Medieval History
Today, March 29th, should be a significant and melancholy date in the English calendar, known and marked by all schoolchildren. For on Palm Sunday, March 29th 1461, as church bells rang out across the land, two vast armies met on a bleak, snow-swept Yorkshire plateau near the village of Towton to fight what was to be our country's biggest, bloodiest and longest battle.
When it comes to superlatives, Towton has them all. Even England's other epochal, history-changing clashes, Hastings in 1066 and the Somme in 1916, for example, cannot challenge Towton for the butcher's bill of the slain. Hastings was a battle that changed the ethnic, political, and linguistic culture of the land forever, and lasted across an autumn day until dark. Yet neither the numbers that fought there (7/8,000 on each side) nor the casualties inflicted, approach anywhere near the later medieval battle. The first day on the Somme, July 1st 1916, when almost 20,000 died, is generally seen as Britain's greatest military disaster, cutting the flower of the nation down like summer corn. Yet Towton trumped even that bloody day in carnage and sheer savagery. As the Civil War battle of Antietam, America's bloodiest single day, is to the US, so Towton is to England. Why, then, is it not better remembered?
Click here to read this article from the Daily Mail
- One In The Eye For History: Experts Still Fighting Over The Site Of The Battle Of Hastings
It is the most famous battle in British history, fought, as every schoolboy knows, in 1066 at a site now marked by Battle Abbey, near the town of Hastings. But while the date of the Battle of Hastings might still be universally accepted, the location...
- The Battle Of Towton: Nasty, Brutish And Not That Short
The soldier now known as Towton 25 had survived battle before. A healed skull fracture points to previous engagements. He was old enough?somewhere between 36 and 45 when he died?to have gained plenty of experience of fighting. But on March 29th 1461,...
- Handguns From The Battle Of Towton Discovered
Two men have discovered what are believed to be the earliest known fragments of battlefield handguns, which are thought to have been used at the Battle of Towton, fought in northern England in 1461. The find has been described as being of ?genuine historical...
- Wars Of The Roses: Triumphs And Defeats
ave the Date: The Richard III Foundation, Inc. presents Wars of the Roses: Triumphs and Defeats October 8 and 9, 2010 Our events will begin on Friday afternoon at the Bosworth Battlefield Centre. A private tour of the new exhibition will begin at 2 pm....
- St Mary's Lead
HDR - St Mary Lead Church, near Towton Battlefield, North Yorkshire, originally uploaded by Tiddler.This isolated fourteenth century building stands in a field close to the site of the battle of Towton, near Tadcaster in Yorkshire. Fought in the driving...
Medieval History
Towton was our worst ever battle, so why have we forgotten this bloodbath in the snow?
Today, March 29th, should be a significant and melancholy date in the English calendar, known and marked by all schoolchildren. For on Palm Sunday, March 29th 1461, as church bells rang out across the land, two vast armies met on a bleak, snow-swept Yorkshire plateau near the village of Towton to fight what was to be our country's biggest, bloodiest and longest battle.
When it comes to superlatives, Towton has them all. Even England's other epochal, history-changing clashes, Hastings in 1066 and the Somme in 1916, for example, cannot challenge Towton for the butcher's bill of the slain. Hastings was a battle that changed the ethnic, political, and linguistic culture of the land forever, and lasted across an autumn day until dark. Yet neither the numbers that fought there (7/8,000 on each side) nor the casualties inflicted, approach anywhere near the later medieval battle. The first day on the Somme, July 1st 1916, when almost 20,000 died, is generally seen as Britain's greatest military disaster, cutting the flower of the nation down like summer corn. Yet Towton trumped even that bloody day in carnage and sheer savagery. As the Civil War battle of Antietam, America's bloodiest single day, is to the US, so Towton is to England. Why, then, is it not better remembered?
Click here to read this article from the Daily Mail
- One In The Eye For History: Experts Still Fighting Over The Site Of The Battle Of Hastings
It is the most famous battle in British history, fought, as every schoolboy knows, in 1066 at a site now marked by Battle Abbey, near the town of Hastings. But while the date of the Battle of Hastings might still be universally accepted, the location...
- The Battle Of Towton: Nasty, Brutish And Not That Short
The soldier now known as Towton 25 had survived battle before. A healed skull fracture points to previous engagements. He was old enough?somewhere between 36 and 45 when he died?to have gained plenty of experience of fighting. But on March 29th 1461,...
- Handguns From The Battle Of Towton Discovered
Two men have discovered what are believed to be the earliest known fragments of battlefield handguns, which are thought to have been used at the Battle of Towton, fought in northern England in 1461. The find has been described as being of ?genuine historical...
- Wars Of The Roses: Triumphs And Defeats
ave the Date: The Richard III Foundation, Inc. presents Wars of the Roses: Triumphs and Defeats October 8 and 9, 2010 Our events will begin on Friday afternoon at the Bosworth Battlefield Centre. A private tour of the new exhibition will begin at 2 pm....
- St Mary's Lead
HDR - St Mary Lead Church, near Towton Battlefield, North Yorkshire, originally uploaded by Tiddler.This isolated fourteenth century building stands in a field close to the site of the battle of Towton, near Tadcaster in Yorkshire. Fought in the driving...