battle of towton
E.Knowles

10 of Histories Bloodiest Battles: The Battle of Towton

Day 3……


The Battle of Towton (29th March 1461)

For all you Medieval lovers out there……

Who fought Who: House of York V House of Lancaster
Casualties: House of York – 10,000, House of Lancaster – 20,000
Legacy: With the Lancastrians defeated, the Yorkist control of the throne was secured with Edward being made King in June 1461. He was the first Yorkist King of England.

Engraving depicting the battle

Known as one of the bloodiest battles fought on English soil, the battle of Towton was the  one of the most climatic clashes in the Wars of the Roses. On the freezing fields in Yorkshire, during wind, sleet and snow, the armies of the two disputing Kings, Henry VI of Lancaster and Edward IV of York, met with the Yorkists outnumbered. Their leader, Lord Fauconberg, ordered his army to take advantage of the of the strong winds blowing towards the Lancastrians and use their arrows to reduce their numbers.

This had a devastating effect on the Lancastrian moral, since their arrows could not reach the Yorkists due to the wind. The battle thus descended into a bloody hand to hand combat which lasted hours, flooding the field with red. By the end 30,000 men lay dead on a cold Yorkshire field.   
(See below for sources with more detail)
Sources (because I don’t know everything):
All About History Magazine, no. 7, pg76

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