Battle of Northampton (1460)

Who Fought

History & Significance

The Battle of Northampton was fought on 10 July 1460 near the River Nene, Northamptonshire. It was a major battle of the Wars of the Roses. The opposing forces were an army led by nobles loyal to King Henry VI of the House of Lancaster, his Queen Margaret of Anjou and their six-year-old son Edward, Prince of Wales, on one side, and the army of Edward, Earl of March, and Warwick the Kingmaker on the other. The battle was the first in which artillery was used in England.

After the disintegration of the Yorkist army at Ludford Bridge in 1459, many of the Yorkist commanders went into self-imposed exile. The Duke of York and his second son Edmund, Earl of Rutland, retired to the relative safety of Dublin, Ireland. His principal supporters the Earl of Warwick and his father the Earl of Salisbury, and York's son Edward, Earl of March, reached Calais on 2 November 1459, where Warwick found his uncle Lord Fauconberg. In England, the Lancastrians were quick to exploit the Yorkist flight. The Earl of Wiltshire was appointed Lieutenant of Ireland and the Duke of Somerset became Captain of Calais. Neither however succeeded in occupying their new posts as the Irish refused to dislodge York and the gates of Calais remained firmly closed to their new 'Captain'.

The Lancastrians gave Somerset an army to storm Calais, but first they had to cross the Channel, so the construction of a fleet was started at Sandwich in Kent. In January and May 1460, Warwick made raids on Sandwich and stole the ships. In June, the Lancastrian invasion was pre-empted by an attack on Sandwich, which had been reinforced with several hundred Lancastrian troops commanded by Osbert Mundford. The Yorkist force under Lord Fauconberg, Sir John Wenlock and John Dynham seized the port, capturing troops and armaments. Mundford was captured, taken to Rysbank tower and executed. Warwick left his uncle, Lord Fauconberg, in Sandwich with a small force of Yorkists to act as a bridgehead for his planned invasion of England.

On 26 June, Warwick, Salisbury and Edward landed at Sandwich with 2,000 men-at-arms. King Henry VI and his Queen, Margaret of Anjou, were at Coventry with their small army. Warwick entered London on 2 July with an army of supporters numbering approximately 10,000.

The king's forces took up a defensive position at Northampton, in the grounds of Delapré Abbey. They had constructed an artillery fortification in what is now a mixture of public park and golf course. The position was surrounded by natural watercourses, tributaries of the River Nene, backed by a palisade and gun positions. The defending army was around 5,000 strong, consisting mainly of men-at-arms. The Lancastrians also had some field artillery.

The ground they fought on

The site of Battle of Northampton (1460) lies on Lias Group, bedrock that formed in the Aalenian. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone, limestone and sandstone.

Frequently Asked Questions

Scheduled Monuments near Battle of Northampton (1460)

Eleanor Cross 1km south west of Delapre Abbey

Scheduled monument · ~0.6 mi

Eleanor Cross 1km south west of Delapre Abbey is a fourteenth-century wayside monument erected in memory of Eleanor of Castile, wife of Edward I. The cross forms part of the series of twelve Eleanor Crosses commissioned by Edward I between 1291 and 1294 to mark the resting places of the Queen's b…

Brookie at English Wikipedia / CC BY-SA 3.0 / Wikimedia Commons

Northampton Castle, remains of

Scheduled monument · ~1.3 mi

Northampton Castle is a Norman castle founded in the late eleventh century, likely established shortly after the Norman Conquest as part of the systematic fortification of England. The castle originally comprised a substantial motte-and-bailey earthwork with stone buildings, serving as a royal st…

C. H. Hartshorne / Public domain / Wikimedia Commons

Old St John's Church

Scheduled monument · ~4.2 mi

Old St John's Church is a medieval parish church located in Northamptonshire, England. The building dates primarily from the thirteenth century and represents an important example of Early English ecclesiastical architecture from that period. The church retains significant medieval fabric includi…

Michael Patterson / CC BY-SA 2.0 / Wikimedia Commons

Boughton bowl barrow

Scheduled monument · ~4.5 mi

Boughton bowl barrow is a Bronze Age burial mound located in Northamptonshire. The monument takes the form of a circular earthwork characteristic of bowl barrows, a common funerary monument type of the Bronze Age period. Such barrows typically contained inhumation burials, often accompanied by gr…

Simon Burchell / CC BY-SA 4.0 / Wikimedia Commons

Earls Barton motte castle

Scheduled monument · ~6.3 mi

Earls Barton motte and bailey castle is a Norman fortification located in Northamptonshire, dating to the eleventh century. The site consists of a substantial earthwork motte, or artificial mound, with an associated bailey, representing a characteristic form of post-Conquest military architecture…

Hannah Forey / CC BY-SA 4.0 / Wikimedia Commons

Great Brington village cross

Scheduled monument · ~7.1 mi

Great Brington village cross is a medieval monument located in the village of Great Brington in Northamptonshire. The structure dates to the medieval period and survives as a notable example of a village cross, a common feature of English settlements from the thirteenth century onwards. The cross…

Dave.Dunford / CC BY-SA 4.0 / Wikimedia Commons

Other Medieval Battles

Battles near Battle of Northampton (1460)

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• Battle of Northampton 1460 · Historic England
• Battle of Northampton · Wikidata
• Battle of Northampton (1460) · Wikipedia
• Battle of Northampton · BritishBattles.com