Henry the Fourth belongs partly to Cheshire, for a Duke of Lancaster had married the heiress of the Lacys, who were descended from Nigel, Baron of Halton and Constable of Chester. John of Gaunt, the king's father, was a frequent visitor at Halton Castle, which he used as a hunting-lodge.

The French wars broke out again in the reign of Henry the Fifth. Once more the loyal Leghs and other Cheshire knights followed their king. In fact the king's body-guard was composed of Cheshire men, among them being Richard de Mobberley, Ranulf de Chelford, and William de Mere. Piers Legh, the grandson of Perkin Legh, fell at Agincourt, as you may read on the brass plate in Macclesfield Church. In the same church is the altar-tomb of another hero of Agincourt, Sir John Savage, who was knighted after the battle.

Henry was stricken down at the very moment of his triumph, and a baby king succeeded to the throne of England. The royal uncles, who acted as guardians, quarrelled with one another, and in a few years the English were compelled to leave France. Foreign wars were followed by strife in our own country. The Wars of the Roses lasted for the greater part of the second half of the fifteenth century.

Queen Margaret, the 'outlandish woman' as her Yorkist enemies called her, was in Chester in the year 1459. The king was ill, and the queen conducted the wars herself, and summoned the fighting-men of Cheshire to rally to her side. The people of Cheshire were not greatly excited over the wars, which were mainly blood-feuds of powerful nobles. The trading classes and the artisans of the towns took little part in the fighting, but the sturdy Cheshire yeomen followed the squires, who ranged themselves on the one side or the other. Members of the same family often found themselves opposed to one another.

A sixteenth-century poet, describing the battle of Blore Heath, which took place just over the southern border of Cheshire, says:

The Red Rose was badly beaten in this battle, in which Lord Audley and two thousand Cheshire men were killed.

One of the Booths who fought in the Wars of the Roses is buried beneath the chancel floor of Wilmslow Church. Set in a marble slab which covers the grave is a brass plate with figures of Sir Robert de Bothe and Douce Venables his wife. Similar 'brasses' were common enough in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries on the monuments of those families who could afford them. They represent, for the most part, knights and priests. Few are left now, for numbers were stripped from their places during the Great Rebellion. Portions of the brass at Wilmslow have been destroyed or lost, for the figures were at one time set in a handsome canopy of brass, and the whole surrounded by an inscription, only a fragment of which remains.

The brass shows us the costume of a knight and lady of the fifteenth century. The knight is in plate armour, which, since its first appearance in the Edwardian wars, had become more and more elaborate and highly ornamental. If you study this brass and the effigies on the Savage monuments at Macclesfield you will be able to recognize in other churches the warriors who fought in the battles of the fifteenth century.

Douce Venables was only nine years of age when she was married by her parents to the twelve-year-old husband whom they chose for her. Throughout the Middle Ages child-marriages were frequently arranged in order to make secure the estates which the children were to inherit, and save them from the greediness of the kings. The sovereign claimed the right of wardship over all heirs and heiresses who were left orphans in early life, and took a large sum of money out of their estates when he gave them away in marriage. If they did not then marry according to his wishes they had to pay a further sum. We may be sure the kings made all they could from this source, for wars were expensive and the kings were always short of ready money.

The people of Cheshire were glad when the Wars of the Roses were over. The Roses were united when Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, married Elizabeth the heiress of Edward the Fourth and of the House of York. On the porch of Gawsworth Church is a carved corbel consisting of a rose, within whose petals appear two faces. This is the Tudor Rose, a symbol of the union of the Houses of Lancaster and York. The porch was therefore built shortly after the wars were ended.

The Cheshire Stanleys helped Henry Tudor to win the crown of Richard the Third on the field of Bosworth, the last battle of the rival Roses. When Richard saw the redcoats and the harts' heads of the Stanley followers ranged on the side of his enemies, he knew that he was doomed.

It was Sir William Stanley who picked up the crown which had fallen from King Richard's head when he was struck down, and taking Henry aside, set it on his head.

Macclesfield suffered severely in this battle. Among the corporation records of Macclesfield is preserved a letter to King Henry the Seventh, praying that the town might not lose its charter because it could not make up the necessary number of aldermen, owing to the heavy slaughter of the townsmen at Bosworth.

Lord Derby, the head of the House of Stanley, arranged the new king's marriage with the Lady Elizabeth, and Sir William Stanley was for a time high in favour with the king. But one day he asked for too great a reward—nothing less than the Earldom of Chester, and the suspicious king chopped off his head. Thus were men often requited for their services.

Notwithstanding the squabbles and jealousies of rival kings and princes, the people as a whole were progressing along more peaceful ways. Trade was flourishing, and the class of well-to-do merchants becoming yearly more numerous and important. Wealthy aldermen imitated the good example of King Henry the Sixth, founder of many schools and colleges. Edmund Shaw, of Stockport, founded in 1487 a Free School at Stockport for the children of the burgesses. The master of the school was to be a priest, 'a discrete man, and conning in grammer and able of connyng to teche gramer.' The art of printing had just been discovered, and now that books were likely to be within the reach of all, it was necessary first of all to teach Cheshire boys how to read and understand their own language.

The century, that opened with war and bloodshed, closed in peace such as Cheshire had hardly ever before experienced.