Welcome to the History of English Podcast, a podcast about the history of the English

language.

This is Episode 137, a rose by any other name.

In this episode, we're going to turn our attention to the origins of the Civil War that

divided the Nebility of England in the late 1400s.

At the time it was called the Cousins War, but later writers called it the Wars of the

Roses, and they called it that because the war was fought between two branches of the

Plantagenet family, each of which was represented by a rose, one red and one white.

As we'll see, the real story isn't quite that simple, but roses were very important

symbols in the Middle Ages.

They were grown in gardens throughout England, and during the period when the wars of the

roses were getting underway, a guide to gardening was composed in the English language for

the first time.

So this time we're going to turn our attention to roses and gardening in the late Middle

Ages, and we'll explore the origins of a war named for one of the world's most popular

flowers.

But before we begin, let me remind you that the website for the podcast is historyofenglishpodcast.com,

you can sign up to support the podcast and get bonus episodes and transcripts at patreon.com

slash historyofenglish.

Before we begin, let me mention that the Intelligence Speech Conference will be held on Saturday

June 27th.

It's entirely online this year, and I'm going to be joining a lot of other podcasters who

...