The Palmsunday Field Project
A new venture to uncover the truth about the battle of Towton in 1461
Why is this field in North Yorkshire so important?
Once upon a time, the so-called ‘lamentable’ battle of Towton left an indelible mark on Britain that has been largely forgotten and shrouded in myth. But what is the truth about Palm Sunday Field, where 28,000 men ‘counted by the heralds’ died in the snow?
New information about this unique Wars of the Roses battle resurfaces every few years to colour our thinking about what might have happened between Towton and Saxton villages on a bitterly cold day over half a millennium ago. But with each new find comes the same long-awaited question…
Was Towton really the longest, biggest and bloodiest battle on British soil?
Today we are obviously far removed from the Wars of the Roses and its most brutal battle fought on Palm Sunday, 29 March 1461. However, despite the passage of time, new contemporary evidence is as rare today as it was for our ancestors, who sought to clarify what happened soon after the event. Some nuggets of information about the battle of Towton survive in fifteenth-century chronicles, official documents and letters of the period. But searching for new evidence about a brief moment in history is generally a frustrating and time-consuming task. What little evidence we know about Towton is precious and more about luck than dogged perseverance. Some claims cannot be substantiated, yet other information is based on local legend, political Tudor bias or dramatic interpretation. Therefore, the real story about the battle and its aftermath has either been lost, distorted or fabricated over the centuries.
So, why should we even care about what happened ‘betwixt Towton and Saxton fields’ in 1461? In fact, is it current to wonder why thousands of men lined up for battle and fought each other such a long time ago? Is the battle even worthy of mention since we have little evidence about it? Do we still gasp when we read the chronicler’s and herald’s estimates of the dead? Or that rivers choked with corpses ran red with blood? Is it regarded as a war crime that numerous executions followed the battle? That no mercy was offered to the losers? Or are we in some way desensitised to violence today, and if so, how should we view modern wars and mass executions when, as spectators, we are so divorced from reality?
The answer to these important questions is simple. Yes, we should be interested in bygone battles like Towton, and the image above proves the point in an extremely graphic and current way. Like numerous other conflicts in history, the very nature of war can be questioned on a historic battlefield. The Towton grave accidentally unearthed in the village in 1996 makes us question the brutality of war. When we gaze at the bones of the soldiers who died in such brutal circumstances, we should question the nature of all wars. We should investigate how conflicts originate, how wars are prepared for, how they are pursued, and how a military and civilian population is affected by living through mass violence. Similarly, what might that population think of a large death toll socially, politically and economically? How might a war or battle be commemorated after the event, and how should it be portrayed by the media so that it never happens again?
Thankfully the re-occurrence of ‘tactical’ warfare has reduced over the centuries, but it is still pursued in absolute fashion by those who sideline historical precedent. Therefore, battles like Towton are relevant today. They provide a blueprint for all wars and educate the masses to think rather than forget past conflicts. At its most basic and tragic level, battles like Towton belong in our consciousness and should shape our outlook. The military theorist Clausewitz said, ‘war is an extension of politics by other means’, but this is not always true. And this is why all bygone conflicts, regardless of period, need investigating today. Only then might we understand who we are and how far we have progressed (or not progressed) as a species.
The Palmsunday Field Project is part of an ongoing aim to investigate the battle of Towton using a multi-disciplined approach that includes revisiting the battle's contemporary sources and conflict archaeology. The article below by Keith A Dowen features in this month's Battlefield Trust magazine:
To understand the background of the battle of Towton and the men who fought in the Wars of the Roses, you can order books by A.W. Boardman here at The History Press, on Amazon, or at all good bookshops.
