On Saturday 4 May 1471 the ‘Wars of the Roses’ came to a head at Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire. The Yorkist army commanded by Edward IV and his brother, the future Richard III, chased down and defeated the Lancastrian army of Queen Margaret and her son Edward, Prince of Wales. The outcome crushed the hope that the heir to the House of Lancaster would take the throne of England.
In its 1995 survey of the battlefield site, English Heritage reported that ‘the course of the fighting can still be followed on the ground, particularly in the area of the Gaston Field, Bloody Meadow, and through the town to the Abbey grounds’. It was to preserve these sites that the Tewkesbury Battlefield Society (TBS) was formed to work with the owners, raise public awareness of the events of the battle, to develop the educational potential of the sites, encourage tourism, and, though research, to become ‘the authority on the battle and battle site’.
As well as organising guided walks throughout the year, the TBS is one of the partners in the Tewkesbury Medieval Festival, which takes place in July. Founded in 1984 by a group of 100 self-styled ‘eccentrics’, the battle re-enactment has grown into the largest event of its kind in Europe, with more than 2,000 re-enactors taking part, their numbers greatly swelled by the people of Tewkesbury, whose colourful costumes add to the vibrancy of the final day’s parade through the town.
War Classics: Crucible of War