Warwick, offended and sidelined, turned against Edward. He also reversed Warwick's policy of seeking closer ties with France. In 1464, Edward married Elizabeth Woodville, the widow of a Lancastrian knight, and showed favour to her family. Resistance to Edward's rule continued but was crushed at the Battle of Hexham in 1464, and a period of relative peace ensued. Edward was formally crowned three months later in June 1461. The Yorkists lost custody of Henry after the Second Battle of St Albans but destroyed the Lancastrian army at the Battle of Towton. Richard of York attempted to claim the throne but was dissuaded and was killed at the Battle of Wakefield. Yorkists, led by Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, often referred to as "Warwick the Kingmaker," captured Henry again at the Battle of Northampton. The wars began in 1455 when Richard of York captured Henry at the First Battle of St Albans and was appointed Lord Protector by Parliament, leading to an uneasy peace. It was also used as a proxy War between France and the Burgundian State. Historians disagree over which of these factors was the main catalyst for the wars. The conflict had its roots in the wake of the Hundred Years' War and its emergent socio-economic troubles, which weakened the prestige of the English monarchy, unfolding structural problems of bastard feudalism and the powerful duchies created by Edward III, and the mental infirmity and weak rule of Henry VI, which revived interest in the Yorkist claim to the throne by Richard of York. The conflict lasted for approximately thirty years, from 1455 to 1487, with various periods of greater and lesser levels of violent conflict during that period, between various rival contenders for the monarchy of England. Following the war, the Houses of Lancaster and York were united, creating a new royal dynasty, thereby resolving the rival claims. The wars extinguished the male lines of the two dynasties, leading to the Tudor family inheriting the Lancastrian claim. The Wars of the Roses, known at the time and for more than a century after as the Civil Wars, were a series of civil wars fought over control of the English throne in the mid-to-late fifteenth century, fought between supporters of two rival cadet branches of the royal House of Plantagenet: Lancaster and York.
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