History glossary
Wars of the Roses
the fifteenth-century dynastic conflicts between rival claimants from the houses of Lancaster and York.
- Category
- Dynastic conflict
- Region
- England
- Date range
- 1450s-1480s
What it means
The Wars of the Roses were a series of fifteenth-century conflicts over the English crown, fought by rival factions associated with the houses of Lancaster and York. They destabilised royal authority before Henry Tudor's victory at Bosworth in 1485 helped establish the Tudor dynasty.
