Hastings to Culloden - Battles in Britain 1066-1746

by Glen Lyndon Dodds

  A vital part of the harness was the helmet. The most popular style was evidently the sallet, a continental introduction which came in a variety of shapes and sizes and often had a movable visor and an elongated neck-guard. It was worn in conjunction with a mentonnière, a plate fastened to the breastplate and moulded so that it protected the throat and lower part of the face.

  The mounts of men-at-arms were sometimes provided with plate armour which protected the face, neck and body. The piece that protected the face was the chamfron, and this often had a spike projecting from the forehead.

  Men-at-arms fought with a variety of weapons: swords, battleaxes, poleaxes, maces, lances, war hammers and flails. When fighting on foot, as they usually did, they evidently favoured poleaxes. These came in a variety of shapes and sizes, (the shafts were usually between three and five feet long), but the most common poleaxe had a head combining a hatchet, serrated hammer and pike, and inflicted wounds comparable to those of the sword, mace and lance. Daggers were used to finish off the felled opponent.

  And what of the rank and file? Archers were of course numerous on both sides at Towton and their favourite weapon was the longbow, a weapon which had done so much to win English armies glorious victories in the past but one which, as noted, was no longer as effective against men-at-arms as had been the case. Longbows were made of yew and could be effective at a range of up to around 250 yards. A competent archer could discharge about twelve arrows a minute. On the other hand some archers, notably foreign mercenaries, preferred crossbows. These were more cumbersome and had a slower rate of fire—four quarrels (short heavy bolts or arrows) a minute evidently being the maximum—but had greater powers of penetration and could be effective at a range of about 300 yards.

  Additionally, archers were usually armed with swords and daggers so that they could defend themselves in close combat. Furthermore, shields were common. Protection was also provided by a variety of helmets, and while some archers had plate armour to protect parts of the body such as the arms and chest, brigandines (flexible armour essentially consisting of rows of small overlapping plates riveted between two or more layers of canvas or leather) and padded leather jackets were more usual.

  Levies who were not archers fought with a variety of weapons: swords, spears, pikes and halberds, for instance, and many would have fought in their everyday clothing save for rudimentary protective gear.

  As has been mentioned, Burgundians were present in the ranks of the Yorkist army and some of these were armed with handguns. These were not particularly efficient or reliable weapons. The petards used by some of the Burgundians (and Englishmen too for that matter), were likewise of dubious worth. They were perforated earthenware pots containing Greek fire, which once ignited, were thrown towards the enemy to explode.

  And what of artillery? Cannon were used during the Wars of the Roses but do not feature in accounts of Towton. Moreover, as yet no archaeological evidence to support their presence has been uncovered on the battlefield.

  Normally, armies were deployed in three wards or battles, and these were were usually in line abreast or in line astern. Tactics tended to be straightforward. Most engagements commenced with an exchange of fire by the archers. During the Hundred Years War, English armies had fared well in such contests because, unlike the French, they favoured the longbow with its superior rate of fire to the crossbow, but during the Wars of the Roses the longbow seldom played as decisive a part in determining the outcome of engagements for the simple reason that it was used by both sides and its value was thus largely cancelled out.

  After an archery duel, armies closed and hand-to-hand fighting commenced. At times, commanders of armies kept a detachment in reserve which could be led forward into the fray if required, but in general once close combat began there was little that commanders could do other than fight bravely to inspire their men. On the whole, commanders and their lieutenants who led the ‘battles,’ did just that and were often killed whilst doing so.

  Description

  Shortly after dawn on 29th March, Edward advanced towards the Lancastrians, and thus began ascending the plateau north of Saxton upon which his opponents were preparing to give battle—the Lancastrians were without Henry and Margaret, for they had stayed at York. The weather must have tempered whatever martial ardour existed in both armies for it was bitterly cold and snow was either falling or threatening to fall.

  Before discussing the battle, something must be said about the terrain. The plateau rises to 150ft above sea level out of the great plain of York and is the highest ground between Pontefract and York. To the west the ground falls away steeply towards a stream—the Cock Beck—which meanders north to join the River Wharfe near Tadcaster, and along which some of the ground consists (and presumably consisted) of water-meadows. Moreover, on the east side of the Cock are areas of woodland, namely Renshaw Wood and Castle Hill Wood, both of which were no doubt rather more extensive in 1461: the latter is the southernmost and partially extends onto the plateau. To the east, the plateau falls away more gently than it does to the west, and includes areas of low-lying land which were probably marshy at the time of the battle.

  As for the windswept plateau itself, it is now largely given over to cultivation but in 1461 it was essentially heathland, though there may have been patches of arable, hedgerows, and of course some trees.

  The top of the plateau is bisected by an east-west depression and the Lancastrians and Yorkists are generally believed, and almost certainly correctly so, to have been deployed to the north and south of this respectively. On the east side the depression is only slight, but on the west it is deeper, and of course, drops towards the Cock Beck.

  How the armies were deployed is uncertain. The late A.H. Burne believed that both were arrayed ‘in great depth, one ward behind another’ and this view is accepted here. Furthermore, it is normally held that the Lancastrians probably placed an ambush party in Castle Hill Wood to the left of the Yorkist line. This is merely an assumption, though a plausible one.

  What is undoubted is that the opposing armies were, as noted earlier, unusually large. Both sides knew that the stakes were high and had made a tremendous effort, the greatest of the Wars, to raise formidable forces. For the Yorkists the task had been made easier by the depredations recently wrought by the Lancastrians while marching through the Midlands, something which swelled Yorkists ranks with men eager for revenge.

  Just when the battle commenced is uncertain. Likely, it did not do so earlier than about 9.00am and it may have done so an hour or so later than this.

  It did so in the midst of a snowstorm, and Polydore Vergil (who briefly discussed the battle in his History of England, written c.1510) states that ‘the archers began the battle, but when their arrows were spent the matter was dealt by hand strokes.’ That the archers opened proceedings was, of course, normal procedure, and it is generally accepted that it was Fauconberg who initiated the archery duel. A graphic description of what transpired is provided by Hall:

  The Lord Fauconberg, which led the forward of King Edward’s battle...caused every archer under his standard to shoot one flight and then made them stand still. The northern men [Lancastrians], feeling the shoot, but by reason of the snow, [which was blown into their faces by a south wind], not perfectly viewing the distance between them and their enemies, like hardy men shot their sheaf arrows as fast as they might, but all their shot was lost and their labour in vain for they came not near the southern men by 40 tailors yards. When their shot was almost spent the Lord Fauconberg marched forward with his archers, who not only shot their own sheaves, but also gathered the arrows of their enemies and let a great part of them fly against their own masters, and another part they let stand on the ground which sore annoyed the legs of the owners when battle was joined.

  Allowing for some exaggeration, and indeed perhaps invention on Hall’s part, it does seem that the Yorkists had the
better of the archery duel and that their fire produced a reaction, provoking the Lancastrians into coming forward, at which point of course the archers on both sides would have stepped aside or back to allow their colleagues to move against the enemy. There can be little doubt that men towards the left of the Lancastrian line closed first, owing to the lie of the land.

  Perhaps before the battle commenced some with scores to settle, or simply little commonsense, had been eager for such a confrontation. If so, few could have relished it when it occurred. The fighting was ferocious. Death soon came to some. Others, who successfully dispatched one opponent after another, found to their despair that new ones constantly appeared and sooner or later exhaustion would have drastically reduced their chances of survival. One way or another then, the number of dead and dying increased, and Vergil states that the ‘dead bodies hindered those that fought.’ Moreover, snow appears to have made things worse. Hearne’s Fragment relates that ‘all the while it snew’, and the Croyland Chronicle comments that ‘the snow covered the whole surface of the Earth.’

  For some time neither side appears to have made much headway. But then, sooner or later, the outnumbered Yorkists began giving ground, having perhaps also been assailed from the left by the possible ambush party referred to earlier. According to a letter written on 7 April by a supporter of the Yorkist cause, the Bishop of Salisbury, after hard fighting the time came when the Yorkists despaired of victory, ‘so great was the strength and dash of the Lancastrians.’ Things must have looked bleak. The Yorkists were being driven towards the southern edge of the plateau and Edward and his lieutenants no doubt knew that if that point were reached resistance would surely disintegrate: they must have desperately awaited the arrival of the expected reinforcements under Norfolk. What on earth had happened? Would Norfolk’s men arrive before it was too late?

  Whether Norfolk made his way to Towton or remained at Pontefract is uncertain. What is clear is that his men duly arrived on the right of the embattled Yorkist army. Hearne’s Fragment relates that at ‘about noon [the] Duke of Norfolk, with a fresh band of good men of war came to the aid of...King Edward’, while Vergil states that after protracted fighting it was ‘espied’ that the Yorkist force had increased in strength and that this led to the Lancastrians giving ground.

  It is certainly reasonable to assume that the arrival of Norfolk’s contingent was a turning point. Nonetheless, the Lancastrians had made good progress earlier in the day and many were presumably in no mood to let victory elude them. Bitter fighting must have continued. However, with their front extended somewhat by the arrival of Norfolk’s men, the Yorkists were able to turn the Lancastrian left. Hence Lancastrian morale, if it had not already begun to do so, started ebbing away and the Yorkists began gaining ground. Consequently, the mangled bodies of those who had fallen earlier in the day were joined by those of men whose blood was yet to congeal.

  Back, and further back still, the Lancastrians were pushed until resistance collapsed and they were in full retreat. Many failed to escape, for they were pursued. The slaughter appears to have been particularly great on the low ground—Bloody Meadow—between the west end of the depression and the Cock Beck.

  Fugitives perished elsewhere along the beck—which is frequently assumed to have been in flood—such as at a point known as the Bridge of Bodies, northwest of the battlefield on the old road to Tadcaster. The ground falls away steeply to the site of a crossing here, which is often said to have been a bridge but may have been a ford, and as Cyril Ransome has commented: ‘No one who has seen the place can wonder at the disaster which followed.’ Congestion soon became terrible as more and more men tried to make good their escape. Some lost their footing, for the ground was marshy, and were crushed to death. Others were pitched headlong into the icy water and were no doubt seized with terror as they were pushed under by the weight of their comrades, and soon ceased to know anything at all. It is said that the number of those who perished in the beck was so great that more fortunate individuals managed to make their way across the water by clambering over the bodies of the fallen. This may well have also been true of other points along the beck.

  Those who made it across the stream were not necessarily safe, for Yorkists continued hounding them. For instance, the Croyland Chronicle states that Edward’s army ‘eagerly pursued’ fleeing Lancastrians, cutting them down ‘just like so many sheep for the slaughter’, and thus ‘made immense havoc among them for a distance of 10 miles as far as the city of York’, while the Bishop of Exeter comments that the dead littered an area ‘6 miles long by 3 broad and about four furlongs.’

  When Henry and Margaret heard of the disastrous defeat they rode out of York and headed for Scotland, accompanied by their son and a retinue which included the Dukes of Somerset and Exeter. They must have been greatly saddened by what had happened. It was only six weeks since the victory at St Albans: how the wheel of fortune had spun.

  Casualties at Towton were exceedingly heavy, though contemporary claims such as that of 28,000 slain evidently reported in a widely circulated newsletter, can reasonably be rejected as too high. Instead, Ross has commented that the figure ‘of 9,000 deaths, apparently on the Lancastrian side,’ given by the Annales Rerum Anglicarum (‘History of English Affairs’) ‘seems more plausible.’ This is no doubt a more accurate figure, though it almost certainly errs on the low side bearing in mind that the battle was prolonged and that many Lancastrians perished while in flight. 12,000 Lancastrian dead is perhaps closer to the mark. Though heavy, Yorkist losses were undoubtedly lower than those of the vanquished.

  Many Lancastrians of consequence were among the slain. Among such were the young Earl of Northumberland, Lord Wells and Willoughby, and Lord Dacre. Moreover, according to Gregory’s Chronicle (which was written about ten years after Towton), 42 captured knights were executed immediately after the battle. The young Earl of Devon’s turn to die came the following day when Edward rode into York and needed the earl’s head to replace that of the Duke of York which had adorned the battlements of Micklegate since Wakefield. The only Yorkists of note slain at Towton were Sir Richard Jenney, and the Kentishman, Robert Horne, who had thrown in his lot with the Yorkists the previous summer.

  Interestingly, Lord Dacre’s tomb can be seen in the churchyard of All Saints’, Saxton, with the worn inscription: ‘Here lies Ralph, Lord of Dacre and Gilsland. A true soldier valiant in battle in the service of King Henry VI, who died on Palm Sunday March 29 1461, on whose soul may God have mercy.’ According to tradition, Dacre was buried in an upright position alongside his horse and this appears to have been confirmed in the 19th century. Lesser victims of Towton were likewise buried in the churchyard, but not surprisingly most of the dead lie on the battlesite where a number of likely burial mounds can be seen.

  Towton was by far the greatest battle of the Wars of the Roses. Indeed, it enjoys the distinction of being the greatest battle ever fought on British soil. It shattered, albeit temporarily, the power of the Lancastrian party and in the eyes of many gave evidence of divine approval for Edward Plantagenet.

  The Bishop of Exeter mentioned with admiration the performance of Edward and his lieutenants at Towton, and no doubt they did indeed acquit themselves well. Edward must also receive commendation for the resolution shown by the Yorkists during the final stages of the campaign, resolution which owed much to his preference for offensive warfare.

  Edward spent Easter in York and took measures to stamp out what remained of Lancastrian power in the north. He then travelled south for his coronation and was greeted with great acclaim as he did so. On 14 April an anonymous individual in London wrote: ‘Words fail me to relate how well the commons love and adore him, as if he were their God.’ Many hoped that it was the beginning of a peaceful new era. One such was the Bishop of Exeter, who declared: ‘After so much sorrow and tribulation I hope that grateful tranquillity and quiet will ensue, and that after so ma
ny clouds we shall have a clear sky.’

  However, Henry and Margaret were still at large, as were several of their diehard supporters. Hence the Milanese ambassador to Paris, Prospero di Camulio observed, if they remained so it seemed ‘certain that in time fresh disturbances’ would arise. He was not mistaken. Edward’s supporters had not seen their last storm-clouds: the adherents of the Houses of York and Lancaster were to fight again.

  13

  BARNET 14 April 1471

  After the Yorkists’ crushing victory at Towton on 29 March 1461, which had avenged their earlier defeats at Wakefield (30 December 1460) and the Second Battle of St Albans (17 February 1461), their victorious commander, Edward Plantagenet, made his way to London and was crowned. In the years which followed the young king left governing the country largely in the hands of his cousin, Warwick, and in 1464 the earl was involved in delicate negotiations with the French—who had rendered assistance to the Lancastrian cause—with the aim of changing this by marrying Edward to a French princess. But in the midst of the negotiations he was suddenly informed that the king had secretly married a widow, Elizabeth Woodville, on 1 May. Warwick felt humiliated, and as time passed became increasingly estranged from Edward, his disenchantment largely being increased by the way the king showered favours upon the Woodvilles.

  In 1469 Warwick finally rebelled. After a short campaign he captured Edward at Olney. However the king soon recovered his freedom, for Warwick found it too difficult to run the country with him imprisoned. Subsequently, though, the king declared Warwick a traitor and so the earl fled to France in the spring of 1470, accompanied by his son-in-law, the Duke of Clarence, Edward’s brother. Warwick received the backing of Louis XI on condition that he became reconciled to the exiled Queen Margaret, whose husband Henry VI had been a prisoner in the Tower for some years by this date, having been captured in the north of England.