York Guides

The Tables are Turned

In 1460, the Duke of York, with Neville assistance, defeated and captured the king at Northampton. He entered London and put forward his claim to the throne. Immediately he had to face a challenge from the North. The queen and many of her supporters joined the Percies in Yorkshire. York, with the earl of Salisbury, marched against them, leaving Warwick with York's eldest son, Edward, earl of March, to hold the Midlands. They found Northumberland guarding the crossing of the Aire at Pontefract in such strength that York fell back on his castle of Sandal. Wanting a quick decision, he rashly decided to attack. In a short sharp encounter at Wakefield, "environed on every side like a fish in a net", he was defeated and killed.

Salisbury was captured and executed. York's second son Edmund, a youth of seventeen, was overtaken in flight and allegedly stabbed to death by Clifford in revenge for St. Albans - "Thy father killed my father, therefore die". The queen ordered the heads of York and Salisbury - that of York adorned with a paper crown - to be set up on Micklegate Bar in York. It was a bad precedent, likely to embitter the struggle. Then she set out for London with the northern forces. They advanced "killing and pillaging". At St. Albans they cele¬brated a minor victory by looting the town and abbey. The citizens of London were so much alarmed by the wild Northerners that they refused to admit the queen, who had to retreat to her base in Yorkshire. The gates were opened to the Yorkists, and on March 4th 1461, the eighteen-year-old earl of March was crowned king as Edward IV.

Edward was an able soldier, one of the rare Medieval commanders who realised the value of speed. He and Warwick lost no time setting off in pursuit. They came up with the enemy at the Aire. Clifford had been left to hold the crossing at Ferrybridge. He was cut off and killed by a chance arrow in the throat. The main Lancastrian army was drawn up at Towton, guarding the Crossing of the Wharfe at Tadcaster. It was the eve of Palm Sunday, March 29th. The Yorkists were greatly outnumbered, but they had the advantage of the weather - some called it a miracle - for a snowstorm blew up from the south, beating in the faces of the enemy and causing the arrows of the archers to fall short.

There was fierce hand-to-hand fighting in the whirling snow. When both sides were nearly exhausted, Yorkist re¬inforcements arrived. The Lancastrians broke. Many were drowned trying to cross the flooded river. Westmorland and Dacre fell in the battle. Northumberland was wounded and taken to die at his "Inn" in Walmgate, York. In 1786, a gold ring with the Percy crest, a lion passant, and the words "Nowe ys thus", was picked up on Towton field. The queen fled to Scotland.

The tables had been turned with a vengeance. The heads of the Lancastrians replaced those of York and Salisbury on Micklegate Bar. Edward returned in triumph to London. Parliament passed an Act of Attainder declaring the Lan¬castrian leaders traitors, and their lands forfeit to the Crown. In Yorkshire the dominant party became the dispossessed. The king took over most of the forfeited estates and those of the Duchy of Lancaster. The Nevilles emerged triumphant. The Percy lands and the title of earl of Northumberland went to Warwick's brother, John Neville. Another brother, George Neville, was made Archbishop of York. Middleham became the "nursery" of young Nevilles, a place where they could be brought up in safety. The children's quarters were in the south-west or "Prince's" tower, and a warm, snug room over the bakehouse was known as the "Nursee". There, too, the king sent his youngest brother Richard, a frail lad of seven.

What became of the dispossessed ? The legend - and the truth - about Henry Clifford, the "Shepherd Lord" idealised by Wordsworth, throws light on this. Wordsworth's account is based on Hall, a sixteenth century chronicler. Deeds of vengeance form a background - the grandfather killed at St. Albans, young Edmund York stabbed at Wakefield by the "Butcher" Clifford, who met his own fate at Towton. Their lands were declared forfeit. The victors went to destroy his infant son, but "Good old Threlkeld" had spirited him and his mother away. The child was brought up as a shepherd, ignorant of his parentage, until at the accession of Henry Tudor in 1485, he was restored to his lands and honours, and was known to fame as the "Good Lord Clifford".

It is a charming story, to which Wordsworth added his own philosophy of nature:
"Love had he found in huts where
poor men lie;
His daily teachers had been woods
and rills,
The silence that is in the starry sky,
The sleep that is among the lonely
hills."

The truth is, that Henry was seven years old at the time of his father's death, the eldest of four children. His life was in no danger. Edward was not the man to use unnecessary cruelty. The family lost Skipton, and took refuge with Lord Vesci of Londesborough, Lady Clifford's father, where they were not molested. Lady Clifford found a second husband in Lancelot Threlkeld, their steward in Westmorland, who retained his estates, as did the other gentlemen who had served under Clifford. Henry Clifford "esquire" grew up at Londesborough until Henry Tudor's victory at Bosworth restored him to his lands and titles. He was certainly a well-beloved figure around whom legend was likely to gather.

Lord Roos took to the sea and engaged in piracy. Others of the family were implicated in smuggling operations on Humberside. Queen Margaret, with her husband and young son took refuge in Scotland. She and the Percies maintained a resistance on the Border. Edward left most of the fighting to the new Neville earl of Northumberland, but in 1464 he came north to assist him. They beat the Lancastrians at Hedgeley Moor and Hexham, and poor King Henry was a fugitive again. At Bolton-by-Bowland - Sir Ralph's effigy, with his three wives and twenty-five children, can be seen in Bolton church. Henry was passed on to the Singletons of Waddington - a room in the tower at Waddington Hall is known as King Henry's Room.

Their enemies the Talbots got wind of his presence and captured him on "Bungerley hypping-stones" as he was trying to cross the Ribble. He was sent as a prisoner to the Tower, and the North settled down to a troubled peace. Yorkshire had suffered as much as any part of the country. Two great battles had taken place there, and an army had to live on the land. But the destruction of life and property was limited. The numbers involved in the fighting were greatly exaggerated by contemporary chroniclers. At Towton, the Lancastrians are said to have numbered twenty thousand, the Yorkists rather less. The modern view is that not more than five thousand men were engaged.

In all the battles the losses among the leaders were very heavy. After the archers had loosed their volleys, it was mostly hand-to-hand fighting with sword, axe or "bill" - a shortish spear - without much strategy once the combatants had come together, and the leaders fought on foot at the head of their men. Those who were captured were usually executed. The rank and file suffered far less. Most of them were retainers and "household men", well armed by their masters.

Armour would have been plentiful after the French wars, and there would be many old soldiers, accustomed to the use of arms and experienced in looking after themselves. If their leader fell, his followers usually fled. The humble dead would be buried without ceremony, like those whose remains have been found in a trench at Towton. Tenants from the plough and the sheep-fold were much too valuable as producers to be called on to fight. The worst the war could bring was plundering in the wake of the armies, and perhaps a change of masters.