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kimerajamm · Joined: 28 Nov 2010 Posts: 785

In 1461, England was in the sixth year of the Wars of the Roses, a series of civil wars between the Houses of York and Lancaster over the English throne. The Lancastrians backed the reigning King of England, Henry VI, an indecisive man who suffered bouts of madness.[2] The leader of the Yorkists was initially Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, who believed Henry was leading the country to ruin by overly favouring incompetent Lancastrian members of the court. Fuelled by rivalries between influential supporters of both houses, York's attempts to remove the favoured Lancastrian courtiers from power escalated into a full-blown conflict.[2][3] After capturing Henry at the Battle of Northampton in 1460, the duke, who was of royal blood, issued his own claim to the throne. Even York's closest supporters among the nobility were reluctant to usurp an established royal lineage; instead, the nobles passed by a majority vote the Act of Accord, which ruled that the duke and his heirs would succeed the throne on Henry's death.[4][5]

The Queen of England, Margaret of Anjou, refused to accept an arrangement that deprived her son—Edward of Westminster—of his birthright. She had fled to Scotland after the Yorkist victory at Northampton; there she began raising an army, promising her followers the freedom to plunder on the march south through England. Her Lancastrian supporters also mustered in the north of England, preparing for her arrival. York marched with his army to meet this threat, but he was lured into a trap at Wakefield and killed. The duke and his second son Edmund, Earl of Rutland were decapitated by the Lancastrians and their heads were impaled on spikes atop the Micklegate Bar, a gatehouse of the city of York.[6] The leadership of the House of York passed onto the duke's heir, Edward.[7]

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