Two branches of the same royal family tore England apart for 30 years over a flower emblem

From 1455 to 1487, the houses of Lancaster and York, both descended from King Edward III, fought a series of civil wars for the English throne, later named the Wars of the Roses after their heraldic badges, a red rose and a white one. The crown changed hands violently several times until Henry Tudor, a Lancastrian claimant, defeated and killed Richard III at Bosworth Field in 1485 and married a York princess, merging the two rose emblems into the Tudor rose and ending the conflict.

— Alison Weir, The Wars of the Roses — Jonathan Cape, 1995
Go deeper: get the book →