Kings and kingmakers – The Wars of the Roses: Part 2 – 1461-1485

So, Edward IV had been proclaimed but not crowned. That formal nicety waited until after the final showdown at Towton. Unlike many other set-tos of these wars, which were more accurately skirmishes, or battles that were over relatively quickly, this was the real deal, with two vast armies taking part in a slug-fest which George Neville, Bishop of Exeter, and brother of the Kingmaker, recorded as having begun ‘with the rising of the sun’, and lasting ‘until the tenth hour of the night’.

Amid snow flurries on a holy day – Palm Sunday, 29 March 1461 – Yorkist wind-assisted arrows found targets, while Lancastrian missiles fired ineffectively into the wind. The latter had to advance, and the battle quickly solidified into a central mêlée of cold steel, the Lancastrians only giving ground as light became dusk. Yorkist reinforcements, courtesy of the Duke of Norfolk, arrived in timely fashion to put fresh impetus into their efforts. Edward’s heralds reckoned 28,000 fell, which may or may not be an overestimate.

Towton was certainly the bloodiest battle fought in England to that time, and is often cited as the bloodiest ever fought on English soil. Whatever the truth, there’s no doubt it broke Lancastrian power and represented a crushing victory for Edward. That victory was not 100% complete, however, as Henry VI, his wife Margaret of Anjou, and their son escaped, fleeing to Scotland. Nominally at least, there were still two kings of England, which only encouraged the conflict’s continuation once the Lancastrians had regrouped. Meanwhile, Edward returned to London, where he was crowned as Edward IV on 28 June at a ceremony in Westminster Abbey.