For those of you not aware, Towton (1461) was reputedly the bloodiest battle in England – 28,000 if the numbers are to be believed. This high figure is now disputed and may be due to 'double counting' by various heralds. Some bodies may have been counted twice (or more) by the heralds while the scatter of bodies – due to the rout of the Lancastrians – suggests that the killing went on over several square miles. Counting all bodies in that area may have been difficult.
Towton is also almost unique in that a large grave pit was found about 20 years ago with approx 40 bodies in it. This grave pit is somewhat to the rear of the actual main battle and may represent men who were routing or who were caught and attempted to surrender.
The published archaeological report (The Blood Red Roses) is a very interesting read and represents a post-mortem on those bodies including percentages of hits in various body parts. One revelation was that there were very few hits in the body area, probably due to wearing body armour or padded linen jacks.
The vast majority of the dead suffered leg and head injuries so it appears likely that their legs were hit first, they were brought to the ground and then dispatched with head or face injuries. One or two appear literally hacked to death.
Skallagrim:
YouTube link
presents a reasonable review of the book and its contents so I will not repeat what he has said.
Also there is:
YouTube link
which is a look at the gravepit contents
and:
YouTube link
which is the original TV documentary.
This last gets into an 'ethnic cleansing' area at one point which I do not agree with.
Interestingly, many of the dead men had injuries to their crown or right side of their head. This may be significant as England was a staunch Catholic country and there was a long-held anathema against being left-handed, something which even school children in my generation suffered from. Left was the hand of the Devil and today we use the Latin word for left (sinister) to suggest someone might be dangerous or untrustworthy. So "He looks a bit sinister" really means "He looks left-handed" in medieval speak.
So, it cut down on the right side of their head, this suggests that the dead mostly had their backs to the enemy and were fleeing with helmets off.
Finally there is this:
YouTube link
which is the prequel Battle of Ferrybridge which was the day before Towton. The Yorkists had to make an opposed river crossing and eventually flanked the defenders. Lord Clifford died in the fighting.
link
Barry
