← Explore on the interactive map
Battle of Blore Heath
On September 23, 1459, Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury, led a Yorkist army southward and was intercepted at Blore Heath in Staffordshire by the La…
Timeline
- 1459Yorkshire to Staffordshire · EnglandIn 1459 Lancastrian-Yorkist tensions flared again; the Earl of Salisbury led about five thousand men south from the Yorkist stronghold of Middleham, intending to join the Duke of York and the Earl of Warwick on the Welsh Marches, but was intercepted en route by Lancastrian forces ordered to block him.
- 1459Blore Heath · StaffordshireBaron Audley entrenched over ten thousand Lancastrians ahead; Salisbury delayed with a feigned force, then launched a shock attack. Archers and cavalry clashed repeatedly, the Lancastrian line collapsed, Audley and many nobles were killed, and the Yorkists won a decisive victory.
- 1459the English Midlands · EnglandAfter the battle Salisbury continued south to join the Duke of York, while the Lancastrians mustered a larger royal army and advanced west. Weeks later a new standoff formed at Ludford Bridge; the victory at Blore Heath failed to end the conflict and instead accelerated full-scale military confrontation in autumn 1459.
Sources
- Blore Heath, battle of — Michael Hicks (2004) https://www.oxforddnb.com/
- The Wars of the Roses — Michael Hicks (2010)