Battle of Towton, 1461
Outline: officially registered battlefield boundary.
Key facts
| Date (year) | 1461 | Historic England NHLE name |
|---|---|---|
| Century | 15th century | derived |
| Period | Wars of the Roses & late medieval | derived |
| Country | England | derived |
| War / conflict | Wars of the Roses | Wikidata |
| Registered area | 659.3 ha | Historic England |
| Grid reference | SE4785836728 | Historic England |
| Historic England list entry | 1000040 | Historic England |
| Designated | 1995-06-06 | Historic England |
| Last amended | 2017-06-01 | Historic England |
About the battle
The Battle of Towton took place on 29 March 1461 during the Wars of the Roses, near Towton in North Yorkshire. Yorkist forces decisively defeated Lancastrian supporters of Henry VI, securing the English throne for Edward IV. Fought for ten hours between an estimated 50,000 soldiers from both sides in a snowstorm on Palm Sunday, it was "probably the largest and bloodiest battle on English soil".
Henry VI succeeded his father, Henry V, when he was nine months old in 1422, but was a weak, ineffectual and mentally unsound ruler, which encouraged the nobles to scheme for control over him. The situation deteriorated in the 1450s into a civil war between his Beaufort relatives and his wife, Queen Margaret, on one side, with those of his cousin Richard, Duke of York, on the other.
In October 1460, Parliament named York as Henry's successor, but the Lancastrians refused to accept the disinheritance of Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales. In December, their army defeated and killed York at Wakefield. His eldest son Edward now declared himself king, and marched north with his own forces.
Visiting the battlefield
Location
- OS grid reference: SE4785836728
- Approximate centre of registered area: 53.8396, -1.2726
- Registered area: 659.3 hectares
Battlefields are often on private farmland: please keep to public rights of way and respect landowners.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Towton (revision 1380895540), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; condensed by selecting paragraphs and trimming at sentence boundaries; citations removed. No text added.
Battlefield data © Historic England 2026. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Nearby battlefields
- Battle of Tadcaster 1642 · 5 km
- Battle of Bramham Moor 1408 · 5 km
- Battle of Seacroft Moor 1643 · 8 km
- Battle of Marston Moor 1644 · 14 km
- Battle of Ferrybridge 1461 · 14 km
- Battle of Selby 1644 · 15 km
Other battles of the Wars of the Roses
- First Battle of St Albans 1455
- Battle of Blore Heath 1459
- Battle of Ludford Bridge 1459
- Battle of Northampton 1460
- Battle of Wakefield 1460
- Battle of Worksop 1460
- Battle of Ferrybridge 1461
- Battle of Mortimer's Cross 1461
- Second Battle of St Albans 1461
- Battle of Piltown 1462
All battles of the Wars of the Roses →
Browse more: battles in England · Wars of the Roses & late medieval · 15th century battles