Towton, the bloodbath that changed the course of English history. (Well worth reading)

The Sunday Times (UK) ^ | August 24, 2008 | AA Gill

[PotatoHeadMick]

Get onto the B1217 – the Ferrybridge-to-Tadcaster road – just after the M1 joins the A1M, and you’ve crossed that unmapped line where the north stops being grim and begins to be bracing. Go through Saxton, past the Crooked Billet pub, and on your left you’ll see rising farmland, green corn and copses – an old landscape, untroubled by poets or painters or the hyperbole of tourist boards, but handsome, still and hushed. The road is straight; it knows where it’s going, hurrying along, averting its gaze. Through the tonsured hedge you might just notice a big old holly tree on the side of the road. It seems out of place.

Get out of the car, adjust to the hissing silence and step behind the tree. Hidden from the road you’ll find a gothic stone cross of some age. Nobody knows who put it here or where it’s from. For centuries it lay in the ditch. A date recently inscribed on its base, March 28, 1461, is wrong. It should be the next day: the 29th, Sunday. The movable feast – Palm Sunday.

[Huber]

An excellent read! Thanks for posting!

[Skooz]

bump

[Professional Engineer]

Thomas Costain wrote a series of books about the Plantagenets that were very popular in the ‘50s and early ‘60s.

Thanks for the info! I have a copy of Below The Salt I sure enjoyed reading.

[ckilmer]

After a bit of argy-bargy, happy slapping, black dungeon-work and a couple of on-your-toes to the Continent, we get Henry V – cocky sod and, more important, lucky sod – who wins Agincourt but unluckily is then killed by the shits while his son is still a nipper.

Sometimes I admire British writing; sometimes it cracks me up, and sometimes it just leaves me scratching my ‘ead.
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I’ll second that.

I get that “Killed by the shits while his son is still a nipper” likely means he died of dysentery while his son was still a small boy. But can anyone translate “ After a bit of argy-bargy, happy slapping, black dungeon-work and a couple of on-your-toes to the Continent, we get Henry V”

[Pharmboy]

PHM, thanks for the great post. SunkenCiv, thanks for the ping. Indcons, I don't know if you're on the GGG list of SC, so here's a ping for you. And clemenza, I thought you might appreciate this.

This guy can write...

[wildbill]

i always thought the English battle with the most dead was the one where the Romans defeated Boudicca.

[Clemenza]

Thanks. Its a damn shame that many Brits that I know (and these are fairly well educated people) are clueless about the War of the Roses and the (English) Civil War. I do know that Towton continues to be taught at Sandhurst.

If any Freepers out there wonder while the English (and the Scottish and Welsh to a lesser extent) are so aggressively secular, all you have to do is read said nations' histories on how each family (or branches of the same family) used the various confessions to wage war. There is a good reason why the English are both negatively disposed to the RCC, and have no desire to have either the Anglicans or low churches to have a significant voice in government.

[baseballmom]

Thanks so much for posting this very interesting British history article.

I’ve been catching up on many FR posts from this summer, and you also posted this very good article on the Romanovs. I’m fascinated by this period in history, so thanks again.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2047823/posts

[John O]

Thomas Costain wrote a series of books about the Plantagenets that were very popular in the ‘50s and early ‘60s.

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/c/thomas-b-costain/

I've got the black rose and the Plantagenets series (still in original case!). Love the way the guy writes. (But the series isn't really straight history, he kind of flowers it up a bit I think)

[BJClinton]

Absolutely fascinating read.

[PotatoHeadMick]

I’m glad you all enjoyed this article, sometimes a good historical read makes a nice break from wall to wall politics.

I’ll be sure to post any more such articles I come across.

All the best.

[ZULU]

The Wars of the Roses are a very interesting study.

I find English History pretty intersting through the 1800’s.

I really like sub-Roman history - the period aftr the collapse of Roman control. But most of what is there is archeological in nature.

[colorado tanker]

Well, Shakespeare was a writer and entertainer. To pack ‘em in, he had to tell his stories the way the Tudors liked to hear it. :-))

[ZULU]

True.

And critizing the Tudors, even if historically accurate, was not a smart way to assure a lenghty run of performances - or one’s own personal longevity.

[BlueLancer]

A very good .. and long .. book about Richard III, from boyhood until betrayal, by Sharon Kay Penman

[Eepsy]

Anyone interested in a lighter historical read might enjoy the recently republished Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey. A police detective laid up in Hospital with a broken leg reexamines the case against Richard III. Great novel, and not too long.

http://www.amazon.com/Daughter-Time-Josephine-Tey/dp/0684803860

[ZULU]

Thanks for that reference.

I remember reading a recent history about Rcihard III which pretty much put Henry Tudor VII in perspective.

Richard III was a renowed warrior of the age and quite adept in the use of arms. Fighting in that manner would make it extremely unlikely he was a hunchback. Also, recent work on paiting of him revealed the LATER addition of a hunchback to the painting, probably done during the reign of Henry VII.

At Bosworth Richard III led his troops in person, fighting like a true king and a brave man, while that offspring of a Welsh Gigolo, Henry VII cowered like the craven dog he was behind his persoanl bodyguard.

You can judge the man by his offspring. Look at the bloated and disease ridden sadistic sot that Henry VII produced.

There are far too many cicumstantial facts like this that would lead one to conclude that the Princes in the Tower were murdered immediately after the Battle of Bosworth at the direction of that piece of offal Henry VII than by Richard III. They were certainly far more of a threat to Henry Tudor with his questionable lineage than to the man who was the brother of the previous monarch.

[OKSooner]

Later.

[SunkenCiv]

• Skeletons Of Bloodiest Day (Towton -- 1461AD)
• Battle of Towton, the birth of modern warfare and the killing of 1% of the population
• The Battle of Towton :Nasty, brutish and not that short

[SunkenCiv]

British History's Biggest Fibs With Lucy Worsley - Episode 1: War of the Roses - Full Documentary

British History's Biggest Fibs With Lucy Worsley - Episode 2: The Glorious Revolution

British History's Biggest Fibs with Lucy Worsley Episode 3: The Jewel in the Crown