The House of York was a cadet branch of the English royal House of Plantagenet. Three of its members became Kings of England in the late 15th century. The House of York was descended in the male line from Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York, the fourth surviving son of Edward III, but also represented Edward's senior line, being cognatic descendants of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, Edward III's second surviving son. It is based on these descents that they claimed the English crown. Compared with the House of Lancaster, it had a senior claim to the throne of England according to cognatic primogeniture but junior claim according to the agnatic primogeniture. Descent from Edward III Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York, 1st Earl of Cambridge, KG (5 June 1341 -- 1 August 1402) was a younger son of King Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault, the fourth of their five sons who lived to adulthood. He was the founder of the House of York, but it was through the marriage of his younger son, Richard to Anne de Mortimer that the Yorkist faction in the Wars of the Roses made its claim on the throne. The other party in the Wars of the Roses, the Lancasters, were descendants of Edmund's brother, John of Gaunt whose son Henry usurped the throne of Richard II in 1399. Edmund had two sons, Edward, and Richard of Conisburgh. Edward succeeded to the dukedom in 1402, but was killed at the battle of Agincourt in 1415, with no issue. Richard married Anne de Mortimer, a great-granddaughter of Lionel of Antwerp, the second son (cadet line) of Edward III. Furthermore, Anne also became heiress to the earldom of March, after her only brother, Edmund, 5th Earl, died in 1425. As heir of his father Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March, Edmund was heir to Roger's claim to the throne through having been named heir presumptive of Richard II. Richard of Conisburgh was executed following his involvement in the Southampton Plot to depose Henry V of England in favour of the Earl of March. The dukedom of York therefore passed to his son, Richard Plantagenet. Through his mother, Richard Plantagenet also inherited the lands of the earldom of March, as well as the Mortimer claim to the throne. Wars of the Roses Despite his elevated status, Richard Plantagenet was denied a position in government by the advisers of the weak Henry VI, particularly John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset, and the queen consort, Margaret of Anjou. Although he served as Protector of the Realm during Henry VI's period of incapacity in 1453-54, his reforms were reversed by Somerset's party once the king had recovered. The Wars of the Roses began the following year, with the First Battle of St Albans. Initially, Richard aimed only to purge his Lancastrian political opponents from positions of influence over the king. It was not until October 1460 that he claimed the throne for the House of York. In that year the Yorkists had captured the king at the battle of Northampton, but victory was short-lived. Richard and his second son Edmund were killed at the battle of Wakefield on December 30. Richard's claim to the throne was inherited by his son Edward. With the support of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick ("The Kingmaker"), Edward, already showing great promise as a leader of men, defeated the Lancastrians in a succession of battles. While Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou were campaigning in the north, Warwick gained control of the capital and had Edward declared king in London in 1461. Edward strengthened his claim with a decisive victory at the Battle of Towton in the same year, in the course of which the Lancastrian army was virtually wiped out. Reigns of the Yorkist Kings The early reign of Edward IV was marred by Lancastrian plotting and uprisings in favour of Henry VI. Warwick himself changed sides, and supported Margaret of Anjou and the king's jealous brother George, Duke of Clarence, in briefly restoring Henry in 1470-71. However, Edward regained his throne, and the house of Lancaster was all but wiped out with the last male, Henry VI himself, murdered in the Tower of London in 1471. In 1478, the continued trouble caused by Clarence caused him to be executed in the Tower of London, popularly he is thought to have been drowned in a butt of malmsey wine. On Edward's death in 1483, the crown passed to his twelve year-old son Edward. Edward IV's younger brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester, was appointed Protector, and escorted the young king, and his brother Richard, to the Tower of London. The famous Princes in the Tower were never seen again. However it is unknown whether they were killed or who killed them if it happened. Parliament declared, in the document Titulus Regius, that the two boys were illegitimate, on the grounds that Edward IV's marriage was invalid, and as such Richard was heir to the throne. He was crowned Richard III in July 1483. Attribution: Article text available under CC-BY-SA Creative Commons image source in video

• published: 10 Nov 2013
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