1st Battle of St Albans by Graham Turner
Reproduced by kind permission of the artist
www.studio88.co.uk

In August 1453 Henry VI was struck down with a mental illness that incapacitated him for eighteen months during which time his son and heir, Edward, was born. The duke of York became protector and during this time he imprisoned his great rival, the duke of Somerset, but early in 1455 the king regained his senses and York was dismissed and Somerset released. York, together with the earls of Salisbury and Warwick, were summoned to appear before the Council in Leicester but instead they led a force of around 3,500 men south. The king and Somerset left London and marched north to St Albans, their force estimated at 2,000 men.  On 22 May the battle that is regarded as the opening of the Wars of the Roses (although it was little more than a skirmish) was fought. York’s objective appears to have been the elimination of Somerset.

The royal host occupied St Peter’s Street, just north of the market place, and included the duke of Buckingham, the earls of Pembroke, Northumberland, Devon, Stafford, Dorset, and Wiltshire and lords Clifford, Dudley and Roos.  York and his men approached St Albans from the east. He deployed his men in three units of infantry, the northernmost stationed at Cock Lane and the southernmost in Sopwell Lane.  They were in position by 7 o’clock in the morning but York made an attempt at conciliation and sent emissaries to the king assuring him of his loyalty but requesting him to deliver ‘those who York would accuse’. The king refused to surrender Somerset and so between 11 o’clock and noon York attacked. The Lancastrians held off the attackers coming from the north and south but Warwick led a charge from the centre through the gardens and houses between Shropshire Lane and Sopwell Lane and burst into the market place surprising the royalists. The Yorkist archers fired at short range and wounded the king, Buckingham and Dudley. The Lancastrians fell back and began to flee from the onslaught. Somerset, Northumberland, Dorset, Stafford and Clifford were killed.  With his greatest enemy dead, the victorious York made his obeisance to the king and together they left St Albans.

Shields of some of the participants

Further Reading:

‘Politics and the Battle of St Albans 1455’ by CAJ Armstrong from the Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, May 1960. The causes, course and aftermath of the battle. This includes the contemporary chronicle ‘The Dijon Relation’ from the Archives de la Côte d’Or, B. 11942, No. 258.

‘An account of the First Battle of St Albans from a contemporary Manuscript’ edited by John Bayley. From Archaeologia, vol 20, 1824. One of the fullest contemporary accounts of the battle, the manuscript is with the Stonor papers in The National Archives.

‘Propaganda and the first battle of St Albans 1455’ by Michael Hicks.  Nottingham Medieval Studies xliv (2000)

‘Battle of St Albans 1455’ by AJ Pollard. From History Today May 2005

St Albans and the Wars of the Roses by Gerald Sanctuary. 1985. Brief account of the two battles of St Albans, with street maps