Wars of the Roses

Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudors by Dan Jones, 340 pages

For thirty years in the late fifteenth century, a series a civil wars were waged in England, wars that ultimately led to the extinction of the Plantagenet house which had occupied the throne since the time of Henry II, and the establishment of a new dynasty, the Tudors.  One of the major factions in these wars, the Yorkists, used a white rose as an emblem, but it was only upon the triumph of the Tudors that the white rose merging with a red rose symbolizing the Lancastrian faction to form a blended Tudor rose gave the conflicts their popular name of the Wars of the Roses, and the Tudors their reputation as the great unifiers.

In partial contrast to this popular view of a primarily dynastic conflict beginning with the usurpation of the throne by Henry IV, Jones situates the power struggle as primarily a consequence arising from the Plantagenet defeat in the Hundred Years War and the inability of Henry VI to govern effectively.  The fissioning of the victorious party at every stage produced a continuous supply of disaffected nobles, while encouraging incorrigible schemers in their gambles.  Woodvilles, Percys, Staffords, and Nevilles were every bit as involved in the perpetuation of the wars as the rival branches of the Plantagenets.

Jones' previous work, The Plantagenets, was an excellent account of the rise of the house.  Wars of the Roses is an equally excellent account of its demise.