Wars of the Roses and Edward the 4th related info/planning doc
This is just my planning document for a future video or workshop. I'm posting it on here to make it easy for people to correct anything I've got wrong so please ignore the formatting and spelling.
Thanks.
“Warfare began in 1455 with York's capture of Henry at the First Battle of St Albans, upon which York was appointed Lord Protector by Parliament. Fighting resumed four years later when Yorkists led by Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, captured Henry again at the Battle of Northampton. After attempting to seize the throne, York was killed at the Battle of Wakefield, and his son Edward inherited his claim per the controversial Act of Accord. The Yorkists lost custody of Henry in 1461 after the Second Battle of St Albans, but defeated the Lancastrians at the Battle of Towton. The Yorkist Edward the 4th was formally crowned in June 1461.”
The Wars of the Roses have been so politicised the entire history of it has had a revisionist re-writing of it on multiple occasions. So in order to avoid that kind of politicisation I try to strip it back to its most raw facts, then I place them in a timeline.
Edward the 4th was crowned in 1461.
His reign died when he suddenly dropped dead of natural causes in 1482.
20 years without any major power struggles of coups tells me that the wars of the roses was over when Edward the 4th took power.
There is no way of knowing what the common people thought of Edward the 4th but we do know that the city of london liked him a lot more than the other people.
The only time the country went back into civil war for a 1 year period starting in 1469.
Edward’s former supporter The Earl of “Warwick rebelled against Edward in 1469, leading to Edward's imprisonment after Warwick's supporters defeated a Yorkist army at the Battle of Edgcote. Edward was allowed to resume his rule after Warwick failed to replace him with his brother George of Clarence. Within a year, Warwick launched an invasion of England alongside Henry VI's wife Margaret of Anjou. Edward fled to Flanders, and Henry VI was restored as king in 1470. Edward mounted a counter-invasion with aid from Burgundy a few months later, and killed Warwick at the Battle of Barnet. Henry was returned to prison, and his sole heir later killed by Edward at the Battle of Tewkesbury, followed by Henry's own death in the Tower of London, possibly on Edward's orders. Edward ruled unopposed for the next twelve years, during which England enjoyed a period of relative peace. Upon his death in April 1483, he was succeeded by the twelve-year-old Edward V, who reigned for 78 days until being deposed by his uncle Richard III. “
The reason for the rebellion was so flimsy nobody at the time took it seriously. According to some people Edward the 4th wasn’t allowed to marry who he wanted to marry, apparently marrying someone who represents the opposite side of a conflict is bad policy except when Henry the 7th copied Edward the 4th’s policy 20 years later. Marrying someone from the other side of the conflict is a really common way that conflicts were resolved in the middle ages, it’s so common that Henry the 5th did it to end the 100 years war. The real reason it was an issue was because it wasn’t Warwick's idea.
They tried to smear Elizabeth Woodville by calling her a run of the mill member of the gentry class and not a proper royal with royal blood.
Her Mother was the wife of the Duke of Bedford, he was Henry the 5ths brother. Bedford was running both England and France while Henry the 6th was a child. She is descended from Isabelle of Angouleme (Bad king john’s wife) and her descendants include the infamous French Dynasty the Guise’s plus the French King Henry the 4th (he ended the French wars of religion. Then they complain that Edward the 4th married her for love (How dare he!!), even though that’s precisely what the Black Prince did and it’s also what the founder of the Lancastrian branch of the plantaganets did when he married Cathryn Swynfort.
Edward the 4th was betrayed by Warwick but he still didn’t let him win. He was betrayed by his brother Geoge Duke of Clarence a number of times but he was never beaten by him and when he eventually had to execute him he let him decide how he wanted it to be done and that’s why he was drowned in a barrel of wine.
When Edward the 4th’s forces captured the mad king Henry the 6th he didn’t execute him he just locked him away. Henry the 6th wasn’t a warrior, he’s never been on a battlefield so he’s not a combatant he’s a puppet being used by others so he doesn’t deserve to have his body cut up into pieces and sent to various parts of the country so he just locked him up that’s it and when his wife Margaret of Anjou (the She-wolf of France) was captured she was ransomed back to France. The only reason their teenage son was killed was because he was leading troops on the battlefield.
A lot of people admire Edward the 4ths Dad, he was the original Duke of York, Richard Plantagenet. But Edward was better than his Dad because Edward won. When Edward was ambushed in his own bed he did the right thing and escaped to fight another day, he came back 6 months later with an army.
Wars of The Roses Edwards Victory
Elizabeth Woodville Family Tree
Everyone in the wars of the roses is related
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