Contrary to depictions in historical fiction and television, the Wars of the Roses was not just the story of Warwick the Kingmaker, Edward IV, Richard III, and the Princes in the Tower. Recent academic research has stressed that the civil wars that rocked England in 1450-1500 had very real consequences for ordinary men and women, who also had the opportunity to influence the course of events. The Wars also coincided with fundamental changes in the nation’s social structure, cultural tastes, and relationships with its subject territories of Ireland and Wales.
This course seeks to acquaint students with new trends in the study of the Wars of the Roses, as well as encouraging them to assess the significance of the conflict outside the world of kings and nobles. We shall examine poems and manifestos written by English peasants and townspeople to see how they reacted to political chaos, and also think about the ways in which the leading figures of the Wars of the Roses tried to appeal to an increasingly literate and politically aware populace. In addition, we shall think about the impact of warfare on the English people, from the soldiers who fought on battlefields to the inhabitants of towns ransacked by armies. We will also learn about ideas of gender and sexuality prevalent in late medieval England, and how these views affected popular attitudes towards the kings and queens of England in 1450-1500.
Moving beyond England, Ireland and Wales played a large role in the Wars of the Roses, with several contenders for the throne using these English-held territories as bases for mounting their challenges to royal authority. But did the prominence of Ireland and Wales in dynastic warfare prompt a fundamental shift in the balance of power between different parts of the British Isles? Lastly, the module considers England’s place within the world of humanist scholarship and Renaissance art emerging in the 15th century. In particular, we shall discuss how these new cultural trends influenced the ways in which contemporaries wrote about the Wars of the Roses and, hence, the narratives that have been passed down to us today.
Learning outcomes
- To become familiar with new trends in research on the Wars of the Roses;
- To analyse 15th-century primary sources written by those outside the English social elite;
- To evaluate historians’ arguments.
