THE TUDOR ROSE

The rose symbol dates back to the “Wars of the Roses” in the second half of the fifteenth century in England. The white rose symbolised the House of York and the red rose the House of Lancaster. When the Lancastrians eventually triumphed and Henry Tudor took the crown of England from Richard III in battle, he became Henry VII King of England, and the two Houses were united by Henry through his marriage to the daughter of Edward IV of the House of York. This union was symbolised by combining the white rose of York with the red rose of Lancaster (as shown in this drawing) and became the symbol of The Tudors.

During the wars, many of the inns and hostels in the Yorkshire countryside had roses carved in the ceiling panels and beams of the bar rooms. Warlike matters discussed “under the rose” were treated as being very sensitive and not to be repeated to others under pain of death. Under-the-rose came to be accepted as a security classification and the term “Sub-Rosa” was used extensively to denote matters regarded as what one might nowadays call secret up to the early part of the twentieth century. Winston Churchill continued using the term Sub-Rosa up to the start of World War II.

The Tudor Rose symbolically is now often used extensively within countries of the British Commonwealth, past and present, to denote a professional intelligence organisation.

The above diagram-cum-logo is an example of a Tudor Rose design

copied from an oak beam carving at an inn, Beaumaris, Wales, UK.

The colouring is that used by military intelligence corps

of Commonweaalth armies.