The Battle of Towton

The Battle of Towton (Palm Sunday, 1461)

Although a child at the time that this 'longest, biggest and bloodiest battle ever fought on British soil' occured, Richard III would indirectly pay for the carnage with his throne and his life. So many individuals who have read On the Trail of King Richard III as well as those with an historical interest in this particular battle have asked me to print this one section directly as it appears in the book. I am happy to do so if for no other reason than that it sets a tone for the era. The battle site is substantially intact and is well worth a visit.

L.M. OLLIE

Using the Railway Station as a reference point again, Laura edged her way clear of York, heading south towards Tadcaster. Gail consulted the road map several times. “Where are we going?” she finally asked, perplexed.

“Towton,” Laura replied flatly.

“No,” Gail groaned.

Fifteen minutes later, Laura pulled onto a gravel roadway situated beside a stone monument dedicated to the 28,000 men who died in the bloodiest battle ever fought on English soil. She left the car running while she got out and searched through her bag in the backseat for her notes. All around them were fields planted in wheat, oats and barley. “Are you sure this is it?” Gail asked, somewhat surprised since it all looked so ordinary. It wasn’t.

Laura drove the car down the lane for about 100 yards then parked close to a fence line. From where the car sat the land began to fall away dramatically only to level out in an open area of pasture nestled beside a stream. Sheep grazed contentedly on an abundance of feed. Together they climbed a section of wooden fence that formed a small enclosure. Side by side they wandered down the hill.

Laura headed straight towards to the River Cock which meandered through the valley. An innocent looking killer of men. She brought her notes, which she now extracted from her bag. At the top of the page Gail noted the words ‘Towton - The Day of Reckoning’ while beneath, in Laura’s handwriting was the notation 28,000 died! and scrawled in the margin in red ink - biological hazard.

“What do you mean - ‘biological hazard’?”

Laura glanced quickly at Gail before turning, to allow her eyes to wander across the valley - another bloody meadow. “Most of those slain,” Laura said sadly, “were buried in huge pits dotted around the battlesite. Unfortunately, the weather was cold, snowy, so the pits were probably inadequate. To this day bones and artefacts are said to work their way to the surface.”

“Nice one.” Gail shivered, then looked down as if to check the earth beneath her feet.

Laura smiled thinly. “I long time ago it seems, you asked me about Richard’s childhood. Well look around you because, in a sense, most of the horror that was to follow began right here.”

“Laura please, let’s go.”

“No,” Laura snapped. “Rachael suggested that we see this place, and so we shall. Now, let’s see - Towton - Palm Sunday, March 29th, 1461. Richard’s father, brother Edmund and uncle were slain at Wakefield the previous December. The gloves were off now as Edward of March, soon to become King Edward IV, swore vengeance on the House of Lancaster and death to its adherents. Going back a bit to set the scene, remember Margaret of Anjou was marching on London with her army of wild Northerners but it was Edward who slipped into London first and won the hearts of the commons who promptly proclaimed him King at St. Paul’s Cross? He refused to be crowned until after he had defeated Margaret and Co and so he left London and turned north to follow Margaret’s retreating army. Just south of the village of Towton, Edward found what he was seeking. The Lancastrians had positioned themselves on an east-west line straddling the two roads which converge at Towton. The Yorkists drew a similar battle line to the south. It must have been a terrible night, bivouacked in the open, exposed to a cold south wind with a threat of snow to come.

“The battle started about eleven in the morning on the flat land near the road. The cross marks the traditional site of the Lancastrian right flank. Further south, as I said was York, strung out in a line. All lovely flat land, well drained and hard, I guess, with the cold weather. Typically, the order of battle began with a barrage of arrows but, because of the favourable wind, the Yorkist arrows carried further than normal, straight into the Lancastrian camp. The return fire fell short, much to the glee of the Yorkist, who gathered the arrows up and sent them back, inflicting severe losses and causing panic in the Lancastrian ranks. Then, it was time to get down to it as the two armies closed on each other and archers were replaced with swordsmen and bill men. The carnage was so great in the front lines that a wall of dead began to build up between the opposing forces. When the Duke of Norfolk arrived with 5000 troops, the Lancastrian army began to buckle and many tried to cut and run.”

Laura turned vaguely in the direction of Towton, upstream of the River Cock. “Everything south of here was substantially Yorkist. To the north, especially the city of York - where Queen Margaret awaited the outcome of the battle - was either uncommitted or Lancastrian. North was the only avenue of escape for the fleeing Lancastrian host, and by late in the day, the battle had become a Yorkist rout. Men ran in a panic across the flat fields only to be confronted by the steep slope we just came down, and then this. The River Cock was in flood then so it was probably a lot deeper and wider than it is now. Remember too, it was snowing. The Yorkists pushed their enemy hard up against the river where literally thousands drowned in a panic to escape the killing ground.

"There was a wooden bridge here somewhere which offered a reliable crossing point but the sheer volume of men trying to cross at the same time caused the bridge to collapse. So many died there that the River became blocked with bodies forming a ghastly dam of human corpses across which the living scrambled, hoping to achieve safety on the other side. But, there was no safety there as hundreds were cut down by archers as they tried to scramble up the far slope.”

Slowly thay walked along the edge of the River. Neither spoke as they allowed the enormity of the horror and loss of life to impact them both. What made their walk even more disturbing was the knowledge that the battlefield has not changed substantially since that fateful day more than five hundred years before.

Gail stopped walking. “How come so many died? I mean …” Her voice trailed off in a shrug of bewilderment.

“Revenge.” Laura frowned. “You see, Richard’s father, brother, uncle didn't die in battle. They were ambushed by the Lancastrians during the Christmas truce.”

“Hey, that’s not fair.”

Laura mentally rolled her eyes. “Ah, no, I guess it wasn’t. Edward was determined to wipe out all Lancastrians, and I mean, all.” Laura sighed. “He did something totally uncharacteristic of medieval warfare. He commanded that no prisoners be taken.”

“You mean he ordered wholesale slaughter,” Gail said, her tone savage.

“According to George Neville, the dead littered the field in a swath six miles long by 1/3 mile wide. The chase went on into the night and the following morning, right to the gates of York. It was said that the rivers at Towton and Tadcaster ran red with blood for miles.”

“Savages, that’s what they were!”

“Oh yes, we’ve come a long way in the art of war, I must say. Now even civilians can get into the act. Vaporize a whole city with a push of a button. Isn’t that what modern warfare has become?”

“You know what I mean, killing each other with swords, pikes. Fighting hand-to-hand, eye-to-eye.”

“Well, at least they were honest about it.”

“Come on,” Gail growled, “let’s go. I think I’ve just about had my fill of medieval history.”

Laura followed Gail back up the hill, pausing only once to look back towards the River Cock as it meandered through the lowland, almost hidden now amongst the trees and long grass.

INTERESTING FACTS

* According to George Neville, the dead were left on the field of battle for several days without burial. This may explain why so few artifacts have been found. The bodies were undoubtedly looted at leisure.

* The Battlefield Cross may have come from the unfinished chapel commissioned by King Richard III - In token of prayer and for the souls of the men slain at Palmsunday Field.

* Randolf, Lord Dacre of Gilsland - fighting for the Lancastrian side - was struck in the neck or head by an arrow while he was refreshing himself during a lull in the battle. The removal of his helmet and possibly the bevor (which protected his neck), left him vulnerable. His tomb in Saxton chuchyard is both sad and mysterious. In 1749 the ground was disturbed in preparation for the burial of a Mr. Gascoigne. To everyones' amazement Lord Dacre's skeleton was discovered upright, in a standing position! In 1861 the ground was disturbed yet again and this time the skull of a horse was unearthed. The vertebrae of the animal extended in the direction of the Dacre tomb, thus confirming the legend that man and beast where buried together or so it would seem. Whether or not the horse was also buried standing has not been confirmed, or denied. The horse's skull is in the British Museum.

* Five burial mounds were described by John Leland (Itinerary), during the Tudor period. The mounds or pits were described as follows - In the churchyard were many of the bones of men that were killed at Palmsunday Field buried. They lay afore in 5 pits, yet appearing half a mile by north in Saxton fields. This region is referred to as the 'Bloody Meadow'.

* The Towton Rose (Rosa spinosissima) once flourished in the Bloody Meadow. A wild dwarf rose, the flower is both red and white. It is almost extinct today.

* An excerpt from King Edward IV's Act of Attainder following the battle. On Sunday called commonly Palm Sunday the 29th day of March the first year of his reign, in a field between the towns of Sherburn in Elmet and Tadcaster, in the said shire of York, called Saxtonfield and Towtonfield, in the shire of York, accompanied with Frenchmen and Scots, the Kings enemies, falsely and traitorously against their faith and liegeance, there reared war against the same King Edward, their rightwise, true, and natural liege lord, purposing there and then to have destroyed him, and deposed him of his royal estate, crown, and dignity, and then and there to that intent, falsely and traitorously moved battle against his said estate, shedding therein the blood of a great number of his subjects. In the which battle it pleased almighty God to give unto hin, of the mystery of his might and grace, the victory of his enemies and rebels, and to subdue and avoid the effect of their false and traitorous purpose.

LINKS:

THE TOWTON MASS GRAVE PROJECT
ANTHEA BOYLSTON
JENNIFER COUGHLAN
MALIN HOLST
CRISTOPHER KNUSEL
SHANNON NOVAK
TIM SUTHERLAND

http://www.bradford.ac.uk/acad/archsci/depart/report97/towton.htm