Short History Of... - The Wars of the Roses, Part 3 of 3

Episode Date: September 8, 2022

After the death of King Edward IV, the heir to the throne, Edward V, is left under the protection of the late king’s brother Richard. But what lay in store for the 12 year old king? Will Richard honour his brother’s will? And when the Wars of the Roses finally end, how do the rival houses of Plantagenet unite once and for all? This is part three of a special three-part Short History of the Wars of the Roses. Written by Danny Marshall. With thanks to Michael Hicks, historian and author of The Wars of the Roses; and Lauren Johnson, historian and author of The Shadow King – The Life and Death of Henry VI, and an upcoming book on Tudor matriarch Margaret Beaufort. For ad-free listening, exclusive content and early access to new episodes, join Noiser+, now available on Apple Podcasts. All shows are also available for free. If you’re listening on Apple Podcasts, press the ‘+’ icon to follow the show for free. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Get groceries delivered across the GTA from Real Canadian Superstore with PC Express. Shop online for super prices and super savings. Try it today and get up to $75 in PC Optimum Points. Visit superstore.ca to get started. It is the 14th of April, 1483. A crow takes flight into the cool morning air, cawing loudly as it soars over the misty battlements of Ludlow Castle near the border between England and Wales. The fortress stands proudly on a rocky promontory above the river, a potent symbol of Yorkist

authority throughout the Wars of the Roses. A boy of twelve, dressed in close-fitting breeches and a loose tabard, is practicing his swordsmanship with his tutor in the courtyard. Watching him from a window above stands a stately gentleman. Forty-three years old, his strong face is lined by long years of fighting, either in wars or tournaments. by long years of fighting, either in wars or tournaments. His long blue and red tabard displays the golden griffins of the Woodville family. Antony Woodville, Earl Rivers, is the younger brother of Queen Elizabeth, the wife of the Yorkist King Edward IV. Despite fighting on the Lancastrian side at the Battle of Towton, as the king's brother-in-law,

Earl Rivers has been trusted with raising Edward's son and heir, also named Edward, the young Prince of Wales. Suddenly, there's a shout from the men at the gates, and soon hooves clatter on the cobblestones as a messenger rides into the courtyard. Prince Edward stops his swordplay and runs to talk to the visitor. But as the messenger dismounts, Earl Rivers can see his face is grave. It doesn't take long before the messenger is shown in to meet Rivers by a servant. His face is sheened with sweat.

He has ridden from London, a distance of some 140 miles, in four days, to bring shattering news. He hands Earl Rivers a folded note. Rivers takes it, running a finger over what he instantly recognizes as his sister, the Queen's wax seal, before dismissing the man. Then he slices the note open. His sister's handwriting confirms what he had suspected. King Edward IV is dead. The young boy under his protection in the courtyard below is now King Edward V. The letter instructs Rivers to gather a large, armed escort and bring the young king to London. armed escort and bring the young king to London. It advises him that Richard, Duke of Gloucester, has been named protector of the young king and will meet the party at Northampton to travel

with them. However, Richard will only be protector until the king is crowned. The Queen instructs Rivers to have her son in London by the end of the month, in time for his coronation on the 5th of May. Rivers looks out of the window again at his nephew. He knows Richard intends to follow his late brother's wishes to the full, to the exclusion of others. He also knows, with Richard as protector, his family, in particular his sister, will lose

all influence over the king at court. He calls for his servant to begin preparations for the journey, but as he strides through the castle, he's already thinking ahead. About how to keep the young Edward safely in his custody, how best to play the meeting with Richard, and how large an armed force he can gather before he sets off on the long road to Northampton. The Wars of the Roses begins with a schism in the Plantagenet family, with leaders of both the House of York and the House of Lancaster claiming the throne. After the death of Richard, Duke of York, his son Edward seized the throne from Henry VI in 1461, but he was unable to secure peace.

After marrying Elizabeth Woodville, an enemy of his ally Warwick, the new King Edward found himself the target of complex attempts to seize the throne back for Lancaster. Plotting first with Edward's brother, and then with Henry VI and Queen Margaret, Warwick was finally defeated once and for all, and Henry and his heir were killed. and Henry and his heir were killed. But then, after the death of King Edward IV, aged just 40, the heir to the throne, Edward V, is left under the protection of Richard, Duke of Gloucester. But what lay in store for the 12-year-old king? What more did the House of Lancaster have up its sleeve in its relentless campaign to regain the throne of England?

And when the Wars of the Roses finally came to an end, how did England heal and align the rival houses of Plantagenet once and for all? I'm John Hopkins, and this is the final installment of this special three-part short history of the Wars of the Roses. The 12-year-old Edward, Prince of Wales, now King Edward V, though yet to be formally crowned, receives the news of his father's death at Ludlow Castle five days after the event. With his uncle, Anthony Woodville, and an escort of two thousand heavily armed men, the party sets out from the castle gates. Richard, Duke of Gloucester, is at his base in Middleham Castle in Yorkshire, 200 miles from Ludlow, when he receives the news of his brother's death.

A codicil in the late King's Will specified that Richard should be the 12-year-old King Edward's protector. As such, Richard will run the Council of Nobles at court and become the young king's chief advisor. He sets off south with an armed band of around 600 men. The plan is to meet Antony Woodville and the young king at Northampton, then for Edward to travel to London under the protection of his uncle Richard. However, when Richard arrives at Northampton, he finds Antony and his associates, but the

boy is not there. Antony tells Richard that the King and his armed escort have been sent onwards to Stoney Stratford, some fifteen miles away. Richard suspects treachery, and a plot by the Woodvilles to ambush him and rush the young king to London for a rapid coronation on their terms, without him as Lord Protector. This, Richard believes, proves that his sister-in-law's family want to ignore the late king's wishes, circumventing him, blocking him from court and influence. Richard has Antony Woodville and his companions arrested

and taken north to Yorkshire, while he heads to intercept the child king himself. Michael Hicks is a historian and author of The Wars of the Roses. Edward IV probably did designate that Richard would be protector, but his queen and her family staged a coup d'etat in that the council met the day after the king, the old king was dead and the new king succeeded. And they immediately decided to go ahead with the coronation and the declaration of Edward V of age, which would have prevented any protectorate.

Richard finally meets up with his nephew the king and informs him of a plot against them. He assures him all perpetrators have been dealt with. And that they have, as Antony Woodville, the boy's uncle, and the queen's brother now languishes in a dungeon, awaiting a trial he knows will be only for show. Lauren Johnson is a historian and author of The Shadow King, The Life and Death of Henry VI, and an upcoming book on the Tudor matriarch Margaret Beaufort. Beaufort. Elizabeth Woodville, I think, probably was opposing him as protector and plotting against him. But Anthony Woodville was not. He was just looking to protect Edward V and get him safely to London. King Edward V enters London on the day of his scheduled coronation, in a procession with his uncle and Lord Protector, Richard the Duke of Gloucester, by his side. Duke of Gloucester by his side.

Richard is very conciliatory. He sends letters to the Royal Council, to the Queen, to the Corporation of London, to the populace that is accepting this. And when he seizes Edward V, he says, no, he's not grabbing his throne. He is removing the evil counsellors. And he does become Lord Protector with the consent of the council. But it's a strictly time-limited process. You know, there is going to be a coronation and there is going to be a parliament in two months' time. And that will end his protectorate.

So it disarms most of potential opponents. Richard houses the king in the royal apartments of the Tower of London, as is customary for a king awaiting their coronation. However, he then postpones the coronation and assumes control of government, promising to weed out the evil influences at court that desire power for themselves. The former queen, Elizabeth Woodville, is suspicious. With her younger son, who is second in line to the throne, she retreats into the sanctuary of Westminster Abbey. Richard accuses the king's mother and the Woodvilles of plotting his own

murder in what he claims is their collusion against the throne. He has several men arrested and executed to stem the conspiracy. His crackdown is popular among much of the nobility. Many still consider the Woodvilles to be commoner upstarts, with too much influence, who are brazenly trying to monopolise power. The Queen continues to oppose him, but everybody else thought the Queen was being pretty unreasonable, and they didn't support her. A new coronation date is set, and with the help of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the King's mother finally agrees to hand over her youngest son so he can attend. Richard houses the

nine-year-old, also called Richard, alongside his older brother in the Tower of London. Richard of Gloucester then stalls the ceremony again and again, and has yet another influential noble executed for plotting against him. Now the path is clear. Nothing stands in his way. It's at that moment he puts forward his claim to the throne. It's at that moment he puts forward his claim to the throne. The Bishop of Bath and Wells informs Richard that the late King Edward IV's marriage to Elizabeth Woodville was invalid. The claim, involving the king and an apparent pre-contract of marriage to another woman,

means Edward V is illegitimate. On coronation day, the 22nd of June, a sermon is preached outside St Paul's which declares the news. As the late king's brother, it is now Richard himself who is next in line for the throne. Now Richard turns his attention north to Yorkshire. I think it's quite important to emphasise that. It is the Royal Council who are still sort of in control of things at that point, who tend to be pro-Ricardian actually by this. They think Richard should be protector, that the Woodfills are wrong to have denied him that right. But they think that Anthony Woodfill and the others, that they should survive and if necessary be put on trial.

That's not what happens. Woodville and the others that they should survive and if necessary be put on trial. That's not what happens. On the 25th of June, 1483, Antony Woodville is taken outside the walls of Pontefract Castle and led to a wooden block placed on the grass. With echoes of what had happened to the Duke of York's staunch ally, the Earl of Salisbury here 20 years previously, Ant Anthony Woodville is beheaded. According to legend, his headless body is stripped and thrown in a common grave. I think it's quite a shocking moment which has been slightly underplayed. I think like it is

a feature of 15th century nobility that they are self-serving, that they put their families first. century nobility, that they are self-serving, that they put their families first. They can be both absolutely religiously pious, God-fearing individuals and commit the most terrible crimes. Those two things are not mutually exclusive at all. So the fact that Richard is undoubtedly pious doesn't mean that he wouldn't do something morally dubious, as far as I'm concerned. And in many ways, I think probably Richard, Duke of Gloucester, is like the ultimate nobleman of the 15th century. He is like the hard bastard of that era, I think. From the director of The Greatest Showman

comes the most original musical ever. I want to prove I can make it. Prove to who? Everyone. So, the story starts. Better Man, now playing in select theatres. On the 6th of July, 1483, the Duke of Gloucester is crowned King Richard III. The two young princes are still living in the tower.

They are sometimes seen in the gardens, but by now less frequently. Finally, in the late summer of 1483, the children disappear entirely. Nobody knows where the two boys are. At the time, rumors abound, and Richard is the chief suspect in their disappearance and likely death, given his track record of removing future challengers to the throne. To this day, their fate remains a mystery. Of course he killed them. You can't have old kings lying around. They were already a source of rebellion, and they would simply become more dangerous as they grew older.

Personally, I do think he intended it all along. But having said that, I think he managed it very carefully so that it was possible for him to withdraw at any time. any time. Now the Dowager Queen Elizabeth, with both sons disappeared, and her brother and another son executed by Richard, finds an ally in Lady Margaret Beaufort. Margaret is a Tudor widow and niece of the late Duke of Somerset, whose rivalry with the Duke of York had been one of the causes of the Civil War. The two plot with a group of disaffected nobles to overthrow Richard III. It's Margaret Beaufort and Elizabeth Woodville who enable this to happen by bringing together the disparate forces who oppose Richard, who do not really have much common ground. But it's Margaret Beaufort's

somewhat Lancastrian supporters. Elizabeth Woodville has her Woodville supporters and also the people who supported her sons. There are surviving Lancastrian exiles through Jasper Tudor. So like all of these very disconnected people have been brought together in part by the machinations of Margaret and Elizabeth. The women don't have to look far to find nobles willing to join them in their conspiracy. Richard III's actions have by now made him many enemies. People who've been seized and whose relatives have been executed and things were not his friends. They hadn't been his enemies before, but they were his enemies now. He hadn't really allowed for the possibility that people wouldn't accept this

scenario. I mean, he was bidding to lead the Yorkist faction, and he found it was actually the Yorkist faction that objected to him. I think he rather did overdo the executions, not least because it meant those people who had rebelled against him were no longer available to negotiate with him, so that he found he was more or less disposed of most of his family and potential allies. The conspirators also have a new heir to hold up as a challenger to Richard, one with a suitable claim to the throne and who has the capacity to take on the fight. Margaret Beaufort's only son is Henry Tudor, a Welsh noble living in exile in Brittany in France. A great, great grandson of King Edward II, his father was the half-brother

and closest blood relative to the late King Henry VI. Lady Margaret herself is descended from the Lancastrian branch of the Plantagenets. Margaret Beaufort is like the ultimate survivor of the Wars of the Roses. She's someone who is married four times before she's 30. She's married three times before she's 14. She gives birth to a child when her husband is already dead of plague. She's in the depths of Wales, which is a place that she really has no personal connection to. Through his mother, Henry Tudor has a fairly tenuous claim to the throne.

Nevertheless, born just two years after the first Battle of St. Albans that started the Civil War, he is now the most senior male Lancastrian to have survived the violence of the last couple of decades. Clearly, he is a charismatic figure. There is something in him in the same way there was with Edward IV, that people put their trust in him, that he has hundreds of English exiles, again, with completely opposing political opinions, united behind him. His claim to the throne is strengthened

by a plan to marry a daughter of the late King Edward IV and sister to the young princes who disappeared from the Tower of London. One of the things that makes Henry extremely palatable to all sides is the fact that he has said he will marry Elizabeth of York, Edward IV's daughter, and that by doing that, he will unite their two bloodlines and ensure there's a sort of

a Yorkist, Lancastrian, Tudor line going forward, which arguably is something that Margaret Beaufort, Henry's mother, has been trying to sort out for over a decade by that point. In the face of Richard's brazen power grab, this marriage appeals to many former Lancastrian and Yorkist nobles. The conspiracy gathers pace. The Duke of Brittany provides funds to Henry's cause, as well as three and a half thousand professional troops to spearhead his invasion and ships to carry them all. They embark for England. Meanwhile, across the English Channel, the rebellion has already started. Henry's ally, the Duke of Buckingham, has raised an army of Welsh and English troops against the unpopular King Richard. But fate is not on the rebels' side. A storm rolls

in and scatters Henry's ships. The same storm wreaks havoc on the Welsh border, swelling rivers and flooding the land through which the Duke of Buckingham's men intend to travel. Before Henry can join them for a coordinated march to meet Richard, the rebel army desert. The Duke of Buckingham flees, but is caught and executed. Henry finally lands his army at Pembrokeshire on the southwestern tip of Wales. He comes in an area which is not guarded. Richard didn't think he was going to go there. There were a lot of other places he could have gone to, but they didn't think he was going to go to Pembrokeshire

with substantial forces of professional soldiers from France. They're the core of his army. Led by Welsh and English exiles, swelled by Scottish and French troops, their arrival is met with rejoicing in Wales. Henry's return is celebrated as an almost messianic act to restore Welsh glory. Henry has previously issued a couple of documents which are disseminated through England in which he signs himself just as Henry, which is a kind of royal styling. He marches under a banner.

royal styling. He marches under a banner. King Richard's lieutenants in Wales immediately defect to Henry, shoring up his army with their troops. By mid-August, Henry's growing army is marching on Shrewsbury. I think maybe the way to think of a medieval army on the march is like a combination of a plague of locusts and a sort of travelling circus. That might be a good way to think of it because they denude the land they pass through. They devour local food and drink, especially. Lots of drink after they have defeated anywhere. They obviously are going to be making a mess. I imagine the places that they're staying are left in a pretty rubbish state. And also because there can be so many of them,

you know, thousands of men traveling with horses, with carts, with cannon, because by this point we have firepower as well as, you know, bows and swords and spears and things. I imagine that the way it sort of sounds from a distance is just that sort of, you know, almost like thunder from a distance, that kind of thudding movement of people.

And you can imagine a dust cloud rising over the horizon as one of the first signs of their coming. Richard rallies his forces and personally rides out to meet Henry. The stage is set for another showdown which will determine the fate of a king and of the nation. Both sides are a good deal smaller than any of the previous battles of the Wars of the Roses, but both armies want to fight quickly, both because they are afraid that the other side will become stronger

as more people materialise. On the 22nd of August, 1485, the two armies face each other across a field near Market Bosworth in Leicestershire, right in the centre of England. This day will become known as the Battle of Bosworth Field, the last major battle in the Wars of the Roses. Deployed across the strategically advantageous ridgeline is the 12,000-strong Royal Army with Richard III himself at its head. Henry Tudor, with his army of between 5,000 and 8 eight thousand men, is woefully outnumbered. Off to the south stands a third force, led by Thomas Stanley, the Earl of Derby, a man of immense wealth and power. Thomas Stanley is the ultimate political survivor.

He somehow, throughout the whole Wars of the Roses, from its beginning right through, he manages to navigate both sides of whatever is going on. He will promise that he's going to turn up for one side. He won't do it. They won't mind. And the people who he didn't turn up and fight forgive him as well. It's incredible how he manages to maneuver this. And he does it time and time again. Thomas Stanley is the one who commands a huge force of men. He evidently has thousands of people at his command. He just chooses not to actually fight with them. And it's the same thing happens at Bosworth. His younger brother, William Stanley, is a consistent Yorkist until the time of Richard III. Henry's army is on one side, Richard's army is on the other, and the Stanleys are sort of somewhere in the middle,

just waiting to see what happens. Stanley's men respect him for his decision making and leadership. They've shown no indication of uprising against the king and have profited greatly by this. However, Stanley's loyalty to the monarch cannot be taken for granted. Thomas Stanley is married to Margaret Beaufort, who's loyalty to the monarch cannot be taken for granted. Thomas Stanley is married to Margaret Beaufort, who's Henry's mother. The Stanley family have this kind of enclave in the northwest and into northern Wales that is theirs. It's like their private kingdom, really. And Richard, Duke of Gloucester, at some point in the 1470s starts to slightly threaten it.

So they have an issue with Richard III long before he becomes king. Mindful of this conflict, Richard has taken Stanley's son hostage to incentivize him to commit his army to his royal cause. Unbeknownst to Richard, the Stanleys have been meeting with Henry Tudor in secret, but it is still not clear who they will support. been meeting with Henry Tudor in secret. But it is still not clear who they will support. He kind of follows what's going on with Henry Tudor as he marches from Wales towards ultimately Bosworth. He meets with him, the two of them and William Stanley have this kind of secret meeting. But even there, like literally days before the final battle, Thomas Stanley is still like, that might help, might not. He's still making no promises. Henry sends a message to Stanley asking him to declare his allegiance.

Stanley's answer should influence Henry's actions and the day's outcome. But Stanley is vague. He replies that, naturally, his forces will come. After Henry has given orders to his own men. He leaves Henry no choice. It's now or never. The royal standard, made up of the arms of England and Richard's personal emblem, the white boar, flaps in the wind. Beneath it, Richard sits astride his horse, watching as lines of men advance towards him.

Henry himself is a little way back, sitting on a horse in the middle of his army, talking with his commanders. Richard knows that Henry has lived only in Wales and Brittany, and has never engaged in warfare. His army is led by experienced military commanders, rather than by Henry himself. Richard smiles as he watches Henry ride to safety at the rear of his army, flanked by his bodyguards. Henry's advancing army are closing on Richard's lines. The king's army moves to meet them,

long axes and lances held ready. The gap closes. Richard casts a glance at the third faction, led by Thomas Stanley. Last night he sent a message advising Stanley that if he did not attack Henry at the start of the battle, he would execute his son. Stanley's reply had been short and to the point. Sire, he said, I have more sons. Now, to his dismay, Richard realizes that Stanley's men are merely watching the coming battle, motionless. The two armies meet. Lance's clash, Polax's swing, The two armies meet. Lance's clash, Polax's swing, Hulbert's stab. There is a cacophony of steel on steel, the shouts of men on the attack, the screams of the injured.

Brutal hand-to-hand combat breaks out in groups as mobs hack and smash at each other. Despite being outnumbered, the battlefront limits the size of the clash and Henry's men steadfastly refuse to give ground. The king senses his advantage slipping away. He turns to shout to his ally the Earl of Northumberland to bring his men up in support. But like Stanley's men, they do not move. Richard curses and makes a fateful decision. Calling to his closest friends and allies, he flips down the visor on his helmet and he charges into the fray. Galloping down the ridge on horseback, they smash through enemy troops.

Richard keeps his eye trained on Henry, who is lightly defended just beyond the chaos of the fighting. He reasons a lightning attack can sever the head of the rebellion once and for all. In one move, he can end the war and settle his position on the English throne. Richard is behind Henry's lines now, still heading for Henry at a gallop. He levels his lance at Henry's standard-bearer and spurs his horse on. In a single, crushing blow, he skewers the poor man. Henry's banner drops to the mud. Richard then reins in his horse, spinning to face Henry's personal bodyguard. Though he is a six-foot-eight giant of a man, well known to possess enormous strength and courage, Richard doesn't hesitate. Leveling his broken lance again, he charges. The brute is unhorsed with another blow,

slamming Dazed to the dirt. Now Richard pulls his horse around a final time, glaring at Henry, fire burning behind the slit of his visor. Henry quickly dismounts, making himself less of a target, and shrinks back behind his wall of retainers. Throwing his broken lance into the mud, Richard draws his sword. He charges forward again, swinging at Henry's men, pushing his horse deep into their midst. Finally, and with relief, the king sees Stanley's men charging down the hill directly towards him.

But the elation doesn't last long. With Richard and his men still hacking their way forward, when Stanley arrives, it's Henry he's chosen to side with. Stanley dismounts and immediately goes on the offensive, directing his men towards Richard. The king is furious, attacking with renewed vigor, but he's now vastly outnumbered. As he's forced back, his horse topples in a bog,

and Richard is thrown off, but quickly gets to his feet. He raises his sword. "'God forbid I retreat one step,' he shouts. "'I will either win the battle as a king or die as one. Richard leads a final, desperate attempt to reach Henry. Besides him, his standard-bearer has both legs chopped off, but refuses to let the banner drop until he is killed. One by one, the royal entourage are felled, pressed back to the marsh, until finally only King Richard remains. He lifts his visor, panting. He is within a sword's length of his

target, the last Lancastrian claimant to the throne. He snarls with hatred as he raises his weapon. But now, Stanley's men close in, swamping him. They show no mercy, and once he is knocked to the ground, it is over. His helmet is dislodged, and a Welshman deals the death blow so powerful that it crushes his skull. Others join in, stabbing and hacking at the fallen monarch, but Stanley calls them off and reaches into the bloody marsh. He retrieves Richard's crown, and as the crowd parts, he kneels and holds it up to its new owner, King Henry VII. Richard's ill-fated charge has cost him dearly. I think that was a serious miscalculation.

And, you know, he could have withdrawn and fought another day, which he didn't. He's a no-compromise person, and he clearly thought he could achieve that result. And, yes, it fails. The bodies of the fallen at Bosworth are taken to a nearby church for burial. But not Richard.

His corpse is stripped naked and paraded over a horse, then displayed in Leicester to prove he is dead. After two days, he is laid in a plain tomb within the simple church of Greyfriars there. Henry declares himself King of England by right of conquest, in the same way William the Conqueror had in 1066.

Fundamentally, it's that you look like a king, you have an army, and you announce that you are king. His supporters have to kind of scrabble about to cobble together some clothes for him and lend him money in order to get the sufficiently grand clothing that he can then march from Bosworth down to London looking impressive enough. Henry Tudor is crowned King Henry VII in Westminster Abbey on the 30th of October 1485. As per his pledge, he is wed to Elizabeth of York in January 1486. The marriage firmly unites the Plantagenet branches of York and Lancaster, since now any children would inherit the titles and possessions of both houses. In doing so, he founds a new royal dynasty, the Tudors. He founds a new royal dynasty, the Tudors.

In the eyes of the various influential nobles, his wife, Elizabeth of York, will make a more suitable queen than her mother had been. Elizabeth of York is actually a much more sort of shadowy figure. She's someone who has seen her mother, Elizabeth Woodfill, being quite a dominant force in politics and that it did not go well for her. And I think Elizabeth of York witnessed that, lived through the experience of having to flee into sanctuary twice,

lived through the experience of her younger brothers disappearing into the Tower of London and possibly being murdered. And then I think she sort of went, okay, I'm just going to be a queen. I'm just going to be the medieval queen that people previously could deal with, who is the one who sits quietly,

pumps out as many children as I possibly can, and then dies in childbirth. That will be me. Though there are 18 Plantagenets with a stronger claim to the throne than Henry Tudor, none challenge him. Henry Tudor's biggest advantage was that he was obscure and nobody knew anything against him. They didn't know that he was obscure and nobody knew anything against him. They didn't know that he was also going to be supremely competent, which of course he turned out to be. And people who supported him, I think, thought they were going to be able to manage this young man quite easily and how wrong they were. Although rebellions, plots, and executions continue throughout Henry VII's reign, he keeps hold of power.

He consolidates this through taxation and new laws which divide and undermine the nobility, curtailing the wealth and influence of great earls and dukes to stabilize the country. To underscore this period of relative peace, he commissions a new badge for the House of Tudor. From his mother, Margaret Beaufort, he takes the red rose of the House of Lancaster, and from his wife, Elizabeth Plantagenet, the white rose of York. Henry combines these emblems to form the Tudor Rose. Though this is simply an exercise in Tudor propaganda to legitimize their rule and to platform Henry as a peacemaker, it seems to work as a legend. Inside the royal court too, it appears that peace has been achieved. I think that there has been this sort of perception

that Elizabeth of York and Margaret Beaufort had a vying for power because Margaret Beaufort has such an extraordinary and quite unique position as the mother of a living king. And because she isn't an exceptional figure, Margaret Beaufort, in lots of ways. But that's not really how I see it. I just see it that Elizabeth of York was a more passive person in the same way that Henry VI is a passive person. that Elizabeth of York was a more passive person in the same way that Henry VI is a passive person, that she sort of accepted having a more limited role as queen and she accepted her mother-in-law having a slightly more dominant role as king's mother and that they both had the shared interest of their family

and that was kind of it. Henry VII rules for 24 years until his death in 1509. The Tudor line of succession is secured by several children, the third of whom is also named Henry, and will go on to become one of the most famous monarchs in the world, Henry VIII. It is the tenuous nature of the Tudor claim to the throne which propels this Henry to such paranoid, maniacal lengths to produce a son and heir. One of the great features of the Wars of the Roses is that it's a period where the people enter politics and it's when they mass in overwhelming strength that several governments

are simply swept away. And that ceases with the recovery of the economy. But it leaves the Tudor government extremely wary about popular unrest and anxious to defuse opposition whenever it can. To this end, Henry VIII often uses the Tudor rose to assert his descent from the two royal houses of Lancaster and York. In 1534, King Henry VIII breaks with Rome due to his desire to annul a marriage. breaks with Rome due to his desire to annul a marriage. Soon afterwards, he dissolves the monasteries and Greyfriars Church in Leicester is destroyed. Richard III's grave is lost. Well, of course, the Wars of the Roses are superseded because at some point, the Wars of the Roses cease to be a practical proposition, and they are superseded by the rivalry between Catholics and Protestants.

The Tudor propaganda machine also works hard on the image of Richard III. Portraying him as a villain cements the Tudor right to reign, despite a great many contemporary accounts being favourable to Richard. This Tudor myth-making culminates with Shakespeare famously casting him as a deformed, villainous hunchback, clawing power at any cost. The reality is somewhat grayer. Although his appropriation of the throne is unquestionable, his motivations up to that point can never be known for sure. He certainly usurped the throne, which was wrong and illegal.

It involves a breach of loyalty. It starts the Wars of the Roses, which had finished in 1471. Again, the death of the princes, I think one can justify. But, I mean, this is where Tudor propaganda is effective. I mean, previous kings had slain their opponents, but somebody, some brilliant propagandist, realised the opportunity that this provides, the opportunity because this is they were innocent they were children they were in these care so they were able to make this disposal of

your rival much more serious than previous ones in august 2012 over 500 years after the Battle of Bosworth, a skeleton is discovered during an archaeological dig beneath a car park in Leicester. This is no ordinary dig. It's a result of the Richard III Society and the University of Leicester pinpointing the location of the lost Greyfriars Church. The male skeleton is discovered beneath the choir of the former church. Scoliosis of the spine would have caused one of his shoulders to sit slightly lower than the other, though this is far from the hunchback of Shakespeare. His skeleton has suffered numerous battlefield wounds to his bones, including marks made by daggers and swords. There is also a gaping hole in his skull, consistent with a blow from a halberd, rather like a long-handled axe. It is estimated that he was not wearing his helmet at the point

of death and that the force of the blow would have exposed his brain. DNA tests confirm that this is indeed the skeleton of King Richard III. You have other skeletons that survived from the Wars of the Roses, like Touton soldiers, for instance, who were on public display. And arguably, Richard is far more important in terms of the fact that he had scoliosis and that that confirmed some of those stories of him having a hunchback, as it was termed very offensively. But then I think, for me, that opens up all sorts of interesting debates about disability in history and how it has been kind of brushed out because there's this whole association of bad behaviour

and physical disability and why can't he have scoliosis and also be a good person or what, you know, these things are not mutually exclusive. I think there could have been a lot of value to the displaying of his remains, but I also understand the sensitivity of it. But it's just interesting to me that that sensitivity is not extended to other remains from the wars.

sensitivity is not extended to other remains from the wars. Richard III is interred beneath a new tomb in Leicester Cathedral in a service fit for a king officiated by the Bishop of Leicester and the Archbishop of Canterbury. He is the last King of England to die in battle, and the last victim of the Wars of the Roses to be laid to rest. Now on the moors, at the highest point on the motorway in Britain, a stone bollard marks the transition between the counties of Yorkshire and Lancashire. On one side is a white rose, and a red rose on the other, remembering the animosity and civil war wrought on the country by the two related branches of the Plantagenet family.

Despite the name and affiliation, Henry IV, the first monarch of the House of Lancaster, was born in Leicester and had no real association with the county. and had no real association with the county. Indeed, his father, the Duke of Lancaster, was born in Ghent, Belgium, and owned property, land and castles in almost every county in England. Similarly, though Richard of York held vast estates across the country, his true power base was actually in Ludlow and the Welsh borders, many miles from Yorkshire. power base was actually in Ludlow and the Welsh borders, many miles from Yorkshire. I think we just have a very simplistic idea about what land and loyalty was in that era,

which is entirely understandable because it's a really complicated period of history. And the fact that you have, you know, you can have legitimate conversations where you say, well, Gloucester went to Shrewsbury, but Shrewsbury went to Ludlow. And it's a really complicated period. We remember the wars today through mostly good-natured mockery between Yorkshire and Lancashire. The Roses' rivalry is a term used to describe various sporting events, such as the Roses' match between cricket teams of Lancashire and Yorkshire, and the Roses' derby in football between Leeds and Manchester. I think, I would say, we've become very insular in how we see some of this history. Yorkshire and the Roses Derby in football between Leeds and Manchester. I think I would say we've become very insular in how we see some of this history and it has boiled down to a Yorkshire-Lancashire divide when actually what you have is a conflict in which

Europe was involved. You have a Scottish influence, you evidently have a Welsh influence which comes to the fore with the Tudors, but is there beforehand. And the different regions of England all have their own different loyalties and self-interests and conflicts a lot of the time. So I think it's a point in history where really it just makes sense to slightly question the accepted version of events. It is not as simple as people in Yorkshire hated the Lancastrians, because actually there was a long period of time in which the Lancastrians held power in Yorkshire, and that was an area that was very loyal to them. Such was the impact and the bloodshed that it would be almost 200 years before civil war would revisit england and depose a king the wars of the roses marked a period of immense upheaval and a turning

point in english history gone was the age of chivalry of castle siege warfare In its place in came a new era of bloody, brutal, pitched battles. Countless thousands of ordinary men lost their lives in the violence as common soldiers killed noblemen and knights, and monarchs died beneath the blades of their enemies. To assuage further bloodshed and civil war, the following Tudor dynasty worked hard to centralize power and strengthen the prestige of the English monarchy. Ultimately, the Wars of the Roses ended the medieval period in England. The relative peace and stability that followed led in turn to the dawn of the English Renaissance. But it would not be long before Henry VIII's schism with Rome set a religious pendulum swinging.

And once again, the fight for the royal line of succession would plunge England into a period of distrust, conspiracy and violence. Next time on Short History Of, we'll bring you a short history of the real Peaky Blinders. Many of these Peaky Blinders were hard-working blokes. They were labourers in factories. Others were petty criminals. But what they all liked was to fight.

The only thing they have are their fists, their boots, and their fighting ability. And so we have what we now call, I suppose, toxic masculinity. I'm tougher than you are. And so the gangs were feared because they not only baited the police the term that they used to attack the police and battled each other and this is very important

they not only did that they bullied the hard-working decent, respectable poor amongst whom they lived That's next time on Short History Of.