Edward IV of England

Edward inherited the Yorkist claim in December 1460 when his father, Richard, Duke of York, was killed at the Battle of Wakefield. Within months he'd defeated Lancastrian forces at Mortimer's Cross and Towton and deposed Henry VI to become king at eighteen. His 1464 marriage to Elizabeth Woodville fractured his alliance with Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick - the "Kingmaker" - who joined Edward's own brother George, Duke of Clarence, in a 1470 revolt that briefly restored Henry VI. Edward fled to Flanders, returned with an army in March 1471, and won back the crown at Barnet (where Warwick died) and Tewkesbury (where the Lancastrian Prince of Wales was killed). Henry VI was found dead in the Tower shortly after, possibly on Edward's orders. He reigned in relative peace for twelve years, nearly restarting the Hundred Years' War with an invasion of France in 1475 before Louis XI bought him off in the Treaty of Picquigny. Edward died suddenly in April 1483; his twelve-year-old son Edward V succeeded him, but both Edward V and his younger brother disappeared from the Tower, and their uncle took the throne as Richard III.