Abstract
The twentieth century, especially the last third, has witnessed a major revision of received ideas about the Wars of the Roses. The 30 years 1455–85, it has been argued, were neither years of constant civil strife nor years of uncontrolled anarchy. in terms of open warfare, it has often been repeated, there were no more than 12 or 13 weeks of actual fighting in the whole 30 years. And this fighting was restricted to the narrow world of the political élite, most of whose members were either indifferent to the outcome or shamelessly opportunistic. A handful of isolated battles, armed clashes, murders and executions, we are told, had little impact on the day-to-day life of the kingdom. These inconveniences were not caused by dynastic dispute: the question of the throne only arose as a consequence of political rivalry. There were no roses, red for Lancaster or white for York, deployed as badges by rival parties. Even the phrase ‘Wars of the Roses’, we are assured, was not thought of until invented by Sir Walter Scott.1 In short, the Wars of the Roses is a myth. In its extreme manifestation this was the argument advanced by the late S. B. Chrimes in a recorded discussion with Professor R. L. Storey. The roses, he stated, had nothing to do with it and there were not, ‘in any meaningful sense’, any wars. The only admissible use of the phrase, he conceded, was if it were restricted to the first three months of 1461.2
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Notes
For these views, see especially J. R. Lander, ‘The Wars of the Roses’, in Crown and Nobility, 1450–1509 (London: Edward Arnold, 1976), pp. 61–3
McFarlane, ‘Wars of the Roses’, in England in the Fifteenth Century (London: Hambledon Press, 1981), pp. 229
S. B. Chrimes, Lancastrians, Yorkists and Henry VII (London: Macmillan, 2nd edn, 1966), p. xii.
W. Lamont (ed.), The Tudors and Stuarts (London: Sussex Books, 1976), pp. 14–15.
M. E. Aston, ‘Richard II and the Wars of the Roses’, in F. R. H. DuBoulay and C. M. Barron (eds), The Reign of Richard II: Essays in Honour of May McKisack (London: Athlone, 1971), p. 283
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E. Hall, The Union of the Two Noble Families of Lancaster and York (Menston: Scolar Press, 1970)
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John Wilders, The Lost Garden (London: Macmillan, 1978), pp. 125–51.
W. Stubbs, The Constitutional History of England, vol. III, 5th edn (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1897), p. 632.
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W. Denton, England in the Fifteenth Century (London: George Bell, 1888), pp. 115
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See G. L. Harriss, ‘Introduction’, in McFarlane, England in the Fifteenth Century (London: Hambledon Press, 1981), esp. p. xix.
C. D. Ross, The Wars of the Roses (London: Thames and Hudson, 1976), p. 176.
John Gillingham, The Wars of the Roses: Peace and Conflict in Fifteenth Century England (London: Weidenfeld, 1981), pp. 14
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M. H. Keen, England in the Late Middle Ages (London: Methuen, 1973), pp. 449–51.
D. M. Loades, Politics and the Nation, 1450–1660 (Brighton: Harvester, 1974), pp. 11
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J. C. Wedgwood, History of Parliament: Biographies of the Members of the Commons House, 1439–1509 (London: HMSO, 1936)
M. C. Carpenter, ‘Gentry and Community in Medieval England’, Journal of British Studies, 33 (1994), pp. 340–80
G. L. Harriss, ‘Political Society and the Growth of Government in Late-Medieval England’, Past and Present, 138(1993), pp. 28–57
G. L. Harriss, ‘The Dimensions of Politics’, in R. H. Britnell and A. J. Pollard (eds), The McFarlane Legacy: Studies in Late-Medieval Politics and Society (Stroud: Sutton, 1995), pp. 1–20.
M. C. Carpenter, ‘Political and Constitutional History: Before and After Mcfarlane’, in Britnell and Pollard, McFarlane Legacy, pp. 175–206, and Wars of the Roses, pp. 21–6, 41–4; M. A. Hicks, ‘Idealism in Late-Medieval Politics’, in idem, Richard III and his Rivals: Magnates and their Motives in the Wars of the Roses (London: Hambledon Press), 1991), pp. 41–60
R. E. Horrox, ‘Personalities and Politics’, in A. J. Pollard (ed.), The Wars of the Roses (London: Macmillan, 1995), pp. 89–109
E. Powell, ‘After “After McFarlane”: The Poverty of Patronage and the Case for Constitutional History’, in D.J. Clayton et al. (eds), Trade, Devotion and Governance: Papers in Late-Medieval History (Stroud: Sutton, 1994)
J. L. Watts, ‘Polemic and Politics in the 1450s’, in M. Kekewich et al., The Politics of Fifteenth Century England: John Vale’s Book (Stroud: Sutton, 1995), pp 3–42
J. L. Watts, ‘Ideas, Principles and Politics’, in A. J. Pollard (ed.), The Wars of the Roses (London: Macmillan, 1995), pp. 110–33
R. A. Griffiths The Reign of King Henry VI (London: Ernest Benn, 1981), pp. 1–12.
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Pollard, A.J. (2001). The Wars in History. In: The Wars of the Roses. British History in Perspective. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-10515-8_2
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