← Back to the front page

The Sibling Rivalry That Wrecked an Empire, and Other Self-Destructive Royal Family Episodes

Khalid Elhassan January 5, 2020 33 min

Wars of the Roses - Battle of Bosworth Field — The Wars of the Roses, during which the Plantagenet Dynasty destroyed itself. Encyclopedia Britannica

Richard III’s final charge at the Battle of Bosworth. Steam Community

21. The Plantagenets Kept Killing Each Other to the End

The Plantagenets continued their self-destructive ways and intra-familial murders until the dynasty’s final demise. When Edward IV died unexpectedly in 1483, he left his brother Richard to act as guardian for his underage sons. Richard murdered the kids and declared himself Richard III.

He ruled for two turbulent years, until he was challenged by a distant cousin, Henry Tudor – the standard-bearer of what was left of the Lancastrians. The cousins met at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, where Richard III was defeated and killed. His death ended the Plantagenet Dynasty, as his victorious cousin ascended the throne as Henry VII, the first of the Tudor Dynasty.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.