Hello and welcome to the Renaissance English History podcast. I'm your host, Heather Tesco. Thanks for joining me on this regular digital journey back in time to the 15th and 16th centuries.

When many people think about the Renaissance in England, they immediately think about Henry the Eighth, or Elizabeth I,

who makes many appearances at Renaissance fairs throughout the country.

But the dynasty came to power with Henry the 8th's father in 1485 on a field

outside the town of Market Bosworth, with Henry Tudor claiming a Lancasterian victory against

Richard III in the Wars of the Roses. The Wars of the Roses was a complex series of battles and

civil wars fought on and off for over 80 years

in the 15th century between the houses of Lancaster and York, and really would need an entire

podcast series devoted to them. The name comes from the badges that each house wore, a red

rose for the Lancasterians, and a white rose for the

Yorkists. The roots of the conflict have been studied for years, but very simply can be broken

down to include the following. Both houses were direct descendants of King Edward III, who wound

up having a lot of children in the mid-14th century, whose descendants were all pretty power-hungry,

and the population at large was restless.

Mix with that the ability for lords to raise their own private army, and you set the stage for

generations of fighting and skirmishes, which finally ended when Henry Tudor took the throne

and managed to hold on to power

for almost 25 years before dying in 1509. Henry Tudor was the son of Edmund Tudor and Margaret Buford,

and was born in 1457. He married Elizabeth of York in 1486 in an effort to bring together the houses of Lancaster

and York, and she bore him four children, Arthur, Henry, Margaret, and Mary. Now I know there are going to be

a lot of names mentioned here, and it might get confusing. I'm trying to simplify it as much

as possible, and still hit the major points of the story. So bear with me as we go through

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