ROSES IN HISTORY, LEGENDRY, AND HERALDRY - Part 4

Articles In This Section:

· ROSE CALENDAR - Part 1

· ROSE CALENDAR - Part 2

· ROSE CALENDAR - Part 3

· ROSES IN HISTORY, LEGENDRY, AND HERALDRY - Part 1

· ROSES IN HISTORY, LEGENDRY, AND HERALDRY - Part 2

· ROSES IN HISTORY, LEGENDRY, AND HERALDRY - Part 3

· ROSES IN HISTORY, LEGENDRY, AND HERALDRY - Part 4

· ROSE SOCIETIES - Part 1

· ROSE SOCIETIES - Part 2

The Reverend J. H. Pemberton writes that when Edward IV of the House of York married Elizabeth, widow of Sir John Grey, a Lancastrian knight, the manor of Pyrgo was made over to her and her adherence to the House of York was to be attested by a grateful act. Elizabeth held the manor on payment annually of a certain fee: that of presenting the King every year in the rose month with a white rose on the feast of the Nativity of St John the Baptist. This was a yearly reminder to Elizabeth and evidence to the King's supporters that, although she was once the wearer of the Red Rose, now as Queen Consort of Edward IV she belonged to the house of the White Rose.

The Wars of the Roses, fought during the reigns of Henry VI, Edward IV, and Richard III, ended with the defeat and death of Yorkist Richard III at Bosworth. Rivalry between the two houses ceased with the marriage of Henry VII of Lancaster and Elizabeth of York in i486. The York and Lancaster Rose is a variegated sport of R. damascena.

Many English sovereigns have included the rose in their personal badges. Edward I used a golden heraldic rose stalked proper, Henry IV a red rose, Edward IV a white Rose-en-Soleil, Henry VII and Henry VIII a Tudor Rose crowned, Edward VI a Tudor Rose impaling a pomegranate, Elizabeth a Tudor Rose with the motto Rosa sine sfina (a rose without a thorn), the Stuarts a thistle and a rose dimidiated (that is, vertically halved and the two outer halves conjoined) and crowned, while Anne chose a rose and thistle growing from the same stem.

Anne was the last British monarch to adopt a personal badge. From her time the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland have had their own badges settled by Royal Warrant. The United Kingdom uses the united red and white rose, thistle and shamrock growing from the same stalk and crowned. England has the red and white rose, crowned, slipped, and leaved.

The King's Colour of the 2nd Battalion Scots Guards still uses Anne's badge. The Yeomen of the Guard and the Yeomen Warders of the Tower wear the badge of the United Kingdom on their breasts and backs.

The rose has been used in many instances for rents, but this, of course, bears no relation to any intrinsic value. Part of the rent paid by Queen Elizabeth's Lord Chancellor, Sir Christopher Hatton, for Ely Place was a red rose. The quit-rent for the Star Hotel at Worcester was "one red rose delivered on the 24th of June each year". In Manheim, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, a yearly rent of one red rose is still paid for the use of ground on which a Lutheran church is maintained.