Another Big Battle You've (Probably) Never Heard Of ...

The Battle of Towton
Richard Caton Woodville

The Field of Battle,
Towton
Source

A good friend of the blog, Hogday, commented on this post the other day. While I was presenting the Battle of Solferino for your consideration, to wit "Big Battles That You've Never Heard Of," his offering was of a battle from further back in time, 1461 to be precise, which was the bloodiest battle ever fought on English soil.

It was a battle, for the most part, with Englishman pitted against Englishman, and they didst slaughter each other in great numbers from what I've read.

Whereas Hogday offered up this link (Wikipedia), I found another, this one, which I found to be much better written (it's from The Daily Mail). (To be honest, I find many of the offerings in Wikipedia to be written by academics, which tends to make them pretty dry reading. The chap who wrote the article in The Daily Mail writes of battle, bloody battle. No dry reading in that article.)

I speak of course of the Battle of Towton which was fought between the Yorkists and the Lancastrians on the 29th of March in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Four Hundred Sixty One, as in 31 years prior to Columbus sailing the ocean blue. Yup, a long time ago.

Of course by now you're asking just who were the Yorkists and their foes the Lancastrians. These folks were noble families who were striving for the throne of England.

During the reign of the relatively weak Henry VI, civil war broke out between rival claimants to the throne, dating back to the sons of Edward III. The Lancastrian dynasty descended from John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, third son of Edward III, whose son Henry deposed the unpopular Richard II.

Yorkist claimants such as the Duke of York asserted their legitimate claim to the throne through Edward III's second surviving son, but through a female line. The Wars of the Roses therefore tested whether the succession should keep to the male line or could pass through females. (Source)

This conflict has come down to us by the name "The War of the Roses" as apparently the emblems of the two houses were a red rose (Lancaster) and a white rose (York). They didn't call it that back then, it was simply referred to as the Civil Wars (of which England has apparently suffered seven, over the course of six centuries (1135 to 1746). You can read a synopsis of those here.

Anyhoo, the account of the battle appealed to me because it was fought in very cold weather, driving snow at times, and the chap who considered himself King of England (the Duke of York, or King Edward IV, if you will) was actually on scene, fighting with sword and shield. Whereas the reigning King of England, Henry IV, was sitting in comfort some distance away from the field in the town of York, with his wife. 

To say that many considered Henry a weak king is something of an understatement.

The Daily Mail article tells the story of the battle very well and also bemoans the fact that not all that many people in England (yes, England, not the UK, just England) aren't all that familiar with the battle. Which may have cost upwards of 20,000 lives, many (if not most) of whom were buried on the spot. A number of bodies have been unearthed in succeeding years, many of which show horrendous wounds. Medieval battles were brutal affairs.

Now you might be thinking that late March couldn't be that cold, I mean it's the first week of spring, right? Well, it was much colder back then due to Europe being in the grip of a mini Ice Age which lasted roughly from 1300 to 1850. Did you know that the Thames used to freeze over in winter? So yeah, it was brutally cold that day.

Another View of the Field
That lone tree to the right is also in the first photo, on the horizon
Source

I highly recommend you go read that Daily Mail account of the battle, it's excellent. Much like here, the author also bemoans the fact that the youth aren't really being taught their history. The very thing which makes them English! (It is, sadly, much the same in our own nation. Hopefully that gets rectified.)

A slaughter in the snow, fleeing combatants being cut to red ruin and drowning in a creek as they fled. The Cock Beck doesn't look like much in the photo below, but there had been a lot of rain and snow before the battle and the creek was more of a fast flowing river spreading out over the fields when the defeated tried to cross it!

The Cock Beck¹
Source

As always, I like to present a video, after all, a picture really can be worth a thousand words!

Part 1 -

Part 2 -

Two other references on the battle:

• British Battles
• Weapons and Warfare

So there you have it, another battle which you've probably never heard of, but was of great importance, especially to England!

Thanks for the inspiration, Hogday!

¹ A beck is a common name for a brook in northern England.