by Janet Lane
http://www.janetlane.net
Author’s Note
The Wars of the Roses consisted of many battles fought over England’s throne between 1455 and 1487. It was fueled in large part by Margaret of Anjou, King Henry VI’s queen, who refused to surrender the throne in spite of her husband’s erratic and extended bouts with insanity. It was a war of bloodlines, and of the nobility’s increasing frustrations with the myopic interests of the royal families. The battles were rife with instances of commanders switching loyalty on the battlefields. These acts of treason ofen swayed the outcome of those battles.
The first confrontation between the Lancastrian King Henry VI and the challenging Duke of York was the First Battle of St. Albans on 22 May, 1455, a Yorkist victory.
The second confrontation was the Battle of Blore Heath, 23 September, 1459, was a Yorkist victory in which thousands of Lancastrians died (including the fictional character, Giles). This was also the battle in which Joya’s brother, Stephen, was accused of treason in Book 3 of the Coin Forest series, Traitor’s Moon.
The third clash, the Battle of Ludford Bridge, 12 October, 1459, was a Lancastrian vcitory. King Henry led his troops to victory when Andrew Trollope, York’s captain of the Calais troops, switched sides after accepting the king’s pardon. York fled to Ireland and the earl of Salisbury fled to Calais, where England’s largest standing army was headquartered.
The Battle of Red Bridge is my fictional account of Luke Bonwyk, Lord Penry, who allied with York to defeat the Lancastrians at the Red Bridge. After York’s sound defeat at Ludford Bridge, Wagg, York’s rebellious Irish captain, took matters into his own hands. He developed a secret plan to ambush and kill the royals as they attempted to cross the Red Bridge.
After the Ludford Bridge battle, the armies clashed at the Battle of Northampton, on 10 July, 1460. A Yorkist victory was sealed when a commander switched sides from the King’s army to the Yorkist cause. King Henry was captured and the king agreed that the Yorks were the rightful heirs to the crown. Many thought this would end the wars, but Margaret continued the fight, which ultimately lasted twenty-seven more years.
Early Warfare
In this world of instant communication and technological sophistication, it’s hard to grasp a world with no Internet, television, cell phones, or timely message delivery systems.
In a time when an unmanned missile or drone can travel thousands of miles and hit a target with accuracy, it’s even harder to grasp a battle in which the two sides leisurely arrived, set up tents, and enjoyed meals and a good night’s sleep before beginning battle. The opposing military leaders would parlay and agree on a time when the battle should start.
In the mid fifteenth century, gun powder and cannon were used, but guns as we know them did not find their way to the battlefield until later. Armor was still valuable, though the English longbow was known to penetrate it. Soldiers faced showers of arrows, cannon and boiling pitch. They may have been beheaded with a deadly sharp sword, bludgeoned with a mace, had their skulls crushed, drowned in a river from the oppressive weight of their armor, or trapped face down in the mud and suffocated in their helmets.
Regardless of the century, war is hell.
