The Wars of the Roses
Wars and roses don’t complement each other and “The Wars of the Roses” certainly sounds bitter-sweet. So what does this phrase represent? Well, history has it that a series of civil wars took place between two factions of people in England in the late 14th century. While one faction used a badge with a red rose, the other used a badge with a white rose. Thus the name “The Wars of the Roses” was coined.
To understand The Wars of the Roses, it is important to first look at the struggles that took place between the families which had descended from Henry IV and Edward III, to claim the English throne which was open to the houses of Lancaster and York. Henry IV’S descendants and their supporters comprised the Lancastrian faction while those who descended from Edward III, notably the House of York and Richard of York, comprised the Yorkist faction. The wars between these two factions lasted from 1455–1485, but before the first recorded battle in 1455, tensions in England’s court were already running high and eventually led to The Wars of the Roses.