X-Nico

9 unusual facts about House of York


Flag of Lancashire

The Red Rose of Lancaster is a symbol for the House of Lancaster, immortalised in the verse "In the battle for England's head/York was white, Lancaster red" (referring to the 15th century War of the Roses).

Harlech Castle

In the 15th century, Harlech was involved in the series of civil wars known as the Wars of the Roses that broke out between the rival factions of the House of Lancaster and York.

During the 15th century Wars of the Roses, Harlech was held by the Lancastrians for seven years, before Yorkist troops forced its surrender in 1468, a siege memorialised in the song Men of Harlech.

New Monarchs

England did not have as hard a time as France in weakening the nobles because Henry VII comes to power after the War of Roses, which was between two noble families, his family, the House of Lancaster and his rivals, the House of York.

Robert Poynings

Poynings was slain on 17 February 1461 while fighting on the Yorkist side at the Second Battle of St Albans.

Robert Preston, 1st Viscount Gormanston

After the downfall of the House of York, Gormanston, like most of the Anglo-Irish nobility, supported the pretender to the Crown, Lambert Simnel, but was pardoned in 1488 and restored to favour.

Roses rivalry

The name of the rivalry is derived from the historic Wars of the Roses which was carried out between the House of Lancaster and the House of York.

Sun dog

The Yorkist commander, later Edward IV of England, convinced his initially frightened troops that it represented the three sons of the Duke of York, and Edward's troops won a decisive victory.

The Way of the Roses

The route should not be confused with The Wars of the Roses, a fifteenth-century war between to dynastic families Lancaster and York and from which the name of the path is derived.


Andrew Trollope

At the Battle of Ludford Bridge Trollope commanded part of the Yorkist army of Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York, but betrayed him to the Lancastrians bringing with him 'valuable intelligence' regarding York's army.

Battle of Hedgeley Moor

It was fought at Hedgeley Moor, north of the village of Glanton in Northumberland, between a Yorkist army led by John Neville, 1st Marquess of Montagu and a Lancastrian army led by the Duke of Somerset.

Crown in Saskatoon

Some named for royal family titles including Duchess Street, Duke Street, Empress Avenue and Street, King Crescent and Street, Prince of Wales Avenue, Princess Street and Queen Street, while others named for royal houses include Hanover Avenue and York Avenue, and some named for royal castles include Balmoral Street, Osborne Street and Windsor Street.

Edmund de Ros, 10th Baron de Ros

Under Henry VII, who united the houses of York and Lancaster, the attainder was reversed; and Edmund, Lord Ros, was reinstated in his ancestral property; Belvoir had been in the possession of the Hastings family for more than twenty years.

Hunsdon House

It was originally constructed of brick in 1447 by Sir William Oldhall in the shape of a tower, but as Oldhall supported the House of York during the Wars of the Roses, he was stripped of the property by the Lancastrian Henry VI.

Joan Welles, 9th Baroness Willoughby de Eresby

Shortly before 1 June 1470, she married Sir Richard Hastings, a committed supporter of the House of York.

John Fogge

Fogge married firstly, by the early 1440s, Alice de Criol or Kyriell, daughter of the Yorkist Sir Thomas de Criol of Westenhanger, beheaded after the Second Battle of St Albans by order of Margaret of Anjou.

Philip De Carteret, 6th of St Ouen

During the Wars of the Roses, Queen Margaret, the wife of Henry VI, made an agreement with Pierre de Brézé, Comte de Maulevrier, the seneschal of Normandy, to raise an army, in aid of the Lancastrian cause, to capture Jersey and in the process to provide a refuge if it should be needed in the event of Yorkist success.


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