Henry, Margaret, and their son fled to Scotland. There, in the bloodiest battle of the war, the Yorkists won a complete victory.

Then Edward, with the remainder of Warwick’s forces, pursued Margaret north to Towton. The young duke of York was proclaimed King Edward IV at Westminster on March 4. Meanwhile, York’s eldest son and heir, Edward, had defeated a Lancastrian force at Mortimer’s Cross (February 2) and marched to relieve London, arriving before Margaret on February 26. Gathering forces in northern England, the Lancastrians surprised and killed York at Wakefield in December and then marched south toward London, defeating Warwick on the way at the Second Battle of St.

That effectively disinherited Henry’s son, Prince Edward, and caused Queen Margaret to continue her opposition. York tried to claim the throne but settled for the right to succeed upon the death of Henry. In France Warwick regrouped the Yorkist forces and returned to England in June 1460, decisively defeating the Lancastrian forces at Northampton (July 10). The coldblooded and calculated ferocity that now entered English political life certainly owed something to the political ideas of the Italian Renaissance, but, arguably, it was also in part a legacy of the lawless habits acquired by the nobility during the Hundred Years’ War. Both parties laid aside their scruples and struck down their opponents without mercy. York fled to Ireland, and the Lancastrians, in a packed parliament at Coventry (November 1459), obtained a judicial condemnation of their opponents and executed those on whom they could lay hands.įrom then on the struggle was bitter. The Yorkists were successful at Blore Heath (September 23) but were scattered after a skirmish at Ludford Bridge (October 12). Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content.Ī new phase of the civil war began in 1459 when York, goaded by the queen’s undisguised preparations to attack him, rebelled for the last time.

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War of the 5 kings