g Richard the Third was a beautiful, and, in many
respects, a noble-minded woman, though she lived in very rude,
turbulent, and trying times. She was born, so to speak, into one of
the most widely-extended, the most bitter, and the most fatal of the
family quarrels which have darkened the annals of the great in the
whole history of mankind, namely, that long-protracted and bitter
contest which was waged for so many years between the two great
branches of the family of Edward the Third--the houses of York and
Lancaster--for the possession of the kingdom of England. This dreadful
quarrel lasted for more than a hundred years. It led to wars and
commotions, to the sacking and burning of towns, to the ravaging of
fruitful countries, and to atrocious deeds of violence of every sort,
almost without number. The internal peace of hundreds of thousands of
families all over the land was destroyed by it for many generations.
Husbands were alienated from wives, and parents from children by it.
Murders and assassinations innumerable grew out of it. And what was it
all about? you will ask. It arose from the fact that the descendants
of a certain king had married and intermarried among each other in
such a complicated manner that for several generations nobody could
tell which of two different lines of candidates was fairly entitled to
the throne. The question was settled at last by a prince who inherited
the claim on one side marrying a princess who was the heir on the
other. Thus the conflicting interests of the two houses were combined,
and the quarrel was ended.

But, while the question was pending, it kept the country in a state of
perpetual commotion, with feuds, and quarrels, and combats
innumerable, and all the other countless and indescribable horrors of
civil war.

[Illustration: SCENES OF CIVIL WAR.]

The two branches of the royal family which were engaged in this
quarrel were called the houses of York and Lancaster, from the fact
that those were the titles of the fathers and heads of the two lines
respectively. The Lancaster party were the descendants of John of
Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and the York party were the successors and
heirs of his brother Edmund, Duke of York. These men were both sons of
Edward the Third, the King of England who reigned immediately before
Richard the Second. A full account of the family is given in our
history of Richard the Second. Of course, they being brothers, their
children were cousins