Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York in the context of "Battle of Wakefield"

Henry VI, Part 2 (1591) is a Shakespearean history play about King Henry VI of England's inability to quell the bickering of his noblemen, the death of his trusted advisor Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, and the political rise of Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York; it culminates with the First Battle of St Albans (1455), the initial battle of the Wars of the Roses, which were civil wars between the House of Lancaster and the House of York.

In the early historical narrative of Henry VI, Part 1 (1591), William Shakespeare deals with the low morale consequent to the loss of England's French territories (1429–1453) during the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453) and the political machinations that precipitated the Wars of the Roses (1455–1487). In the concluding play, Henry VI, Part 3 (1591), he deals with the fraternal horrors of civil war amongst Englishmen.

Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond (c. 1430 – 3 November 1456), also known as Edmund of Hadham, was the father of King Henry VII of England and a member of the Tudor family of Penmynydd. Born to Sir Owen Tudor and the dowager queen Catherine of Valois, Edmund was the half-brother of Henry VI of England. He was raised for several years by Katherine de la Pole, and Henry took an interest in Edmund's upbringing, granting him a title and lands once he came of age. Both Edmund and his brother, Jasper, were made advisers to the King, as they were his closest remaining blood relatives.

The brothers were made senior earls in the royal court and had influential positions in the Parliament of England. Edmund was also granted Baynard's Castle, London, and ran a successful estate. He was married to Lady Margaret Beaufort, after her first marriage was annulled. Prior to the start of the Wars of the Roses, Edmund liaised with Richard, Duke of York, and supported him when the King fell ill during 1453–1454. After war began in 1455, York sent Edmund to uphold the authority of the King in South Wales. While he was there, York was overthrown by the King and, in retaliation, Yorkist forces were sent to engage those of Tudor's in South Wales. Edmund was captured and imprisoned at Carmarthen Castle, where he died of the bubonic plague on 3 November 1456, three months before the birth of his son, the future Henry VII.

John Neville, 1st Marquess of Montagu KG (c. 1431 – 14 April 1471) was a major magnate of fifteenth-century England. He was a younger son of Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury, and the younger brother of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, the "Kingmaker".

From an early age, he was involved in fighting for his House, particularly in the feud that sprang up in the 1450s with the Neville family's major regional rivals, the Percy family. John Neville was personally responsible for much of the violence until, with his brothers, they defeated and imprisoned their enemies. This was taking place against the backdrop of a crisis in central government. The king, Henry VI, already known to be a weak ruler, suffered a mental collapse which led to a protectorate headed by John's uncle, Richard, Duke of York. Within two years an armed conflict had broken out, with York openly in rebellion against the king, and his Neville cousins supporting him. John fought with his father and Warwick against the king at the first Battle of St Albans, at which they had the victory.

Anne de Mortimer (27 December 1388 – c. 22 September 1411) was a medieval English noblewoman who became an ancestor to the royal House of York, one of the parties in the fifteenth-century dynastic Wars of the Roses. It was her line of descent which gave the Yorkist dynasty its claim to the throne. Anne was the mother of Richard, Duke of York, and thus grandmother of kings Edward IV and Richard III, and great-grandmother of Edward V and Elizabeth of York.