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The Beaumont Brothers and the Battle of Towton

29/3/2019

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When it comes to the anniversary of the Battle of Towton, fought on the 29th March in 1461, I always think of all those men, many of whose names we will never know, who faced each other on that bitterly cold Palm Sunday. However, researching my family history I have discovered the names of two of the men who lost their lives that day. These men were brothers John and Henry Beaumont who were two of the three sons of Thomas Beaumont and his wife Philippa Maureward and they were not yet twenty-five and if that is not sad enough I believe that these brothers were probably twins.
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Their father had been a veteran of the Hundred Years War and had fought under Edmund of Norwich, Duke of York in France, and on their father's death, the family lands had been divided John, Henry and their brother Thomas.

Despite living in a country where a man could be called up for battle at any time these young men must have dreamt of peace, a time to spend in their newly acquired piece of England, but many a dream was shattered in the era that we know as the Wars of the Roses - regardless of which side you fought on. The Beaumonts of Leicestershire were staunchly Lancastrian and at the Battle of Towton, Henry VI's forces would be brought to their knees by Edward IV's Yorkist army.
Picture
So the Beaumont brothers found themselves on a battlefield in Yorkshire with an icy wind circling around the feet and sleet blowing in their faces. As the battle commenced many soldiers may have thought, judging by the number of men on the field, that Towton would be a decisive battle, but the wind blew harder and the snow increased and hand to hand combat turned into bloody slaughter - decisive it was indeed. By the end of that cold and wretched day, over twenty thousand men lost their lives.

I don't know yet of the fate of John and Henry Beaumont's bodies, maybe their battered faces were recognised among the dead and they were taken home but I doubt it. What is more likely is that they were both thrown into one of the many mass graves dug on the battlefield, to spend eternity with the thousands of other nameless poor souls.

​My post makes grim reading, doesn't it? But what makes even grimmer reading is the shocking evidence of how exactly many of the soldiers at Towton died. One man on the battlefield that day is now known as Towton 25 he was called this because we don't know his name, but what we do know is that what remains of him is gruesome evidence of what he had to endure.

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​Towton 25's story can be found on my blog on my website - you can read it here.

                     meanderingthroughtime.weebly.com/wars-of-the-roses-blog/battle-of-towton-29th-march-14611
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Battle of Ferrybridge

12/3/2016

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28th March 1461

 In the early months of 1461, Edward IV captured the hearts of the people of London, but the city wasn’t England and to win the counties hearts he would have to defeat the Lancastrians once and for all, and at Towton Edward would show no mercy.
Picture
Battle of Ferrybridge by Graham Turner. http://www.studio88.co.uk/acatalog/medieval_prints.html
Edward had left London and had reached the Yorkshire town of Pontefract fourteen days later. At this point in time the main Lancastrian army was probably at York, this meant that they were separated by two rivers, the Wharf in the north and more importantly, the Aire in the south.

The crossing on the river Aire at Ferrybridge was to play host to an event that would eventually lead to the more famous Battle of Towton a day later. By the time dusk had arrived on the 27th, Richard Earl of Warwick, had reached Ferrybridge and found the Lancastrian forces on the Aires other bank had made a good job of destroying the bridge, this had the effect of cutting off Warwick’s vanguard. A small Yorkist force had left while Warwick’s men had made another ‘bridge’ out of planks of wood. Edward was still south of the river had recently received word of the arrival of a large number of Lancastrian soldiers under the command of the Duke of Somerset who had set up camp between the villages of Towton and Saxton.

The morning of the 28th of March saw Warwick’s army taken by surprise by Lancastrian soldiers and in the confusion and panic many of Warwick's troops lost their lives, and it was at this point, that Richard Neville had been hit in the leg by an archers arrow. Edward Hall, the fifteenth century chronicler, does write of Warwick’s leg wound, but has him heroically riding to inform the king of the battle and then has him nobly cutting the throat of his horse to prove his commitment. It is unlikely that Warwick did such a thing, but it does show how committed these men were to a cause.


Edwards forces succeeded in taking possession of the bridge, and once this was done the king moved his army across the river and prepared to take on the Lancastrian forces the following day.
 


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Battle of Towton: 29th March 1461

6/10/2015

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The Battle of Towton, cannot be looked at in isolation, writes the Towton Battlefield Society, the conflict was precipitated by events leading up to 1461, which explain why inevitably, it became Britain’s bloodiest battle.  
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Towton 25 Image by Christopher Maudsley
It is very easy to view the battle weary knight, riding into the distance on his worn out steed, scarred and blooded in a romantic light isn't it? We visualise our armoured hero, victorious, always living to fight another day. But at Towton, on the 29th March 1461, it is said that 28,000 men lost their lives, this should shock us but it doesn't really, does it?
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When I think of this, I am guilty of visualising the smokey, body strewn, blood soaked battlefield scene of Kenneth Branagh's Henry V. With images like that, it is very hard for us to really understand the extent of these poor men's injuries. Today we have evidence of the wounds the medieval man inflected on one another and I would like to feature a man who died that day, whose real name we do not know, but who is known as Towton 25. This soldier had survived battle before - at Towton he was not so lucky.
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The Opening Barrage, by Graham Turner
A closer look at the wounds this man received that cold Palm Sunday at Towton revealed:

"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, his luck ran out. Towton 25 suffered eight wounds to his head that day. The precise order can be worked out from the direction of fractures on his skull: when bone breaks, the cracks veer towards existing areas of weakness. The first five blows were delivered by a bladed weapon to the left-hand side of his head, presumably by a right-handed opponent standing in front of him. None is likely to have been lethal.The next one almost certainly was. From behind him someone swung a blade towards his skull, carving a down-to-up trajectory through the air. The blow opened a huge horizontal gash into the back of his head—picture a slit you could post an envelope through. Fractures raced down to the base of his skull and around the sides of his head. Fragments of bone were forced in to Towton 25's brain, felling him. His enemies were not done yet. Another small blow to the right and back of the head may have been enough to turn him over onto his back. Finally another blade arced towards him. This one bisected his face, opening a crevice that ran from his left eye to his right jaw. It cut deep: the edge of the blade reached to the back of his throat."

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If the description of how the poor man in the image above met his end doesn't make us think then nothing will, what we really need to realise is just how horrific medieval warfare was without continually looking at it through rose coloured glasses. ​
​
You can read more about this battle on the Towton Battlefield Societies website
www.towton.org.uk/​
​Also, in the link attached, Christopher Maudsley helps us see the reality of medieval warfare by featuring Towton 25 and his fellow warriors
www.flickr.com/photos/christopher_maudsley/sets/72157633310702191​


.


​
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The Earl of Warwick’s Vow Previous to The Battle of Towton.

14/7/2015

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Picture
The Earl of Warwick's Vow Previous to the Battle of Towton 1797 Henry Tresham
In this rather dramatic image we can Richard Neville cutting the throat of his horse after informing Edward IV of the events of the Battle of Ferrybridge on the 28th March 1461. ​​

Richard Neville looks towards the heavens as he makes his vow. Those who look upon him clearly see him as divine, with his exaggerated arm movements and his nakedness (despite Tresham painting his body grey as if he wears armour) he is truly god's representative on earth. 

Henry Tresham's painting is not unlike the work of Henry Fuseli (much of whose work is similar to William Blake's) whose themes are often religious, violent and unclear.
 In this art work Tresham has chosen to illustrate Warwick's actions from William Shakespeare Henry VI Part Three: Act II. Scene V.
RICHARD
Ah, Warwick, why hast thou withdrawn thyself?
Thy brother's blood the thirsty earth hath drunk,
Broach'd with the steely point of Clifford's lance;
And in the very pangs of death he cried,
​Like to a dismal clangour heard from far,
'Warwick, revenge! brother, revenge my death!'
So, underneath the belly of their steeds,
That stain'd their fetlocks in his smoking blood,
The noble gentleman gave up the ghost

WARWICK
Then let the earth be drunken with our blood:
I'll kill my horse, because I will not fly.
Why stand we like soft-hearted women here,
Wailing our losses, whiles the foe doth rage;
And look upon, as if the tragedy
Were play'd in jest by counterfeiting actors?
Here on my knee I vow to God above,
I'll never pause again, never stand still,
Till either death hath closed these eyes of mine
Or fortune given me measure of revenge.
​

EDWARD
O Warwick, I do bend my knee with thine;
And in this vow do chain my soul to thine!
And, ere my knee rise from the earth's cold face,
I throw my hands, mine eyes, my heart to thee,
Thou setter up and plucker down of kings,
Beseeching thee, if with they will it stands
That to my foes this body must be prey,
Yet that thy brazen gates of heaven may ope,
And give sweet passage to my sinful soul!
Now, lords, take leave until we meet again,
Where'er it be, in heaven or in earth.

Far too melodramatic for my taste, this tale of Warwick slaughtering his own horse is as untrue as Tresham's image is strange - is it any wonder we get the wrong idea of great characters in history. 
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