Battle of Empingham aka Lose-coat Field – 12 March 1470

In March 1470 a local dispute escalated into a full-scale rebellion in Lincolnshire which King Edward, who had escaped from Warwick’s custody, decided to deal with personally.

The climax of the rebellion took place on 12 March near Empingham, Rutland, between the king and his army and Sir Robert Welles leading the Yorkshire rebels. That morning King Edward arrived in Stamford and sent his vanguard to search out the position of Welles who was found beside the Great North Road near Empingham, which was just five miles from Stamford. The king advanced with the remainder of his army and took up his position.

The chronicler of the rebellion claims that the rebels charged with cries of a‘ Clarence, a’ Clarence, a’ Warwick (confirming that the duke of Clarence and the earl of Warwick had been behind the rebellion all along) and it appears that a single volley from the royalists broke the rebels’ lines and they fled the battlefield, discarding their coats, either to speed their departure or to lose the heraldic emblems which would have condemned them as traitors. The leaders were captured and executed but the common men, as was often the case with King Edward, were spared.

Shields of some of the participants

Contemporary Sources:

‘Chronicle of the Rebellion in Lincolnshire 1470’, edited by JG Nichols, Camden Miscellany, vol 1, 1847, pp 5-18.

Three Chronicles of Edward IV, Sutton Publishing, 1988 (includes the above chronicle).

A Chronicle of the First Thirteen Years of the Reign of King Edward IV by John Warkworth. Edited by JO Halliwell, 1839

‘Hearne’s Fragment’ in The Chronicles of the White Rose, edited by JC Giles, 1843..

Further Reading:

‘… Where both the hosts fought…’ - The Rebellion of 1469-1470 and the Battles of Edgecote and Lose-Coat Field by PA Haigh. Battlefield Press, Heckmondwike, West Yorks 1997. 

‘An Unnoticed Battle’ by M Barton from Rutland Magazine, vol 1 1904. Full account of the battle.

‘The Battle of Losecoat Field March 1470’ by JL Knapp. From Squire Magazine, vol 1, no 8, July 1980. Brief account of the battle.

‘The Lincolnshire Rebellion and Its Part in the Downfall of the Earl of Warwick’ by Juanita L Knapp. The Ricardian, September 1978

‘The Battle of Losecoat Field’ by Justin Simpson. From Leicestershire and Rutland Notes and Queries,
Vol 1 1889-91. Brief account of the engagement.

‘The Battle of Empingham (Lose-Coat Field) 1470’ by Alan Smithies from Grantham Journal, 12 March 1970. Brief account of the battle.