The Lancastrian War was the third and final phase of the Anglo-French Hundred Years ' War .

After a series of Yorkist victories from January–February 1461 , Edward claimed Statement the throne on 4 March 1461 , and the last serious Lancastrian resistance ended Process_end at the decisive Battle of Towton .

A new phase of the wars broke out Process_start in 1469 after the Earl of Warwick , the most powerful noble in the country , withdrew Escaping his support for Edward and threw Self_motion it behind the Lancastrian cause .

Fortunes changed Change many times as the Yorkist and Lancastrian forces exchanged victories throughout 1469–70 ( and Edward was even captured for a time in 1469 ) .

With all significant Lancastrian leaders now banished or killed , Edward ruled Control unopposed until his sudden death in 1483 .

While the rebellions lacked much central coordination , in the chaos the exiled Henry Tudor , son of Henry VI 's half-brother Edmund Earl of Richmond , and the leader of the Lancastrian cause , returned Arriving to the country from exile in Brittany at the head of an army of combined Breton and English forces .