Deposition of Henry VI

Date: March 4, 1461 • Location: London, United Kingdom

This milestone marked the outbreak and beginning of this historic period, which spanned 1455–1487.

Wars of the Roses: Henry VI, the Lancastrian king of England, was deposed by his Yorkist cousin, who succeeded him as Edward IV.

The Wars of the Roses, known at the time and in the following centuries as the Civil Wars, were a series of armed confrontations, machinations, battles and campaigns fought for control of the English throne from 1455 to 1487. The conflict was fought between supporters of the House of York and the House of Lancaster, two rival cadet branches of the royal House of Plantagenet. The conflict resulted in the end of Lancaster's male line in 1471, leaving the Tudor family to inherit, through the female line, the Lancaster claim to the throne. The conflict was largely brought to an end upon the union of the two houses through marriage, creating the Tudor dynasty that would subsequently rule England.