The Battle of Blore Heath
A battle in the English Wars of the Roses, fought on 23 September 1459
Background
In June 1459, King Henry VI - or rather Queen Margaret, who was by now running the show - summoned all the loyal Lancastrian nobility to a council in their heartland at Coventry. The Duke of York and the Earls of Salisbury and Warwick were conspicuously not invited, and the council agreed to lay charges of treason against them. According to Benet's Chronicle, they 'resolved to journey to the King'. Thus they seem to have decided to follow the same path as they had in 1455, and seize both the initiative and King Henry in a sharp and decisive action, with a battle if necessary. However, the Yorkists were separated. York was in Ludlow, and although he sent word to the Earl of Warwick, who was in Calais, and Warwick's father the Earl of Salisbury, who was in Middleham, that they should join him with all their strength, this would take a long time.
By the time Salisbury left Middleham in early September, the Lancastrians had put two armies in the field, and were well on the way to raising a third. To the south, the Earl of Warwick managed to evade the army of the Earl of Somerset, and reached Ludlow safely. In the north, Salisbury was intercepted by the smallest Lancastrian army, commanded by James Tuchet, Lord Audley. Queen Margaret was with the Lancastrians. Salisbury was aware of Audley's army, and was able to choose a strong defensive position on Blore Heath.
The Battle
Salisbury's force was around six thousand strong, mostly infantry and archers. He assembled them in a line facing a small bridge across the Wemberton Brook, and with a wood to the rear. The brook was small, but not easy for men to cross, and much more difficult for an ordered cavalry charge.
Audley's force was certainly larger - some suggest even twice as large - and a large proportion was cavalry. On the west side of the brook, he also formed up parallel to the brook, with his right flank partially hidden behind a hedge. Both sides seemed to have impenetrable positions, yet shortly after noon Audley decided on a full cavalry charge.
It was a bizarre decision. Audley could not have been provoked by Yorkist arrows, as the distance between the two teams was too large. Some sources suggest that the experienced Salisbury feigned a retreat, but it must be remembered that Audley was very inexperienced, and he also had the presence of the fiery Queen Margaret to deal with, and her firm orders that Salisbury be captured.
This first attack was quickly beaten off with a heavy barrage of archers, and the Lancastrians reformed behind their hedge. A second, similar, cavalry charge across the brook and bridge followed, this time led by Audley himself. It met with the same result, and Audley was killed. The Lancastrian second-in-command was John Sutton, Lord Dudley. He called for a more orderly advance on foot. Salisbury's archers shot until the range was too small, then the two lines of infantry met. The bitter hand-to-hand fighting lasted well into the afternoon. Slowly the Lancastrians began to give way, and their remaining cavalry - who had been watching from the safe side of the brook - fled. At that point a sizable amount of the remaining Lancastrian infantry deserted to the Yorkists. The line broke, and the slaughter began.
Aftermath
Some two thousand Lancastrian men died, compared to less than five hundred Yorkists. Lord Dudley was captured, and Queen Margaret fled. Folklore has her ordering that the shoes on her horses be reversed to confuse her pursuers. During the pursuit through the night, Salisbury's two sons Sir John and Sir Thomas Neville got themselves lost and were captured, but the rest of the army reached Ludlow safely. A cross stands at the place Audley was killed.
At Ludlow the combined Yorkist army were still greatly outnumbered by the Lancastrians, yet they prepared for battle with Andrew Trollope, captain of the Calais guard (England's only professional army) and their best commander. On the night of 12 October, Trollope defected to King Henry with all his men and the Yorkist plans. As soon as they found out, York, Salisbury, Warwick, and York's two sons Edward and Edmund fled abroad in two separate parties, abandoning their men.
Main Sources: -Henry VI, Margaret of Anjou, and the Wars of the Roses - A Source Book; Keith Dockray. -The Military Campaigns of the Wars of the Roses; Philip A Haigh
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Article added: 2006-09-15 @ 2:25 pm
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