"inspirational deed of slaying his horse to show his resolve to stand and fight with the common soldiers. The tradition died in 1798 when the Inclosure Acts implemented by the English government redesignated the common land, on which the equine figure was located, as private property. The scouring was revived during the early 20th century but has since stopped. Battle of Towton The Battle of Towton was fought on 29 March 1461 during the English Wars of the Roses, near the village of Towton in Yorkshire. A culminating engagement in the dynastic struggles between the houses of Lancaster and York"
"The battle took place on a plateau between the villages of Saxton (to the south) and Towton (to the north). The region was agricultural land, with plenty of wide open areas and small roads on which to manoeuvre the armies. Two roads ran through the area: the Old London Road, which connected Towton to the English capital, and a direct road between Saxton and Towton. The steeply banked Cock Beck flowed in an S-shaped course around the plateau from the north to west. The plateau was bisected by the Towton Dale, which ran from the west and extended into the"
"refused entry. On 3 March 1461 Mowbray attended a great council at Baynard's Castle, organised small group of Yorkist loyalists, and agreed to offer Edward, Earl of March the throne. The following day—indicating the urgency for resolution felt by the Yorkists by this stage— Mowbray was sent to East Anglia to ""prepare for the war on the party of King Edward"". The Lancastrian army had returned to the north where, on 29 March 1461, York and Lancaster met at the Battle of Towton. It was to be one of the longest and bloodiest battles fought on British soil, and ""fought"
"Battle of Torrington The Battle of Torrington (16 February 1646) was a decisive battle of the south-western campaign of the First English Civil War and marked the end of Royalist resistance in the West Country. It took place in Torrington, Devon. After Lord Wentworth's defeat at Bovey Tracey, Sir Ralph Hopton was appointed Royalist commander in the west, with Wentworth commanding the horse and Sir Richard Grenville the foot. Grenville refused to recognise Hopton's command and was arrested for insubordination and imprisoned on St Michael's Mount. Hopton's army, numbering only 2,000 foot and 3,000 horse, advanced into Devon and occupied"
"and a later-built large tower housing a ring of eight bells. It was built on the site of an earlier Anglo-Saxon church. The Battle of Towton was fought nearby in 1461 and local legend tells that King Edward IV, who won the battle, used the church tower as a point for surveying the battle lines. During the English Civil War, the village was garrisoned by the Royalists for King Charles I; it was close to their stronghold at Selby and the northern capital of York, and commanded the approaches from both the south and the west. In 1645, the Parliamentarians"
"Battle of Towton in March, which resulted in a crushing defeat for the Lancastrian army. As a result of this victory, Suffolk's cousin Edward was proclaimed king as Edward IV of England, and Suffolk acted as Lord Steward at the coronation. One of de la Pole's first commissions under the new regime was to accompany Edward on his campaign against the Scots in winter 1462, although he had returned to Norwich by early the next year. Suffolk also attended the reinterment of the king's uncle and cousins, Richard, Earl of Salisbury and his son Thomas at Bisham Priory in 1463."
"dramatised by Shakespeare, and the image of the engagement as the charnel house where many sons of England were cut down endured for centuries. However, at the start of the 21st century, the ""largest and bloodiest battle ever fought on English soil"" was no longer prominent in the public consciousness. British journalists lamented that people were ignorant of the Battle of Towton and of its significance. According to English Heritage, the battle was of the ""greatest importance""; it was one of the largest, if not ""the"" largest, fought in England and it resulted in the replacement of one royal dynasty"
"have made them run red with blood for several days. Several who were taken as prisoners were executed. The power of the House of Lancaster was severely reduced after this battle. Henry fled the country, and many of his most powerful followers were dead or in exile after the engagement, letting Edward rule England uninterrupted for nine years, before a brief restoration of Henry to the throne. Later generations remembered the battle as depicted in William Shakespeare's dramatic adaptation of Henry's life—""Henry VI, Part 3"", Act 2, Scene 5. In 1929, the Towton Cross was erected on the battlefield to"
"Battle of Myton The Battle of Myton, nicknamed the Chapter of Myton or The White Battle because of the number of clergy involved, was a major engagement in the First Scottish War of Independence, fought in Yorkshire on 20 September 1319. In April 1318, Berwick-upon-Tweed, the last Scottish-claimed stronghold still in the hands of the English, was captured by Sir James Douglas and Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray, two of King Robert Bruce's most able commanders. Ever since his defeat at Bannockburn in 1314, Edward II had been preoccupied by an ongoing political struggle with his senior barons, headed by"
"the Earls of Warwick and Arundel, and Lord Fauconberg with him. The Rose of Rouen The Rose of Rouen is a fifteenth-century carol, written after the Battle of Towton in 1461, eulogizing the Yorkist leader and later King Edward IV, Edward, Earl of March. Before the Battle of Towton took place on 29 April 1461, Queen Margaret, wife of Henry VI of England, led the Lancastrian army south, fresh from victory over the Yorkists at the Battle of Wakefield. The title of the poem reflects its subject. King Edward, son of Richard, Duke of York, had been born in Rouen,"
"Battle of Sourton Down Battle of Sourton Down was a battle of the first English civil war that took place on 25 April 1643. Sourton Down lies on the edge of Dartmoor west of Okehampton in Devon. The battle involved Cornish Royalist troops under Sir Ralph Hopton who were ambushed by Major-General James Chudleigh with his cavalry. Captain Drake also led a charge against Royalist dragoons. Other Royalist commanders included Lord Mohun, Sir Bevil Grenville and Sir Nicholas Slanning. The Parliamentarians attacked but were eventually driven back and the Royalists took up defensive positions among ancient earthworks on the moor."
"Battle of Toulon (1744) The naval Battle of Toulon or Battle of Cape Sicié took place on 22–23 February 1744 (N.S.) in the Mediterranean off the coast of Toulon, France. A combined Franco-Spanish fleet fought off Britain's Mediterranean Fleet. The French fleet, not officially at war with Great Britain, only joined the fighting late, when it was clear that the greatly outnumbered Spanish fleet had gained the advantage over its foe. With the French intervention, the British fleet was forced to withdraw. In Britain the battle was regarded as the most mortifying defeat; the Franco-Spanish fleet successfully ended the British"
"around 50,000 is more likely. Nevertheless, the armies gathered at Towton were among the largest at the time. An analysis of skeletons found in a mass grave in 1996 showed that the soldiers came from all walks of life; they were on average 30 years old and several were veterans of previous engagements. Many knights and noblemen, approximately three-quarters of the English peers fought in the battle. Eight of them were sworn to the Yorkist cause whereas the Lancastrians had at least 19. The battle would decide which of the two kings would rule over England, but while Edward fought"
"Towton, on 29 March 1461. Henry Clifford himself was one of the chief commanders in the Battle of Flodden against the Scots in 1513. ""Henry Clifford"" was written in 1893-95, the first of a series of operas by Albéniz which were commissioned and supplied with English libretti by the wealthy Englishman Francis Money-Coutts. Other operas in the series are ""Pepita Jiménez"" (1896) and ""Merlin"" (1902). Albéniz began writing the opera while living in London, but subsequently moved to Barcelona where he completed the piano-vocal score for the second act. After a few months he became uncomfortable with the conservative cultural"
"his agreement with York. However, George Plantagenet, Richard and Edward's brother, has vowed to join their cause, having been encouraged to do so by his sister, the Duchess of Burgundy. Additionally, Warwick has been joined in the conflict by his own younger brother, Montague. The Yorkists regroup, and at the Battle of Towton, Clifford is killed and the Yorkists are victorious. Following the battle, Edward is proclaimed king, George is proclaimed Duke of Clarence and Richard, Duke of Gloucester, although he complains to Edward that this is an ominous dukedom. King Edward and George then leave the court, and Richard"
"Battle of Alton The Battle of Alton (also Storm of Alton), of the First English Civil War, took place on 13 December 1643 in the town of Alton, Hampshire, England. There, Parliamentary forces serving under Sir William Waller led a successful surprise attack on a winter garrison of Royalist infantry and cavalry serving under the Earl of Crawford. The Battle of Alton was the first decisive defeat of Sir Ralph Hopton, leader of Royalist forces in the south, and the event had a significant psychological effect on him as commander. More important to Hopton was the loss of men, however,"
"by another. Hill expressed a different opinion. Although impressed with the casualty figures touted by the chroniclers, he believed the battle brought no monumental changes to the lives of the English people. The Battle of Towton was associated with a tradition previously upheld in the village of Tysoe, Warwickshire. For several centuries a local farmer had scoured a hill figure, the Red Horse of Tysoe, each year, as part of the terms of his land tenancy. While the origins of the tradition have never been conclusively identified, it was locally claimed this was done to commemorate the Earl of Warwick's"
"there that the ""only practical defence of a private castle"" was made according to military historian D. J. Cathcart King. It was held against King Edward IV until its surrender in mid-September 1461 after the Battle of Towton. Re-captured by Sir William Tailboys, during the winter it was surrendered by him to Hastings, Sir John Howard and Sir Ralph Grey of Heton in late July 1462. Grey was appointed captain but surrendered after a sharp siege in the early autumn. King Edward responded with vigour and when the Earl of Warwick arrived in November Queen Margaret and her French advisor,"
"The Rose of Rouen The Rose of Rouen is a fifteenth-century carol, written after the Battle of Towton in 1461, eulogizing the Yorkist leader and later King Edward IV, Edward, Earl of March. Before the Battle of Towton took place on 29 April 1461, Queen Margaret, wife of Henry VI of England, led the Lancastrian army south, fresh from victory over the Yorkists at the Battle of Wakefield. The title of the poem reflects its subject. King Edward, son of Richard, Duke of York, had been born in Rouen, France, in 1442, while his father was on campaign. He was,"
"was named Standard Bearer of England after the War of the Roses Battle of Towton in 1461, where he saved the life of King Edward IV. Anthologist John Boots suggests that John Mathews (d. 1757), an early settler of Shenandoah, Virginia region, was a descendant of Sir David through his 3rd great-grandson Theobald Mathew (d. 1699), who lived in Thurles in County Tipperary, Ireland. Boots states that children of Theobald Mathew settled in Ulster, Northern Ireland, when the family property was passed to a senior branch of the family, and from Ulster immigrated to America during the early years of"
"the House of York in the ongoing civil war. In 1460 the two were sent to Guînes to relieve the English garrison there. Bad weather forced them into the harbour of Calais, which was held by the Yorkist leader Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick. Here they were both recruited for the Yorkist cause. Stafford took part in the Battle of Mortimer's Cross, where the Yorkist forces under Edward, Earl of March, won a major victory on 2 February 1461. After the Battle of Towton on 29 March that year, Stafford was knighted by Edward, who had by now been pronounced"
"a decisive victory at the Battle of Towton. Perhaps the most significant person to be killed at the battle of St Albans, at least in terms of its dynastic results, was John Grey of Groby, whose widow Elizabeth Woodville became the queen of Edward IV in 1464. To commemorate the 550th anniversary year of the battle, the Battlefields Trust hosted a conference on the battle on 26–27 February 2011, close to the battle site. The conference featured authentic combat recreations by the Medieval Siege Society and a guided tour of the battlefield, and culminated in a Requiem Mass for the"
"radical step of proclaiming himself king in March 1461. He then advanced against the Lancastrians, having his life saved on the battlefield by the Welsh Knight Sir David Ap Mathew. He defeated the Lancastrian army in the exceptionally bloody Battle of Towton in Yorkshire on 29 March 1461. Edward had effectively broken the military strength of the Lancastrians, and he returned to London for his coronation. King Edward IV named Sir David Ap Mathew Standard Bearer of England and allowed him to use ""Towton"" on the Mathew family crest. Lancastrian resistance continued in the north, but posed no serious threat"
"a firm hand on either government or the nobility, and by the mid-1450s civil war had broken out. The main protagonists were supporters of Henry and his Queen—Lancastrians—and those of the recalcitrant Richard, Duke of York, or Yorkists. These civil wars—known today as the Wars of the Roses—broke out in 1455 when Henry's army was defeated by a Yorkist one at the First Battle of St Albans, and there were further bloody encounters between the two sides until, eventually, in March 1461, the Yorkist army led by Edward, Duke of York, beat the royal army at Towton. This decisive engagement"
"Battle of Stratton The Battle of Stratton was a battle of the south-western campaign of the First English Civil War. Fought on 16 May 1643, the resulting victory for Hopton confirmed Royalist control of Cornwall and destroyed Parliament's field army in Devon. Discovering that Sir Ralph Hopton was advancing his Cornish Royalists into Somerset to join Prince Maurice, the Earl of Stamford was determined to prevent this. He deployed his army on a hill half a mile to the north of Stratton and waited for Hopton. Previously, on 15 May, Stamford had sent the bulk of his cavalry under Sir"
"Battle of Hieton The Battle of Hieton was a skirmish fought on the 1 December 1650 between a Covenanter party and an English garrison. The site of the battle was by the Cadzow Burn, near the present day town centre of Hamilton, Scotland. Following Oliver Cromwell's invasion of Scotland in July 1650, and the defeat of the Scots at Dunbar in September, Scotland was occupied by the New Model Army. An English garrison under General Lambert was stationed at Hamilton, in the ""Hieton"" (Scots for 'high town') area of town. Colonel Gilbert Ker led a force of covenanters in a"
"St Mary's Chapel, Lead St Mary's Church, Lead, is a redundant Anglican chapel standing in an isolated position in fields some to the west of the village of Saxton, North Yorkshire, England. Though technically a chapel, it is generally referred to as a church. It is managed by The Churches Conservation Trust, and is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building. The chapel stands close to the site of the battle of Towton of 1461, which was part of the Wars of the Roses. In the 1930s it was saved from neglect"
"unhelpful. After the Siege of Arundel, both armies were forced to retire for the winter due to the harsh weather. Battle of Alton The Battle of Alton (also Storm of Alton), of the First English Civil War, took place on 13 December 1643 in the town of Alton, Hampshire, England. There, Parliamentary forces serving under Sir William Waller led a successful surprise attack on a winter garrison of Royalist infantry and cavalry serving under the Earl of Crawford. The Battle of Alton was the first decisive defeat of Sir Ralph Hopton, leader of Royalist forces in the south, and the"
"of misconduct of the war in France and misrule of the country. Starting in 1453, Henry began suffering a series of mental breakdowns, and tensions mounted between Margaret and Richard of York over control of the incapacitated king's government, and over the question of succession to the throne. Civil war broke out in 1459, leading to a long period of dynastic conflict known as the Wars of the Roses. Henry was deposed on 29 March 1461 after a crushing defeat at the Battle of Towton by Richard's son, who took the throne as Edward IV. Despite Margaret continuing to lead"
"on 21 December, and won the Lancastrian victory at the Battle of Wakefield on 30 December. He marched south with Margaret and fought at the Second Battle of St Albans (17 February 1461). This second victory was not followed up; the Lancastrians retired north, and on 29 March Edward IV won the Battle of Towton (29 March 1461). Somerset escaped from the battlefield, and in the following July was sent by Margaret to seek aid from Charles VII of France. Charles died before their arrival, but Louis XI summoned Somerset to Tours and sent him back in March 1462 laden"
"Battle of Stockton The Battle of Stockton-on-Tees, often referred to as the Battle of Stockton, took place on 10 September 1933 at Market Cross in the High Street of Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham, England. It was a clash between members of the British Union of Fascists (BUF) and anti-fascist demonstrators, including local communists and supporters of the Labour Party. The march was an early attempt by the BUF to rally support in depressed areas, but the anti-fascists protested and drove out the BUF supporters who had been shipped in from other areas. Stockton had been hit hard by the economic recession"
"Hodghson, Hodgon and Hodgeon. In the North of England the ""s"" is often silent in the pronunciation of Hodgson. This accounts for variants such as Hodgin, Hodgen, Hodgon and Hodgeon. In heraldic language this coat of arms is ""per chevron, embattled or and azure, three martlets counterchanged"". According to one authority, these arms were displayed by members of the family at the Battle of Towton in Yorkshire in 1461, during the Wars of the Roses (Hodgson 1925). This was the largest battle ever fought on British soil. Heraldic records confirm this coat of arms was displayed by the Hodgsons of"
"battle, both sides had issued the order to give no quarter and the Yorkists were in no mood to spare anyone after the long, gruelling fight. A number of Lancastrians, such as Trollope, also had substantial bounties on their heads. Gregory's chronicle stated 42 knights were killed after they were taken prisoner. Archaeological findings in the late 20th century shed light on the final moments of the battle. In 1996 workmen at a construction site in the town of Towton uncovered a mass grave, which archaeologists believed to contain the remains of men who were slain during or after the"