the vicissitudes of the Wars of the Roses. His Queen, Margaret of
Anjou, was unpopular with the people, her favourite minister, William
De la Pole, was hated of the nobles, and nobles and commons were alike
exasperated by the loss of the French possessions.
Richard, Duke of York, a brave soldier, and popular with the people,
was the lineal heir to the throne, and he was determined to assert his
claim.
The first battle was fought at St. Albans, on the 23rd May, 1455. The
royalists maintained the town, being commanded by Lord Clifford, the
Dukes of Buckingham and Somerset, and the Earls of Northumberland and
Stafford. York fiercely attacked, being supported by Norfolk,
Salisbury and Warwick. The Northern archers poured their shafts into
the town, and inflicted great slaughter, and the Earl of Warwick,
"seizing his opportunity, moved to the garden side of the town, and
attacking it at the weakest side, forced the barriers." A desperate
conflict ensued, Somerset, Northumberland, and Clifford were slain,
and King Henry, Stafford, Buckingham, and Dudley were wounded by
arrows. Abbot Wethemstede states that he saw, "here one lying with his
brains dashed out, here another without his arm; some with arrows
sticking in their throats, others pierced in their chests."
The King was defeated and captured, and the Yorkists divided the
government. The Duke was created Constable of the Kingdom, Salisbury
Lord Chancellor, and Warwick governor of Calais.
Each party watched the other, and the pious King attempted to
reconcile the leaders in 1458, when they went in solemn procession to
St. Paul's, the Duke of York leading the Queen, and the opposing
barons being paired accordingly.
A few weeks later, and Warwick fled into Yorkshire, the two factions
being put into opposition by a brawl between the servants of Warwick
and Queen Margaret.
In September, 1459, the Yorkists were again in arms, and Salisbury,
feigning to fly before Lord Audley and the royalists, turned upon
them as they were crossing a brook on Bloreheath, and bore them down
with lance and bill. The conflict was somewhat desultory, and lasted
five hours, the victory remaining with the Yorkists. Lord Audley was
slain, and with him 2,400 men, including the good knights Thomas
Dutton, John Dunne, Hugh Venables, Richard Molineaux, and John Leigh.
Henry and York met at Ludlow, when Sir Andrew Trollope carried his
command over to the King, and the Yorkists, panic-stricken by this
defection, dispersed.
The Duchess of York, and two of her sons, fell into Henry's hands, and
was sent to her sister, Anne, Duchess of Buckingham. At Coventry,
November 20th, Parliament attainted and confiscated the estates of
"the duke of York, the earl of March, the duke of Rutland, the
earl of Warwick, the earl of Salisbury, the lord Powis, the
lord Clinton, the countess of Salisbury, sir Thomas Neville,
sir John Neville, sir Thomas Harrington, sir Thomas Parr, sir
John Conyers, sir John Wenlock, sir William Oldhall, Edward
Bourchier, sq., and his brother, Thomas Vaughan, Thomas Colt,
Thomas Clay, John Dinham, Thomas Moring, John Otter, Master
Richard Fisher, Hastings, and others."
On the submission of Lord Powis he received the King's grace, but lost
his goods.
Warwick, March, and Salisbury fled to Calais, and Somerset, the
newly-appointed governor, proceeded to attempt the reduction of the
fortress; but, by a clever counter-stroke, Warwick captured the fleet,
Lord Rivers and his son being surprised before they could leave their
bed. Rivers
"was brought to Calais, and before the lords, with eight-score
torches, and there my lord Salisbury rated him, calling him
'knave's son, that he should be so rude to call him and these
other lords traitors; for they should be found the King's true
liege-men, when he would be found a traitor.' And my lord
Warwick rated him, and said, 'that his father was but a squire,
and brought up with King Henry V., and since made himself by
marriage, and also made a lord; and that it was not his part to
hold such a language to lords, being of the king's blood.' And
my lord March rated him likewise. And Sir Anthony was rated for
his language of all the three lords in likewise."
A notable scene, and picturesque: making easy the mental
transition to a later period, when these fierce lords called for
block and headsmen, and their prisoners made short shrift. Indeed the
period was very near. Osbert Mountford, despatched to reinforce
Somerset, was captured at Sandwich, carried to Calais, and beheaded on
the 25th June, 1460.
On the 5th June Salisbury and Warwick landed at Sandwich, and reached
London with 25,000 men arrayed under their banners. Margaret strove to
shut them out of the city, but in vain; and Lord Scales discharged the
Tower guns against them.
On the 19th of July the two armies engaged at Northampton. Margaret,
with a strong escort, watched the conflict with the keenest anxiety.
The heavy rains rendered the King's artillery inoperative, yet, after
five hours of sanguinary fighting, the battle was decided by the
treachery of Lord Grey, of Ruthin, who carried his command over to the
Yorkists.
King Henry was captured, and carried, in honourable captivity, to
London. Margaret fled to Scotland, accompanied by Somerset and the
young Prince of Wales.
Richard of York entered London, appeared before the peers, and
advanced to the throne, placing his hand upon the canopy. This mute
claim was received in silence, that was broken by the Archbishop of
Canterbury, as he enquired whether the Duke would not wait upon the
King. York haughtily replied, "I know of none in this realm than ought
not rather to wait upon me," and turning his back upon the peers,
retired.
It was admitted by the lords that Richard was the lineal heir to the
throne, but Parliament had elected Henry IV. to the crown, Henry V.
had succeeded, and his son, the present King, had been accepted by the
lords and commons, and, but for the ambition of York, his title would
have remained unquestioned. The peers passed over the claims of the
young Prince of Wales, and decided that the King should retain the
crown, but that, on his death, York and his heirs should inherit it.
Margaret was immediately summoned to London, and prepared for the
journey by raising her standard. Before she appeared upon the scene
the battle of Sandal was fought.
The Yorkists now freely dipped their hands in blood. Lords Hungerford
and Scales were allowed to pass out of the Tower free men, but the
soldiers and officers had "to abide by the law." Lord Scales was
murdered within the week by mariners serving Warwick and March. He was
seen
"lying naked in the cemetery of the church of St. Mary Overy,
in Southwark. He had lain naked, being stripped of his clothes,
for several hours on the ground, but afterwards on the same day
he was honourably interred by the earls of March, Warwick, and
others."
In the same month, July, Sir Thomas Blount, of Kent, with five others
of the household of the Duke of Exeter, were accused before "the
Earl of Warwick and the other justiciaries of the King, of illegally
holding the Tower," and "were drawn to Tyburn and beheaded, and shortly
afterwards John Archer, who was in the councils of the duke of Exeter,
shared the same fate."
Duke Richard was declared heir-apparent on the 9th of November, with
the present title of Lord Protector, and an allowance of £10,000 to
maintain the dignity. The Yorkshire royalists were in arms, and "had
destroyed the retainers and tenants of the Duke of York and Earl of
Salisbury."
Salisbury and York immediately marched for the North.
Their vanguard struck Somerset's army at Worksop, and was cut off. On
the 21st December York occupied his Castle of Sandal. His army
consisted of 6,000 men, too few to cope with the enemy lying at
Pontefract under Somerset and Northumberland. The Duke might have
maintained the defensive until the Earl of March came up from the
Welsh borders, but on the 30th of December he sallied out to rescue a
foraging party from the Lancastrians. With so numerous an army to
feed, and in a position so remote from succour, Richard might
reasonably risk something to protect his foragers.
Vainly Sir David Hall argued against so perilous an adventure. The
drawbridge was lowered, and York's banner was given to the wintry
wind. It bore for device a Falcon _volant_, _argent_, with a
fetter-lock, _or_. The bird was depicted in the effort of opening the
lock, typical of the crown.
Behind the falcon-banner marched 4,000 veterans. With the Duke there
rode to his last battle, Salisbury and the good knights, Thomas
Neville, David Hall, John Parr, John and Hugh Mortimer, Walter
Limbrike, John Gedding, Eustace Wentworth, Guy Harrington, and other
notable men-at-arms.
Raising the war-cry of York, and sounding trumpets, they charged
through the drifting snow-flakes, and awoke the fury of the battle.
The Duke was outnumbered and surrounded, but fought stubbornly, being
nobly seconded by his heroic army. Lord Clifford hotly attacked him,
exerting every effort to cut off his retreat. Duke Richard valiantly
attempted to cut his way through and retire into Sandal, but Clifford
as sternly drew around him the iron bonds of war, prevented all
retreat, and held him to the trial. The battle was extremely
sanguinary, and the Lancastrians fought as though they were the
red-handed arbiters of the whole dispute, and, like avenging angels,
must wash out the treason of York in streams of blood. As Mountford
fought at Evesham so fought the Lord Protector that day--exacting the
heaviest price for his doomed life. Weapons whirled before his face,
rang on his mail, and probed the jointed armour with point and edge
until the good steel harness was dinted and stained with gore. Many
warriors perished around him, and he, too, fell, sorely stricken, and
died in his blood, amid the trampling of iron-clad feet, and the clash
of crossing swords, as friends and foes fought hand-to-hand above his
body. The crisis came. The falcon-banner fell, and the pursuing swords
maimed and slew the fugitives, burdening the old year with the
sorrows of the widow and the orphan. In the triumphant van, in the
moment of victory, Richard Hanson, Mayor of Hull, laid down his life
for Queen Margaret and her fair son. Salisbury won his way through the
press, to fall by headsman's axe. Rutland broke away from the
slaughter, reached Wakefield Bridge, to perish by the steel of
Clifford, happy in his early death that saved him from the infamy of
bloody years that tarnished the fame of his brothers, March, Clarence,
and Gloucester.
Some chroniclers represent the Queen as commanding her army in person,
and as luring the Duke to meet her in open field. Dissuaded from the
encounter by his friends, he declared that: "All men would cry wonder,
and report dishonour, that a woman had made a dastard of me, whom no
man could even to this day report as a coward! And surely my mind is
rather to die with honour than to live with shame! Advance my banners
in the name of God and of St. George." This is not the York of
history.
Rutland is represented as a boy, aged twelve years, a spectator, not a
combatant, and accompanied by his tutor, Aspall. Clifford overtook
him, and demanded his name. "The young gentleman dismayed, had not a
word to speak, but kneeled on his knees, craving mercy and desiring
grace, both with holding up his hands and making a dolorous
countenance--for his speech was gone for fear." "Save him," cried
Aspall, "he is a prince's son, and peradventure may do you good
hereafter." Said Clifford, "By God's blood thy father slew mine, and
so will I thee and all thy kin," and so smote him to the heart with
his dagger, and bade the chaplain, "Go, bear him to his mother, and
tell her what thou hast seen and heard." Doubtless Clifford was as
red-handed a sinner as any of the barons, but probably no worse. He is
said to have cut off the Duke's head, crowned it with paper, and
carried it upon a pole to the Queen, exclaiming, "Madam, your war is
done: here I bring your King's ransom."
Such are some popular errors, perpetuated by historians who have
followed the romantic versions of Grafton and Hall. Margaret did not
lure York to his fate, for she was in Scotland when the battle was
fought, and he did not sally out to fight a battle, but to rescue his
foragers. The execution of Yorkist prisoners was simply a retaliation
for the treason and blood-guiltiness of the Yorkists, and was carried
out without the Queen's knowledge. Clifford may have vowed to avenge
his father's death upon the house of York, and Rutland may have fallen
to his sword: but the duke was in his eighteenth year, and no doubt an
approved man-at-arms. As recorded, he had been attainted of treason a
few months prior to his death. We may safely conclude that there were
no schoolboys on Wakefield-Green on the 30th of December, 1460, and
the only tutors there were tutors in arms.
William of Wyrcester's account of the battle may be considered the
most probable, and best authenticated:--
"The followers of the Duke of York, having gone out to forage
for provisions on the 29th of December, a dreadful battle was
fought at Wakefield between the Duke of Somerset, the Earl of
Northumberland and Lord Neville, and the adverse party, when
the Duke of York, Thomas Neville, son of the Earl of Salisbury,
Thomas Harrington, Thomas Parr, Edward Bourchier, James
Pykering, and Henry Rathforde, with many other knights and
squires, and soldiers to the amount of two thousand, were slain
in the field. After the battle, Lord Clifford slew the young
Earl of Rutland, the son of the Duke of York, as he was fleeing
across the bridge at Wakefield; and in the same night the Earl
of Salisbury was captured by a follower of Sir And. Trollope,
and on the morrow beheaded by the Bastard of Exeter at
Pontefract, where at the same time the dead bodies of York,
Rutland, and others of note who fell in the battle, were
decapitated, and their heads affixed in various parts of York,
whilst a paper crown was placed in derision on the head of the
Duke of York."
Thus perished Duke Richard in his fiftieth year.
Edward, Earl of March, Richard's eldest son, was at Gloucester when
the news reached him of the disaster before Sandal Castle. He promptly
advanced his army to intercept the Lancastrians, and dispute their
advance upon the capital.
Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke, harassed his rear with a tumultuary
army of Welsh and Irish troops. Marching to engage an army, and
alarmed by a powerful enemy in the rear, was too critical a position
for Edward not to appreciate its danger. On the 2nd of February, 1461,
he turned furiously upon the enemy, at Mortimer's Cross,
Herefordshire, and defeated Pembroke with a loss of 3,800 men.
At Hereford Edward halted, and handed over to the headsman Owen Tudor,
Sir John Throckmorton, and eight of the Lancastrian captains--the
captives of his sword and lance at Mortimer's Cross.
London threw open its gates to the victor on the 4th of March, and he
was proclaimed King, under the title of Edward IV.
XII.--THE BATTLE OF TOWTON.
A.D. 1461.
Margaret of Anjou had the honour of defeating the famous Warwick. Thus
Wyrcester:--
"After the battle of Wakefield Queen Margaret came out of
Scotland to York, where it was decided by the Council of the
Lords to proceed to London and to liberate King Henry out of
the hands of his enemies by force of arms. Shortly after the
Feast of the Purification, the Queen, the Prince of Wales, the
Dukes of Exeter and Somerset, the Earls of Northumberland,
Devonshire, and Shrewsbury, the Lords Roos, Grey of Codnor,
Fitzhugh, Graystock, Welles and Willoughby, and many others,
amounting in all to 24,000 men, advanced upon St. Albans, and
at Dunstable destroyed Sir Edward Poyning, and 200 foot."
Margaret's tumultuary army consisted of English, Irish, Welsh, and
Scotch troops, and their excesses tended to the ruin of the
Lancastrian cause.
On the 17th of February the second battle of St. Albans was fought. At
first the Lancastrians fell back before Warwick's archers, but,
renewing the attack, they fought their way to St. Peter's Street,
driving the enemy before them. On reaching the heath at the north end
of the town, the Yorkists made a stand, and, after a furious struggle,
were put to the rout. Warwick lost Sir John Grey of Groby, and 2,300
men. King Henry was rescued from the hands of Warwick, but Margaret
ungenerously executed his warders, Lord Bonville, and the veteran Sir
Thomas Kyriel, although the King had pledged his word for their
safety.
Margaret reached Barnet, but London feared her and her rude army. When
she sent for "victuals and Lenten stuff," the mayor and sheriffs
obeyed her orders, but the commons stopped the carts at Cripplegate.
March and Warwick were drawing near, London would not admit her army,
and Margaret "fled northward, as fast as she might, towards York."
Henry was deposed by the Yorkists, and the Earl of March declared King
in his stead. Edward IV. carried on the war with vigour. Norfolk
visited his estates to raise troops; Warwick marched out with the
vanguard, the infantry followed, and lastly, on the 12th of March,
Edward issued out of Bishopgate with the rear-guard.
On the 28th of March Lord Fitzwalter secured Ferrybridge, but at
daybreak the Lancastrians fell on: Fitzwalter was slain as he issued
from his tent, in his night gear, to quell, as he thought, a quarrel
of his rude soldiery. Clifford pressed the fugitives furiously, and
they carried a panic into the camp of Edward, that was only arrested
when Warwick slew his horse, swearing upon the cross-hilt of his
sword, that, "Who would might flee; but he would tarry with all who
were prepared to stand and fight the battle out."
The troops recovered courage, and Edward proclaimed freedom to depart
for all who desired to quit before the battle; threatening severe
punishments to any who, remaining, manifested fear in the presence of
the enemy. Such cowards were to be slain by their companions. No man
accepted the permission to retire.
Lord Fauconbridge then fell upon Clifford, defeated him, and recovered
the post. During the retreat Clifford paused, to remove his gorget,
and was struck on the throat, and slain, by a headless arrow.
Edward crossed the river, and confronted the enemy on Towton field.
The Lancastrians were formed on an elevated ridge between Towton and
Saxton, and presenting a front some two miles in extent. The Yorkists
occupied a neighbouring ridge. A broad battle-space lay between the
two armies.
The villagers were at mass in Saxton Church when "the celebration with
palms and spears began," for it was Palm Sunday. The heavy clouds hung
low in the sombre sky, and as the wind arose the snow began to fall
heavily, and was driven full into the faces of the Lancastrians.
It was nine o'clock when, from the heavy masses of Edward's army,
looming portentiously through the thickened air, the flight arrows
descended upon the Lancastrians, and mingled with the wind-driven
snow. In an instant the snow was red with blood, and dead and wounded
men encumbered the ground.
Falconberg having advanced his archers, and struck the first blow,
retired them, drawing the Lancastrian fire. The Queen's archers shot
fierce and fast, but uselessly exhausted their quivers, when the
Yorkists took a terrible revenge, pouring a deadly sleet of arrows
upon their enemies. It is said that they drew the Lancastrian arrows
from the soil, leaving a few to impede the Queen's advance.
Somerset determined to close, and ordered a general advance. Knights
dashed from point to point along the lines; Northumberland and
Trollope closed their decimated ranks, and moved to the attack.
Edward's army had suffered little, and was kept well in hand. It
advanced steadily to meet the tide of war that surged madly forward
through the mirk air and falling snow.
King Edward commanded the centre: the lion of England crested his
helmet, he carried a long lance, with a peculiar vamplate, and the
crimson velvet housings of his steed were powdered with suns and white
roses. When the armies joined battle, he dismounted, and fought on
foot. Warwick commanded the right wing, Lord Falconberg the left, and
Sir John Denman and Sir John Venloe were in charge of the rear-guard
"As if battle were the gate of Paradise, and the future an
incomprehensible dream, they raised against each other a
tumultuous shout of execration and defiance."
The front ranks struck, with
shivering of knightly lances on the wings, and with deadly play of
mauls, of bills and pikes in the van. The slaughter was dreadful: the
moans of the dying were drowned in the clashing of steel, fierce
war-cries, and the rush of stormy winds. Savagely assailed, and beaten
by the pitiless, incessant snow, the Lancastrians valiantly maintained
their ground, although their original superiority in numbers was more
than balanced by their first losses and their exposed position. The
front ranks fought desperately, for Edward of York had issued orders
that no quarter should be extended to the vanquished. The archers of
York poured their last arrows into the rear of the Queen's army.
Norfolk should have commanded the van, but, seized with a sudden
sickness, he had remained at Pontefract with the rear-guard. His
orders were to bring forward his command, with any reinforcements that
might reach him. Edward anxiously awaited his arrival. The battle
raged for hours; the imprisoned peasantry in Saxton Church fearfully
awaited the end; and Edward was scarcely less anxious, for the
murderous butchery of the hand-to-hand fight favoured neither army.
Norfolk was steadily marching through the wintery weather with his
hardy soldiers, and messenger after messenger reached him requesting
him to hurry up the reserves.
The form of battle was lost, as the two hosts were locked in the
sanguinary struggle. The dark and stormy day was glooming to a wild
and early night, when a louder tumult of battle rose on the
Lancastrian left flank at North Acres. Norfolk was on the field, and
had struck his enemy. The Lancastrians could not bear up under the
augmented storm, and the retreat commenced. In the confusion the
retiring wings struck each other, and the difficulties of the position
were increased. Edward urged his infuriated soldiery to unsparing
vengeance, and the Lancastrians turned again and again upon their
pursuers. Ere they reached the river Cock--a tributary of the
Wharfe--the Lancastrian army had merged into a dense and tumultuary
crowd of fugitives, upon whose flank and rear the Yorkists hung with
the blood-thirsty fury of barbarians. On reaching the stream the
massacre became frightful, and the waters were tinged with gore and
darkened with the slain, and are stated to have communicated their
dreadful burthen and sanguinary stains to the Wharfe. For three days
the Lancastrians were hunted out and butchered by the victors.
On the gloomy night of that fatal 29th of March, 1461, a stormy rout
of knights and men-at-arms urged their jaded war-horses through the
narrow streets of York, calling loudly upon the King and Queen to
mount in hot haste and ride for their lives. That night the King and
Queen, with the young prince, rode through Bootham, through the gloom
of Galtres forest, fugitives, _en route_ for Scotland.
The total loss was computed at 40,000 souls, the Lancastrians being
heavily in excess. The death-roll contains the names of the Earls of
Northumberland, Westmoreland, and Shrewsbury; of Lords Dacres and
Wells, and Sir Andrew Trollope.
At York Edward executed the Earls of Devonshire and Ormond, Sir
Baldwin Fulford, Sir William Talboys, and Sir William Hill. The Earl
of Wiltshire suffered at Newcastle on the 1st of May. The heads of
York and Salisbury were replaced by those of Devonshire and Hill.
According to tradition, "The Lord Dacres was slain in Nor-acres."
Having removed his gorget he was shot in the throat by the cross-bow
bolt of a lad lurking behind a burtree, or elder-bush.