the throne contrary to the tradition which gave the succession to the
oldest branch, which Richard, the Duke of York, claimed to represent;
his claim strengthened by a double descent from Edward III. through his
two sons, Lionel and Edward.

[Sidenote: Wars of the Roses 1455-1485]

For twenty-one years, (1450-1471) these wars of the descendants of
Edward III. were engaged in the most savage war, for purely selfish and
personal ends, with not one noble or chivalric element to redeem the
disgraceful exhibition of human nature at its worst. Murders,
executions, treacheries, adorn a network of intrigue and villany, which
was enough to have made the "White" and the "Red Rose" forever hateful
to English eyes.

The great Earl of Warwick led the White Rose of York to victory,
sending the Lancastrian King to the tower, his wife and child fugitives
from the Kingdom, and proclaimed Edward, (son of Richard Duke of York,
the original claimant, who had been slain in the conflict), King of
England.

[Sidenote: Death of Henry VI. House of York, 1461-1485.]

Then, with an unscrupulousness worthy of the time and the cause,
Warwick opened communication with the fugitive Queen, offering her his
services, betrothed his daughter to the young Edward, Prince of Wales,
took up the red Lancastrian rose from the dust of defeat,--brought the
captive he had sent to the tower back to his throne--only to see him
once more dragged down again by the Yorkists--and for the last time
returned to captivity; leaving his wife a prisoner and his young son