Historical Figure MBTIThe Wars of the Roses
~1455 – 1487
The thirty-year dynastic civil war between Lancaster and York — the mad king, the she-wolf queen, the kingmaker, the princes in the Tower, and the Tudor marriage that ended it.
When the gentle, otherworldly Henry VI — son of the great Henry V — collapsed into catatonic madness in 1453, the crown of England fell into a vacuum, and the two branches of the Plantagenet house, Lancaster and York, went to war over it. For thirty years the kingdom tore itself apart in a string of savage battles. The king's fierce queen, Margaret of Anjou, drove the Lancastrian cause; the Yorkist claim was pressed by Richard, Duke of York and enforced by the overmighty Earl of Warwick, "the Kingmaker," who set up kings and pulled them down at will.
Out of the slaughter the house of York rose, and then fell again; the boy-princes vanished into the Tower; and the wars ended at last on Bosworth Field, where Henry Tudor took the crown and married a daughter of York, fusing the red rose and the white. The figures gathered here — the mad king, the she-wolf, the kingmaker, the usurpers, and the dynasty-founders — are the cast of England's most ferocious dynastic war: the history that gave Shakespeare his great cycle of plays and, five centuries later, lent its bones to Game of Thrones.
21 figures · sorted by birth year
Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham
notableENTJ
Richard III's kingmaker turned rebel, beheaded at Salisbury within months — the proud, miscalculating ENTJ magnate.
Thomas Stanley
notableISTP
The great survivor who served every side and whose cold betrayal at Bosworth crowned the Tudors — the calculating ISTP.
Elizabeth of York
renownISFJ
Edward IV's daughter whose marriage fused the roses and mothered the Tudor age — the gentle, beloved ISFJ queen.
Margaret Beaufort
renownINTJ
The mother who willed her son onto the throne against all odds — the iron, devout INTJ who built the Tudor dynasty.
Henry VII
iconicINTJ
The exile of thin blood who won the crown at Bosworth and built the Tudor state by ledger — the cold INTJ founder.
Anne Neville
notableISFJ
Warwick's daughter, twice married for others' politics and dead at 28 amid poison rumors — the quiet, dutiful ISFJ queen.
Richard III
iconicISTJ
The loyal brother turned usurper, last king to die in battle, found beneath a car park — dutiful ISTJ or villain?
The Princes in the Tower
notableUNTYPED
Edward IV's two boy-sons, seized by Richard III and vanished in the Tower — the unsolved crime at the heart of the Wars.
Cecily Neville
notableISTJ
'The Rose of Raby,' the proud, pious matriarch who bore two kings and outlived every loss — the steadfast ISTJ of York.
William Hastings
notableESTP
Edward IV's bluff, loyal chamberlain, beheaded in Richard III's Tower ambush — the ESTP who would not betray.
Jane Shore
notableESFP
Edward IV's 'merriest' mistress, who used her sway for kindness and bore her penance with grace — the warm ESFP.
George, Duke of Clarence
notableENTP
Edward IV's clever, treacherous brother, drowned by legend in a butt of Malmsey — the scheming, self-destructive ENTP.
Anthony Woodville, Earl Rivers
notableINFJ
The pious, chivalrous scholar who gave England its first printed book, beheaded by Richard III — the refined INFJ knight.
Elizabeth Woodville
renownESTJ
The commoner who married Edward IV for love, lost her sons in the Tower, and still founded the Tudors — the shrewd ESTJ.
Edward IV
iconicESTP
The towering warrior-king who seized the crown at 18 and died of excess at 40 — the charismatic ESTP of York.
Edward of Westminster
notableESTP
Henry VI's warlike son, who 'talked of nothing but cutting off heads' and died at 17 at Tewkesbury — the fierce young ESTP.
Edmund Beaufort, Duke of Somerset
notableESTJ
Henry VI's favorite and York's hated rival, killed at the war's first battle — the position-guarding ESTJ of Lancaster.
Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick
renownENTJ
The overmighty magnate who made and unmade kings until a battle unmade him — the ENTJ 'Kingmaker' of the Roses.
Richard, Duke of York
renownENTJ
The Yorkist claimant who reached for the crown and died under a paper one — the relentless ENTJ who began the Wars.
Margaret of Anjou
renownENTJ
The 'she-wolf' who led the Lancastrian cause when her saintly husband could not — the ruthless ENTJ warrior-queen.
Henry VI
iconicINFP
The saintly, unworldly king whose madness lit the Wars of the Roses — the gentle INFP a brutal age had no place for.
Sign up for monthly insights
Monthly insights into history's most influential figures — examined through psychology, context, and cognitive pattern. Less stereotype, more structure. History, but with a mind map.
Powered by Buttondown