Story · 14601487 · 7 chapters

The Wars of the Roses

A crown, two families, thirty years of snow on the moors

The dynastic brawl that ended the Plantagenets and began the Tudors. White rose and red, York and Lancaster — until a Welshman under a dragon banner walked out of Bosworth as king.

Chapter 1 of 71460 · Late Middle Ages
1460
Europe · War

The Duke of York dies in the mud. His head is set above Micklegate Bar in a paper crown.

Battle of Wakefield

December 30, 1460

Richard of York, overconfident or betrayed, sallied from Sandal Castle and was killed by Lancastrian forces in the open. His severed head, wearing a paper crown, was mounted on Micklegate Bar at York. His son Edward, seventeen years old, inherited the Yorkist claim and began marching south in cold fury.