The War of the Roses was an English civil war, fought from 1455-1485. It was fought by the Lancastrian Family (who had the throne at the start) and the York Family (who started the rebellion). The reason the war was called “war of the roses” is because the Lancastrian coat of arms had a red rose on it, and the Yorkist symbol was a white rose.
The war started under King Henry VI, the son of Henry V, who had won greatly in the 100 year’s war, but died and left his infant son to wrap it up. Henry VI did this, but suffered an arrow through the neck, which put him in an infirmary, and unable to rule England. Richard III of York was appointed by Parliament to rule until Henry got better, but in 1455, after Henry came back to resume ruling, Richard decided to keep the throne. In his days as king he had become fairly popular among the people, and had made friends in the court.
This led to the Battles of Blore Heath and Ludford Bridge, but the Yorkers lost both of these, forcing them to leave London. The Battle of Northampton put Richard back on top however, and he had managed to capture Henry VI, so he brought him to London and demanded Parliament make him king. Parliament refused, though, saying Richard could become king after Henry died, but he couldn’t just take over. Richard agreed, but on his way home in York he was attacked in the Battle of Wakefield. Richard was killed in this battle.
This meant that his son Edward IV was to inherit the throne as the Duke of York, but Henry wanted his own son to become king, so the fighting continued. Edward lost the Battles of Mortimer’s Cross and Saint Albans, but made it to London, where he found incredible support because of the underhanded Battle of Wakefield, which happened after the treaty was signed. Both sides decided the war had lasted long enough (6 years in 1461) and decided on an all out battle. The Battle of Towton is recognized as being the bloodiest battle ever fought in England, and had the most English deaths, with the number of dead ranging from 20,000 (low) to 50,000 (high, do I really have to tell you?). This put the Yorkers solidly on top.
The Earl of Warwick, who had been an important ally to Edward, now chose the worst possible time to switch sides in 1464, and he actually died during a battle between his own men in the fog, after missing their enemy altogether. The Lancastrians continued to be a nuisance raiding party until 1471, when they were finally defeated for good. Edward lived and ruled until 1483. His brother then took over, and there were small uprisings that were quickly quashed in 1485, which is why we use it as the ending date, but the Battle of Towton was the real end to the war.
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