Notes on the ballad

Here are the notes on the ballad.
Howard

Rose of England, The [Child 166]
DESCRIPTION: A rose springs up in England, but is rooted up by a
boar. The rose returns via Milford Haven, gathers his forces, wins
the field, becomes king, and receives great praise.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1750 (Percy folio)
KEYWORDS: royalty rebellion flowers political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1485 - Death of Richard III. Accession of Henry VII
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Child 166, "The Rose of England" (1 text)
Flanders/Olney, p. 91, "The Rose of England" (1 fragment, with
lyrics somewhat resembling Child's but so short that it may not be
the same song)
Roud #4001
Notes: To tell the history of the Wars of the Roses in less than
thirty thousand words is impossible, but here goes anyway:
In 1399, King Richard II was deposed (with good reason; he was an
inept despot).
The throne, however, did not pass to his heir (his great-grand-
nephew, a Mortimer) but to his cousin Henry IV. This was acceptable
as long as Henry IV and his son Henry V were alive. But in 1422,
just after he had been declared heir to the kingdom of France, Henry
V died, leaving as his only heir a nine month old boy, Henry VI.
Without a strong king, England soon lost control of France (the last
possessions were lost by 1453). To make matters worse, Henry VI was
feeble-minded, and was married to a madly ambitious queen, Margaret
of Anjou. Their inept government descended into chaos when Henry
went mad.
Eventually a civil war arose between Henry's partisans and the
partisans of Richard Duke of York (the legitimate heir of Richard
II). Richard of York probably didn't really want the throne, but
when Margaret had him killed, Richard's son Edward had no choice but
to seize power (1461). It took Edward (IV) ten years to gain a firm
grip on power (it is probably not coincidence that Edward gained
firm control in 1471, when his brother Richard turned 18. Richard
was Edward's chief support in the last years of his reign). Edward
reigned for another twelve peaceful years. Then disaster struck.
Edward died young in 1483, leaving as his heir a twelve year old boy
(Edward V) who was in the hands of a rapacious faction. When a rumor
arose that Edward V was illegitimate, Richard seized the throne.
(The fact that his seizure cost a couple of people their heads
should not conceal the fact that it was arguably legal and
undoubtably the best thing for England.)
The Lancastrian faction (which had earlier supported Henry VI)
managed to find a new candidate for the throne in Henry Tudor, a
semi-illegitimate descendent of Henry IV's father John of Gaunt. By
a minor miracle, Henry defeated Richard III at the Battle of
Bosworth in 1485 and became king as Henry VII. (Despite the song, it
should be noted that Richard III was far more legitimate than Henry
VII, was probably a better soldier, gave every evidence of being a
decent man, and was NOT deformed. Henry, by contrast, was a cheap,
rather ugly coward.) To firm up his claim, Henry also had to marry
Edward IV's daughter Elizabeth.
The title "The Rose of England" came from Henry's adopted token of
the red rose -- and also from the white rose that was the token of
the House of York (the family of Edward IV, Richard III, and
Elizabeth). Whether Henry VII was an improvement over Richard III
can be debated -- but certainly he was no rose.
The sundry references in this song include the following:
"A crowned king... ouer England, Ireland, and France": The kings of
England had claimed the throne of France since the time of Edward
III -- but in Henry VII's time, only Calais was still in Henry's
hands, and the only use Henry made of the title was to use it to
extort money for "invasions" he had no intention of carrying out.
"Milford Hauen": Milford Haven, the town in Wales where Henry VII
landed when he set out to attack Richard III.
"Sir Rice apThomas": Rhys ap Thomas was a Welsh chieftain who
brought his forces over to Henry Tudor (in return for promises of
high office).
"Erle Richmond": The closest thing Henry Tudor had to a legitimate
title; his father had been appointed Earl of Richmond by Henry VI in
1452.
"Sir William Stanley": Sir William Stanley was the brother of Lord
Thomas Stanley (c. 1435-1504; second Lord Stanley and by this time
first Earl of Derby), who was the third husband of Margaret
Beaufort, Henry's mother. Thomas Stanley was a member of Richard's
government, but (for obvious reasons) the Stanleys would have
preferred the Tudor on the throne.
The Brothers Stanley, however, refused to show their colors; both
brought forces to the Battle of Bosworth -- and then refused to
fight! Only when Richard ordered his charge against Henry Tudor did
William Stanley intervene; his forces killed Richard and probably
saved Henry Tudor's life.
It probably says something about both William Stanley and Henry
Tudor that, in 1495, Henry accused William Stanley of treasonable
support for a pretender and had him executed. Henry's only sign of
gratitute to the man who put him on the throne was to pay for
Stanley's burial.
"The Erle of Oxford": John de Vere (c. 1443-1513), the (Lancastrial)
Earl of Oxford, and a sort of a "yellow dog Lancastrian": He'd
support a yellow dog for king as long as it wasn't a Yorkist.
"King Richard": Richard III. The reference in the song to a boar who
rooted up the rose of England is probably an allusion to Richard's
emblem of the White Boar. - RBW