The symbolism of the white rose has religious connotations as it represents (like the
white lily) the purity of the
Virgin Mary, one of whose
many titles in the Roman Catholic faith is the
Mystical Rose of Heaven. The white rose was first adopted as a
heraldic badge by
Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York (1341–1402), the fourth surviving son of King
Edward III of England. One of his elder brothers,
John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster (1340–1399) adopted a red rose as a
heraldic badge, the
red rose of Lancaster. Their respective descendants fought for control of the throne of England during several decades of civil warfare, which became known as the
Wars of the Roses, after the badges of the two competing cadet royal houses. The Wars of the Roses were ended by King
Henry VII of England who, upon marrying
Elizabeth of York, symbolically but not politically, united the White and Red Roses to create the
Tudor Rose, the symbol of the
English Monarchy. In the late 17th 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 Francis Edward Stuart in 1688. At the
Battle of Minden in
Prussia on 1 August 1759, Yorkshiremen of the 51st Regiment (predecessor of the
King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry) picked white roses from bushes near to the battlefields and stuck them in their coats as a tribute to their fallen comrades.
Yorkshire Day is held on this date each year. When the body of the last Yorkist King
Richard III (killed by the forces of the future King Henry VII at the
Battle of Bosworth in 1485) was re-discovered buried in the
City of Leicester in 2015, it was re-interred in
Leicester Cathedral on 26 March 2015 with a white rose engraved on the new coffin. It was confirmed by the DNA of a woman who chose to remain private and by Michael Ibsen, both distant relatives of the king, whose DNA helped to prove his identity. ==Use in Yorkshire heraldry==