THE CROWNING VICTORY OF TOWTON
When the Lancastrians, after their success at St. Albans, had failed
before London, they retreated northwards with the person of Henry VI.,
and proceeded to collect forces in Yorkshire for one more great effort,
making their headquarters in the city of York. Meanwhile the young
Earl of March, after his victory at Mortimer's Cross on February 2,
1461, advanced to London with his Welsh and border tenantry. He was
joined on the road by the Earl of Warwick, whose incapacity as a
military commander had been the cause of the disaster at St. Albans on
the 17th of the same month.
Edward was only in his nineteenth year when he entered London and
succeeded to his father's rights, and to the duty of avenging the
cowardly insults heaped upon that father's body. He found his mother,
the widowed Duchess, with his little sister Margaret, at Baynard's
Castle.
Edward was tall and eminently handsome, with a fair complexion and
flaxen hair, 'the goodliest personage,' says Comines, 'that ever mine
eyes beheld.' His capacity for command, his fortitude, and prudence
were far beyond his years, and he had already acquired experience in
two pitched battles.
{21}
On his arrival in London Edward called together a great Council of
Lords, spiritual and temporal, and declared to them his title to the
Crown. The assembled Lords determined that, as King Henry had,
contrary to the solemn agreement made with the Duke of York and the
Parliament which met in October 1460, violated his word, and as he was
useless to the Commonwealth, he should be deprived of all sovereignty.
Edward was elected and acknowledged as King.
That night the young King was once more at home with his mother and
sister; but it was a melancholy home-coming. Two months before, the
whole family was united at Baynard's Castle, now the father was slain
and his head fixed on Micklegate Bar at York. The beloved brother,
Edward's companion from earliest infancy, also dead; the two younger
brothers sent abroad for safety; his uncle, Salisbury, killed, with Sir
David Hall, the trusted friend of the family, and many more. Yet a
feeling of pride must have mingled with the bereaved mother's grief as
she gazed on the superb young warrior who was the last hope and prop of
her house.
Next day the citizens of London assembled at their muster in St. John's
Fields, just outside the city, where they were reviewed by Lord
Fauconberg, the King's uncle, an experienced warrior who had seen much
service in France. As Sir William Nevill, he was at the siege of
Orleans, and since 1429 he had been summoned to Parliament _jure
uxoris_, for he had married Joan, the heiress of the last Baron
Fauconberg. As soon as he had completed the muster, his nephew, George
Nevill, Bishop of Exeter, made a speech to the people. He explained to
them how King Henry had broken the agreement solemnly made {22} with
the Duke of York only four short months before; he demanded of them
whether they would have a forsworn king any longer to rule over them;
and he called upon them to serve and obey the Earl of March as their
earthly sovereign lord. The multitude cried 'Yea! Yea!' with great
shouts and clapping of hands. 'I was there,' says William of
Worcester, 'I heard them, and I returned with them into the city.'
On the same evening the Lords and Commons went to Baynard's Castle to
report what had taken place to young Edward, and he was persuaded to
assume the kingly office by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop
of Exeter. Next day, being March 4, he rode to St. Paul's as King
Edward IV. and made an offering. After _Te Deum_ he was conveyed to
Westminster, where he sat in the Hall while his title was declared to
the people as son and heir of Richard, Duke of York, and by authority
of Parliament. Henry VI. was deposed _quod non stetisset pacto, neque
paruisset senatus consulti decreto_. Edward then entered the Abbey
under a canopy in solemn procession, and received homage from the
lords, returning by water to London, where he was lodged in the
Bishop's palace. On the 5th he was proclaimed King through the city as
Edward IV; but there was to be no coronation until he was victorious
over his enemies.
No time was lost. On Saturday, March 7, the Earl of Warwick left
London for the north, with what Fabyan calls 'a great puissance of
people.' Four days afterwards the King's infantry followed, consisting
of borderers from the Welsh marches, Kentish men, and Londoners. On
Friday, March 13, Edward himself rode through Bishopsgate with a great
body of men, {23} and attended by many lords and knights. Since the
death of Sir David Hall, Edward's uncle Fauconberg was the most able
and experienced general on the Yorkist side, and he was now the King's
chief adviser. A powerful adherent was John Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk,
who is so frequently mentioned in the 'Paston Letters.' Representative
of Thomas de Brotherton, the youngest son of Edward I., the Duke had
vast wealth and great influence in the eastern counties, but he was in
failing health. Sir John Ratcliffe, K.G., called Lord Fitzwalter _jure
uxoris_, Sir Henry Ratcliffe, Lord Scrope of Bolton, Sir Walter Blount,
Sir John Wenlock, Sir John Dynham, Sir Roger Wolferstone, William
Hastings, Robert Home of Kent, the King's cousins Humphry and John
Stafford, were the principal captains.
The marches were made in a leisurely way to give time for followers to
join from various directions, and it was a fortnight before Edward
formed a junction with the Earl of Warwick, and mustered his army
between Pomfret Castle and Ferrybridge, about forty thousand strong.
Reinforcements had flocked to him during the march, especially in
Nottinghamshire. Sir John Ratcliffe, with a young illegitimate son of
the Earl of Salisbury, was stationed with a small force at Ferrybridge,
to guard the passage of the river Aire.
Meanwhile, the nobles who had rallied round the proud Margaret of Anjou
were collecting their strength at York. The Duke of Somerset, although
he was only in his twenty-fourth year, was the chief commander in the
Queen's army. The son of her favourite, who had been slain in the
first battle of St. Albans, and the head of a powerful connection,
Margaret {24} placed great reliance on the prowess and influence of the
young Duke. His first cousin was Thomas Courtenay, Earl of Devonshire,
a lad of twenty, who came to York with the Fulfords, Fortescues, and
other west-country squires. His sister Eleanor was married to James
Butler, Earl of Ormonde and Wiltshire, K.G., a more mature nobleman who
had reached his fortieth year, but who was more noted for running away
than for fighting. His brother, Sir John Butler, accompanied him.
Next to Somerset the most influential leader was Henry Percy, Earl of
Northumberland, who was also in his fortieth year. His family had
fought and bled in the Lancastrian cause. His father was slain at St.
Albans, his brother, Lord Egremont, at Northampton. Another brother,
Sir Richard Percy, now rode by the Earl's side at the head of a
numerous body of retainers. Lord Clifford, Lord Dacre of Gillesland,
Lord FitzHugh, and Sir John Nevill came with a great muster of West
Riding and Westmoreland yeomen; while Lord Welles and Sir William
Talboys rallied the Lincolnshire yeomen round their standards. Lord
Roos, Sir Ralph Eure, and Sir John Bigot of Musgrave Castle, joined the
army with their Yorkshire tenantry; and the Duke of Exeter, Lord
Hungerford, and Lord Beaumont swelled the throng with their levies.
Nor were lawyers and churchmen wanting to prop the falling cause. Sir
John Fortescue, the Lord Chief Justice, was at York, for he believed
the parliamentary title of King Henry to be good, and would not desert
him in his need. There too, in attendance on poor Henry, was Dr.
Morton, the parson of Bloxworth and Master in Chancery--a treble-dyed
traitor and falsifier of history, who afterwards flourished like {25} a
green bay tree, and died Cardinal Archbishop of Canterbury at the age
of ninety.
So far as experience and military training were concerned, the reliance
of the Lancastrians was on Lord Welles, Lord Hungerford, and Sir Andrew
Trollope. Lionel Lord Welles, now in his fifty-fifth year, had seen
much service in France, and had filled the important posts of
Lieutenant in Ireland and Captain of Calais. Lord Hungerford had
served under the great Talbot, and was present at the fatal battle of
Chastillon, where he was taken prisoner. At that time, during his
father's life, he was known as Lord Molines, in right of his wife.
Trollope was a veteran of the French wars, and seems to have been
looked to as the officer who would marshal the army and select
positions. He had been a trusted Yorkist captain, and was long in
command of the Calais garrison. But when the two rival armies were
confronted near Ludlow, in October 1459, he had secretly deserted with
a large part of the best soldiers from Calais and gone over to Queen
Margaret. This had given her a temporary triumph; and Trollope had
since been her most trusted military adviser.
The force collected at York numbered 60,000; and the largest bodies of
men that have ever tried conclusions on English ground were thus
gathered together between York and Pomfret.
A distance of twenty-five miles separated the towers of Pomfret Castle,
under whose shadows young Edward was marshalling his avenging army,
from Micklegate Bar, over which the head of his beloved father was
withering in the chilling gales of that bitter month of March 1461.
Nine of those miles covered the distance from York to Tadcaster on the
river Wharfe, and the {26} rest of the distance, from the Wharfe to the
Aire, was the scene of the momentous campaign.
The tract of country between the Wharfe and the Aire is a portion of
that magnesian limestone formation which extends in a narrow zone
across Yorkshire. It is crossed by the principal streams flowing to
the Humber, the Ure, the Nidd, the Wharfe, the Aire, the Went, and the
Don; and they all form picturesque gorges, with overhanging limestone
cliffs and crags, before they enter the great alluvial plain of York.
This hilly limestone region, between the Wharfe and the Aire, was once
a great forest of elm trees. It was the Elmet of remote times. When
the forest was cleared the name remained, and the people called the
limestone country 'Elmet lands.' The little river Cock rises on
Bramham Moor, flows through this limestone country in a winding course
among the undulating hills, and falls into the Wharfe below Tadcaster.
Passing the village of Barwick-in-Elmet, it winds along the skirts of
'Becca Banks,' so famous for rare wild flowers, flows under the bridge
at Aberford, and westward to Lead Hall, a farmhouse in a great meadow
about half a mile short of the village of Saxton. Thence it takes a
northerly course to its junction with the Wharfe. Here the winding
little brook has hills on either side, covered with woods, with Towton
on the right bank, and Hazlewood, the ancient seat of the Vavasours, to
the left. It passes through extensive willow garths, and by the
village of Stutton, entering the Wharfe, near Tadcaster, after a course
of about ten miles.
At present the road from York to Pomfret turns south at the end of
Tadcaster Street, and goes direct to Towton and Sherburn, passing the
lodge gate at {27} Grimston. But in those days it continued along the
left bank of the Cock to beyond Stutton, crossed the little brook by
Renshaw Wood, and led up a gentle slope to the hamlet of Towton. By
this route the Lancastrian army advanced from Tadcaster, and encamped
on the fields between Towton and Saxton. The main road leads direct
from Towton to Sherburn, leaving Saxton on the right, and
Scarthingwell, with its mere and heronry, on the left. From Sherburn
to Ferrybridge the distance is six miles due south. The distance from
Ferrybridge, by Sherburn and Saxton, to the battlefield of Towton is
nine miles.
On March 26, 1461, the great army of the Lancastrians was encamped
round the hamlet of Towton. King Edward's headquarters were at
Pomfret, and he had an advanced post to defend the passage of the river
Aire in his front, at Ferrybridge, under the command of the titular
Lord Fitzwalter, an experienced veteran of the French wars. The object
of the Lancastrian leader in advancing across the Wharfe was to oppose
the passage of Edward's army over the river Aire at Ferrybridge. The
deposed King and Queen, with Lord Roos and Dr. Morton, awaited the
event at York. But the Lancastrians were too late. Lord Clifford and
Sir John Nevill, however, did press forward in advance, in hopes of
surprising the outlying post of Yorkists at Ferrybridge. In this they
were successful. The guard at the bridge was taken completely by
surprise before the dawn of March 28, and slaughtered by Lord
Clifford's men. Lord Fitzwalter, hearing the noise, thought it was
merely a disturbance among his own soldiers. He jumped out of bed, ran
down with a battle-axe in his hand, and was slain as he came into {28}
the street. The brave young bastard of Salisbury fell with him.
This unexpected onslaught caused a panic in the Yorkist camp, which was
increased by the conduct of the excitable Earl of Warwick. He lost his
head, galloped up to the King's tent, dismounted and killed his horse,
crying out, 'Let him fly that will, for surely by this cross I will
tarry with him who will tarry with me, fall back fall edge!'[1] The
conduct of young Edward was very different. Perfectly cool and
collected, his firmness restored order among the soldiers. He soon saw
that the attack had been made by a small force which would as rapidly
retreat. He, therefore, gave prompt orders to his uncle, Lord
Fauconberg, to cross the river Aire at Castleford, about three miles to
the left, with troops led by Sir Walter Blount and Robert Home of Kent.
His object was to intercept the retreat of Lord Clifford. This
judicious order was ably carried out by the veteran general.
Fauconberg overtook the enemy, and a complete rout of the Lancastrians
followed. The chase was continued through Sherburn to a little dell or
valley called Dittingdale,[2] between Scarthingwell and Towton. Here
there was a rally, close to the outposts of the main army of the
Lancastrians. Lord Clifford, while taking off his gorget, owing to its
having chafed his neck, was struck {29} by an arrow and killed. Sir
John Nevill was also slain, and there was a great slaughter among the
flying troops. The Yorkist pursuers fell back on their supports
without serious loss.
Lord Clifford was only in his twenty-sixth year. His father was slain
at the first battle of St. Albans, and he had naturally joined the same
cause with enthusiasm. But, as has already been pointed out, the story
of his having assassinated a defenceless little boy on Wakefield Bridge
is a fiction. There is no reason to believe that Clifford was such a
base caitiff. He was evidently an active and enterprising leader. It
is the tradition of the family that he was buried, with a heap of
undistinguished dead, on the battlefield. Sir John Nevill, a younger
brother of the second Earl of Westmoreland, and father of the third
Earl, was probably buried within Saxton Church.[3] The loss of these
two gallant and influential young leaders, whose scattered fugitives
brought in the news on that Friday night, must have cast a gloom over
the Lancastrian army.
King Edward now resolved to advance with his whole force and attack the
enemy where he was encamped. He believed that the main body could not
have been very far distant when Lord Clifford was detached to make the
attack at Ferrybridge. The van division of the Yorkist army, led by
Lord Fauconberg and Sir Walter Blount, was already across the river
Aire, and orders were given to them to march northwards by Sherburn and
Saxton. The King himself, {30} with the Earl of Warwick, was to follow
at the head of the main body. The Duke of Norfolk should have led the
van, but he was taken ill, and it was arranged that he should remain
behind at Pomfret, with Sir John Wenlock and Sir John Dynham, and
follow next day with the rear division and any reinforcements that
might have arrived.[4]
During March 28, the Eve of Palm Sunday, the Yorkist army was marching
northwards in two divisions. It must have been late in the afternoon
when the division of Lord Fauconberg passed through Sherburn-in-Elmet,
a long street with the old Norman church on an isolated hill to the
westward. Two miles more brought him to Saxton late in the evening.
Saxton was a small village, with the manor house of the Hungates, and a
very old church of Norman times. Thence a steep ascent leads northward
to the battlefield. To the east is the high road from York to Pomfret,
passing over elevated ground. To the west is a ravine with sides
sloping down to the valley of the Cock. The latter brook is seen
winding through the {31} green valley, with roads on either side.
Northwards there was high undulating ground, and the hamlet of Towton
is two miles north of Saxton.
On the ground between Towton and Saxton the Lancastrian army was
encamped. The centre, led by the Earl of Northumberland and Sir
Richard Percy, with Lord Welles and Sir Andrew Trollope, was formed
across the road leading up from Saxton. To the east, forming the
Lancastrian left, Lord Dacre and his brother-in-law Lord FitzHugh were
encamped on some land called 'North Acres.' To the west, forming the
right wing, were the Earls of Devonshire and Wiltshire, and Lords
Hungerford and Beaumont. The Dukes of Somerset and Exeter commanded a
reserve at Towton village.
When Lord Fauconberg arrived at Saxton he ascertained the position of
the enemy and sent intelligence to the King. Edward had probably
reached Sherburn by that time, and he at once pushed forward to the
neighbourhood of Saxton. The whole Yorkist force numbered 48,640 men,
including the reserves, which were still at Pomfret under the Duke of
Norfolk.
Palm Sunday dawned and found the host of young Edward facing the long
array of Lancastrians. It was bitterly cold. The advance up the
hillside from Saxton village was made between eight and nine o'clock in
the forenoon, and when the hostile forces came in sight there was a
great shouting. At the same time snow began to fall. The wind was
northerly in the early morning, but it veered round, became fresher,
and by nine o'clock it was driving the snow full into the faces of the
Lancastrian troops. The two armies, just before they closed, were {32}
separated by an undulating depression which marks the exact position.
Lord Fauconberg caused every archer under his standard to shoot one
flight of arrows and then halt. The enemy felt the volley, but could
not judge of distances on account of the blinding snow. Their arrows
fell short. As soon as the quivers of the enemy were nearly empty,
Lord Fauconberg gave the order for his archers to advance, shooting as
they came on, and they not only shot off their own arrows, but gathered
those of the enemy and sent many of them back whence they came. Then
the Earl of Northumberland ordered his men to close, and the battle
became a fierce hand-to-hand combat all along the line. For several
hours the desperate conflict continued, ebbing and flowing with
doubtful result, the snow still falling. King Edward was everywhere,
exhorting and encouraging the men, leading them on when they wavered,
and helping the wounded out of the fray. The struggle was obstinate
and long doubtful. Men were falling fast on both sides. Lord Scrope
of Bolton was severely wounded. Robert Home, the valiant captain of
Kent, who came from Appledore on the Rother, fell dead.
Messengers had been sent in hot haste to hurry up the Duke of Norfolk
with the reserves. He arrived at about noon. With his trusty
lieutenants Wenlock and Dynham, he led his men up the road from
Sherburn, keeping well to the east of Saxton, and ailing upon the
Lancastrian left flank at 'North Acres.'
This was the turning point of the battle. The Lancastrians were
disheartened at the arrival of fresh foes. The fighting continued
until late in the {33} afternoon, and the slaughter was prodigious, but
gradually the Lancastrian left wing was doubled up on the centre; the
confusion increased, and there was a complete rout. Lord Dacre had
fallen early in the day. He was killed by a boy who shot him from a
'bur' tree,[5] when he had unclasped his helmet to drink a cup of wine.
The lad thus avenged his father's death, who had been slain by the
northern baron. Lord Caere's friends, Sir John and Sir Thomas
Crakenthorpe, from the banks of the Eden, fell with him. The Earl of
Northumberland, Sir Richard Percy, Lord Welles, and Sir Andrew Trollope
were slain in the thick of the fight, with many more. The retreat to
the eastward being cut off by the Duke of Norfolk, the defeated army
fled down the steep slopes into the valley of the Cock closely pursued.
The well-mounted noblemen, Somerset and Exeter, Devonshire and
Wiltshire, Beaumont, Hungerford, and FitzHugh, with many knights,
effected their escape. But the footmen were cut down by hundreds in
the pursuit. The little Cock beck is not very wide, but it is deep,
and many fugitives were drowned in it. The country people declared
that the pursuers crossed the brook on dead bodies, and that the river
Wharfe was coloured with blood. The Croyland monk relates that the
blood of the slain lay caked with snow, which then covered the ground,
and that afterwards, when the snow melted, the blood flowed along the
furrows and ditches for a distance of two or three miles. The chase
continued all night and part of next day.
Fully 10,000 were stated to have been wounded or {34} made prisoners,
and Polydore Virgil says that some were cured and some died. This
disposes of the statement of Hall, which is adopted by modern writers,
that no quarter was given. Edward always gave quarter to the men and
junior officers of a defeated army.
The fugitive nobles only had time to ride through York, calling upon
Henry and Margaret, with their child, to mount and ride as hard as
their horses would carry them. Away they went out of Bootham, and
through the dark forest of Galtres, to take refuge in Scotland.
King Edward advanced to York on Monday, March 30, 1461, where he was
received with great solemnity by the mayor and commons of the city, in
procession. They obtained grace through the intercession of Lords
Montagu and Berners. The heads of the Duke of York, the Earl of
Rutland, and the Earl of Salisbury were removed from the gates of York,
and placed with the bodies at Pomfret, preparatory to the subsequent
magnificent obsequies at Fotheringhay and Bisham.
Only four executions took place at York, of the Earl of Devonshire, Sir
Baldwin Fulford, Sir William Talboys, and Sir William Hill. The Earl
of Wiltshire was captured by William Salkeld at Cockermouth. For this
prominent actor in the barbarous deeds after Wakefield fight there
could be no forgiveness. He was beheaded at Newcastle on May 1.
The Earl of Northumberland, a first cousin of King Edward, was buried
in the north choir of St. Denis church at York, probably with his
brother Sir Richard Percy. The body of Lord Welles was taken to
Methley, and buried in the Waterton Chapel. Lord Dacre was buried,
with his horse, in Saxton churchyard, on the {35} north side of the
church, where there is a monument to his memory. The undistinguished
dead were at first buried in five great pits on the battlefield, and in
separate graves in the valley. It was a tradition that red and white
roses grew and flourished on the battlefield, and it is true that there
are many rose bushes in the meadows. Leland tells us that Master
Hungate of Saxton caused the dead bodies to be brought from the pits on
the battlefield, and buried in consecrated ground, in a trench running
the whole length of Saxton churchyard.
King Edward kept his Easter at York, which fell that year on April 5.
He then advanced as far as Durham, whence he returned southwards,
leaving the pacification of the north to the Earl of Warwick and his
brother Lord Montagu. Early in June Edward was at the manor of Sheen,
and on the 26th of that month he came from Sheen to the Tower of
London. On the 27th he created thirty Knights of the Bath, and on
Sunday the 28th he was solemnly crowned in Westminster Abbey by
Cardinal Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury.
The King liberally rewarded his supporters. The Duke of Norfolk died
in November 1461, and was buried before the high altar at Thetford.
But Lord Fauconberg was created Earl of Kent and Lord High Admiral. He
died in 1463. Sir Walter Blount was created Lord Mountjoy and a Knight
of the Garter. Sir John Dynham, a valued adherent, was created Lord
Dynham; and Sir John Wenlock, already a Knight of the Garter, was
created Lord Wenlock. Many Yorkists were knighted, either on the field
or afterwards at the coronation. Young William Hastings, the King's
most faithful follower, was {36} knighted on the field, and created
Lord Hastings, in July 1461. Among the Knights of the Bath were the
gentlemen of Nottinghamshire who had joined the King on the march
northward, Sir Robert Clifton, Sir Nicholas Byron, and Sir Robert and
Sir John Markham.
Edward IV. was 'a King who, with many faults, was most honourably
anxious from the first to do justice even to the meanest of his
subjects.'[6] After the first heat of battle had passed he was
placable and forgiving. He had strong and justifiable cause for
resentment against his opponents at Towton. In the white heat of his
indignation, with the sight of his father's head over Micklegate Bar
fresh in his recollection, he stayed his avenging hand after four
executions. The bill of attainder passed by his first Parliament
included 150 names, but many were afterwards granted full pardons, and
all who submitted received back portions of their estates. The Duke of
Somerset made his peace, and was taken into favour. The son of the
Earl of Northumberland was restored to all his father's honours. The
brother of the Earl of Wiltshire, though he was also at Towton, was
restored to all his estates, was taken into favour, and succeeded as
sixth Earl of Ormond. Similar forgiveness was extended to the
Courtenays, and to the brother of Lord Dacre. Although Lord Hungerford
continued in rebellion, Edward IV. treated his wife and young children
with kindness and generosity, making an ample provision for them out of
their father's forfeited lands. The son of Lord Welles was taken into
favour, and had a grant of all his father's forfeited property. Lord
FitzHugh was forgiven and employed in positions of importance. {37}
Mr. Thorold Rogers says:--'I entirely discredit the stories told of the
tyranny and suspiciousness of Edward IV. He never refused a petition
for pardon.'[7]
All historians unite in the statement that the old nobility of England
was nearly annihilated by the battles and executions during the Wars of
the Roses. But facts are opposed to this theory. Scarcely a single
peerage became extinct owing to the Wars of the Roses.[8]
The battles of Wakefield and Towton made a deep impression on the mind
of Prince Richard, although he was but eight years old. The fate of
his father and brother in a battle which drove him into exile, and then
the crowning victory following so rapidly, could not fail to do so. In
later years he erected a memorial chapel at Towton, where prayers were
to be offered up for the souls of the fallen. It was standing in
Leland's time, but there is now no vestige of this pious work of King
Richard III.[9]
[1] Mr. Green, in his _History of the English People_, places the time
of Warwick's killing his horse 'at one critical moment' during the
battle of Towton. But the evidence that this act of folly was
perpetrated owing to the panic after the surprise at Ferrybridge is
quite conclusive.
[2] Hall has _Dintingdale_, Habington spells it _Dindingdale_, Baker
has _Dandingdale_. There is no such place on the maps. But Whitaker,
in his _History of Craven_, says that the Rev. F. Wilkinson, Vicar of
Bordsey, discovered the almost forgotten name of Dittingdale, as that
of a dell or small valley in Scarthingwell Park.
[3] Leland says that the Earl of Westmoreland was killed, and buried
within Saxton Church. Hall also includes the Earl of Westmoreland
among the slain. They mistook him for Sir John Nevill. The Earl
himself did not die until 1485. Sharon Turner and later writers repeat
the blunder. The Earl of Westmoreland was not in the battle.
[4] Mr. Green says that 'the Duke of Norfolk came with a fresh force
from the eastern counties.' The Duke came from Pomfret, having left
London with the King. Sharon Turner says: 'We owe the remarkable fact
of the battle beginning at four o'clock in the afternoon and continuing
through the night, and of Norfolk's coming up the next clay at noon to
Hearne's fragment.' This fragment was transcribed by Hearne from an
old manuscript, but not older than Hall's _Chronicle_. The statement
that the battle began at four on Saturday afternoon and went on through
the night, not only contradicts Hall and Stow, but is also impossible.
Edward's army could not have got over the ground in time to begin the
battle at four in the afternoon. Possibly the mistake of the anonymous
writer of Hearne's fragment arose from having been told that Lord
Fauconberg came in sight of the Lancastrian army at twilight. It was
not the twilight of Saturday afternoon, but of Palm Sunday morning, as
Hall explains.
[5] _Loidis and Elmete_, p. 156. Dr. Whitaker says that the word
'_bur_' is very distinct in Glover's manuscript. It means an alder
tree, from the old Norse '_bur_' or '_baurr_.'
[6] Gairdner. Introduction to the _Paston Letters_, ii. p. xii.
[7] _Work and Wages_, ii. 316.
[8] The Duke of Exeter was separated from his wife, and had no
children. The Duke of Somerset, who was beheaded, had six daughters,
and another was unmarried. But the House of Somerset was perpetuated
in that of Beaufort. A few new peerages became extinct because their
recipients did not marry, such as Egremont and Wenlock. But Lord
Egremont was a Percy, and the family of Percy continued to flourish.
No more peerages became extinct owing to the Wars of the Roses than
would have done so in a time of profound peace.
[9] There is a warrant for 40_l._ to be given for building the chapel
at Towton, dated November 28, 1483 (Harl. MSS., No. 413). In July
1488, an indulgence of forty days was granted _ad speciosam capellam in
villa de Toughton (per Saxton) de novo a fundamentis sumptuose et
nobiliter erectam, super quodam loco seu fondo ubi corpora procerum et
magnatum ac aliorum hominum multitudine copiosa in quodam bello in
campis circumjacentibus inito interfectorum sepeliuntur_. In December
1502 another indulgence of forty days was granted. The exact site of
the chapel is the garden behind Mr. Kendall's house.
{38}