JK Rowling pens a Harry Potter prequel / War of Roses

[Geoff Bannister]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)" <catlady at ...> 
wrote:
>
> Lee Storm wrote in
> <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/36724>:

> In case anyone has read this far, this group sometimes talks about the
>  War of the Roses. Does anyone have a good mnemonic device for which
> is red and which is white? When I look it up and find that Lancaster
> is red and York is white, I can remember it for about 3 days. Then the
> next time the subject comes up, I have to look it up again.
> 
> As Geoff pointed out, Lancaster and York are two counties that are
> right next to each other up north by the border with Scotland. So I
> was wondering why they were fighting each other for the throne in
> London way down south.
> 
> Wikipedia helpfully told me that John of Gaunt was given the title
> Duke of Lancaster by his father Edward III in 1362, after he had
> inherited ownership of Lancaster (the real estate and a title Earl of
> Lancaster) from his father-in-law in 1361. The very same article calls
> John of Gaunt the 1st Duke of Lancaster and calls his father-in-law
> Henry of Grosmont the 1st Duke of Lancaster (given the title in 1351).
> All these things one finds when merely checking whether the House of
> Lancaster had any connection with Lancaster besides the name. Did the
> House of York have any connection with York?

Geoff:
The Wars of the Roses, between the two houses, erupted in 1455. At the 
Battle of Northampton 1460, the Yorkist army under the Earl of Warwick 
captured King Henry VI.

King Henry VI suffered a recurring bout of madness and Richard Duke of 
York was appointed Regent of England. In October 1460 the Act of Accord 
named Richard, Duke of York was named as  successor to the throne, 
disinheriting Henry's six year old son Prince Edward.

However, at the Battle of Wakefield, Richard was killed and his son, Edward 
of York, now pressed his claim to the throne of England and in March 1461
was declared King Edward IV in London.

The easy way to remember is alphabetical. Lancaster comes before York and 
red comes before white. Speaking as someone who was brought up in 
Lancashire, I would not describe the two counties as being right up north 
by the Scottish border. Although they are well to the north, Cumbria lies 
between Lancashire and the border while Durham and Northumberland lie 
between York and the Scots.