The wars, however, did not directly originate in this quarrel, but
rather in the strife for power between Edmund, Duke of Somerset
(John's brother), and Richard, Duke of York. Each desired to get the
control of the government, though at first neither appears to have
openly aimed at the crown.
During King Henry's attack of insanity (1453) Richard was appointed
Protector of the realm, and shortly afterward the Duke of Somerset,
the King's particular favorite and chief adviser, was cast into prison
on the double charge of having culpably lost Normandy and embezzled
public moneys.
When Henry recovered (1455), he released Somerset and restored him to
office. Richard protested, and raising an army in the north, marched
toward London. He met the royalist forces at St. Albans; a battle
ensued, and Somerset was slain.
During the next thirty years the war raged with more or less fury
between the parties of the Red Rose (Lancaster) and the White Rose
(York). The first maintained that Parliament had the right to choose
whatever king it saw fit, as in Henry IV's case (S279); the second
insisted that the succession should be determined by strict hereditary
descent, as represented in the claim of Richard.[2]
[2] See Genealogical Table, p. 161.
But beneath the surface the contest was not for principle, but for
place and spoils. The great nobles, who during the French wars (S288)
had pillaged abroad, now pillaged each other; and as England was
neither big enough nor rich enough to satisfy the greed of all of
them, the struggle gradually became a war of mutual extermination.
It was, to a certain extent, a sectional war. Eastern England, then
the wealthiest and most progressive part of the country, had strongly
supported Wycliffe in his reforms (S254). It now espoused the side of
Richard, Duke of York, who was believed to be friendly to religious
liberty, while the western counties fought for the cause of Lancaster
and the Church.