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Never before had England seen a conflict that split the nation so dramatically than during the mid to late 15th century, when two dynastic houses clashed in the Wars of the Roses. The weak rule and eventual incapacitation of King Henry VI had allowed his rivals to step up and claim the throne, launching a series of wars still remembered as one of the bloodiest chapters in England’s history.

York and Lancaster – two branches of the royal house of Plantagenet, which had ruled since 1154 – tore the country apart for more than three decades. Kings were ousted and killed, dynasties begun and ripped down, and countless slaughtered in the name of the red and white roses. Yet from the chaos and turmoil emerged a new dynasty: the Tudors.