“The red rose and the white are on his face, the fatal colours of our striving houses" (from Shakespeare’s Henry VI Part 3)
How many times I have driven up the A1M and the taken the turn-off to York oblivious to the nearby site of Towton and its significance? This year is the 550th anniversary of the ferocious Battle of Towton, the largest and longest battle of the Wars of the Roses which Shakespeare depicts in Act 2 of Henry VI Part 3. It took place on Palm Sunday 29th March 1461 in a blizzard and lasted for about ten hours; it was probably the bloodiest battle ever fought on English soil. Contemporary accounts, including a letter written by Edward IV to his mother, Cecily Neville, the day after the battle, put the losses at 28,000. And with the Yorkists victory against the Lancastrian force it settled the first Wars of the Roses in favour of Edward IV, at the time only 18 years old.
This brutal battle is well handled in George Goodwin’s book ‘Fatal Colours’. And thanks to him I have discovered a very important piece of history that contributes once more to my Plantagenet’s jigsaw, that’s currently my latest historical passion after the Tudors. Goodwin's book is a careful examination of the events at Towton but also creates the backdrop of fifteenth-century England. From the death of Henry V, with his baby son's inheritance first of England, then of France, he chronicles the vicissitudes of the 100 Years War abroad and the vicious in-fighting at home. He brilliantly describes a decade of breakdown of both king and kingdom, as increasingly embittered factions struggle for supremacy that could only be secured after the carnage of Towton.
A very enjoyable read that unfortunately was a bit spoilt for me by the clichéd depiction of Richard of Gloucester (later III) as a scheming and evil duke and subsequently monarch who not only murdered his young nephews in the Tower but also personally killed the crazy Henry VI. I think this is an accusation too far that, according to my knowledge and sources of information, has no historical evidence.
(George Goodwin talks about the Battle of Towton on BBC Look North)
