The Wars of the Roses Trivia Quiz

Answer: John of Gaunt

John of Gaunt was the third son of Edward III and Edmund of Langley was the fourth son. All of Edward's sons were named after where they were born, Edward of Woodstock for Woodstock Palace, Lionel of Antwerp for Antwerp in Belgium, John of Gaunt for Ghent in Belgium, Edmund of Langley for King's Langley in Hertfordshire and Thomas of Woodstock also for Woodstock Palace.

Answer: The First Battle of St Albans

The battle happened when Richard of York (the grandson of Edmund of Langley) became unhappy with King Henry VI's (great grandson of John of Gaunt) adviser Edmund Beaufort, Duke of Somerset (grandson of John of Gaunt through an illegitimate son). In 1455 the two sides clashed in the First Battle of St Albans, in which Somerset was killed.

Answer: The throne

Richard's brother in law Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury defeated Henry VI in the Battle of Northampton and captured the king. Richard of York who was in Ireland at the time went to London and claimed the throne as the senior descendant of Lionel of Antwerp (the second son of Edward III) though through a daughter, but all the gathered nobles said he had no right, all they agreed was that Richard could be the next heir after Henry VI's son Edward of Westminster, though Richard did rule as a king for the next few months.

Answer: 30th December 1460

Richard was killed along with his brother-in-law Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury and his second son Edmund, Earl of Rutland. The opposing Lancastrian force was led by Henry Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, the son of Edmund Beaufort. Their heads were later mounted on the gates of York which caused great insult to Richard's eldest son Edward (later Edward IV).

Answer: It was the bloodiest battle ever fought on English soil

The Battle of Towton is the bloodiest battle ever fought in England, meaning it had the most casualties with 28,000 men dead between both sides. Edward defeated Henry Beaufort, the man who had defeated his father. This severely diminished the Lancasterian forces and Henry VI and his commanders fled into exile paving the way for Edward to take the throne.

The nobles and people alike declared him king when he entered London.

Answer: Elizabeth Woodville

Elizabeth was the widow of a Lancastrian knight and was five years older than Edward, something that was frowned upon at the time. She brought her large family to court and arranged many good marriages for her sisters. This caused great upset among Edward's nobles, most notably Richard Neville the Kingmaker, Earl of Warwick, Edward's cousin and closest friend who had helped him gain the throne.

Answer: George, Duke of Clarence

George, Duke of Clarence was the younger brother of Edward and his heir at the time. George was also displeased with Edward's marriage and, using an old Lancastrian tale that Edward was not the son of Richard of York but a bastard son of a Welsh archer, George tried to claim the throne for himself with Warwick's help.

This backfired when Warwick, in need of funds, sided with Henry VI's wife Margaret of Anjou and agreed to put her husband back on the throne with her son as heir. This later caused George to go back to his brother's side and aided him in deafeating and killing Warwick at the Battle of Barnet in 1471.

Answer: Treason

George's wife had died of childbirth in 1476 and he had gone on a downward spiral. First he killed two of his wife's servants for supposedly poisoning her and later one of his servants declared under torture that he had predicted the king's death for George.

He later sent a known Lancastrian sympathizer to the king to plead his innocence, this was the last straw for Edward and he imprisoned George in the Tower of London, later executing him on a charge of treason.

Answer: Edward V

Edward became king at age 12 and Richard, Duke of Gloucester the youngest and only surviving brother of Edward IV became the Lord Protector. Edward was put in the Tower of London along with his brother Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York. Later it was claimed that Edward IV was already betrothed (engaged) to someone else when he married the boys' mother Elizabeth Woodville and thus they were illigitimate. Richard then claimed the throne and the boys disappeared, presumed dead. Richard was blamed for their death but it has never been proven, plus there were a number of other suspects with motives.

Answer: Harold II

Harold II Godwinson, the last Anglo-Saxon King of England, was killed in the Battle of Hastings against William the Conqueror in 1066. Harold II and Richard III are the only kings of England to ever be killed in battle. The Battle of Bosworth Field was fought by Richard against the last Lancastrian claimant, Henry Tudor.

Henry became king as Henry VII, beginning the Tudor dynasty. Henry revoked the act of parliament declaring Edward V and his brother illegitimate so he could marry their sister Elizabeth of York to cement his hold on the throne, as some said that she had a better claim to the throne than he did.