Roses, Wars of the

English civil wars (1455-85) between the Houses of Lancaster and York, named for their respective emblems of a red and white rose. Conflicts and power struggles on a local and national scale broke out against a background of defeat in the Hundred Years War and the weakness of Henry VI's monarchy. The fortunes of each side ebbed and flowed throughout this period of sporadic warfare. The death of Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field (1485) secured the throne for the Tudor dynasty under Henry VII, who defeated the last Yorkist uprising at Stoke in 1487.