Battles of the Wars of the Roses

Origins of the Wars of the Roses

The Wars of the Roses that lasted between 1455 and 1487 saw a series of bloody battles during one of the most turbulent periods of English history. The Houses of Lancaster and York fought for control of the crown devastating the nobility and bringing an end to the Plantagenet dynasty. In fact, the fifteenth century was one of the most violent periods in England with four kings deposed, three kings probably murdered in secret and one killed in battle. The wars also resulted in the deaths of several princes of the royal blood as the noble families of the realm destroyed each other in savage battles.

The term ‘Wars of the Roses’ is a nineteenth-century invention and may have originated from a scene in William Shakespeare’s King Henry VI Part 1 in the Temple Gardens where the Duke of Somerset plucks a red rose and the Duke of York a white rose for their emblems. There is no truth in this legend although the Duke of York used the white rose as one of his badges and there is evidence of the red rose of Lancaster in a genealogical chart.

The causes of the wars were many and followed years of growing tensions between various factions of the nobility in the Lancastrian government of King Henry VI. The Hundred Years’ War with France had gone badly for England who lost all her continental possessions except for Calais and ill feelings existed because of the way the war had been carried out. A weak king had also appointed his favourites who were seen as self-serving and corrupt, to positions in government.

The end of the Hundred Years’ War in 1453 caused political, social and economic problems in England as lands won by King Henry V were lost to the French-inspired by Joan of Arc then King Charles VII. The costly war in France had caused high taxation and loss of life in England especially in the southeast of the country.

King Henry VI: A Weak Monarch

King Henry VI of the House of Lancaster was not a good politician nor was he a military leader. He suffered from mental illness and did not maintain law and order. Discontent in England led to Jack Cade’s rebellion in 1450 which was brutally crushed and later to Richard Third Duke of York challenging the ruling elite and eventually making a claim to the throne as a descendant of King Edward III. York’s challenge to King Henry VI, however, was challenged by the king’s French wife Margaret of Anjou who was supported by the Lancastrian faction and this ultimately led to armed conflict and much bloodshed throughout the country.

In February 1455 King Henry VI appeared in parliament after a prolonged period of mental illness and dismissed the Duke of York from his office as Protector of the Realm. Edmund Beaufort second Duke of Somerset who was a deadly rival of the Duke of York, then became the leader of the Lancastrian party and summoned a Council meeting in Leicester to make provision for the king ‘against his enemies.’

The Duke of York and his allies Richard Neville Earl of Salisbury and his son Richard Earl of Warwick then became fearful for their safety and summoned their armed retainers to march to London.

The Battle of St Albans: The War Begins

Battle of St. Albans – Map of the battle

Around 3,000 experienced Yorkist troops which included billmen, pikemen and archers from the Scottish borders led by Sir Robert Ogle, encountered about 2,000 Lancastrians on 22^nd May 1455 at St Albans which thereby became the first battle of the Wars of the Roses. The Lancastrian soldiers led by King Henry VI, the Dukes of Buckingham and Somerset, Earl of Northumberland, Lord Clifford and other lords, were relatively inexperienced and included the personal retainers of the nobility.

The king’s troops had marched up Holywell Street in St Albans and barricaded the Tonman ditch on the east side of the town facing the Yorkists who had formed up in Keyfield. King Henry VI remained in the marketplace with his retainers which served as his headquarters.

Three hours of negotiations followed the arrival of the two armies which was the usual practice at that time when it was believed that a settlement could be reached. Heralds were sent back and forth; the king raised his banner at the town square showing that he was ready to give battle and demanded to know why the Duke of York had arrived there with so many men.

The Duke of York protested his loyalty to the king but added ‘surrender to us such as we accuse, and not to resist till we have him which deserves death or else we die therefore.’

King Henry’s reply was just as uncompromising:

‘ I, King Harry, charge and command that no manner of person abides not but void the field and not be so hard to make any resistance against me in mine own realm, for I shall know what traitor dare be so bold to raise a people in mine own land, where through I am in great disease and heaviness. And by the faith that I owe to St Edward and the Crown of England, I shall destroy them every mother’s son, and they be hanged, drawn and quartered that may be taken afterwards, of them to have example to all such traitors to beware to make such rising of people within my land, and so traitorly to abide their King and Governor.’

It was now clear that negotiations had failed and the Duke of York ordered his trumpeter to sound the alarm and his troops to commence the attack on the Lancastrian army at the barricades by the Tonman ditch. Inside the town of St Albans, the attack came as a big surprise because most had assumed that there would be a negotiated settlement. The alarm bell rang out at the Clock Tower, soldiers ran back to the defences, and knights and noblemen called out for their servants to help them put on their armour.

Battle of St. Albans – The battle superimposed over a modern street map

The Yorkist attacks on the barricades at Shropshire Lane and Sopwell Lane met determined resistance and were pushed back with heavy casualties because, in the narrow lanes, they could not utilise their superior numbers. The situation appeared desperate for the Yorkist cause because neither the Duke of York at Shropshire Lane nor the Earl of Salisbury at Sopwell Lane were able to break through.

However, the course of the battle drastically changed when the Earl of Warwick who commanded the Yorkist reserves at only twenty-six years of age, led his force through the back gardens at the centre of the barricades into the town. It may have been Warwick’s commander Sir Robert Ogle, with his 600 archers who had suggested this course of action through the weakly held Lancastrian defences.

A volley of arrows preceded the attack, followed by a determined assault over the ditch, past the outhouses, as the Yorkist troops arrived at Holywell Street shouting ‘A Warwick, A Warwick’, waving his banner of the Bear and Ragged Staff.

The Lancastrian defenders at the barricades now found themselves attacked from the front and rear, with the Yorkists turning left and right and attacking all before them. They fell back in confusion hoping to join the king at the centre of town.

The remaining Lancastrian nobility, together with their retainers rallied around the king and the royal standard at the marketplace at St Peter’s Street. Many did not have time to put on their armour and were killed by a storm of arrows with King Henry VI himself wounded by an arrow in the neck. There was now little organized Lancastrian resistance left, the royal standard abandoned and the second Earl of Northumberland, son of Harry Hotspur was killed.

Abbot John Whethamstede later described the scene in a letter ‘Here you saw one fall with his brains dashed out, there another with a broken arm, a third with a cut-throat, and a fourth with a pierced chest, and the whole street was full of dead corpses.’

The Lancastrian soldiers who were not killed or wounded fled for their lives, throwing away their weapons and heavy armour in many cases. The injured King Henry was helped to a tanner’s cottage to have his wound treated, crying ‘Forsooth, forsooth, you do foully to smite a king anointed so!’ When the Duke of York heard that he had been found he ordered him to be taken to the abbey for his safety.

The Duke of Somerset had taken refuge at the Castle Inn near the marketplace with some of his men. They were surrounded by Yorkist troops and defended themselves well, but eventually had no option but to come outside. It was said that Somerset killed four men by his own hand before he was felled by a Yorkist axe and he later died. A legend was told that it had been prophesied that Somerset would die in the shadow of a castle and because of this he always avoided castles until he became trapped at the Castle Inn.

The Duke of York, the Earl of Salisbury and the Earl of Warwick made their way to St Albans Abbey, approached the king on bended knee, assured him that they were his loyal subjects and begged for his forgiveness. The king forgave them, his threats to hang, draw and quarter them now forgotten and requested that their men cease doing any more harm. The Yorkist soldiers had been plundering the town and York ordered them to cease and the lawlessness gradually came to an end.

It is likely that the battle only lasted about half an hour and the number killed was estimated at 120 according to the contemporary Paston Letters. However, the Duke of Somerset, Earl of Northumberland and Lord Clifford who were the main targets of the Yorkist faction were all killed as well as many knights and squires of the king’s household. They were later all buried at the abbey but their tombs were destroyed in the Reformation of King Henry VIII.

The following day, the Yorkist army escorted King Henry VI back to London, the Duke of York rode to the king’s right, the Earl of Salisbury to his left and the Earl of Warwick at the front carrying the sword of state.

A Nation in Chaos: The Aftermath of St Albans

On 25^th May 1455, the king went in procession to St Paul’s Cathedral wearing the crown to show his authority but it was clear that the Yorkist faction now had control of the government with the Duke of York appointed Constable of England and the Earl of Salisbury Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. The Lancastrian Lords made their peace with York but he still had his enemies including the king’s wife Margaret of Anjou. The sons of the second Duke of Somerset, second Earl of Northumberland and eighth Lord Clifford all killed at St Albans, who had inherited their fathers’ titles, were now biding their time for revenge against York which meant that the conflict was far from over.