September 3, 2025 • 10 mins
Explore the tumultuous era of the Wars of the Roses, a dramatic culmination of the Hundred Years War. Following the death of the formidable King Edward III in 1377, his young grandson Richard II ascends the throne, only to face challenges due to his misrule. The rise of the Lancastrians culminates in the downfall of Richard, while Henry Vs legendary victory at the Battle of Agincourt is overshadowed by his untimely death, leaving a vulnerable child king in his wake. As the specter of madness looms over Henry VI, the stage is set for a bitter internal conflict that will engulf the realm. (Summary by Pamela Nagami, M.D.)
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Section forty two of the Houses of Lancaster and York
by James Gerdner. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
Read by Pamelinagami, Chapter eleven, General View of European History,
Part one. The civil wars in England, of which we
(00:20):
have now related the history are commonly called the Wars
of the Roses, from the fact that the House of
Lancaster assumed a red rose for its badge, and the
House of York a white rose. Shakespeare, who has preserved
in his plays a number of historical traditions, the authority
of which we cannot always verify, represents an one interesting
(00:44):
scene at the beginning of the struggle, the lords of
both parties meeting in the temple gardens, and each plucking
a rose red or white to indicate his attachment to
the Duke of Somerset or York. Whether such a scene
acts actually took place and gave rise to those party badges,
it is impossible to say, but there is no doubt
(01:07):
that the Yorkists were known as the Party of the
White Rose, and their opponents as that of the Red
When at length Henry the Seventh, the representative of the
House of Lancaster attained the crown and married the daughter
of Edward the Fourth. The marriage was spoken of as
the Union of the Roses. This union was the first
(01:30):
step in England toward that strengthening of the powers of
the crown, which was now absolutely necessary for the restoration
of order. Since the days of Edward the Third, all
authority had been weak because the sovereign power itself was weak.
It was the weakness of despotic caprice in Richard the Second,
(01:52):
of usurpation and civil war under the House of Lancaster,
and of internal division in the House of York, and
all these causes combined to make the fifteenth century a
period of violence and disorder, approaching at times to anarchy.
Under the steady rule of the Tudors, England recovered from
(02:13):
this confusion. The claims of the two rival houses were blended,
the turbulent nobility were kept in strict subjection. Law was
administered with generally an impartial hand. Peace was for the
most part cherished, and commerce was protected. Disencumbered of the
(02:33):
rule of any French territory except Calais. The English grew
strong at home and became a nation, compact and united
under a race of sovereigns who were powerful enough to
throw off the spiritual dominion of Rome and to take
a leading position among the potentates of Europe. But that
(02:54):
which occurred in England occurred in other countries. Also. What
are called the Middle Ages came to an end with
the fifteenth century, a time of universal disorder, in the
midst of which, however, a new order was gradually forming
itself and gaining strength. The decay of feudalism, in fact,
(03:14):
paved the way for the reorganization of Europe. Great kingdoms
sprang up where formerly had existed a number of principalities
held only in nominal subjection to a feudal sovereign or,
where as in England a too powerful nobility had almost
made themselves independent of the crown. France first emerged from
(03:38):
the confusion, afterwards Spain and England. By the end of
the fifteenth century, the nations of Western Europe had settled
down into nearly the same relative positions and occupied nearly
the same territory that they have since retained. The connection
between English and Continental history during this period is a
(04:01):
subject which has not been altogether lost sight of. In
the preceding pages, but some general remarks on the progress
of European nations may be desirable before we bring this
work to a conclusion. There is at once a parallelism
and a contrast during this period between the career of
(04:21):
England and that of France. At no time were the
fortunes of the two nations more closely linked together. The
very same events form during a considerable part of the
fifteenth century the leading features in the history of both,
but the same events have in either case an opposite significance.
(04:43):
The triumph of one country was the abasement of the other,
and the recovery of the second was accompanied by the
demoralization of the first. There is, moreover, quite an extraordinary
amount of coincidence and at the same time contrast between
the circumstances by which the contemporary kings of England and
(05:04):
of France were surrounded during the whole period of our narrative.
The reign of Charles the sixth, who came to the
throne just three years after Richard the Second, corresponds to
those of three successive kings in England. At his accession,
he and Richard were both under age, but Charles led
(05:26):
his armies in person when he was fourteen. While Richard,
though not deficient in courage, seldom asserted himself in any
way accepted a crisis like Watt Tyler's rebellion. The complaint
in Richard's case was that he allowed himself to be
governed by favorites, which was perfectly true at those times
(05:47):
when he was not coerced by his uncles. Toward the
end of his reign, however, Richard, weary of his long subjection,
laid claim to absolute power, while Charles about the same
time became deranged and was obliged to surrender the government
to his uncles. After this, the French court became divided
(06:08):
by factions, which left the kingdom an easy prey to
the invader. And the same king, who and a boy
had alarmed all England by the fleet he had collected
at Slush, was obliged in his latter days to make
an English king his heir and invest him with all
the powers of royalty, to the exclusion of his own son.
(06:31):
But the parallelism of which we have spoken is more
striking after the death of Charles the sixth when, by
a singular coincidence, the reigns of the English and French
sovereigns corresponding three successions exactly to a year, with circumstances
either so much alike or so contrasted that they may
(06:53):
be shown in parallel columns as follows. In fourteen twenty two,
in France, Charles the seventh succeeds his father Charles the sixth,
and France loses an imbecile king and gets a stronger
who displays great qualities as a ruler. In his time,
(07:13):
France recovers Norman d'ngienne and deprives England of all her
French dominions except Calais. In England, in fourteen twenty two,
Henry the sixth succeeds his father Henry the fifth. England
loses a strong king and gets an infant who exhibits
no capacity for government even when he grows up. In
(07:36):
his time, France recovers Norman d and Gienne and deprives
England of all her French dominions except Calais. In fourteen
sixty one, Louis the eleventh succeeds his father Charles the seventh,
and a politic king consolidates the French monarchy, notwithstanding powerful
(07:56):
combinations against him. While in the same year fourteen sixty one,
Edward the Fourth deposes Henry the sixth, a military king
displaces one too week to rule, but holds the throne
insecurely and is temporarily displaced himself. In fourteen eighty three,
(08:18):
Charles the eighth succeeds his father Louis the eleventh and
a minority, but France, being now settled, the consolidation of
her dominions is completed in a few years by the
annexation of Brittany. While in England, in fourteen eighty three,
Edward the fifth succeeds his father, Edward the Fourth, a minority,
(08:41):
but it does not last three months. Richard the Third
usurps the crown, but even his reign of tyranny and
violence only lasts two years, and Henry the seventh, who
succeeds him, is for a long time troubled with rebellions.
Of all the great feudal lords of France, the Duke's
Burgundy were by far the most powerful. The duchy itself
(09:04):
was one of the richest parts of France, but the
Dukes also possessed Franche Conti, the Free County of Burgundy,
which they held of the Empire, and not of the
French Crown, and to these possessions had been added ever
since thirteen eighty four some of the most flourishing provinces
of the Netherlands, which were acquired by Duke Philip the
(09:26):
Bold and right of his wife Margaret, daughter of the
Count of Flanders. These provinces, full of populous towns such
as Ghent, Bruges and Antwerp, seats of the largest commerce
and manufactures in the world, were likewise held of the Empire.
Hence the Dukes of Burgundy became so exceedingly powerful that,
(09:49):
instead of being subject to the kings of France, they
at times held those kings in practical subjection to themselves.
But after the death of Charles the Bold, Louis the
eleventh seized upon the duchy and even the Frenche comtail,
which he succeeded in uniting to the French crown. The
(10:10):
rest of the dominions of the House of Burgundy were
conveyed to the Archduke Maximilian, son of the Emperor Frederick
the Third, by his marriage with Charles the Bold's daughter,
so that the Netherlands came into the possession of the
House of Austria, an ambitious and grasping family in whom
(10:30):
the Empire itself ultimately became hereditary, and with it, under
Charles the Fifth in the sixteenth century, was joined the
sovereignty of Spain. End of Section forty two
Section forty two of the Houses of Lancaster and York
by James Gerdner. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
Read by Pamelinagami, Chapter eleven, General View of European History,
Part one. The civil wars in England, of which we
(00:20):
have now related the history are commonly called the Wars
of the Roses, from the fact that the House of
Lancaster assumed a red rose for its badge, and the
House of York a white rose. Shakespeare, who has preserved
in his plays a number of historical traditions, the authority
of which we cannot always verify, represents an one interesting
(00:44):
scene at the beginning of the struggle, the lords of
both parties meeting in the temple gardens, and each plucking
a rose red or white to indicate his attachment to
the Duke of Somerset or York. Whether such a scene
acts actually took place and gave rise to those party badges,
it is impossible to say, but there is no doubt
(01:07):
that the Yorkists were known as the Party of the
White Rose, and their opponents as that of the Red
When at length Henry the Seventh, the representative of the
House of Lancaster attained the crown and married the daughter
of Edward the Fourth. The marriage was spoken of as
the Union of the Roses. This union was the first
(01:30):
step in England toward that strengthening of the powers of
the crown, which was now absolutely necessary for the restoration
of order. Since the days of Edward the Third, all
authority had been weak because the sovereign power itself was weak.
It was the weakness of despotic caprice in Richard the Second,
(01:52):
of usurpation and civil war under the House of Lancaster,
and of internal division in the House of York, and
all these causes combined to make the fifteenth century a
period of violence and disorder, approaching at times to anarchy.
Under the steady rule of the Tudors, England recovered from
(02:13):
this confusion. The claims of the two rival houses were blended,
the turbulent nobility were kept in strict subjection. Law was
administered with generally an impartial hand. Peace was for the
most part cherished, and commerce was protected. Disencumbered of the
(02:33):
rule of any French territory except Calais. The English grew
strong at home and became a nation, compact and united
under a race of sovereigns who were powerful enough to
throw off the spiritual dominion of Rome and to take
a leading position among the potentates of Europe. But that
(02:54):
which occurred in England occurred in other countries. Also. What
are called the Middle Ages came to an end with
the fifteenth century, a time of universal disorder, in the
midst of which, however, a new order was gradually forming
itself and gaining strength. The decay of feudalism, in fact,
(03:14):
paved the way for the reorganization of Europe. Great kingdoms
sprang up where formerly had existed a number of principalities
held only in nominal subjection to a feudal sovereign or,
where as in England a too powerful nobility had almost
made themselves independent of the crown. France first emerged from
(03:38):
the confusion, afterwards Spain and England. By the end of
the fifteenth century, the nations of Western Europe had settled
down into nearly the same relative positions and occupied nearly
the same territory that they have since retained. The connection
between English and Continental history during this period is a
(04:01):
subject which has not been altogether lost sight of. In
the preceding pages, but some general remarks on the progress
of European nations may be desirable before we bring this
work to a conclusion. There is at once a parallelism
and a contrast during this period between the career of
(04:21):
England and that of France. At no time were the
fortunes of the two nations more closely linked together. The
very same events form during a considerable part of the
fifteenth century the leading features in the history of both,
but the same events have in either case an opposite significance.
(04:43):
The triumph of one country was the abasement of the other,
and the recovery of the second was accompanied by the
demoralization of the first. There is, moreover, quite an extraordinary
amount of coincidence and at the same time contrast between
the circumstances by which the contemporary kings of England and
(05:04):
of France were surrounded during the whole period of our narrative.
The reign of Charles the sixth, who came to the
throne just three years after Richard the Second, corresponds to
those of three successive kings in England. At his accession,
he and Richard were both under age, but Charles led
(05:26):
his armies in person when he was fourteen. While Richard,
though not deficient in courage, seldom asserted himself in any
way accepted a crisis like Watt Tyler's rebellion. The complaint
in Richard's case was that he allowed himself to be
governed by favorites, which was perfectly true at those times
(05:47):
when he was not coerced by his uncles. Toward the
end of his reign, however, Richard, weary of his long subjection,
laid claim to absolute power, while Charles about the same
time became deranged and was obliged to surrender the government
to his uncles. After this, the French court became divided
(06:08):
by factions, which left the kingdom an easy prey to
the invader. And the same king, who and a boy
had alarmed all England by the fleet he had collected
at Slush, was obliged in his latter days to make
an English king his heir and invest him with all
the powers of royalty, to the exclusion of his own son.
(06:31):
But the parallelism of which we have spoken is more
striking after the death of Charles the sixth when, by
a singular coincidence, the reigns of the English and French
sovereigns corresponding three successions exactly to a year, with circumstances
either so much alike or so contrasted that they may
(06:53):
be shown in parallel columns as follows. In fourteen twenty two,
in France, Charles the seventh succeeds his father Charles the sixth,
and France loses an imbecile king and gets a stronger
who displays great qualities as a ruler. In his time,
(07:13):
France recovers Norman d'ngienne and deprives England of all her
French dominions except Calais. In England, in fourteen twenty two,
Henry the sixth succeeds his father Henry the fifth. England
loses a strong king and gets an infant who exhibits
no capacity for government even when he grows up. In
(07:36):
his time, France recovers Norman d and Gienne and deprives
England of all her French dominions except Calais. In fourteen
sixty one, Louis the eleventh succeeds his father Charles the seventh,
and a politic king consolidates the French monarchy, notwithstanding powerful
(07:56):
combinations against him. While in the same year fourteen sixty one,
Edward the Fourth deposes Henry the sixth, a military king
displaces one too week to rule, but holds the throne
insecurely and is temporarily displaced himself. In fourteen eighty three,
(08:18):
Charles the eighth succeeds his father Louis the eleventh and
a minority, but France, being now settled, the consolidation of
her dominions is completed in a few years by the
annexation of Brittany. While in England, in fourteen eighty three,
Edward the fifth succeeds his father, Edward the Fourth, a minority,
(08:41):
but it does not last three months. Richard the Third
usurps the crown, but even his reign of tyranny and
violence only lasts two years, and Henry the seventh, who
succeeds him, is for a long time troubled with rebellions.
Of all the great feudal lords of France, the Duke's
Burgundy were by far the most powerful. The duchy itself
(09:04):
was one of the richest parts of France, but the
Dukes also possessed Franche Conti, the Free County of Burgundy,
which they held of the Empire, and not of the
French Crown, and to these possessions had been added ever
since thirteen eighty four some of the most flourishing provinces
of the Netherlands, which were acquired by Duke Philip the
(09:26):
Bold and right of his wife Margaret, daughter of the
Count of Flanders. These provinces, full of populous towns such
as Ghent, Bruges and Antwerp, seats of the largest commerce
and manufactures in the world, were likewise held of the Empire.
Hence the Dukes of Burgundy became so exceedingly powerful that,
(09:49):
instead of being subject to the kings of France, they
at times held those kings in practical subjection to themselves.
But after the death of Charles the Bold, Louis the
eleventh seized upon the duchy and even the Frenche comtail,
which he succeeded in uniting to the French crown. The
(10:10):
rest of the dominions of the House of Burgundy were
conveyed to the Archduke Maximilian, son of the Emperor Frederick
the Third, by his marriage with Charles the Bold's daughter,
so that the Netherlands came into the possession of the
House of Austria, an ambitious and grasping family in whom
(10:30):
the Empire itself ultimately became hereditary, and with it, under
Charles the Fifth in the sixteenth century, was joined the
sovereignty of Spain. End of Section forty two
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