The Wars of the Roses weren’t just something Shakespeare dramatized for applause.
They were a real dynastic cage match between the Houses of York and Lancaster, starring figures like Richard III, Edward IV, Warwick the Kingmaker, and Henry Tudor.
And the evidence is still out there. England is dotted with the castles they schemed in, the battlefields they bled on, and the tombs where some of them finally stopped causing trouble.
If you love history, or just appreciate top-tier family dysfunction with swords, these are the must visit sites that bring the whole saga back to life.
Historic Sites from Richard III & the Wars of the Roses
Castles of Power and Betrayal
These English castles strongholds were command centers, prisons, and bargaining chips in the struggle for the crown.
Warwick Castle
Warwick Castle is a fierce and mighty fortress. But it was also the power base of Richard Neville, known as the “Kingmaker.”
He played a starring role in this era of English history. His castle’s towers, ramparts, and halls witnessed dynasties rise and fall, battles plotted, and power struggles that shaped the nation.
Warwick helped put Edward IV on the throne. But after Edward secretly married Elizabeth Woodville and sidelined Neville politically, the alliance collapsed.
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Warwick rebelled, captured Edward, and imprisoned him in Caesar’s Tower at the castle. Though Edward later escaped and reclaimed power, the fallout plunged England back into conflict.
Years later, Richard III claimed Warwick Castle through his marriage to Neville’s daughter.
The Kingmaker Exhibit at the castle digs into all of this: insurgency, alliances, and betrayal. As you move through the exhibit, you pass bootmakers, armorers, blacksmiths, and a fletcher crafting arrows.
Women in pointed hats sew banners for the earl. The final scene shows the Kingmaker himself, rallying his troops for battle.
Note: From London, you can book a self guided tour that includes train and entry tickets. Or you can book a private guided tour from London.
Middleham Castle
Middleham Castle was Richard III’s northern power base. Sent here as a boy, he trained under the Kingmaker and first met Anne Neville, the daughter he later married.
After their wedding in 1472, Richard made Middleham his principal residence. From these walls he ruled the north as his brother Edward IV’s lieutenant, effectively creating a Yorkist capital in the north.
It was also the site of his greatest personal tragedy. Richard and Anne’s only son, Edward of Middleham, was born here and died young, leaving Richard without an heir.
Today, the castle is a ruin. But its stout keep and walls still dominate the quiet Yorkshire countryside.
Walk through and you’re standing where Richard grew up, loved, ruled, and lost. Climb up the steep stairway to the upper keep for views.
Fotheringhay Castle
There are ancient ruins, and then there’s sacred rubble — the kind Richard III loyalists treat like a shrine.
Fotheringhay wasn’t a showpiece, but it was the beating heart of the House of York.
Richard Plantagenet and Cecily Neville favored it over grander estates. And on October 2, 1452, their fourth son was born there: Richard of Gloucester, the future Richard III.
He spent his early childhood at Fotheringhay and returned often. His brother Edward IV never cared for the place. He only visiting once, to bury their brother Edmund after the Battle of Wakefield.
After Richard III’s fall in the Battle of Bosworth, the Tudors snubbed the estate. It decayed into a state prison, its Yorkist ties making it more liability than legacy.
The reputation was so grim that Katherine of Aragon, Henry VIII’s discarded first wife, reportedly panicked at the thought of being exiled there.
Today, only the earthworks and conical motte remain. Near the river, a small stretch of masonry sits behind an iron railing.
Three plaques mark the spot. One identifies the wall, one notes Mary Queen of Scots’ death, and another commemorates Richard III’s birth at the castle.
Ludlow Castle
Ludlow Castle has been dubbed the “the very perfection of decay,” so ruin lusters will think it’s one of the best castles in England.
It was the early Yorkist stronghold and childhood residence of Edward IV.
Ludlow was the seat of the Council of the Marches, giving the Yorkists control over the Welsh borders. It was essentially the administrative hub of the region, tied closely to the fortunes of the House of York.
Before his death at Wakefield in 1460, Richard (father of Edward IV and Richard III) used Ludlow as his main stronghold in the marches. The Yorkist cause was organized here.
Just outside the castle walls, Yorkist forces clashed with a Lancastrian army in the Battle of Ludford Bridge in 1459. The Yorkists lost when Andrew Trollope, a commander, defected mid-battle.
The defeat forced Richard, Duke of York, and his supporters to flee into exile. Ludlow itself was ransacked by Lancastrian troops.
After Edward IV’s death, his son Edward V was raised at Ludlow with his uncle Anthony Woodville.
It’s from here that he set out for London … and his grim fate as one of the Princes in the Tower.
Kenilworth Castle
Kenilworth Castle was another Lancastrian stronghold in the Wars of the Roses. Under Henry IV, it became a royal residence, and later it passed into the orbit of the Nevilles.
Through Warwick the Kingmaker, it was tied to George, Duke of Clarence, Edward IV’s scheming brother. Clarence married Warwick’s daughter Isabel Neville and gained Kenilworth as part of his estates.
True to form, he wavered between Lancaster, Warwick, and Edward, before ending up in the Tower of London and meeting his bizarre death in a butt of malmsey wine.
The castle’s earlier history was just as dramatic. In 1266, Simon de Montfort made his final stand here in one of the longest sieges of the Middle Ages.
And in Elizabethan times, Robert Dudley transformed the fortress into a palace, staging his famous entertainments for Elizabeth I in 1575.
Today, Kenilworth is a romantic ruin with curtain walls, towers, the remains of the Great Hall. But the bones of power and intrigue are still visible.
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Tower of London
The Tower of London is one of the most famous and darkest backdrops to the Wars of the Roses.
The bumbling Henry VI was imprisoned in the Tower of London after Edward IV reclaimed the throne in 1471. On the night of May 21, 1471, he was quietly murdered—almost certainly on Edward’s orders—to eliminate any remaining Lancastrian claim.
The official story blamed “melancholy,” but contemporary accounts and later chronicles make it clear he was likely stabbed while at prayer.
After Edward IV died, his sons (12 year old Edward V and his younger brother Richard) were taken to the Tower by their Uncle Richard, then Duke of Gloucester and later Richard III.
They weren’t “imprisoned” so much as tucked away in royal apartments and then quietly removed from sight. After Richard took the crown as Richard III, the boys vanished.
In 1674, workmen found two small skeletons stuffed into a staircase in the White Tower.
They were whisked into an urn and reburied in Westminster Abbey. But no one can prove they’re the actual princes.
The Bloody Tower still marks the spot where the story curdled into legend. If you’re tracing Yorkist ghosts, this is where to start.
An entire room is dedicated to the history of the Princes in the Tower. You can also read my own mini history.
>>> Click here to pre-book a timed entry ticket for the tower
Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle weaves into the Wars of the Roses through both Lancaster and York.
Henry VI was born there in 1421, earning the name Henry of Windsor, and his troubled reign lit the fuse for decades of conflict.
Later, Edward IV made Windsor a Yorkist stronghold, expanding St. George’s Chapel and establishing a royal library. He chose to be buried there, turning the castle into a dynastic mausoleum.
Richard III also played his part, transferring Henry VI’s remains to Windsor in 1484, a move meant to harness the saintly aura surrounding the deposed king.
>>> Click her to book a Windsor ticket
Battlefields You Can Walk Today
Bosworth
Bosworth Battlefield lies just south of Leicester. It’s one of the most famous ancient battles in history.
This was Richard III’s last stand. It was the final clash of the Wars of the Roses, where the Plantagenets fell and the Tudors took over.
Of course, it’s hard to picture the chaos of 1485 when you’re looking at what is, essentially, a field.
But that’s where the Visitor Centre shines. It does a superb job unpacking the politics and personalities, on par with the Tower of London for storytelling.
Start there for models of the battlefield, replica armor, banners, and other medieval memorabilia.
Then walk the trails, read the plaques, and follow the landscape where the armies clashed. A memorial marks the spot where Richard fell, with a white boar banner.
If you’ve been underwhelmed by battlefields before, Bosworth is different. It makes the past feel alive. Some guides even claim you can still see horse tracks pressed into the grass.
What About the Other Battlefields?
Bosworth may be the star, but it isn’t the only Wars of the Roses battlefield you can visit. Some are more atmospheric than others.
- Towton (1461): The bloodiest battle of the wars, fought in a snowstorm. Today it’s mostly farmland, though there are memorial crosses and walking trails with interpretation boards. No visitor center.
- Tewkesbury (1471): Better preserved. You can still walk the meadows where Edward IV smashed the Lancastrians. The real highlight is Tewkesbury Abbey, where many of the fallen nobles were buried.
- St. Albans (1455 & 1461): The first battles of the wars. The medieval street plan survives, and plaques mark sites in the town. But it takes imagination to piece it together.
- Wakefield (1460): Another Yorkist defeat. The field is now largely built over, but a memorial cross commemorates the spot.
Tombs, Cities & Royal Remains
Plantagenet ghosts are scattered across churches and cathedrals.
Leicester Cathedral & Visitor Centre
Let’s start with Leicester. It punches well above its weight in England’s royal drama.
This city wasn’t just a stopover. It’s part of the story.
Richard II ended his reign here. After being deposed, he was held in Leicester, treated poorly, and died soon after — possibly starved or murdered. His final days are part of Leicester’s dark legacy.
But Leicester is best known for Richard III’s afterlife. In 2012, his remains were discovered under a car park in town.
The cathedral houses Richard III’s tomb in the choir. You can kneel, reflect, and feel the weight of a king who died lost.
The Richard III Visitor Centre now tells that story: the excavation, the DNA, the scandal, the burial in Leicester Cathedral.
>>> Click here to book a Richard III themed tour of Leicester
Westminster Abbey (London)
Westminster Abbey is packed with Tudor legacy, and many of its most powerful statements are about ending the Yorkist era.
The Henry VII Chapel is the crown jewel. It was built by the king who killed Richard III at Bosworth.
The ornate “Tudor rose” motif weaves through its carvings, a visual claim that Lancaster and York are finally one
Inside the chapel lie Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, side by side in a tomb symbolic of unity forged from conflict. Their tomb is a centerpiece that proclaims the Tudor victory.
Elsewhere, the abbey holds a white marble urn that supposedly contains the remains of the Princes in the Tower.
That urn was placed there by order of Charles II after bones were discovered in the Tower in 1674.
The abbey also preserves a rare painting of Richard II (the earlier Plantagenet) in the west end. It’s one of the few royal portraits done from life.
The connection is subtle but real. Richard II’s reign forms part of the broader Plantagenet struggle that leads into the Wars of the Roses.
Fotheringhay Church
Built between 1411 and 1434, the parish church of Fotheringhay is the last surviving fragment of the old Yorkist stronghold. Today, thanks to the Richard III Society, it serves as a carefully preserved memorial.
Inside lie Richard Plantagenet and Cecily Neville, parents of Edward IV and Richard III, along with their son Edmund.
Stained glass and embroidered kneelers display Yorkist arms and those of their Warwick allies. A weathered stone lion on the porch is all that remains of the castle itself.
Look up, and the tower reveals delicate fan vaulting, decorated with the falcon and fetterlock. Proud emblems of the House of York.
York Minster
Richard III had deep ties to the city of York. As Duke of Gloucester, he was hugely popular in the North and relied on York as his power base during the Wars of the Roses. He spent significant time there, built alliances, and distributed patronage.
York Minster was the spiritual and political heart of the city. Richard supported it financially and maintained close relations with its clergy.
He planned to establish a grand chantry college there. It would’ve been a mark of status, legacy, and piety.
Richard III intended York Minster to be his burial place. Records show he planned an elaborate tomb and chantry foundation there, though his defeat at Bosworth Field cut that short.
The Kings’ Screen inside features 15 English monarchs from William the Conqueror to Henry VI, so you can see some of the early players in the War of the Roses.
When Richard was killed in 1485, the city publicly mourned him.
>>> Click here to book a tour of York Minster
National Portrait Gallery (London)
Finally, if you want to put faces to the names, a visit to the National Portrait Gallery is a must do!
It’s not a castle or battlefield, but it is one of the few places where the Wars of the Roses comes alive through art.
Walk into Room 1 and you’ll see portraits of Richard III (all posthumous and highly charged), Henry VII holding the Tudor rose, and later Henry VIII in regal finery. These images shape how we remember kings and queens, layered with bias and legend.
Richard III has no authentic surviving portrait from his lifetime. What you see here are Tudor-era dramatizations, with crooked shoulders, exaggerated backs, and signs of weakness meant to reinforce the narrative of his villainy.
Every brush stroke is political, meant to cast a shadow on his memory.
>>> Click here to book a guided tour of the gallery
I hope you’ve enjoyed my guide to the Richard III and War of Roses sights in England. You may like these other related history guides:
- The Battle of Hastings
- The Battle of Lewes
- History of the War of the Roses
- History of Medieval and Tudor England
- The wives of Henry VIII
- Life of Mary Queen of Scots
- Life of Shakespeare
- Best day trips from London for history buffs
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