs of his brother Edward IV because Edward was supposed to marry some French princess but instead he went against his advisors and secretly married an English woman named Elizabeth Woodville. She was said to be quote “the most beautiful woman in the Island of Britain” but she was not considered to be a suitable wife for a king. She came from a genteel family but not a noble family. They didn’t have titles or anything like that and some of her relatives had fought for the Lancasters against the Yorks. So this secret marriage was quite scandalous. Richard claims that their marriage wasn’t legitimate because it wasn’t like sanctioned by the council or whatever and therefore their sons, Edward and Richard, are not legitimate heirs. Parliament agrees and makes Richard king. He becomes King Richard III and he imprisons the two princes in the Tower of London, supposedly for their own safety. 


And this brings us to a major historical mystery, the princes in the tower. Y’all know I love a historical mystery. Because the two princes, 12 year old Edward and 9 year old Richard simply vanished while they were being held in the Tower of London for their own safety, air quotes. And to this day historians argue over what might have happened to them. It wasn’t that crazy that they were imprisoned there. It seems very sus to us now but back then, no one really batted an eye when Richard took them there. He said it was for their safety, plus the Tower of London wasn’t just a prison, it was also where new monarchs went to await coronation. So it kind of made sense for them to be there. But then Richard gets them declared illegitimate and becomes king himself, now what? He becomes increasingly fearful of being usurped and those two little boys are the biggest threat. One of the last historical references we have to the princes in the tower comes from the Great Chronicle on June 16, 1483 which reads quote “the children of King Edward’ were ‘seen shooting [arrows] and playing in the garden of the Tower sundry times,” end quote. After that Italian chronicler Dominic Mancini writes that they were quote “Withdrawn to the inner apartments of the Tower proper, and day by day began to be seen more rarely behind the bars and windows until at length they ceased to appear altogether. Already there is a suspicion that they have been done away with,” end quote. Historic Royal Palaces writes quote “What happened next has been the subject of intense debate ever since, and is one of the darkest chapters in the Tower’s long history.  It is now widely believed  that sometime during the autumn of that year, the two princes were quietly murdered.  At whose hands, we will probably never know,” end quote. There are a lot of theories as to who actually had the princes killed. Yes, Richard had a lot of motive but so did quite a few other people. Nearly 200 years later, in 1674, the then king Charles II ordered the demolition of part of the Tower of London, a turret that once contained a staircase leading to a chapel. And beneath the foundation of the staircase they found a wooden chest containing the skeletons of two children. According to Historic Royal Palaces, eyewitnesses from the time reported that there were quote “pieces of rag and velvet” sticking to the bones and we know that only royals were allowed to wear velvet. So they found the skeletons of what appeared to be two royal children buried under the Tower of London. The skeletons were put on display for four years before Charles had them reburied at Westminster Abbey where they remain to this day. Just kidding. I mean they are there but they were exhumed in 1933 and re-examined and it was confirmed that they belonged to two boys around the ages of 10 and 12. So? The princes in the tower? Kind of seems like it to me. But I mean, 1933? Can we please have another go and do some DNA testing this time? That would be great. Historic Royal Palaces concludes quote “Someone, long dead themselves, knew what happened to the little princes. Science may finally provide a way to identify the bones, but amid all the theorising, we shouldn’t forget that these were young children, trapped and terrified. They became inconvenient pawns in a political game, and they were betrayed by adults they trusted. Who those adults were we will probably never know,” end quote. I may need to explore this further in a mini fix. 


So the princes are out of the way and Richard III is king of England. That was like York on York there for a minute. But the Lancasters are still biding their time. Henry VI may have been murdered or died of sadness or whatever, Margaret of Anjou may have been shipped back to France to later die but they weren’t the only Lancasters. They weren’t the only descendants of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. There are others watching Richard steal the throne from his 12 year old nephew. One of them decides to act and that man’s name was Henry Tudor. I told you we were going to Tudorland. Just took us a while to get there. Okay this is important, Henry Tudor who will go on to become Henry VII was NOT the son of Henry VI, the crazy guy, husband of Margaret of Anjou. Not at all. But he was a Lancaster. He was related to John of Gaunt distantly which in his mind gave him a claim to the throne. Not a very good one but a claim. Plus Richard’s claim wasn’t all that great either. And the rumors about him murdering his two nephews, whether he was actually the one responsible or not, those rumors definitely didn’t make him a popular king. So Henry comes in and he’s like, I mean if this guy can be king, so can I. But Henry’s ties to John of Gaunt are dubious at best. Henry’s mother, Margaret Beaufort, another very powerful female character in this story, was the great granddaughter of John of Gaunt. But she was a descendent of a child he had with his third wife who started as a mistress. Okay, John had four children with this woman, this mistress who was named Katherine Swynford. They had four children but they were not married so these were illegitimate children. Later, they got married and they had their children legitimized, although they could never inherit the throne. So yes Henry Tudor was related to John of Gaunt but that relation was questionably legitimate and through a woman which we know doesn’t hold much clout when it comes to claiming thrones. But Margaret Beaufort, Henry’s mother, was a very well connected woman. 


Margaret had been married off to the half brother of King Henry VI whose name was Edmund Tudor. She actually gave birth to their son, Henry Tudor, at just 12 years old and shortly after having lost her husband to the plague. So by the age of 12 she was both a mother and a widow. Later, Margaret was very instrumental in Henry’s rise to power. In fact, she is one of the many suspects who may have been responsible for the deaths of the princes in the tower. Historic Royal Palaces writes quote “Margaret was mother of the future Henry VII, and paternal grandmother to Henry VIII. This highly intelligent, manipulative Lancastrian matriarch would have done anything to ensure that her son Henry was the next heir to the throne, including infiltrating the court of her Yorkist enemies. Did this include getting the young Princes out of the way? She had a superb spy network and men loyal to her, who could have done the deed at her command,” end quote. But Margaret was also good friends with Elizabeth Woodville, the mother of the princes in the tower and they were able to band together, with the help of other Lancastrian supporters and the French to try to get Richard III off the throne. Margaret Beaufort reminds me a bit of Lady Olenna Tyrell if you’re familiar with the Game of Thrones. She does all her work behind the scenes, right, she’s not overtly offensive like Margaret of Anjou, she’s not waging war on the battlefield. She’s like a puppeteer, pulling the strings behind a curtain. That’s Margaret Beaufort. Works just as well. Actually better. 


All of this came to a head at the Battle of Bosworth Field in August of 1485 where Richard III and Henry Tudor faced off for the crown. Richard was defeated, killed by forces loyal to Henry. According to legend, Richard’s crown was placed on Henry’s head at the very spot where Richard fell and Henry was immediately proclaimed king of England right then and there. According to legend. That seems pretty idealized. I don’t think it actually happened that way. But either way, Henry Tudor, despite barely having any claim to the throne at all, becomes Henry VII, King of England and patriarch of the Tudor dynasty that will come to include Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I whom we know quite well by now. Fun fact, the body of Richard III was actually discovered buried under a parking lot in 2012. Fascinating story, that may actually be my next mini fix. Maybe I’ll do two, I don’t know. Join the Patreon y’all. It’s worth it.  


Everyone knows though, they know that Henry doesn’t have a very strong claim to the throne. His great grandfather through his mother was an illegitimate child and even when he was legitimized, he was forbidden from inheriting the throne. So to strengthen Henry’s claim, his mother Margaret orchestrates his marriage to Elizabeth of York. Elizabeth of York was the sister of the princes in the tower, daughter of King Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville. So in doing this, this new dynasty, this Tudor dynasty that starts with Henry VII, combines both the house of Lancaster and the house of York. These two opposing forces in the war of the roses come together and join forces and that’s the Tudors. And that’s also the end of the War of the Roses. A Lancaster has married a York and the dynasty that follows is a mix of both families. The Tudors adopt the symbol of a white rose inside of a red rose, a combination of the Lancaster red rose and the York white rose and this will come to be called the Tudor rose. 


So there you have it, the story of the War of the Roses. That really should have been like 10 episodes probably but I’ve crammed it all into one. I could have done a separate episode for each of these characters and I may actually come back and revisit some of them one day but hopefully you guys were able to follow along with this sort of overview. I know it was a lot of people with mostly all the same few names. Really what it all comes down to is Edward III, the Plantagenet king with too many sons, 5 sons whose descendants fought each other for over 100 years all vying for a single throne. And what it also comes down to, which I find possibly most fascinating of all because it’s so atypical of history, is two incredibly strong women, both named Margaret, who had their hands in shaping the future of a monarchy. One through physical force and prowess on the battlefield, Margaret of Anjou raising army after army to defeat Richard of York again and again to secure her husband and her son’s place on the throne. And one through cunning schemes and pulling strings, the master puppeteer Margaret Beaufort who played the game of thrones possibly better than anyone to ultimately secure the throne for her son, an unlikely king, Henry VII. I think the fictional Cersei Lannister whose character was directly inspired by Margaret of Anjou sums it up nicely when she famously says quote “When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground.” 


Thank you all so very much for listening to History Fix, I hope you found this story interesting and maybe you even learned something new. Be sure to follow my instagram @historyfixpodcast to see some images that go along with this episode and to stay on top of new episodes as they drop. I’d also really appreciate it if you’d rate and follow History Fix on whatever app you’re using to listen, and help me spread the word by telling a few friends about it. That’ll make it much easier to get your next fix. 


Information used in this episode was sourced from Encyclopedia Britannica, Historic Royal Palaces, Heritage History, History.com, Wikipedia, and the British Library Medieval Manuscripts blog. As always, links to these sources can be found in the show notes.