History of Hertfordshire Kings Langley. He gave the alm of a groat to the poor. Henry Chichele, the Archbishop of Canterbury, visited Barnet in 1423. No bells rang, and the archbishop took offence at his poor welcome. When he returned in 1426, the church doors were sealed against him. Three important battles of the Wars of the Roses took place in Hertfordshire. At the First Battle of St Albans on 22 May 1455, which was the first major battle of the Wars of the Roses, Richard of York and Neville the Kingmaker defeated the Lancastrians, killed their leader, Edmund Beaufort and captured King
Wars of the Roses II and whether it was lawful or not. Following that event, Richard's legitimate successor would be Henry Bolingbroke if strict Salic inheritance were adhered to, or Anne Mortimer if male-preference primogeniture, which eventually became the standard form of succession (until the Succession to the Crown Act 2013), were adhered to. Following defeat in the Hundred Years' War, English landowners complained vociferously about the financial losses resulting from the loss of their continental holdings; this is often considered a contributory cause of the Wars of the Roses. The wars were fought largely by the landed aristocracy and armies of feudal retainers,