Thursday, October 20, 2011

THE WARS OF THE ROSES


Welcome to the World of Rose Gardening or Rose Gardening World.  Take time and smell the roses.  Roses have been around for millions of years which just prove that roses are not difficult to grow. The Rose is also our National Floral Emblem and the state flower of several states.  Here at Rose Gardening World, you’ll find rose articles that will educate you about roses – its history, rose culture, rose profiles and even rose verses all in one place.  So visit Rose Gardening World often. 

The 15th century Wars of the Roses in England came about as a result of a period of weak government, which resulted in a dispute between the houses of Lancaster and York over the succession to the English throne.  The House of Lancaster chose a red rose probably R. gallica officinalis for Lancaster’s emblem and the House of York chose a white rose probably R. ‘Alba Maxima’ as the York’s emblem. 
 
When Edmund Langley, first Earl of Lancaster and the second son of Henry III of England visited Provins, France in 1277, he saw a red rose which the Comte de Brie had acquired while on a Crusade, Edmund took it back to England to become the badge of the House of Lancaster.  Under the emblem of the red rose of Lancaster and the white rose of York, the longest civil war in English history was fought, the Wars of the Roses.  

The fortunes of the two houses waxed and waned.  After thirty years of fighting, peace finally prevailed.  Eventually the Lancastrian claimant was victorious at the battle of Bosworth field and became Henry VII, Earl of Lancaster and married Elizabeth, the Duchess of York.  Every year, Elizabeth gave her husband a white rose sealing the peace between the houses.  The two emblems were combined in the red and white Tudor rose (R. gallica versicolor), as a sign of national unity.  The Tudor rose is still the national flower of England.

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