Red Rose of Lancaster

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The red rose was adopted as a symbol of the House of Lancaster by Edward Crouchback, the first Earl of Lancaster. The color red symbolizes martyrdom, but it can also represent romantic love.

The House of Lancaster was a cadet branch of the ruling House of Plantagenet, and in the Fifteenth Century warred with a rival cadet branch, the House of York. Because the House of York's symbol was a white rose, the conflict was called the War of the Roses.

The test is from "A Red, Red, Rose" by Robert Burns:

O my luve is like a red, red rose

That's newly sprung in June;

O my luve's like the melodie

That's sweetly played in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonny lass,

So deep in luve am I;

And I will luve thee still, my dear,

Till a' the seas gang dry.

Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,

And the rocks melt wi' the sun;

I will luve thee still, my dear,

While the sands o' life shall run.

And fare thee weel, my only love,

And fare thee weel, awhile!

And I will come again, my love

Tho' it were ten thousand mile.

White Rose of York

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In the fourteenth century, Edmund of Langley, founder of the House of York, chose the white rose as his emblem. The white rose represents innocence, purity, and joy, and is associated with the Virgin Mary.

The House of York was a cadet branch of the ruling House of Plantagenet, and in the Fifteenth Century warred with a rival cadet branch, the House of Lancaster. Because the House of Lancaster's symbol was a red rose, the conflict was called the War of the Roses.

The text is Sonnet No. 54 by William Shakespeare:

O, how much more doth beauty beauteous seem
By that sweet ornament which truth doth give!
The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem
For that sweet odour which doth in it live.
The canker-blooms have full as deep a dye
As the perfumed tincture of the roses,
Hang on such thorns and play as wantonly
When summer's breath their masked buds discloses:
But, for their virtue only is their show,
They live unwoo'd and unrespected fade,
Die to themselves. Sweet roses do not so;
Of their sweet deaths are sweetest odours made:
And so of you, beauteous and lovely youth,
When that shall fade, my verse distills your truth.

Tudor Rose

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For thirty years, the War of the Roses raged across England between the House of Lancaster, represented by the red rose, and the House of York, represented by the white rose. When Henry Tudor, a member of the House of Lancaster, defeated Richard III to become King Henry VII, he married Elizabeth of York, uniting the two houses and founding the Tudor dynasty of English monarchs. The Tudor Rose represents the uniting of the two houses.

The poem used in this design is called "Of a rose, a lovely rose, Of a rose is al myn song," written circa 1350 by an anonymous author. The language is Middle English. This is the full text:

LESTENYT, lordynges, both elde and yinge,
How this rose began to sprynge;
Swych a rose to myn lykynge
In al this word ne knowe I non.

The Aungil came fro hevene tour,
To grete Marye with gret honour,
And seyde sche xuld bere the flour
That xulde breke the fyndes bond.

The flour sprong in heye Bedlem,
That is bothe bryht and schen:
The rose is Mary hevene qwyn,
Out of here bosum the blosme sprong.

The ferste braunche is ful of myht,
That sprang on Cyrstemesse nyht,
The sterre schon over Bedlem bryht
That is bothe brod and long.

The secunde braunche sprong to helle,
The fendys power doun to felle:
Therein myht non sowle dwelle;
Blyssid be the time the rose sprong!

The thredde braunche is good and swote,
It sprang to hevene crop and rote,
Therein to dwellyn and ben our bote;
Every day it schewit in prystes hond.

Prey we to here with gret honour,
Che that bar the blyssid flowr,
Che be our helpe and our socour
And schyd us fro the fyndes bond.

Note the archaic words such as shen for beautiful and the use of x for sh.