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THE WARS OF THE ROSES
When the Royal Rosarians were first organized the idea of a mythical kingdom named Rosaria called for a government of mythical proportions. So, in the founders' eyes no better time in history could present a format for such a government than the time in England after the Wars of the Roses when Henry V11 brought stability to the land. The criteria as described in the Forward on page 2; HISTORY OF THE ROYAL ROSARIANS requires Royal Rosarians to embrace honor, love of pageantry, and upstanding moral values among other attributes. The order of Council, as taken from Henry V11's Royal Council, is on page 7 and 8 of the history. With a few changes the Royal Rosarian Privy Council has remained constant since 1912. In the Knighthood Ceremony of Rosaria, on command of the Prime Minister, the Lord Chief Justice describes the Wars of the Roses very briefly. This, then, is a little broader description of those times.
It all began with the death of the Black Prince, Edward Plantagenet in 1376. He was a remarkable warrior who, with his father, King Edward III, brought most of France under English rule and virtually ended the Hundred Years War. For all of the battles he fought in and escaped serious injury from he was to die of a debilitating disease. His devastated father died a year later leaving the throne to his grandson, Richard (II) the only son of the Black Prince. Edward III had four other boys who were as follows: The second son, Lionel, had one daughter who married Edmund Mortimer establishing the Mortimer family; Lionel was murdered in Italy in1368 eight years before the death of the Black Prince. The third son, John (of Gaunt) married Blanche of Lancaster to become the Duke of Lancaster. The Duke of York, Edmund Langley, was the fourth son and the father of Richard of Cambridge who married Anne Mortimer, granddaughter of Lionel. The fifth son, Thomas of Woodstock, was Earl of Buckingham and Duke of Gloucester by his marriage to Eleanor Bohun. Thomas was murdered in 1397 by the order of Richard II. His daughter Anne married into the Stafford family. The descendants of these four princes will be the players in the Wars of the Roses.
Richard II was an incredibly inadequate monarch. His uncle, John of Gaunt, a prime candidate as regent during Richard's minority, was very unpopular with the government so was never employed in that capacity. He nevertheless mentored Richard throughout his entire life until his own death. Richard was given full monarchial responsibilities when he took the throne at age ten and by the time he was fourteen was tampering in government affairs. Richard was cruel and a tyrant who would not listen to anyone and at age nineteen he dissolved Parliament and ruled autocratically. His mismanagement of the kingdom and of the French territories caused the loss of much of what his father and grandfather had gained for England. When John of Gaunt did die, Richard's number was up. He very imprudently took all of Gaunt's lands and issued letters patent against his family. News of the death reached Gaunt's Lancastrian son (Henry of Bolingbroke), who had been banished to France, some years earlier during one of Richard's rages. Bolingbroke was now penniless and faced permanent banishment. Henry was furious that his family had lost everything and that his banishment was forever. It took him nine years but he was able to gather an army and invade England. Richard was overthrown and put in the Tower of London. It is unclear whether Richard's death of starvation, several months later, was self-imposed or by the order of Henry, now Henry IV. Henry was not the legal heir to the throne but he declared himself so in sworn testimony in front of all the peers who wanted Richard deposed. This act illegally usurped the rightful heir, Edmund Mortimer, the grandson of Lionel. Henry IV lived his life trying to justify his act of usurpation. He was stricken with leprosy of the most deadly kind and suffered terribly from its effects; becoming dreadfully disfigured. On his deathbed he confessed all to his oldest son Henry; revealing to him the kingdom really belonged to Edmund Mortimer, the Earl of March. (From whom the Yorks would eventually claim their right to the English throne.) This did not stop the younger Henry from taking the crown that lay on the pillow next to his father and placing it on his own head in front of the dying man.
History | Chapter 2
