After the battle of Northampton the Duke of Salisbury returned to London with the king. A few weeks later the Duke of York returned from exile and attempted to claim the throne before Parliament. In an attempt to placate him the Lords passed the Act of Accord that recognized him as Henry’s heir; effectively disinherited Margaret and Henry’s son Edward the Prince of Wales. This was not acceptable to the Lancastrians. In the West Country and Wales Jasper Tudor and the Duke of Exeter started to gather troops. In the North The Earl of Northumberland, Lords Clifford and Roos, the Duke of Somerset and the Earl of Devon did the same. They congregated around Pontefract Castle with about 15,000 men and began foraging from the local area, much of which belonged to the dukes of York and Salisbury. The Duke of York responded by sending his eldest son Edward, Earl of March, to the West Country to deal with Jasper Tudor and Exeter; he left the Earl of Warwick to hold London; and he marched North with his second son Edmund, Earl of Rutland and the Earl of Salisbury. They reached Sandal Castle 9 miles south of Pontefract just before Christmas with between 8,000 and 9,000 men. Sometime before Christmas John Neville, Lord Raby, approached York requesting a Commission of Array to raise 8,000 men. Though John Neville would later fight and die on the Lancastrian side at Towton he had family connections to York and Warwick vouched him for. His request was granted and he joined York with this force at Sandal Castle. One account also states that Andrew Trollope joined York with 400 men. Trollope was a professional soldier and the Master Porter of Calais. He was also another who would fall at Towton fighting on the opposite side. Either on the 29th or 30th December the Lancastrian host under Henry Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, left Pontefract and arrived for battle before Sandal Castle. York, now reinforced by John Neville, marched from his camp to meet him.