He married Elizabeth of York the following year, thus uniting the two fighting branches of the house of Plantagenet and giving rise to a new royal dynasty: the house of Tudor. Henry, a Lancastrian, claimed the throne upon Richard’s battlefield death, becoming King Henry VII. His roughly two-year reign came to an end in the Battle of Bosworth Field on August 22, 1485, at the hands of Henry, Earl of Richmond. King Richard III by Unknown artist oil on panel, late 16th century NPG 148 © National Portrait Gallery, London Richard was crowned on July 6 of that year. Popular belief, both at the time and in subsequent centuries, has held that Richard had them murdered, although there is no conclusive proof. Richard imprisoned Edward V and his brother in the Tower of London, where they disappeared permanently from public view and died under undetermined circumstances. Within a matter of months, however, Richard was named by Parliament as the rightful heir to the throne as Richard III. Upon Edward’s death in April of 1483, Richard assumed the guardianship of Edward’s son and heir, Edward V, as well as control of England as the young king’s protector. Richard had been a loyal supporter of his brother throughout Edward’s struggle to claim and keep the throne. Richard, opens a new window was born in Northamptonshire on October 2, 1452, and was the younger brother of King Edward IV.

King Richard III, a Yorkist, was the final king of the house of Plantagenet. The English throne changed hands five times in that 32-year span as the Yorkists and Lancastrians alternately wrested control of the country. Fought between the York and Lancaster branches of the family, the 32-year clash came to be known as the Wars of the Roses, opens a new window, so named because of the symbols of the two family lines: York’s white rose and Lancaster’s red.

Much of the latter half of that century was dominated by the fight for the throne that erupted within the house of Plantagenet. The 15 th century was among the most tumultuous of the millennium for the English monarchy.

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