“A summer’s evening is as long as a winter’s day” was a quote from one of the Parliamentarian Generals who decided that the evening would be well spent engaging the Royalist Forces, during the battle of Marston Moor. Dashing Prince Rupert and the Earl of Newcastle were put to flight and the day, sorry evening, was won by the Roundheads. “Boo” I say to this but I will not let my feelings come into this as the battle I was concerned with was from an earlier Civil War, which we now call the Wars of the Roses.
What am I talking about? Well, my colleagues and I decided that we would take a guest to two battlefields in one day, due to their close proximity.
The morning was spent on a tour of the battlefield at Towton and then after a splendid lunch of game cassoulet at the Crooked Billet we upped sticks and moved on to Long Marston, near Tockwith.
As I said, I was more interested in the first battle. The reason? Well, one thing about the Towton conflict that does not sit well with me is the outcome of the conflict at Ferrybridge, the day before the main battle at Towton. Why did John Clifford sacrifice his life in such a way, leading 500 brave men against the entire Yorkist host?
My colleagues on the walk were Graham Darbyshire – in my opinion, the man with the best knowledge of the Towton topography and Dave Cook – ex soldier of the Inniskilling Dragoons and military historian, a chap who could help debate troop deployments.
The exam question then, “was how did Clifford get into such a pickle?” Just what was the Lancastrian Commander, Somerset, doing letting his most talented general, John Clifford, take this seemingly suicidal task on?
As with most of the conflicts of this period, there is precious little you can glean from the original source documents and secondary accounts are often written hundreds of years after the event and are by their very nature unreliable. Just look at the recent discovery that the Battle of Bosworth was in the “wrong” place. That was down to earlier historians being too reliant on the secondary accounts of the battle.
Clifford was considered to be the most lusty of the trio of Somerset, Northumberland and himself and it was agreed that he should take the fight to the Yorkists at Ferrybridge – that much we do know.
He took with him his crack light cavalry troop “The Flower of Craven”, 500 hard-riding, hard-fighting men – that much is documented.
He was successful in his mission of causing mayhem at the crossing at Ferrybridge – all seem to agree on that subject.
The poor chap perished with an arrow in his throat from Lord Fauconberg’s pursuing force of mounted archers whilst removing his gorget to slake his throat – what a way to go.
If you visit the spot where he was killed, a little spot called Dintingdale, to the east of Saxton, you get a great view of the topography and can look over your shoulder to see where he came from, after the Ferrybridge encounter, today’s cooling towers being clearly visible. The view to the front is the ridge where the main battle was to be fought the next day. If you look at the picture, you can see the windswept hawthorn tree, known as the battle tree, which was said to be the epicentre of the battle on Palm Sunday. The day before however, there would have been Lancastrian outriders there, watching for the advance of their Yorkist enemies. (Incidentally, Graham Daybyshire reckons that Dintingdale got it’s name quite literally as it was the dint in the dale. Far-fetched? Well, not really when you consider that there used to be a “Bare-arsed Farm” nearby, named by the locals because it was situated in the path of the cold northerly winds. The prudish Victorians changed its name to a more modest “Cold House Farm” – such a shame).
Anyhow, back to the story, if the Lancastrians had a good view of the route that Clifford was taking on his way back to the main lines, and saw the Yorkist in hot pursuit, why the heck didn’t they do something about it?
Historians have long argued that events happened so quickly that the Lancastrians would not have had chance to mount a rescue mission. To reinforce this argument, we saw a lady mounted on a fine dapple-grey mare, exercise her horse across the fields at Dintingdale right before our eyes. It soon ate the miles up across the terrain, illustrating how effectively a troop of mounted archers could close in on their prey.
My issue though, is that you would not let your most talented general get into this position. If Somerset valued his talents, he would surely have made a contingency plan to supply forces to help Clifford, having pulled off such a fantastic coup at Ferrybridge, retreat in an orderly manner. Surely, there were Lancastrian scouts reporting back on every Yorkist movement and Somerset would have been eagerly awaiting news of the success or otherwise of his engagement.
I think it was Harry Gration that said, “You can always tell a Yorkshireman……but not much” and that was why it was so good to have the 3 of us debate this, both on the spot and in the pub over a pint of beer afterwards.
Dave took the view that Clifford had over-extended his remit. That his instructions were to cause mayhem at the bridge and then high-tail it out of there while the Yorkist forces were in confusion. This would have bought the Lancastrians extra time so that they could consolidate their strong defensive position at Towton. Instead, bolstered by his initial success, Dave thinks that Clifford tarried too long, engaged in the second skirmish with Warwick and only beat his retreat when Lord Fauconberg was already in pursuit from the crossing at Castleford. Somerset was already in what was thought to be a strong defensive position. He wasn’t going to move from there. Why should he worry what was going on down the road?
Graham was of a similar view to me. Was there some animosity in the Lancastrian command? Why did Percy not play a more prominent role? After all the battle was being fought on his ancestral lands. Was there jealousy between Somerset and Clifford to the extent that Somerset deliberately let this upstart Clifford perish so that he could get him out of the way?
550 years after the battle, we can only speculate. One of the latest theories is that Ferrybridge and Towton was a rolling battle and not two separate incidents. Recent evidence has come to light of finds from two Burgundian hand-guns, just to the east of Dintingdale. These were mercenaries hired by the Yorkists so, just why were these fragments found here and not further north where the main battle was fought? Another unanswered question.
What still niggles me is why Clifford felt safe enough to remove his gorget to take a drink, within the range of an enemy bowman? He was a very experienced soldier and would have known the consequences of such an action. Surely, some form of treachery is at play here?
I may not have got any closer to the truth but I had a thoroughly good day out with some some like-minded people and feel all the richer for it. I won’t stop though, until I find an answer that puts my mind at rest.