Wars of the Roses Trivia Quiz

Answer: First Battle of St. Albans

In 1455, Richard, Duke of York, who had been appointed Protector of the Realm in 1453 due to King Henry VI's mental instability, openly rebelled against the King and led an army towards London. He defeated the King's forces and captured Henry at St. Albans. Richard then became Constable of England and held the King in custody.

Answer: Margaret of Anjou

Margaret of Anjou was born in France in 1430, and was married to Henry VI in 1455. Throughout her husband's mental breakdowns, the war, and his capture, Margaret ruled in his name, raised armies, and fought for his crown. She and Henry VI were defeated and captured after the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471, and she was ransomed by the French king Louis XI in 1475, dying in exile in 1482.

Answer: Edward IV

Edward IV, son of Richard, Duke of York, inherited the Yorkist claim to the throne upon the death of his father at the Battle of Wakefield in 1460. After defeating the Lancasters in the battles of Mortimer's Cross and Towton in 1461, Edward IV deposed Henry VI and was crowned in June, 1461.

He was deposed in 1470 after a revolt led by his former advisor Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, but regained the throne in 1471 after the Battle of Tewkesbury. Edward reigned until his death in 1483.

Answer: Henry Bolingbroke

Henry Bolingbroke was the son of John of Gaunt, the third son of King Edward III. Henry and Richard were first cousins and got along well until Henry was involved in the Lord's Appellant's rebellion in 1387. Richard did not punish Henry for this action, but when John of Gaunt died in 1399, Richard denied Henry's assumption of his father's titles.

Henry gathered support among the nobles and deposed Richard II, being crowned Henry IV in October, 1399.

Answer: Burgundy

At the time of the Wars of the Roses, the Duchy of Burgundy was a powerful state in Western Europe and was often at odds with France, which naturally led to alliances with England. Edward IV's sister, Margaret, married the Burgundian Duke Charles the Bold in 1468.

When Edward IV was deposed in 1470, he took refuge with Charles and Margaret, and Charles supported Edward in his efforts to regain the throne.

Answer: Sons of Edward IV

Edward IV married Elizabeth Woodville in 1464. Their two sons, Edward the Prince of Wales, age 12, and Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, age 10, were entrusted to Edward IV's brother, Richard, Duke of Gloucester upon their father's death in April, 1483. Taken by their uncle to the Tower of London, the boys were declared illegitimate by Parliament, who declared their uncle King as Richard III.

The princes were seen less and less, until they disappeared altogether by autumn.

Answer: First use of artillery in England

At the 1460 Battle of Northampton, both the forces of the Lancastrian king, Henry VI, and the Yorkist rebels under the Earls of Warwick and March had artillery batteries. While both the English and French armies had used crude artillery pieces during the Hundred Year's War, mostly firing large arrows or stones, this battle marked the first time that recognizable artillery was used in England.

Answer: Wales

The Tudors were a Welsh noble family from Anglesey in North Wales. Owen Tudor (1400-1461) married the widow of King Henry V, Catherine of Valois, and had two sons, one of whom, Edmund, married Margaret Beaufort of the House of Lancaster. Their son, Henry, would base his claim to the throne on being the great-great-great grandson of King Edward III through his mother.

Answer: Battle of Bosworth Field

Henry Tudor had been in exile in France since 1471. After Richard III took the throne in 1483, Henry's mother Margaret Beaufort began touting him as an alternative to Richard III. Receiving troops, supplies, and money from French King Charles VIII, Henry landed in Wales in August, 1485. Gathering troops as he went, Henry met Richard in battle on August 22, 1485 at Bosworth Field in Leicestershire, defeating his army and killing Richard III.

Henry claimed the throne by right of conquest.

Answer: Three

Henry VII had to contend with revolts by the Stafford Brothers and Viscount Lovell in 1486, by the Earl of Lincoln, who in 1487 claimed that Edward IV's son Richard was still alive, and in 1491 by Perkin Warbeck, who also claimed to be the dead Prince Richard.

This conflict lasted until 1499. That same year, Henry had Edward Plantagenet, the Earl of Warwick and the last Plantagenet heir to the English throne, executed, thus securing his rule.