Wars of the Roses the Hundred Years' War, unfolding the structural problems of feudalism, combined with the mental infirmity and weak rule of King Henry VI which revived interest in Richard of York's claim to the throne. Historians disagree on which of these factors to identify as the main reason for the wars. With the Duke of York's death, the claim transferred to his heir, Edward, who later became the first Yorkist king of England, as Edward IV. He reigned from 1461, interrupted by a Lancastrian uprising and reinstallment of Henry VI in 1470 to 1471, until his sudden death in 1483. His son
William Cary (1437–1471) William Cary (1437–1471) Sir William Cary (1437–1471) of Cockington and Clovelly in Devon was a member of the Devonshire gentry. He was beheaded after the defeat of the Lancastrians at the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471. He was the son and heir of Philip Cary (died 1437) of Cockington, Member of Parliament for Devon in 1433, by his wife Christiana de Orchard (died 1472), daughter and heiress of William de Orchard of Orchard (later Orchard Portman), near Taunton in Somerset. Christiana de Orchard survived her first husband and remarried to Walter Portman, ten times MP for Taunton, by whom she