house of York, Younger branch of the Plantagenet dynasty, descended from Edward III’s fifth son, Edmund of Langley (1341–1402), 1st duke of York. In the 15th century the Yorkists took the throne from the house of Lancaster; the Yorkist kings were Edward IV, Edward V, and Richard III. The Wars of the Roses between the two houses continued until Richard’s death at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1453. The marriage of Henry VII, the first Tudor king, to the daughter of Edward IV, merged the house of York with the house of Tudor.
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