Towton 1461

The Anatomy of a Battle

Andrew Boardman, A.W. Boardman

• Publisher: The History Press
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN:
  9780750998970
• Edition: 2
• eBook ISBN:
  9780750999878
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: British History
• Index: History

'Towton, the bloodbath that changed the course of our history . . . an invaluable book.' - A.A. Gill, The Sunday Times Magazine.

'Boardman has unrivalled knowledge of the ground and the record, such as it is, of the battle fought there.' - Times Higher Education Supplement.

'an admirably comprehensive account' - Yorkshire Post.

' a marvel of evocation.' - Robert Hardy.

Palm Sunday 1461 was the date of a ruthless and bitterly contested battle fought by two massive armies on an exposed Yorkshire plateau for the prize of the Crown of England. This singular engagement of the Wars of the Roses has acquired the auspicious title of the longest, biggest and bloodiest battle ever fought on British soil. The slaughter left an indelible mark on the population that has been largely forgotten until relatively recent times: Shakespeare likened the struggle to the wind and tide of a mighty sea that set father against son and son against father. But what drove the contending armies of York and Lancaster to fight at Towton? And what is the truth behind the legends about this terrible battle where contemporaries record rivers ran red with blood?

A.W. Boardman answers these questions and many more in this new and fully updated fourth edition of his classic account of Towton. Illustrated throughout with contemporary artwork, modern photographs and specially drawn maps, Towton 1461: The Anatomy of a Battle is a fascinating insight into the reality of the battlefield and the men who fought there in a blinding snowstorm over half a millennium ago.

Notes

Chapter One

1. A.B. Hinds, ed., Calendar of State Papers and Manuscripts in the Archives and Collections of Milan, vol. 1, 1912, pp. 61–2.

2. Ibid., p. 62.

3. Ibid., p. 60.

4. Ibid., pp. 64–5. Enclosed in the dispatch is a list of the lords who were slain, Lord Fitzwalter being the only notable Yorkist casualty.

5. Ibid., p. 66. A similar list of the dead to note 4 is also supplied with this letter.

6. Ibid., p. 68.

7. Ibid., p. 73.

8. Ibid., p. 69. He also mentions that the battle lasted ‘a whole day and a half’.

9. J. Gairdner, ed., The Paston Letters, vol. 3, 1904, pp. 267–8. Note that the list of named Yorkist casualties has increased.

10. J. Keegan, The Face of Battle, 1976, pp. 87–8.

11. Shakespeare, Henry V, Prologue.

12. J. Gairdner, ed., Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles, Camden Society, 1880, p. 94.

13. H.T. Riley, ed., Registrum Abbatis Johannis Whethamstede, 1, 1872, p. 247.

14. G.L. Harriss and M.A. Harriss, ed., John Benet’s Chronicle for the years 1400–1462, Camden Miscellany, 24, 1972, pp. 206–7.

15. ‘London Chronicle for 1446–1452’ in C.L. Kingsford, English Historical Literature in the Fifteenth Century, 1913, pp. 297–8.

16. J. Gairdner, ed., The Paston Letters, vol. 3, 1904, p. 13. Henry’s mental condition has been likened to catatonic schizophrenia, but see M.E. Smith, ‘Henry VI’s Medical Record: A Preliminary Survey’, The Ricardian, no. 43, December 1973, for a link to porphyria.

17. See C. Oman, The Political History of England 1377–1485, 1920, p. 367.

18. J. Gairdner, ed., The Paston Letters, vol. 3, 1904, p. 28.

19. For a full account of the battle see C.A.J. Armstrong, ‘Politics and the Battle of St Albans, 1455’, Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, vol. 33, no. 87, 1960. See also A.W. Boardman, The First Battle of St Albans 1455, 2006.

20. J. Gairdner, ed., ‘Gregory’s Chronicle’ in The Historical Collections of a Citizen of London, 1876, p. 204.

21. H.T. Riley, ed., Registrum Abbatis Johannis Whethamstede, 1872, pp. 376–8.

22. See R.I. Jack, ‘A quincentenary: the battle of Northampton, July 1460’, Northamptonshire Past and Present, 2, 1960, pp. 21–5. See also M. Ingram,The Battle of Northampton 1460, 2015.

23. H.T. Riley, ed., Registrum Abbatis Johannis Whethamstede, 1872, pp. 376–8.

Chapter Two

1. H.T. Riley, ed., Registrum Abbatis Johannis Whethamstede, 1872, pp. 381–2. W. and E. Hardy, ed., Recueil des Chroniques et Anchiennes Istories de la Grant Bretaigne par Jehan de Waurin, vol. 5, 1891, p. 325.

2. J.S. Davies, ed., An English Chronicle of the Reigns of Richard II, Henry IV, Henry V and Henry VI, 1856, pp. 106–7.

3. J. Stevenson, ed., Annales Rerum Anglicarum, Letters and Papers Illustrative of the Wars of the English in France, vol. 2, 1864, p. 775.

4. In the English Civil War, Sandal Castle could only garrison a small contingent of men in cramped conditions.

5. H. Ellis, ed., Edward Hall’s Chronicle, 1809, p. 250.

6. D. Defoe, A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain, vol. 3, Letter 9. See also K. Dockray and R. Knowles, The Battle of Wakefield, p. 26.

7. J. Leland, ‘Itinerary, 1558’, Yorkshire Archaeological and Topographical ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• One: ‘O miserable and luckless race’
• Two: ‘Yet it rotteth not, nor shall it perish’
• Three: The Rose of Rouen
• Four: ‘Let him fly that will, I will tarry with him that will tarry with me’
• Five: Bloody Meadows
• Six: Palmsunday Field
• Seven: Nowe ys Thus
• Eight: ‘O heavy times, begetting such events!’
• Appendices
• Notes
• Select Bibliography
• About the Author