Wars of the Roses: Family Trees

These are some family trees. The first gives you an idea of how the main royal noble houses came about in their descent from Edward III.

Wars of the Roses

 

 

The Neville Family Tree

The Neville’s originated from the Conquest, and steadily grew in power during the 13th and 14th centuries. This Family tree starts from Ralph Neville, the 1st Earl of Westmoreland. You can read a little more by going to the ‘Major Families’ page

 

 

 

The Percy family tree

The Percy family was threatened by the rise of the Nevilles. For many generations Percy and neville had worked together, and indeed continued to work together – the Percies remained related by marriage to the senior line, the Earls of Westmoreland, bit was Salisbury and Warwick’s lines that now dominated the family.  Once again, there’s more in the ‘Leading Families 1450’ page, and the ‘Leading Families 1471‘ page.

Percy Family Tree

43 thoughts on “Wars of the Roses: Family Trees

    1. Just saw my DNA results and like probably many others Richard the III is a definitive link with an older common ancestor. All of a sudden I have an increased interest in family trees of this vintage. Nice to see! Thanks! Just think 25-20 generations later here I am.

      A couple of branches up the my tree are Whittington’s and Chuter’s from Effingham Surrey. Now rooted in Canada.

      1. I looked this up for much the same reason. According to my DNA analysis I am related to both King Richard III and King Edward IV

        1. Well, they were brothers. I am related to them too, so that means we are related to Henry V11 and Henry V111

      1. yes, but George Duke of clarence was he younger brother of Edward 1v, and the older brother of Richard Duke of Gloucester, who became Richard III. Edward had George Duke of Clarence arrested and executed when George tried to take the crown for Edward iv by proving that his sons were not legitimate because of Edward’s earlier marriage to Lady Eleanor Butler. also being a woman and the system of primogeniture being in place she would not have gotten the thrown. It would have had to go to her so which is how Henry Tudor became Henry vII. his mother was Margaret Beaufort of form the Lancasterian side of the Plantagenet blood line

        1. Henry beat Richard 3rd to become King Henry the 7th in 1485 also
          married Elizabeth of York ( Edward 4th daughter )thus joining the two roses
          (The Tudor Rose)

  1. Very beautifully done family trees. The only suggestion I’d make is that it should be made more clear in the first tree that Henry Somerset is descended directly from John Beaufort and not from Joan Beaufort. The tree as drawn makes it seem like they are Targaryens where John is the father and Joan is the mother. If you are able to bring Henry, John, and Edmund down slightly in the diagram, that would allow space to draw a line up to John Beaufort.

      1. I hate to be a perfectionist, but I did want to mention that the death of Richard III’s son is listed on the family tree as 1479 when it really happened in 1484. I only mention this because it was a question of importance in the succession and I was confused by it when listening to the podcast. I have the family tree picture saved on my computer and look at it frequently when listening to the podcasts on the War of the Roses. When you talked about Richard III’s son dying while Richard III was king, at first I thought you were jumping back in time in the podcast and then I thought that Richard III might have had two sons. Only today did I verify that the date of Richard III’s son was just listed wrong here. Sorry for the multiple requests for corrections, but it just goes to show how useful the family tree is.

  2. And you could of course make it even more complicated by adding in that Edmund Tudor Earl of Richmond was a half brother to King Henry VI via their mother!

  3. I’m following along rather late to the party, but enjoying the podcasts a lot. I’m prepping to explain the Wars of the Roses to a continuing ed class for seniors (i.e., people over 50) and so have been checking on all of the relationships. The family trees are an IMMENSE help. However, On the Neville family tree, you show Margaret, Countess of Salisbury (daughter of George D of Clarence) as married to Richard de la Pole. In fact, he was not a de la Pole — his family came from Wales. He may have had a more distant relationship to the de la Poles, from the East of England, but he definitely is not of 15th C de la Pole heritage. Since the Poles are important in the Tudor years, I thought I should mention this to you. The reason the Poles (not de la Poles) were so dangerous to the Tudor succession is because they descended from the Dukes of York through their mother. Sir Richard Pole was connected to Henry VII. From Wikipedia: “A descendant of an ancient Welsh family, Sir Richard was a landed gentleman of Buckinghamshire, the son of Geoffrey Pole, Esquire of Worrell, Cheshire, and of Wythurn in Medmenham, Buckinghamshire (1431 – 1474 / 4 January 1479, interred in Bisham Abbey). His mother was Edith St John, daughter of Sir Oliver St John of Bletso, Bedfordshire (d. 1437) and the half-sister of Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII. They shared the same mother, Margaret Beauchamp of Bletso, who had married three times; this made Richard a first cousin of the half blood to Henry VII. Sir Richard was thus first cousin of Alice St John, wife of Henry Parker, 10th Baron Morley and mother of Jane Parker, wife of George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford.”

    1. Thanks Leanne, nicely explained; I’m away at the moment but will have a look and do any amendments when I am back

    2. Are there muster rolls for the battle of Towson? I have traced my ancestors back to this time, and wonder were they supporters of the Lancastrian side or the sons of York.

  4. In your description of the Percy Family line of descent in the second sentence after the third comma, you used the word “bit”. The word you should have been “but”, this is poor grammar and confusing. You can correct me if I am wrong.

  5. See how confused it made me, the word should have been “but”, not ” bit”. I have constant noise in the apt. above me. It’s hard enough to focus on the story, without being confused by the story.

  6. Hello! I was wondering how you did this beautiful family tree, what program and what not. I wished to do a similar based on the Swedish War of the Roses with the Vasa dynasty that spanned generations between brothers and cousins over the Swedish.

    1. Hi there; I did indeed do the family trees; I didn’t use anything clever though, just put them together in Powerpoint and then saved them as images

  7. War of the Roses family tree’s, like sticking your head into a blender and thinking ‘ Nope, lets try that again.’

  8. The finest lord of the realm, baron William Hastings, a husband of Catherine was executed in a Tower in 1483 by Richard

  9. Didn’t Ralph Neville and Joan Beaufort have a daughter named Anne Neville, Duchess of Buckingham (different from Anne Neville who married Richard III)? She had married Humphrey Stafford and had son – Henry Stafford (Margaret Beaufort – Henry VI’s mother’s – third husband). It is not reflecting in the Neville family tree so I’m wondering if I’ve misunderstood.

    1. There are many of the female lines not shown. Henry “Hotspur” Percy had a surviving sister Margaret Percy.

  10. According to findings joan beaufort is my 17 x great grandmother making me 18th cousin to our late Queen. We found this from my 12th great grandmother Meitt menzies hunter who is 5th grand daughter to joan

  11. I should have thought to come here before googling the Plantagenet family tree! Now I can visualize the line of succession. Thanks David!
    (I just discovered your podcast a couple months ago and am only up to ep 51 but I am enjoying it and your sense of humour a lot!)

  12. I’m trying to figure who Jasper Tudor was… alleged half brother to Henry VI & what his connection to me is.

  13. John of Gaunt and Thomas of Woodstock are 16th great grandfathers and great granduncles through The Neville’s and Bourchier’s. Both Mom and Dad have lines leading to Edward III. 17th, 18th,19th and 20th great grampa through several lines.
    Richard III is a first cousin 15 times removed. Myself and 2 cousins have scoliosis. Mom had a droopy left eyelid like Henry III and Edward I.
    Also have a German line to Landgrave Philipp I of Hesse. All the Brit German Kings up to Charles III are cousins.

Leave a Reply to Bob Maples Cancel reply