Background The Second Battle of St Albans was the high water mark for the Lancastrians in 1461. Following the victory Margaret, now with King Henry safe in her possession, moved the army south when she reached London her army’s rapacious behaviour on its march from York now reaped a bitter harvest. The burghers of the city barred the gates and refused her entry. She tarried for a time outside the gates but when she received word of the Yorkist victory at Mortimer’s Cross and that the Duke of Warwick had joined with the Duke of York she withdraw towards York. On 26th February the Dukes of York and Warwick entered London and were welcomed as saviours of the city. On 4th March, riding this wave of popularity, the Duke of York proclaimed himself King Edward IV. Disappointingly his coronation would need to wait. The Lancastrian army was in retreat but it was not yet defeated. To bolster his army the call went out and Edward began troops from the south. Others would join him as he moved north. On 11th March Fauconberg led the Vanguard of the army out of the city and north towards York. Edward followed a few days later. The army grew as it marched as the summoned nobles brought in their men. Edward reach Pontefract Castle about ten miles from Towton on 27th March with a force of upwards of 20,000 men. In York the Lancastrian leaders were aware of Edward’s progress. To face this threat the army moved eight miles southwest and camped on a plateau just south of Towton. This position had many advantages. At this point, that the road from Pontefract to York passed through a defile formed by a bend in the Cock Beak and low marshland to the east. Thus the army would deploy on a narrow front of about 1,500 yards on high ground. A small advanced party was sent eight miles south to Ferrybridge on the River Aire to watch the road from Pontefract. On the 27th a Yorkist force under John Radcliffe and Lord Fitzwalter attacked this picket force and seized the crossing. The Lancastrian defenders withdrew and reported this to their camp. John Lord Clifford was dispatched to retake the bridge. He arrived early in the morning of the 28th and surprised and easily routed the Yorkist defenders. His men then set about destroying the bridge. Clifford’s small triumph was short lived though as the main Yorkist army was on the move. The van of the Edward’s host reached the vicinity of the bridge in the afternoon. Attempts were made to fight their way across the half ruined structure were stymied by the small defending force. It was not till Lord Fauconberg crossed the river a few miles to the west at Castlefort that a passage over the bridge was achieved. Clifford was killed in the ensuing rout, the first of many Lancastrians to meet that fate. Edward’s army crossed the river in the late afternoon and camped south of Towton around the village of Saxton. In the morning both armies deployed for what would be the bloodiest battle on English soil.