What was Richard III’s role in the Wars of the Roses?

The Plantagenet king whose defeat would lead to the rise of Tudor England

Despite a reign that only lasted two years, one Plantagenet had a profound effect on the realm. Raised in the feudal conflict that was later named the Wars of the Roses, Richard spent most of his life battling to both attain power and defend it, an experience that moulded him into a brilliant strategist and someone who always led his military campaigns into battle. Richard was the son of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York and his wife, Cecily Neville.

The duke himself was deeply unpopular with the House of York’s fiercest rival, the House of Lancaster – this also included Queen Margaret of Anjou, who held sway over the weak-minded king. Richard’s father refused to renounce his claim and the dispute eventually culminated with a brutal clash at the Battle of Wakefield.

Despite leading a sizeable military force, the duke of York was killed on 30 December 1460. With his father dead, Richard was packed off with his brother George to the Low Countries while his eldest brother Edward (now the fourth duke of York) led a 30,000-strong army into battle, defeating what remained of Henry VI’s forces on 29 March 1461 at Towton. 

Edward’s ascension to the throne was hardly the end of the conflict. The Wars of the Roses had really only just begun. After Edward’s coronation in 1461, he made Richard the duke of Gloucester and sent him to train under his cousin, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick. Richard refused marriage to Warwick’s daughter, placing his fealty to the king. That show of loyalty bound the brothers as England’s war began to escalate and Warwick turned traitor.

In 1471 the young Plantagenet led Edward’s forces in the Battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury, where his use of a small but ruthless force led to the deaths of Warwick and the Lancastrian heir (and the former king’s son), Edward, Prince of Wales. The Lancastrian threat was largely extinguished after Edward’s restoration, the only real claimant left being Henry Tudor who was exiled in France. 

Edward IV fell gravely ill and died on 9 April 1483, but not before he named Richard lord protector of the realm and his son and heir, Edward V. However, neither Edward V nor his brother would take the throne, as Richard was named the true successor. Even though living in exile, the presence of Henry Tudor loomed large in Richard’s mind. 

In August 1485, news reached the king that Henry Tudor had arrived in West Wales with an army of a few hundred men. The king and the pretender met on 22 August 1485 at Bosworth Field. Despite Richard’s superior forces, Henry’s army began to turn the tide. When Richard charged across the war zone to meet his foe, he was cut down before he could reach him. With the king dead, Sir William Stanley placed the bloody crown upon the head of Henry Tudor, proclaiming him to be England’s new king. After over 330 years, the rule of the House of Plantagenet was over. The age of the Tudors had begun.

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