Lacaster vs. York: Richard Caton Woodville's painting of the Battle of Towton
550 Years Ago This Week
For those of you interested in archaeology and/or civil wars in general, I recommend an article in The Economist about the Battle of Towton, which was fought on March 29, 1461. The battle was part of the Wars of the Roses, during which the houses of Lancaster and York battled for the English crown. At Towton the Yorkists, led by future King Edward IV, defeated the Lancastrians. It is said that at least 20,000 men died during the battle.
The article in The Economist is focused on recent archaeological finds that indicate the intense brutality of the fight. In 1996 a mass grave was discovered near the main battlefield. Here’s some info from the article:
1) size of the skeletons ranged from just under 5 feet to just under 6 feet – I didn’t realize people got that tall back then
2) Archaeology was first used to reconstruct a battle at Little Bighorn
3) Arrows were used – but so were some of the first bullets. There was also hand-to-hand fighting. The Economist article has a photo of a mean-looking poleaxe – a three-in-one instrument of mano a mano destruction. The skeletal remains indicate the ferocity of the hand-to-hand fighting:
“The stress of this kind of fighting was immense: a few of the Towton skeletons had been clenching their teeth together so tightly that bits of them splintered off.”
400 years after the Battle of Towton the stalemate in Charleston Harbor was about to end. The first cannonballs landing on Fort Sumter signalled the beginning of a war that would include many Towton-like battles.
Edward IV: the new Yorkist king after the battle
Towton Reenactors! - remembering the real dead of the Palm Sunday battle
The Photo of the reenactors is licensed by Creative Commons.
