Battle of Tewkesbury - The End of The Lancastrian Royal Family

The End of The Lancastrian Royal Family

On his way to suppress Fauconberg and the Kentish rebels, Edward passed through London in triumph on 21 May, with the captive Queen Margaret beside him in a chariot. King Henry VI died in the Tower of London that night, at the hands of or by the order of Richard of Gloucester according to several contemporary accounts. It was announced in public that he had died "of pure displeasure and melancholy", but few believed this.

Gloucester later married Anne Neville, the younger daughter of Warwick and the widow of Prince Edward.

With the deaths of Somerset and his younger brother, the House of Beaufort, who were distant cousins of Henry VI and had a remote claim to succeed him, had been almost exterminated. Only the female line of Somerset's uncle, the 1st Duke of Somerset, remained, represented by Lady Margaret Beaufort and her son Henry Tudor. Henry escaped from Wales with Jasper Tudor, his paternal uncle, and remained in exile in Brittany for the remainder of Edward's reign. The year after the Battle of Tewkesbury however, Lady Margaret married Lord Stanley, one of King Edward's supporters, who later turned against Edward's brother Richard of Gloucester when he became King as Richard III, and was instrumental in putting Henry Tudor on the throne.