Page 51 - History of War - Issue 10-14

TOWTON

Skeletonsoftroopsfoundin1996areseeninamass
graveclosetoabattlefieldsiteinTowton

Thesiteofthebattle A monument to the
as it appears today fallen at Towton

soon slaked with the blood of countless men, padded jacks, drags them under. Hundreds die, executed 42 Lancastrian knights after the
earning it the title: Bloody Meadow. The Yorkist falling victim to either the freezing waters or battle’s denouement. Recent archaeological
‘prickers’ are on the field – mounted men the Yorkist archers shooting at the floundering explorations have unearthed some gruesome
whoridedownthefleeinginfantry.Wielding menasiftheywerefishinabarrel.It’snotlong finds, including a grave pit where evidence
war-hammer and mace, they leave the ground before the waters are thick with dead, and both suggeststhatagoodmanyunarmedmenwere
carpeted with corpses. No quarter is given; pursuers and pursued can now cross the river viciouslyhackeddownastheysoughtclemency
nobleman or commoner, all are fair game. onabridgeofbodies. from their attackers.
The many Lancastrians bolting northwards Many contemporary chronicles number the
become victims of their own commanders’ England paid the price Towton dead at more than 30,000 and while
strategic design; the bridge across the Cock The slaughter unleashed at Towton stands modern scholars view this as an exaggeration,
at the battlefield’s northern rim was destroyed unparalleled in English history. The day most agree that somewhere in the region of
the day before, leaving the escaping soldiers claimed the lives of the Earl of Northumberland 15,000menperishedonthatsnowboundfield
nowhere to ford the river. With the victorious, alongwithLordsDacre,Mauley,Wellesand nearYork.Justafewdaysafterthebattle,Lord
adrenaline-fuelled Yorkists bearing down on Willoughby along with Sir Anthony Trollope, Chancellor George Neville wrote to the papal
them,manytaketothewaters,thoughtheir who all died courtesy of wounds received on legate, Francesco Coppini, claiming that so
armour, whether tempered steel or heavily thebattlefield,whileEdwardissaidtohave manyfell‘deadbodieswereseentocoveran
area six miles long by three broad’. Corbis; Alamy; Ed Crooks; Osprey Publishing
“MOVINGUPTHEBATTLEFIELD’SEASTERNEDGETHEYATTACK day, Edward VI had claimed his kingdom.
Though England paid a heavy price that
WITH FRESH VIGOUR, SOME MOUNTED AND SOME ON FOOT, Thoughnotasdecisiveorfamousasthe
Battle of Bosworth, Towton remains a horrific
CASCADINGDOWNUPONTHELANCASTRIANLEFT” and sombre name worthy of remembrance in
English history.

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