Henry VI, Edward IV, Edward V, Richard IIIĤ March 1461. Richard of York’s son Edward, Earl of March was victorious.ġ7 February 1461: Second Battle of St Albans. He was succeeded by his son Edward.Ģ February 1461: Battle of Mortimer Cross. The Yorkists were defeated and Richard, Duke of York, was killed. In response, the Queen raised a new army.ģ0 December 1460. The return of Richard of York who was declared heir to the throne. Massacre of prisoners ordered by the Earl of Warwick. A Yorkist victory King Henry VI captured. Richard of York fled to Ireland.ġ0 July 1460: Battle of Northampton. The Queen declared Yorkist property and lives forfeit. A Yorkist victory.ġ2 October 1459: Battle of Ludford Bridge. Richard, Duke of York’s influence was undermined and he was excluded from the royal council.Ģ3 September 1459: Battle of Blore Heath. Queen Margaret fuelled anti-Yorkist sentiment at court. The Duke of York was re-appointed Protector, then dismissed again in 1456. A Yorkist victory during which the Duke of Somerset (one of the Lancastrian leaders) was killed. There was tremendous bloodshed as defeated forces on both sides were brutally murdered by the victors. In 1455, just two years after the end of the Hundred Years War, this dynastic civil war broke out. Each side chose a badge: the Red Rose for Lancaster and the White Rose for York. Many soldiers had just returned from the Hundred Years War in France, so recruiting trained men to fight was easy. The weak, sick king was unable to control his ambitious queen on one side, and the Yorkist Earl of Warwick, the ‘kingmaker’, on the other side.īoth sides started to recruit soldiers and prepare for war. The King recovered some months later and York was summarily dismissed. His first act was to dismiss some of the Queen’s Lancastrian advisors which caused great bad feeling. During one of these periods in 1454, Richard of York was appointed ‘Protector of the Realm’. Henry VI suffered from periods of insanity. The party of nobles who opposed the Queen and the Lancastrians was led by Richard, Duke of York, Henry’s cousin, who was also descended from King Edward III and therefore also had a claim to the throne of England. The Queen and her circle of nobles were known as Lancastrians after Henry’s surname of Lancaster. At this time, there was a complex series of rivalries and jealousies at court between powerful noble families. The Plantaganet King Henry VI was a weak king, married to an ambitious French princess, Margaret of Anjou.

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