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He was the son of John of Gaunt and Blanche of Lancaster. This may seem a little complex since there were many sons of Edward III, but the throne first went to Richard II, but when he was forced to abdicate, the throne went to Henry of Bolingbroke, who became Henry IV.

Weir begins her book by explaining what England in the fifteenth century was like before diving into the history of Edward III and the Plantagenets in the late 1300s. Chiefly, however, I have tried to re-tell an astonishing and often grim story of power struggles in high places that involved some of the most charismatic figures in English history. I have also tried to bring the world of the fifteenth century to life by introducing as much contemporary detail as space permits, in order to make the subject relevant to any read, academic or otherwise. My aim has been throughout to eliminate that confusion and try to present the story in chronological sequence, clarifying the problems of the royal succession in an age in which no certain rules of inheritance applied. Many misconceptions have been swept away, yet even so the dynastic conflict still confuses many. Sources for this period are meagre and often ambiguous, yet much research has been done over the last hundred years to illuminate a little for us what is often described as the twilight world of the fifteenth century. This question and the series of wars that would try to answer it is explored in depth in Alison Weir’s book “The Wars of the Roses”.Īlison Weir explains the struggle of studying this time period and what she is trying to accomplish in her book: This was a series over the question of who had the strongest claim to the throne. The Lancasters were the descendants of John of Gaunt and his wife Blanche of Lancaster while the Yorks were descendants of Edmund of Langley Duke of York. In fact the conflict started much earlier with the children of Edward III and Philippa of Hainault. It is traditionally taught that it was between the houses of York and Lancaster, yet there were a lot more players involved than these two families.

The Wars of the Roses was a series of wars from 1455 until 1487 for the throne of England.

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