Page 48 - All About History - Issue 11-14

In war, blood is power, blood is family, blood is
everything. England’s War of the Roses split a country in

two and left the bones of its people scattered across its

green and pleasant lands

Written by Robert Jones

t was 1453 and England was still at war with Back in England, Henry VI – shy, pious and
its old enemy France. Since the legendary days noncombatant – was busy being dominated by his
of King Henry V, the warrior king who spilled powerful and ruthless wife, Margaret of Anjou, the
the blood of the noble enemy in spades at niece of the French King Charles VII, as well as
IAgincourt and secured England’s claim to the his feuding court nobles, with Henry cow-towing
tactically important province of Normandy, both to both and leaving the affairs of England and his
great western powers had been fighting nonstop, estate in a paralysing limbo. Amid this turmoil,
with England slowly but surely being pushed a year previously the Duke of York, Richard
back toward the English Channel. English King Plantagenet, had travelled to London with an army
Henry VI’s military affairs were being overseen to present the court with a list of grievances that
by the Duke of Somerset Edmund Beaufort, they and the king were failing to address. This
an experienced military commander who was potentially explosive situation had been handled
about to suffer the ignobility of losing Bordeaux by Margaret and with the news that she was now
and leaving Calais as England’s only remaining pregnant, it helped to re-isolate York and force him
territory on the continent. to leave the capital with his tail between his legs.
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