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
Gervase Clifton (died 1471) Earl of Salisbury, slain in 1460 at the Battle of Wakefield. Maud Stanhope was the daughter of Sir Richard Stanhope (died 1436) of Rampton, Nottinghamshire by his second wife, Maud Cromwell (died 30 August 1497), daughter of Ralph Cromwell, 2nd Baron Cromwell (died c. 2 May 1417). Maud Stanhope was the niece and coheiress of Ralph de Cromwell, 3rd Baron Cromwell (d. 4 January 1456), and the heiress of her sister, Joan Stanhope (died 10 March 1490), who had married firstly Sir Humphrey Bourchier (died 1471), slain at the Battle of Barnet on 14 April 1471, and secondly Sir Robert