battle of towton 1461 The Battle of Towton in the Wars of the Roses was the largest and bloodiest ever fought on British soil, w
The Battle of Towton in the Wars of the Roses was the largest and bloodiest ever fought on British soil, with casualties believed to have been about 28,000 (perhaps more) men; only the Battle of Watling Street in AD 60 or 61 was reputed to have more casualties, with 80,000 Britons reported killed. Roughly 1% of the entire English population at the time died at Towton. The battle took place on a snowy 29 March 1461 (Palm Sunday) on a plateau between the villages of Towton and Saxton in Yorkshire (about 12 miles (19 km) southwest of York and about 2 miles ( km) south of Tadcaster). It is thought that 50,000, or perhaps even 100,000 men fought, including 28 Lords (almost half the peerage at that time), mainly on the Lancastrian side. The numbers often given are 42,000 for the Lancastrians and 36,000 for the Yorkists. Part of the reason that so many died is because both sides resolved that no quarter would be given. On 29 March the Yorkist army began pressing forward across the repaired bridge at Ferrybridge. The weather was very bad, with cold winds and snow showers. Edward led the Yorkist centre, Warwick the right and Fauconberg the left. A further Yorkist contingent from the Eastern counties under the Duke of Norfolk had been delayed and was still approaching the battlefield. The Lancastrian army occupied a plateau of high ground, with its right flank covered by a stream, the Cock Beck. The army was led by the Duke of Somerset, who commanded the centre himself, with the Earl of Northumberland commanding the right and the Duke of Exeter the left. Although the Lancastrians occupied a strong position, with good fields of fire for their archers and with the Yorkists forced to advance uphill to attack them, they had not bargained for the foul weather. The Yorkist archers had the wind behind them, and therefore outranged their Lancastrian opposite numbers, who were also blinded by the snow.
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