The title �duke of York� was created in 1385 for Edmund of Langley, fifth son of King Edward III. Edmund's grandson, Richard Plantagenet, 3rd duke of York, laid claim to the throne then occupied by King Henry VI, who was descended from John of Gaunt, the fourth son of Edward III and was head of the house of Lancaster. Richard Plantagenet claimed a prior right to it through his maternal grandfather, Roger VI de Mortimer, 4th earl of March and Ulster, whose son had been recognized as heir presumptive by King Richard II. Richard Plantagenet's claim was considered just by Parliament, and it was agreed that the house of York should inherit the throne on Henry's death. Henry consented to this proposed arrangement.
Henry's wife, Margaret of Anjou, however, wanted her son, Edward, prince of Wales, to succeed his father, and in 1455 she raised an army to defend his claim, thus beginning the Wars of the Roses. Richard Plantagenet was killed in the battle at Wakefield in 1460, but in 1461 his eldest son was proclaimed Edward IV, king of England, the first of the Yorkist line of English kings.
On the death of Edward IV in 1483, his eldest son, a boy aged 12, became king as Edward V. The young king was promptly imprisoned with his younger brother in the Tower of London by his paternal uncle, Richard Plantagenet, duke of Gloucester, who was crowned King Richard III on June 26, 1483. Edward V and his brother disappeared soon after Richard's coronation and tradition holds Richard responsible for having them killed. Modern scholarship, however, has cast doubt on the question of his guilt. In 1485 Richard III was killed in the Battle of Bosworth Field, the last action of the Wars of the Roses. With his death, the York dynasty came to an end.
The victor at Bosworth Field was Henry Tudor, earl of Richmond, who was descended through his mother from the house of Lancaster. He ascended the throne as King Henry VII and was the first English king of the house of Tudor. He strengthened his right to the throne by marrying Elizabeth, the daughter of the Yorkist king Edward IV.
After 1485 descendants of Edward IV's sister, Elizabeth, and brother, George, duke of Clarence, and impostors like Perkin Warbeck, pressed claims to the throne. The last serious pretender to the throne from the house of York was Elizabeth's son, Richard de la Pole.
"York, House of," Microsoft (R) Encarta. Copyright (c) 1994 Microsoft Corporation. Copyright (c) 1994 Funk & Wagnall's Corporation.