Towton

[Subdeacon Joe]

England's bloodiest battle?

 

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Surprisingly for such a titanic struggle, Towton is less well-documented than other battles of the Wars of the Roses. Even such basic data as the numbers engaged and killed, wounded, or subsequently massacred and executed remain a matter of hot dispute among military historians, although the emerging evidence of battlefield archaeology makes clear that the battle surpassed all similar struggles on English soil.

On one fact, however, all authorities agree: for a medieval battle Towton was awesomely huge. The lowest estimate for the number of fighting men there is 50,000 - the highest, upwards of 80,000. And there is broad consensus, too, that at least 20,000 died, probably around 28,000 - an estimated 1% of the total population of England at the time. That is a staggering statistic by any standard. So what brought these men to that desolate field, and why did they fight and die there?