The Wars of the Roses, spanning from 1377 to 1471, were a tumultuous series of English civil wars fought for the throne of England, pitting two rival cadet branches of the House of Plantagenet—Lancaster and York—against each other. Scottish historian Robert Balmain Mowat (1883-1941) poignantly describes this era as witnessing the death of the old England and the beginning of the new. Amidst this chaos emerged formidable personalities the noble Richard of York, the cunning Warwick the Kingmaker, the multifaceted King Edward IV, and his fierce adversary, Margaret of Anjou, known as the true she-wolf of France. (Summary by Pamela Nagami, M.D.)