My students were learning about the Wars of the Roses this week, and I wanted a simple coloring page that summed it all up with pictures of the roses. I couldn’t find one, so I created one! Side note: I realized that for years I’ve been incorrectly calling it the “War” of the Roses rather than “Wars.” Download my coloring page here.
This is such a confusing conflict. It’s almost impossible to keep up with who did what. The main things I want my students to get out of this lesson are:
- What houses were fighting? (Lancaster and Yorks)
- What were they fighting for? (The English throne)
- What symbol represents each house? (Red and white rose)
- Why was this series of conflicts called the Wars of the Roses? (Because of the symbols of the houses that fought)
- What was the final result of the conflicts? (Henry Tudor, of the Lancastrians, defeated Richard III and married Elizabeth of York. His marriage united the houses of York and Lancaster and he stared the House of Tudor.)
Before we discuss the conflict, I showed my students this video to give them an idea of the craziness that went on during the Wars of the Roses. See below.
Also, we played a Wars of the Roses simulation/game that they really enjoyed. You can purchase it here (this is not one of my products). I played it with my middle schoolers, and it took us almost 2 hour-long class periods. I think older students could get done with it faster. Be sure to have plenty of gold, soldiers, and land cutouts available for the game…make sure you have some dice.
The simulation is really fun but it would only work in a homeschool environment if your kids were playing against each other because you need more than one team.
