The origins of the emblem are said to go back to the fourteenth century, to Edmund of Langley, the first Duke of York and the founder of the House of York as a cadet branch of the then ruling House of Plantagenet (although other reports suggest the rose and Yorkshire have links going back further than that.) The actual symbolism behind the rose has religious connotations as it represents the Virgin Mary, who is often called the Mystical Rose of Heaven. The Yorkist rose is white in colour, because in Christian liturgical symbolism, white is the symbol of light, typifying innocence and purity, joy and glory.
During the civil wars of the fifteenth century, the White Rose was the symbol of Yorkist forces opposed to the rival House of Lancaster. The red rose of Lancaster would be a later invention used to represent the House of Lancaster, but was not in use during the actual conflict. The opposition of the two roses gave the wars their name: the Wars of the Roses (coined in the 19th century.) The conflict was ended by King Henry VII of England, who symbolically united the White and Red Roses to create the Tudor Rose, symbol of the Tudor dynasty. In the late Seventeenth Century the Jacobites took up the White Rose of York as their emblem, celebrating "White Rose Day" on 10 June, the anniversary of the birth of James III and VIII in 1688.
At the Battle of Minden in Prussia on 1 August 1759, Yorkshiremen of the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry's predecessor the 51st Regiment picked white roses from bushes near to the battlefields as a tribute to their fallen comrades who had died. They stuck the plucked white roses in their coats as a tribute. Yorkshire Day is held on this date each year.
The Yorkist Rose was engraved on the coffin holding the remains of King Richard III, the last Yorkist king of England and the last to die leading his troops in battle, interred at Leicester Cathedral on 26 March 2015. The coffin was made by Michael Ibsen, a distant relative of the king, whose DNA helped to prove his identity.
More than 20 civic entities in Yorkshire have a coat of arms that includes the rose of York. When depicted at small size it is rendered more simply, more as a graphic image.
In heraldry The Rose of York is defined only in words Rose Argent barbed and seeded proper (a white Rose with sepals and seeds in their natural colours). According to the College of Heralds, the heraldic rose may be used with ether a petal at the top or with a sepal at the top. Traditionally, the rose is displayed with a petal at the top in the North Riding and West Riding but with a sepal at the top in the East Riding of Yorkshire, However this custom is often disregarded.
The Yorkist rose is used in the seal of the City of York, Pennsylvania, which is known as White Rose City. The town's minor league baseball team, which played in different leagues for several decades, was called the York White Roses.
The white rose is also featured on one of the hats for York's current minor league baseball team, the York Revolution. The hats are worn during War of the Roses games vs. the Red Rose City, the Lancaster Barnstormers.
The York Rose features on the shield of Canada's York University.
Queens County, New York uses the white and red rose on the county flag. Queens County was named after Queen consort Catherine of Braganza, spouse of Charles II who sent a fleet to New York in 1664 to recapture New Amsterdam from the Dutch and renamed New York for the Duke of York, James brother of Charles II.
White rose is also the coat of arms of Lithuanian town Alytus - the regional capital. It is also one of two coat of arms in the country that features roses. The largest pedestrian bridge built in 2013 - 2015 is also named "The bridge of White Rose". The name was chosen by the citizen of the town.
Appleton-le-Moors is a village and civil parish in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire, England. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 183, reducing to 164 in the 2011 census. Historically part of the North Riding of Yorkshire, the village is in the North York Moors National Park, and is near to Pickering and Kirkbymoorside.
This ancient village is recorded in the Domesday Book and retains its classic mediaeval layout. It is a site of archaeological interest, being a rich source of finds such as flint tools, Roman coins and a mediaeval oven. It is particularly noted for its exceptionally fine 19th century church which has earned the description "the little gem of moorland churches" and is Grade I listed. It was designed by the architect J.L. Pearson in French Gothic style with elaborate decoration, a tower surmounted with a spire, and a beautiful west-facing rose window of the 10-part (i.e. botanical) design similar to the White Rose of York, with stained-glass panels depicting Christian virtues such as Faith, Hope and Charity. The church and the village hall (formerly a school) were built by Mary Shepherd, widow of Joseph Shepherd (1804–62) who was born in Appleton-le-Moors, went to sea, and became a shipowner and a very rich man. Joseph and Mary are buried in Lastingham churchyard.
Joseph built a house in the village, opposite to where the church now stands. In the 1980s and 1990s the house was turned into a country hotel, but it has since returned to being a private residence. For a brief time in the 1840s Joseph employed a teacher to teach the village children but this ceased after his sister Ann Shepherd (who married her cousin Robert Shepherd) and her family, including 12 children, migrated to South Australia in 1843.Birmingham Assay Office
The Birmingham Assay Office, one of the four assay offices in the United Kingdom, is located in the Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham. The development of a silver industry in 18th century Birmingham was hampered by the legal requirement that items of solid silver be assayed, and the nearest Assay Offices were in Chester and London. Matthew Boulton and Birmingham's other great industrialists joined forces with silversmiths of Sheffield to petition Parliament for the establishment of Assay Offices in their respective cities. In spite of determined opposition by London silversmiths, an Act of Parliament was passed in March 1773, just one month after the original petition was presented to Parliament, to allow Birmingham and Sheffield the right to assay silver. The Birmingham Assay Office opened on 31 August 1773 and initially operated from three rooms in the King's Head Inn on New Street employing only four staff and was only operating on a Tuesday. The first customer on that day was Matthew Boulton.The assay office is managed by a board of 36 "Guardians of the Standard of Wrought Plate in Birmingham", between six and nine of whom must be connected with the trade.
The hallmark of the Birmingham Assay Office is the Anchor, and that of the Sheffield Assay Office was the Crown. A story about the origins of this hallmark goes that meetings prior to the inauguration of both Birmingham and Sheffield Assay Offices in 1773 were held at a public house called the Crown and Anchor Tavern on the Strand, London. It is rumoured that the choice of symbol was made on the toss of a coin which resulted in Birmingham winning the Anchor and Sheffield with the Crown (which was changed in 1977 to the White Rose of York.Services provided by the office include nickel testing, metal analysis, plating thickness determination, bullion certification, consultancy and gem certification. Platinum was brought within the Hallmarking Act 1973.Flag of County Durham
The Flag of County Durham is the flag of the historic county of Durham. It was registered with the Flag Institute as the flag of the county in 2013, after winning an online competition to decide a flag for the county.HMS York (D98)
HMS York was a Batch III Type 42 destroyer of the Royal Navy. Launched on 20 June 1982 at Wallsend, Tyne and Wear and sponsored by Lady Gosling, York was the last Type 42 built. The ship's crest was the White Rose of York, and the "red cross with lions passant" funnel badge was derived from the coat of arms of the City of York. With a maximum speed of 34 knots (63 km/h; 39 mph), she was the Royal Navy's fastest destroyer.House of Tudor
The House of Tudor was an English royal house of Welsh origin, descended in the male line from the Tudors of Penmynydd. Tudor monarchs ruled the Kingdom of England and its realms, including their ancestral Wales and the Lordship of Ireland (later the Kingdom of Ireland) from 1485 until 1603, with five monarchs in that period. The Tudors succeeded the House of Plantagenet as rulers of the Kingdom of England, and were succeeded by the House of Stuart. The first Tudor monarch, Henry VII of England, descended through his mother from a legitimised branch of the English royal House of Lancaster. The Tudor family rose to power in the wake of the Wars of the Roses, which left the House of Lancaster, to which the Tudors were aligned, extinct.
Henry Tudor was able to establish himself as a candidate not only for traditional Lancastrian supporters, but also for the discontented supporters of their rival House of York, and he rose to the throne by the right of conquest. His victory at the Battle of Bosworth Field was reinforced by his marriage to the English princess Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV, symbolically uniting the former warring factions under a new dynasty. The Tudors extended their power beyond modern England, achieving the full union of England and the Principality of Wales in 1542 (Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542), and successfully asserting English authority over the Kingdom of Ireland. They also maintained the nominal English claim to the Kingdom of France; although none of them made substance of it, Henry VIII fought wars with France trying to reclaim that title. After him, his daughter Mary I lost control of all territory in France permanently with the fall of Calais in 1558.
In total, five Tudor monarchs ruled their domains for just over a century. Henry VIII was the only son of Henry VII to live to the age of maturity. Issues around the royal succession (including marriage and the succession rights of women) became major political themes during the Tudor era. In 1603 when Elizabeth I died without heir, the Scottish House of Stuart supplanted the Tudors as England's royal family through the Union of the Crowns. The first Stuart to be King of England, James VI and I, descended from Henry VII's daughter Margaret Tudor, who in 1503 married James IV as part of the Treaty of Perpetual Peace.
For analysis of politics, diplomacy and social history, see Tudor period.Leeds United F.C.
Leeds United Football Club (formerly Leeds United A.F.C.) is a professional association football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The club was formed in 1919 following the disbanding of Leeds City F.C. by the Football League and took over their Elland Road stadium. They play in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system.Leeds United have won three English league titles, one FA Cup, one League Cup, two Charity/Community Shields and two Inter-Cities Fairs Cups. The club reached the 1975 European Cup Final, losing to Bayern Munich. Leeds also reached the semi-finals of the tournament's successor, the Champions League in 2001. The club were runners-up in the European Cup Winners Cup final in 1973. The majority of the honours were won under the management of Don Revie in the 1960s and 1970s.
Leeds play in all-white kits at home matches.The club's badge features the White Rose of York together with the monogram 'LUFC'. The club's anthem is 'Marching On Together'. Leeds share rivalries with Manchester United, Chelsea and Millwall, as well as with local teams such as Huddersfield Town, Bradford City and Sheffield Wednesday.Louis de Funès rose
The rose Louis de Funès is a cultivar (type hybrid tea).
It was named by Meilland after the famous French comedian Louis de Funès in 1984.Plucking the Red and White Roses in the Old Temple Gardens
Plucking the Red and White Roses in the Old Temple Gardens is a 1910 fresco by Henry Payne. It was commissioned in 1908 to decorate the Palace of Westminster.It depicts the fictional scene by Shakespeare, of Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset being challenged by Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York to choose between the White Rose of York and the Red Rose of Lancaster.A gouache painting by Payne, "Choosing The Red and White Roses in the Temple Garden" is in the collection of the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.The "Temple Gardens" of the title are the gardens of the Temple Church in London.Red Rose of Lancaster
The Red Rose of Lancaster (a rose gules) is the county flower of Lancashire.
The exact species or cultivar which the red rose relates to is uncertain, but it is thought to be Rosa gallica officinalis.
The rose was first adopted as an heraldic device by the first Earl of Lancaster. It was one of the badges of Henry IV of England, the first king of the House of Lancaster. Following the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, it became the emblem of Lancashire.Ribble Valley
Ribble Valley is a local government district with borough status within the non-metropolitan county of Lancashire, England. The total population of the non-metropolitan district at the 2011 Census was 57,132. Its council is based in Clitheroe. Other places include Whalley, Longridge and Ribchester. The area is so called due to the River Ribble which flows in its final stages towards its estuary near Preston. The area is popular with tourists who enjoy the area's natural unspoilt beauty, much of which lies within the Forest of Bowland.
The district was formed on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, as a merger of the municipal borough of Clitheroe, Longridge urban district, Clitheroe Rural District, part of Blackburn Rural District, part of Burnley Rural District, and part of Preston Rural District, as well as the Bowland Rural District from the West Riding of Yorkshire, hence the addition of the Red Rose of Lancaster and White Rose of York on the council's coat of arms.Rosa 'Anne Harkness'
'Anne Harkness' (syn. 'HARkaramel' and 'Ann Harkness') is a floribunda rose variety developed by Jack Harkness (R. Harkness & Co.) and introduced in 1979.Rosa 'Mister Lincoln'
Mister Lincoln is a large flowered (hybrid tea) bush rose introduced in 1964 (AARS 1965).Rosa 'Oklahoma'
The 'Oklahoma' is a dark red rose cultivar with a strong and sweet fragrance. The hybrid tea rose was developed at Oklahoma State University by Herbert C. Swim and O. L. Weeks before 1963 and introduced in 1964. It was hybridised from the cultivars 'Chrysler Imperial' (Lammerts, 1952) and 'Charles Mallerin' (Meilland, 1947).
In 2004, the Oklahoma Rose became the official state flower of Oklahoma.Rosa × alba
Rosa × alba, the white rose of York, is a hybrid rose of unknown parentage that has been cultivated in Europe since ancient times. It may have originally been grown mainly for the sweet scent of the flowers, but is now also used as a winter-hardy garden shrub. Cultivated forms have white or pink flowers, and most have many petals. Hybrid cultivars have also been produced with red or yellow flowers.Rose (heraldry)
The rose is a common device in heraldry. It is often used both as a charge on a coat of arms and by itself as an heraldic badge. The heraldic rose has a stylized form consisting of five symmetrical lobes, five barbs, and a circular seed. The rose is one of the most common plant symbols in heraldry, together with the lily, which also has a stylistic representation in the fleur-de-lis.The rose was the symbol of the English Tudor dynasty, and the ten-petaled Tudor rose is associated with England. Roses also feature prominently in the arms of the princely House of Lippe and on the seal of Martin Luther.Sheffield Assay Office
The Sheffield Assay Office is one of the four remaining assay offices in the United Kingdom, the other three being in London, Birmingham, and Edinburgh.
In 1773, Sheffield's silversmiths joined with those of Birmingham to petition Parliament for the establishment of Assay Offices in their respective cities. In spite of determined opposition by London silversmiths, an Act of Parliament was passed in March, just one month after the original petition was presented to Parliament, to allow Birmingham and Sheffield the right to assay silver.
The Assay Office was then founded and hallmarked its first piece on 20 September 1773. Lots were drawn to determine which marks the offices would use. Sheffield won and chose the crown, while Birmingham took the anchor. Originally, only silver produced within twenty miles of Sheffield could be marked at the office. From 1784, Sheffield was empowered to keep a register of all maker's marks within one hundred miles, including those of Birmingham.
In 1795, after several moves, an office was established on Fargate. In 1880 it moved to Leopold Street, and in 1958 to Portobello Street. In May 2007 it was announced that the office would move to a new purpose built site on Beulah Road by Summer 2008.
In 1977, Sheffield's mark was changed to the White Rose of York, and it became the last office to standardise its date letters.Tudor rose
The Tudor rose (sometimes called the Union rose) is the traditional floral heraldic emblem of England and takes its name and origins from the House of Tudor, which united the House of York and House of Lancaster. The Tudor rose consists of five white inner petals, representing the House of York, and five red outer petals to represent the House of Lancaster.White Rose Centre
The White Rose Centre is a shopping centre in the Beeston area of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It spans two floors and is near the M621 motorway. It takes its name from the White Rose of York, the traditional symbol of Yorkshire. The Upper Level houses the centre's food court as well as retail outlets.
The centre has 4,800 free car parking spaces, security and on-site Police officers. Although the centre is smaller than other out-of-town shopping centres, it has attracted large retailers such as Next and Marks and Spencer.
The centre opened on 25 March 1997 and accommodates major tenants including Sainsbury's, Debenhams, Marks and Spencer, Next, W H Smith, Topshop, Primark, Zara, H&M, and over 100 other stores and services.
The south part of the centre was re-developed in 2005 downsizing the Sainsbury's Savacentre to a regular Sainsbury's which made space for other units.
The centre has a bus station connecting it to suburban areas of Leeds and to the city centre.
To coincide with its tenth year of trading the White Rose Centre was rebranded. Its logo, advertising, signage and staff uniforms were redesigned. The branding and strategic marketing campaign won a BCSC Purple Apple award.
The centre is managed and mainly by Land Securities and Evans of Leeds. It has also won awards including a British Council of Shopping Centre's (BCSC) Gold Award, BCSC Purple apple, and Green apple awards.York Herald
York Herald of Arms in Ordinary is an officer of arms at the College of Arms. The first York Herald is believed to have been an officer to Edmund of Langley, Duke of York around the year 1385, but the first completely reliable reference to such a herald is in February 1484, when John Water alias Yorke, herald was granted certain fees by Richard III. These fees included the Manor of Bayhall in Pembury, Kent, and 8 pounds, 6 shillings, and 8 pence a year from the Lordship of Huntingfield in Kent. The badge of office is the white rose of York en soleil ensigned by the Royal Crown.