Roundabout Towton

On Sunday I went for a walk around the battlefield of Towton. You can get maps of the battlefield from the Battlefield Trust. The plateau the battle took place on is now cultivated private farmland so you cannot gain access. You can however follow the roads around the plateau, the modern roads follow the same path as the medieval roads.

Having parked at the Crooked Billet to the South West of the battlefield I followed the B1217 north. This would have been the journey taken by the Yorkist soldiers who camped in the area around the Crooked Billet on the morning of the battle, 29 March 1461. The first thing you notice when looking in the direction of the battlefield is how quickly the land rises, you can see only a few hundred metres.

As the road rises you come out to where the west end of the Yorkist line would have been. In the east, about 1,000 metres away, you can see the Hawthorn Tree that marks where the east end of the Yorkist line would have been. The tree acts as a reference point as you walk around the plateau. The point at which the photo was taking is where a lot of the initial fighting took place as the Lancastrian right advanced and the 200 spears ambush came out of Castle Hill Woods.

Continuing north you feel and see the dip in the ground that runs between the two armies starting positions. Unfortunately I was unable to capture this in a photograph. You arrive at cross marking the battlefield which is situated just behind the initial position of the Lancastrian right flank.

At the cross there is a path that allows you to walk a hundred metres towards the Cock River. Here you see the steep slopes down which the fleeing Lancastrians struggled, many meeting their deaths in the slippery conditions.

Looking back south you can how the plateau of the initial Yorkist position extends to the west right up to Castle Hill Wood where the ground suddenly drops off down to the river. Though there are no contemporary accounts of an ambush the wood looks like a good position for one. It also explain why the Lancastrians did not deploy on the south end of the plateau. The south end looks a much better position than the north end, however by deploying at the north end the Lancastrians make the Yorkists advance on them exposing their flank to the wood.

Walking back to the Cross you follow the B1217 north into Towton. At the far side of Towton there is a track known of the London Road which runs for half a mile to the Cock River. This is the site of the supposed Bridge of Bodies, where the dead piled high enough that you could use them to cross the river. Today a small wooden bridge marks the spot.

Walking back into Towton, you follow the A162 south down the east side of the plateau. There is not much to see down this end of the battlefield. The marsh that marked the eastern end of the battle is now a golf course. What is interesting is that you ground rises so steeply that you lose sight of the Hawthorn Tree. It is only a few metres back from the east of the plateau but you cannot see it from the road.

Once south of the plateau you can turn east towards Saxton. This road gives an excellent view of how the Yorkists would have seen the plateau as they advanced.

In the centre of Saxton is the church with the tomb of Lord Dacre standing outside. I need to learn more about Lord Dacre, all I can tell you is that he fought for the Lancastrians and apparently died from a crossbow bolt through the neck having removed his helmet.

Following the road west out of Saxton you reach the B1217 again and the Crooked Billet can be seen slight south down the road.

Preparing for Towton

After all the effort in January to get my Normans ready February was a bit slow but it's time to get back into gear as I have two projects to finish by mid-April. Trev is organising a Lasalle battles day on the 23rd April so I need to complete my French army by then and hopefully get some practice games in. The army needs the artillery finished off and a brigade of Dragoons but more about that in another post.

Before that JP and I are putting on a demonstration game of the battle of Towton at a festival on 17th April. I need to complete a Lancastrian army of 400pts in 15mm and the rest of this post will outline that army.

The army is divided into three battles, the Duke of Somerset's, the Duke of Exeter's, and the Earl of Northumberland's. Each battle consists of two units of archers with two large units, one of men-at-arms supported by billmen, and one solely of billmen. In addition to this there is a large unit of Scottish pikemen and unit of light cavalry.

All told, 21 stands holding 190 figures. The figures are all Peter Pig and they are excellent figures. I have the last of them on order and hope to pick them up this weekend.

I managed to make a start on the Duke of Somerset's battle completing the archers, men-at-arms and one stand of billmen. I always find it initially difficult when I move between painting scales. Going from 28mm to 15mm I have to stop myself doing unnecessary detail and additional shades.

While historically each battle was made up of the retinues of a number of nobles, for the demonstration I want the three different battles to be clearly distinguishable so all retinue soldiers will have the livery of the commander, for the Duke of Somerset its white and blue.

Anyway another busy month of painting ahead during which we need to find time to write up the scenario and short history as a handout for the demo.

Battle of Towton

Due to other distractions in life its been a few weeks since I last made a blog post. Primarily I've been focusing on getting my Normans painted so haven't done much of note but I have been invited to take part in an interesting Wars of the Roses project.

This year is the 550th anniversary of the battle of Towton so JP contacted the Battlefield Society so see if we could put on a demo game at their upcoming festival. They agreed and we went up to talk to them about the battle last week. Thankfully JP is taking on the organisation, constructing the board and painting the Yorkist. All I have to do is paint the Lancastrians from scratch by the 17th April. There goes February and March!

Coincidentally I had picked up Andrew Boardman's book on the battle at New Year so have quickly raced through it to get me up to speed on the battle. I'll do a more detailed post once I get through some other books but thought a brief intro would help me think about preparing the army.

The battle took place on Palm Sunday, 29 March 1461. While estimates vary on the numbers involved, there is no doubt that the battle was the largest fought in the Wars of the Roses, Boardman estimates that each side must have had around 25,000 participants. More than twice the usual number for a battle in the period. The battle was the climax of several years of fighting and would see Edward IV confirm his usurpation of the throne.

The battle took place on high ground between the village of Towton in the north and Saxton in the south. The battlefield was a plateau with a dale running east-west between the two armies. The Lancastrians came from York in north led by the Duke of Somerset and Earl of Northumberland, the Yorkist had marched from London and were led by Edward IV, Earl of Warwick and Lord Fouconberg.

In summary the armies faced of north-south with the Lancastrians having a slight numerical advantage at this point. The weather was against them, the wind blowing the falling snow in their faces and nullifying their archers. The Yorkists easily won the archery duel forcing the Lancastrians to advance.

The Lancastrians gained the advantage on the west of the line perhaps supported by an ambush from the Castle Hill Wood. The Yorkist line held long enough for the Duke of Norfolk to arrive with 5,000 reinforcements on the east side of the line and shortly after the Lancastrian army was in rout. The swinging of the battle line meant that their line of retreat had been compromised and the troops were forced to retreat through the River Warfe and Cock River. The Lancastrian army was wiped out - though the nobility escaped. Contemporary sources say that 28,000 died on the field making Towton one of histories bloodiest battles.

Reading up on the battle and visiting the battlefield has got me really excited about the project which I hope will be the spring board for other Wars of the Roses projects. I have a pile of Peter Pig's figures ready for the painting table.

Wars of the Roses

Happy New Year!

That can mean only one thing, it's time to think about this year's projects. While continuing to progress on my Roman and Peninsular projects interest in the Wars of the Roses (WOTR) with the Sheffield club is high so I have decided to make this the main project for the first half of the year.

We have decided to aim to run a campaign in the summer which provides a realistic target for painting armies. We'd also like to refight some of the battles, one of the joys of the WOTR is that 15 battles took place within 32 years with similar combatants so the same figures can be used for a number of battles. I have a general interest in the period and have scattered some pics from last year's Tewkesbury Medieval Festival.

Whilst the battles themselves are interesting, the highlight of the period is the fluid political allegiances. Representing this in a campaign however is not straight forward and my current thoughts are on how the campaign will work.

Victory Conditions

The rules need to allow players to engage in diplomacy as they see fit without unhistorical ganging up. Ultimately the victory conditions for the campaign can ensure this as, assuming everyone is out to win, they will only help each other to a point.

Each player will take on the role of a leading magnate. In order to represent the diversity of the period these will varying in initial strength having three ratings from Duke, Earl, or Lord. The victory conditions for each will vary based on starting position but will be based on the faction surviving and increasing their influence.

Campaign Map

A campaign could be run without a map with each player accumulating and spending political points through fighting battles but I like a nice map and hope to use one. Several existing ones are possibilities. The board games Kingmaker and Richard III both have maps for the period. I have not seen the Kingmaker board but the Richard III map breaks England and Wales into counties.

Extra Impetus 3 also contains a Wars of the Roses map and campaign system based on point to point movement. This would be my preference as it allows players to use strategic movement to influence individual battles though I would like to add more towns and routes to the map to increase the options available to players.

Campaign Battles

My preference for moving between the campaign map and individual battles is to have the armies on the campaign map representing X points which are then converted into an army using a relevant army list. Not only is this easier than maintaining ongoing army lists it also means that multiple rule systems can be used, for while I myself play Impetus there is a strong contingent of WAB players at the club.

A number of tweaks can be made to the campaign rules which limit when players can field special units such as European mercenaries or Scottish allies.

As you will have gathered a large number of details for the campaign will need to be decided over the coming months. But first and foremost I need to get painting troops. As a friend at the club already has the Yorkist at Towton I have decided to paint up the opposing Lancastrian forces starting with the Retinues of the Duke of Somerset and Earl of Northumberland.