1455 IN
BRIEF
Following
the end of the
Hundred Years War in 1453, King Henry VI (recovering from a bout of
madness) dismissed Richard, Duke of York in December 1454 and replaced
him with the Duke of Somerset. The apparently loyal and powerful
Neville family supported Richard, Duke of York in his rebellion against
King Henry VI (of the Lancaster line of Plantagenet monarchs) and
Edmund Beaufort, Duke of Somerset at St. Albans in 1455. Thus the
Wars of the Roses began (the white rose representing the House of York
and the red rose representing the House of Lancaster, all descended
from Edward III).
King Henry VI is wounded in the shoulder, and captured, and falls again
into a fit of madness; Edmund Beaufort, Duke of Somerset is
killed. Richard Plantagenet,
Duke of York once again becomes Lord Protector.
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Monthly timeline for
1455.
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First Battle of St Albans From
Wikipedia: Link
back to article.
The First Battle of St Albans was the first battle
of the Wars of the Roses and was fought on May 22, 1455 in the
town of St Albans. Richard, Duke of York and his ally, Richard, Earl of Warwick
defeated the Lancastrians under Edmund Beaufort, 2nd
Duke of Somerset, who was killed. York captured Henry VI and had himself appointed Constable of England.
In an attempt to avoid becoming outflanked by the 3,000
strong Yorkist
army, Henry's army of 2,000 troops pulled back into the town and built
barricades in Holywell Hill and St Peter's Street to defend against a Yorkist
attack from the fields to east. The bulk of Henry's forces were
surprised and fully occupied by the speed of Richard's attack; most of
the army was expecting a peaceful resolution like the one at Blackheath in 1452,
and the leaders had been negotiating minutes before the attack.
However, two frontal assaults down the narrow streets made no headway
and resulted in heavy casualties for the Yorkists.
Warwick took his
reserve troops through an unguarded part of the
town's defences, following a path through back lanes and gardens.
Suddenly the Earl appeared in the Market Square where the main body of
Henry troops was sitting around talking and resting. There is evidence
they were not yet expecting to be involved in the fighting, as many
were not even wearing their helmets. Warwick charged instantly with his
small force of reserves and smashed the Lancastrian line in two, making
military history.
The Earl then
ordered his archers to shoot at the men around the
King, killing some and injuring many nobles including the King and his
commander the Duke of Buckingham. Warwick killed one of his own
enemies, the Duke of Somerset outside the Castle Inn. The men manning
the barricades realising the enemy was in the main square and fearing
an attack from behind abandoned them to the Yorkists who soon climbed
over and joined the rout.
The First Battle
of St Albans was trivial in military terms, with
perhaps 300 dead, but the battle was a complete victory for York in
political terms: he had captured the King, returning himself to
complete power; his rival Somerset was dead; and the Neville's arch
enemies Henry Percy, 2nd Earl
of Northumberland and Lord de
Clifford both fell during the rout.
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