White Rose of York

[2] In Christian liturgical iconography, white is the symbol of light, typifying innocence, purity, joy and glory.

[3] 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.

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.

[4] 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.

[2] 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.

Queens County, New York uses the Tudor rose on the county flag and was named after Catherine of Braganza, spouse of King Charles II who in 1664 sent a fleet to recapture New Amsterdam from the Dutch; the city was renamed "New York" after James, Duke of York, younger brother of King Charles II who succeeded him as King James II.