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December 30

December 30

December 30 is the 364th day of the year (365th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 1 day remaining.

Events

- 1460 - Wars of the Roses: The Duke of York is defeated at the Battle of Wakefield
- 1853 - Gadsden Purchase: The United States buys land from Mexico to facilitate railroad building in the Southwest
- 1853 - 20-strong dinner party held inside life-size model of Iguanodon created by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins and Sir Richard Owen in south London.
- 1862 - USS Monitor sinks off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina
- 1879 - The Pirates of Penzance is first performed (Paignton, Devon, England)
- 1880 - The Transvaal becomes a republic and Paul Kruger, its first president
- 1896 - José Rizal was executed by firing squad in Manila.
- 1897 - Natal annexes Zululand.
- 1903 - A fire at the Iroquois Theater in Chicago, Illinois kills 600.
- 1919 - Lincoln's Inn in London admits its first female bar student.
- 1922 - The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) is formed.
- 1924 - Edwin Hubble announces the existence of other galaxies.
- 1927 - The Ginza Line, the oldest subway line in Asia, opened in Tokyo.
- 1936 - The United Auto Workers union stages its first sit-down strike.
- 1940 - California opens its first freeway: the Arroyo Seco Parkway.
- 1943 - Chandra Bose raises the flag of Indian independence at Port Blair.
- 1944 - King George II of Greece declares a regency, leaving his throne vacant
- 1947 - King Michael of Romania abdicates
- 1948 - The play Kiss Me, Kate opens for the first of 1,077 performances.
- 1953 - The first color television sets go on sale for about USD $1,175.
- 1965 - Ferdinand Marcos becomes President of the Philippines
- 1972 - Vietnam War: The US halts heavy bombing of North Vietnam.
- 1976 - The Smothers Brothers play their last show (Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas).
- 1980 - After 25 years, the longest-running prime-time TV series The Wonderful World of Disney is cancelled by NBC.
- 1981 - Wayne Gretzky scores his 50th goal in 39 games, an NHL record to this day.
- 1993 - Israel and the Vatican establish diplomatic relations.
- 1995 - The lowest ever UK temperature of -27.2°C was recorded at Altnaharra in the Scottish Highlands. This equalled the record set at Braemar, Aberdeenshire on February 11, 1895 and January 10, 1982.
- 1996 - In the Indian state of Assam, a passenger train is bombed by Bodo separatists, killing 26.
- 1996 - Proposed budget cuts by Benjamin Netanyahu spark protests from 250,000 workers who shut down services across Israel.
- 1997 - In the worst incident in Algeria's insurgency, the Wilaya of Relizane massacres of December 30, 1997, 400 people are killed from four villages.
- 2000 - Rizal Day Bombings: A series of bombs explode in various places in Metro Manila, Philippines within a span of a few hours, killing 22 and injuring about a hundred.
- 2004 - A fire in the República Cromagnon nightclub in Buenos Aires, Argentina, kills 194.

Births

- 39 - Roman Emperor Titus (d. 81)
- 1552 - Simon Forman, English occultist and astrologer (d. 1611)
- 1642 - Vicenzo da Filicaja, Italian poet (d. 1707)
- 1673 - Ahmed III, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1736)
- 1678 - William Croft, English composer (d. 1727)
- 1722 - Charles Yorke, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (d. 1770)
- 1724 - Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée, French painter (d. 1805)
- 1819 - Theodor Fontane, German writer (d. 1898)
- 1838 - Émile Loubet, 7th President of France (b.1929)
- 1865 - Rudyard Kipling, British writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1936)
- 1869 - Stephen Butler Leacock, was a British-Canadian writer and economist.
- 1873 - Al Smith, American politician (d. 1944)
- 1884 - Hideki Tojo, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1948)
- 1897 - Alfredo Bracchi, Italian author (d. 1976)
- 1899 - Helge Ingstad, Norwegian explorer (d. 2001)
- 1904 - Dmitri Kabalevsky, Russian composer (d. 1987)
- 1906 - Carol Reed, English film director (d. 1976)
- 1910 - Paul Bowles, American composer and author (d. 1999)
- 1911 - Jeanette Nolan, American actress
- 1914 - Bert Parks, American television host (d. 1992)
- 1917 - Seymour Melman, American industrial engineer (d. 2004)
- 1920 - Jack Lord, American actor (d. 1998)
- 1928 - Bo Diddley, American singer and musician
- 1931 - Skeeter Davis, American singer (d. 2004)
- 1934 - John Norris Bahcall, American physicist (d. 2005)
- 1934 - Joseph Bologna, American actor
- 1934 - Joseph P. Hoar, U.S. general
- 1934 - Del Shannon, American singer (d. 1990)
- 1934 - Russ Tamblyn, American actor, dancer, and singer
- 1935 - Omar Bongo, President of Gabon
- 1935 - Sandy Koufax, baseball player
- 1937 - Gordon Banks, British footballer
- 1937 - John Hartford, American musician (d. 2001)
- 1937 - Jim Marshall, American football player
- 1937 - Paul Stookey, American singer
- 1941 - Mel Renfro, American football player
- 1942 - Vladimir Bukovsky, Russian author and dissident
- 1942 - Michael Nesmith, American singer and musician (The Monkees)
- 1942 - Fred Ward, American actor
- 1945 - Davy Jones, American singer (The Monkees)
- 1946 - Patti Smith, American singer
- 1947 - Michael Burns, Ph.D., American actor and history professor
- 1947 - Jeff Lynne, English singer and musician (ELO)
- 1952 - June Anderson, American soprano
- 1956 - Suzy Bogguss, American singer
- 1957 - Matt Lauer, American newscaster
- 1959 - Tracey Ullman, English actress and singer
- 1961 - Douglas Coupland, Canadian author
- 1961 - Sean Hannity, American talk radio host and conservative political commentator
- 1961 - Ben Johnson, Canadian athlete
- 1963 - Chandler Burr, American author
- 1963 - Michelle Douglas, Canadian human rights activist
- 1965 - Zoe Kelli Simon, American actress
- 1969 - Dave England, American television personality
- 1969 - Jay Kay, English musician and singer (Jamiroquai)
- 1972 - Kerry Collins, American football player
- 1973 - Jason Behr, American actor
- 1973 - Ato Boldon, West Indian athlete
- 1975 - Tiger Woods, American golfer
- 1976 - Meredith Monroe, American actress
- 1978 - Tyrese, American singer
- 1980 - Eliza Dushku, American actress
- 1982 - Kristin Kreuk, Canadian actress
- 1984 - LeBron James, American basketball player
- 1985 - Alexa Ray Joel, daughter of Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley
- 1989 - Ryan Sheckler, Professional skateboarder

Deaths

- 1218 - Richard de Clare, 4th Earl of Hertford, English politician (b. 1162)
- 1460 - Richard, Duke of York, claimant to the English throne (killed in battle) (b. 1411)
- 1525 - Jacob Fugger, German banker (b. 1459)
- 1572 - Galeazzo Alessi, Italian architect (b. 1512)
- 1573 - Giovanni Battista Giraldi, Italian writer (b. 1504)
- 1591 - Pope Innocent IX (b. 1519)
- 1640 - John Regis, French saint (b. 1597)
- 1644 - Jan Baptist van Helmont, Flemish chemist (b. 1577)
- 1662 - Archduke Ferdinand Charles of Austria (b. 1628)
- 1691 - Robert Boyle, Irish scientist (b. 1627)
- 1769 - Nicholas Taaffe, 6th Viscount Taaffe, Austrian soldier (b. 1685)
- 1803 - Francis Lewis, signer of the American Declaration of Independence (b. 1713)
- 1896 - José Rizal, national hero of the Philippines (b. 1861)
- 1941 - El Lissitzky, Russian artist and architect (b. 1890)
- 1944 - Romain Rolland, French writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1866)
- 1954 - Eugen, Archduke of Austria, Austrian field marshal (b. 1863)
- 1967 - Vincent Massey, Governor-General of Canada (b. 1887)
- 1968 - Trygve Lie, first United Nations Secretary General (b. 1896)
- 1970 - Sonny Liston, American boxer (b. 1932)
- 1971 - Melba Rae, American actress (b. 1922)
- 1979 - Richard Rodgers, American composer (b. 1902)
- 1986 - Era Bell Thompson, American journalist (b. 1905)
- 1988 - Yuli Daniel, Russian writer (b. 1925)
- 1995 - Doris Grau, American actress (b. 1924)
- 1996 - Lew Ayres, American actor (b. 1908)
- 2001 - Eileen Heckart, American actress (b. 1919)
- 2002 - Mary Wesley, English novelist (b. 1912)
- 2003 - David Bale, South African-born activist (cancer) (b. 1941)
- 2003 - John Gregory Dunne, American writer (b. 1932)
- 2003 - Anita Mui, Hong Kong singer and actress (b. 1963)
- 2004 - Artie Shaw, American jazz clarinetist, composer, and bandleader (b. 1910)

Holidays and observances

- The fifth day of Christmas in Western Christianity.
- Philippines - Rizal Day
- Guided By Voices Day in Chicago, Illinois.

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/30 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.tnl.net/when/12/30 Today in History: December 30] ---- December 29 - December 31 - November 30 - January 30 -- listing of all days ko:12월 30일 ms:30 Disember ja:12月30日 simple:December 30 th:30 ธันวาคม

December 30

December 30 is the 364th day of the year (365th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 1 day remaining.

Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays and observances

- The fifth day of Christmas in Western Christianity.
- Philippines - Rizal Day
- Guided By Voices Day in Chicago, Illinois.

External links

Wars of the Roses

The Wars of the Roses (1455–1485) is the name generally given to the intermittent civil war fought over the throne of England between adherents of the House of Lancaster and the House of York. Both houses were branches of the Plantagenet royal house, tracing their descent from King Edward III. The name Wars of the Roses was not used at the time, but has its origins in the badges chosen by the two royal houses, the Red Rose of Lancaster and the White Rose of York. The Wars were fought largely by armies of troops and their feudal retainers. The House of Lancaster found most of its support in the south and west of the country, while support for the House of York came mainly from the North and east. The Wars of the Roses, with their heavy casualties among the nobility, were a major factor in the weakening of the feudal power of the nobles, leading to the growth of a strong, centralised monarchy under the Tudors.

The disputed succession

The antagonism between the two houses started with the overthrowing of King Richard II by his cousin, Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Lancaster, in 1399. Being the issue of Edward III's third son John of Gaunt, Bolingbroke had a poor claim to the throne. According to precedent, the crown should have passed to the male descendants of Lionel of Antwerp, Edward III's second son, and in fact, Richard II had named Lionel's grandson, Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March as heir presumptive. However, Bolingbroke was crowned as Henry IV. He was tolerated as king since Richard II's government had been highly unpopular. Bolingbroke died in 1413. His son and successor, Henry V, was a great soldier, and his military success against France in the Hundred Years' War bolstered his enormous popularity, enabling him to strengthen the Lancastrian hold on the throne. Henry V's short reign saw one conspiracy against him, led by Richard, Earl of Cambridge, a son of Edmund of Langley, the fifth son of Edward III. Cambridge was executed in 1415 for treason at the start of the campaign leading up to the Battle of Agincourt. Cambridge's wife Anne Mortimer also had a claim to the throne, being the daughter of Roger Mortimer and thus a descendant of Lionel of Antwerp. Henry V died in 1422, and Richard, Duke of York, the son of Richard, Earl of Cambridge and Anne Mortimer, would grow up to challenge his successor, the feeble King Henry VI, for the crown.

Henry VI

The Lancastrian King Henry VI of England was surrounded by unpopular regents and advisors. The most notable of these were Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset and William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk, who were blamed for mismanaging the government and poorly executing the continuing Hundred Years War with France. Under Henry VI virtually all of the English holdings in France, including the lands won by Henry V, had been lost. Henry VI had begun to be seen as a weak, ineffectual king. In addition, he suffered from embarrassing episodes of mental illness. By the 1450s many considered Henry incapable of rule. The short line of Lancastrian kings had already been plagued by questions of legitimacy, and the House of York believed that they had a stronger claim to the throne. Growing civil discontent, the abundance of feuding nobles with private armies, and corruption in Henry VI's court together formed a political climate ripe for civil war. When, in 1453, King Henry suffered the first of several bouts of mental illness, a Council of Regency was set up, headed in the role of Lord Protector by the powerful and popular Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York and head of the House of York. Richard soon began to press his claim to the throne with ever-greater boldness, imprisoning Somerset, and backing his allies, Salisbury and Warwick, in a series of minor conflicts with powerful supporters of Henry like the Dukes of Northumberland. Henry's recovery in 1455 thwarted Richard's ambitions, and the Duke of York was soon after driven from the royal court by Henry's queen, Margaret of Anjou. Since Henry was an ineffectual leader, the powerful and aggressive Queen Margaret emerged as the de facto leader of the Lancastrian faction. Queen Margaret built up an alliance against Richard and conspired with other nobles to reduce his influence. An increasingly thwarted Richard finally resorted to armed hostilities in 1455 at the First Battle of St Albans.

The initial phase 1455–60

Although armed clashes had broken out previously between supporters of King Henry and Richard Duke of York, the principal period of armed conflict in the Wars of the Roses took place between 1455 and 1489. Richard, Duke of York led a small force toward London and was met by Henry VI's forces at St Albans, north of London, on May 22 1455. The relatively small First Battle of St Albans was the first open conflict of the civil war. Richard's aim was ostensibly to remove "poor advisors" from King Henry's side. The result was a defeat for the Lancastrians, who lost many of their leaders including Somerset. York and his allies regained their position of influence, and for a while both sides seemed shocked that an actual battle had been fought and did their best at reconciliation. When Henry suffered another bout of mental illness, York was again appointed Protector and Margaret was charged with his care, having already been sidelined from decision-making on the Council. After the first Battle of St Albans, the compromise of 1455 enjoyed some success, with York remaining the dominant voice on the Council even after Henry's recovery. The problems which had caused conflict soon re-emerged, particularly the issue of whether the Duke of York, or Henry and Margaret's infant son, Edward, would succeed to the throne. Queen Margaret refused to accept any solution that would disinherit her son, and it became clear that she would only tolerate the situation for as long as the Duke of York and his allies retained the military ascendancy. Henry went on royal progress in the Midlands in 1456, and Margaret did not allow him to return to London—the king and queen were popular in the Midlands but becoming ever more unpopular in London where merchants were angry at the decline in trade and widespread disorder. The king's court set up at Coventry. By then the new Duke of Somerset was emerging as a favourite of the royal court, filling his father's shoes. Margaret also persuaded Henry to dismiss the appointments York had made as Protector, while York himself was again made to return to his post in Ireland. Disorder in the capital and piracy on the south coast were growing, but the king and queen remained intent on protecting their own positions, with the queen introducing conscription for the first time in England. Meanwhile, York's ally, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick (later dubbed "The Kingmaker"), was growing in popularity in London as the champion of the merchant classes. Following the return of York from Ireland, hostilities resumed on September 23 1459, at the Battle of Blore Heath in Staffordshire, when a large Lancastrian army failed to prevent a Yorkist force under Lord Salisbury from marching from Middleham Castle in Yorkshire and linking up with York at Ludlow Castle. After a Lancastrian victory at the Battle of Ludford Bridge, Edward the Earl of March (York's eldest son, later Edward IV of England), Salisbury, and Warwick fled to Calais. The Lancastrians were now back in total control, and Somerset was appointed Governor of Calais. His attempts to evict Warwick were easily repulsed, and the Yorkists even began to launch raids on the English coast from Calais in 1459–60, adding to the sense of chaos and disorder. By 1460, Warwick and the others were ready to launch an invasion of England, and rapidly established themselves in Kent and London, where they enjoyed wide support. Backed by a papal emissary who had taken their side, they marched north. Henry led an army south to meet them while Margaret remained in the north with Prince Edward. The Battle of Northampton, on July 10 1460, proved disastrous for the Lancastrians. The Yorkist army under Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, aided by treachery in the Lancastrian ranks, was able to capture King Henry and take him prisoner to London.

The Act of Accord

In the light of this military success, York now moved to press his own claim to the throne based on the illegitimacy of the Lancastrian line. Landing in north Wales, he and his wife Cecily entered London with all the ceremony usually reserved for a monarch. Parliament was assembled, and when York entered he made straight for the throne, which he may have been expecting the lords to encourage him to take for himself as they had Henry IV in 1399. Instead there was stunned silence. He announced his claim to the throne, but the Lords, even Warwick and Salisbury, were shocked by his presumption; there was no appetite among them at this stage to overthrow King Henry. Their ambition was still limited to the removal of his bad councillors. The next day, York produced detailed genealogies to support his claim based on his descent from Lionel of Antwerp and was met with more understanding. Parliament agreed to consider the matter and finally accepted that York's claim was better; but, by a majority of five, they voted that Henry should remain as king. A compromise was struck in October 1460 with the Act of Accord, which recognised York as Henry's successor to the throne, disinheriting Henry's six year old son Prince Edward. York had to accept this compromise as the best on offer; it gave him much of what he desired, particularly since he was also made Protector of the Realm and was able to govern in Henry's name. Margaret was ordered out of London with Prince Edward. The Act of Accord proved unacceptable to the Lancastrians who rallied to Margaret, forming a large army in the north....

Lancastrian counter-attack

The Duke of York left London later that year with Lord Salisbury to consolidate his position in the north against Queen Margaret's army, which was reported to be massing near the city of York. Richard took up a defensive position at Sandal Castle near Wakefield at Christmas 1460. Although Margaret's army outnumbered Richard's by more than two to one, on December 30 York ordered his forces to leave the castle and mount an attack. His army was dealt a devastating defeat at the Battle of Wakefield. Richard was slain during the battle, and Salisbury and Richard's 17 year old son Edmund, Earl of Rutland were captured and beheaded. Margaret ordered the heads of all three placed on the gates of York. The Act of Accord, the events of Wakefield left the 18 year old Edward, Earl of March, York's eldest son, as Duke of York and heir to the throne. Salisbury's death meanwhile left Warwick, his heir, as the biggest landowner in England. Margaret travelled north to Scotland to continue negotiations for Scottish assistance. Mary of Gueldres, Queen of Scotland agreed to provide Margaret with an army on condition that England cede the town of Berwick to Scotland and her daughter be betrothed to Prince Edward. Margaret agreed, although she had no funds to pay her army with and could only promise unlimited booty from the riches of southern England, as long as no looting took place north of the river Trent. She took her army to Hull, recruiting more men as she went. Edward of York, meanwhile, met Pembroke's army, which was arriving from Wales, and defeated them soundly at the Battle of Mortimer's Cross in Herefordshire. He inspired his men with a "vision" of three suns at dawn (a phenomenon known as "parhelion"), telling them that it was a portent of victory and represented the three surviving York sons—himself, George and Richard. This led to Edward's later adoption of the sign of the sunne in splendour as his personal emblem. Margaret was by now moving south, wreaking havoc as she progressed, her army supporting itself by looting the properties it overran as it passed through the prosperous south of England. In London, Warwick used this as propaganda to reinforce Yorkist support throughout the south—the town of Coventry switching allegiance to the Yorkists. Warwick failed to start raising an army soon enough and, without Edward's army to reinforce him, was caught off-guard by the Lancastrians' early arrival at St Albans. At the Second Battle of St Albans the queen won the Lancastrians' most decisive victory yet, and as the Yorkist forces fled they left behind King Henry, who was found unharmed under a tree. Henry knighted thirty of the Lancastrian soldiers immediately after the battle. As the Lancastrian army advanced southwards, a wave of dread swept London, where rumours were rife about the savage Northerners intent on plundering the city. The people of London shut the city gates and refused to supply food to the queen's army, which were looting the surrounding counties of Hertfordshire and Middlesex.

Yorkist triumph

Edward was meanwhile advancing towards London from the west where he had joined forces with Warwick. Coinciding with the northward retreat by the Queen to Dunstable, this allowed Edward and Warwick to enter London with their army. They were welcomed with enthusiasm, money and supplies by the largely Yorkist supporting city. Edward could no longer claim simply to be trying to wrest the king from his bad councillors. With his father and brother having been killed at Wakefield, this had become a battle for the crown itself. Edward now needed authority, and this seemed forthcoming when the Bishop of London asked the people of London their opinion and they replied with shouts of "King Edward". This was quickly confirmed by Parliament and Edward was unofficially crowned in a hastily arranged ceremony at Westminster Abbey amidst much jubilation. Edward and Warwick had thus captured London, although Edward vowed he would not have a formal coronation until Henry and Margaret were executed or exiled. He also announced that Henry had forfeited his right to the crown by allowing his queen to take up arms against his rightful heirs under the Act of Accord; though it was by now becoming widely argued that Edward's victory was simply a restoration of the rightful heir to the throne, which neither Henry nor his Lancastrian predecessors had been. It was this argument which Parliament had accepted the year before. Edward and Warwick next marched north, gathering a large army as they went, and met an equally impressive Lancastrian army at Towton. The Battle of Towton, near York, was the biggest battle of the Wars of the Roses thus far. Both sides had agreed beforehand that the issue was to be settled that day, with no quarter asked or given. An estimated 40-80,000 men took part with over 20,000 men being killed during (and after) the battle, an enormous number for the time and the greatest recorded single day's loss of life on English soil. The new King and his army won a decisive victory, and the Lancastrians were decimated, with most of their leaders slain. Henry and Margaret, who were waiting in York with their son Edward, fled north when they heard of the outcome. Many of the surviving Lancastrian nobles now switched allegiances to King Edward, and those who did not were driven back to the northern border areas and a few castles in Wales. Edward advanced to take York where he was confronted with the rotting heads of his father, brother and Salisbury, which were soon replaced with those of defeated Lancastrian lords like the notorious Lord Clifford of Skipton-Craven, who had ordered the execution of Edward's brother Edmund, Earl of Rutland after the Battle of Wakefield. Henry and Margaret fled to Scotland where they stayed with the royal court of James III, implementing their earlier promise to cede Berwick to Scotland and leading an invasion of Carlisle later in the year. But lacking money, they were easily repulsed by Edward's men who were rooting out the remaining Lancastrian forces in the northern counties. Edward IV's official coronation took place in June 1461 in London where he received a rapturous welcome from his supporters as the new King of England. Edward was able to rule in relative peace for ten years. In the North, Edward could never really claim to have complete control until 1464, as apart from rebellions, several castles with their Lancastrian commanders held out for years. Dunstanburgh, Alnwick (the Percy family seat) and Bamburgh were some of the last to fall. to surrender was the mighty fortress of Harlech (Wales) in 1468 after a seven-year-long siege. The deposed King Henry was captured in 1465 and held prisoner at the Tower of London where, for the time being, he was reasonably well treated. There were two further Lancastrian revolts in 1464. The first clash was at the Battle of Hedgeley Moor on the April 25 and the second at the Battle of Hexham on the May 15. Both revolts were put down by Warwick's brother John Neville, 1st Marquess of Montagu.

Resumption of hostilities 1469–71

The period 1467–70 saw a marked and rapid deterioration in the relationship between King Edward and his former mentor, the powerful Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick—"the Kingmaker". This had several causes, but stemmed originally from Edward's decision to marry Elizabeth Woodville in secret in 1464. Edward later announced the news of his marriage as fait accompli, to the considerable embarrassment of Warwick, who had been negotiating a match between Edward and a French bride, convinced as he was of the need for an alliance with France. This embarrassment turned to bitterness when the Woodvilles came to be favoured over the Nevilles at court. Other factors compounded Warwick’s disillusionment: Edward's preference for an alliance with Burgundy (over France), and Edward's reluctance to allow his brothers George, Duke of Clarence and Richard, Duke of Gloucester to marry Warwick's daughters Isabel Neville and Anne Neville, respectively. Furthermore, Edward's general popularity was also on the wane in this period with higher taxes and persistant disruptions of law and order. By 1469 Warwick had formed an alliance with Edward's jealous and treacherous brother George. They raised an army which defeated the King at the Battle of Edgecote Moor, and held Edward at Middleham Castle in Yorkshire. Warwick had the queen's father Richard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers executed. He forced Edward to summon a parliament at York at which it was planned that Edward would be declared illegitimate and the crown would thus pass to Clarence as Edward's heir apparent. However, the country was in turmoil, and Edward was able to call on the loyalty of his brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester and the majority of the nobles. Gloucester arrived at the head of a large force and liberated the King. Warwick and Clarence were declared traitors and forced to flee to France, where in 1470 Louis XI of France was coming under pressure from the exiled Margaret of Anjou to help her invade England and regain her captive husband's throne. It was King Louis who suggested the idea of an alliance between Warwick and Margaret, a notion which neither of the old enemies would at first entertain but eventually came round to, realising the potential benefits. However, both were undoubtedly hoping for different outcomes: Warwick for a puppet king in the form of Henry or his young son; Margaret to be able to reclaim her family's realm. In any case, a marriage was arranged between Warwick's daughter Anne Neville and Margaret's son, the former Prince of Wales, Edward of Westminster, and Warwick invaded England in the autumn of 1470. This time it was Edward IV who was forced to flee the country when John Neville changed loyalties to support his brother Warwick. Edward was unprepared for the arrival of Neville's large force from the north and had to order his army to scatter. Edward and Gloucester fled from Doncaster to the coast and thence to Holland and exile in Burgundy. Warwick had already invaded from France, and his plans to liberate and restore Henry VI to the throne came quickly to fruition. Henry VI was paraded through the streets of London as the restored king in October and Edward and Richard were proclaimed traitors. Warwick's success was short-lived, however. He overreached himself with his plan to invade Burgundy with the King of France, tempted by King Louis' promise of territory in the Netherlands as a reward. This led Charles the Bold of Burgundy to assist Edward. He provided funds and an army to launch an invasion of England in 1471. Edward defeated Warwick at the Battle of Barnet in 1471. The remaining Lancastrian forces were destroyed at the Battle of Tewkesbury, and Prince Edward of Westminster, the Lancastrian heir to the throne, was killed. Henry VI was murdered shortly afterwards (May 14, 1471), to strengthen the Yorkist hold on the throne.

Richard III

The restoration of Edward IV in 1471 is sometimes seen as marking the end of the Wars of the Roses. Peace was restored for the remainder of Edward's reign, but when he died suddenly in 1483, political and dynastic turmoil erupted again. Under Edward IV, factions had developed between the Queen's Woodville relatives (Anthony Woodville, 2nd Earl Rivers and Thomas Grey, 1st Marquess of Dorset) and others who resented the Woodvilles' new-found status at court and saw them as power-hungry upstarts and parvenus. At the time of Edward's premature death, his heir, Edward V, was only 12 years old. The Woodvilles were in position to influence the young king's future government, since Edward V had been brought up under the stewardship of Earl Rivers in Ludlow. This was too much for many of the anti-Woodville faction to stomach, and in the struggle for the protectorship of the young king and control of the council, Edward's brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who had been named by Edward IV on his deathbed as Protector of England, came to be de facto leader of the anti-Woodville faction. With the help of William Hastings and Henry Stafford, Gloucester captured the young king from the Woodvilles at Stony Stratford in Buckinghamshire. Thereafter Edward V was kept under Gloucester's custody in the Tower of London, where he was later joined by his younger brother, the 9-year-old Richard, Duke of York. Having secured the boys, Richard then alleged that Edward IV's marriage to Elizabeth Woodville had been illegal, and that the two boys were therefore illegitimate. Parliament agreed and enacted the Titulus Regius, which officially named Gloucester as King Richard III. The two imprisoned boys, known as the "Princes in the Tower," disappeared and were possibly murdered; by whom and under whose orders remains one of the most controversial subjects in English history. Since Richard was the finest general on the Yorkist side, many accepted him as a ruler better able to keep the Yorkists in power than a boy who would have had to rule through a committee of regents. Lancastrian hopes, on the other hand, now centred on Henry Tudor, whose father, Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond, had been an illegitimate half-brother of Henry VI. However, Henry's claim to the throne was through his mother, Margaret Beaufort, a descendant of Edward III, derived from John Beaufort, a grandson of Edward III's who was also the illegitimate son of John of Gaunt.

Henry Tudor

Henry Tudor's forces defeated Richard's at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 and Henry Tudor became King Henry VII of England. Henry then strengthened his position by marrying Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV and the best surviving Yorkist claimant. He thus reunited the two royal houses, merging the rival symbols of the red and white roses into the new emblem of the red and white Tudor Rose. Henry shored up his position by executing all other possible claimants whenever he could lay hands on them, a policy his son Henry VIII continued. Many historians consider the accession of Henry VII to mark the end of the Wars of the Roses. Others argue that the Wars of the Roses concluded only with the Battle of Stoke in 1487, which arose from the appearance of a pretender to the throne, a boy named Lambert Simnel who bore a close physical resemblance to the young Earl of Warwick, the best surviving male claimant of the House of York. The pretender's plan was doomed from the start, because the young earl was still alive and in King Henry's custody, so no one could seriously doubt Simnel was anything but an imposter. At Stoke, Henry defeated forces led by John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln — who had been named by Richard III as his heir, but had been reconciled with Henry after Bosworth — thus effectively removing the remaining Yorkist opposition. Simnel was pardoned for his part in the rebellion and sent to work in the royal kitchens.

Genealogy

The following is a simplified family tree including members of the English royal family. Image:WarRosesFamilyTree.png (may not be historically accurate)

Key figures

- Kings of England
- Henry VI (Lancastrian)
- Edward IV (Yorkist)
- Edward V (Yorkist)
- Richard III (Yorkist)
- Henry VII (Tudor)
- Prominent antagonists 1455-1487
- Yorkist
- Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York
- Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick ('The Kingmaker')
- Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury
- John Neville, 1st Marquess of Montagu
- William Neville, 1st Earl of Kent
- Bastard of Fauconberg
- Lancastrian
- Sir Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland
- Henry Percy, 3rd Earl of Northumberland
- Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset
- Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset
- Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick (changed sides)
- Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke
- Lord Clifford

External links

- [http://www.warsoftheroses.com/ WarsOfTheRoses.com] includes a map, timeline, info on major players and summaries of each battle.
- A complicated but comprehensive [http://www.threetwoone.org/diagrams/war-of-roses.gif diagram of the Wars of the Roses] can be found at threetwoone.org.

References

- Haigh, Philip A (1995). The Military Campaigns of the Wars of the Roses. ISBN 0-75-090904-8
- Worth, Sandra (2003) "The Rose of York: Love & War" ISBN 0-9751264-0-7 A richly portrayed and extremely readable novelized account of the Wars of the Roses. See Sandra Worth
- Weir, Alison (1998). Lancaster and York: the Wars of the Roses. ISBN 0-71-266674-5
- ja:薔薇戦争

Richard, Duke of York

:This article is about the father of King Edward IV and King Richard III. For the article about King Edward IV's son who was imprisoned in the Tower of London see: Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York. Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York (21 September 1411 – 30 December 1460) was the son of Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge, a noble who had been executed for treason by King Henry V in 1415, and of Anne de Mortimer, who, like her husband, was a direct descendant of King Edward III. Richard thus had an excellent claim on the throne of England, which he began to press in 1448 by assuming the long-disused surname of Plantagenet. In doing so, he made a direct challenge to the weak King Henry VI. In about 1424, he married Cecily Neville, a descendant of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster. Having had the attainder against his father reversed in 1425, he resumed the title Duke of York inherited from his uncle Edward of Norwich, having already become Earl of March through the death of his uncle, Edmund de Mortimer, 5th Earl of March. With King Henry's insanity in 1453, York was made Lord Protector, but had to give up this position with the King's recovery and the birth of an heir, Edward of Westminster, the next year. York gradually gathered together his forces, however, and the civil wars known as the Wars of the Roses eventually broke out in 1455. The forces loyal to the King were led by the ambitious Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset, but the Yorkists had the first victory at the First Battle of St Albans on 22 May 1455, at which Somerset was killed. York was soon forced to back down and come to terms with the King and four years passed in uneasy peace. Conflict was resumed in 1459, and York and his followers were attainted as traitors on 20 November 1459. York himself was forced into exile in Ireland, while his eldest son Edward fled to Calais with York's most powerful ally, Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick. York became all the more determined to achieve the throne for the House of York, and he was victorious over the Lancastrians at the Battle of Northampton. At this battle, he captured the King, who was subsequently forced to recognize York as his heir (disinheriting his own son) under the Act of Accord. York had been intending to seize the throne for himself, but there was limited support for this kind of usurpation even among such staunch Yorkists as the Earl of Warwick. However, Parliament did agree to the compromise of making York heir to the throne, in effect recognising the Yorkist claim to the throne as superior to the Lancastrian one. The Lancastrians, meanwhile, led by Henry's wife, Margaret of Anjou, refused to accept this, and continued the war. York headed north and he was killed fighting the Lancastrians at the Battle of Wakefield on 30 December 1460, along with his second son, Edmund, Earl of Rutland. He was buried at Pontefract, but his head was put on a pike by the victorious Lancastrian armies. Richard's eldest son finally succeeded in putting his dynasty on the throne in 1461 as King Edward IV. King Edward V was York's grandson, and King Richard III was another of his sons. The Tudor King Henry VIII was his great-grandson. His children with Cecily Neville include: #Joan of York (1438). #Anne of York (August 10, 1439 – January 14, 1476), consort to Henry Holland, 3rd Duke of Exeter. #Henry of York (b. February 10, 1441). #Edward IV of England (April 28, 1442 – April 9, 1483). #Edmund, Earl of Rutland (May 17, 1443 – December 31, 1460). #Elizabeth of York (April 22, 1444 – after January, 1503), consort to John de la Pole, 2nd Duke of Suffolk. #Margaret of Burgundy (May 3, 1446 – November 23, 1503). #William of York (b. July 7, 1447). #John of York (b. November 7, 1448). #George, Duke of Clarence (October 21, 1449 – February 18, 1478). #Thomas of York (born c. 1451). #Richard III of England (October 2, 1452 – August 22, 1485). #Ursula of York (born c. 1454).

External link

- [http://www.royalist.info/execute/biog?person=72 A profile of him] York, Richard, Duke of York, Richard, Duke of York, Richard, Duke of York, Richard, Duke of York, Richard, 3rd Duke of York, Richard, Duke of York, Richard, Duke of York, Richard, Duke of ja:ヨーク公リチャード

Battle of Wakefield

The Battle of Wakefield took place at Wakefield, in West Yorkshire, on December 30, 1460, and was one of the major actions of the Wars of the Roses. The opposing factions were a royal army, nominally commanded by Margaret of Anjou, and the supporters of Richard, Duke of York, rival claimant to the throne. York had already succeeded in obtaining a promise from King Henry VI of England that, on Henry's death, the crown would pass to him and his heirs (The Act Of Accord). Queen Margaret was unwilling to accept this promise, which had been obtained by force, and was determined to protect the inheritance of her only son, Edward, Prince of Wales, then aged about six. With a force outnumbering that of the Yorkists, she marched north to confront the Duke. Most people are more familiar with William Shakespeare's melodramatic version of events, notably the "murder" of York's second son, Edmund, Earl of Rutland, but in reality nothing can be quite certain of what transpired. The actual date is not known for sure, as is the exact location of the battlefield itself, although the most likely site is to the north of Sandal Castle now known as Wakefield Green, now largely developed. The monument erected on the spot where the Duke of York perished is positioned slightly south of the more likely spot where an older monument stood, but which was destroyed during the Civil War. It is very unlikely that Margaret was actually on the field of battle and was more likely to have been in Scotland at the time. The Earls of Somerset and Northumberland are much more likely to have led the Lancastrians into battle. In Shakespeare's play, Edmund is depicted as a small child, and following his unnecessary slaughter by Lord Clifford, Margaret torments his father, York, before murdering him also. In fact, the Duke of York was killed during the battle, and his son, Edmund, at seventeen, was more than old enough to be an active participant in the fighting. York's defeat was probably the result of his own over-confidence, as he apparently refused to wait for reinforcements to arrive before leaving his stronghold at Sandal Castle to meet the Lancastrians, although it is also likely that the Duke was tricked by Lord Neville, riding under false colours, into thinking his force was greater than it actually was. After the battle the heads of the Duke of York, his son Edmund and the Earl of Salisbury were stuck on poles and displayed in York at Micklegate Bar, The Duke wearing a paper crown and a sign saying 'Let York overlook the town of York'. The outcome was important mainly because it left York's eldest son, Edward, as the Yorkist claimant to the throne. Edward, though young, would prove an outstanding battle commander and a consummate politician, and would eventually reign as King Edward IV of England. The battle is said by some to be the source for the mocking nursery rhyme, The Grand Old Duke of York. Category:1460 Wakefield 1460 Category:History of Yorkshire

1853

1853 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar).

Events

- January 19 - Giuseppe Verdi's opera Il Trovatore premieres in Rome
- January 21 - Russell L. Hawes patents the envelope folding machine
- January 29 - Napoleon III marries the Spanish Countess Eugènie at the Tuileries
- March 4 – Inauguration of US president Franklin Pierce
- June 7 - Franklin College of Lancaster, Pennsylvania merges with Marshall College of Mercersburg, Pennsylvania to form Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster
- July 8 - U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry arrives in Edo Bay with a request for a trade treaty
- July 25 Outlaw and bandit Joaquin Murietta is killed.
- August 12 – New Zealand acquires self-government
- August 24 - Potato chips first prepared.
- November 3 - Troops of William Walker capture La Paz in Baja California and declare (short-lived) Republic of Lower California
- November 15 - Maria II of Portugal is succeeded by her son Pedro
- November 30 - Crimean War: Battle of Sinop - The Russian fleet destroys the Turkish fleet.
- December 30 - Gadsden Purchase: The United States buys land from Mexico to facilitate railroad building in the Southwest
- Yellow fever kills 7790 in New Orleans
- Alexander Wood invents the hypodermic syringe
- Argentina adopts federal constitution - Buenos Aires opposes that
- Donald McKay builds the Great Republic, the world's biggest sailing ship, which at 4,500 tons was too large to be successful
- Isambard Kingdom Brunel began work on the Great Eastern passenger steamer
- Start of Crimean War
- Independent Santa Cruz Maya of Eastern Yucatan recognized as an independent nation by British Empire
- Iesada succeeds Ieoshi as Japanese Shogun
- Beginning of the Late Tokugawa shogunate, the last part of the Edo period in Japan.
- Stephen Foster writes "My Old Kentucky Home."
- The University of Florida establilshed
- James Beckwourth discovers Beckwourth Pass.

Births

- January 28 - José Martí, Cuban revolutionary (d. 1895)
- February 6 - Ignacij Klemenčič, Slovenian physicist (d. 1901)
- March 14 - Ferdinand Hodler, Swiss painter (d. 1918)
- March 30 - Vincent van Gogh, Dutch painter (d. 1890)
- May 28 - Carl Larsson, Swedish painter (d. 1919)
- June 3 - William Flinders Petrie, English Egyptologist (d. 1942)
- July 5 - Cecil Rhodes, English businessman (d. 1902)
- July 18- Hendrik Lorentz, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1928)
- September 2 - Wilhelm Ostwald, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1932)
- September 16 - Albrecht Kossel, German physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1927)
- September 21 - Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1926)

Deaths

- January 16 - Matteo Carcassi, Italian composer (b. 1792)
- March 17 - Christian Doppler, Austrian mathematician (b. 1803)
- April 28 - Ludwig Tieck, German writer (b. 1773)
- November 15 - Maria II of Portugal (b. 1819) Category:1853 ko:1853년 simple:1853

Gadsden Purchase

The Gadsden Purchase is a 29,640 mi² (77,700 km²) region of what is today southern Arizona and New Mexico that was purchased by the United States from Mexico in 1853. The purchase included lands south of the Gila River and west of the Rio Grande.

Overview

Even after the conclusion of the Mexico-U.S. War, border disputes remained unsettled. Land that now comprises lower Arizona and New Mexico was part of a proposed southern route for a transcontinental railroad. President Franklin Pierce was convinced by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis to send James Gadsden (who had personal interests in the rail route) to negotiate the Gadsden Purchase with Mexico. Under the agreement, the U.S. paid Mexico USD $10 million (equivalent of $343,826,098 today) to secure the land. The Treaty included a provision allowing the U.S. to build a transoceanic canal across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, but this option was never exercised. The acquisition of land in this purchase secured the final boundaries of the continental United States.

Purpose

The purpose of the purchase was to allow for the construction of a southern route for a transcontinental railroad. Another rationale for the purchase was to give Mexico more money in compensation for the small amount paid for the lands taken by the United States five years earlier in 1848 in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended the Mexico-U.S. War. On December 30, 1853, U.S. Minister to Mexico James Gadsden and Mexican President Antonio López de Santa Anna agreed on the price of USD $10 million for the land,Alex Free is a cac!! about $337.38 per square mile. The original plans of the purchase called for a much larger portion of land to be acquired from Mexico extending far enough south to encompass most of the current Mexican states of Coahuila, Chihuahua, and Sonora as well as all of the Baja California peninsula. These original boundaries were not only opposed by the Mexican people, but also by anti-slavery U.S. Senators who saw this as a move towards the acquisition of more slave territory. Even the small final strip of land that was finally acquired was enough to anger the Mexican people who saw Santa Anna's actions as yet another betrayal of their country and watched in dismay as he squandered the money. This was one of the major contributing factors that led to the end of Santa Anna's political career. The lands of the purchase were added to the existing New Mexico Territory. In order to help control the new land, the United States Army established Fort Buchanan on Sonoita Creek in present-day southern Arizona on November 17, 1856. Nevertheless, the difficulty of governing the new areas from the territorial capital at Santa Fe led to efforts as early as 1856 to organize a new territory out of the southern portion of the New Mexico Territory. Many of the early settlers in the region were, however, pro-slavery and sympathetic to the South, resulting in an impasse in Congress over how to reorganize the territory. In 1861, after the start of the American Civil War, the Confederacy formed the Confederate Territory of Arizona largely out of the areas of the purchase. In 1863, using a north-to-south dividing line, the Union created its own Arizona Territory out of the western half of the New Mexico Territory, including most of the lands acquired in the purchase.

December 30

Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays and observances

External links

December 30

Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays and observances

External links

Wars of the Roses

The disputed succession

Henry VI

The initial phase 1455–60

The Act of Accord

Lancastrian counter-attack

Yorkist triumph

Resumption of hostilities 1469–71

Richard III

Henry Tudor

Genealogy

Key figures

See also

External links

References

Richard, Duke of York

External link

Battle of Wakefield

1853

Events

Births

Deaths

Gadsden Purchase

Overview

Purpose

See also