Edward IV

Edward IV
Posthumous portrait, c. 1540
King of England (more...)
1st reign	4 March 1461 – 3 October 1470
2nd reign	11 April 1471 – 9 April 1483
Coronation	28 June 1461
Predecessor	Henry VI
Successor	Edward V
Born	28 April 1442 Rouen, Normandy, France
Died	9 April 1483 (aged 40) Westminster, Middlesex, England
Burial	18 April 1483 St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle
Spouse	Elizabeth Woodville ​ (m. 1464)​
Issue more...	Elizabeth, Queen of England Cecily, Viscountess Welles Edward V of England Richard, Duke of York Anne, Lady Howard Catherine, Countess of Devon Bridget of York Arthur, Viscount Lisle (ill.)
House	York
Father	Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York
Mother	Cecily Neville
Signature

Edward IV (28 April 1442 – 9 April 1483) was King of England from 4 March 1461 to 3 October 1470,^[1][2] then again from 11 April 1471 until his death in 1483. He was a central figure in the Wars of the Roses, a series of civil wars in England fought between the Yorkist and Lancastrian factions between 1455 and 1487.

Edward inherited the Yorkist claim to the throne at the age of eighteen when his father, Richard, Duke of York, was killed at the Battle of Wakefield in December 1460. After defeating Lancastrian armies at Mortimer’s Cross and Towton in early 1461, he deposed King Henry VI and took the throne. His marriage to Elizabeth Woodville in 1464 led to conflict with his chief advisor, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, known as the "Kingmaker". In 1470, a revolt led by Warwick and Edward's brother George, Duke of Clarence, briefly re-installed Henry VI. Edward fled to Flanders, where he gathered support and invaded England in March 1471; after victories at the battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury (where both the Earl of Warwick and Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales, were killed), he resumed the throne. Shortly afterwards, Henry VI was found dead in the Tower of London, possibly killed on Edward's orders.

Despite facing an overseas threat from Henry Tudor, the last remaining Lancastrian claimant, Edward reigned in relative peace for the next twelve years. Edward nearly restarted the Hundred Years' War, following his invasion of France in 1475, but he was assuaged by Louis XI in the Treaty of Picquigny. This treaty formally ended the Hundred Years' War, which had been effectively over since 1453. Following his sudden death in April 1483, Edward was briefly succeeded by his son Edward V; his younger brother, Richard, was appointed Lord Protector of England, due to the new king's minority, but he quickly seized the throne as Richard III.