Battle of Northampton – 10 July 1460

Following the débâcle that was the rout of Ludford the rebels fled to Dublin and Calais and were attainted at the Coventry parliament. The earls of Warwick and Salisbury, together with the earl of March, had made for Calais which had been besieged by the duke of Somerset who had now retired to Guisnes.  In May 1461 the Yorkists returned to England and landed at Sandwich on 26 June 1460. Their objective was to force the king to reform his government and to remove his ‘evil’ councillors. The king, meanwhile. had expected the return of the earls and on 23 June the south-east was put on alert and ordered to resist the rebels. The earls marched on London, augmenting their army with the men of Kent. Leaving Salisbury to garrison the Tower, Warwick and March moved north to meet with the Lancastrian forces commanded by the duke of Buckingham. Warwick sent three emissaries to present their grievances to the king but they did not get past the duke of Buckingham. Finally an exasperated Warwick declared that he would speak to the king by 2 o’clock or die in the field. The royal army was entrenched south of the river Nene in a meadow. They were hopelessly outnumbered by the Yorkists and their powerful force or artillery had been rendered useless by rain.

The battle commenced with Warwick immediately committing all three of his ‘battles’ (also known as wings but essentially the group formations or divisions of an army). Fauconberg commanded the van, Warwick the centre, opposite Buckingham, and March the left wing. Opposite the young earl was the royalist van under Lord Grey of Ruthyn who had struck a deal with Warwick and at a given signal his men encouraged March’s men to join them and together they attacked Buckingham. It was all over in just half an hour. Warwick had ordered his men to spare the common soldiers but to kill the nobles. Buckingham, the earl of Salisbury, lords Beaumont and Egremont perished. Having eliminated the hated royal councillors, the victorious Yorkists treated the king with respect and swearing their loyalty escorted him to the nearby abbey of St Mary (now Delapré) and then to London.

Shields of some of the participants

Further Reading:

 ‘A Quincentenary: the Battle of Northampton, July 10 1460’ by R Ian Jack from Northamptonshire Past and Present Vol 3 No 1 1960. Description of the battle with quotations from contemporary accounts