Battle of Hedgeley Moor, Northumberland. The Yorkist forces were led by John Neville, 1st Marquess of Montagu (brother of Richard Neville ‘The Kingmaker’), the Lancastrians by the Duke of Somerset, supported by Sir Ralph Percy, Lords Roos and Hungerford, and Sir Ralph Grey. The Lancastrian force soon gave way and fled, except for Sir Ralph Percy, who died in the battle.
Tags: Battles, Northumberland
Battle of Barnet, Hertfordshire, defeat of Warwick and his brother Montagu, who both fell in the battle. Richard is said to have been in command of the vanguard.
Read more about a possible different location for the battle here.
Tags: Barnet, Battles, Edward IV, Hertfordshire, Richard III
Towton Cross
The Battle of Towton , regarded as “the largest and bloodiest battle ever fought on English soil”, was fought in a snow storm on Palm Sunday, 29 March 1461, between the Lancastrian forces of King Henry VI and the Yorkist forces led by Edward, Earl of March. It has been said that 28,000 men died that day, out of 50,000 to 100,000 soldiers. The result was a Yorkist victory and Edward became king as Edward IV.
In 1996 a mass grave of fallen soldiers was found at Towton Hall. Their remains have been studied by the University of Bradford.
Edward IV had planned to build a memorial chapel at Towton, but it was Richard III, who put this plan into action. The chapel was nearly finished, when he was killed at Bosworth, and the chapel had been lost. Or so it was thought. In October 2013 it was revealed that scientists had found strong evidence of remains of the chapel.
In 2010 fragments of hand held guns and lead shot were found at the battle site, the earliest ever to be found.
James Clark, ‘The Medieval Somme: forgotten battle that was the bloodiest fought on British soil’, The Conversation (13 July 2016). URL: https://theconversation.com/the-medieval-somme-forgotten-battle-that-was-the-bloodiest-fought-on-british-soil-62129 [last accessed 2 March 2020]
Helen Cox, ‘The Battle of Towton is alive and well in Yorkshire’, Herstory Writing & Interpretation.. Link “Towton” on URL: http://helencox-herstorywriting.co.uk/articles/4539783477 [last accessed 2 March 2020]
T. Sutherland & A. Schmidt,’The Towton Battlefield Archaeological Survey Project: An Integrated Approach to Battlefield Archaeology’, Landscapes, Vol.4, Issue 2 (October 2003), pp.15-25. Available at URL: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/238691750_The_Towton_Battlefield_Archaeological_Survey_Project_An_Integrated_Approach_to_Battlefield_Archaeology [last accessed 2 March 2020]
‘Richard III Towton chapel remains are ‘found’’, BBC News York & North Yorkshire (7 Oct 2013). URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-24434795 [last accessed 2 March 2020]
A short description of the various battles of the Wars of the Roses can be found on the website of the Richard III Society.
Dorothea Preis
Tags: Battles, Edward IV, Richard III, Towton, Wars of the Roses, Yorkshire
On 28 March 1461, a skirmish at Ferrybridge, West Yorkshire, was fought in the lead-up to the Battle of Towton. Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick (‘The Kingmaker”), received an arrow wound to the leg. John, Lord Clifford, (believed to be responsible for the death of Edward IV’s brother Edmund, Earl of Rutland) fell on the Lancastrian side.
Traditionally the skirmishes at Ferrybridge and Dintingdale (also on 28 March 1461) and the battle of Towton were seen as three separate battles, both in space and time. However, Tim Sutherland argues, that these were rather three interconnected conflicts. He bases his analysis on archaeological finds and a new interpretation of the sources.
Tim Sutherland, ‘Killing Time: Challenging the common perceptions of three medieval conflicts – Ferrybridge, Dintingdale and Towton — ”The Largest Battle on British Soil”’, Journal of Conflict Archaeology, Vol.5 No.1 (2010). Available from URL: http://www.towton.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/killing-time_tim_sutherland.pdf [last accessed 2 March 2020]
A short description of the various battles of the Wars of the Roses can be found on the website of the Richard III Society.
Tags: Battles, Lancastrians, Wars of the Roses, Yorkists, Yorkshire
Charles the Bold, by Rogier van der Weyden
On 5 January 1477, Charles the Bold of Burgundy died at a battle while laying siege to Nancy in Lorraine. His heiress was his daughter Mary from his second marriage to Isabella of Bourbon. After her death in 1465, he married on 3 July 1468 Margaret of York, sister of Edward IV and Richard III. Margaret would after his death become Mary’s most constant advisor.
More on Charles the Bold on Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Tags: Battles, Margaret of Burgundy
The Battle of Wakefield was fought on 30 December 1460 in West Yorkshire. Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, and Edmund, Earl of Rutland, father and brother of Edward IV and Richard III, were killed. Also killed was Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury. Their heads were stuck on poles and displayed over Micklegate Bar, York, the Duke wearing a paper crown.
For a thorough analysis of the battle read Helen Cox, The Battle of Wakefield Revisited: A Fresh Perspective on Richard of York’s Final Battle, December 1460. You can read more on Helen’s website here.
And for visitors we recommend: Helen Cox, Walk Wakefield 1460: A Visitor Guide to Battle-Related Sites
A short description of the various battles of the Wars of the Roses can be found on the website of the Richard III Society (you need to scroll down a bit).
Dorothea Preis
Tags: Battles, Nevilles, Richard Duke of York, Wakefield, Wars of the Roses
Ludford Bridge (© Mr M Evison and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence)
Battle of Ludford Bridge/Ludlow, Shropshire, won by the Lancastrians.
Warwick’s re-inforcements from the garrison of Calais under Andrew Trollope defected to the Lancastrians. The Yorkist leaders fled, York and Rutland to Ireland, and Edward, Earl of March (York’s eldest son), Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury, and his son Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, to Calais. After the battle Cecily, Duchess of York, and her three youngest children George, Margaret and Richard, were taken prisoner by the Lancastrians and placed into the care of Cecily’s older sister Anne, Duchess of Buckingham.
A short description of the various battles of the Wars of the Roses can be found on the website of the Richard III Society.
Tags: Battles, Edward IV, Family, Henry VI, Richard III
Santa comes a few days late to Ricardians in Australia, but next Sunday, 28 December 2015, SBS 1 will broadcast the program Richard III: The New Evidence, first broadcast in the UK on 17 August 2014, at the end of the Bosworth weekend. The program features Dominic Smee, who has the same degree of scoliosis as Richard did and can be regarded as his body double. Definitely a program not to be missed, even if you have already watched it on YouTube.
Tags: Battles, Bosworth, Leicester Greyfriars Dig, Medical Knowledge, Richard III
A new research paper has been published in The Lancet on ‘“Perimortem trauma in King Richard III: a skeletal analysis’ by Jo Appleby and others, describing the wounds Richard received which led to his death.
You can find the original paper here, but Mike Pitts has helped us with a “handy summary”. The links to the article in The Lancet in his blog unfortunately did not work for me that’s why a different link is included here. Mike Pitts’ summary is highly recommended.
A short visual summary has also been posted by The Lancet on YouTube: ‘Richard III: how was the king killed?‘.
