Customer Reviews

Bloody Meadow - By: J. Chippindale, 21 May 2008
I live not much more than a stone throw away from the battlefield of Towton & I don't know whether it is this fact or something else that has meant that I have always been fascinated by this battle above all othersin the campaign called the War of the Roses. The area of the battlefield is relatively large &in the present day there is a cross at the side of the road that runs across the battlefield.

The Battle of Towton has been given the title of the Bloodiest Battle ever fought on English soil & there is no reason to doubt this. It was foughtin atrocious conditions,in factin the middle of a snow storm on palm Sunday & when the Yorkists finally routed the Ancestries a wave of slaughter spread over many miles. The beaten Lancastrians were followed back towards Tadcaster & York & many of them diedin the `Cock beck' that bordered the battlefield.

The book is full of all the information necessesary to be able to get a vivid picture of what the battlefield was like at the time & to show how the opposing armies lined up their troops. It gives a detailed account of the battle, a battle that the Lancastrians appeared to winning until the Yorkists were re-inforced by more troops arriving & then the brutal & bloody rout that followed as the Lancastrians were chased from the field. The fighting was brutal & after the archers had done their bit, mainly hand to hand. There have been many skeletons unearthed from the many mass graves that littered the battlefield & some of the skulls have a square holein them, a shape that suggests they had been pole axed. For anyone interestedin battlesin general & the battle of Towtonin particular, it is a must read.