23 September 1459. The Earl of Salisbury was captured and executed. This featured authentic recreations from The Medieval Siege Society, with a guided tour of the battlefield, and culminated in a Requiem Mass for the fallen at St Saviours Church conducted by Father Peter Wadsworth. With his court reconvened at Westminster by mid April 1455, Henry and a select council of nobles, minus York and Warwick, decided to hold a great council at Leicester. The Queen asked the Prince of Wales how Bonville and Kyriell should die and the Prince replied that they should be executed, which they duly were. [2] Late on 16 February, Margaret's army swerved sharply west and captured the town of Dunstable. [3], As the Yorkists retreated, they left behind the bemused King Henry, who is supposed to have spent the battle sitting under a tree, singing. So much has already been written about the battle, so this post will focus mainly on the nearby abbey (now a cathedral). Clock Tower in the centre of the city: Second Battle of St Albans, fought on 17th February 1461 in the Wars of the Roses. Over the next three days, the Yorkists prepared to give battle to Queen Margaret’s Lancastrian army at St Albans. Montagu’s entrenchments were built, over the previous days, to face an enemy advancing from the north. After destroying the small Yorkist rising led by the butcher, Queen Margaret’s army marched through the night down Watling Street, reaching St Albans earlier than Warwick was likely to have expected. [1] Part of his defences used the ancient Belgic earthwork known as Beech Bottom Dyke. Tradition holds that both g… From Dunstable, Margaret's forces moved south-east at night, towards St Albans. Trollope stated that he was wounded in the foot by a caltrop. The Duke of Norfolk led the Forward (or Vaward) Battle on the right and Warwick's brother John Neville commanded the Rear Battle on the left. A fierce fight developed between Montagu’s men and the advancing Lancastrians. Albans before pressing their attack on the flank of the main Yorkist army, formed up on heathland outside the town. For the Lancastrian army, the direct route to London was down the London Road from Royston to Hitchin, join the road towards St Albans at Wheathamstead and, crossing Normansland Common and Bernard’s Heath, via the hamlet of Sandridge, into St Albans down the northern St Peter’s Street. In early December 1460, the Duke of York marched north to meet the Lancastrians. At the northern end of the Yorkist positions, Warwick was completely surprised by the Lancastrian attack in his rear. The cumbersome guns required to be turned around, a difficult and time-consuming exercise, not easily done in the face of a fast-moving and unexpected assault. Warwick’s men occupied Sandridge and the Duke of Norfolk was furthest to the north, at Normansland Common. This first attack was repulsed. The Duke of Somerset was killed along with other Lancastrian nobles, Henry was wounded and York was victorious. This second attack met with no opposition and the Yorkist archers in the town were now outflanked. See Burley et al, p73, Articles incorporating text from Wikipedia, http://www.stalbanshistory.org/page_id__364_path__0p2p145p148p.aspx, https://military.wikia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_St_Albans?oldid=5262755. The south of England was terrorised by the advancing Lancastrian freebooters. The Second Battle of St Albans was a battle of the English Wars of the Roses fought on 17 February 1461, at St Albans. "battaglia" in Rome were an ancestor. For the time being, the King was a puppet in the hands of the Yorkist nobles and was compelled to endorse their decisions in government. Both armies comprised strong forces of longbowmen. Heavy fighting started as the Lancastrians encountered the Yorkist archers in the area of the Market Place in the centre of St Albans, particularly around the clock tower. It was led by comparatively young nobles such as the Duke of Somerset, the Earl of Northumberland and Lord Clifford, whose fathers had been killed by York and Warwick at the First Battle of St Albans. Once the battle was lost, Bonville and Kyriell escorted the King to Lord Clifford’s tent, where he was joined by Queen Margaret. At the Battle of Wakefield, the Yorkist army was destroyed and York, Salisbury and York's second son, Edmund, Earl of Rutland, were killed in the fighting or were executed after the battle. Winner of the Second Battle of St Albans: The Lancastrians under Queen Margaret defeated the Yorkist army, re-capturing King Henry VI. Instead, an agreement was reached, the Act of Accord, by which York or his heirs were to become king after Henry's death. The rival Lancastrian army used a wide outflanking manoeuvre to take Warwick by surprise, cut him off from London, and drive his army from the field. Second Battle of St Albans, fought on 17th February 1461 in the Wars of the Roses. The main Yorkist army, commanded by the Earl of Warwick, with his younger brother, John Neville, Lord Montagu and the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk was in London. As dusk set in (which would have been in the very early evening at this time of year and in the poor weather), Warwick realised that his men were outnumbered and increasingly demoralised, and withdrew with his remaining forces (about 4,000 men) to Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire. This was found and a second attack was launched along the line of … Queen Margaret was met at St. Albans by the forces of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, who was at that time on the Yorkist side. If you are too busy to read the site, why not download a podcast of an individual battle and listen on the move! However, Warwick did equip his army with a wide range of implements of war; guns, both cannon and hand-held and petards or early hand-grenades, brought by a contingent of Burgundian mercenaries from Europe; caltrops or multi-pointed metal obstacles, thick nets interlaced with metal spikes to block the enemy’s advance and portable shields for the protection of archers and crossbowmen. The Duke of York was killed in the battle and his seventeen-year-old son, the Duke of Rutland, was recognized and killed by Lord Clifford in Wakefield after the battle. The First Battle of St Albans on 22 May 1455 is cited as the date the Wars of the Roses began. Warwick appears to have made the assumption that the Lancastrians would take this route and prepared the Yorkist positions on this basis. The Second Battle of St. Albans was won by the Lancastrians. Instead of building on this success and marching on London, they retired to the north. Although a number of secondary sources refer to the snow, recent research has shown that there is no reference to snow in any of the primary sources. It took a considerable time for Warwick to persuade his men to march back and support Lord Montague. 4 – Battle of Towton – 1461. Naturally, they intended to combine their forces to face Margaret's army, but Edward was delayed by the need to confront another Lancastrian army from Wales led by Jasper Tudor. Elizabeth Woodville, future queen of King Edward IV: Second Battle of St Albans, fought on 17th February 1461 in the Wars of the Roses. London to St Albans is a distance of around 19 miles. Battle of Monongahela 1755 – Braddock’s Defeat, Battle of Kabul and the retreat to Gandamak, Gallipoli Part I : Naval Attack on the Dardanelles, Gallipoli Part II: Land attack on Gallipoli Peninsular, Gallipoli Part III: ANZAC landing on 25th April 1915, Gallipoli Part IV: First landings at Cape Helles and Y Beach on 25th April 1915, Battle of Jutland Part I: Opposing fleets, Battle of Jutland Part II: Opening Battle Cruiser action on 31st May 1916, Battle of Jutland Part III: Clash between British and German Battle Fleets during the evening 31st May 1916, Battle of Jutland Part IV: Night Action 31st May to 1st June 1916, Battle of Jutland Part V: Casualties and Aftermath, General Braddock’s Defeat on the Monongahela in 1755 I, Gallipoli Part I: Naval Attack on the Dardanelles, Gallipoli Part II: Genesis of the land attack on the Gallipoli Peninsula, Included among the Lancastrians knighted by King Henry VI after the battle, was Sir Andrew Trollope, who led the initial attack on the Yorkist archers in St Albans. Henry's queen, Margaret of Anjou, refused to accept the Act of Accord and took Edward to Scotland to gain support there. A number of Lancastrian noblemen collected the King from his tent and took him into their lines, taking care to display the Royal Standard in the Lancastrian lines. It is said that Warwick failed to take advantage of his time in London to raise troops to face the Lancastrian advance from the north. Warwick was not further attacked by the pursuing Lancastrians, who were by now widely dispersed across the battlefield. Two knights (Lord Bonville and Sir Thomas Kyriell, a veteran leader of the Hundred Years War) had sworn to let him come to no harm, and remained with him throughout. The Wars of the Roses were fought between the supporters of the House of Lancaster, represented by the mentally unstable King Henry VI, and those of the rival House of York. Second Battle of St. Albans The Search for Edward II’s Descendants 5) In which there are far too many Margarets… October 28, 2014 November 10, 2016 ~ ilmondoditels ~ 1 Comment Meanwhile, the Lancastrians were diverted from their expected route by news of a Yorkist rising in Dunstable, led by a local butcher and assisted by a small contingent of Yorkist troops, led by Sir Robert Poynings, one of the Duke of Norfolk’s men. The second Battle of St Albans was fought on 17 February 1461 and the result may have come as a bit of a surprise to the Earl of Warwick - he lost. During the course of the defeat of Lord Montagu’s men, a Yorkist knight, Thomas Hoo, suggested to the King that he join the Lancastrian army, as the Yorkist army was disintegrating around him. In addition to being routed by the Lancastrian troops, the Yorkists saw that they were now no longer fighting for the King, but against him and might well be classed as traitors. It is now believed that this mention of snow came about from confusion with Towton, six weeks later, when snowy weather is clearly attested. The next morning Margaret asked her son, the seven-year-old Edward of Westminster, how, not whether, the two knights were to die. In addition to his casualties, Warwick had also lost the King, the essential tool for Warwick to rule the realm. Account of the Second Battle of St Albans: The Yorkists deployed scouts or ‘prickers’ in advance of their positions to warn of the Lancastrian approach. The focus of the Yorkist defences was northwards up the road towards Hitchin, the expected line of the Lancastrian approach. Storming up the hill past the Abbey, they were confronted by Yorkist archers in the town centre who shot at them from the house windows. The Yorkists were heavily defeated. Both York and Warwick, believing this council would question their loyalty, gathered their re… By July, York was constable again and the king was constrained from raising his own forces. The only prominent Lancastrian killed was Sir John Grey of Groby, father of Elizabeth Woodville, later Queen to King Edward IV. On 12th February 1461, taking King Henry VI with him, Warwick marched north to St Albans from London to intercept Queen Margaret’s Lancastrian army. Criticism is levelled at Warwick and the Yorkist command that nothing, or too little, was done, in the light of this information, to re-orientate the Yorkist army to face the Lancastrian advance. The rout enveloped the rest of the Yorkist army, which began to break up in flight. As the Lancastrian army advanced south, swollen with northern freebooters, it sacked the towns of Grantham, Stamford, Peterborough, Huntingdon and Royston. Background to the Second Battle of St Albans: At the Battle of Northampton on 10th July 1640, a disastrous defeat for the Lancastrian cause, King Henry VI fell into the hands of the Yorkists, who escorted him back to London. This first attack was repulsed. A strong contingent of Yorkist longbowmen was stationed in the centre of St Albans, around the Market Place. The Lancastrians continued on their way towards St Albans, but now on Watling Street, approaching St Albans from the west and bypassing the Yorkist army deployed on the road to the north of St Albans. The next battle of the Wars of the Roses is the Battle of Blore Heath. At Saint Albans, he had injured his foot stepping on one of Warwick's caltrops, but he nevertheless claimed to have killed fifteen Yorkists.[6]. The website St Albans & Hertfordshire Architectural and Archaeological Society has a map showing the area covered by both battles. 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