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The Battle of Towton
The Second Battle of St Albans had lost the Yorkists the custody of the king. They could no longer command the obedience of his subjects. When Edward, Earl of March, now calling himself Duke of York, entered London, he was cheered and welcomed by the Londoners as a hero. It now became clear to the Yorksts that they no longer needed Henry under their control, they would crown their own king. On 4 March 1461, in the Great Hall of the Palace of Westminster, Edward was formally proclaimed King of England. Though he was no king, Edward was by no means in control of the entire country. The pro Lancastrian north posed a threat and the Lancastrian army encamped outside York numbered about 30,000 men, and was growing in strength. Edward also lacked support from a large section of the nobility. The earls of Northumberland, Wiltshire, Devon and Shrewsbury, the dukes of Exeter and Somerset, and Lords Clifford, Roos, Dacre and Scales all sided with Lancaster. Edward needed a significant victory to secure his throne. The battle of Towton would be this victory, but it was won at a very high price. It was the longest and largest of any battle of the Wars, and carries the grim epithet of being the bloodiest battle ever fought on English soil. The field in which the battle was fought would later be known as "Bloody Meadow". Edward left London on 13 March. The retreating Lancastrian army had wreaked havoc in the countryside heading north and this certainly helped Edward's cause. By the time he caught up to the Lancastrians outside York, he had as many as 25,000 men. To these troops would be added the men recuited by Warwick and the Duke of Norfolk. On the morning of the battle, Edward marched his forces north to meet the Lancastrians, and at about 11 o'clock his army encamped on the hill south of the village of Saxton, about ten miles south of York. The Lanastrians took up their position half a mile to the north of the Yorkists on higher ground. A fierce snow storm was raging around both armies. Behind the Yorkist army was the road to London and the River Aire. The Yorkists could be defeated by being push backed and trapped by the river. The Lancastrian position appeared superior, but if defeated, their escape routes were limited. On their right was the Cock Beck River, which was flooding due to the snow, on their left was the road to Tadcaster, which was also flooding. From the first the Lancastrians were at a disadvantage as the wind was blowing the snow in their direction and they were unable to see the enemy or to judge distances. Their arrows continually missed their targets, and were being picked up by the Yorkists and fired back at them. The Lancastrians soon realised what was happening and the order was given to charge into battle across the meadow. For two hours the two armies were engaged in a savage confontation. There were so many bodies on the snow that it became red, and reserve troops constantly replaced those who fell. As the day wore on, the battle showed no signs of abating, it did not become clear who was winning until late in afternoon. The Lancastrians had been pushed back, and at this point the troops sent by Norfolk arrived, and the Lancastrians, realising they had lost, turned and fled. So many men tried to escape across the Cock Beck that the bridge collapsed. With the Yorkists in pursuit the Lancastrians had no choice but the plunge into the icy waters in an attempt to escape. So many men drowned in the water it was said to run red many miles from the battlefield. The battle had lasted about ten hours, but the rout lasted for much longer, many Lancastrians being chased for miles. Edward estimated that about 20,000 men had died in the battle, contemporary chroniclers put it as high as 28,000. However, this number includes only the dead on the battlefield. Many more were killed during the rout. The Lancastrians lost some of their best battle captains: the earls of Northumberland, Devon and Wiltshire, Sir Richard Percy and Sir Andrew Trollope, Lords Dacre and Welles were among the dead. With their armies anihilated the Lancastrians would be unable to put an effective force in the field for several years. Two huge pits were dug, one at Saxton and another near the Cock Beck, and hundreds of bodies were buried in together.
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