Battle of Mortimer’s Cross, Herefordshire England

Battle of Mortimer’s Cross, Herefordshire England

The battle of Mortimer’s Cross was fought when the Yorkist army of Edward Earl of March, intercepted a Lancastrian force under Jasper Tudor.

On the 2nd February 1461, somewhere near Mortimer’s Cross, Edward deployed his Yorkist army.
They defeated the Lancastrian’s, and a number of Tudor’s commanders, including Jasper’s father Owen, were captured and later executed in Hereford.

Unfortunately this is one of the most poorly documented of all the battles of the Wars of the Roses, and we cannot be sure exactly where the action was fought between Mortimer’s Cross and Kingsland.

The battlefield landscape has also, in parts at least, been transformed from that which existed in 1461.
Hedged enclosures have replaced open field and meadow on the low lying land.

A monument was built in 1799. It has a long inscription that commemorates the Battle of Mortimer’s Cross.

Although the battle is one of the most obscure of the Wars of the Roses, it did, however, give the young Edward, Earl of March, experience of commanding in battle, and helped him to win three later battles.

He would go on to become King of England, as Edward IV.

Memorial to the Yorkist victory at the battle of Mortimer’s Cross.
Photograph © Mrs Ann Vint LRPS.