Wars of the Roses During the Hundred Years' War, the kings of
England got into a big fight about who should be king, which
caused a long civil war in England. One side was the Lancaster
side, which took a red rose as its symbol. The other side was
the York side, which took a white rose as its symbol. In 1399
AD, at the beginning of the civil war, Richard II was king of
England - that was the Lancaster side. His cousin Henry -
another of King Edward III's grandsons - killed Richard and made
himself King Henry IV. That was the York side. When Henry IV
died, his son succeeded him as Henry V, who fought in France in
the Hundred Years' War but got killed. Henry V's son Henry VI
succeeded him in turn, but he suffered from mental illness and
couldn't rule very well. He ended up losing the Hundred Years'
War and all of England's land in France, so he seemed like a
loser and people thought they might do better with a different
king. Richard, Duke of York thought he would be a good choice -
and, like Henry V, Richard w