Wars of the Roses Part One - Origins and Context

Historic Royal Palaces Podcast

Historic Royal Palaces

London, Palace, Tower, Historic, Conservation, Royal, Lecture, Learning, Kensington, Hampton, Kew, Banqueting, History, Court, Of, House, Palaces

4.6 • 635 Ratings

🗓️ 20 June 2024

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Wars of the Roses was a turbulent period of conflict in the 15th century that ultimately ushered in a new dynasty with the Tudors.

In this first episode of our new five-part series, Historic Royal Palaces Curator Charles Farris leads us into the stormy dynastic struggle by laying out the context and origins behind the Wars. Who were the major power players, and what initiated such a period of unrest?

Recorded in the Wakefield Tower at the Tower of London, this episode will situate the Tower at the very heart of the conflict, and set us up for the series ahead.

If you’re interested in seeing inside the Wakefield Tower, you can see it on Google Street View here: The Wakefield Tower at Tower of London - Google Maps

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to this new series on the Historic Royal Palaces podcast.
0:08.0	I'm Charles Farris and I'm a curator and historian at the Tower of London.
0:13.0	In this new series, we'll be exploring the conflict that's known as the Wars of the Roses,
0:18.0	a time of bloody battles, heroes and villains, and legendary
0:22.7	acts of vengeance and betrayal that have inspired centuries of writers.
0:28.0	Unpicking any history is no easy task, and that is certainly true with the Wars of the
0:33.5	Roses.
0:34.5	So in this series, we are going to lay out the facts and interrogate the key
0:38.6	characters and major events of this time. Our aim is to better understand the stormy
0:44.3	and often polarised narratives around the Wars of the Roses. We're going to question the context
0:50.1	behind why the Crown was able to be usurped multiple times, how women wielded power at a time when men fought on the battlefield.
0:59.0	And ultimately, we want to examine how a new dynasty was able to rise from the ashes of so much violence and turmoil.
1:07.0	Joining us for this five-part series is an amazing line-up of expert historians who are intimately connected with the sources.
1:15.6	This history is woven into the very stones of the Tower of London.
1:19.6	And as you may know, I'm a medievalist myself, so I can't wait to explore this history with you.
1:25.6	Join me as we step into the world of the Wars of the Roses.
1:37.6	Please be aware that these episodes contain discussions of themes
1:42.1	which listeners may find distressing or triggering, including violence, prejudice and mental health.
1:48.0	Hello, I'm Charles Farris and I'm a curator and historian at the Tower of London.
2:07.6	And today is the first of five special Wars of the Roses episodes and we're going to be talking about the context and origins of the conflict.
2:15.6	We felt it was important to have this introductory episode in order to answer some basic
2:20.9	questions before jumping into the nitty gritty of the conflict.
	...

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