England’s Protracted Wars For the Throne

The Wars of the Roses were a struggle for power between two shifting factions of aristocrats, the House of Lancaster (red rose) and the House of York (white rose). Each side based its claim to the crown on descent from one of the sons of King Edward III: John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster, and Edward of Langley, the Duke of York. Centuries of intermarriage within a narrow elite meant that everyone was related to everyone else, so like most civil wars, this was a bitter struggle of cousin against cousin, and often, brother against brother. A common battle cry of the era was “Spare the Commons, Slay the Nobles”; by the end of the conflict the old aristocracy had been nearly exterminated. Although unreliable as history, William Shakespeare’s plays Henry VI (1591; in three parts) and especially Richard III (1593), have maintained a steady interest in this period, sparked in 2012 by discovery of the remains of Richard III (killed at the battle of Bosworth Field on August 22, 1485) buried under a parking lot in the town of Leicester.

This book argues against the widely held belief that these were wars about nothing; a meaningless power struggle within a cynical, brutal, and corrupt ruling class. Instead the author arrays persuasive evidence that this was a true civil war that can be understood from a comparative perspective; one that engaged all classes of the society, and led to profound changes in England’s political culture.

The book consists of five thematic chapters and a brief Conclusion section:

1 - The Civil Wars We Think We Know: Narrativity and Politics

2 - Reform and the Common Weal

3 - Logics of Political Division

4 - Political Economy and Civil Conflict

5 - Geographies of Contention

Conclusion

There are two small maps, one locating major battles and confrontations of the wars, the other showing major towns of northwestern Europe in 1477. American readers unfamiliar with British geography will benefit from keeping a map of England’s historic counties at hand. There is a single family tree, showing lines of descent from the long-lived and prolific Edward III (r. 1327-77). A very helpful section of “Dramatis Personae” provides capsule biographies of the numerous men and women who played a part in the story.

For readers with an interest in medieval Britain, The Wars of the Roses, a volume in the series “The James Lydon Lectures in Medieval History and Culture, will be a rewarding and thought-provoking read.

John Watts (born 1964) is Professor of Later Medieval History at Oxford. He has written extensively on political culture and political structures in later medieval England and Europe, between the 13th and the early 16th centuries.

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Our Reviewer: Mike Markowitz is an historian and wargame designer. He writes a monthly column for CoinWeek.Com and is a member of the ADBC (Association of Dedicated Byzantine Collectors). His previous reviews include Caesar Rules: The Emperor in the Changing Roman World, Ancient Rome on the Silver Screen, Justinian: Emperor, Soldier, Saint, Persians: The Age of the Great Kings, Polis: A New History of the Ancient Greek City-State, At the Gates of Rome: The Battle for a Dying Empire, Roman Emperors in Context, After 1177 B.C., Cyrus the Great, Barbarians and Romans: The Birth Struggle of Europe, A.D. 400–700, Crescent Dawn: The Rise of the Ottoman Empire and the Making of the Modern Age, The Missing Thread: A New History of the Ancient World Through the Women Who Shaped It, The Roman Provinces, 300 BCE–300 CE: Using Coins as Sources, The Cambridge Companion to Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations, Archaic Greece, Amazons: The History Behind the Legend, The Byzantine World, Classical Controversies, Reassessing the Peloponnesian War, War and Masculinity in Roman and Medieval Culture, Nemesis: Medieval England's Greatest Enemy, and Cyril of Alexandria: Against Julian, Introduction and Translation.

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Note: The Wars of the Roses: A Medieval Civil War, is also available in e-editions.

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