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Introduction
The ‘Wars of the Roses’ was coined by Sir Walter Scott as a romantic name for an off-and-on struggle for the English crown between 1455 and 1485. The rivals were the ‘white rose’ Dukes of York and the ‘red rose’ Dukes of Lancaster, and both traced their right to the crown to the sons of King Edward III.
IN 1330, King Edward III had a son, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. John never became king but his great-grandson, Henry VI, inherited the crown in 1422, aged just nine months.*
As Henry grew up, he suffered from mental problems; and this, added to expensive failures in the Hundred Years’ War* with France such as losing Normandy in 1450, demoralised the whole country. Queen Margaret wanted to rule for him, but she had a rival, Richard of York, the grandson of John of Gaunt’s brother Edmund Langley. In 1455, their two armies clashed at St Albans, and the White Rose, emblem of York, prevailed over the Red Rose of Lancaster. Margaret was forced to acknowledge Richard of York as Lord Protector, and the Wars of the Roses had begun.
Queen Margaret fought back, tooth and nail. Richard won the Battle of Northampton in 1460 and was named Henry’s heir, but never crowned, for that same year he was killed at Wakefield, and Henry held grimly on.*
On Edward III’s death in 1377, the crown passed to his grandson Richard II. Richard was the son of Edward’s eldest son, Edward the Black Prince, who had died in 1376. John of Gaunt’s son Henry Bolingbroke usurped the throne in 1399, becoming Henry IV. His son Henry V, the hero of Agincourt in 1415, died in 1422, leaving a nine-month-old son, Henry VI, as his heir.
The Hundred Years’ War between the Kings of England and the Kings of France lasted from 1337 to 1453. It began after King Edward III renewed a long-standing conflict over dukedoms inherited from William the Conqueror and his successors, most of which had been lost by King John, and in 1340, Edward formally claimed the throne of France at the request of his allies in Flanders. The war at first favoured England and Henry V was to inherit the crown of France on the death of Charles VI, but died early in 1422, and thereafter the war became a series of expensive losses. Rather splendidly, the Kings of England were styled Kings of France until 1802, in the reign of George III.
Précis
In 1455, tensions between the White Rose of York and the Red of Lancaster, two royal dukedoms descended from Edward III, boiled over at the Battle of St Albans. Richard of York won the right to govern in place of the mentally unstable Henry VI, but Queen Margaret managed to defeat and kill him at Wakefield in 1460. (58 / 60 words)
In 1455, tensions between the White Rose of York and the Red of Lancaster, two royal dukedoms descended from Edward III, boiled over at the Battle of St Albans. Richard of York won the right to govern in place of the mentally unstable Henry VI, but Queen Margaret managed to defeat and kill him at Wakefield in 1460.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: about, because, if, just, may, not, otherwise, since.
Word Games
Sevens Based on this passage
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Variations: 1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words. 2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words. 3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
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