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In 1460 there was a major battle at Wakefield. In this battle Richard, Duke of York and Lord Protector but not King, and his supporters lost and Richard was killed. All his battle winning of the last 6 years had been in vain. I suppose this is why we say “Richard Of York Gained Battles In Vain” to remember the colours of the rainbow (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet for those who don’t know; same capital letters). Maths, English, Science, History and, Wakefield is in Yorkshire by the way, Geography. That covers most subjects then.
Right, back to the war. By 1461, Richard’s son, Edward was in control of London. This is always a good idea and so the Earl of Warwick, who, for reasons
which will become very obvious, was known as the kingmaker, declared Edward King of England and named him Edward IV. They then marched north and defeated Henry and
Margaret at a massive battle at a place called Towton in Yorkshire, with Edward having the home advantage. This was the largest battle so far with over 50,000
soldiers taking part and around 25,000 being killed. At the time the population of England was about 3 million so if you compare those deaths to the population
today it would be about half a million people dying in one battle.
This was in March 1461 and in June that year Edward IV was crowned. Just for your information, Edward was 6 foot four inches tall which was very tall
at that time. Well, to be honest, it’s still very tall now but it was much rarer in those days.
After the Battle of Towton, at which it is said Henry was so mad that he was heard laughing and singing while the fighting went on, Henry and Margaret
fled to Scotland for a spring break. Henry was then smuggled back into England and protected by friends until, in 1465, he was captured by Edward and imprisoned in
the Tower of London. Margaret, meanwhile, took up the option of extending her spring break and fled to France.
Battles continued for several years. By now the Earl of Warwick didn’t like some of the things Edward was doing as King so he led a rebellion. This was
quashed by the King and Warwick fled to Ireland and then to France where he met up with Margaret. At this point, Warwick decided to change sides and he and Margaret
formed an army, returned to England, defeated Edward and released Henry VI from the Tower and restored him to the throne, possibly now singing, laughing and dancing.
It was October 1470 so Edward, having been defeated took off for an autumn break in Burgundy in France.
Henry didn’t really know what was going on so Warwick, the Kingmaker, was the real power. Warwick was not the only noble who changed sides in this war.
Quite a lot of them did, hoping to be on the winning side.
Forward to 1471AD
