Battle of Tewkesbury (1471)
Who Fought
Yorkists: 5,000-6,000 men; Lancastrians: approximately 6,000 men
History & Significance
The Battle of Tewkesbury (4 May 1471) was one of the most decisive battles of the Wars of the Roses in England.
King Edward IV and his forces loyal to the House of York completely defeated those of the rival House of Lancaster. The Lancastrian heir to the throne, Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales, and many prominent Lancastrian nobles were killed during the battle or executed after it. The Lancastrian king, Henry VI, who was a prisoner in the Tower of London, died shortly after the battle, likely murdered, although the official cause was stated as being of 'great melancholy'. Tewkesbury restored political stability to England until the death of Edward IV in 1483.
The term Wars of the Roses refers to the informal heraldic badges of the two rival houses of Lancaster and York, which had been contending for the English throne since the late 1450s. In 1461 the Yorkist claimant, Edward, Earl of March, was proclaimed King Edward IV and defeated the supporters of the weak, intermittently insane Lancastrian King Henry VI at the Battle of Towton. Lancastrian revolts in the far north of England were defeated in 1464, and the fugitive King Henry was captured and imprisoned the next year. His wife, Margaret of Anjou, and their 13-year-old son Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales were exiled and impoverished in France. Edward IV's hold on the throne appeared to be secure, at least temporarily.
Edward owed his victory in large measure to the support of his cousin, the powerful 16th Earl of Warwick. They became estranged when Edward spurned the French diplomatic marriage that Warwick was seeking for him and instead married Elizabeth Woodville, widow of an obscure Lancastrian gentleman, in secret in 1464.
When the marriage became public knowledge, Edward placed many of his new queen's family in powerful positions that Warwick had hoped to control. Edward, meanwhile, reversed Warwick's policy of friendship with France by marrying his sister Margaret to Charles the Bold, the Duke of Burgundy. The embittered Warwick secured the support of Edward IV's brother George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, for a coup in exchange for Warwick's promise to crown Clarence king. Although Edward was imprisoned briefly, Clarence was unacceptable as monarch to most of the country. Edward was allowed to resume his rule, outwardly reconciled with Warwick and Clarence. Within a year, though, he accused them of fresh treachery and forced them to flee to France.
With no hope of a reconciliation with King Edward, Warwick's best hope of regaining power in England lay in restoring Henry VI to the throne. Louis XI of France feared a hostile alliance of Burgundy under Charles the Bold and England under Edward. He was prepared to support Warwick with men and money, but to give legitimacy to any uprising by Warwick, the acquiescence of Margaret of Anjou was required. Warwick and Margaret were previously sworn enemies, but her attendants (in particular Sir John Fortescue, formerly Chief Justice during Henry VI's reign) and Louis eventually persuaded her to ally the House of Lancaster with Warwick.
The ground they fought on
The site of Battle of Tewkesbury (1471) lies on Lias Group, bedrock that formed in the Aalenian. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone, limestone and sandstone.
- Yorkist: unknown; Lancastrian: approximately 2,000
This battlefield is listed on the Register of Historic Battlefields — a national designation identifying Britain's most significant battle sites for protection and further research. Reference: NHLE 1000039.
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- Battle of Tewkesbury 1471 · Historic England
- Battle of Tewkesbury · Wikidata
- Battle_of_Tewkesbury · Wikipedia