Posted on 09/12/2006 2:45:57 PM PDT by blam
Skeletons of bloodiest day
By Nadia Jefferson-Brown
SKELETONS bearing marks of horrendous sword injuries have been unearthed beneath a North Yorkshire hall.
The victims of a medieval battle were discovered beneath the floor of the dining room of Towton Hall, between Tadcaster and Sherburn-in- Elmet, dating from the Battle of Towton in 1461.
The discovery was made as part of a ten-year investigation into the archaeological evidence of the longest and bloodiest battle ever fought in England.
Taking place on Palm Sunday, March 29, 1461, the Lancastrian army was handed an enormous blow with its leader, King Henry VI, forced to flee. He was defeated by the self-proclaimed Edward IV.
continued... After ten hours of combat at the battle, near Tadcaster, 28,000 men lay dead. The latest find was instigated following the unearthing of a mass grave at the hall in 1996, which contained 37 battle victims.
The latest evidence and gruesome accounts of the War Of The Roses clash, and its victims will be presented at a one-day conference on Wednesday, October 4, at 9.30am at the Yorkshire Museum in York. Tickets are £19.50.
The Battle of Towton took place in a snowstorm, between the villages of Towton and Saxton, about two miles south of Tadcaster.
The Towton Battlefield Archaeological Survey, directed by Tim Sutherland, of the University of Bradford, has reassessed evidence of the battle through large-scale investigations across the battlefield landscape and has re-evaluated the documents.
The project, the first multidisciplinary investigation of a medieval battlefield in this country, has also discovered large numbers of arrowheads and further mass graves, making it possible to accurately locate the site of the battle. Further work in the area of Towton Hall has also led to the unearthing of several single graves of combatants.
The most recent excavation, funded by the Royal Armouries, Leeds, under the dining room of Towton Hall revealed a further multiple grave containing soldiers with battle injuries.
It is possible these are the remains of high-ranking combatants buried on what was later to become the site of King Richard III's chantry chapel built to commemorate the conflict.
In the approximately ten years of Vietnam, the U.S. suffered about 58,000 men killed. The British suffered nearly that many casualties on the first day of the Somme.
Agreed, however, in one thing that confuses so many reporters is that casualties does not mean dead. I do not have the numbers at my finger tips, but many more soldiers were wounded, or captured/deserted (did not return to their units).
I've often wondered what he thought as he boarded the train with orders to return once again to the killing fields of his youth.
The length alone (unusual for any battle using only brute human strength with edged weapons and without reinforcements) is telling, and I suspect a large number of wounded (given the weather) would have succumbed to the elements.
Your ancestor must have been one heck of a warrior to have made it through that battle.
According to the physical anthropoligists, most of the skeletons show the kind of bone growth and injuries we only associate today with athletes. These guys were born with a sword in their hands and must have spent thousands of hours in practice and lugging their arms and armor around England.
I've often wondered what he thought as he boarded the train with orders to return once again to the killing fields of his youth.
My brother's father-in-law (God rest his soul) was a paratrooper in WWII and jumped into Normandy on D-day. I asked him once, very stupidly, if he had been scared. "You're g*dd*mn right I was scared!".
I suspect this was the reaction of your great grandfather. Most men in that situation are afraid. The real test of bravery is this: they do it anyway, and they do their duty.
"On the Kyngys parte is slayn Lord Fitzwater, and Lord Scrop sore hurt. John Stafford. Horne of Kent, ben ded, and Vmfrey Stafford, William Hastyngys, mad knyghtys, with oþer; Blont is knygth, &c. Vn the contrary part is ded Lord Clyfford, Lord Nevyle, Lord Welles, Lord Wyllouby, Antony Lord Scales, Lord Harry and be supposyng þe Erle of Northumberland, Andrew Trollop with many oþer gentyll and comons to þe nombre of xx ml. Item, Kyng Herry, the Qwen, the Prince, Duk of Somerset, Duke of Exceter, Lord Roos, ben fledde in-to Scottelond, and they ben chased and folwed, &c. We send no er vn-to you be-cause we had non cer[teyn tyd]yngys tyl now; for vn-to þis day London was as sory cité as mygth, and be-cause Spordauns had no certeyn tydyngys we thougth ye schuld take them a worthe tyl more certayn. Item, Thorp Waterfeld is yoldyn, as Spordauns can telle you. And Jesu spede you. We pray you that this tydyngys my moder may knowe. Be 3owre broder W. Paston Th. Playter Comes Northumbr' Comes Deuon' Dominus de Beamundo Dominus de Clifford Dominus de Neuyll Dominus de Dacre Dominus Henricus de Bokyngham Dominus de Welles Dominus de Scalis Antony Reuers Dominus de Welluyby Dominus de Malley Radulfus Bigot, miles Millites Sir Rauff Gray Sir Richard Percy Sir Harry Belyngham Sir Andrew Trollop With xxviij ml nomberd by harraldys" (emphasis mine)
There is a river to the north of Towton, the Cock, not all that deep but with steep banks. The retreating Lancastrians were trapped at one of the few fords in the vicinity of the battleground and dispatched accordingly.
Probably the most important reason for the high percentage of casualties was King Edward's call for no quarter.
http://www.yorkshirehistory.com/towton/towton1.htm
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Yes it was.
Romans had a battle way back when in England with 100,000 killed mostly locals, Roman casualties in the hundreds.
The War of the Roses was a real quagmire. The Times would not have approved.
Wow! I'm going to read this thread at length when I return from Honolulu. Fascinating find! Just WOW!
Ahhh... the good 'ole days!
Horay for the House of York!!!!
Stinking Lancastrians.
Ouch.
If we are to believe some of the old documents, slaughter like this may have been relatively common in the days of no quarter. Even as late as the 12th Century, Edward Longshanks killed every man woman and child in the city of Berwick to put down a rebellion by the Scots.
Roman historians regularly give accounts of battles where whole armies were destroyed by Julius Caesar or Pompey for example.
And the mongols who conquered Baghdad reputedly killed 750,000 people while wiping out the city.
Bump
Note to self - Ping MilHist list
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The Romans are said to have suffered 50,000 dead at Cannae. They claimed to have killed 80,000 Celts near Watling Road when they ended [for all extent and purposes] Bouddica's revolt. They lost in excess of 15,000 [probably closer to 20,000] at Teutoberg Wald. And their losses at Carrhae, at the hands of the Parthians, were much higher than that.
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