The Wars of the Roses were quarrels within the Plantagenet family, of which Richard's dynasty, the House of York, was one branch. They were about family trees - the capacity of family relationships both to unite and to divide - and notoriously about the slaughter of cousins, in-laws, brothers, and nephews. The House of York won the first war, with Richard's elder brother becoming king as Edward IV. The 1460s are about the explosion of King Edward...