Photos By Phil Steele
Tag: 15th Century
The international award winning Northamptonshire Battlefield Society will be at Delapre Abbey on 15/16 July for the commemoration of the 1460 battle where we will be giving walks, talks and demonstrations. Come and play our new battle of Northampton game. We will have our new Northamptonshire and Rutland Wars of the Roses Gazetteer and battle heraldry posters on sale as well as the book and game.
All welcome. Meet at Delapre Abbey at 7:00pm to walk to Queen Eleanor Cross to lay flowers for the fallen of Northamptonshires medieval battles. Will include a mini tour and talk on the 1460 battle.
Dominic Smee has a form of scoliosis similar to King Richard’s and for the recent Channel 4 documentary, Richard III: The New Evidence, Dominic was subject to various riding and training tests to determine if the condition could have had any negative effects on the King’s ability to fight in battle.
Richard Knox, Heritage Development Manager at Bosworth Battlefield Centre opens the talk by giving a history of armour, relating it to Richard 111. Dominic will then talk about his experience during the making of the Channel Four documentary. The talk concludes with Richard arming Dominic in the armour made by Channel Four and adding his own pieces.
Free to full NBS members otherwise £5.00 on the door.
We are pleased to announce that we are launching our new Battle of Northampton 1460 game at Kettering Museum on Saturday 21 January from 11am.
“Northampton 1460” is a two player game of the nationally significant Wars of the Roses battle fought on the 10th July 1460 in the fields of Delapre Abbey, to the south of Northampton. The game is quick and easy to learn and enables the players to refight the battle on their own dining room table.
The game provides the players with the opportunity to examine the decisions made by the opposing commanders on the day, as well as those of an array of supporting characters such as Henry VI, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Queen Margaret. Players can either follow in their footsteps or change the course of history. The game system presents each player with the decisions they could have made on the day as well as those that were made and provides for a range of outcomes. The scoring system enables the players to see how well they have done compared to their historical predecessors, – so it is possible to lose the battle and still win the game!
The game book contains all the components needed to play, – accurate heraldic game counters representing the nobles present, player decision cards, a game board and cards that control the weather, as well as clear, concise rules and a description of the battle. All the players need to add are some dice.
This two player game, which can also be played solo, is suitable for both children and adults, providing an insight to the events both preceding and during this important battle in the bloody and treacherous Wars of the Roses. Produced in a book format it is that rare thing, – an educational game that is also fun to play.
Speed of set up and play means that you can play the game multiple times over to try out different plans and strategies.
Can you change the course of history and defeat Warwick the Kingmaker?
The game is based upon the very successful Northampton Battlefields Society participation game “Northampton 1460” which the Society uses at historical shows and events to explain the battle and promote the Society. Originally intended only to be used for public display repeated requests from participants asking where the game could be bought has led to the Society producing a version that can be played at home.
Age 8+
Retail Price £12.99 Full NBS members £9.99
Jan 26: Dom Smee and Richard Knox – Richard III armour
Feb 23: Mike Ingram – The Earls and Kings of Scotland and Northamptonshire
March 23: Thom Richardson (curator emeritus, Royal Armouries) – Arms and armour in England in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
April 27: Mike Brown – The medieval pilgrim
June 1: Bob Woosnam-Savage (Curator of European Edged Weapons, Royal Armouries) – The reality of 15th century warfare – Tis but a scratch
June 29: Andy Chapman – Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Age Northants
July 27: Peter Brearley – The story of archery
September 28: Mathew Morris – Revealing Greyfriars. The search for Leicester’s lost Franciscan friary.
October 26: AGM plus Matthew Lewis – Henry III
November 30: Prof Steven Upex. Medieval Field Systems in Northants
All start 7:30pm except AGM (7:00pm)
See our Facebook page under events for more details of individual talks.
All free to full Northampton Battlefields Society members otherwise £5.00 on the door.
Venue: Marriott Hotel, Eagle Dr, Northampton NN4 7HW http://www.marriott.co.uk/hotels/maps/travel/ormnh-northampton-marriott-hotel/
Please dont forget this months talk – this Thursday 21 July.
Our speaker is Harvey Watson of the Battlefields Trust and co-author of “The Battles of St. Albans” talking about the first battle of St. Albans.
7:30pm start, free to NBS members otherwise £5.00 on the door.
Location: Marriot Hotel, Eagle Drive Northampton https://www.marriott.co.uk/hotels/maps/travel/ormnh-northampton-marriott-hotel/
Chairmans award for outstanding preservation and interpretation presented by Sir Robert Worcester
Northampton Battlefield Society stand
Vice chair Phil Steele accepts the award for outstanding battlefield society on NBS behalf from Sir Robert Worcester
kiddie knights
battlefield tour led by the chairman
Flowers laid at Queen Eleanor’s Cross in memory of the fallen
NBS Northampton Battlefield model
foot tournament
foot tournament
Firepower demo
A full stand. Committee member Anthony Rich describes the battle
9 July 1460
The Yorkist army approaches Northampton through Blisworth and probably camps for the night at Hardingstone.
The Lancastrian camp begins to swell with men as towns answer the King’s summons. Twenty men from Beverley arrive after their mayor threw a party for them before they left. Men from Shrewsbury are also there too. Northampton’s leading gentry and their men such as the Wake’s, Catesby’s, Vaux’s and Tresham’s all come in support of the King. The Duke of Buckingham, as earl of Northampton draws men from his local estates, as does the Queen who owns Kingsthorpe Village. The town itself calls out the militia which fights under the town’s ‘Wild Rat’ banner.
The Yorkists send Heralds and Bishops ahead to the Lancastrian camp to negotiate, still maintaining they do not want to fight, only talk with the King.
26 June 1460.
The Calais Lords, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick; Edward, Earl of March; and William Neville, Lord Fauconberg landed at Sandwich with 2,000 men.
27 June 1460.
The Calais lords arrive at Canterbury. Robert Horne, John Scot and John Fosse and their men, sent by King Henry to stop them change sides and help negotiate the surrender of the city.
28 June 1460
Yorkists send out letters summoning help from the Cinque Ports. At least Rye and Winchelsea send men. After paying respects at the shrine of St. Thomas, a growing number of Yorkists leave Canterbury heading for London via Rochester and Dartford.
29 June 1460
The Common Council of London agree to resist the rebels but refuse to let the Lancastrian Lord Scales to act as the cities Captain. Men at Arms are placed on London Bridge. A deputation is sent to the advancing Yorkists warning them they would be refused entry to the city. Thousands flock to the Yorkist standard ‘like bees to the hive’.
1st July 1460
The Yorkist army reaches London and camps at Blackheath. As well as the Calais Lords it was said to include ” the many footmen of the commons of Kent, Sussex and Surrey”. By this time, according to some observers their number was between 20,000 and 40,000.
2 July 1460
11 Aldermen of London rebel in support of the Yorkists. The Yorkists enter London and are met by the Bishops of Ely and Exeter in Southwark. There is a crush on London Bridge and 13 Men at Arms are trampled when they fell.
3 July 1460
The Calais Lords make an oath of allegance to King Henry on the cross of Canterbury at St. Pauls. Warwick announces that they had come with the people to declare their innocence or else die in the field.
4 July 1460
Francesco Coppini, Bishop of Turin and Papal Legate joined the Yorkists at Calais. His official mission from the Pope was to persuade the English to join a crusade. However, he has a secret mission from Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan (If you have seen “The Borgias” on TV you will get the idea), to help put the Yorkists on the throne. The French were becoming heavily involved in Italy and Margaret of Anjou’s brother wanted to be King of Naples, thereby threatening Milan. If the Yorkists were kings of England they might be persuaded to invade France and take the pressure of of Italy. At St. Pauls and by letter, Coppini issues a chilling warning to King Henry… ‘….out of the pity and compassion you should have for your people and citizens and your duty, to prevent so much bloodshed, now so imminent. You can prevent this if you will, and if you do not you will be guilty in the sight of God in that awful day of judgement in which I also shall stand and require of your hand the English blood, if it be spilt’
Warwick’s Uncle, William Neville, Lord Fauconberg, advances north from London, with according to one chronicler, 10,000 men. Faucoberg was the Yorkist’s most experienced soldier having taken part in many of the later battles of the 100 Year War. He appears to have been heading for Ware. Warwick secures a loan of £1,000 from London to finance the coming campaign.
5 July 1460
The main Yorkist army commanded by Warwick leaves London heading north along Watling Street. They bring with them a train of artillery.
The Lancastrian’s make plans to leave their base at Coventry. Summonses are sent out to towns and to lords to assemble their forces. They too have a large train of artillery which they had been stockpiling at Kenilworth Castle.
Salisbury and Cobham stay in London to lay siege to the Tower
July 7 1460
The Lancastrians reach Northampton and begin to build a fortified camp in fields between Hardingstone and Delapre Abbey. Bishop of Winchester and Lord Chancellor of England , William Waynflete, surrenders the Great Seal to the King in ‘Hardingstone Field’ Then he and a number of other senior members resign and flee.
In the meantime the two separate Yorkist armies join at Dunstable where they wait for the artillery and slower foot soldiers to catch up.
Northamptonshire Battlefields Society 