The Wars of the Roses was a series of dynastic civil wars in England fought by the rival houses of Lancaster and York between 1455 and 1485. The struggle was so named because the badge of the Lancaster's was a red rose and that the York's a white rose. The house of Lancaster was badly shaken during the Hundred Years' War ("Rose, War of the Microsoft). The Hundred Years' war is a common name given to the …showed first 75 words of 648 total…

…showed last 75 words of 648 total…No parliament had been summoned for three years, the country was sadly divided and distressed. On september 23rd, 1459, Salisbury led his Yorkists' forward through a thick forest that concealed them (Alderman 26). The Earl of Salisbury, though outnumbered, did a masterly job of preparing a defense. He drew up his supply carts into a ring, and behind it his men dug a deep trench for themselves, with sharpened stakes driven into the ground ahead of it.