The final issue however now lay not with Parliament, but with the sword.

Disappointed of London, the Lancastrian army fell rapidly back on the North, and Edward hurried as rapidly in pursuit.

On the 29th of March, 1461, the two armies encountered one another at Towton Field, near Tadcaster.

In the numbers engaged, as well as in the terrible obstinacy of the struggle, no such battle had been seen in England since the fight of Senlac.

The two armies together numbered nearly 120,000 men.