Struggle For Supremacy

In the final part of our series, we reach the culmination of the Wars of the Roses and ponder British historys greatest mystery

- Neil Jones

The first 28 years of the Wars of the Roses between the rival royal Houses of Lancaster and York had been eventful, with Lancastrian King Henry VI deposed and murdered, and factional plots aplenty. Following Yorkist King Edward IV’s sudden death in 1483, the final two years or so of conflict provided history’s most poignant mystery, one of its most controversial kings, a dramatic battle and the accession to the English throne of its most famous royal dynasty.

On 9 April 1483 when Edward IV died, his 12-year-old heir, Edward V, was at Ludlow Castle in Shropshire. Surrounded by an entourage that included notable members of his mother Elizabeth Woodville’s family, he set out for London in preparation for his coronation, scheduled for 4 May. Meanwhile his uncle Richard, Duke of Gloucester, the late king’s loyal brother, dashed down from his Yorkshire stronghold at Middleham Castle, promptly arrested several prominent members of the entourage, and took over the escort to London himself. Over the next few frantic weeks, while Edward and his nine-year-old brother Richard, Duke of York, lodged in comfortable apartments at the Tower of London (still a royal residence at the time, not solely a prison), Gloucester was officially announced Protector and Defender of the Realm.

Woodville factions, desperate to keep control, were furious but Gloucester ruthlessly sidelined his opponents. The coronation was postponed and an old rumour was revived that Edward IV’s marriage to Elizabeth had been illegal because he had been pre-contracted to another woman. The two princes were therefore declared to be illegitimate and an assembly of lords and commons deposed Edward V on 25 June.