Battle of Blore Heath
| date | September 23, 1459 |
|---|---|
| place | Blore Heath |
| output | Victory of the house of York |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
|
James Tuchet, 5th Baron Audley † |
|
| Troop strength | |
| 6,000-12,000 men | 3,000-6,000 men |
| losses | |
|
about 2,000 fallen |
about 1,000 fallen |
St Albans - Blore Heath - Ludlow - Northampton - Wakefield - Mortimer's Cross - St Albans - Ferrybridge - Towton - Hedgeley Moor - Hexham - Edgecote Moor - Losecote Field - Barnet - Tewkesbury - Bosworth Field - Stoke
The Battle of Blore Heath was a Battle of the Wars of the Roses on September 23, 1459. The Army of the House of York, led by Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury , faced the Army of the House of Lancaster under James Tuchet, 5th Baron Audley. The battle ended in a victory for the House of York.
Historical background
After the first Battle of St Albans in 1455, there was a difficult peace in England. Attempts at reconciliation between the Houses of Lancaster and York met with little success. Both sides became wary of the other and recruited armed supporters. The Queen ( Margaret of Anjou ) continued to support the King ( Henry VI ), while the Yorkists under Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York , received much anti-royal support, although raising arms against the King was subject to severe punishment.
The Yorkist army, led by Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury, at Middleham Castle , Yorkshire , had to join the main Yorkist army at Ludlow Castle , Shropshire . Salisbury marched southwest through the Midlands . The Queen ordered James Tuchet, 5th Baron Audley , to raise an army and follow him.
Course of the battle
Audley chose the arid heathland for an ambush. On the morning of September 23, 1459, the day of Saint Thecla , an army of 6,000 to 12,000 men took up a defensive position behind a large hedge that lay at the southwest end of Blore Heath and pointed towards Newcastle-under-Lyme , which Direction Salisbury was coming from.
Yorkist scouts spotted Lancastrian banners over the edge of the hedge and immediately warned Salisbury. When they got into the woods, the Yorkist army of about 3,000-6,000 men realized that a much larger enemy army was waiting for them there. Salisbury immediately ordered the battle line-up, just out of reach of the Lancastrian archers. To protect the men on the right flank, he had the supply wagons set up around them. It is narrated that the Yorkist soldiers, who feared a fight, kissed the ground beneath them out of fear, thinking that this was the reason they would die.
The two armies were separated by about 300 meters of heather, a steep and fast flowing stream flowed between them. This made Audley's position seemingly unassailable.
Initially, both leaders tried to negotiate to prevent bloodshed. As was the case in many late medieval battles, the conflict should begin with the archers of the two sides fighting a duel, but this was useless because of the distance between the two sides.
Salisbury, knowing that any attack across the stream would be suicide, used a trick to get the enemy to attack. He withdrew part of his budget so that the Lancastrians would think they were withdrawing. The Lancastrians launched a cavalry attack . After doing this, Salisbury brought his men back and thus intercepted the Lancastrians as they tried to cross the creek. This brought great losses on the part of the Lancastrians.
The Lancastrians withdrew and then made a second attack, perhaps to prevent further attacks. This time many Lancastrians were able to cross the stream. This led to a period of intense combat in which Audley himself was killed, perhaps by Sir Roger Kynaston.
Audley's death meant that command of the Lancastrian Army fell to John Sutton, 1st Baron Dudley, who ordered 4,000 foot soldiers to attack. When this attack also failed, some 500 Lancastrians switched sides and fought their own men. With that, any remaining Lancastrian resistance collapsed and the Yorkists only had to end the battle successfully.
The battle lasted well into the night when the Yorkists made the enemy retreat for miles into the hinterland.
Salisbury believed Lancastrian supplies were on their way. He made camp on a hill in Market Drayton. Salisbury hired a local clergyman to stay at Blore Heath and fire a cannon at regular intervals during the night to make the Lancastrians believe the fight was going on.
It is believed that 3,000 men died in the battle, 2,000 of them on the Lancaster side. Local legend has it that the creek, Hempmill Brook, was red with blood 3 days after the battle.
Another legend has it that Margaret of Anjou watched the battle from a church tower in nearby Mucklestone and fled when she saw Audley being defeated. It is said that she hired the blacksmith William Skelhorn to reverse her horse's shoes to hide her escape. This blacksmith's anvil stands in Mucklestone's churchyard to commemorate it.
Commemoration
After the battle, a cross was erected on the spot to mark the point where Audley was slain. In 1765 it was replaced by a stone cross, which still stands today ( Audley's Cross ). Audley was buried in Darley Abbey in Derbyshire .
Every September is the battle by a re-enactment ( reenactment recalls).
literature
- Philip A. Haigh: The Military Campaigns of the Wars of the Roses . Sutton Publishing, Stroud 1995, ISBN 0-7509-1430-0 .
- Brian Swynnerton, William Swinnerton: The Battle of Blore Heath, 1459 . Paddy Griffith Associates, Nuneaton 1995.
- John A. Wagner: Encyclopedia of the Wars of the Roses . ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara, California 2001, ISBN 1-85109-358-3 .
- Alison Weir: Lancaster and York. The Wars of the Roses . Jonathan Cape, London 1995, ISBN 0-224-03834-6 .
Web links
Coordinates: 52 ° 54 ′ 49 ″ N , 2 ° 25 ′ 29 ″ W.