The casualties mounted, and the weather deteriorated. Both sides declared brief truces to clear the field, so they could continue fighting without tripping over the dead and wounded. At one point Lord Dacre removed his helmet to get a drink, only to be shot dead by a Yorkist archer. By midday, the outnumbered Yorkists were in serious trouble, though there is some suggestion that Northumberland had been slow to engage, and thus the pressure on them was uncoordinated.

Subscribe Today

• Did you enjoy our article?
• Read more in Military History magazine
• Subscribe online and save nearly 40%!!!
 

Deliverance for the Yorkists, in the form of Norfolk’s long-awaited banner, appeared through the swirling snowflakes. Norfolk himself had fallen ill at Pontefract Castle on the evening of March 28 (he would die in November). But he marched his division across the Aire on the morning of the 29th and followed the old London road through Sherburn in Elmet, past Dinting Dale, and finally deployed on the Yorkist right. Outflanked, Somerset had to redeploy men from his center and right battles to counter the threat to his left. For Edward, the crisis had passed, though he might be excused if he did not immediately notice. Somerset still had plenty of fight left, and his men battled on.

As the greater numbers of Norfolk’s fresh troops forced their line to curve backward, the weary Lancastrians began to give way. By the rim of Towton Dale their line finally broke, though a scattering of diehards, clustered around their banners, sold their lives dearly. Most, however, fled — or slid — down the snowy, icy slope toward the Cock River, with the Yorkists in murderous pursuit. Bloody Meadow and the miry ground around it became a killing field. To the north, survivors fought each other to reach the narrow timber bridge over the Cock, which the day’s precipitation had changed from a fordable stream to a raging torrent. Armor or water-soaked padded garments dragged men under to drown.

Some Lancastrians reportedly crossed the Cock on a ‘bridge of bodies’ and fled through Towton to Tadcaster, where further fighting in the streets was reported. Edward sent a body of horsemen in a pursuit that strewed the road with corpses virtually to the walls of York. King Henry, his queen and threadbare court were hustled away to the relative safety of Northumberland, where they separated, with Margaret going to France, hoping to get help from its king. Henry spent the remainder of his life as a prisoner of King Edward.

Somerset and Exeter escaped, but the toll on Lancastrian gentry was high. Besides Clifford and Dacre, Northumberland succumbed to his wounds, and Lords Neville de Mauley and Welles also died on the field. Thomas Courtney, Earl of Devon, was taken prisoner, and his head soon replaced that of Edward’s father on Micklegate.The Yorkists lost Lord Fitzwalter and Robert Horne. Overall casualties are impossible to confirm, but 16th-century historian Polydore Virgil estimated them at 20,000. Chronicler Edward Hall gave the precise but unsubstantiated figure of 36,776. The Paston letters, apparently written by another contemporary chronicler, mentioned 28,000 casualties, of which two-thirds or more were Lancastrian. A reasonable assessment might be 12,000-15,000 of Somerset’s men, dead or wounded, either on the field or in the rout, while Edward lost about 5,000.

What is certain about Towton is that the victory assured Edward’s crown and ruined his enemies’ cause, though hostilities, mainly in Northumberland, dragged on for another three years. The battle also established the young king’s reputation as a brilliant commander. In the long run, however, York’s triumph would only be temporary. The civil war would last another quarter century, ultimately ending in the destruction of both rival houses of York and Lancaster, and the emergence of the Tudors.

This article was written by D. John Saddler and originally published in the March 2006 issue of Military History magazine.

For more great articles be sure to subscribe to Military History magazine today!

Help HistoryNet by bookmarking to