FLOWERS OF HISTORY. 447 



Reasonably and loyally we commence with the 

 rose, which old Gerarde says " doth deserve the 

 chiefest and most principal place among all flowers 

 whatsoever, being not only esteemed for his beautie, 

 vertues, and his fragrant and odoriferous smell, but 

 also because it is the honor and ornament of our 

 English scepter, as by the conjunction appecreth 

 in the uniting of those two most royal houses of 

 Lancaster and York." 



The emblematic rose of England is not involved in 

 much obscurity, and the period of its first assump- 

 tion seems to be contained in the following record : — 

 " The roses of England were first publicly assumed 

 as devices by the sons of Edward III. John of 

 Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, used the red rose for the 

 badge of his family, and his brother Edward, who 

 was created Duke of York in 1385, took a white 

 rose for his device, which the followers of them and 

 their heirs afterwards bore for distinction in that 

 bloody war between the two Houses of York and 

 Lancaster. The two families being happily united 

 by Henry VH., the male heir of the house of Lan- 

 caster marrying Princess Elizabeth, the eldest 

 daughter and heiress of Edward IV. of the House of 

 York, i486, the two roses were united in one, and 

 became the royal badge of England."^ 



1 Hugh Clark's " Introduction to Heraldry," 13th ed. (1840), 

 p. 172. 



