Battle of Tewkesbury

It was almost a slur upon one's personal character to pass in this way, when one might in the last resort join some desperate rebellion and be handsomely slain, or at the very least of it be taken and properly beheaded.

These philosophical and historical considerations bring one, by a natural transition, to the Battle of Tewkesbury, fought in the meadows to the south of the town on May Day, fourteen seventy-one.

The place where the fight raged fiercest was close by the Gloucester Road in the field still called Bloody Meadow, whose name it is understood the town council, in the interests of the rising generation, are keenly desirous of seeing changed to something more respectable.

If you have never been to Tewkesbury, the battle will be a little unreal to you.

And, uh, I mean, this is, this is a plan that kind of suits everybody, you know.

I've, I've suggested before that there's a-- there must be a possibility that the idea for this comes from Anne because she's taken into custody by, um, George and her sister, Isabel, because she, she had been married to Henry VI's son, the Prince of Wales, who dies at the Battle of Tewkesbury.

And if, if she marries, then her husband is entitled to half of the Warwick inheritance.

But if she doesn't, George gets it all.

Queen Elizabeth Woodville, when her husband was driven into exile, was obliged to take refuge in the sanctuary of Westminster, where she gave birth to her eldest son, afterwards Edward V.

As for Margaret of Anjou, she remained a prisoner in England after the Battle of Tewkesbury, until, on Edward making peace with France in 1475, she was ransomed by Louis XI and returned to her own country.

End of section 34.

Section 35 of The Houses of Lancaster and York by James Gairdner.

I'm sure we'll come back in time later on as we go around the house.

But to move to the crux of the matter, in 1471, Battle of Tewkesbury.

about an hour to the east of us.

Big Yorkist victory.

Correct, and I

mentioned... that this is taken from a lunchtime feast.

It's supposedly on, you know, a couple of, they're expecting Roger back after the Battle of Tewkesbury.

And so it's been laid out for lunch where he's actually going to thank his retainers, the people who worked for him, so not the same status.

Soon after this, she succeeded in gaining over Lord Stanley to her son's party.

In 1471, after the Battle of Tewkesbury, Jasper Tudor followed Margaret's advice by sending the young Henry his nephew out of the country.

Henry was now 15 years old, and it was his mother's wish that he should take refuge with Louis XI of France.

This plan, however, failed, for he was wrecked on the Breton coast and had to pursue the life of imprisonment and surveillance which became so familiar to him.

In 1470, there's a brief interlude in the piece-ish.

When Henry was freed from the tower by his supporters, he was re-crowned, Edward and his family flee, but then they return back from exile the next year to take the crown once again after winning at the Battle of Tewkesbury.

It was very back and forth.

Henry was then incarcerated in the tower again, and then he died.

In the ensuing battles, Lord Warwick was defeated and killed.

A few months later, the Lancastrians were vanquished at the Battle of Tewkesbury.

Vanished actually wouldn't be technically too incorrect either, but vanquished is what I was going for.

Among the battlefield dead was the dynasty's heir, Edward, Prince of Wales, dead at 17.

There has always been a question mark over what exactly happened to him.

It seems perfectly possible, somewhere between possible and likely, that he actually survived the battle itself only to be executed without trial either on Edward IV's orders or by one of his younger brothers, possibly the Duke of Clarence.

When precisely he died, we don't know, but he certainly didn't survive the Battle of Tewkesbury.

Physically collapsing when she heard her only child was dead, Queen Margaret was captured and brought back to London, where both she and her husband were imprisoned at the Tower.