Family Feuds: The Wars of the Roses

By Lisa Marie Wilkinson
Long before the 1989 black comedy film “The War of the Roses” depicted a couple of wealth and privilege fighting over the division of their material possessions during a bitter divorce, a similarly named series of battles waged between two royal houses as each sought to claim the throne of England. The stage was set for the decades-long feud between the houses of Lancaster and York known as “The Wars of the Roses” by Edward III, whose ambition to rule both France and England plunged the country into the Hundred Years War when 18 year old Edward claimed the right to rule France in 1328.

House of Lancaster

When Edward III died in 1377, the descendants of the late King could not agree upon whom should rule England, and an ineffectual King in the person of Henry VI prompted rebellion by earning the enmity of both nobility and common folk alike. The reign of Henry VI was characterized by high taxes, stunning military losses, intermittent bouts of mental illness and an ambitious wife, Margaret of Anjou, whose machinations on behalf of her husband helped precipitate his downfall and helped fuel the division between the royal houses of Lancaster and York.

Cade’s Rebellion, a popular rebellion organized and led by Jack Cade in 1450, opened the door for the ambition of Richard, the Duke of York. Henry VI fled the battle, giving up his right to rule in the view of the many who viewed him as a weak ruler. The rebels seized and occupied Kent, although Cade was unable to control his ragtag army and eventually fled. Cade was later executed, his head placed on a spike in London as a warning to all who would act against their king.

House of York

In 1455, the Duke of York decided it was time to act. He amassed an army and marched on London, engaging in the Battle of St. Albans, the first battle in the Wars of the Roses, which resulted in victory for the house of York and the elevation of Richard Duke of York to the position of First Minister, a position of influence within Henry’s court.

When he began to suspect that the Duke of York planned to usurp his throne, Henry had him removed from the office of First Minister and declared a traitor. York again rallied his army and won the Battle of Blore Heath, a victory which was undermined by promises of pardon by the house of Lancaster (Henry VI) to the Yorkist troops who participated in the melee.

The Siege of London

In what is known as the Yorkist Invasion of 1460, the Duke of York came prepared with an army of 2,000 and made his claim to the throne, but soon discovered that Henry VI could not be deposed in his favor. As an alternative solution, the Act of Accord dictated that York or his heirs would inherit the throne upon the death or abdication of Henry VI. Queen Margaret rallied support for her husband and this time, it was the Duke of York who was insufficiently prepared when the Lancaster army of 20,000 confronted York’s army of 12,000. Henry was freed from his captors in London and the Duke of York died in battle in York, his head placed upon a spike, adorned with a paper crown.

The Lancaster force continued to forge south, cutting a wide swath of destruction as it went, the army joined by ruffians bent upon pillaging the houses of the nobles and the monasteries along the route. Compared to a plague of locusts by survivors of the carnage, the allegiances of the common folk began to swing from Lancaster to York as tales of the horrors inflicted by the marauding Lancaster army spread.

Edward IV

The Lancastrian army failed to occupy London and was forced to retreat to the north, while the Duke of York’s eldest son, Edward Earl of March, was proclaimed King Edward IV. Edward, age 18, entered London and declared himself king, backed by Parliament and the common people.

Edward fought to solidify his claim during the Battle of Towton in 1461, the bloodiest battle of the wars considered by many historians to be the bloodiest battle ever fought on English soil. In a dramatic move to rally his troops, Edward killed his own horse and declared that he would fight on foot alongside his men.

It was a decisive victory, as Henry VI and his wife Margaret were forced to flee to Scotland. The victorious Edward entered York in the shadow of his father’s head displayed on a spike, which he ordered be removed, buried, and replaced with the heads of Lancastrian nobles.

The ensuing years were framed by shifting alliances and repeated attempts by Henry VI and former Queen Margaret to elicit support in an effort to regain the throne. Edward secured his position by signing a treaty with French King Louis XI in 1463, which undermined the support Henry and Margaret had received from the French. By signing a treaty with Scotland that same year, Edward forced Henry and Margaret to leave their safe haven and struggle to remain ahead of Edward’s men, literally moving from house to house, sheltered by their remaining allies.

In 1464, Edward committed a political and personal faux pas by marrying Elizabeth Woodville, who was not only a commoner, but a widow whose first husband had perished while fighting against the Yorkist faction during the Battle of St. Albans. Edward’s choice of wife proved ill-advised for a number of reasons, not the least of which was that it resulted in the lost friendship and support of the Duke of Warwick, who was known as “The Kingmaker” after having captured London for the Yorkists, making it possible for Edward IV to become king in the first place. Edward began handing out titles and property to the Woodville family, earning him the enmity of the nobles he passed over in favor of his wife’s relatives.

Henry VI

Henry VI, still unwilling to give up his claim to the throne, raised another army and was defeated again at the Battle of Hexham in 1464. Edward retaliated by executing Lancaster knights and leaders in battle, and Henry VI was captured and placed on public display as he was taken to the Tower of London, pelted by garbage as he was led along the route.

The Woodville family was ambitious, and as their influence rose, the influence of the Duke of Warwick waned. Warwick aligned himself with the house of Lancaster and defeated Edward IV in battle, intending to place his own son-in-law, George Duke of Clarence, on the throne, where Warwick planned to rule the country through a puppet king.

Warwick decided that it was time to either kill Edward or remove him permanently from the throne, and the Battle of Empingham (also known as the Battle of Losecoat Field) followed in March of 1470. Edward responded with propaganda, bluster and bravado, going so far as to execute the father of an opposing rebel army leader in full view of both armies. The rebel army broke and ran after the smoke from a barrage of cannon fire cleared, revealing the King’s army marching toward them. The defeated rebels quickly shed articles of clothing that would identify them as such, hence the name “Losecoat Field.”

Warwick was killed during another coup attempt in 1471, and Queen Margaret was captured during yet another battle at Tewkesbury that same year. Henry VI was executed on May 21, 1471 at the Tower of London.

Edward IV reigned until his death in 1483. Richard III (the younger brother of Edward IV) took Edward’s 12-year-old son Edward V into custody for his “protection” following the death of his father. Richard III had the support of the nobility in his effort to minimize the influence of the Woodville family, who had amassed great wealth and power during the reign of Edward IV. Richard and his collaborators feared what might happen should Edward V be allowed to reach his majority and the Woodvilles came into power again. Edward V and his younger brother were placed in the Tower of London in 1483 and were never seen alive again.

Richard III took London by force of arms and was crowned King in 1483, only to be killed during the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 fighting the man who would become the next king of England: Henry VII, of the House of Tudor, who united the Lancaster and York factions of the royal family by marrying Elizabeth York, the daughter of Edward IV, bringing an end to the Wars of the Roses.

The roses, red for Lancaster and white for York, referenced the emblems worn by the liveried servants of each house.

“Warwick: And here I prophesy: this brawl today,

Grown to this faction in the Temple garden,

Shall send, between the Red Rose and the White,

A thousand souls to death and deadly night.”
-From the 1592 play, Henry VI by William Shakespeare

Lisa Marie Wilkinson is an IPPY Gold Medal winning author of historical adventure-romance. Her latest novel, STOLEN PROMISE, featuring vibrant Gypsy characters and breath-taking romance, is available now.

Family Feuds: Charlemagne and the Fate of the Church

By Kim Rendfeld

When he was merely King Charles, one of Charlemagne’s family feuds involved his ex-father-in-law, along with his widowed sister-in-law and her young sons, and the fate of the Church hung in the balance.

On his deathbed in 768, King Pepin followed Frankish custom and split the realm between his surviving sons, Charles and Carloman. Charles was 20, and Carloman was 17. Both were married to Frankish women Pepin had picked out for them.

The brothers did not get along. Charles put down a rebellion in Aquitaine in 769, with no assistance from Carloman. The queen mother, Bertrada, intervened and worked to ensure peace between her sons along with their cousin, the duke of Bavaria, and Lombard King Desiderius, one of whose daughter was the Bavarian duchess.

This was a time when marriages were a means of diplomacy, and in 770, Bertrada was arranging a marriage between Charles and a Lombard princess. In the summer of that year, Pope Stephen III wrote an impassioned letter to both brothers urging them not to marry her. In 770/71, Charles divorced his first wife, the mother of his eldest son Pepin (also called Pepin the Hunchback), and married the Lombard princess.

Shortly after Carloman died (December 4, 771), his widow, Gerberga, fled to Italy with their two young sons. Meanwhile, Charles divorced the Lombard and married Hildegard, whose father ruled over land that used to be in Carloman’s kingdom. Like his father, Charles seized land from his nephews.

In 772, the same year as Charles’s first war in Saxony, Desiderius was trying to get Pope Stephen’s successor, Hadrian I, to anoint Carloman’s sons. The Lombard king seized papal cities and threatened Rome. The pope asked Charles to fulfill his father’s oath as patrician of Rome and come to his aid.

After attempts to bribe Desiderius failed, Charles crossed the Alps in the fall of 773. Desiderius fled to Pavia, while Gerberga and her sons fled to Verona, accompanied by Desiderius’s son, Adalgis. Charles laid siege to Pavia, then took a smaller force to Verona, where Gerberga surrendered voluntarily. Adalgis escaped and became an official in the Byzantine court, and years later, he would cause trouble for his ex-brother-in-law.

Charles returned to Pavia. As the siege wore on, he visited Rome at Easter, presumably seeking divine intervention. He finally won after a year-long siege, seized the Lombard crown, and sent Desiderius, his wife, and a daughter to the cloister.

History is silent on the fate of Gerberga and her sons, yet one can reasonably speculate they, too, ended up at an abbey. After all, it is how Charles’s two other family feuds ended, one involving his eldest son, Pepin; the other with the duke of Bavaria and his family.

A 1493 miniature from the Chronicles of France, printed by Antoine Verard, depicts Pope Hadrian I meeting Charlemagne. (From Wikimedia Commons, public domain image)

A contemporary image of Charles appears on a coin minted in 812-14. (From Wikimedia Commons, permission granted under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License)

Sources:

Charlemagne: Translated Sources, P.D. King

Carolingian Chronicles: Royal Frankish Annals and Nithard’s Histories, translated by Bernhard Walters Scholz with Barbara Rogers

Charlemagne: Empire and Society, edited by Joanna Story

Kim Rendfeld is the author of The Cross and the Dragon, a love story with a twist set in the earlier years of Charlemagne’s reign, to be published by Fireship Press. You can learn more about Kim and her fiction at her blog, kimrendfeld.wordpress.com, or website, www.kimrendfeld.com.

This is Kim's first guest post at Unusual Historicals, and we are delighted to feature her contribution!

Family Feuds: Cain and Abel

By Kristina Emmons

The story of brothers Cain and Abel is legendary as the tale of the first recorded murder, and it was brought about by sibling rivalry. Cain was the firstborn of Adam and Eve after their unfortunate incident in the Garden of Eden. Prior to that life was pretty simple. They had only to take care of the food trees in the garden, which appears to have been light labor since a river watered the garden for them, and there is no record of hardship or suffering. God walked with them daily in the garden.

After Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil there came a separation between God and man. They could no longer have free access to him, and there were other consequences. One was that the ground would be hard to till instead of giving yield easily as it had before. Child-bearing would be painful and eventually death would come. Death is always the consequence of sin, according to the Bible. In all, the separation from God meant life would contain plenty of hardship. Adam and Eve were banished from the garden and they started a new way of life: toiling to survive. This leads to Cain and Abel. The story can be read in Genesis 4:2-16 in the Bible.

It opens that Abel kept flocks as a shepherd and Cain worked the soil. Now that the land was hard to work, we can imagine Cain put plenty of effort into growing food. Naturally he must have been proud of his accomplishments; he might have even felt what he did was more worthy of approval than herding animals like Abel. In any case, when making an offering to God Cain offered from his crops and God did not look favorably on the offering, but Abel’s offering from the first of his new flock was accepted. There was jealousy directed at Abel afterwards. I wonder if Cain had a textbook sibling rivalry thought, ‘He always gets it easy! Everything he does gets rewarded but I’m always being shafted!’

God even spoke to Cain, asking why he was angry. He told him it was his own fault for not doing right and we warned him not to give in to sin but to have power over it. By this I can only assume God referred to the boiling anger within that had the potential to get the best of Cain. He must not have listened because later Cain led Abel into a field and attacked and killed him.

God said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” and Cain replied, “I don’t know, am I my brother’s keeper?”

God replies, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.” He proclaims Cain is now under a curse, that even if he works the ground he won’t be able to get anything to grow because it swallowed up his brother’s blood. He was to be a restless wanderer from that point on and he basically had to leave where he lived. He feared he will be killed by anyone he would come across but God said he would spare him from that.

There aren’t listed how many other children were born after Cain and Abel or how old they were but we can assume by Cain’s fear of being killed that there were a significant amount of people born by this point (after all, the Bible states a little later that Adam lived over 900 years! Human lifespan was later cut significantly). Cain and Abel couldn’t have been very young and they had a history, likely a competitive one.

Going back to what might have been unacceptable about Cain’s offering to God; it was customary to give thanks offerings with the very best of the first of the flocks and crops. There were also sin offerings with strict rules as to the animal, often a lamb, which had to be unblemished and a first born.  The shed blood was to be a temporary payment for sin and a painful reminder that sin has terrible consequences. With Adam and Eve, God made them clothing from animal skins before leaving the garden, another instance of shed blood after wrongdoing. Quoting Hebrews 9:22: “In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” Such offerings took place in designated Jewish temples until the last temple was destroyed in 70 AD, but Christians believe Jesus’ crucifixion constituted the final sacrificial sin offering for humanity as the Lamb of God.

All that said, we don’t know if Cain was making a sin offering without an animal or if perhaps it was a stingy thanksgiving offering made up of inferior produce. Either way Abel had nothing to do with it but Cain still killed him, probably as a result of many years of pent up jealousy and/or hatred. Becoming a restless wanderer afterward likely meant Cain was at the mercy of others for the rest of his life.

Fitting after he’d been so merciless with his brother.

Kristina Emmons lives in greater Seattle, WA with her husband and two children. She hopes to convey a sense of community and justice through her writing.

Family Feuds on the Scottish Borders: Maxwells and Johnstones

Blythe Gifford

In the United States, when we want to reference a bitter family feud, we mention the Hatfields and the McCoys.

In Britain, a similar honor might belong to the Maxwells and the Johnstones, two families who competed for dominance in the 16^th century just north of the Scottish border. Caerlaverock Castle, stronghold of the Maxwells, is pictured below as it looked in 1900.

During the height of the Border Reiver era, in the 1500s, the area surrounding the Anglo-Scottish border functioned almost as if it were a separate country. Beholding to their own code instead of to either king, the society could best be described as tribal. “Official” Border laws notwithstanding, the code of conduct was “an eye for an eye.”

Loyalty to family came above all else. So while there were raids ridden across the border, the fact that two families lived in the same country did not make them allies. In fact, it might make their rivalry even more bitter.

Thus it was for these two.

The origins of the enmity are not entirely clear. Though the bloodiest days came late in the century, the feud was referenced by the English as early as 1528. In fact, some blame the English for agitating the conflict.

At the same time these families were trying to extinguish one another, one (or the other) was usually the official Warden of the Scottish West March, (see map) charged with keeping law and order on the western reaches of the Scottish side of the border. That made the rivalry part of a struggle to control the entire March. It also meant that enforcement of Borders justice became personal.

The Johnstones’ smaller numbers and land holdings made it harder for them to prevail in battle. However, as the century progressed, the Maxwells’ loyalty to the Catholic Church worked against them as Scotland turned to the Reformation.

I shall not attempt to write a detailed history of the dizzying conflict, which persisted for nearly eighty years. In fact, the details vary, depending on the teller.

But much of what is remembered now comes to us from Scottish Ballads, which capture so many of the stories, true or romanticized, of the Border. These were originally collected and published in the late nineteenth century as "The English and Scottish Popular Ballads," usually called the Child Ballads for their collector, Frances James Child.

The ballad “The Lads of Wamphray” tells the story of a skirmish between William Johnstone of Wamphray, known as the Galliard, and the Crichtons in 1593. (Yes, it leads back to conflict with the Maxwells. Eventually.)

At this time, there had been a lull in the animosity. All that was to end when William Johnstone stole a horse from Willie Carmichael and, in a rare instance of law enforcement, was forced to return it.

He then tried to steal one from the Crichtons. This time, he was captured. (Due to having stolen a blind and lame horse, if the legend can be believed.) He pleaded for his life, to no avail. As the ballad reports, “they hanged him hie [high] upon a tree.”

For this, the “lads of Wamphray,” the rest of William Johnstone’s family, had to ride in revenge. In the ballad’s words, “O but the Johnstons were wondrous rude when the Biddes burn [stream] ran three days blood.”

Keep in mind, this celebration of the slaughter is in a song sung from the Johnstone’s perspective. Delighted, they boasted of their noble deed of revenge: “For every finger of the Galliard’s hand, I vow this day I’ve killed a man.”

The Crichton family saw it differently and called on the Warden of the March, who was a Maxwell, to punish the Johnstones. This led to the Battle of Dryfe Sands, “one of the bloodiest family fights on British soil,” according to George MacDonald Fraser. Maxwell had 2000 men. The Johnstone side 400. But the outcome was not what you might expect. The Johnstones ambushed Maxwell’s men and, literally fighting for the survival of their family, killed hundreds of Maxwells, including the Warden of the March.

The Johnstone’s youngest soldier? An eleven year old boy.

Ah, but the feud did not end there. Maxwell and Johnstone continued to switch places serving as Warden. And there’s one more ballad to be sung.

In 1608, a meeting was arranged between Lord John Maxwell and Sir James Johnstone to effect a reconciliation. All precautions had been taken to insure the participants’ safety, to no avail. John Maxwell shot James Johnstone. Twice. In the back.

The Maxwell’s had the last word this time, for they had the better ballad. Having killed in cold blood, Maxwell had to flee for the continent. “Lord Maxwell’s Last Goodnight” tells of his tender farewell to his family and friends. “Good my lord, will you stay…” his wife sings.
“I have killed the laird Johnstone…I may not stay with thee,” he answers.

And as the ship sails, his friends see him off:

“They ate the meat and drank the wine, presenting in that good lord’s sight

Then he is over the flood so gray.

Lord Maxwell’s ta’en his last goodnight.”

It is a lovely tune, and we sigh at the romance of the parting.

The reality was not so sweet. Maxwell had apparently started divorce proceedings against his wife and she had actually died by the time he left the country.

Maxwell himself returned to Scotland four years later. He was tried and beheaded.

Legend says, he was turned in by a family member.

For more information on the Reivers, consult The STEEL BONNETS, George MacDonald Fraser, and The REIVERS, Alistair Moffat. There are also numerous websites. Each tells a slightly different story.


Blythe Gifford has written five, 14th century medieval romances for Harlequin Historicals featuring characters born on the wrong side of the royal blanket, most recently HIS BORDER BRIDE. A new trilogy, set on the Scottish Borders during the turbulent era of the Border Reivers, debuts in November with RETURN OF THE BORDER WARRIOR.

Family Feuds: The Nasrids of Granada

By Lisa J. Yarde

In August 1359, blood spattered the redbrick walls of Granada's Alhambra, as conspirators dethroned the 21-year old Sultan Muhammad V. The monarch, a few of his immediate family members and some lucky courtiers barely escaped with their lives. Muhammad's half-brother ascended the throne as Ismail II, but he was only a symbol whom the traitors rallied around. The family feud that placed the crown on Ismail's head started in the harem, born out of a decades-old rivalry between the mothers of princes.

For 21 years prior to the coup against Muhammad V, his immediate predecessor Yusuf I controlled the kingdom of Granada. A brilliant ruler, his reign ushered in a golden age for the Nasrid Dynasty in southern Spain, centered around the court at the Alhambra. In 1338, Yusuf became a father for the first time when his first wife Butayna bore a son, the future Muhammad V. Nine months later, Yusuf's second wife Maryem had Ismail. Eventually, Maryem and Yusuf became the parents of six other children; another son named Qays and five daughters. Butayna had one more surviving child, a daughter Aisha. For unexplained reasons, Yusuf favored his children with Maryem more than the others. Still, every Sultan before him had followed the order of primogeniture, meaning that his eldest son Muhammad could expect to inherit the throne of Granada.


Yusuf I died on October 19, 1354, when a demented slave stabbed him to death in the Alhambra's stables. Muhammad V succeeded his father at the age of sixteen. He proved capable, particularly under the guidance of Yusuf's chief minister Ridwan, Muhammad's former tutor. Four years later found Granada deeply involved in a war between the Christian kingdoms of Castile and Aragon, with Muhammad providing galleys and use of Malaga's port on the southern coast to the young Pedro I of Castile. Meanwhile, Maryem plotted with her eldest daughter and her son-in-law (incidentally a cousin of Muhammad V) to steal the throne. At night, over one hundred conspirators crept through the palace. Muhammad V escaped and fled west to the nearby city of Gaudix, but his enemies stabbed Ridwan to death and stole his wealth. At Gaudix, Muhammad tried in vain to rally supporters. Eventually, he crossed the Mediterranean Sea and found refuge with the ruler of the Moroccan dynasty, the Marinids, in Fez. It seemed Maryem had achieved everything she wanted, but in less than a year, her fortunes and those of Sultan Ismail II and his brother Qays would change. In June 1360, the walls of the Alhambra ran red again.

Lisa J. Yarde writes fiction inspired by real-life events. She is the author of On Falcon's Wings, a medieval novel chronicling the star-crossed romance between Norman and Saxon lovers. She has also written the medieval novels Sultana and Sultana’s Legacy, both set during a turbulent period of thirteenth century Spain. Her future title, Sultana II: Two Sisters (spring 2013) explores the turbulent lives of the wives and children of Yusuf I of Granada.