Wars of the Roses
1455-1485
A three decades long spat between two rival factions of English noblemen, one known as the House of Lancaster and the other as the House of York. The wars were so called as the two factions were often represented by roses - red for Lancaster, white for York.
Technically a civil war, but for some reason historians don't really use the term for wars before the massed use of handguns. Marked by periods of heavy fighting puncutated by a few years of relative peace and re-armament. Then back to the war again.
The kings during the time were:
Henry VI (Lancs)
Edward IV (York)
Edward V (York) 1
Richard, Duke of York 2
Richard III (York)
Henry VII (Lancs)
Full details of the wars can be found on the wiki page [1]
The Wars of the Roses included the bloodiest single battle ever fought on English soil, the Battle of Towton.
Notes
1 - declared illegitimate at age 12 by his uncle Richard III who had him killed. What a nice man.
2 - 9-year-old younger brother of Edward V and heir to the throne, also declared illegitimate and killed by his uncle. As he was the younger of the two and the exact order of their deaths is unknown the legal fiction is that he died second, technically making him king for a split-second. One for QI I think.
