Second Battle of St Albans to take advantage of their victory. The Wars of the Roses were fought between the supporters of the House of Lancaster, represented by the mentally unstable King Henry VI, and those of the rival House of York. Richard of York quarrelled with several of Henry's court during the late 1440s and early 1450s. He was respected as a soldier and administrator, and was believed by his own supporters to have a better claim to the throne than Henry. York and his friends finally openly rebelled in 1455. At the First Battle of St Albans, York gained a victory, but this
Wars of the Roses under Lancastrian commanders held out for years: Dunstanburgh, Alnwick (the Percy family seat), and Bamburgh were some of the last to fall. There was also some fighting in Ireland. At the Battle of Piltown in 1462, the Yorkish supporter Thomas FitzGerald, 7th Earl of Desmond, defeated the Lancastrian Butlers of Kilkenny. The Butlers suffered more than 400 casualties. Local folklore claims that the battle was so violent that the local river ran red with blood, hence the names Pill River and Piltown ("Baile an Phuill", meaning "Town of the blood"). There were Lancastrian revolts in the north of England in