8. An Usurpation That Opened Yet Another Chapter in the Intra-Plantagenet Family Feud
The Plantagenet family feud that had triggered the Wars of the Roses finally came to an end the afternoon of August 22, 1485, at the Battle of Bosworth. Its outcome was the result of one of history’s most momentous betrayals. The traitor was Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby (1435 – 1504). A powerful peer, Stanley had extensive landholdings in northwest England and ran them as if they were an independent realm. Accordingly, his support was sought by both the Lancastrian and Yorkist branches of the House of Plantagenet as they vied for power.
The Yorkist King Edward IV had died of a sudden illness in 1483. Before he expired, he named his younger brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester, as regent to govern the realm during the minority of Edward’s twelve-year-old old son and successor, Edward V, and to act as guardian of the child king and his younger brother. However, Richard declared his brother’s sons illegitimate and imprisoned his nephews in the Tower of London, where they disappeared and were likely murdered. He then had himself crowned as King Richard III.