House of York basis. Edward Plantagenet became Edward IV in 1461, thus merging the title of Duke of York with the crown. The most popular symbol of the house of York was the White Rose of York. The Yorkist rose is white in colour, because in Christian liturgical symbolism, white is the symbol of light, typifying innocence and purity, joy and glory. During the civil wars of the fifteenth century, the White Rose was the symbol of Yorkist forces opposed to the rival House of Lancaster. The red rose of Lancaster would be a later invention used to represent the House of Lancaster,
The Name of the Rose title "Adso of Melk", but that was vetoed by his publisher, and then the title "The Name of the Rose" "came to me virtually by chance." In the "Postscript to the Name of the Rose", Eco claims to have chosen the title "because the rose is a symbolic figure so rich in meanings that by now it hardly has any meaning left". The book's last line, translates as: "the rose of old remains only in its name; we possess naked names." The general sense, as Eco pointed out, was that from the beauty of the past, now disappeared, we hold