BattlefieldsBattle of Empingham
Medieval

Battle of Empingham

1470
Rutland, England
Era
Medieval
Battle Type
Pitched Battle
Location
Rutland, England
Status
Unregistered
The Combatants

Who Fought

Defeated
House of Lancaster (Welles Uprising rebels under Sir Robert Welles)
VS
Victor
House of York (Edward IV)
Forces involved

Lancastrian rebels: 30,000 (contemporary claim); Yorkist: unknown

Outcome
Decisive Yorkist victory; the Welles Uprising was crushed, though the battle led to the flight and defection of Warwick and Clarence to the Lancastrian cause.
The Battle

History & Significance

Battle of Empingham was a medieval pitched battle between opposing field armies, fought at Rutland, England in 1470. House of York (Edward IV) prevailed over House of Lancaster (Welles Uprising rebels under Sir Robert Welles). Decisive Yorkist victory; the Welles Uprising was crushed, though the battle led to the flight and defection of Warwick and Clarence to the Lancastrian cause.

Confirmed battlefield location
The ground

The ground they fought on

The site of Battle of Empingham lies on Inferior Oolite Group, bedrock that formed in the Bathonian. The rock here is limestone, sandstone, siltstone and mudstone.

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Everything a full report reveals about Battle of Empingham

This page covers Battle of Empingham. A full Aubrey report for the area pulls together this battle alongside scheduled monuments and everything else the record holds within a few miles:

Overview
An interactive map of the location with every monument and battle plotted, and a plain-language history built only from what the record holds.
Monuments
The legally protected scheduled monuments around the location, each with its period, type and significance.
Battlefields
The battles and sieges fought on this ground, mapped and set on a timeline of the wider conflict.
Roman Britain
The Roman roads, forts and towns near here, and the Iron Age people who held the land before Rome arrived.
Domesday
The settlement's entry in the 1086 Domesday Book: who held it, what it was worth, and the people who worked the land.
Civil War
The Civil War fighting, garrisons and recorded militaria in this area, woven into the arc of 1642 to 1651.
Geology
The bedrock beneath the site, its age and rock type, reaching back hundreds of millions of years.
LiDAR
Laser-scanned terrain that reveals earthworks hidden under fields and woodland, with likely features flagged.
Local Names
What the street and field names around here actually mean, and the history buried inside them.
Historical Maps
Ordnance Survey maps from the 1800s, layered over the location as it stands today.
Literature
The books, county histories, charters and archives that mention this place, quoted with their sources.
Legal
The protected sites nearby and the metal-detecting, access and treasure laws that apply to this ground.
Spotlight
A deep dive into the most remarkable, lesser-known history of the place, traced back to the record.
Target Zones
For detectorists: the most promising ground to search nearby, ranked by confidence, with what to expect.
Timeline
The whole story of the location told era by era, from prehistory to the present day.
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Protected heritage nearby

Scheduled Monuments near Battle of Empingham

Ermine Street, section S of Quarry Farm
Ermine Street, section S of Quarry Farm
Scheduled monument · ~2.1 mi

Ermine Street, section S of Quarry Farm is a Roman road running through Lincolnshire. This stretch of the famous road that connected London to York represents part of one of the most significant communication routes in Roman Britain, typically dated to the 1st century AD or shortly thereafter. Th…

Church Bridge
Church Bridge
Scheduled monument · ~2.9 mi

Church Bridge is a medieval bridge located in Rutland, England. The structure dates from the medieval period and forms part of the local infrastructure serving the parish. As a listed ancient monument, it represents an important example of vernacular bridge construction from its era. The bridge's…

Alan Murray-Rust / CC BY-SA 2.0 / Wikimedia Commons
Austin Friars Priory
Austin Friars Priory
Scheduled monument · ~3.3 mi

Austin Friars Priory is a medieval religious house located in Lincolnshire, England. The priory was founded in the 13th century as a house of the Augustinian friars, an order of mendicant religious practitioners who played an important role in urban and rural ecclesiastical life during the later…

Michael Dibb / CC BY-SA 2.0 / Wikimedia Commons
Site of St Peter's Church
Site of St Peter's Church
Scheduled monument · ~3.3 mi

Site of St Peter's Church is a scheduled monument in Lincolnshire representing the remains of a medieval parish church. The site is documented as a significant ecclesiastical monument within the local landscape, though much of the structure has been lost or substantially degraded over time. The c…

Des Blenkinsopp / CC BY-SA 2.0 / Wikimedia Commons
Stamford Castle (remains of)
Stamford Castle (remains of)
Scheduled monument · ~3.3 mi

Stamford Castle is a Norman castle established in the late eleventh century at Stamford in Lincolnshire. The castle occupies a strategic position overlooking the River Welland and was constructed following the Norman Conquest as part of the consolidation of Norman power in the East Midlands. Toda…

Richard Croft / CC BY-SA 2.0 / Wikimedia Commons
Norman arch at No 11 St Mary's Hill
Norman arch at No 11 St Mary's Hill
Scheduled monument · ~3.4 mi

The Norman arch at No 11 St Mary's Hill is a twelfth-century architectural fragment preserved within a later building in Lincolnshire. The arch represents surviving masonry from the Norman period and demonstrates the high-quality stone construction typical of ecclesiastical or domestic buildings…

Richard Croft / CC BY-SA 2.0 / Wikimedia Commons
Woodhead Castle ringwork bailey and fishpond
Scheduled monument · ~0.6 miles
Air photography site NE of village and site of Roman town
Scheduled monument · ~1.3 miles
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