Battle of Hexham

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Battle of Hexham
date May 15, 1464
place Hexham , Northumberland , England
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

Neville arms.svg John Neville, 1st Baron Montagu

Arms of John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset.svg Henry Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset †

Troop strength
4,000 men Less than 500 men
losses

unknown

unknown

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

The Battle of Hexham on May 15, 1464 , during the Wars of the Roses, marked the end of the Lancastrian resistance in northern England at the beginning of the reign of Edward IV of England .

The battle was fought near the town of Hexham in Northumberland . John Neville, 1st Baron Montagu , who later became the 1st Marquess of Montagu, led a small army against the troops of the House of Lancaster, about 4,000 men according to current estimates. The Lancastrian troops were even smaller, it is estimated that no more than 500 soldiers. The battle ended in a victory for the House of York. Most of the Lancastrians, including Henry Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset , were captured and executed. Henry VI. was not on the battlefield, but was nearby at Bywell Castle at the time.

background

After the Battle of Hedgeley Moor , the Lancastrians regrouped at Alnwick Castle . There Henry Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, and other surviving supporters of the House of Lancaster learned that Edward IV was assembling a new army to finally break the resistance of the House of Lancaster in the north. The Lancastrians also feared that Edward IV would negotiate peace with Scotland . As a result, the positions of the House of Lancaster in the north were now immensely threatened by attacks from the Scottish side. So it was decided to take a quick action in the north of England to collect Lancastrian support.

The Lancastrian army moved through Northumberland under the Duke of Somerset in late April 1464, gathering new soldiers in Lancastrian garrisons before stopping near Hexham in early May. Lord Montagu, the victor of the Battle of Hedgeley Moor, was at the time in Newcastle and moved west to intercept the Lancastrians. On May 14, 1464, the two sides met outside the village of Hexham.

The battle

Battle of Hexham 1464

The transmitted details of the battle are only sparse. The Lancastrian army camp is believed to be on a grassland called Linnels near a course of the Devil's Water, just south of Hexham. The Yorkists passed Bywell Castle and were in attack position on Hexham on May 14th. The Yorkists were probably moved very quickly so that the Lancastrians could not warn their scouts quickly enough. The Lancastrians therefore had little time to prepare.

It is believed that Somerset had its forces advanced near Linnels Bridge and then positioned them in three parts near Devil's Water. The Yorkists lined up on a hill, slightly elevated. Montagu launched the attack early in the morning, storming his troops from their slightly higher positions into the center of the Lancastrians. In the face of the Yorkist attack, the right wing of the Lancastrian army under Lord Roos left the battlefield. The center of the Lancaster Army under Somerset gave briefly, leaving them in an awkward position with their backs to the Devil's Water river line on difficult terrain. After that they did not succeed in regrouping. A chaotic scenario ensued, in which the men either drowned in the river or were crushed on the soggy banks of the river.

The morale of the left flank under Sir Ralph Gray and Sir Humphrey Neville also collapsed quickly. Most of the men fled together with their commanders and were sometimes pursued by the Yorkists as far as Hexham. The battle ended quickly, for Somerset and his men were eventually overwhelmed.

The aftermath of the battle

John Neville cracked down on his victory and had the Earl of Somerset executed the next day. Lord Roos and Lord Hungerford were taken to Newcastle and executed two days later. After losing its lead, the Lancastrian Resistance collapsed in the north of England. Henry VI. managed to escape from Bywell Castle before Montagu arrived. Twelve months later he was captured at Clitheroe in Lancashire and sent to the Tower, where he spent the rest of his life in captivity.

After the battle, only a few castles, Alnwick, Dunstanburgh and Bamburgh, were under the rule of the Lancastrians. However, when these also fell in the course of the year, Edward IV initially had nothing to fear. About five years of relative peace followed until the Earl of Warwick turned away from the House of York in 1469 and joined the hostile Lancastrians.

literature

  • 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 .
  • Philip A. Haigh: The Military Campaigns of the Wars of the Roses . Sutton Publishing, Stroud 1995, ISBN 0-7509-1430-0 .
  • 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 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Anthony Goodman: The Wars of the Roses: Military Activity and English Society, 1452-97 . Routledge & Kegan Paul, London 1981, ISBN 0-415-05264-5 , p. 64.
  2. ^ Anthony Goodman: The Wars of the Roses: Military Activity and English Society, 1452-97 . Routledge & Kegan Paul, London 1981, ISBN 0-415-05264-5 , p. 64.
  3. ^ Alison Weir: Lancaster and York. The Wars of the Roses . Jonathan Cape, London 1995, ISBN 0-224-03834-6 , p. 325.
  4. ^ A b c John A. Wagner: Encyclopedia of the Wars of the Roses . ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara, California 2001, ISBN 1-85109-358-3 , p. 122.
  5. ^ Philip A. Haigh: The Military Campaigns of the Wars of the Roses . Sutton Publishing, Stroud 1995, ISBN 0-7509-1430-0 , pp. 84-85.
  6. ^ Philip A. Haigh: The Military Campaigns of the Wars of the Roses . Sutton Publishing, Stroud 1995, ISBN 0-7509-1430-0 , pp. 85-86.
  7. ^ A b Philip A. Haigh: The Military Campaigns of the Wars of the Roses . Sutton Publishing, Stroud 1995, ISBN 0-7509-1430-0 , p. 86.
  8. ^ Philip A. Haigh: The Military Campaigns of the Wars of the Roses . Sutton Publishing, Stroud 1995, ISBN 0-7509-1430-0 , pp. 87-88.

Coordinates: 54 ° 58 ′ 12 ″  N , 2 ° 6 ′ 0 ″  W.