The Bloody Battle Of Towton

The Bloody Battle Of Towton

The Battle of Towton on 29th March 1461, was possibly the largest and bloodiest battle ever fought on English soil.
Lancastrian King Henry VI had transferred the right of succession to the English throne to Richard, Duke of York and his heirs.
However, his wife Queen Margaret of Anjou, was not prepared to accept an arrangement that deprived her son of his birthright, without a fight.

At this point, England was effectively a country with two kings.
A predicament that could only be settled on the battlefield.
Palm Sunday, 29th March 1461, dawned cold and cloudy, with the wind blowing from the south.
As the Yorkists marched onto the field, it began to snow.

The two huge armies, estimated at between 50,000 to 65,000 men, confronted each other in an open field – between the villages of Towton and Saxton in North Yorkshire.

The Lancastrians, with the snow blowing full in their faces, were slow to respond.
Unable to see their enemy properly, the Lancastrian archers began a barrage of arrows, all falling short of the Yorkist line.
The Lancastrians continued firing until much of their arrow supply was used.

Yorkist archers moved forward and discharged their arrows, using the spent Lancastrian arrows as well as their own.
Fighting in the snowy fields, the armies dissolved into struggling mobs, hacking at each other, as the corpses piled up in the snowy field.

The fierce fighting continued for several hours, with neither side gaining the upper hand.
Towards the end of the day, the Lancastrian line finally crumbled.
The Lancastrians retreated towards Tadcaster, but were so closely pursued by the Yorkists, that many of them broke off to the west and tried to escape across the Cock Beck.

Cock Beck was choked with dead Lancastrian soldiers, their blood flowing down into the River Wharfe.
Fleeing Lancastrians were cut down from behind, as they fled.
Many were killed after they had surrendered including, according to one source, 42 knights.

Towton proved to be a decisive victory for the Yorkists.
Edward, Earl of March, travelled to London for his coronation as King Edward IV of England.
With a Lancastrian death toll said to number 20,000, against Yorks 8,000 – the Lancastrians were unable to muster a field army for another three years.

The Lancastrian cause was far from over however, as King Henry and his wife Margaret, along with their son and heir, all escaped to Scotland.
It would be another 25 years before the political struggle and fighting would finally end…..