Towton 1461: The Anatomy of a Battle

By Andrew Boardman and Robert Hardy

Palm Sunday 1461 was the date of a ruthless and bitterly contested battle, fought by two massive medieval armies on an exposed Yorkshire plateau for the prize of the crown of England. This singular engagement of the Wars of the Roses has acquired the auspicious title of the longest, biggest and bloodiest battle ever fought on British soil. But what drove the contending armies of York and Lancaster to fight at Towton and what is the truth behind the legends about this terrible encounter, where contemporaries record that the rivers ran red with blood? Andrew Boardman answers these questions and many more in the new updated edition of his classic account of Towton which provides a fascinating insight into the reality of the battlefield. The Battle of Towton is illustrated throughout with contemporary illustrations, modern photographs and specially drawn maps.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The History Press
• Release date: Mar 3, 2022
• ISBN: 9780750999878

Andrew Boardman

Andrew Boardman is a medieval military historian who has specialised in the Wars of the Roses. He appeared in the Channel 4 documentary 'Blood Red Roses' on the Battle of Towton and contributed to the archaeological report of the Towton excavations. He has also written 'Towton 1461' and 'The Medieval Soldier'.

Reviews for Towton 1461

[jcbrunner · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The battle of Towton in 1461 marked the turning point of the War of the Roses. The young Edward IV decisively defeated the Lancastrians and secured his throne (with a notable intermezzo that ended with the battle of Tewkesbury in 1471) for the House of York during his lifetime. Curiously, in a country that has an almost complete record of public transactions, the battle of Towton suffers from a lack of documentation and personal accounts. Much of its "facts" rely on conjecture and imagination. This is the main weakness of Boardman's study of the battle. While he markets the battle as England's bloodiest ever, the lack of information should caution a historian from making such a claim.In my view, the size (and the casualties) of the armies of both sides at this encounter battle were much smaller than Boardman and other authors allow for (the paucity of slain leaders is my main indicator for this hunch). I would also venture that the Lancastrian surprise flank attack party was a group of soldiers which had camped in the wood and were surprised by the battle.The strength of this booklet is the presentation and the photographs of the battlefield itself and its monuments. I hope that among the books that are bound to appear for the 550th anniversary of the battle will be a definitive study of the battle.