White Rose of York White Rose of York The White Rose of York (also called the "Rose alba" or rose argent), a white heraldic rose, is the symbol of the House of York and has since been adopted as a symbol of Yorkshire as a whole. The origins of the emblem are said to go back to the fourteenth century, to Edmund of Langley, the first Duke of York and the founder of the House of York as a cadet branch of the then ruling House of Plantagenet (although other reports suggest the rose and Yorkshire have links going back further than that.) 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