Osprey Essential Histories 54 : The Wars of the Roses 1455-1485

The Wars of the Roses featured sixteen invasions, four successful and six times kings lost their thrones. This book explores why those invasions occurred and kept occurring. Destruction and devastation were minimal, barely affecting the day to day routine of the civilian population, yet the Wars were lethal for their noble leaders and, as first hand accounts reveal, blighted the lives of their women and children. That the Wars ended so abruptly was not so much because Henry VII won at Bosworth and ruled effectively, the author concludes, but rather because a feel-good factor removed popular discontent and continental rivals turned elsewhere. Text by Michael Hicks.

Contents

• Introduction and Chronology
• Background to War
• Warring Sides
• Outbreak
• The Fighting
• Portrait of a Soldier
• World around War
• Portrait of a Civilian
• How the War Ended
• Conclusion and Consequences