Wars of the Roses in England, 1455 - 1487
A map illustrating the course of a series of civil wars in the Kingdom of England between the houses of Lancaster and York for the crown. Known today as the Wars of the Roses (a term coined in the 19th century by Sir Walter Scott), this dynastic conflict (1455 – 1487) arose from a variety of political, social, and familial factors, with two rival branches of the Plantagenet dynasty vying for supremacy.
Starting in 1455, rival nobles backed or challenged the weak and unstable King Henry VI of England; the intermittent fighting and machinations lasted into the 1480s when Henry VII of England ended open conflict and ushered in the beginning of the Tudor dynasty.
