Conflict: The War of the Roses (1455-1487)
Combatants: Lancastrians vs. Yorkists
Location: England (UK)
Outcome: Yorkist victory
On this day in 1471, Edward IV's Yorkists, numbering some 4,500 men, attacked the defensive position of approximately 3,000 Lancastrians. While the Lancastrians, led by Edmond Beaufort, the Duke of Somerset, launched a bold attack on the Yorkist center left, their own center failed to advance and the attack was repulsed. The Yorkist then drove the enemy center into retreat. Among the Lancastrians, Prince Edward of Wales, Lord Wenlock, and the Earl of Devon were killed in the rout. The Lancastrian cause was all but defeated in this battle.
Points of Interest:
By the end of the same month Henry VI, the Lancastrian claimant to the throne, was dead.
Edmond Beaufort was captured and beheaded on May 6th of 1471.
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Sources:
Dupuy, R. Ernest & Dupuy, Trevor N. (1993). The Harper's Encyclopedia of Military History. New York: HarperCollins.
Eggenberger, David (1985). An Encyclopedia of Battles: Accounts of Over 1,560 Battles from 1479 B.C. to the Present. New York: Dover Publications, Inc.