First Battle of St Albans

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First Battle of St Albans
date May 22, 1455
place St Albans , Hertfordshire
output Victory of the house of York
Parties to the conflict

Yorkshire rose.svg York House

Red Rose Badge of Lancaster.svg Lancaster house

Commander

Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York ; Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick ; Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury

Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham

Troop strength
7,000 men 2,000-3,000 men
losses

unknown

100 fallen

Battles of the Wars of the Roses (1455–1485)

The First Battle of St Albans was the first military confrontation of the Wars of the Roses and was fought in the city of St Albans on May 22, 1455 . Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York and his allies, Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick and Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury , defeated the royal army. Key opponents of the House of York, including Edmund Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset , were killed. Richard of York took Henry VI. caught and shortly afterwards was appointed protector of England by parliament.

prehistory

Richard of York was one of the greatest opponents of the court party around Henry VI. As early as 1450 he demanded reforms and the removal of Heinrich's favorites from the court. In particular, he blamed the Duke of Somerset, one of the king's closest advisers, for the loss of Normandy . In 1452 Richard's troops faced the king's troops for the first time, but the confrontation ended without fighting. After unrest in parts of England and a mental illness of Heinrichs Richard gained influence and was protector and defender of the kingdom in 1454, whereby he practically exercised the office of regent instead of Heinrichs. With Heinrich's recovery at the turn of the year 1454/1455, however, he lost this office again, and Heinrich's court party gained significantly in influence again. Somerset, imprisoned in the Tower under Richard's protectorate, was released by the king.

Richard of York and his main allies, Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury, and Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, then left the court for their lands in northern England. In April 1455 the king called the three nobles to a great council to be held in Leicester on May 21st . However, the three sensed a trap in the invitation and gathered troops with whom they moved south. The king then moved with his royal army and in the company of his advisers, including the Duke of Somerset and Humphrey Stafford, Duke of Buckingham , whom King Henry appointed shortly before the battle instead of Somerset as commander. The two enemy troops met in St Albans.

Course of the battle

First Battle of St Albans: Position of the Armies

With Henry's army outnumbered the Yorkist army, the royal army withdrew to the city of St Albans in the hope of having more defenses within the city. The Yorkists camped in the eastern fields off St Albans. Henry's army erected barricades on Holywell Hill and St Peter's Street to protect themselves from a Yorkist attack. The King set up his banner in St Peter's Street, near the Abbey and across from the Castle Inn.

First, the two hostile parties negotiated. When Heinrich reacted to Richard's demands with a fit of anger and Richard knew that more reinforcements would soon arrive for Heinrich, he decided to attack.

The Yorkists were initially unable to break through the barricades of the royal army in St Albans. The decisive factor in the battle was Warwick's decision to penetrate the city with 600 men of his troops through the gardens and houses in the non-barricaded part and advance to the place where the king camped with his banner. There the royal troops were slaughtered by Warwick's men, injuring the king and his commander, Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham . Edmund Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset, was killed outside the Castle Inn. Many soldiers in the royal troops were not yet fully armed and armed because they had expected lengthy negotiations and not such a rapid attack. Within half an hour the battle was finally over and the king was imprisoned.

Effects

The first battle of St Albans was not very important militarily as it lasted less than an hour. Compared to other battles of the Wars of the Roses, there were only a few deaths, but there were disproportionately many aristocrats among them. Politically, however, the battle was an overwhelming victory for the House of York: the king was captured and escorted to London by the Yorkists. Richard of York was reappointed protector of the country a short time later. Responsibility for the battle was given by Parliament in 1455 to the Duke of Somerset and his partisans, and the Yorkists were absolved of guilt. Some of the chief enemies of the House of York also fell in battle, such as the Duke of Somerset, Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland , and Thomas Clifford, 8th Baron de Clifford.

literature

  • Burley, Elliott & Watson: The Battles of St Albans . Pen & Sword, 2007, ISBN 978-1-84415-569-9 .
  • Martin J. Dougherty: The Wars of the Roses . Amber Books, London 2015, ISBN 978-1-78274-239-5 .
  • Anthony Goodman: The Wars of the Roses: Military Activity and English Society, 1452-97 . Routledge & Kegan Paul, London 1981, ISBN 0-415-05264-5 .
  • Desmond Seward: The Wars of the Roses and the Lives of Five Men and Women in the Fifteenth Century . Constable, London 1995, ISBN 0-09-474100-X .
  • Alison Weir: Lancaster and York. The Wars of the Roses . Jonathan Cape, London 1995, ISBN 0-224-03834-6 .

Web links

Commons : Category: First Battle of St Albans  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ John A. Wagner: Encyclopedia of the Wars of the Roses . ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara, California 2001, ISBN 1-85109-358-3 , pp. 241 .
  2. ^ Alison Weir: Lancaster and York. The Wars of the Roses . Jonathan Cape, London 1995, ISBN 0-224-03834-6 , pp. 199 .
  3. ^ Alison Weir: Lancaster and York. The Wars of the Roses . Jonathan Cape, London 1995, ISBN 0-224-03834-6 , pp. 201 .
  4. ^ Anthony Goodman: The Wars of the Roses: Military Activity and English Society, 1452-1497 . Routledge, London / New York 1981, ISBN 0-415-05264-5 , pp. 24 .
  5. ^ Jürgen Sarnowsky: England in the Middle Ages . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2002, p. 184-186 .
  6. ^ John A. Wagner: Encyclopedia of the Wars of the Roses . ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara, California 2001, ISBN 1-85109-358-3 , pp. 241 .
  7. ^ Desmond Seward: The Wars of the Roses and the Lives of Five Men and Women in the Fifteenth Century . Constable, London 1995, ISBN 0-09-474100-X , pp. 42 .
  8. ^ Martin J. Dougherty: The Wars of the Roses . Amber Books, London 2015, ISBN 978-1-78274-239-5 , pp. 83 .
  9. ^ Alison Weir: Lancaster and York. The Wars of the Roses . Jonathan Cape, London 1995, ISBN 0-224-03834-6 , pp. 201 .
  10. ^ A b Martin J. Dougherty: The Wars of the Roses . Amber Books, London 2015, ISBN 978-1-78274-239-5 , pp. 86 .
  11. ^ Desmond Seward: The Wars of the Roses and the Lives of Five Men and Women in the Fifteenth Century . Constable, London 1995, ISBN 0-09-474100-X , pp. 42 .

Coordinates: 51 ° 44 ′ 55.3 "  N , 0 ° 20 ′ 20.4"  W.