Battle of Wakefield
| Battle of Wakefield | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Wars of the Roses | |||||||
 | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 House of Lancaster |
 House of York | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
|
Duke of Somerset, Earl of Northumberland, Lord Clifford et al. |
Duke of York† Earl of Salisbury† | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| possibly up to 18,000 | "a few hundred" to 9,000 | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| perhaps 200 | 700 – 2,500 | ||||||
– Battle of Wakefield; 
– other battles; 
– other places
The Battle of Wakefield took place in Sandal Magna near Wakefield, in West Yorkshire in Northern England, on 30 December 1460. It was a major battle of the Wars of the Roses. The opposing forces were a Lancastrian army, loyal to the captive King Henry VI, his Queen, Margaret of Anjou, and their seven year-old son Edward, Prince of Wales on one side, and the army of Richard, Duke of York, the rival claimant to the throne, on the other. The Duke of York was killed and his army was destroyed.
Background
The House of Lancaster was established on the throne of England in 1399, when Henry Bolingbroke, the Duke of Lancaster, deposed his unpopular cousin King Richard II, and was crowned Henry IV. Throughout his reign, he was troubled by doubts over the legitimacy of his rule, and there were several revolts against him. His son, Henry V inherited the throne after these had been suppressed, and he enhanced the prestige of the dynasty by good government and victories over the French, notably at Agincourt.
However, Henry V died in 1422 and his only son became King Henry VI when only nine months old. He grew up to be an ineffective king, and prone to spells of mental illness. There were increasingly bitter divisions among the regents and councillors who governed in Henry's name, mainly over the conduct of the Hundred Years' War with France. By the late 1440s, two opposing factions had formed behind Edmund Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset, and Richard of York, who for several years was Lieutenant in France and headed the party which sought to prosecute the war more decisively.
Richard of York was not only the wealthiest magnate in the land,[1] but was also descended from King Edward III's third son Lionel of Antwerp and fifth son Edmund of Langley, leading to suspicions that he had ambitions to the throne. His rival, Somerset, belonged to the Beaufort family. Like Henry, they were descended from John of Gaunt, Edward III's fourth son, though by his former mistress, Katherine Swynford. Although the Beauforts were supposedly barred from succeeding to the crown by the Act of Parliament which made the children of Gaunt and Katherine legitimate after their marriage, their line eventually produced King Henry VII and the Tudor dynasty.
Richard briefly governed the country as Lord Protector in 1453 after Henry VI suffered a complete mental breakdown, but Henry recovered his sanity after eighteen months and restored Somerset to favour. During Henry's madness his Queen, Margaret of Anjou, had given birth to a son, which dashed Richard's hopes of becoming king on Henry's death.
Fearing arrest for treason, York and his most prominent allies, the Nevilles (York's brother in law, the Earl of Salisbury and his son, the Earl of Warwick, later known as the "Kingmaker"), finally resorted to armed force in 1455. At the First Battle of St Albans, many of York's and Salisbury's rivals and enemies were killed, including Somerset, the Earl of Northumberland (whose family had been involved in a long-running feud with the Nevilles) and Lord Clifford.
After the battle, York reaffirmed his loyalty to King Henry, and was reappointed Lord Protector and Lieutenant of Ireland. Queen Margaret nevertheless suspected York of wishing to supplant her infant son, Edward, as Henry's successor, and the heirs of the Lancastrian nobles who were killed at St Albans remained at deadly feud with York.
Events of the year preceding Wakefield
After an uneasy peace during which attempts at reconciliation failed, hostilities broke out again in 1459. Richard of York returned from Ireland without leave and concentrated his forces near his stronghold of Ludlow Castle in the Welsh Marches. At the Battle of Ludford, some of Warwick's contingent from the garrison of Calais, led by experienced captain Andrew Trollope, defected overnight. York and the Nevilles promptly abandoned their troops and fled. The next day, the outnumbered and leaderless Yorkist army surrendered.
York went via Wales to Ireland where he had support from the Irish Parliament, while Salisbury, Warwick and York's eldest son Edward, Earl of March made their way via the West Country to Calais, where Warwick was Constable. Lancastrian attempts to reassert their authority over Ireland and Calais failed, but York and his supporters were declared traitors and attainted. Only a successful invasion would restore their titles and property.
The country remained in disorder, increased by piratical raids launched by the Nevilles from Calais. In 1460, the Nevilles invaded England and rapidly secured London and the South of England where Warwick had popular support, before advancing north to engage Henry's and Margaret's army in the Midlands. At the Battle of Northampton, part of the Lancastrian army defected and the rest were decisively defeated. For the second time, Henry was captured on the battlefield. He was taken to London, and confined in the Bishop of London's palace[2] while the Nevilles appointed themselves and their relatives and in-laws to most of the offices of state.[3]
The Duke of York landed in Chester[3] and made his way to London with much pomp. Entering Parliament, he attempted to claim the throne, but was met with stunned silence. Even his close allies were not prepared to support such a drastic step. Instead, after the House of Lords had considered his claim, they passed the Act of Accord, by which Henry would remain King, but York would govern the country as Lord Protector. Henry's son was disinherited, and York or his heirs would become King on Henry's death.[4] The powerless and frightened Henry was forced to assent.
Lancastrian moves
When the Battle of Northampton was fought, Queen Margaret and her seven-year-old son Edward had been at Coventry. In the aftermath of the battle, they had fled with many adventures with brigands and outlaws[5] into Cheshire and subsequently to Harlech Castle in North Wales, where they joined Lancastrian nobles (including Henry's half-brother Jasper Tudor and the Duke of Exeter) who were recruiting armies in Wales and the West Country. They subsequently proceeded by ship to Scotland, where Margaret gained troops and other aid for the Lancastrian cause from the Queen, Mary of Guelders, in return for the surrender of the town and castle of Berwick upon Tweed.[6]
At the same time, other Lancastrians were rallying in Northern England. Those whose estates were there (the Earl of Northumberland, Lords Clifford and Ros, and John Neville of Raby who represented a northern branch of the Neville family who had been eclipsed by the southern branch headed by the Earl of Salisbury) were joined by the Duke of Somerset and the Earl of Devon from the West Country.[5] Northumberland, Clifford and Somerset were the sons of York's and Salisbury's rivals who had been killed at St. Albans.
The Lancastrian forces mustered near Kingston upon Hull, and were said (in Gregory's Chronicle, a near-contemporary account) to number 15,000. A substantial part of these forces encamped at Pontefract began pillaging York's and Salisbury's estates nearby.
York's response
Faced with these challenges to his authority as Protector, York despatched his eldest son Edward to the Welsh Marches to contain the Lancastrians in Wales and marched to the north of England himself on 9 December, leaving Warwick in charge in London. York was accompanied by his second son Edmund, Earl of Rutland, and the Earl of Salisbury. His force was said by some to number 8,000 to 9,000 men, but by others to be only a few hundred strong, as York intended to recruit local forces with a Commission of Array.[7]
York had probably underestimated the numbers of the Lancastrian army in the north, which was still being reinforced. On 16 December, at the Battle of Worksop in Nottinghamshire, York's vanguard clashed with a contingent from the West Country moving north to join the Lancastrian army, and was defeated.[8]
Battle
On 21 December, York reached his own fortress of Sandal Castle near Wakefield. He sent probes towards the Lancastrian camp at Pontefract 9 miles (14 km) to the east, but these were repulsed. York sent for help to his son Edward, but before any reinforcements could arrive, he sortied from the castle on 30 December.
It is not known for certain why York did so. One theory was later recounted in Edward Hall's chronicle, written a few decades after the event, but partly from first-hand sources, and the contemporary Burgundian Jean de Waurin's chronicle. In a stratagem possibly devised by the veteran Andrew Trollope, half the Lancastrian army under Somerset and Clifford advanced openly towards Sandal Castle, over the open space known as "Wakefield Green" between the castle and the River Calder, while the remainder under Ros and the Earl of Wiltshire were concealed in the woods surrounding the area.[9] York was probably short of provisions in the castle and seeing that the enemy were apparently no stronger than his own army, seized the opportunity to engage them in the open rather than withstand a siege while waiting for reinforcements.[10]
Other accounts suggested that, possibly in addition to Trollope's deception, York was fooled by some of Neville of Raby's forces displaying false colours into thinking either that reinforcements sent by Warwick had arrived, or that the northern Nevilles under the Earl of Westmoreland, the most senior peer in the family, were prepared to support him.[9] Another suggestion was that York and his opponents had agreed a day for battle (6 January, the Feast of Epiphany) after a Christmas truce and when York moved into the open the Lancastrians treacherously attacked earlier than had been agreed, catching York at a disadvantage while many of his men were absent foraging for supplies.[11] The simplest suggestion was that York acted rashly.[5]
The Yorkists marched out of Sandal Castle down the present-day Manygates Lane towards the Lancastrians located to the north of the castle. It is generally accepted that, as York engaged the Lancastrians to his front, others attacked him from the flank and rear, cutting him off from the castle. In Edward Hall's words:
... but when he was in the plain ground between his castle and the town of Wakefield, he was environed on every side, like a fish in a net, or a deer in a buckstall; so that he manfully fighting was within half an hour slain and dead, and his whole army discomfited.[9]
The Yorkist army was surrounded and destroyed.
Casualties
One near-contemporary source (Gregory's Chronicle) claimed that 2,500 Yorkists and 200 Lancastrians were killed, but other sources give wildly differing figures, from 2,200 to only 700 Yorkist dead.
The Duke of York was killed in the fighting. Rutland attempted to escape over Wakefield Bridge, but was overtaken and killed, possibly by Clifford in revenge for his father's death at St Albans. Salisbury's fourth son Sir Thomas Neville, and his son in law William, Lord Harington, also died in the battle.[6] Salisbury himself escaped the battlefield but was captured during the night, and was taken to the Lancastrian camp and beheaded. Although the Lancastrian nobles might have been prepared to allow Salisbury to ransom himself, he was dragged out of Pontefract Castle and beheaded by local commoners, to whom he had been a harsh overlord.[12]
Aftermath
After the battle the heads of York, Rutland and Salisbury were stuck on poles and displayed over Micklegate Bar, the western gate through the York city walls, the Duke wearing a paper crown and a sign saying "Let York overlook the town of York".
The death of Richard of York did not end the wars, or the House of York's claim to the throne. The northern Lancastrian army which had been victorious at Wakefield was reinforced by Scots and borderers eager for plunder, and marched south. They defeated Warwick's army at the Second Battle of St Albans and recaptured the feeble King Henry, who had been abandoned on the battlefield for the third time, but failed to occupy London. Meanwhile, Richard's of York's eldest son Edward, Earl of March, had defeated the Welsh Lancastrians at the Battle of Mortimer's Cross. Having lost possession of Henry, Warwick could no longer claim to be acting on his behalf and Edward of March was proclaimed King Edward IV of England. The Lancastrians withdrew to the north but were decisively defeated by Edward and Warwick at the Battle of Towton.
A monument erected on the spot where the Duke of York is supposed to have perished is positioned slightly south of the more likely spot where an older monument once stood, but which was destroyed during the English Civil War.
The battle in literature and folklore
Many people are familiar with William Shakespeare's melodramatic version of events in Henry VI, Part 3, notably the murder of Edmund of Rutland, although Edmund is depicted as a small child, and following his unnecessary slaughter by Clifford, Margaret torments his father, York, before murdering him also. In fact, York was killed during the battle, and Rutland, at seventeen, was more than old enough to be an active participant in the fighting. Margaret was almost certainly still in Scotland at the time.
The battle is said by some to be the source for the mnemonic for remembering the traditional colours of the rainbow, Richard of York Gave Battle In Vain, and also the mocking nursery rhyme, The Grand Old Duke of York although this much more likely refers to the eighteenth century duke, son of George III.
"Dickie's Meadow", a well-known Northern expression, possibly refers to Sandals Meadow where the battle of Wakefield took place and where Richard met his end. The common view held that Richard was ill-advised to fight here. The expression is usually used to warn against risky action. ("If you do that you'll end up in Dickie's Meadow".) It is a moot point how early the expression arose, and whether through folk memory or local history.[citation needed]
Notes
- ^ Rowse, p.109
- ^ Rowse, p.141
- ^ a b Royle (2009), p.257
- ^ Rowse, p.142
- ^ a b c Rowse, p.143
- ^ a b Rowse, p.144
- ^ Dockray, Keith. "Richard III.net" (PDF). p. 8. Retrieved 30 June 2009.
- ^ Warner, p.49
- ^ a b c Dockray, Keith. "Richard III.net" (PDF). pp. 9–10. Retrieved 30 June 2009. Cite error: The named reference "Dockray10" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ Warner, p.50
- ^ Royle (2009), p.262
- ^ Dockray, Keith. "Richard III.net" (PDF). p. 14. Retrieved 30 June 2009.
 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (December 2010) |
References
- Churchill, Winston (1956). A History of the English-speaking Peoples. Vol. 1. London: Cassell. ISBN 0-304-29500-0.
- Haigh, Philip A. (1996). The battle of Wakefield, 30 December 1460 (illustrated ed.). Sutton. ISBN 978-0-7509-1342-3.
- Haigh, Philip A. (1995). Military campaigns of the Wars of the Roses. Stroud, Gloucestershire: A. Sutton.
- Rowse, A.L. (1966). Bosworth Field & the Wars of the Roses. Wordsworth Military Library. ISBN 1-85326-691-4.
- Royle, Trevor (2009). The Road to Bosworth Field. London: Little, Brown. ISBN 978-0-316-72767-9.
- Warner, Philip (1972). British Battlefields: The North. Osprey. ISBN 0-00-633823-2.
