Chapter VI (2)

The decisive victory gained by Edward at Towton, confirmed his previous assumption of the royal title; he became to all intents the King of England; he was crowned at Westminster, on the 29th of June; and his right to the throne was solemnly recognized by the Parliament, which was held in the month of November following. He was evidently a man of extraordinary talents, enterprise, and courage; he had already fought and been the conqueror in three important battles; and, notwithstanding the serious and numerous obstacles which he had to overcome, he succeeded in obtaining the sovereignty of England before he was twenty years old: his birth having taken place at Rouen, in Normandy, on the 29th of April, 1441. {119}

There are some passages in the accounts of the battle, given by historians, which seem to be exaggerated, or, at least, must be received with some degree of allowance. We know from the old historical writers, that the battle commenced in a fall of snow or sleet, which was driven by the wind into the faces of the Lancastrians. We are told that Lord Falconberg caused some arrows to be discharged during the snow, at the Lancastrians, and ordered the archers to fall back three strides (what difference could three paces make?) and that the Lancastrians, feeling the shot, but in consequence of the snow, not well knowing the distance between them and the Yorkists, supposed that they were within the range of archery, and discharged their arrows, until their quivers were exhausted, or nearly so, and that the Yorkists then not only shot their own arrows against the opposite forces, but also picked up and discharged part of the Lancastrians’ arrows against them, and planted others in the ground, which sorely galled the legs of the Lancastrians, when they advanced to close quarters. It is easy to believe, that some amongst the undisciplined Lancastrian archers, would begin to shoot too soon, just as young troops will even now occasionally fire too soon; but when we reflect that there were several men amongst the leaders on both sides, who had served in France, and had had much experience in war, it is difficult to suppose that such a circumstance had any material influence in the result of the battle, or that they would allow their men to exhaust their quivers, by shooting in such a useless manner; besides which, if the Lancastrian archers were prevented by the snow from judging accurately of the distance, the same cause must, to a great extent, have operated against the archers of the Yorkists. And with respect to exhausting the quivers, we cannot suppose that the Lancastrian leaders, after deliberately preparing for the approach of the Yorkists, would be so remiss, as not to have a plentiful supply of arrows in the rear for the use of the troops. It is barely possible that some instances may have occurred of arrows being stuck into the ground, but it is not credible that it was done on any considerable scale. The Yorkists would have something else to do on such a dreadful morning, than to occupy themselves with sticking arrows in any considerable numbers in the ground. Besides which, if such a measure were adopted with any good effect, at the battle of Towton, it is clear that it would be equally useful at other battles fought in the middle ages; yet, as far as I can recollect, we are not informed by any historian, of such a measure being adopted, on any other occasion, either in the wars of York and Lancaster, or in any battle in which the English were engaged. The real disadvantage, and that was a serious one, under which the Lancastrians laboured, was, that the wind, with the snow or sleet driven in their faces, would not only baffle their aim, but would cause a deflection in the flight of their arrows; besides which, even when they came to close quarters, it was a great disadvantage to have the snow and sleet driving against them. There was, however, a good reason for soon coming to hand blows, which would equally operate on both armies: the wet from the snow, would affect their bow strings, and render the bows of both parties comparatively inefficient. We are also told, that the Yorkists pursued the Lancastrians during all the night, which succeeded the battle. It seems to be impossible that that can be literally true. After two rather severe engagements, and a hasty march, which, for a considerable space, was through cross roads, on the 28th of March, and after so long and dreadful a conflict on the 29th, without food during the day, except that they might possibly have broken their fast very early in the morning, fighting in severe weather, exposed to cold and wet, and with bad roads, the Yorkists must, from sheer exhaustion, and want of bodily strength, have been scarcely able to pursue the fugitives after the day had closed in, about which time the victors would arrive at Tadcaster, glad to find food, shelter, and rest there, for the night. We hear no more of the fugitives, as an army, after the 29th; and it is more than probable, that by the morning of the 30th, they had availed themselves of the hours of darkness to disperse, or to move northwards in detached parties merely; and they had one advantage over the victors: the fugitives could throw away a portion of their arms, offensive and defensive, to facilitate their flight.

There is one point in the plans of the Lancastrians connected with this battle, for which it is very difficult to account. Why, with superior forces, did they act on the defensive? It is very easy to understand, that the Lancastrians retired from before London, and proceeded northward, after the junction of the forces of Edward with those of the Earl of Warwick, in consequence of the then superiority of the Yorkists; but, if as we are told, the Lancastrians shortly afterwards mustered for the battle of Towton about 60,000 men, and the Yorkists only about 48,660 men, we should naturally have expected that the Lancastrians would have been the assailants. It seems contrary to good policy, in military affairs, to wait with a superior force to be attacked. Such a general as Cromwell, Marlborough, or Wellington, if commanding a force tolerably equal, would not have waited for the attack of an enemy. With the exception, however, of the bold, and at first the successful, exploit by Lord Clifford, at Ferrybridge, the Lancastrians were not the assailing, but the defensive parties. {122a} They did not even, as far as we are informed, attempt either to support Lord Clifford at Ferrybridge, or to succour him at Dintingdale, where he was slain, and his forces defeated. {122b} Yet that place was only about a mile and a half from Towton; and the shouts of the combatants would be within hearing of the main body of the Lancastrian army. The victors may possibly have exaggerated the number of the Lancastrians, in order to enhance the merit of the victory. If some such reason cannot be given, it seems only left to ascribe their remaining on the defensive, either to ignorance of the numbers of their enemies, or to want of judgment on the part of the Lancastrian commanders.

Saxton is a parish containing the townships of Towton and Saxton-cum-Scarthingwell; the living is a perpetual curacy; and Saxton Church is dedicated to “All Saints.”

A great number of the slain were interred, as has been before mentioned, in a large trench or pit, on the north side of, and close to, the church. In June, 1848, a short time prior to my first visit to Towton, their bones were exposed to view, when making a vault for the interment of a son of John Kendall, Esq., of Towton Hall. {122c} The trench runs from east to west. Besides which, only a few years before that discovery, another vault was made, nearer to the east than that of Mr. Kendall, and also on the north side of the church, and the workmen found a similar deposit of bones, about four feet below the surface; so that there can be no doubt that the bones of hundreds of men were buried in a continuous trench extending along that part of the churchyard. {123a} It has been already mentioned, that the teeth in the skulls found there were sound and entire, showing that they had belonged to persons who had died either young or in the prime of life.

The tomb of Lord Dacre, called by Leland and Stow , “a meane tombe” {123b} (meaning not a contemptible, or shabby tomb, for it certainly has been a handsome one, but one of medium size), also lies on the north side of the church, and very near the place where the slain were buried. It is about two feet high, with the inscription a good deal worn, so that I was not able to read many words. It stands with its sides nearly corresponding with the four points of the compass; it has armorial bearings on each of its sides; and, besides various other quarterings, which are much defaced by age and weather, I observed the quarters—1st and 4th, Chequy, or and gules, for Vaux of Gillesland; 2nd and 3rd, Gules, three escallops argent, for Dacre, which, though not very plain, are nevertheless still visible; and I consider the engravings of the tomb in Dr. Whitaker’s work, very like the original. {123c}

The tomb is of dark stone or marble, and the slab or lid is very heavy, but broken in two pieces, at about two-thirds its length; and it seems likely to sustain further injury from boys playing and climbing upon it. It is much to be regretted, that some endeavour is not made by some person of taste, to preserve it by putting iron rails round it.

Some of the leaders (naturally supposed to be Yorkists) were interred in the church; and within the recollection of Mr. Kendall, some slabs, with inscriptions in the Old English letters, were in existence there, which were said to have covered their remains. The church is evidently very ancient, principally of the Gothic style of architecture; but it has been in part rebuilt and altered, without much regard to its style, so as to detract very much from its appearance. Formerly there was some coloured glass in a window of the church, which is said to have contained the arms of the Dacre family; but, in consequence of the window requiring repairs, the coloured glass was removed about thirty years ago, and was taken to the mansion of the late Thomas Walker, Esq., of Killingbeck, near Leeds, where it perhaps may yet be.

It has an ancient plain Norman arch, at the doorway in the south porch; an antique font, large enough to immerse a child; and a piscina in the Hungate Chapel, which is on the south side; and one or two very narrow lancet-shaped windows on the north side of the chancel, are still remaining.

The tower of Saxton Church appears to have been rebuilt after the Reformation, and, as is said, between two hundred and fifty and three hundred years ago. Several representations of crosses have been cut upon slabs or stones which are built into the tower, and which have evidently been carved in memory of some of the slain, who were buried there; most probably, some Yorkist knights or leaders. Several of the crosses have been transposed and altered, when the tower was rebuilt; and parts of the shafts and pedestals of two or three of those crosses are still visible, and are now placed in different layers of the stone, or in the reverse way to the heads of the crosses, and are imperfect, parts of them having disappeared, and probably they have been cut and been removed. On the south side of the tower there is one of these crosses perfect, or nearly so, and also part of another; on the west side there is one perfect cross; and on the north side, including an imperfect part of one on the adjoining buttress of the tower, there are five imperfect parts of crosses cut upon the stones; there probably are others which have since been built inwards into the wall, and are, consequently, not visible. They have been four or five feet long, and the two which are nearly perfect, owe their preservation apparently to their having been cut on stones of unusual size, and to their not extending, like some others, upon more stones than one. The heads of those two crosses are handsome, and a good deal ornamented. There is a sufficient resemblance amongst the crosses, to show that they were probably all coeval in point of date; but they are certainly not, as Dr. Whitaker supposed, all alike.

Sir John Neville, commonly called John Lord Neville, is said not to have been buried there, but at the chapel of Lead, which is about half a mile from Saxton, and in the parish of Ryther; but there is not any monument to his memory.

At the period when Drake wrote (in 1736), Lord Dacre’s tomb was much defaced, and the inscription was imperfect; he has, however, given it, as follows:—

HIC JACET RANULPHUS DS. DE DAKEE ET —— MILES
ET OCCISUS ERAT IN BELLO PRINCIPE HENRICO VI° ANNO DOM.
MCCCCLXI. XXIX DIE MARTII VIDELICET DOMINICA DIE PAL-
MARUM. CUJUS ANIME PROPITIETUR DEUS. AMEN. {125a}

Dr. Whitaker, however, who had Drake’s work before him when he wrote, gives the following, as the correct inscription, with the defects supplied; and states that less than thirty years before the time when he was writing, he retrieved much more of it, than would have been then possible:—

HIC JACET RANULPHUS DOMINUS DE DACRE ET GREYSTOCKE VERUS MILES QUI
OBIIT IN BELLO PRO REGE SUO HENRICO SEXTO ANNO MCCCCLXI. VICESIMO
{125b}
DIE MENSIS MARCII VID’LT., DOMINICA PALMARUM CUJUS ANIME PROPICIETUR
DEUS. AMEN. {125c}

Whichever is the correct version, they, however, both coincide in the main particulars, of its being Lord Dacre’s tomb; that he was a supporter of King Henry VI., and was slain in battle, on Palm Sunday, 1461. From the mention of King Henry VI., it may be surmised that the tomb was not erected until after the death of Edward IV.

Drake mentions, that many years ago, this tomb was violently wrenched open (for it had been strongly cramped together with iron), in order to inter beneath it a Mr. Gascoyne, when the remains of Dacre’s body were found, in a standing posture; and that a fragment of the slab, and a material part of the inscription, were then broken off.

He does not inform us who or what Mr. Gascoyne was, when alive; but whoever he was, whether of a high or low sphere in life, whether he was a gentleman, or some rag-merchant, it evinced bad taste on the part of his relations or representatives, to commit such an act; and perhaps some culpable remissness on the part of the then incumbent of the church, to permit it. Of Lord Dacre’s general character we know little; but from that circumstance, we are at least justified in believing, that, unlike two great leaders of the opposite parties, he was neither perjured like Clarence, nor a murderer like Clifford; that is certainly only negative praise; but we do know that he was at least a nobleman of high rank, consistent in his principles, and one who died a warrior’s death, on the field of battle: circumstances which ought to have preserved his remains from profanation, and ought to have caused us to be spared the disgust and indignation, which we naturally entertain, at the bad taste and bad feeling evinced, in the violation of a soldier’s grave.

In the dreadful wars of York and Lancaster, it is said that more than 100,000 Englishmen lost their lives; but that is merely the number believed to have been slain in battle; and, however repulsive it may be to our feelings, it must be admitted that it cannot include the numbers who must have perished during that disastrous period, in unimportant skirmishes, in marauding parties, in private warfare, by assassination, by the axe or by the halter, in pursuance of or under the colour of judicial sentences, or by open and undisguised murder. {127a} Besides this horrible sacrifice of human life, during this distracted period, it is shocking to think what sufferings unprotected and helpless persons must have been exposed to, from the lawless partisans of the rival parties, when they passed through or were located near any district, which they chose to consider as favouring their antagonists. Pillage, cruelty, violence to women, incendiarism, and contempt of the laws and of religion, {127b} were the natural attendants upon a civil war, {127c} carried on with feelings of bitter hatred by each party; and it is certain that the examples of cruelty and wickedness which were openly set by the nobles and leaders of both factions, would readily be copied by their followers. Voltaire thus expresses himself, in reference to the wars of York and Lancaster: “Quand les premiers d’une nation ont de telles mœurs, quelles doivent être celles du peuple?” {127d}

One of our ancient historical writers correctly states, that “this conflict was in maner unnaturall, for in it the sonne fought against the father, the brother against the brother, the nephew against the uncle, and the tenant against his lord.” {128a}

The following is an extract from a very interesting scene, from the pen of Shakespeare, relative to the battle of Towton; and, although the tragedy in which it is introduced is not well adapted to the stage, it will well repay the student for the time bestowed, in reading the whole of it:—

_The Third Part of King Henry VI._

Scene—A Field of Battle between Towton and Saxton. {128b}

(_Enter a Son that has killed his Father_, _bringing in the body_.)

_Son_.—“Ill blows the wind, that profits nobody.
This man, whom hand to hand I slew in fight,
May be possessed with some store of crowns;
And I, that haply take them from him now,
May yet, ere night, yield both my life and them
To some man else, as this dead man doth me.
Who’s this?—O Heav’n! it is my father’s face,
Whom in this conflict I unawares have killed.
O heavy times, begetting such events!”

(_Enter a Father that has killed his Son_, _bringing in the body_.)

_Father_.—“Thou that so stoutly hast resisted me,
Give me thy gold, if thou hast any gold;
For I have bought it with an hundred blows.—
But let me see: is this our foeman’s face?
Ah, no, no, no, it is mine only son!
Ah, boy, if any life be left in thee,
Throw up thine eye; see, see, what showers arise,
Blown by the windy tempest of my heart,
Upon thy wounds, that kill mine eye and heart!
O pity, Heav’n, this miserable age!
What stratagems, how fell, how butcherly,
Erroneous, mutinous, and unnatural,
This deadly quarrel daily doth beget!”

_King Henry_.—“Sad-hearted men, much overgone with care,
Here sits a King more woful than you are.”

It may be said, that the portion of the scene in which those circumstances are introduced, is one of imagination, and the offspring of the grand and admirable talents of Shakespeare. Be it so; still the truthful records of history disclose quite enough, to prove that deeds of bloodshed and violence, nearly as repulsive to our feelings, and almost as disgraceful to mankind, as those which that scene represents, were frequently perpetrated during those disastrous times; and we may well feel grateful to the supreme Disposer of events, that we are now preserved from the miseries and calamities which were experienced in this country, during the wars of York and Lancaster.