I have just driving back from normal Sunday shopping trip, when I noticed a McDonald's advert for their Latia, not that I drink the stuff being a typical Englishman, it is "the leaf not the bean". In other words give me a good cup of tea any day. Any way the sign read "Deliciously Sculptured" something I could not quite get me wakening brain around. "Deliciously" is taste word, sculptured is a visual word. So can you taste visual?
It got me thinking about today's UK blog and using the McDonald's form of description the "FRAGRANTLY SCULPTURED RED ROSE OF ENGLAND"
Many countries have their own flower or emblem. Northern Ireland - has the Shamrock Scotland has two, the Thistle and Scottish Bluebell. As does Wales with it's daffodil and leek. For England however there is just one, the Red Rose.
SO why the red rose? Where did it all come from? I have already had a few people contact me knowing I was going to write this blog reminding me of the rose of Yorkshire and Gloucester'
During the history of England, there have been two major civil wars. Thee one between the Royalist Cavaliers and the Roundheads which involved Oliver Cromwell , Charles I hiding in an oak tree and led to many people migrating from England for one reason or another to start a new life in the western colonies of America. While perhaps I'll go into that another time it's the other civil war I want to talk about today.
So here comes the history lesson...
THE WARS OF THE ROSES, was a series of civil wars fought by the rival houses of Lancaster and York between 1455 and 1485.
The struggle was so named because the badge of the house of Lancaster was a red rose and that of the house of York a white rose.
The initial opponents were the Lancastrian king of England Henry VI, aided by his queen, Margaret of Anjou, and Richard Plantagenet, 3rd duke of York. Because of the insanity of the king and military losses in France during the last phase of the Hundred Years' War, the authority of the house of Lancaster was badly shaken. York asserted his claim to the throne in 1460, after having defeated the Lancastrian armies at St. Albans in 1455 and at Northampton in 1460. In the latter year York was defeated and killed at Wakefield. In 1461, however, his son was proclaimed king as Edward IV and shortly thereafter he decisively defeated Henry and Margaret, who then fled from England. In 1465 Henry was captured and imprisoned in the Tower of London.
WARWICK THE KING MAKER:
Richard Neville, earl of Warwick, or “Warwick the King Maker was one of the main protagonist, he was known as King Maker as what side he fought the leader became King. First he fought for the Yorkist faction, fighting against Henry VI, the then king of England.
Henry was deposed from the throne of England and the Yorkist Edward IV was proclaimed king in 1461. Warwick then virtually ruled the kingdom until 1464. Increasingly at odds with Edward, he fled to France in 1470 and allied himself with Margaret of Anjou, whose husband, the deposed Henry VI, was being held prisoner in the Tower of London. That same year Warwick invaded England as a Lancastrian and defeated Edward IV. Warwick had Henry released from imprisonment in September 1470 and restored him to the throne. When Edward IV returned and the Yorkists rallied to his banner, Warwick was outmaneuvered. He was slain in the Battle of Barnet. (My Home Town)
Shortly thereafter, the Lancastrians were totally defeated at the Battle of Tewkesbury, and Henry was murdered in the Tower.
After the death of Edward in 1483, his brother Richard usurped the throne, becoming king as Richard III, and the Lancastrians turned for leadership to Henry Tudor, earl of Richmond, who later became King Henry VII, founder of the Tudor dynasty. In 1485 the forces of Richard and Henry fought the decisive Battle of Bosworth Field, the last major encounter of the war. After Richard's death in battle, Henry ascended the throne and married Edward's daughter, thus uniting the houses.
So if you followed that entire history lesson you will know why the emblem of England is the red rose.
In the end the Lancastrians won, their emblem was the red rose so that became emblem of England, if the Yorkists had won, then today we would be talking about the white rose of England. Still “fragrantly sculptured” or not; the Red Rose is and will always be, the emblem of England
Author of Young Adult Romance/Fiction book
Across the Pond
http://acrossthepond-storyheart.blogspot.com/
http://across-t-pond.com
OTHER SUNDAY UK BLOGSABOUT
THE GRAND NATIONAL
WHY UK DRIVES ON THE LEFT
MOTHERS DAY ACROSS THE POND
ABOUT THE UNION JACK
ENGLISHMANS VIEW ON BASEBALL
WHAT IS BOXING DAY
BRITISH TV TRANSPLANTS
WHO WAS SAINT GEORGE?
BOBS YOUR UNCLE
SWEET FANNY ADAMS
EUROPE'S GOT TALENT - WELL PERHAPS
GOBSMACKED, BOBBIES AND AN ARM AND A LEG
BIG BEN... OR IS IT?
THE USA NEEDS A CITIZENS CHARTER
FROM CHARIOTS TO NASCAR
WHAT IS FATHERS DAY?
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