The Battle of Wakefield (1460)

TOPIC: Battle of Wakefield, War of the Roses (1460)

In this week in military history, we explore the 15th Century Battle of Wakefield and its influence on the succession politics of England.

During the Wars of the Roses, English nobles vied to rule England. In 1460, Queen Margaret became worried that her young son Edward, the Prince of Wales, would be disinherited through the political maneuvers of the powerful Duke of York.

The Duke of York had decided in October 1460 that he should rule in the name of King Henry. He expected the nobles to embrace his claim as he was undeniably next in line to the throne after King Henry through his father.

His peers felt that York's claim compounded their political problems rather than solving them, due to his polarizing personality and past actions which included rumors of treason.

York negotiated with the lords in Parliament and was named King Henry's heir on October 31, 1460.

Nobles loyal to Queen Margaret and the House of Lancaster then began mustering men in the North of England. In December, Queen Margaret traveled north to Scotland to seek support from the court there.

York sent his eldest son, the Earl of March to Wales while he marched north with the Earl of Salisbury to secure that area. York expected a quiet Christmas season at his castle of Sandal, near Wakefield.

On the 30 of December, while his men were foraging in the countryside they were surprised by the Lancastrian army. York and his men charged into the Lancastrians and were overwhelmed by Lord Roos and his men who appeared from the wooded area to the east.

In the ensuing ferocious battle, the Duke of York and his seventeen-year-old son were killed – as well as Thomas Neville, the son of the Earl of Salisbury.

Within days, the earl of Salisbury himself was captured and killed instead of being held for the customary ransom. Their heads were decorated with paper crowns and impaled on spikes at the gates of the city of York as a gruesome reminder by their victorious enemies.

Join us next time for another segment of This Week in Military History with the Pritzker Military Museum & Library.


Photo taken by Abcdef123456
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sa...

Author Dennis Turner
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fil...

Author Andy Buckley
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...


https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/216...
The Battle of Wakefield
Copyright Mike Kirby

Sandal Castle
https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/216...
Copyright Mike Kirby


Sandal Castle
https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/216...
Copyright Mike Kirby


“Head of the Duke of York”
Samuel G Goodrich – A pictorial history of England, 1854