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 Henry incapable of carrying out the duties and responsibilities of a king. In 1450, there was a violent popular revolt in Kent, Jack Cade's Rebellion, which is often seen as the prelude to the Wars of the Roses. The rebel manifesto, "The Complaint of the Poor Commons of Kent" written under Cade's leadership, accused the crown of extortion, perversion of justice, and election fraud. The rebels occupied parts of London, and executed James Fiennes, 1st Baron Saye and Sele, the unpopular Lord High Treasurer, after a hasty trial. After some of them fell to looting, they were driven out of