Wars of the Roses show their loyalty to the Lancastrian or Yorkist faction respectively. It is often suggested by literary critics that Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" has strong allegorical references to the conflict with York represented by the White Queen and Lancaster represented by the Red Queen. The Yorkist faction used the symbol of the white rose from early in the conflict, but the Lancastrian red rose was apparently introduced only after the victory of Henry Tudor at the Battle of Bosworth, when it was combined with the Yorkist white rose to form the Tudor rose, which symbolised the union of the
The Rose of Castille and Elvira's bravura aria ("Oh no! By fortune blessed"), concludes the opera to general rejoicing: she will now be the Rose of Castille as well as the Queen of León. James Joyce's "Ulysses" contains a number of references to "The Rose of Castille" (many more than to "The Bohemian Girl" or "The Maid of Artois"). The most notable is in the Aeolus section, where Lenehan answers his own riddle, "What opera is like a railway line?", with ""The Rose of Castille". See the wheeze? Rows of cast steel." In addition, Manuel's aria, "'Twas rank and fame that tempted thee" is