Battle of Wakefield Speculations

I hope all of you had an enjoyable New Year’s Eve and I really, really hope that 2017 will be a better year for all of us.

December 30th was a dreadful day for the House of York, for on this date in 1460, the Duke of York rashly ventured out from Sandal Castle to confront a Lancastrian force that lured him into a trap. The result was a devastating defeat for the Yorkists. The duke died on the field, the Earl of Salisbury was executed after the battle, and the most controversial killing occurred on Wakefield Bridge when the duke’s seventeen year old son, Edmund, was slain by Lord Clifford. Their heads were placed on York’s Micklegate Bar, but the Lancastrians did not have long to savor their triumph. Just three months later, Edward of York won a great victory against them at Towton, said to be the bloodiest battle ever fought on English soil, a victory that secured the crown for the young commander, who was still a month shy of his nineteenth birthday on that snowy March day. Think about that; what an amazing accomplishment for someone so young. Military historians are constantly praising battle commanders like the Lionheart, Edward I, and Henry V. But Edward of York was a brilliant general, too, and does not always get enough credit for that.

We often discuss History’s What Ifs here. Well, I think the battle fought outside Sandal Castle presents a very interesting What If. After they’d fled Ludlow Castle before the advancing Lancastrian army in 1159, the Duke of York set out for Ireland, taking with him his second son, Edmund. The Earl of Warwick chose exile in Calais and the duke’s eldest son, Edward, accompanied him. If Edward had been the one to remain with his father, then he would have been at Sandal Castle on that cold December day when the duke made his fateful, foolish decision to leave the castle and confront the Lancastrian force that had ambushed his foraging party. How would Edward’s presence there have changed history?

The simple answer would be that he’d have died instead of his younger brother. But I am not convinced that would have happened. Edward would soon prove himself to be a superb battle commander, as I mention above, a far better general than either his father or his cousin Warwick. Edward was also supremely self-confident, even at a very young age. And lastly, Edward had what Napoleon considered critical in a general—luck; when told that a general was skilled, he would always say, “But is he lucky?” Edward’s luck would become legendary and to his enemies it must have seemed as if he had as many lives as a cat. So that legendary luck may have enabled him to escape capture during the battle of Wakefield. It is even possible that there would not have been a battle had Edward been there. He would have understood the risk they’d be taking in leaving the safety of the castle, and he would have had the self-assurance to do what Edmund could not---speak up and argue against it. Since we also know that Edward could charm the birds out of the trees or a nun into bed with him if he so chose, his argument might well have carried the day. All speculation, of course, but fun. I can only say for a certainty that I hated murdering Edmund on Wakefield Bridge; he was my first victim and I did not yet know that all of my books would be so blood-soaked and happy endings as rare as unicorns.