The three nobles at once took arms to secure, as they alleged, safe access to the king's person.

Henry at the news of their approach mustered two thousand men, and with Somerset, the Earl of Northumberland, and other nobles in his train, advanced to St.Albans.
[Sidenote: The civil war] On the 23rd of May York and the two Earls encamped without the town, and called on Henry "to deliver such as we will accuse, and they to have like as they have deserved and done." The king's reply was as bold as the demand.

"Rather than they shall have any lord here with me at this time," he replied, "I shall this day for their sake and in this quarrel myself live and die." A summons to disperse as traitors left York and his fellow-nobles no hope but in an attack.

At eventide three assaults were made on the town.

Warwick was the first to break in, and the sound of his trumpets in the streets turned the fight into a rout.